For the amount of spiders that you have to encounter in this game, I don’t understand why an arachnophobia filter hasn’t been implemented. I’ve played multiple games that have included this, since arachnophobia is fairly common. I don’t even consider myself someone with extreme arachnophobia, but the spiders in this game look and move in a way that cause uncomfortable anxiety for me whenever they are on screen.
I’ve been enjoying the game enough to push through, but after about 30hrs I just can’t deal with it anymore. I could easily sink 100hrs into this game if some kind of filter was added, and I wouldn’t have to spend 30% of the time anxious because of one enemy type.
Edit: After reading replies I agree that I shouldn’t have expected these devs to have already implemented this filter. I understand that this only affects a small minority of players and I just happen to be one of them. Even if this is low on the priority list though I really hope they end up adding this in the future so that I can continue to play because this game is amazing.
You don’t understand why an indie game developer didn’t add a mostly unheard-of, non-trivial feature that caters to a small minority of their customers to their game?
I understand that arachnophobia can be debilitating however spiders or eight legged things are, unfortunately, a pretty common monster type/trope/style in many different video games.
This is not dismissing your feelings but if the spiders here are causing that much anxiety, then it is likely you might need to take breaks.
EDIT:
Just learned that the filter is available on other games. This will probably only become a priority if more people also bring up a desire for it.
Apparently there are actually a few of them. Perhaps most notably the next WoW expansion is about to have one. I had to Google it though because I’ve also never heard of it.
I’m against of any woke measures both in real life and in any video game. While is true that this implementation will not affect me as a player/customer in any way, the solution for this problem is to seek psychological treatment. Phobias of any kind can be solved via psychotherapy. Also I can invoke that I have Nyctophobia (fear of darkness) and dungeon Lightless Arbor should be removed or the developers should introduce some kind of filter to alievate my darkness anxiety. Also I can invoke that I have Teraphobia (fear of monsters) and I want a filter to remove all monsters from the game, because I want to fight against unicorns and butterflies.
I heard that this kind of filters will be introduced by Blizzard in the next WOW expansion. The level of wokeness and stupidity is beyond my capacity of understanding. So yeah… in the name of liberty and sanity, please EHG do not take this kind of measures. Thank you!
I was totally neutral about the idea initially, but I’m now actively rooting for them to add it for the possibility that it will keep people like you away.
@Deademperor
There are many who suffer wrist pain and play with a gamepad but should EHG instead tell them to stop being so woke and grow a pair?
I am thankful EHG has accesiblity within their design philosophy. This is a valid concern and arachnopobia is a real condition. No, the liberals did not make it up just to be annoying.
Nothing “woke” about it lol. Just a small QoL feature that can greatly improve the experience for roughly 15% of the playerbase. The reason why I bring up arachnophobia specifically instead of the other phobias that you mentioned is because it is an extremely common phobia affecting 15% of the U.S population and this game has a ton of spiders throughout that cannot be avoided in any way.
True - I guess I should’ve phrased that better. I can definitely understand why the feature doesn’t exist, since only a minority of the playerbase would be using it.
What I really mean to say is since other gaming companies have added this feature, then why can’t this one? I definitely wouldn’t call the feature unheard of. Hogwarts, Grounded, Jedi Survivor, etc all have it and feature way less spiders in their respective games
Ok, so I am an animal right activists and I want that all animals like wolves and bears from the game to be removed because by killing them in the game we normalize cruelty against animals!!! Shame on you for promoting cruelty against animals!! Bla, bla…
Just to be clear, I don’t think it’s an unreasonable thing to ask about, and as someone with phobias of my own I have some empathy about it. But I do think it’s silly to talk like it’s strange that they haven’t already done it when it’s a very uncommon thing to find in games.
Arachnophobia which is anxiety inducing even through a virtual medium - or worse, reading about it at times - is by far a ridiculously miniscule amount of people which have that.
Given that this is a indie developer and they got a massive amount of core-aspects to work on still to get the game into ‘actual 1.0’ rather then what we have now I wouldn’t bet on it existing anytime soon.
As soon as the resources are open though it’s definitely something which should be considered.
Take into consideration though… this is a dark-fantasy style ARPG, it’s to be expected that ‘unsettling’ parts are in there, not solely the spiders. We have flesh monstrosities, loads of oversized dangerous bugs and much more here, those can all lead to the same thing. It’s a part of the genre style they went for and intrinsic for it.
Rather when the actual resources are there, many many more important things to handle first. Sure… for OP it’s probably priority 1… but in the big picture it’s somewhere at around priority 40-50 rather, and that’s taking into account only the big overarching topics and not the parts it branches into.
So… let me get this straight.
Instead of a - fairly common actually in the grand scheme of things - measure to alleviate the issue for those people which have it (imagine it like a colorblind mode) you instead ask someone to take psychological treatment which they’re probably already doing and which will likely take several years up to decades to reduce the anxiety by such a meaningful degree it’s not affecting them anymore?
That’s a darn nonsensical take you started your post with.
And any reasonable treatment takes depending on the person between months and their whole life long.
That’s hyperbole here, the OP asked for a opt-in option to alleviate the issue. Which is a viable solution.
Yours? One of the dumbest takes one can have.
At least you follow up with easing it with a darkness filter… which… yes, that’s a viable solution for that, same as for people with visibility issues
I hope you can handle to understand the difference between them, otherwise argumentation going forward would be senseless.
Then you shouldn’t have chosen the genre in the first place, and people which have that also won’t do that in the first place.
Spiders on the other hand are a fraction of the content and not the entirety and hence definitely fall under lenience on what can and can’t be accepted by different people. Heck… even outright horror games which are entirely meant to make you anxious and uncomfortable while playing tend to implement a arachnophobia mode for the exact reason of prevalence in comparison to other detrimental traits and how easy in comparison it is to alleviate.
The only level of stupidity beyond comprehension here… well… you can think about it yourself what I was going to say. You’ve actively written one of the absolute dumbest posts I’ve seen to date in this forum. It’s not only wrong in how you use terminology ‘woke’ which is entirely based on social inequalities around topics such as racial incustice and gender-based controversies (not the physical aspect of it but perception of said people around it)
It never has and hopefully will never be about mental or physical disorders, because that’s quite another topic in itself.
So before you start arguing in the first place maybe you should learn what you’re arguing about.
I’m rooting for it a lot more as well, especially after the majorly important core aspects of the game have been handled. Besides colorblind modes and similar things it should be one of the first things to be implemented when time and funds allow it.
I recommend in that case to seek medical attention in terms of a therapist because you can’t seem to differentiate between a non-existing fantasy and reality.
Well the percent of USA population that have this type of phobia is between 3%-15%, not 15%. Also the player base of this game is not only from USA. By implementing this measure you don’t solve the problem of this people, they should ask for therapeutic help, not to encourage dysfunctional behaviours.
Why I said that this measure is woke? Back in 2008 when Wrath of the LIch King was lunched, an wow expansion based on undead and spider thematic, this arachnophobia wasn’t an issue. Wow had 12 million subscribers. Now in 2024 with only 1-2 millions subs, arachnophobia is a major issue for that game… Now it seems that is a major issue also for Last Epoch… what a coincidence.
Ok, now you got to explain. How is this ‘encouraging’ dysunctional behaviour? I wanna hear the take on that.
It was, Blizzard just didn’t put a mode in the game.
Much like many games don’t put a colorblind mode into it.
It has to do with development resources and the perceived return from those measures.
Nowadays those measures have gotten more prevalent as it has turned out that a sizeable portion of gamers of disabilities of some kind which can be easily circumvented.
Still wrong usage of your terminology though.
Wrong premise. Nobody ever mentioned it to be ‘major’. They just subverted enough resources to implement it finally, for a company their size? Far overdue.
No coincidence. Measures for accessibility for disabilities (mentally or physically) have become more prevalent. It’s a sign of a more understanding society and not a sign of something negative.
The negative aspects of that topic would be some other parts going on in the world which don’t have to do with a disability but the perception beyond it since the initial situation isn’t perceived by those respective people properly, diverting the issue at hand to tell themselves ‘all’s ok’ when it’s not. Nobody wants to have a negative trait after all, takes some courage to admit to that.
well it depends… so we have color blind people the developers should add filters for them.
We have people with phobias so the developers should add also another filter for them.
We have people from sexual minorities we should add features for them.
We have people from racial/ ethnic minorities we should add features for them.
We have obese people we should add features for them.
We have people of short status add features for them.
We have people with mental/physical impairment add features for them.
Also for avoiding addiction I want a huge acknowledge message when launching the game for protecting people that might develop addiction. This game is so good that I might fear that Im becoming addicted!
But why? Wouldn’t it be ‘woke’ and ‘encouraging dysfunctional behavior’? After all it’s a physical limitation and for several of those surgery exists which can provide them with the ability to see colors again!
How can you say that after your earlier statement? It goes counter to what you argued about.
You see… the people you’re talking about are dealing within the confines of their disability which is removing anxiety creating effects from it. Confrontation therapy hasn’t proven to be reliable in any means, actually detrimental in several cases. So them avoiding the topic is a more then reasonable behavior given their situation.
Why not? Low priority for sure. But why not?
Why that? What functionality would be available that enhances their personal experience? Or better said: What functionality can a SWF game provide for anyone regarding gender specifications?
Same as above.
Same as above, also it’s in over 95% of the cases a psychological issue which needs to be handled and not a genetical disability.
What’s ‘short status’? Have they forgotten to provide their full status and hence it turned out extra short?
Yes, a given over time if the resources allow it.
So overall: What the fuck are you on about?
Adicition is a situation for the body when the usual reward centrum in our brain isn’t having the necessitated neurotransmitters firing enough for how the human brain would need to get into a ‘comfortable’ state. This usually happens through shortcomings in life, usually social environments, which makes people substitute those situations otherwise.
It can be drugs, sugar, games, sports, work, basically anything which provides the alternative is viable.
Some things play solely into providing that though, like gambling for example. It’s a pure endorphine provider and has no other meaning. The short ‘rush’. This is a dangerous aspect of our brain since it numbs to endorphinal stimulus quickly, needing more and more. We have other ‘reward’ mechanics in our brain which are far more stable then endorphine.
This is why gambling is forbidden but gaming is not.
So by the same reason you should go and stop playing games and actually do something with your life if you follow this train of thought of yours since you’re already here, substituting positive social interactions and rewards through life-accomplishments with a hobby. Which is the exact meaning of what a hobby is when broken down.
So in that case please go an work on your own betterment and leave those people who can’t be saved like us alone as it’s a lost endeavor. Thanks a lot and goodbye
