Endless Ocean: Blue World walks a thin line.
I am a scuba diver, and I work for an award winning scuba diving resort. We have made our name on safe and sustainable tourism practices. That means I have very high expectations of scuba diving games.
Does this game do a good job? Yes...but not a great job. Some elements of the game support unethical scuba diving.
It purports to be more than a video game. As a part of Nintendo's new "experiential" lineup of games, it offers the experience of scuba diving. It joins the ranks of similar games from the Big N, where you can "learn" to care for a dog, play music, lose weight, and participate in any number of other worthwhile activities.
Not that this is Nintendo's and developer Akira's first scuba diving game. Endless Ocean: Blue World is the sequel to 2008's Endless Ocean -- which was a good game in its own right. The follow-up does streamline some of the more annoying mechanics -- much less fish-fondling, for example -- making for an experience that long-time video game players will find more familiar. While you can still dive anywhere to your heart's content, there is more of a story and more objectives. Simply put, there's more game.
The entire affair is imbued with the developer's dogged intent to accurately represent the sport of scuba diving. They do a great job. Your diver looks the part with all the proper equipment. It's a small detail, but to someone like me, it's stuff like this that makes the game. Your boat, your teammates, even your headquarters are straight out of diver culture. Sure, a small tropical island perfectly suited for diving may not be affordable to every ocean explorer, but isn't that why we play video games?
The game also does a good job representing the underwater environment. Marine life is actually much more plentiful and vibrant in real life, but given the limited power of the Wii, it is as good as can be expected. They do an honorable job in accurately depicting creatures of the sea, and it's the next best thing to spending thousands of dollars to become a world-traveling divemaster (and maybe any underwater episode of a David Attenborough-narrated documentary series).
I do have a gripe with Endless Ocean: Blue World. When a video game crosses the threshold from fantasy to reality simulator, it takes on a whole new set of responsibilities, and this title does not fulfill its obligations
My issue is perhaps personal, but I feel it's important. The game uses a treasure-hunting system that allows you to sell found artifacts for money. In many real-world locations, treasure hunting and salvaging aren't technically illegal, but it is a very poor practice. Then again, many governments have made treasure hunting illegal in waters that fall within their jurisdiction, such as my home province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Treasure hunting is a major threat to underwater archaeology, and anytime someone removes an artifact for a private collection or sale on the black market, a piece of our collected human history is lost.
It's bad enough that the public has a romantic image of scuba divers as treasure hunters, and the release of another piece of popular media that reinforces this stereotype is a detriment to the sport.
I don't think violence in video game is a catalyst for real-world acts of aggression, so why should I have an issue with this? Am I not just picking my battles here?
You could argue that, but I can make a couple distinctions between issues of violence in interactive entertainment and my issues with Endless Ocean: Blue World. First, violent acts have a much clearer line between right and wrong. Second, shooters, fighters, and other genres that use are never billed as "simulators." They are just games.
This title gives us opportunity to rethink these "reality" games. Are they truly giving us new experiences, or should we consider them fantasies as well, merely inspired by reality? I would suggest the latter and not the former. You also don't learn to take care of a dog or the intricacies of musical theory in other Nintendo games.
If Endless Ocean: Blue World aspires to a simulation of scuba diving, despite its newfound gaminess, I would have liked to see more provisos to the less desirable activities that it "simulates." That said, I want you to play this game. Scuba diving is a great sport, and if you are not a diver, you are ignoring the vast majority of this beautiful world.
If you should take the plunge, remember this advice: Only leave bubbles, only take pictures.
Real-life photos by Ocean Quest Adventures, used with permission.
First off, awesome pictures. You've got a pretty excellent job, Andrew.
Second, I agree with your point. If you're going for realism, you've got increased responsibility to not only be accurate, but follow the rules of the sport you're attempting to reproduce. If salvaging wrecks for personal, not archaeological, gain is illegal- you should play by those same rules in a realistic simulator.
I'd like to kick Matt Ryan in the head during a game of Madden, but I can't. It's against the rules (for now).
Yeah, I see what you are saying here, but these acts seem a little bit harder to replicate than the actions of a game like GTA. Diving requires lessons and licensing, and I would have to think along the way someone would get filled in on what are the best practices of the sport. There is just a bigger barrier to performing these questionable activities.
Still, I think this issue is wholly worth thinking about. It also seems like games like Tomb Raider and Uncharted as well as the Indiana Jones movies could have some of these implications as well. Even though I am pretty sure at least Laura Croft and Indiana Jones are expressly raiding tombs to put the artifacts in museums. Still, it is not made especially clear that this will happen with every artifact and what they are doing could be misinterpreted.
Hmmm- The more I think about this the more instances I can see your point applying to. Now that is a sign of a good piece!
The only real issue I would take with the unethical aspect of the game is that to me, someone who doesn't have any diving experience, it seems like the least realistic aspect and more a way to make it feel like a video game where upgrading equipment is the norm. I mean, the sonar tool seems a bit unrealistic, and the treasures all seem more like jokes than anything else.
I would say Endless Ocean and its sequel have made me far more interested in diving at least, so as you mentioned in the article, it seems to be a somewhat minor issue. Perhaps they can figure out an easier way of making money if we're lucky enough to get a third game.
Great article. I learned from the first Endless Ocean that the best way to learn about a fish or whale is to pet it. I'm totally going to pet a Blue Whale one day and learn the shit out of it!
When I dive I'm very mindful not to disturb the fish, reef, or anything else underwater. People as a whole are doing enough to ruin our oceans, and all I can think about is how I need to dive now because these places aren't going to be the same in 20 or 30 years. It's a bummer. :(
Stop playing it as a simulator.
Maybe, just MAYBE, the whole purpose of the treasure hunting is to eliminate the monotonous nature of just swimming through the ocean, especially in a game where the marine life isn't as plentiful as it should be. You could argue it's against "diver code", but you need to remember that regardless of how much something is trying to be accurate, it still a video game first. If you create a game with no objective and no more than one way to play it, guess what? People won't play it at all.
I guess the only people who would have bought Endless Ocean would have been hardcore divers at that point.
You have an incredible job. However, let's get one thing clear - it's not a sport.
I get how you would take this sort of thing personally, but I agree that the line between games and real life is pretty clear, even here. Few people even have the resources to go out tomorrow in their own boats with new scuba equipment and start hunting for pirate gold. Anyone who suggests or talks about doing it would most likely be set straight while they're purchasing their scuba equipment.
I know how you feel, though. I grew up with the popular culture interpretation of the ninja, and when I discovered and started training in ninjutsu, I briefly found the preconception offensive compared to the reality. Everyone thinks a ninja is just a pajama-clad assassin who shoots fireballs and disappear and split his body. But I realized, after awhile, that people's ideas about ninja don't take away from my personal enjoyment and appreciation of the ninja history and traditions. Nobody believes me when I correct them, anyway, and truth by told, I kind of like the crazy pop culture image. Now, I embrace it, even. I don't lie to people about what I do, but I've found the appeal I used to have for guys in black pajamas who flip around in the forest.
Just take the game as a fantasy piece. I bet that if it weren't illegal and unethical, hunting for treasure would be awesome fun. Treat Endless Ocean like that, and if anyone fantasizes about it out loud, share your expertise.