There was a pirate who dug about 50 holes on a beach looking for a single treasure chest. This is the story of Dan, who played Sea of Thieves under the name 'Scruffy.'
The people sailing with Dan at the time were his younger sister and Mia, who later became his partner. Mia and his sister found a few treasure chests first and waited for Dan, who was struggling to find the last one.
When Dan's voice went quiet for a while, Mia asked what was going on, and his sister went to look for him. Seeing the beach full of holes, his sister checked the map and found the last chest with her first shovel.
Mia, who recalled this in the interview, isn't Dan's sister; she's the person who later became his partner. Dan later proposed to Mia in real life.
A Voyage That Began with Rhymes on Twitter
✦ Who's Who
Mia and Dan's sister are two different people
Rare introduced Dan and Mia's story as an official community interview on February 14, 2019, Valentine's Day. The two used the nicknames 'Scruffy' and 'MidAngelWing,' and they didn't meet through random matchmaking inside the game from the start.
They first got to know each other in a Sea of Thieves-related Twitter community.
✦ Dan and Mia's Timeline
From the Twitter community to the engagement
Dan saw that Mia's profile bio was written in rhyme, and made and sent her a shanty, a short pirate song. After that, through a mutual acquaintance, The Dread Captain Trident, they ended up on the same ship, and the two quickly grew close.
From then on, they sailed together and talked almost every day. Dan is from the UK, and Mia was living in Denmark at the time. Even in different countries, they could sail together every day and share their daily lives.
✦ How Dan's Rhymes Spread
From a joke to the community
Dan's shanties started as a joke.
At the end of each quest, he would write a short rhyme about the skulls or treasure chests he'd found, and sing it to his crewmates while climbing up into the rigging (the ropes on the mast) and playing the in-game song 'Becalmed.'
His sister encouraged him to post the writing online, and when people responded, Dan started answering on Twitter in rhyme like a pirate bard. In a sense, a few lines written as a hobby became a way to meet new people in the game community.
The Proposal Came as a Puzzle Outside the Game
The two didn't stay close only inside the game. According to Rare's introduction, Dan prepared a real-life puzzle journey in England's Lake District and proposed to Mia. In the 2019 interview, Rare reported that the two were engaged.
Sea of Thieves doesn't have a system where characters date or register a marriage status. What started Dan and Mia's relationship was the community where they traded rhymes, sailing with Dan's sister, and conversations that repeated almost every day.
Another Couple Who Held a Wedding Inside the Game
Besides Dan and Mia, there's another couple whose bond started in Sea of Thieves.
In April 2020, a user called 'Wookie422' wrote in the game's Reddit community that they live in Texas and met their partner, who lived in Canada, on an Open Crew galleon in the early days. The two fell in love, and the partner moved to Texas with two children.
After they got engaged, when COVID-19 made it hard to gather family and friends for a real-life wedding, the two asked the community for help so they could hold the ceremony inside Sea of Thieves.
Users promising to attend and cheer them on kept appearing in the comments, and a Rare staff account replied that they'd talk with the development team.
✦ Wookie422's In-Game Wedding
From a favorite island to the kraken
In June 2023, Activision Blizzard's The Edit reported that while preparing a real-life wedding, the two had also held a ceremony in the game. They set up ships and lights on the beach of an island they loved, invited friends, and exchanged vows.
But when they set out on a celebration voyage, a kraken appeared and sank the ship, and the newlyweds had to travel by rowboat to Sanctuary Outpost, they say.
A real-life wedding and a virtual-world adventure connected, and even the celebration voyage ended in a very Sea of Thieves way. This ceremony also didn't use a marriage feature in the game; it was an event the two organized themselves.
To Sail with a Crew of Strangers
✦ Crew Size by Ship
Each ship holds a different number of people
To sail with strangers in Sea of Thieves now, just choose 'Open Crew' when forming your crew. It's a way of opening empty spots to online players. Conversely, 'Closed Crew' lets only the people you invited aboard. The number of people differs by ship type.
A sloop holds 1 to 2, a brigantine 2 to 3, and a galleon up to 4. On a small sloop, two people can split roles and sail, and when more people join, you can pick a bigger ship.
If you've ever played KOEI's "Uncharted Waters" (Daikoukai Jidai), you'll fall right into the charm of this ship-centered game.
✦ Ways to Connect with Other Crews
When you meet on the High Seas
Other players' ships also appear on the High Seas. Sometimes you join forces against enemies, and sometimes you fight each other. You can also trade treasure with other crews, play shanties together, and form alliances.
If you and another crew member speak different languages and can't communicate over voice chat, turn on the voice translation feature in the settings. You can check the translated text in the notification window. Pretty convenient, right?
For those who want to explore with friends, there's a separate 'Safer Seas.' However, this mode is a private voyage with the friends you invited, so it doesn't offer Open Crew matching.
You can also make use of guilds. A guild lets up to 24 players act under the same affiliation, and each can build shared reputation even when sailing separately. Depending on the settings, other members may also sail a ship registered to the guild.
Guilds are a feature added in Season 10 in 2023. They didn't exist in 2019 when Dan and Mia met, but now you can use them as a way to find crewmates to keep sailing with.
✦ Starting Info for PC Players in Korea
On Steam
PC players in Korea can buy the game on Steam and start. It supports the Korean interface and subtitles, but the voice is in English, and you need to link an Xbox Live account. Well, plenty of games don't have Korean voice, so you'll probably adapt quickly.
When Reasons to Sail Pile Up
✦ How the Two Couples Connected
Dan & Mia and the Wookie422 couple
In a 2020 WIRED article covering several couples who met in online games, psychologist Anthony Bean explained that avatars and shared adventures can become a channel connecting people with similar interests.
That article covered cases of people who met in World of Warcraft, Dofus, Minecraft, and more. Sea of Thieves' Dan and Mia didn't grow close because of special in-game romance content either.
They simply traded songs, boarded the same ship, and talked almost every day. The Wookie422 couple gathered friends and built an in-game wedding themselves.
Sea of Thieves isn't a game that finds you a partner. Instead, it gives you chances to find treasure with other people, repair the ship, fend off enemy attacks, and go through unexpected accidents together.
If you start the next treasure hunt with the same person after one voyage ends, reasons to be together slowly pile up.
The time Dan's sister found the treasure chest with her first shovel is still a running joke, and the Wookie422 couple's celebration voyage even featured a kraken and a rowboat.
The loot that lasts longest in this sea may be not gold coins but crewmates you remember laughing with.
That's all for this post. See you next time.
Related posts: Guild Wars 2: From Raid Partners to Real-Life Spouses · From Game to Real Marriage: The Eternal Bonding Stories of Final Fantasy XIV · From Sharing Bells to an Engagement: Can You Meet Someone Through Animal Crossing?
🌐 Korean version: 선원 동료에서 연인으로: 씨 오브 시브즈에서 시작된 실제 사랑 이야기
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