Arachnid Glider & Arachnophobia

[Goettel.4389]

If heights trigger a phobia, avoid them. If a piece of entertainment triggers a phobia, avoid it.

Having said that, and being phobic myself: the only real way past phobias is controlled exposure. Games seem as good a place as any to get over them.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Goettel.4389" said:

> If heights trigger a phobia, avoid them. If a piece of entertainment triggers a phobia, avoid it.

> Having said that, and being phobic myself: the only real way past phobias is controlled exposure. Games seem as good a place as any to get over them.

 

Exposure (controlled or otherwise) doesn't work for everyone.

[eyestrain.3056]

> @"Goettel.4389" said:

> If a piece of entertainment triggers a phobia, avoid it.

 

It's the safest solution I suppose. But I think there is a middle ground, especially when there might be a simple way for devs to give players an option to just turn some content off visually user-side (and not effect anyone else's experience). Something like that would have the added benefit of dealing with the game's visual clutter, which many non-phobic players also would like to rein in.

Not that I know for sure a graphics toggle is the best solution, or that there is an easy one. Still I think it's a conversation worth having, and it would be cool to know if the devs consider a common phobia like this when introducing new content.

[cryorion.9532]

What about snake phobia and new legendary scepter? Flying snek must be nightmare fuel for those people.

Also, can we get height, deep water and small room disable option for people with certain phobias, too?

When I think about it, I have deadeye phobia, can I get disable option for that, too?

[eyestrain.3056]

> @"cryorion.9532" said:

> What about snake phobia and new legendary scepter? Flying snek must be nightmare fuel for those people.

> Also, can we get height, deep water and small room disable option for people with certain phobias, too?

> When I think about it, I have deadeye phobia, can I get disable option for that, too?

 

I know you're being sarcastic, but i'll answer sincerely. I haven't encountered many people with a snake phobia, and most small areas/tall heights etc can be avoided once encountered once. So I wasn't thinking about them much compared to a big spooky glider that might pop out of nowhere. And despite it seeming like a minority, I have encountered several arachnophobic people in game in the past.

I'll pose another question in response to yours. Let's say the devs were sympathetic to those with arachnophobia in particular, and worked out a user-side graphic toggle so they wouldn't have to worry about a sudden, terrible experience with this glider (or maybe other gliders, or mounts). Such a fix would also allow non-phobic players another option to reduce visual clutter. Would you have a problem with that, and if so, why?

[cryorion.9532]

I want others to see my true form. And to fear me. But really :D

[MachineManXX.9746]

I have an irrational fear of heights in real life. At no time have I ever wished the game did not have high places to explore, dive off or simply fall from. I have explored them all. If a-net accommodated everyone's phobias, there wouldn't be much of a game left to play.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

This topic came up on the old forums a few times in the past. I would guess the Devs were aware back then; perhaps it is not an easy thing to program.

Or...maybe...they have, or will have, new tech to enable something to offer to those affected.

[Blocki.4931]

Thinking about it or a bit longer but: When do you ever see glider skins that aren't your own? In the open world I rarely ever see anybody gliding. In WvW I see the most gliders, since it's actually a mechanic that's useful there. In the age of mounts and the lack of updrafts necessary to get somewhere I really don't think this should be much of a concern.

 

Of course that is the case until somebody keeps flying into your face in Mistlock Sanctuary, but I doubt there are many people who do that.

 

So at worst there are 2 seconds of gliding around to prevent fall damage or to get somewhere while in combat, which are also lost under the mass of players that will probably be around as well.

 

Appreciating people bringing it up though. Never forget about the weak under us who might not speak up out of fear to be laughed at or something. :+1:

 

 

[Zaklex.6308]

> @"eyestrain.3056" said:

> > @"cryorion.9532" said:

> > What about snake phobia and new legendary scepter? Flying snek must be nightmare fuel for those people.

> > Also, can we get height, deep water and small room disable option for people with certain phobias, too?

> > When I think about it, I have deadeye phobia, can I get disable option for that, too?

>

> I know you're being sarcastic, but i'll answer sincerely. I haven't encountered many people with a snake phobia, and most small areas/tall heights etc can be avoided once encountered once. So I wasn't thinking about them much compared to a big spooky glider that might pop out of nowhere. And despite it seeming like a minority, I have encountered several arachnophobic people in game in the past.

> I'll pose another question in response to yours. Let's say the devs were sympathetic to those with arachnophobia in particular, and worked out a user-side graphic toggle so they wouldn't have to worry about a sudden, terrible experience with this glider (or maybe other gliders, or mounts). Such a fix would also allow non-phobic players another option to reduce visual clutter. Would you have a problem with that, and if so, why?

 

I can answer this question, it might not be the answer most would think of, but it is one that I think ArenaNet would consider. Players buy these skins for a reason, not for themselves, but to show them off to other players. How do you think sales would be affected if players knew that the only person that could see something they bought is themselves?

 

As for snakes, there are snakes in the game, ambient creatures that slither around in the grass in some of the PoF and LWS4 maps, they're all green too.

[DaFishBob.6518]

> @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> I can answer this question, it might not be the answer most would think of, but it is one that I think ArenaNet would consider. Players buy these skins for a reason, not for themselves, but to show them off to other players. How do you think sales would be affected if players knew that the only person that could see something they bought is themselves?

 

Some how I don't think it'd be that bad really since everyone is already a standard model to me with my graphic settings. Half the time they don't even render for me save for a floating name tag. They can still show off to their groupies and photo blogs.

[eyestrain.3056]

> @"MachineManXX.9746" said:

> I have an irrational fear of heights in real life. At no time have I ever wished the game did not have high places to explore, dive off or simply fall from. I have explored them all. If a-net accommodated everyone's phobias, there wouldn't be much of a game left to play.

 

User-side changes don't remove anything from the game, they just don't render a visual effect for players who choose to hide them. It's fairly common among MMOs, including GW2- there's already an option in the game called Effect LOD, which limits the amount of particles on screen from other player's skills. It was added because players began to struggle with the amount of visual noise, and many felt even Effect LOD was insufficient to deal with an increasingly particle-effect heavy game (on armor, weapons, skills, and now mounts and gliders etc).

 

> @"Blocki.4931" said:

> Thinking about it or a bit longer but: When do you ever see glider skins that aren't your own? In the open world I rarely ever see anybody gliding. In WvW I see the most gliders, since it's actually a mechanic that's useful there. In the age of mounts and the lack of updrafts necessary to get somewhere I really don't think this should be much of a concern.

> Appreciating people bringing it up though. Never forget about the weak under us who might not speak up out of fear to be laughed at or something. :+1:

 

I've definitely been startled by the huge fireball glider in wvw more than a few times (Oh shit! what am I being attacked with oh wait it's just an ally gliding) and in pve raids quite a few encounters begin by gliding into the boss' arena (Cairn and Soulless Horror come to mind first), and raid players may do that content once or twice a week. In open world it might just be a brief "boo!" but I could see that also startling or triggering someone not expecting it.

 

I don't think a phobia is a weakness/strength thing. Just an additional challenge thrown at some people (the same way my abnormally crappy memory recall adds extra challenges for me). It's easy to assume if an issue doesn't affect me, it doesn't exist at all. But I've interacted with people who have that issue so I'm interested to learn more about their experiences, and whether it keeps them from being able to have fun playing the game. I think it'd be nice if there's some easy way for them to effortlessly feel more comfortable the way that I do by default.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Well, I'm afraid of commitment but they still put the wedding pack in. I guess we all just have to deal.

[eyestrain.3056]

> @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> Well, I'm afraid of commitment but they still put the wedding pack in. I guess we'll all just have to deal.

 

This is the first actually funny counter-argument in the thread. Convince yourself they're prom clothes! :lol:

[Tsakhi.8124]

I have arachnophobia and the new glider is kind of like: "Spiders don't have webbing between their legs, they use butt-ropes." and from there logic kind of starts debunking things. I'm not gonna lie, though, I hate spiders and only tolerate them because they eat nasty bugs. It use to be a lot worse, a _lot_ worse, due to being bitten by a black widow and not being able to receive medical attention for it. Also, if it's big, I just kinda..."nope, too early for this donkey." and go somewhere else.

[Laila Lightness.8742]

I dont like glider and rather see it gone but fear has to be eventually faced or it will controll your life.

[Balsa.3951]

I fear fighting can we have a option to disable that /s

[Astralporing.1957]

> @"BlueIce.6951" said:

> Something I would like to add to this discussion. If you have a phobia, it does not matter if that trigger is a picture, real, cartoonish, or distorted.

>

> You react to that trigger the same as any other.

>

> I do not have Arachnophobia, I have other phobias that for me are severe. One of these is acrophobia. There are some areas that I cannot go to in game without all of the typical fear responses I deal with in real world situations. I do not have this so bad that I freeze, but I do need to leave the game or go to a larger ground area for a while.

>

> I also love gliding and the mounts (I have the beetle but do not use it) but have to be extremely careful of where my camera is located and how far out I have the zoom when using those items or risk triggering my fear.

Interesting. For some reason gliding and flying on Griffon is perfectly safe for me, even if i look down, but i get vertigo (and fear of falling) anytime i am on narrow planks (or similar), even if they aren't all that high in the air. Plank staircases of Cliffside fractal, for example, are a huge problem for me if i don't position my camera carefully, and sometimes even if i do. Similar with some JPs, and places like Verdant Brink.

And yes, it doesn't matter that i know it's perfectly safe because it's a game. My brain still insists on warning me that i am about to fall to my death.

 

Still, i consider it to be my personal problem, and i don't really see anything Anet could do for me in that situation. They can't remove any possible trigger to any possible fobia from the game. That would prevent them from creating anything (imagine having to create a game that would be perfectly safe for both claustrophobia and agoraphobia - that doesn't seem even possible).

 

[BlueIce.6951]

> @"Astralporing.1957" said:

> Still, i consider it to be my personal problem, and i don't really see anything Anet could do for me in that situation. They can't remove any possible trigger to any possible fobia from the game. That would prevent them from creating anything (imagine having to create a game that would be perfectly safe for both claustrophobia and agoraphobia - that doesn't seem even possible).

>

I agree that removing trigger items is not something that should be done. My suggestion is to implement a filter like the other client side filters/mechanics that way it only impacts the person who enables the filter.

 

I see it the same way as blocking trolls in map chat. They can do whatever makes them happy, but I can choose to not have to deal with their fun without disabling an entire communication method.

 

Does that make sense? I don't think any of the suggestions are actually advocating for removing or changing content.

[Substance E.4852]

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> And before anyone (even me) suggests that this can be overcome with "just... [fill in the blank]," it can't be. Many of those with phobias work incredibly hard to overcome them, with no particular method working for more than a plurality. Some people will never do better than "manage less poorly."

 

No actually most of them don't which is why they still have irrational fears rooted in emotion.

 

I've seen people with war induced PTSD deal with it better than the average person who flips out at the sight of a snake.

[Paolino.8320]

Hello! I don't really want to weigh in on the glider but I do want to share my story, just in case the devs decide to read this, because I feel like it's maybe an important one to hear from their perspective.

 

I am a person with diagnosed arachnophobia and yes, halloween is a very hard time for me irl. I avoid halloween shops, frequently have to take breathers with some decorations, and just tonight I had to have friends lead me through a walkway with my eyes closed. Even outside of halloween, seeing spiders have caused me to avoid leaving my room, take different paths home from work, check every surface I sit on outside, and check bunches of bananas very carefully when I am out shopping. It's a huge problem in my day to day life and it is sometimes just nonstop dread.

 

My relationship with GW, spiders, and arachnophobia is weird. I used to avoid every single depiction of spiders like the plague, but certain spiders back in GW1 didn't trigger that anxiety and flight response in me (the ones in Elona specifically). It was probably the first depiction that I've ever been okay with, and part of it probably was simply just not recognizing them as anything other than bugs for a long time! Going in to guild wars 2, I thought "oh God I love this game too much to avoid all of the spiders", but it was a mixed bag. Some of them were fine but unsettling, others I couldn't look at. It also helped that, at the time, my monitor was a tv about five feet away from me playing from a couch. Smaller is easier to handle. The spider queen in Kessex hills though? Hard.

 

A couple years ago, I went to a counsellor and doctor to get an actual diagnosis for arachnophobia and to get treatment. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) was what I was aiming for, but there were no practitioners in the workplace, so I was out of luck. There was no way I could actually treat it professionally, but the counsellor did recommend I do some self-directed CBT. I felt defeated and upset at the time, because what they described was just reinforcing my existing behaviour, but I started to think about it for a while. Guild Wars 2 came to mind again. So I played.

 

What followed is probably what you expect. This became one of those weird moments where some folks would probably talk about games as being something magical with some incredible untapped potential, but really I don't think that's the case. Games here just become a convenient way for me to gradually and carefully expose myself to spiders that didn't outright scare me, but did unsettle me, and pair those experiences with positive emotions of play. Guild Wars 2 became my little CBT training ground and is still helping me make progress toward not feeling so scared all the time. It's been three years of play now, and digital spiders that unsettled my are usually fine. Spiders that were once scary are now just unsettling. And those tiny baby spiders in real life that are the size of a pin are okay at a distance as long as I don't look at them. What I'm experiencing here is real, tangible impact. And while I might not be able to see the spiders in Skyrim at all without screaming, I can on most days play Guild Wars 2, or see a spider emoji, or have a little kid draw me a circle with eight legs because things aren't as bad anymore.

 

Now, call me rude, but I won't give the devs the credit here: because I know this was by happenstance, and because I need to take credit for the way I have made use of the game, and because there are still plenty of times where I am forced into uncomfortable situations (This glider, for instance, and with Braham in the Sun's Refuge mission? Jesus Christ.) I feel like there is a lot to be done for accommodating these kinds of experiences, but I'm not here to argue about that or to give anyone praise. I just wanted to say that I am thankful for the experience I've had so far in the game, and it means a lot to me. It was, for whatever reason, exactly what I needed and it was there when I needed it.

[zealex.9410]

I hope they dont exclude idea based on phobias of ppl coz i really want a spider mount xd.

[Scud.5067]

To be clear - a phobia is not something that you 'have', rather than you 'practice'. That is to say, you can do something about it, with a very high rate of success. I'd much prefer energy was put into helping those overcome their phobia rather than build a game around helping them avoid dealing with it.

 

Now, obviously, if you've sought professional help, battled hard and still live a life wrecked by a given phobia then.. really, GW2 is the least of your concerns.

[wiazabi.2549]

I have a massive fear of infusions and spell clutter to the point i avoid playing just out of shear panic attacks during any content that involves other players /s

 

That said anet pls option to disable other peoples spell effects so we can see what is going on at times.

 

As for the whole problem with arachnophobia or similar issues that might offend or whatever, anet should do nothing and leave this to the users and how they will deal with it else we would literally not get any games. Its like saying if there is just a 1% chance this might offend someone we sholdnt do it !!

[HazyDaisy.4107]

I've seen my father flee the room at the sight of a spider and I've watched his mother crush a nest of black widows in flip flops. I myself dont care for the little guys, but this, is just a game :)