When Rare launched Sea of Thieves in March 2018, it established a pirate code of conduct meant to curb bigotry, prejudicial play, and other forms of toxicity. The title has grown considerably since then, but many prominent Sea of Thieves streamers feel that Rare’s best-laid plans for behavioral standards have been scuttled.
Sea of Thieves was designed with emergent play in mind, and the developers established a Partner Program to encourage players to use the game as a platform to develop unique styles not necessarily governed by the game’s mechanics. The developer has also been largely receptive to player requests, adding much-desired features such as private servers as well as a steady stream of content updates.
However, an online game about piracy with over 15 million players was a likely magnet for trolls, and certain players feel that Rare has done little to intervene in cases of harassment, according to Kotaku. Now several popular Twitch streamers, including SayHeyRocco, Carrillo, Jason Sulli, and GullibleGambit have announced that they are jumping ship, citing Rare’s inaction in addressing toxicity. They have even accused Rare of providing a platform to players who normalized certain inappropriate behaviors.
One player in particular, streamer Jaryd “Summit1G” Lazar was called out as problematic. Lazar surpassed Ninja in subscribers by playing Sea of Thieves in 2019, and brought a substantial amount of attention to the game. However, Kotaku reports that other players complained about his acerbic behavior, both in-game and out.
Lazar has called out players who criticized his conduct, leading his fans to subsequently harass those players on social media. Lazar has also reportedly used tactics to infiltrate alliance servers, a practice that has been compared to stream sniping in games like Fortnite, which has the potential to completely unbalance competitive, spectated games.
Tensions were reignited between streamers in July after the husband and wife duo who manage the streaming puppet personality, Rocco, were doxxed by a targeted harassment campaign. Rocco’s creators have since left Sea of Thieves‘ Partner Program, prompting several other streamers — some of whom have faced bigotry and harassment as well — to follow suit. Arguably, the trends of harassment in play are partially a Twitch problem, as much as an issue with Sea of Thieves itself.
Rare’s relative inaction on these issues is perplexing given the developer’s focus on fostering a community, and its track record of listening to Sea of Thieves player complaints. Remaining neutral in a situation where people’s privacy and well-being are at risk should not be acceptable, regardless of potential controversy or backlash from the game’s player base.
Sea of Thieves has faced issues like poor servers at launch, but got better thanks to incremental improvements. There may still be time for Rare to address community toxicity, either by censuring streamers who undermine the game’s spirit, or more stringently enforcing the game’s community guidelines.
Sea of Thieves is available now for PC, Xbox One, with a forthcoming release planned for Xbox Series X.
Source: Kotaku, Pirate Code of Conduct
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