In the last week, the world’s economy went into its own lockdown. A huge freighter ship, the Ever Given, blocked the Suez Canal trading passage. The Suez Canal is infamous in world politics for its various historical crises. In 2021, The Ever Given gave the world a brief break from worrying over a pandemic to laugh at a really clumsy boat.
For every global comedy that runs amok, gamers are always quick to add their own humor to the situation. Unsurprisingly then, the gaming community has latched onto this crisis and released a huge swathe of game memes about it. However, not content to leave gamers to make the memes, even developers jumped on the sinking ship of Suez Canal memes.
Despite the level of meme production coming from corners of the gaming community, the event is having an impact on gaming. In fact, the famously scarce PS5 stock might be affected by the ship stuck in the Suez Canal. As such, even developers involved themselves in the meme creation. One Destiny 2 visual designer dipped their toe into the Suez Canal meme game on the 27th March. In response to a week of non-stop news about the trapped boat, he tweeted the following image and caption:
With 11 thousand likes, this attitude was certainly popular. Some commenters wondered how much health the Ever Given would have as a Destiny 2 Raid Boss, whereas others focussed on the actual weapon that Elliot Gray appears to be wielding in the picture. The gun in question is the Gjallarhorn. “Gjallarhorn” is the name of a sounding horn used to bring on the Norse apocalypse, but in Destiny the weapon its known for an incredible destructive power due to the splitting rockets it launched. Despite being such an immensely powerful weapon in the first Destiny, it did not carry over to the sequel.
Many fans loved the Gjallarhorn, and missed it when Destiny 2 did not bring the weapon over. As such, several of the thousand replies lament the loss of Gjallarhorn in Destiny 2. There may, however, be a silver lining here – the gun appears to be lovingly rendered with a Destiny 2 HUD. While obviously not a confirmed addition, this could hint at what the Gjallarhorn would look like if added to the game. Thankfully, the Ever Given has now been rescued, although the operation was as difficult as learning how to pronounce Gjallarhorn.
Not content to let Bungie developers have all the memes, a Microsoft technical advisor shared a video of a new mod for Flight Simulator a day later. The TikTok, originally uploaded by user donut_enforcement, shows the unlucky Ever Given lovingly rendered in game. Obviously, it would be a bit too quick of a turnaround for this to be an official addition. However, what it does show is how impressive the mod community can be.
Putting the stuck Suez Canal ship in Microsoft Flight Simulator, and having it shared by an official Microsoft employee, shows how thin the line between modders and developers has truly become. The mod is impressive not in scope, but in how subtly and realistically it adds the global economic crisis to the title. While it might be less prominent than other gaming memes about the Ever Given, it is still well-executed.
Reddit is always a source of joy in the gaming community. Whether it is through Reddit mocking Call of Duty leaks or setting up a crack team of item retrieval Valheim players, Reddit does a lot. Included in that remit is the endless fountain of memes provided on the website. Subreddits are highly efficient meme production units in reaction to global events, and the 2021 Suez Canal incident is no different. The r/gaming and r/pcmasterrace subreddits have been alight with jokes, memes, and speculation over the recent incident. One of the best examples of the subreddit’s comedic stylings is the following post:
R/gaming took the meme back in time to the days of classic Pokémon titles. This is perhaps fitting, as the last time the Suez Canal was blocked was back in 1956. While the Pokémon game in this meme is not quite as old, it still harkens back to the retro days of gaming.
Using more classical 8 bit stylings is Suez Canal Bulldozer. This title sprang up on itch.io four days ago. It is from independent developer Eric Wilder, who fused the simple meme game with Pokémon Yellow style aesthetics. In it, players embody a bulldozer-piloting person with one simple aim – move the big boat. Gamers will have to do their best to budge the boat, the only instructions being the move and interaction buttons. Like when La-La Land was made 8-Bit, the 2021 Suez Canal crisis is forever immortalized in retro game form. If players want to find out how failing to move the Ever Given feels, this is the perfect opportunity.
Also popular on r/gaming right now is the Totally Accurate Suez Canal Training Simulator by Wild City Games. This game allows players to duck and dive around diagonal ships, difficult blockades, and an oddly misshapen map of the Suez Canal. This gives players the option to relive the daring escape of the Ever Given in a slightly more unrealistic format. Also coming from itch.io, this title encourages players to revel in the level of “economic damage” against the speed that the ship never had. There are also ship customization options, including a renaming feature.
Now that the Ever Given is finally free of the claustrophobic embrace of the Suez Canal, it is the perfect time to embody the ship in this goofy simulator. While this little Unity title certainly does not have the best ships in gaming, it still works for a short and silly in-browser playthrough.
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