Sea of Thieves players are immediately throwing strangers in the brig

Pirates are well known for their aversion to meeting new people. Stranger danger killed more Caribbean sailors than sharks, and players in Microsoft’s new piracy simulator Sea of Thieves are dealing with that threat by putting their crewmates in the brig for no good reason.

In Sea of Thieves, you can matchmake to join a crew of up to three other people to form a random band of jolly ol’ scurvy curs. This is great if your friends aren’t online, but it also means you have to deal with the intricacies of human interaction on the internet. For a lot of people trying to go into a 4-person crew as a solo player, this means you could end up spending significant time locked up for the crime of taking up a slot that a 3-player team is trying to save for a friend.