So, fellow escapees, as I was just skim reading through the assassin's creed IV review (and by skim reading I mean looking at the star ratings and the pretty pictures) I found myself looking at a screenshot of the protagonist Edward Kenway swimming underwater with a shark. Not only this, but in a later screenshot, he was spearing a shark as it was attacking him in a rowboat.
Now, I'm not going to lie here. I hate sharks. I hate the ocean. I don't mean the beach - I love the beach. Australia has lovely beaches.
I mean anything that is deeper than 7 feet, has sand at the bottom and is filled with salt water.
Why? Well, like I said, sharks, but not only this - most sea creatures just look damn unnatural. Seas cucumbers creep me out. Anemones creep me out. Now I can handle them on my territory (i.e. me catching them on land with a gun) but when I'm on their turf, I can't handle it.
Well, what has this got to do with anything? Well let me explain what I'm trying to say here.
I struggle to handle being immersed in an underwater environment. I can do it, but I'm largely uncomfortable with it. As such, I find myself either:
a) Avoiding games with water largely based underwater/sea based mechanics (Treasures of the deep on ps1 freaks me out, can't play echo the dolphin, get nervous whenever I go sailing in LoZ: Windwaker, also get nervous in any boat racing/jet skiing game)
or
b) Being unable to progress through games that may have a segment of gameplay involving an underwater segment
As such, I have come to the conclusion that I may not buy Assassin's creed IV because of the potential death by ocean involved in the game. Obviously, I'm not surprised that this happened as the game was about pirating and assassinating and all good things associated with the Caribbean, but it's slightly disappointing that I may miss out.
This got me thinking though, just thought it'd be interesting to see if there were any other escapists here who had a similar quirk? i.e. Was unable to play a not necessarily scary game, out of fear of some aspect of the game? Or perhaps some other psychological quirk has prevented you from playing a game? Elaborate, explain, discuss!
tldr: Being underwater in games scares me as much as amnesia does, so I don't play the games. What psychological things (fear, ocd, anger) stop you from playing games which may not be necessarily associated with those emotions?