Arachnophobia in RPGs

[ianthetexan]

I am an arachnophobe, I am afraid of spiders and scorpions. Arachnophobia is an irrational fear, meaning that even a picture of an arachnid is enough to create a fear response in the brain which can cause high anxiety or even panic attacks depending on the strength of the response in the subject. Arachnids and RPG's have a long history together, but I'm wondering why now more than ever there seems to be a lack of creativity in the process of designing enemies for RPG's? Instead of actually coming up with something new, they take something scary, give it steroids and a boss the size of a building.

Oblivion's resident arachnid was a half-woman, half-spider that was scary at first and entertaining because it was just incredible enough for me to play though without any trouble. Fallout 3's Giant Radscorpions however, were grotesques. The game designers took many aspects of real scorpions and made them even more frightening. Dragon Age II did the same with spiders, and while the normal level enemies don't give me much trouble, I had to call in a friend to kill the boss level queens, again- grotesques. I am wondering if anyone else has had the same problem and if it is implausible to actually expect game developers to care.

Is a non-arachnids mod or option really too much to ask to play my favorite games?

 

[ELD3RGoD]

I'm not an arachiniphobe but I can sort of understand how you feel. I guess the answer would be that Spiders and Scorpions are creatures that alot of people fear and thus make it a triumph for the hero/heroin in the game to conquer them.

However, I assume that arachniphobia is pretty huge around the world. I for one can't stand spiders at all (however I am fine with scorpions) and wouldn't mind the option to change them into a more handleable enemy.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

I don't have proper arachnophobia, they just make me feel horrible and uncomfortable. I don't think a built-in option is a real possibility, but I think RPG creators need to get more creative with their enemies. 9 out of 10 times in a AAA-game RPG if you find yourself in a cave, there will be spiders. Giant spiders. Coming from everywhere!

The 'grotesques' as you call them, are particularly horrible to experience if you have any level of arachnophobia. Anyone who's uncomfortable around spiders or bugs of any kind is going to freak out if they have a giant one of them trying to kill you.

Also, I'm with you about Fallout 3/New Vegas's bug problem. I get that it makes sense in the context of the game, but suddenly turning around to see a scorpion or an ant the size of a small car speeding towards you, hissing wildly, is enough to make me never want to play the game again.

 

[Gralian]

I suppose in a way, i can relate. I get vertigo, a fear of heights. If i'm playing a game that involves hanging from a ledge from way up high or looking over the side of a really tall cliff i feel slightly woozy and a little sick. The effect is much more pronounced in first person games, but it does make playing games like Enslaved and Uncharted very uncomfortable at parts, notably the ones that involve hanging from ledges and jumping from high platforms. Yet, if those parts of the game were removed, it just wouldn't be the same experience.

I would say that ultimately it is impossible to expect developers to cater to every individual. Phobias suck, but you just have to grit your teeth and deal with it - i mean that in a much more genuine way than it's coming across. I appreciate it's a little hard knowing what game has exactly has what triggers for which people, but you can still make an educated guess. It's easy to guess that Uncharted has high platforming elements from the genre of third person action adventure, so if it's a fantasy game like Oblivion then chances are it's going to involve typical fantasy tropes like giant spider or rat enemies.

Using an analogy, it's like someone purchasing a horror game, and having a significant phobia of zombies. But they're fine with ghosts and vampires. About midway through the game zombies start attacking the player, and they cry wolf because they weren't expecting the game to contain zombies, even though the genre of horror dictates common sense to suggest some sort of zombie would pop up somewhere.

 

[Aris Khandr]

I am so sick of all the fraking spiders in RPGs. After DA2, I'm nearly ready to swear off the entire genre as a result.

 

[Woodsey]

Well, I'm scared of spiders, but nothing like that.

Sure, they're ugly in the games, but to be fearful of them is a bit extreme. In real life though...

 

[AshtonF]

I am also have arachnophobia, not in the way that i will faint at the sight of anything with 8 legs, but they still get me every time. For example, I had to stop playing the first Dragon Age, because every 30 seconds a giant spider drops from the ceiling. Or i always had to get my friends to beat the obligatory spider boss in every Zelda.

I totally agree with you, however, about the radscorpions and things of that sort. Why do they take my biggest fear, make it 30 times bigger, and then ramp up everything i hate about it.Also, why do they always have to spawn smaller spider babies? I see no reason then only to scare me even more!

However,these enemies are now staples in RPGs and will not go away anytime soon. Just like with any other fear in games, if you are scared of heights, you still have to climb up the mountain in games. Our fear just happens to be something that we have to deal with in every day life. Which makes it scarier to us when the put it on steroids.

 

[thelonewolf266]

I sympathise with you but there's no way there gonna make such a big change for such a small portion of their market you could always play mass effect though actually come to think of it there's some pretty terrifying looking aliens in that.

 

[gazumped]

I don't know the ins and outs of the psychology of course, but to cure phobias, psychologists encourage people to face their fears, or at least a representation of their fear if they need to ease their way into it.

But then again, I wasn't scared of spiders until I started playing RPGs, so maybe facing your fear when it's trying to kill a representation of yourself would have the complete opposite effect. @_@

 

[Keewa]

I'm absolutely terrified of headcrabs. Just the sound of them is enough to make me freak out.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

eh spiders do creep me out..but the combination of those + the sound they made in dragon age awakening (the "new" darkspawn), good god it made my skin crawl, i hate those sounds!

but overall..no offense, but that is a bit crazy for the developers to change a whole "species" just because of your phobia

 

[Monkestful]

Double post. My apologies

 

[Monkestful]

Arachnids are different enough from us that they illicit a proper fear response in a player's subconscious. It's also A-okay to kill them in the cultural psyche.

That said, I think they're a pretty good game enemy. Just like with anything you will ever do, you can't cater to everyone. Hopefully true arachnaphobes can either overcome their fear, or enjoy the game while avoiding the monsters.

After all, if developers have to keep every single phobia in mind when making a game, almost nothing fun would come out. Or there would be a ridiculous number of mods needed for taking potentially scary sequences out of a game, which would skyrocket development costs because of all the variables involved.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

Reminds me of my first experience during the Mage's origin story in DA: O. I was doing one of the side quests, moseying along. Next thing I knew giant spiders fell from the ceiling. Bricks were shat.

(I'm a huge arachnophobe. So bad that I can only be in the same room as a spider if it's a big room and we're at opposite ends)

 

[darth.pixie]

I hate bugs. Killing them is ...oddly therapeutic for me. Then again, if one sneaks up on me, I scream like a little girl. It's why I kept Fenris around. Moody angst elf with silly hair BUT he was a murder machine in my playthrough.

For the Fallout ones, I got a mod that makes Radscorpions friendly with the Animal Friend perk. Was never bothered by one again.

I think everyone thinks spiders are scary. Look at the D&D monsters...the scariest are a spider mixture. There is a wolf-spider, a spider with a skull as a body etc. You get creeped out even without arachnophobia. I can't begin to imagine what's it like with it...but at least you get to kill them.

Did you play NWN 2 and befriended Kistrel?

 

[FalloutJack]

I am an arachnophobe, I am afraid of spiders and scorpions. Arachnophobia is an irrational fear, meaning that even a picture of an arachnid is enough to create a fear response in the brain which can cause high anxiety or even panic attacks depending on the strength of the response in the subject. Arachnids and RPG's have a long history together, but I'm wondering why now more than ever there seems to be a lack of creativity in the process of designing enemies for RPG's? Instead of actually coming up with something new, they take something scary, give it steroids and a boss the size of a building.

Oblivion's resident arachnid was a half-woman, half-spider that was scary at first and entertaining because it was just incredible enough for me to play though without any trouble. Fallout 3's Giant Radscorpions however, were grotesques. The game designers took many aspects of real scorpions and made them even more frightening. Dragon Age II did the same with spiders, and while the normal level enemies don't give me much trouble, I had to call in a friend to kill the boss level queens, again- grotesques. I am wondering if anyone else has had the same problem and if it is implausible to actually expect game developers to care.

Is a non-arachnids mod or option really too much to ask to play my favorite games?

"Sometimes fear is the correct response..."

My mother has arachnophobia, so I know that even fictional and unreal spiders can freak such people out. Sorry that I can't think of anything to do about the Fallout front. Really, my strategy to handle Giant Radscorpions is either {A} with alot of backpeddling to avoid getting stung, {B} on top of a rock so they can't get me, and {C} VERY FAR AWAY and preferably through a sniper scope.

This isn't exactly fear, but rather common sense. New Vegas threw like 14 at me at one point. That's a nightmare for people who AREN'T afraid of spidery things.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

While it isn't an RPG I was really creeped out by the Trites from Doom 3. Once they started coming out the walls (or ceilings, or air vents, or on the surface of mars) I ended up taking out my biggest guns and just shooting the fuckers until they ended back in hell!

Spoiler: You know, these bastards

 

[Kimarous]

I'm not so much arachnophobic so much as "large spindly things suddenly dropping from the ceiling with a loud hiss"-phobic.

*glares at Dragon Age franchise*