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Penny Arcade - Comic - Arachnophilia
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Penny Arcade - Comic - Arachnophilia
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.
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But I'm glad they're going to talk about Grounded. Such a great concept. A little thin on content to start, but if the monthly content updates they promised prove to have merit, this could be the start of something very cool.
I don't have arachnophobia, but it's still pretty terrifying to walk into a nest of spiders all the same.
It's good. It's really good. In a terrible way. They nailed the atmosphere for sure.
Have the player beset by wolves, trapdoors, houses, money, and... red backs?
Or like those Chrome extensions that replace words, change 'spider' to 'hipster' or 'butt'.
I'll admit, the presence of big-ass spiders pretty much put me off of trying the game. Unless the setting swaps every aspect of them out for like... dinosaurs that live in McDonalds play-areas, I'll probably stay away.
At 0, the spiders are rendered in all their creepy-crawly glory. As you scale it up, the become less spider-like: the mandibles disappear, the markings become simpler, the number of legs is reduced and they make less threatening noises. At level 5, the spiders resemble a couple of floating marshmallows with googly eyes.
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
Spider populations are not balanced right now, and there’s people who have had a wolf spider spawn in the same starting tunnel as the kids.
Grounded is an actual survival game with crafting, base building, exploration, and persistence. The persistence part is key.
Fortnite doesn't have persistence. And the building that you can do is hardly building at all. Spamming walls and stairs is just a way to out-posture your opponent.
That's kind of awesome.
(stolen from the Steam thread)
I can see how this might still set off people with severe arachnophobia, particularly if it's looming up out of the grass in the dark and all you see is the way-too-many eyes. And on the bottom two settings they're still definitely spiders (I think it's 2 where they lose a few legs and now they're definitely spiders but halfway down the wrong side of the uncanny valley to boot).
On the other hand, one of the successful treatments that's been used is basically this slider backwards - introducing progressively more spider-like imagery mixed with immersion exercises each time you hit a tier that triggers your phobia.
https://scienceillustrated.com.au/blog/nature/arachnophobia-cured-within-two-hours/
I like this page about arachnophobia also:
https://bogleech.com/arachnophobia.html
Spiders are our friends. I mean, not in this game, obviously.
There's a dude on Youtube with ocean phobia playing Subnautica. It's hilarious, but also heartwarming to watch him very noticably get less frightened as the game goes on.
I can't help but think of this particular episode of a particular podcast when I read that first link.
Warning: this is very much not for anyone with arachnophobia.
No joke, I had to close my eyes during certain parts to play through Spider-Man 2018. Spiders in games don't usually bother me much, especially if they're giant. Giant spider enemies in RPG's like Skyrim and other games? I'm perfectly fine. But realistically sized spiders? Especially big ones, and especially crawling on people? Nope, absolutely not, that is an actual fear I have of something that very realistically could happen to me. I just cannot handle it. So as funny as it sounds I would actually unironically appreciate an arachnophobia mode in Spider-Man. Just keep them off screen, that's all I'd ask for.
As for Grounded... I think I'd have to actually try the game. They look a bit cartoony, and in a way they do fall into the "giant spider" area even if only because you're tiny. On the other hand, spiders being used for horror combined with the knowledge that they are normal sized might set off my fears anyway, and as someone who can't handle looking at close-up pictures of real spiders without closing my eyes, that's a bit too real of a feeling of fear for me to want in a game.
The Forest is a family-friendly Grounded.
My first thought on see this was, "Wait, is that kid wearing a mask made out of a spider's face? (Google tells me its an "Intimidating headgear pieced together from various spider parts.")
I'm not sure the spider is the scariest thing here...
No, you got Honey I Shrunk The Kids! in my Monster Hunter!
Man is the real monster. And kids are even worse.
Like, I used to be someone who would have meltdown and not be able to sleep that night if I saw a spider or roach bigger than a dime in real life, but even then they didn't affect me in games. Stuff in the water and supernatural whatsits, yeah, but not spiders.
Fortunately my arachnaphobia was cured by, uh, unintentional exposure therapy. I kept getting ambushed by them because I was renting basements, including a huge one dropping straight into my hair and running down my face while I was at the compter, and I guess my brain was like 'welp that's it, we've hit the limit, reset to 0'.
These days I'll play with smaller ones running around in my hands and poke big ones to annoy them no problem.
Something similar is happening with large roaches thanks to the enormous wood roaches that get in here all the time, which I guess is better than panicking over them but ew. Think I'll skip the part where one gets on my face.