Arachnophobia Option Desperately Needed

Feedback and Suggestions
25

It can just be a placeholder ‘blob’ even. The feature is solely so the arachnophobia is removed. That doesn’t take much effort. The effects can stay the same and the quality is of no meaning for a placeholder mechanic to alleviate a frigging anxiety attack.

Not everything needs to be top-notch, sometimes just ‘having it’ to start out with is enough, leaving everything beyond for the future.

The amount of arachnophobia and how it showcase is different.

For example with phobias… my mother has one about common earthworms, can’t get close to them, actually has a panic attack when one gets too close and has to physically move away from where it is until her mind reasons it can’t be there anymore. Which is usually a day or so.

In comparison I actually have arachnophobia, under control though. Depending on the type of spider I can not approach it. I’m not disgusted - like my mother is - but instead feel a physical need to get away from it, direly.
When a spider is sitting about in my home it takes me up to weeks to remove it since I need to build myself mentally up to handle the situation, avoiding it unconsciously for any miniscule reason of other stuff being more important. I don’t get anxiety attacks or scream, but I’ll flick a spider should it crawl onto me away like an angry wasp trying to sting me, getting hard physical symptoms of elevated blood pressure and heart rate.

Seeing a spider in a game though or just watching it is no issue. And depending on the type of spider I can actually even touch it. A tarantula? No issue having it crawl around on me. A daddy long legs or a small spider? I break down.

The variety of phobias is as endless as they come, and yes… you’ll likely never know some people have some specific severe phobias around you unless they outright talk about it, which is a social taboo still nowadays though as people get made fun of if mentioning it often, hence it’s kept in the background and ‘ignored’.

So what you see with the 3%-15% is the 3% known amount and the expected margin with the dark number raising it up to around 15%, a large variety of those people having no severe issues and there being a huge variety of severe reactions of different sorts at the other hand… with very few people.

Hence as mentioned… low priority, good to have over time.

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26

I didn’t say it wasn’t possible, I am just saying it’s not a small effort. You’d actually have to add code to handle alternate graphics based on a player’s specific Phobia Settings.

If they struggle to add alternate mouse cursors, I don’t think any change to the game could be considered small.

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27

To be fair, the way WoW is doing it is apparently just model swapping them into crabs. They could follow that example - there are already crabs and crab models in the game. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be entirely new model and animations, so while it’s probably not zero effort, it could be a lot smaller than you think.

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28

There are so many phobias. If the game, or, well, all games were crafted to cater to all of them… development time and cost for such games would climb to such egregious levels that, well, nothing would end up being done. If we have your arachnophobia filter, we’ll also need a crab phobia filter, a skeleton phobia filter, etc, etc, etc, etc. Replacing all of those with different models or just generic blobs? And, well, if we then replace all of them with generic blobs just because, well, someone might be phobic of something else… what about those people who are nihilophobic? Since those generic blobs do, well, kind of mean… nothing remained of the game.

And, no, I am not saying this from the luxury position of not having a phobia. I am … absolutely terrified of heights. Completely paralyzing fear. Like, literally, paralyzing. I understand quite well what it means to have a phobia. But, well… there’s so many phobias, it’s impossible to cater to all of them. And if only a few are included, people who have others which are not included would just feel left out and on and on and on. You can’t win that cycle. It’s best not to even engage in that endless loop. In my opinion anyhow.

29

Arachnophobia is literally the most common phobia there is. Multiple games account for this and add a filter. It’s so common that there is already a nexus mod to change the spiders into cubes within a month of 1.0 releasing.

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30

Oh, that’s understandable and also not realistic, the point for it though is that such an option would still be viable.

Why you might ask now, and it’s a fitting question.

When deciding for such things first of all ‘prevalence’ and ‘impact on the game’ to mind followed by ‘effort’ and then ‘reasonability’.

First, the impact on the game: Arachnophobia… or phobia of any sort outright removes the person from playing the game. There’s a good chunk of people which need to inform themselves beforehand before even making a decision on if they wanna buy a game or watch a movie… for some even reading a book having their phobia in it (for extreme cases).
Much like the physical counterpart of colorblindness it makes the normal usage of the product not possible. Hence the impact is at the highest possible grade there.

Then prevalence: for phobias arachnophobia is the most prevalent in existence… besides fears of height and the generic fear of the darkness (which is the most prevalent by the way). This means in the whole possible spectrum only 2 other ones peak it… and hence those offer both a way to create adrenaline (which has a positive aspect for the player’s mentality) as well as in other times anxiety which outpaces that, which is the flip-side of the coin.

Effort is simple… depends on the devs and how it’s made, the solution-finding itself will probably take the biggest chunk of effort there.

As for how reasonable it is… that depends on the other aspects combined. Impact and prevalence already make it the highest possible one besides colorblind-options (which many games offer actually in several forms, and game-design at times is specifically made for it in mind beforehand). Also it depends on the premise of the product itself. A game which focuses on freefall effects of some kind a lot won’t be able to implement measures against fear of height… it would go counter of what it tries to actively do. This is not the case for arachnophobia and LE though. It has an impact, absolutely… but since it’s an opt-in option (anything else is nonsense) it would have zero effect on other players.

The result is that it’s likely to be a reasonable thing to ask for, not right away, no ‘tomorrow it’ll be implemented’ but something which should come with other access options to broaden the audience without compromising the core aspects of the game.

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31

Dude, come on with this slippery slope nonsense. Literally nobody is within a hundred miles of even the implication that this game or any game should make options available that “cater” to all possible phobias. Adding or considering adding one option for one extremely common phobia does not open some wackanoodle Pandora’s Box of mandates to that end.

Trains of thought like this only make sense if it first assumes that everyone involved is a terminally dumb automaton that can think exclusively in the barest, most reductive boolean logic imaginable. That’s a completely ridiculous premise to base an argument on.

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32

If you believe this suggestion has anything to do about wokeness, then you really need to stop listening to whatever politician or media is feeding you these crazy ideas (this includes the medium formerly known as Twitter).
These people are manipulating you, feeding you stuff to be afraid of so that they can do all the worst things without you noticing.

Like, really, spend three months without reading the news and going to your social media, and you’ll see there’s no real wokeness issue.

While I’m not against the concept, I don’t think it’s a high priority implementation to be made. I think it’s one of those nice things to have that should go in the backlog, and when they have the time they’ll work on it.
It necessitates both new assets to replace the spiders and some extra coding, though, so it’s likely to be on that backlog for a very long time.

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33

Or that one:

:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

35

Here’s a solution: kill them all. I got a serious case of karenphobia. Gosh I wish they put Karen mobs in an arpg….

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36

That sounds like an excellent idea as someone who worked in customer service. Dont think you will hear many complaints

37

This sounds a lot like a very uninformed position on phobias. Do you have proper studies to link to, or is that a belief you formed by handling spiders when you yourself have never had a strong phobia?

38

Called exposure theorpy i and most people are aware of it, its taught in psychology101 courses. Not a complicated concept. Plenty of people have confirmed on reedit and other interviews that it works. For some free handeling may be to big of a immediate step.

Some people start with pictures, then move to models. Just up to each person. As to me, i got no fears i am aware off. We all die in the end, if someone shot me in the head, i would not care one bit

39

Exposure therapy isn’t simply “free-handling for 25 minutes irl”. It’s something that takes a lot of time, through repeated exposure in progressive situations.

40

I have arachnophobia but i can also sepperate real from fiction, fear is a feeling and the feeling is your problem as it is mine so deal with it instead of trying to shape the world for your needs.

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41

Factually wrong.
Read my posts above, I talked about the actually realistic treatment duration.

What you’re describing is not arachnophobia but another fear which works in tandem ‘fear of the unknown’. Hence through handling a spider this fear vanishes as it becomes ‘known’ better. This is not arachnophobia.

Oooff… it’s a fail on a massive degree if you suggest that method as a baseline. It’s a dangerous method and should only be done by a professional for anyone who has any form of severe reaction they can’t control.

Otherwise is putting the health of said person at risk. For minimalistic phobias (like yours) it’s a reasonable one.

It’s also mostly used by quacks. Like you are as you have no medical expertise about the ‘dos and don’ts’ about it.

Exposure therapy is helpful of handled right and if the mentality of the patient allows it accordingly. Phobias are rooted in the amygdala of our brain, which is not only the oldest but also one one of the most impactful areas of our brain. When a phobia happens it also affects the so called ‘Stria terminalis’ which is responsible to provide the information to the nerves related to handling blood circulation, breathing and vomiting.

Sudden stimulation in a patient with extremely severe phobia can hence lead - and it hasn’t only happened once in the history of mankind - in the worst-case scenario to actual death through a stroke or heart attack. Catatonic states have also been seen.
Less severe cases can still cause serious injuries through the loss of consciousness and following up impact on the ground.
So a recommendation without actual knowledge about the state of the patient can lead to severe detrimental situations.
Never recommend a ‘simple’ solution like that to someone who actually has severe phobia, or even enforce it onto them.

And as mentioned, in more serious cases it can take years, decades… or even never resolves itself fully.

Lucky you to have never been in actual serious danger. Fear is a healthy thing for a human, lack of fear suggests a problem rather then the other way around.

I don’t even know how to start with that… there’s a huge amount of variety there when it is more then reasonable and when it becomes nonsensical to adhere to what you said.

Also following your own argumentation… it’s limiting. You’re saying someone wants to ‘shape the world to their needs’… by that argumentation you should pick up non-dangerous spiders with your hands and bring them out despite your phobia.

Tried that? How did that turn out for you? :slight_smile:

Hence we can also deduct that it’s not about shaping reality to your needs but instead a healthy reflex of our mind to protect from possible physical danger which is a reasonable reflex that is solely overabundant in such a case and hence the basis of it can lead back to self-preservation.

It’s not about some actually ‘woke’ stuff as nowadays that awful wishy-washy term is used, those topics have often underlying ‘deny of reality’ by substituting it with something else. That is a mental issue which needs to be tackled as it has severe repercussions on personal life quality commonly but is not treated since treatment wouldn’t allow that state of thought to exist.

It’s a whole different situation and needs to be handled differently. Someone with arachnophobia doesn’t deny the spider exists… they just can’t physically handle to be close to one be it through immersion in a fiction or reality at times.

1 Like
42

Mea culpa. I hadn’t realized it had gotten this bad already. Never mind me and my antiquated opinions.

43

Not sure if you work in the medical industry, a lot of websites i read say its an irrational fear, but they may be out of date. An irrational fear, is one someone cant control aka all phobias

There is no such thing as fear or pain, as both are born in the mind. I used to do some weight lifting and have dropped several 20-30 pound items on myself from heights, and been able to not feel it as i would mentally ignore it. I may be a unique case, as i am not a neurotypical.

I lived in a dangerous enviorment, i was a target for a seriel killer, and was emotionally abused for 14 years of my time in school by both teachers and class mates. Pain exists for a small duration, eventually you feel nothing. Anyone can learn it i think.

44

I really struggle with heights in real life. Even in games like this one, I get vertigo, etc with heights.

It would not have occurred to me whatsoever that I should/could expect devs to have an option to remove heights from a game. I suck it up and repeat in my brain that these are just pixels. Also use it as a chance to “work on my fear” in a safe way.

I am not exactly shooting your request down and I acknowledge that it’s in the feedback forum so it’s more for the devs than me, just providing a counterpoint view.

I think, for me, this is in the realm of “if it’s this big an issue for an individual, they ought to stick with games they can handle. Not expect all games to cater to them.” Just my opinion, understand it may not be shared.

45

It is, the measure of the fear is ‘irrational’, the basis from where it stances from is ‘rational’.

Hence yes, phobia is a ‘irrational fear’ since it’s not fitting to the possible situation in many countries (like mine, not a single venomous spider which can actually cause danger) or so enhanced that the reaction to it is far too severe, sometimes to a degree that it causes physical harm to the one with the phobia even (very very rare luckily).

By the same logic there exists ‘nothing’ because everything is born in the mind. You have no way to guarantee ever that what is around you is actually reality in any way.

Hence that’s a nonsensical argument.

I would argue that it has positives and negatives, and no, not everyone can learn it. Much like not everyone will be a fantastic cook, or great on social environments. We’re ‘made’ different and that’s good, causes specializations and variety which is mandatory.

As for the pain… neither too much nor too little is good, negative input is mandatory for our brain to handle positive input in a sensible relation. Also condolences for the awful experiences, nobody should ever have to get through anything of the sorts.

A very viable option! If your mental state allows it, for some people this is sadly not a viable option.

Which once more. Nice thing to have, low priority.