I'm sure most of you are well aware of the streamer Summit1g, who's made the game popular as of late, but is controversial in that his behavior and approach to the pirate code doesn't align with Rare's.
Not only that but many new pirates joining the game after watching him have started to imitate his playstyle (i.e. double-gunning has become quite popular and now Rare is set to work on a fix). He's also been defensive before about Joe's comments and has explicitly disregarded the pirate code, but this all begs the question: Is what he does all that bad and does he perhaps deserve some slack?
That is the aim of an article I read recently, which addresses a video by an anonymous player who aims to show why Summit1g should never be invited to a stream. Here are a few excerpts:
As a multiplayer game which requires players to be online when they play, Sea of Thieves was bound to experience its fair share of player toxicity. The creators anticipated this and created a few shortcuts to assist players in dealing with trolls. They even created a pirate code. When an anonymous user felt that popular Sea of Thieves streamer Summit1g violated those rules, they had to say something.
Neate asks players to “fight with honor, out on the seas. Just think about the people you are playing with, the people you are encountering, and the experience that they are having. Make sure that you use voice in the right way in Sea of Thieves.” When Summit1g’s comments are combined with this message from Neate, his conduct looks bad.
That being said, this is an online game. A level of toxicity must be accepted—and anticipated—in anything that happens online. This is not necessarily a good thing, but a reality of our world.
Summit1g responded to the video with one of his own. In it, he defends his behavior and argues that everyone gets a little angry when playing games.
“Give me a break, bro,” he says. “Not all of us are sitting there being good sports about every little thing that happens in life.” Not all of his arguments are very good—but his central one deserves thought. We can all get passionate when we play competitive games. To condemn a streamer for letting his passion go a bit too far—no racism, sexism or direct attacks included—is to force excessive restraint on players.
Here's the link to the article, video included. It's worth a read and a watch if you can spare some time:
Should this toxic behavior on 'Sea of Thieves' be banned?
While I feel like good points are made, I also think that when you have such a sizeable platform and fanbase, what you do and say matters more than a regular player. You can expect and tolerate this behavior more easily from folks you encounter on the seas, but when a person is watched by thousands, there is a certain degree of responsibility that person must take upon their shoulders.
Both sides of the spectrum have their points. What do you think?
