Arachnophobia and Ashes

Kudos on how awesome the spiders look in this game. They way they leap and move, right down to how they attack. It's creepy and feel so right.

About 15% of the population suffer from Arachnophobia and the majority of the people who suffer from Arachnophobia are women.

As a man who plays with my wife that suffers from this. I'm asking that you please have options for people like my darling wife. Some games have settings that turn all spiders into something else graphically. A blob, a bunny etc.

I can't count how many times my wife is hiding under her desk when playing an MMO and she is waiting for the spiders to be dead.

I know I will be bashed for this but watching my wife losing her mind in games and seeing how other games accommodate people like her. I am ready to be made fun of. Thanks to the Devs for considering this or just for reading my post. I make this post for all men that love to game with their wives that suffer from this. Families that game together, stay together.

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Aszkalon

AnimusRex wrote: »

Aszkalon wrote: »

I wonder how an "Arachne-Censor" Mode would function. Would be funny to see them all move around as mean-looking Slimes or something.

As someone who has a Slime phobia...

... ... ... maybe there will come an Option that turns the Slimes into smiling Heart Emoji's.

Cyridius

I suffer Arachnophobia but clearly not as severely as others. They terrify me. Even the ones that are cutesy and small and harmless.

I relieve that in games by doing what I can't do in real life - killing the hell out of them.

I really empathise with other people with the same or similar phobias and if the devs have the spare resources to do something like this, I don't see the harm. But not everything can be done and things need to be prioritised - and this would be at the bottom of the list for me. Or near to it.

Dripyula

Depraved wrote: »

i thought u were a girl lol..wait no, there are no girls on the internet. this confirms it!

Just because of the avatar?

Na~h. Just thought with what kind of theme I would register in the Ashes forum and this somehow became my pick.
But that is an MMO thing.
MMORPG = Mostly Men Online Roleplaying Girls
I'll try to find a proper Vampire Sir avatar then. My first MMO character was an old man ironically.
A Retributionpaladin in WoW. But ingame I do plan to make a female Empyrian too.
Just because I want to.

Cyridius wrote: »

I suffer Arachnophobia but clearly not as severely as others. They terrify me. Even the ones that are cutesy and small and harmless.
I relieve that in games by doing what I can't do in real life - killing the hell out of them.

I really empathise with other people with the same or similar phobias and if the devs have the spare resources to do something like this, I don't see the harm. But not everything can be done and things need to be prioritised - and this would be at the bottom of the list for me. Or near to it.

Same. I am at the stage where I can move fearlessly and just kill them.
Took me about 20 years though to finally develop a kind of mental tolerance to their proximity.
Still when I know that a spider is in my room that is over a certain size threshhold, then I cannot let it live.
I MUST KILL IT or else I cannot calm down and it will be constantly on my mind.

In videogames I just do not want to go into "melee" with them if I can.
Silly I know but the thought that my character is close to them, still gives me goosebumps.

nanfoodle

Dripyula wrote: »

Depraved wrote: »

i thought u were a girl lol..wait no, there are no girls on the internet. this confirms it!

Just because of the avatar? Na~h. Just thought with what kind of theme I would register in the Ashes forum and this somehow became my pick.
But that is an MMO thing.
MMORPG = Mostly Men Online Roleplaying Girls
I'll try to find a proper Vampire Sir avatar then. My first MMO character was an old man ironically.
A Retributionpaladin in WoW. But ingame I do plan to make a female Empyrian too.
Just because I want to.

Cyridius wrote: »

I suffer Arachnophobia but clearly not as severely as others. They terrify me. Even the ones that are cutesy and small and harmless.
I relieve that in games by doing what I can't do in real life - killing the hell out of them.

I really empathise with other people with the same or similar phobias and if the devs have the spare resources to do something like this, I don't see the harm. But not everything can be done and things need to be prioritised - and this would be at the bottom of the list for me. Or near to it.

Same. I am at the stage where I can move fearlessly and just kill them.
Took me about 20 years though to finally develop a kind of mental tolerance to their proximity.
Still when I know that a spider is in my room that is over a certain size threshhold, then I cannot let it live.
I MUST KILL IT or else I cannot calm down and it will be constantly on my mind.

In videogames I just do not want to go into "melee" with them if I can.
Silly I know but the thought that my character is close to them, still gives me goosebumps.

Well said. I am impressed how many people have posted in this thread their feelings about this. All the concerns for all the other phobias and only arachnophobias seem to be the only people speaking up.

Scarctic

Nerror wrote: »

I gotta admit I am torn on this topic. I waffle back and forth a lot.

On the one hand, I am very pro accessibility options in games for people with various disabilities, and I can see why it might even make economic sense for Intrepid to help alleviate the most common phobias. At least if the game becomes popular enough to attract a large player-base, where even a few percent more players due to phobia settings makes it economically viable to invest the time and resources.

But.. phobias are very treatable in many cases. Exposure treatment in particular is very effective in curing arachnophobia. More easily than many physical disabilities at the very least. I don't think there's a cure for colour blindness, for example.

So at some point I also think it's the responsibility of players to work on those phobias if they become a problem in their lives, not the responsibility of a game company. So my advice to the OP and wife is to look into exposure treatment for arachnophobia in your area. It will improve your life way beyond just playing Ashes, if it's that strong.

Catering to players isn't something Intrepid wants to do, as harsh as that is for certain individuals.
And that's the right way of doing things. If they had to design every aspect of their game as phobia-friendly as possible they would need to hire an extra team for that purpose and if you go as deep as possible with this you would end up hurting the game in some way or another. I can't put a finger on exactly what details but catering to people's expectations had always a bad outcome in the overall health and integrity of the game and community...

nanfoodle

Scarctic wrote: »

Nerror wrote: »

I gotta admit I am torn on this topic. I waffle back and forth a lot.

On the one hand, I am very pro accessibility options in games for people with various disabilities, and I can see why it might even make economic sense for Intrepid to help alleviate the most common phobias. At least if the game becomes popular enough to attract a large player-base, where even a few percent more players due to phobia settings makes it economically viable to invest the time and resources.

But.. phobias are very treatable in many cases. Exposure treatment in particular is very effective in curing arachnophobia. More easily than many physical disabilities at the very least. I don't think there's a cure for colour blindness, for example.

So at some point I also think it's the responsibility of players to work on those phobias if they become a problem in their lives, not the responsibility of a game company. So my advice to the OP and wife is to look into exposure treatment for arachnophobia in your area. It will improve your life way beyond just playing Ashes, if it's that strong.

Catering to players isn't something Intrepid wants to do, as harsh as that is for certain individuals.
And that's the right way of doing things. If they had to design every aspect of their game as phobia-friendly as possible they would need to hire an extra team for that purpose and if you go as deep as possible with this you would end up hurting the game in some way or another. I can't put a finger on exactly what details but catering to people's expectations had always a bad outcome in the overall health and integrity of the game and community...

Catering is all croud funded games do. We back the Kickstarter, they take our money so the backers do have a voice in development. Not a say but a voice to be considered.

CROW3

Saying 'no' doesn't mean Intrepid lacks empathy - this just isn't a practical request. There are plenty of games without spiders. Enjoy them.

Depraved

Dripyula wrote: »

Depraved wrote: »

i thought u were a girl lol..wait no, there are no girls on the internet. this confirms it!

Just because of the avatar? Na~h. Just thought with what kind of theme I would register in the Ashes forum and this somehow became my pick.
But that is an MMO thing.
MMORPG = Mostly Men Online Roleplaying Girls
I'll try to find a proper Vampire Sir avatar then. My first MMO character was an old man ironically.
A Retributionpaladin in WoW. But ingame I do plan to make a female Empyrian too.
Just because I want to.

no cuz the way you type lol. i thought u were azkalon's wife. husband then i guess?xD or roommate or sibling idk.

Noaani

@Azherae

To me, I think there are two important factors to consider.

The first is the percentage of the potential playerbase that would be effected by a given phobia with an in game trigger. We don't have those numbers at all, but I know dozens of people with arachniphpbia, yet none of them have any issues with spiders on screen.

Now, I get that some people do, but that group seems to me to likely be a VERY small percentage of those with arachniphobia.

The second thing to consider is the amount of work it would take to viably implement something like this.

In a game like WoW, Skyrim, FFXIV etc, you could easily just swap out one character model for another, it wouldn't impact gameplay at all. In Ashes though, we are seemingly needing to watch the enemy model in order to gain an understanding of what it is about to do. It is this difference (assuming it actually happens) that is why we cant just compare Ashes to other games in this regard.

An example of this could be a web - perhaps the models animation is to tell us that both it is being cast, and also where it is being cast. While it absolutely would be possible to have another model that effectively conveys that information, the question then becomes obvious to people like you.

That question, for others reading, is whether or not the time needed to provide an alternative model that is still able to convey the appropriate information is appropriate given the small number of people that would avoid playing the game if it were not present.

If Intrepid thinks it is worth adding for any given phobia, great. If they dont consider it a valid use of developer time, I would fully understand.

Taaku

nanfoodle wrote: »

Catering is all croud funded games do. We back the Kickstarter, they take our money so the backers do have a voice in development. Not a say but a voice to be considered.

AOC is not crowd funded. It is privately funded by Steven. You can pay now if you want early access, bonus items / skins, or future in game play time / currency. But development of the game does not rely on people buying bundles.
You can still argue that maybe if you can spend money on the game then you should have a say but... it's a private company and if you don't like how they run then don't support / fund them.

Teyloune

If you have issues with Arachnophobia, I recommend that you find Guild Members that are willing to help you, you do not have to overcome your challenges alone.

nanfoodle

nanfoodle wrote: »

Catering is all croud funded games do. We back the Kickstarter, they take our money so the backers do have a voice in development. Not a say but a voice to be considered.

Mag7spy

nanfoodle wrote: »

nanfoodle wrote: »

Catering is all croud funded games do. We back the Kickstarter, they take our money so the backers do have a voice in development. Not a say but a voice to be considered.

AOC is not crowd funded. It is privately funded by Steven. You can pay now if you want early access, bonus items / skins, or future in game play time / currency. But development of the game does not rely on people buying bundles.
You can still argue that maybe if you can spend money on the game then you should have a say but... it's a private company and if you don't like how they run then don't support / fund them.

Yes he put in money but this game is 100% also backed by players. From the kick starter to the many, many cosmetic packs sold. [/quote]

Than the argument is everyone of all types has a say in anything for and against. Really doesn't help any kind of point. All the matters is numbers of people with the same voice.

Nerror

Crowdfunded or not, obviously Intrepid wants to cater to players. That's the entire reason for this forum and all the feedback threads from them.

This is another feedback thread. Intrepid wants those, so they can decide on which desires or wants to cater to. They catered to the community on the Dünir, as one of the more obvious examples, but I am certain there are some where we don't even know they've made some changes in the background due to feedback as well. To "cater to players" obviously doesn't mean to give them all they want, because that is impossible with all the contradictory desires, and due to sheer cost.

Raven016

I am not against an option to turn spiders into something else even if that delays the release by 2 months.

nanfoodle wrote: »

About 15% of the population suffer from Arachnophobia and the majority of the people who suffer from Arachnophobia are women.

I doubt that.
A quick search on internet gives me:
"Arachnophobia affects 3.5 to 6.1 percent of the global population."
And percentage of affected women was just a bit above 50%.

nanfoodle wrote: »

I can't count how many times my wife is hiding under her desk when playing an MMO and she is waiting for the spiders to be dead.

Families that game together, stay together.

You seem you found a solution. Still is rude from your side that you drag her to play with you despite her problems.
Let her chose a game and you play that.

nanfoodle

Raven016 wrote: »

I am not against an option to turn spiders into something else even if that delays the release by 2 months.

nanfoodle wrote: »

About 15% of the population suffer from Arachnophobia and the majority of the people who suffer from Arachnophobia are women.

I doubt that.
A quick search on internet gives me:
"Arachnophobia affects 3.5 to 6.1 percent of the global population."
And percentage of affected women was just a bit above 50%.

nanfoodle wrote: »

I can't count how many times my wife is hiding under her desk when playing an MMO and she is waiting for the spiders to be dead.

Families that game together, stay together.

You seem you found a solution. Still is rude from your side that you drag her to play with you despite her problems.
Let her chose a game and you play that.

Thanks for speaking for my wife when you have no clue what she wants. She loves MMOs and is also a backer here, who has posted her request in this thread for options for people like her.

catibrie

For myself. It's the level of detail thats seen in AoC when it comes to spiders. No MMO has gotten these citters to this level of creepiness. From how they move to how they raise their front legs before they attack. Just watching the updates has me skipping parts of what's presented.

Raven016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_50sPyfgVA4

Poor spiders being used as enemies

They should be neutral creatures.

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