As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

Penny Arcade - Comic - Arachnophilia

DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
edited August 2020 in The Penny Arcade Hub
imagePenny Arcade - Comic - Arachnophilia

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

Read the full story here

Unknown User on

Posts

  • Jgr9Jgr9 Registered User regular
    The faces in the last panel crack me up.

  • LazyDogJumperLazyDogJumper Registered User regular
    I'll be honest, the "Arachnophobia Mode" doesn't help as much as I'd like. I have SEVERE arachnophobia, in that just a picture of a spider can give me the shivers and a close up picture will legit frighten me. Even at max setting which is just a couple of blobs and eyes there is still a sense of "spider-ness" about it, possibly due to the fact I saw the full thing first before seeing the reduced form.

  • ironzergironzerg Registered User regular
    That's actually super-interesting. Probably because the phobia is psychologically a lot deeper than just physically seeing a spider. Even in it's reduced form, your brain still connects it to a spider, triggering the phobia. Seems like you'd have to go in completely blind to it, or replace it with something that is so much NOT a spider, you're not afraid of it.

    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.

  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    Yeah I snagged grounded and put a few hours on it over the weekend with some buddies. There's not a lot of content there as far as story/campaign, but the building, tech, and all of that is pretty solid. This game has a bright future.

    I don't have arachnophobia, but it's still pretty terrifying to walk into a nest of spiders all the same.

  • QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    Philia is the opposite of phobia so I don't see the problem here.

  • T-DangerT-Danger Registered User regular
    That's just Rom the Vacuous Spider from Bloodborne.

  • LazyDogJumperLazyDogJumper Registered User regular
    Yeah, it's definitely a deep fear, and it's a shame too because I played the game as long as I was able to stand it. The game ran well enough for me that I had a lot of fun running around besides the spiders/blobs. I avoided them as much as possible and forced myself to push through as long as they weren't attacking me but as soon as one was ALL UP ONS that was it. I still have it installed and plan to try again with a little hyping up.

  • ironzergironzerg Registered User regular
    It's a memorable gaming moment. You're standing in a shallow puddle, watching the grass wave ahead of you. You know that means there's something big out there, probably a spider. You decide that the opposite direction is the best direction. You turn around only to see the red eyes light up and hear the "HSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHH" of a spider as it gets ready to pounce on you.

    It's good. It's really good. In a terrible way. They nailed the atmosphere for sure.

  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    A wolf spider snuck up on me and murdered the hell out of me. I was sad.

  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    Suggested arachnophobia mode: just remove the 'spider' keyword from all descriptions

    Have the player beset by wolves, trapdoors, houses, money, and... red backs?

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    edited August 2020
    Suggested arachnophobia mode: just remove the 'spider' keyword from all descriptions

    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'.

    MichaelLC on
  • KalTorakKalTorak One way or another, they all end up in the Undercity.Registered User regular
    so wait what does the setting actually do in the game?

    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.

  • Iron WeaselIron Weasel Dillon! You son of a bitch!Registered User regular
    KalTorak wrote: »
    so wait what does the setting actually do in the game?

    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.
    The setting is a scale, from 0 to 5.

    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.

    Currently Playing:
    The Division, Warframe (XB1)
    GT: Tanith 6227
  • ironzergironzerg Registered User regular
    They look like white ovals with red eyes and no legs on max arachnophobia mode.

  • DelzhandDelzhand Hard to miss. Registered User regular
    Never heard of Grounded until today. Looks like "Honey, I Shrunk the Fortnite", is that accurate?

  • StericaSterica Yes Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited August 2020
    It’s more HISTK meets the Forest. Survival game but you’re building a base with blades of grass and armor from ant parts.

    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.

    Sterica on
    YL9WnCY.png
  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    Yeah, I think putting Fortnite anywhere near this would be doing it a disservice. Fortnite might have once upon a time been a base-building survival game, but that time is long past and nobody even thinks of Fortnite as that now. It's just a Battle Royale game where you can spam walls and stairs into nonsensical structures.

    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.

  • BloodySlothBloodySloth Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    It has a similar aesthetic to Fortnite, probably intentionally so, but yeah it has a lot more in common with a family-friendly The Forest.
    Sterica wrote: »
    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.

    That's kind of awesome.

    BloodySloth on
  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    KalTorak wrote: »
    so wait what does the setting actually do in the game?

    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.
    The setting is a scale, from 0 to 5.

    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.

    (stolen from the Steam thread)
    O78y1j9.jpg

    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.

    Hevach on
  • Golden YakGolden Yak Burnished Bovine The sunny beaches of CanadaRegistered User regular
    Exposure therapy works!
    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.

    H9f4bVe.png
  • SilverspudSilverspud Registered User regular
    I can just imagine the same type of setting being applied to Spider-Man with the max setting generating a bespectacled Tobey Maguire hissing at the player.

  • Phoenix-DPhoenix-D Registered User regular
    Golden Yak wrote: »
    Exposure therapy works!
    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.

  • PhotosaurusPhotosaurus Bay Area, CARegistered User regular
    Golden Yak wrote: »
    Exposure therapy works!
    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.

    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.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iOpSeFffrw

    "If complete and utter chaos was lightning, then he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting 'All gods are bastards'."
  • ThanatosiaThanatosia Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    So is this a new thing in Gaming? I've been playing the Satisfactory Pre-release, and I was amused to see an Arachnaphobia mode in it's settings, which causes the game to cover up the spidery variety of the aliens on the planet with a 2-D cat picture. When I read this PA strip, I was excited thinking it was about Satisfactory, but nope, turns out to be an entirely different game! Is this a thing? Do multiple games with spiders feel the need to include an arachnaphobe mode now? Or is it just these 2?

    Thanatosia on
  • PuddingDeityPuddingDeity Registered User new member
    Silverspud wrote: »
    I can just imagine the same type of setting being applied to Spider-Man with the max setting generating a bespectacled Tobey Maguire hissing at the player.

    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.

  • StericaSterica Yes Registered User, Moderator mod
    It has a similar aesthetic to Fortnite, probably intentionally so, but yeah it has a lot more in common with a family-friendly The Forest.
    Have your kids play both, and tell me if anything in the Forest is as scary as a tank-sized wolf spider jumping on them from above.

    The Forest is a family-friendly Grounded.

    YL9WnCY.png
  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    Hevach wrote: »
    O78y1j9.jpg

    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...

    dennis on
  • H3KnucklesH3Knuckles But we decide which is right and which is an illusion.Registered User regular
    You got Monster Hunter in my Honey I Shrunk The Kids!

    No, you got Honey I Shrunk The Kids! in my Monster Hunter!

    If you're curious about my icon; it's an update of the early Lego Castle theme's "Black Falcons" faction.
    camo_sig2-400.png
  • LttlefootLttlefoot Registered User regular
    A while ago I was thinking of making a game called ophiophobia where you get attacked by snakes

  • Golden YakGolden Yak Burnished Bovine The sunny beaches of CanadaRegistered User regular
    I bet Satisfactory did it as a laugh and Grounded decided to run with it. I can't imagine the fan
    dennis wrote: »
    Hevach wrote: »

    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...

    Man is the real monster. And kids are even worse.

    H9f4bVe.png
  • KalTorakKalTorak One way or another, they all end up in the Undercity.Registered User regular
    Silverspud wrote: »
    I can just imagine the same type of setting being applied to Spider-Man with the max setting generating a bespectacled Tobey Maguire hissing at the player.

    marvel-spider-man-ps4-all-suits-23.jpg

  • KamarKamar Registered User regular
    I'm always kind of surprised that such intense arachnophobia is so common.

    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.

  • ThanatosiaThanatosia Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    Golden Yak wrote: »
    I bet Satisfactory did it as a laugh and Grounded decided to run with it.
    As I understand it, one of their Devs is a huge Arachnophobe so he coded in the cat-pic spider blockers for his own work, and then they decided to let it go forward into the public version. It's nothing as detailed or Fancy as what Grounded seems to have, it's just a 2-d image blocking your view of the spider in the 3d world.

    Thanatosia on
Sign In or Register to comment.