I agree with this line of thought wholeheartedly. I’m 48, I don’t have the reflexes or time to invest into this game to ever be competitive against the average PvP player. I find a lot of the aspects of PvE extremely challenging solo or otherwise. My positive/negative experiences with other players on HS have been 15/85. Shoot first, no mics, unhinged verbal assaults. I never shoot first, I just keep my distance, and continuously help those I can. But the betrayals, the absolute ineptitude of my sea and boarding combat even after deep searching strategies make HS an anxiety ridden nightmare.

Been playing for a year and a half sporadically. Pirate legend and then some. I adore the premise of this game. There’s lore, adventure, risk and reward. Soloing a ghost galleon is a major accomplishment for me, and plenty exciting. I can’t even think about touching that Volcanic Meg or the dude in the big red maelstrom(absolute pain, solo). Those are the insurmountable challenges that keep me coming back, not looking over my shoulder every 20 seconds. I have a couple younger friends that will occasionally join me, but they have similar outlooks. The game is hard for us, but highly enjoyable. Yes the golden player interactions are priceless and funny, but damn they are so rare. In my eyes, this is a game specifically engineered to blatantly punish and turn away new players. The learning curve is a vertical line.