[2020] Disabled Gamer: Rare Says Their Game Is Not For Me

Edit: Rare has reopened the support ticket, so thanks to all who showed support!

Hello all,

I am a gamer with a disability and I am asking for your support to be able to play Sea of Thieves, the game I paid for. See the end of the post for how you can help.

I have various setups designed to let me play games at a competitive level. The link below shows my setup for Sea of Thieves and my conversations with their support team. The responses are from different team members, but I have not included their usernames. Here is a summary of what happened.

• My setup worked when I purchased the game.
• The Haunted Shores update broke my setup (details in the link below).
• I contacted support and suggested they add a "Disable Controller" option in the settings to fix the issue.
• Based on the last response to my first support ticket (see link below), I believe they attempted to fix the issue in the Ashen Winds update with the "Play with one stick" setting, but this did not fix the issue.
• I contacted support again and they said that since they do not support the software Xpadder, they cannot fix the issue (see link below).

Their last response equated to saying, "Yes, we unintentionally revoked your ability to play in our last update. Since you cannot play the game like everyone else, we are unwilling to help you." Whether or not this was the intended message, that's what it comes down to.

Now, I want to make what I think is an important point about accessibility features in games. Accessibility features should serve gamers with disabilities. This may seem obvious, but consider the following. So many articles applaud Rare for their accessibility efforts. Shacknews said that Rare "foster[s] an inclusive environment." I am not saying Rare's efforts are false, but who drives these efforts? I have not found an article saying any one of these features was added based on feedback from someone who needed it. Furthermore, as my experience above suggests, Rare is not willing to create an accessibility feature for a gamer with a disability who specifically requests it. A feature that is common in many games and has general uses I might add.

There is a difference between developing accessibility features that you believe will foster an inclusive environment, and features that gamers with disabilities need to actually create an inclusive environment. Assuming the "Play with one stick" feature was implemented to fix my issue, which seems likely based on their last response to my first support ticket (see link below), here are some things to consider:

1. I did not ask for this feature.
2. In developing this feature, Rare thought that they knew better than I about what I needed to play the game.
3. The feature did not fix my issue.

If this feature helped someone play the game better, then that's great. If someone specifically asked for this feature, then I am mistaken and instead Rare did not see fit to address my issue.

I know most games are not designed with my needs in mind, and I don't expect them to be. However, I checked that I could play this game before purchasing it. To be clear, I do not want a refund. I was really enjoying this game for the short time I could play it. It was a great break from my PhD studies. I was excited for the upcoming update that ended up breaking my setup. I want to play the game like everyone else.

What you can do to help:

• Email Rare or submit a support ticket to through the Sea of Thieves website asking them to add a "Disable Controller" setting
• Share this with others so they can do the same
• Retweet this: https://twitter.com/Pareod/status/1292491461221658624 and @ the same (or more) accounts

Images of my setup and conversations with support (featuring a dashing young lad):

https://imgur.com/gallery/e0V2T7i

Thanks for any support you can give!

External link →