While some gamers and streamers have a hard time getting the hang of piloting their pirate ships in Sea of Thieves, this blind player shows off how he can play the game without being able to see. SightlessKombat is a blind gamer and streamer who makes steering a huge ship in-game look simple, and he demonstrated his technique on a stream with some of the Rare crew recently.
Sea of Thieves is just one of many games that accessibility advocates have been using to promote their cause. Recently The Last of Us 2 was lauded for its accessibility options, although SightlessKombat plays multiple games on his Twitch channel, not just games as advanced in this way as TLOU2. This streamer also enjoys Hellblade, God of War, and Forza Motorsport 7.
SightlessKombat joined in a stream with the Rare Crew, who help give him cues to pilot the shape and make his way around the game. In the stream, he followed the sound of their music to follow his crewmates to their ship, which he then piloted based on directions provided by his crewmates and what they could see. While the Sea of Thieves devs have contributed to charity causes like fighting cancer, SightlessKombat took advantage of the stream time to promote another cause, that of accessibility in video gaming.
While steering a ship may be difficult enough without having the ability to see, more cues from his crewmates allowed SightlessKombat to help the crew defeat a horde of skeletons. The streamer was able to navigate to the cannons and, using basic directional information like whether to pivot the cannon left or right, landed some shots. In this case, sailing alone in Sea of Thieves would not be a good idea, as the ship steering and combat relied on teamwork from all the participants.
Sea of Thieves' accessibility options leave some to be desired, as it is true that SightlessKombat wasn't able to pilot the ship or shoot the cannons without the visual cues from his sighted crewmates. However, a recent update in Sea of Thieves allows players to use one analog stick, which could help those with mobility issues, and many players have hopes for Rare to add in more accessibility options as the game continues getting updates.
Accessibility in video games has always been an issue, but it's more recently that advocates are making more strides and devs are implementing more substantial options into the games. With spokespeople like SightlessKombat, more changes are sure to be on the horizon.
Sea of Thieves is out now on PC, Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox One.