When pirate game Sea of Thieves was initially launched back in 2018, Rare implemented a code of conduct to keep back toxic behavior and all its forms, such as bigotry, prejudicial play, and others.
The game has definitely grown significantly since its release, and its community has grown along with it. However, many of the popular Sea of Thieves streamers have noticed that Rare is no longer prioritizing their laid-out rules or behavioral standards.
Rare developed Sea of Thieves with “emergent play” in mind. As such, the developers initiated a Partner Program on Twitch to motivate players to play the game in unique ways that are not necessarily confined within the game’s mechanics.
Up until this issue, Rare has been doing such a great job when it came to listening to the community’s wants and needs. They’ve previously added features that players asked for, such as private servers and regular content updates for the game.
However, being a game about pirates with over 15 million players, one would expect Sea of Thieves to be a magnet for trolls – like moths to light. According to Kotaku, players are beginning to feel like Rare isn’t doing anything to address the increasing cases of harassment and toxicity.
At this point, a couple of well-known Twitch streamers have decided to quit the game entirely as a way to protest Rare’s inaction, including SayHeyRocco, Carrillo, Jason Sulli, and GullibleGambit.
As a matter of fact, the streamers would even go so far as to say that the developers have given a platform to certain players who have displayed and normalized inappropriate behavior.
One Twitch streamer, in particular, has undergone criticism and the community now considers him to be part of the problem. The streamer in question is Jaryd “Summit1G” Lazar, and he was able to surpass Ninja’s subscribers when he started playing Sea of Thieves.
In fact, his streams played a major role in the game receiving a lot of attention and new players. However, other players have been complaining about Lazar’s spiteful behavior both in and out of the game.
Using his platform, Lazar then called out those players who condemned the way he’s been acting. As such, his fan base also took it upon themselves to attack those players on social media.
There have also been reports that accuse Lazar of using underhanded means to get into alliance servers, which is something that players compare to stream sniping in other titles like Fortnite.
The strain between streamers was triggered once more sometime in July when the husband and wife duo who manage “Rocco” was a victim of doxing and targeted harassment.
Since then, the couple left the Sea of Thieves‘ Partner Program, which made other streamers follow in their footsteps. It may be argued that the toxicity issue is partially a Twitch problem as much as a Sea of Thieves problem.
However, the fact that Rare hasn’t done anything to remedy the issue doesn’t make sense to a lot of fans, given the fact that the developers seemed so adamant about creating a toxic-free community.
