Sea of Thieves is under a lot of heat right now from gamers and gaming journalists alike. And not without reason. The game has been heavily criticized for a severe lack of content attached to a sixty dollar price tag.
But no one seems to want to talk about the real reason why Sea of Thieves is problematic.
Boats
And yes, I'm all the serious.
Now anyone who reads or watches our content here on Twinstiq (all eight of you) will know that I have a very deep bias against the demons of the sea known as boats. Now I want to be as forthcoming about this as possible, that way you know where I stand on the issue of the normalization of boating within gaming culture.
Speaking of Boating Normalization, let’s talk about the absolutely disgusting rise of boating within gaming these last few years.
For quite a while, Boats were largely an afterthought or extension upon a game and it’s many systems. Having little to no effect on the habits of the player. But as gaming fidelity rose, we saw better physics engines that could simulate the horrid movements of water more accurately. With this progression we saw game developers carelessly allow themselves to implement more and more boat-based missions. Eventually we saw games like ‘Archeage’ and ‘Assassin’s Creed 3’ have entire sections of the game solely devoted to what can only be described as boating propaganda.
'Black Flag' allowed players to live out Pirate fantasies using virtual boats.
The reaction from the gaming community when Black Flag was released should be seen as disgusting to any decent human being. Gamers loved the Boating-Based gameplay, and no one ever questioned if it was good for their health. The "Pirate Fantasies" it allowed players to partake in took no issue in exploiting a lifestyle that was the result of 264 Pirate attacks irl the year the game was released (2013).
Sea of Thieves presenting a boat in a "peaceful" manor
Now ‘Sea of Thieves’ is attempting to once again bring Boats to forefront of young people's minds. Thankfully everyone seems to hate how the game is nothing but an empty shell of promises that’s better off left alone, just like the boats it glamorizes. And while this should be a warning to all who think boating is just a “harmless hobby”, I have a feeling that another game down the line will try to corrupt the minds of young gamers and basically train them to use boats in harmful ways.
Make no mistake. Boats are violence. And video game boats are nearly guaranteed to have an effect on real life boats. According to a Fox News article that I will not link to and you should not Google, Boating in video games makes your child more likely to become a boat.
And this should clearly have cause for concern. According to the US Coast Guard, 2016 saw 701 boating related deaths. “The highest number of yearly boating fatalities in the last five years.”
That’s almost nearly about approximately roughly around twice as many as the 371 rifle deaths the FBI reported for the same year!
The trend between increased boating deaths, and boats being normalized in video games are so obvious that it’s irrefutable by any logic. And unless we want to see more games like ‘Sea of Thieves’ bring Boats into the limelight of gaming culture, we need to be diligent. Despite negative reviews, people have not rejected the lure of this boat porn. Despite the sheer amount of hate the game has been receiving, it has still topped sales charts. This is highly concerning.
We have too oppose boats in video games at every front. That is why I have never, and will never play ‘Sea of Thieves’ or any other such “Boat Games” that may rear their ugly head.