Toxicity is an unfortunate reality of any online system that allows for any type of communication, either among players in multiplayer games, or ordinary people on social media. Rare has joined the ever-growing list of developers looking to diminish toxicity as much as possible, with an update coming to Sea of Thieves that will be arriving as the game makes the jump into Season One's new content.
This is being done by removing the voice and text chat available from one crew to another during one of Sea of Thieves' multiplayer modes, which have been seeing an unfortunate rise in toxic behavior. To address these concerns, Executive Producer Joe Neate reached out to the player community, addressing why this issue needs attention and how Rare plans to move forward.
Rare removing voice and text chat between crews in the Arena mode as a part of the Sea of Thieves Season One update. In Neate's explanation on the Sea of Thieves forum, they explain that the majority of toxicity reports are coming from the Arena mode, even though it accounts for a very small amount of total player activity. Among these, the reports indicate that it is the communication between crews that is the primary cause of these issues, so Rare will be removing chat functions both within the Arena mode as well as Sea Dogs Tavern.
Once the update goes live, the only way to communicate with other crews will be through emotes and other options that are built into the game itself. Players will still be able to chat directly to their own crews, so this doesn't necessarily mean that all forms of communication within the game are going to be removed with the update. This means that players within the same crew can still plan out tactics or solve Sea of Thieves' puzzles together, but they won't be able to otherwise reach out to strangers that they meet in the Arena mode.
According to Neate, this is all in an attempt to create more positive and welcoming experience for all players to join in on, rather than allowing the game to become a toxic environment. This is a strong step towards negating toxicity within the social spaces of Sea of Thieves, though not every player is on board with the idea. What a player considers to be toxic behavior differs, though with so many reports coming from Arena pulling the plug entirely might be the best way forward, as Rare works to determine new workarounds to achieve that goal of a welcoming experience.
Source: Sea of Thieves Forum