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@faceyourdemon Considering that accessibility has become a core-value of Microsoft's software products since Satya Nadella took over, it wouldn't surprise me if the accessibility-options were something Rare was getting pushed from both directions about.

@j3nkman said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@faceyourdemon said :

You do realise that this solution is absurd what would they change it to, diving clowns?
There is no troll in what im saying but your idea is simply bad.

They cant cater to that because it will either ruin part of the game or efforts will go to something that wont even gurantee good results.

If you have read the original opening post, which it looks like you still have not, you would see I linked a YouTube video which shows how Obsidian, another Xbox Studios game development company like Rare, have implemented this as an accessibility feature in their current game Grounded to deal with arachnophobia. It's simple and delivers a good result for those with phobias. It doesn't ruin the game the changes do not impact any other players.

I was coming here to say the same exact thing. Love this feature in Grounded!

O/T: Without that single option the game wouldn't be of interest to—or more importantly, wouldn't generate any revenue from—players with arachnophobia (myself included), and I assume that's a pretty big market.

@trial0n I wouldnt take their credit from them on that, many accessibility options were added because of someone's feedback.
If its would be only cosmetics change i dont mind but i dont see the need for a handful amount of people, might be wrong and there are many that it can help but i doubt it.

@robby0316 said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@j3nkman I'm terrified of the ocean but playing games like subnautica and sea of Thieves helped me. I'm terrified of deep water/open water IRL and I was originally scared playing SoT I would swim looking at the sky hoping for a mermaid or I would just pause the game until I was eaten and taken to the ferry. Now I'm doing great and feel no fear at all I just had to face them head on. Still wont go swimming in the IRL ocean but I'm fine with digital oceans.

This is pretty much my experience with Sea of Thieves. I am terrified in real life of the ocean, and drowning in particular (almost drowned twice as a kid!). At first I was like that with the game but now I don't give a second thought to wreck diving and will stay down there as long as I can eat food.

I know someone else who felt the same way about the snakes.

I can empathise with the OP's friend but, at the end of the day, it's a videogame and they're 100% safe. It's an ideal situation for them to face their fears head on and try to overcome them.

I'm not saying Rare shouldn't introduce a slider similar to Grounded for the shark models, if it's requested enough, but it's really an opportunity for personal growth.

@faceyourdemon Let's be real here, it's unlikely because the devs will never see this thread and therefore not be aware that there's such a thing as Galeophobia, not mainly because it'd be too much of a big deal to include a simple texture switch.

@trial0n It dosent concern me in the slightest, but unlikely to happened and for a good reason.
They dont need to cater to every single thing, so far they are doing a great job with accessibility options but they dont need to cater to every single thing.

@j3nkman I have read but that option is unlikely, and the other option will hurt the game.

It is unlikely because efforts will to something that isnt common enough, fear from spiders is far more likely to happened.

You can go all huff and puff but I dont agree with you and im afraid youll have to live with that.

I don't suffer from arachnophobia and i personally love Obsidian's solution for their game. I do think it would be difficult to impliment in Sea of Thieves however, especially in regards to the Megalodon. I personally would find a giant white Pac-man like sphere coming to bite my ship somehow more terrifying than the meg but that's just me. Anything it became would have to be smaller to stay in the hitbox without keeping the megs general shark shape making it harder to see and target because of the waves on the sea. In heavy fog it would be even worse.

@faceyourdemon sagte in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@j3nkman said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@faceyourdemon said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@j3nkman hahaha you are completely ignoring the reason why it would be a problem.
If you can basically toggle sharks ON or OFF people will use it for long swims, when somone is doing a fort they can easily use it to sneak in without being eaten.

Are you for real or are you just trolling on purpose? You have completely ignored the opening post and clearly not read it. This suggestion is not to turn sharks off for anyone, it simply changes the appearance and sounds of the shark for those that have a phobia.

You do realise that this solution is absurd what would they change it to, diving clowns?
There is no troll in what im saying but your idea is simply bad.

They cant cater to that because it will either ruin part of the game or efforts will go to something that wont even gurantee good results.

And how is that of your concern if it's changed into diving clowns when this is only visible in the client of concerned player?? Also this is by no means a new concept, it exists in other games too. There goes your bad idea.
Heck, if this were a different game you'd just need to give me a few days to create a mod people could use to replace their client textures. It's not a million dollar project.

@faceyourdemon said :

You do realise that this solution is absurd what would they change it to, diving clowns?
There is no troll in what im saying but your idea is simply bad.

They cant cater to that because it will either ruin part of the game or efforts will go to something that wont even gurantee good results.

If you have read the original opening post, which it looks like you still have not, you would see I linked a YouTube video which shows how Obsidian, another Xbox Studios game development company like Rare, have implemented this as an accessibility feature in their current game Grounded to deal with arachnophobia. It's simple and delivers a good result for those with phobias. It doesn't ruin the game the changes do not impact any other players.

@j3nkman said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@faceyourdemon said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@j3nkman hahaha you are completely ignoring the reason why it would be a problem.
If you can basically toggle sharks ON or OFF people will use it for long swims, when somone is doing a fort they can easily use it to sneak in without being eaten.

Are you for real or are you just trolling on purpose? You have completely ignored the opening post and clearly not read it. This suggestion is not to turn sharks off for anyone, it simply changes the appearance and sounds of the shark for those that have a phobia.

You do realise that this solution is absurd what would they change it to, diving clowns?
There is no troll in what im saying but your idea is simply bad.

They cant cater to that because it will either ruin part of the game or efforts will go to something that wont even gurantee good results.

@j3nkman If this were a different game, i'd just say use mods.
That'd be the easiest way to fix this issue without waiting for the long and possibly never happening reaction of the dev team.
Unfortunately, this game doesn't seem to be very open to mods because those "mods" that exist can be counted by one hand :/

@combatxkitty said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@wolfmanbush said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@j3nkman said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

Ok this may sound weird well it is weird almost wasnt going to bring it up but I will admit it I’m afraid of trees, particularly at night lol. Yeah I told you it was weird. I was young and was home when a very large oak tree went right through my house so that could be why.

as a little kid that grew up obsessed with horror movies I can understand

Thanks to Poltergeist and the original Evil Dead

@faceyourdemon said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@j3nkman hahaha you are completely ignoring the reason why it would be a problem.
If you can basically toggle sharks ON or OFF people will use it for long swims, when somone is doing a fort they can easily use it to sneak in without being eaten.

Are you for real or are you just trolling on purpose? You have completely ignored the opening post and clearly not read it. This suggestion is not to turn sharks off for anyone, it simply changes the appearance and sounds of the shark for those that have a phobia.

@j3nkman hahaha you are completely ignoring the reason why it would be a problem.
If you can basically toggle sharks ON or OFF people will use it for long swims, when somone is doing a fort they can easily use it to sneak in without being eaten.

@wolfmanbush said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@j3nkman said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@wolfmanbush said:

It's a lot to ask to help out such a small portion of the players

You could also say that was also true for the auto float mode for those that have a fear of being under water. Rare added that accessibility option just over a year ago to help those people that have a fear of being under water.

I'm not opposed to it I just don't know if the resources are there to invest in it.

Features like these trickle in slowly so picking and choosing who's phobia is more or less important can cause issues as well.

That is my feelings on this aswell. Why sharks? What about people afraid of snakes? Volcanoes? Fire? Chickens ?

Ok this may sound weird well it is weird almost wasnt going to bring it up but I will admit it I’m afraid of trees, particularly at night lol. Yeah I told you it was weird. I was young and was home when a very large oak tree went right through my house so that could be why.

Should Rare also add in something for Dendrophobia? I would say no.

It’s just gets to point where it’s just too much in my opinion.

@j3nkman said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@wolfmanbush said:

It's a lot to ask to help out such a small portion of the players

You could also say that was also true for the auto float mode for those that have a fear of being under water. Rare added that accessibility option just over a year ago to help those people that have a fear of being under water.

I'm not opposed to it I just don't know if the resources are there to invest in it.

Features like these trickle in slowly so picking and choosing who's phobia is more or less important can cause issues as well.

Personally I sympathize with people that struggle with fear of anything I don't put a ranking on it. Genuine struggle is struggle and I feel for them but there are quite a few things in this game that people have serious issues with and I think months and months or even years between assisting some while leaving others out does bring some negativity with it

Snakes are a big one. There are a lot of people dealing with PTSD that also have issues with certain parts of this game.

This is just my view on it but I'm concerned that picking and choosing who's fear is worthy of resources leaves the environment wide open for resentment and people getting upset about it and feeling left out. I wonder if everyone being in it together and dealing with it together would be healthier for the environment than slowly picking fears to address

I have a fear of death.
Can Rare give me a PvE only mode?

@wolfmanbush said:

It's a lot to ask to help out such a small portion of the players

You could also say that was also true for the auto float mode for those that have a fear of being under water. Rare added that accessibility option just over a year ago to help those people that have a fear of being under water.

@cornelius-ix said:

This would give an unfair advantage to anyone who turns off sharks.

No it wouldn’t. First of all it’s not “turning off sharks”. It adjusts the appearance and sound effects for the person that adjusts the setting on their machine. It does not affect the appearance or sound of sharks for other players. The same way that if I turn on colour blind mode or single click for actions in the accessibility options it doesn't affect your game only mine.

@faceyourdemon said:

I dont mean to come off as rude but if your friend cant stand them then he should play something else.

Cater like that will simply break the game and cater to such a small amount of people, its just not worth it.

It doesn't break the game at all. It is about making the game accessible, playable and welcoming to as many people as possible. There are plenty of accessibility options that have already been added that are helpful to a lot of people that don't cater to the masses. Just look through the accessibility options menu, all of these features have been implemented to make the game more inclusive and welcoming for a small subset of gamers that need them.

@robby0316 said:

@j3nkman I'm terrified of the ocean but playing games like subnautica and sea of Thieves helped me. I'm terrified of deep water/open water IRL and I was originally scared playing SoT I would swim looking at the sky hoping for a mermaid or I would just pause the game until I was eaten and taken to the ferry. Now I'm doing great and feel no fear at all I just had to face them head on. Still wont go swimming in the IRL ocean but I'm fine with digital oceans.

That’s great to hear you have made progress, but you have to remember everyone is different. What works for one may not work for another.

@faceyourdemon said:

@schwammlgott When they had a solution for phobia from deep waters I was all for that because it dosent hurt anyone but this one will.

Either he chooses not to play the game or just stay the hell away from the water.

This change doesn’t impact any other player other than those that turn on the setting on their own machine. The feature would not turn off sharks on the server, it merely re-skins them and removes sound effects on a varying scale just for the person that turns on and adjusts the setting.

Thanks for all the input folks. Rare have said they are committed to improving accessibility in the game, which has been evident in a number of updates over the last year so kudos to them. This is another suggestion for the team to consider that will make the game more accessible.