Poll: Enough With the Giant Spiders

[00slash00]

just take the opportunity to murder copious amounts of virtual spiders to overcome your fear.

a giant ogre beating me with a wooden club would scare the shit out of me IRL, but the RPG equivalent is just another of the hundreds upon hundreds of creatures that are trying to kill you in a typical RPG; if you cant handle the virtual version of your phobia, then youll never be over it.

that doesnt work so well for me. i remember a random encounter in dragon age. it was like a bandit camp that had been overrun by spiders or something. anyway it was essentially a winding path with spider ambushes placed throughout. by the time i got out of there, i was sweating, breathing heavily, and could not stop shaking (and this was with the camera fully zoomed out and sitting as far back from my computer as possible while still being able to reach the mouse and keyboard). it was a pathetic sight

 

[Danglybits]

When I say "yes" I mostly mean in Dragon Age games. ENOUGH Bioware. Giant spiders are staples and if done right they can be skin-crawlingly creepy. Or just funny. One of my fondest gaming memories and quotes is of a friend and I playing a Resident Evil game. He was saying, "...Yeah these big spiders aren't as bad as the little ones they had in the last game. They would climb on you and kill you and you couldn't do anything about it cause they were so fucking small." Then he shot one and it blew up and tiny little, bite-you-all over spiders popped out. "AH! BIG spiders explode into little spiders!" A moment that will always be close to my heart.

 

[EmzOLV]

Seriously, you're a complete wuss if you're terrified of PIXELS!

I wish I could just think like that ><

I have a massive issue with Spiders (and please don't start with the however many you eat etc). I just can't even look at them in magazines or newspapers - they freak me out.

I think it all started when there was a spiders nest under my window sill which exploded into thousands of tiny spiders when I was little. ANYWAY...

I can't stand them in games. Lego Indiana Jones was okay because they didn't even look like spiders, but the context of giant spiders was there and it still freaked me out.

Totally irrational, I know.
But I haven't noticed a massive increase in the number of times I've freaked out, so there can't be too much of an increase of actual spider content in games.

 

[00slash00]

Hence why you should play on a pc so you can mod the fuck out of your rpgs.Really there's thousands of bestiary mods with that in mind - people afraid of this or that.Me,I'm terrified of high places.You know in the movies where you see the ground going up and down to show that the character is terrified,I really do see that due to some media overexposure.In games though,I'm sad that there's not enough high places to climb since I can do it safely and not get panic attacks.I thought that's what games are for,doing something you're not usually able to.

yay! theres a dragon age mod that replaces the spiders with marabi. it will make me sad to murder puppies, but i think i can deal with it. thank you!

 

[leedwashere]

To the OP and any others who are scared of spiders in games: is it just spiders? Or, say, do Radscorpions in Fallout scare you as well? I have to say, I always thought Radscorpions were creepy enemies, they make a really weird sound when attacking. Just curious as to whether it's specifically spiders, or if other arachnids and giant insects are included.

Radscorpions scare me a hell of a lot as well. Especially the giant radscorpions. My friend used to make fun of me for being so scared of them, until he was watching me play one day, and I encountered a pair of them in the capitol wasteland and saw me crying as I was trying desperately to kill them. I still get shudders thinking about them. Thank god for the holorifle in New Vegas, that thing makes short work of them. Unfortunately, their corpses also creep me the fuck out, and I shudder uncontrollably.

I was at a fair a couple weekends ago and there was this tank where you could pet and play with some scorpions and there were kids holding them, and my friend picked one up. I thought I was going to pass out. Scorpions actually seem to get me worse than spiders do, because the creep factor for me doesn't diminish with decreased size. A tiny scorpion creeps me out nearly as much as a big one, whereas tiny spiders or other bugs I have no problem with. Once anything with more than 4 legs gets big enough to see clearly though, I start freaking out.

captcha: Tunney's rincili ....sounds delicious

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

while i do hate spiders, fucking little bastards, (such as in dragon age awakening) it's the sounds they make, more than the sight of them, that is cringe worthy for me and makes me freak out. I absolutely hate the fucking sounds they make, it's worse than knifes grating against plates -_-

 

[SirTweetums]

Spiders? where? :O
Seriously, I didn't notice them... a few in Dragon Age 2, some in Darkspore... but that's it... ohhh is it like the time when zombies were super popular? not cool man.

 

[Sparrowsabre7]

Wow, is it really all that hard to distinguish between fantasy and reality? Is there some sort of break that prevents one from saying "Ok, there is no such thing as a spider the size of me" or "this is not a spider, it is nothing more than a series of wire mesh triangles wrapped in a texture image"

Way to not understand phobias. In severe cases people can be scared of something even representing something they fear, e.g. someone afraid of birds to a severe degree can freak out over a single feather.

 

[Sgt. Dante]

Wow, is it really all that hard to distinguish between fantasy and reality? Is there some sort of break that prevents one from saying "Ok, there is no such thing as a spider the size of me" or "this is not a spider, it is nothing more than a series of wire mesh triangles wrapped in a texture image"

It's not that easy when you have a genuine phobia, Pictures of spiders are often enough to freak me out personally.

Don't actively avoid games cause they have spiders in them but they are the enemies I generally get the biggest fright from.

 

[Zaik]

Spiders are probably less common than they used to be.

Creatures which loosely resemble spiders are more common though.

 

[Kraegnac]

I always thought that I had crippling arachnophobia... If I get surprised by a spider irl I scream like a little girl and get ridiculously worked up. Shortly after the initial shock my fear is tempered by volcanic fury that the foolish creature had the audacity to frighten me, and I terminate it with extreme prejudice.

Video game spiders have always freaked me out, and needless to say I do everything in my power to annihilate the bastards wherever I encounter them. There were even a few times when I was so affected that I had to take a few minutes to relax before I could continue playing, but I've never gone so far as to avoid playing a game because of them.


I'm so very, very sorry man.

 

[viranimus]

My apologies, I did come off insensitive. Wasnt my intent. I do in fact understand phobias. I am a studying psychologist. However I still do not get where the disconnect comes in at. Its not reality, and there is zero actual threat to be afraid of.

It would be like me saying after I was shot twice, that I cant stand to play shooters. Its a fundamental separation that poses zero threat. Now a passing car backfiring or an unexpected door slam, yeah that causes me to jump, but anything in a video game has zero effect on any fears I might now have.

 

[Togs]

a mild arachnophobe- for a long time spiders in games didnt bother me until I played Oblivion and saw the spider daedra who scared the bejeesus out of me.

Its mildly annoying that gaint spiders are becoming a go to monstrous mob, but for the most part I either dont play the games involved or just suck it up.

 

[Lawnmooer]

Hmm... I've not noticed an increase in spiders in games, but a constant stream of spiders...

Games that I can think of that have spiders in:

World of Warcraft.
Rift.
Supreme Commander (True the Monkeylord is a robot, but it's a robot spider!)
Final Fantasy VIII (Again robot spider... Unless there is another spider enemy in that game, I can't remember them all)
Dungeons and Dragons online.
Dragon Age (Both of them)

I'm also pretty sure some other MMO's have spiders in and a few other games I have include robot spiders...

Also I do have a few fears (Claustrophobia + Agoraphobia are the main ones) but they don't affect me in games very much, at best I feel slightly uneasy when playing certain games that give large empty spaces to travel through (I remember this from certain areas in Gun and also a Tomb Raider game (I had to go swimming and there where sharks... I can't remember which title the game had and can't find it since it was rented))

I got over my fear of spiders (Since it was just because of how others around me reacted to them) and tend to either distance myself from a game if I feel uneasy or am too immersed to care.

 

[Nemesis729]

I hate to say it but dude,,, suck it up, I'm terrified of guys shooting at me, Giant Monsters trying to kill me, creepy little telekinetic girls, etc, But they've never stopped me from playing a game lol

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I have noticed as well the increase of giant spiders in games,but I have no issues with that.

What phobias I might have though are usually games where you can't defend yourself against a paranormal/supernatural being: a good example would be Amnesia the Dark Descent.I'm not touching that game even if I was payed to play it.

Guess everyone has a certain line they will not cross and that is one of mine.

All other games that are supposed to scare or startle me(Dead space 2) I just usually suck it up and continue playing.

 

[Ekonk]

Wow, is it really all that hard to distinguish between fantasy and reality? Is there some sort of break that prevents one from saying "Ok, there is no such thing as a spider the size of me" or "this is not a spider, it is nothing more than a series of wire mesh triangles wrapped in a texture image"

Arachnophobia. It's not rational, dude.

 

[spectrenihlus]

I'm scared of heights but I sill love mirror's edge.

 

[Chaza]

If you buy Skyrim for PC you should be able to mod the spider into something else. Like an adorable puppy.

A puppy would be much much worse!!

 

[Therumancer]

im a huge rpg nerd, and fantasy nerd in general. however, more and more fantasy rpgs are going unplayed by me for one simple fact: i am cripplingly afraid of spiders. i dont just mean in real life i mean in general. even the diablo 2 spiders (which barely even look like spiders) scare me so much that i need to be with a group of people in order to keep from freaking out. i know spiders are kind of a staple of the fantasy genre and are never going away, all i ask is that fantasy games are less reliant on them. playing dragon age, it felt like the majority of the enemies were spiders. for that reason, i couldnt finish the game. i didnt buy dragon age 2 for the same reason. skyrim looks cool, wont be playing it though, because it has giant spiders (and ive heard one of these encounters is freaky even if you dont mind spiders). i never used to worry about whether a game would have spiders or not because those encounters were usually few and far between, but lately they seem much more common than they used to be

has anyone else had their fear of something specific, prevent them from playing a game, or am i just a massive wimp...or both?

Giant spiders have been a stock enemy in fiction for many years, being key in both Tolkien's work and one of the more famous Conan stories called "Tower Of The Elephant". I don't think they are any more common than they ever were, and I think they work well as a stock enemy.

I don't think you'll find the spiders in Skyrim any worse than any other game featuring them, the graphics are better, but it didn't seem all that impressive to me. But then again I probably don't really "get" it, as I am not all that scared of spiders even if I don't go out of my way to mess with them or anything.

Given the power level you typically reach in Elder Scrolls games, if it helps, try and think of yourself as an exterminator, getting payback for their ickyness!

... and uh, never go more than 20' underground in a D&D setting. There are elves that worship and breed those things down there, and they are unusually fond of "company".

I'm wary of Skyrim myself, but for differant reasons. In my case I'm sitting here thinking "WTF, after the cutting down of the game you did for Oblivion, you found a way to make it work with even LESS skills?".

My personal phobia of sorts is playing the game only to find that suddenly skills disappear in the middle of play, and nobody notices. "What do you mean there used to be weapon skills? There was never a weapon skill, all you do is push the button..." (eerie music plays).