Is water really THAT scary in our video games?

[Fishyash]

Water is especially scary to me if you can drown in it.

I was afraid of swimming in Banjo Kazooie, Super Mario 64 and the underwater segments in sonic games were also pretty scary for me as a kid.

Even now, I get a little tense when I am about to run out of breath on these games.

In horror? It's probably not the water itself... unless there is a constant danger of drowning. Travelling in water is a hinderance to the human body. We can't move as quickly, we can't breath in it, we can't see as well, etc..

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

[snip]

Aren't you from Australia? I think it's fair for you to be afraid of deep water...or of nature in general.

Do people actually believe that stuff about our wildlife or is just a running joke?

'Cause it's really not that bad here.

Granted, there are ants that can kill you and a bite from most of the snakes means a visit to the emergency ward and I found one of these creepy motherfuckers [http://api.ning.com/files/a9W9JQFbr1wVa1CxeQ10EodttwpnlR-Lv1Me7ZQGTh3W4CdFO3MXhCigGUczmmCu5Tzu9EBAya1RJa387xUva0nzNRMz1rOx/huntsmanspider.jpg] in my shoe yesterday, but really, it's not as bad as people make out.

I think both, but honestly, fuck that. I hate spiders with a passion (i'm not one of those people who can't play with them in a game)

But if I see one in real life, you bet your silly ass i'm grabbing thor's hammer to obliterate that thing to hell. I fucking hate spiders more than I hate snakes, and you won't find much more on my "things I hate" list.

So yeah, even though alot of it is jokes, alot of that shit DOES happen, regardless of how many times....fuck that shit. I'll take my insane weather patterns and 'Mericuh jokes than to live in your Tattoine death trap.

OT: Most water levels in games since the beginning of video games have either been extremely tedious or just plain annoying, not to mention most of the time the monsters/things don't obey the water physics like you do, which is even more annoying..but beyond that, I haven't played amnesia's water stuff, so can't comment on that.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

You're not alone. Water in games is almost never hazard-free. In the off-chance your character is immune to drowning and the water isn't toxic or poisoned or dirty , the creatures inside will eat you while you're still struggling with vastly-slowed controls, poor vision, altered physics and a reduced or non-existent attack.

Some of the biggest enemies in games appear underwater. This is so they can realistically eat you. Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie both have massive fish for this purpose (and BK's Snacker gets the Jaws theme). Plenty of big fish in World of Warcraft as well such as the infamous Whale Shark.

Ironically I love swimming IRL, but having huge man-eating fish in an enclosed dark water segment can actually stop me from finishing an FPS game.

 

[LordFish]

I can understand how it's a pain in the behind when you're in water... but to be scared by it, specially if its not a horror game? Either really great game design to illicit that kind of immersion, or more likely the person spends too much time playing video games and is forgetting what the real world looks like

 

[Ljs1121]

I have a crippling fear of drowning, so I try my best to avoid water in real life. I don't mind taking a dip in a third person game, but if a game wants me to swim in first person, a line has been crossed.

 

[Mysterious Username]

Drowning in timed water segments can get pretty tense. Classic Sonic was the king of making water the scariest thing around(that drowning music).
Although I grew up more on Megaman and such so spikes are what freak me out.

 

[Eamar]

I've said this multiple times before, but I still think that an underwater survival horror game would be fantastic. Drifting through the water to the sound of your own filtered breath, catching glimpses of a great, formless, tentacled mass sliding through the dark water, so large that your feeble light source only illuminates a fraction of its body.

Go on, tell me that wouldn't work.

That would be absolutely horrifying. And awesome.

Not sure I'd be able to play it though, since I have a similar fear to you. The thought of something being down there... *shudders*

OT: I imagine it's not the water itself that's scary, but the ways in which it's been used. And the freaky shit that's living in it.

 

[KrayZekrow]

Water in gaming has always perplexed me, and how games deal with it. I have to agree with BlueberryMUNCH about Amnesia, but as for other gaming, maybe? Great Bay Temple (Zelda:MM) freaked me out when I was a kid, and Bioshock is also an obvious contender, but as for the fear of water itself...drowning is scary, period.

 

[jensenthejman]

Sea monsters scare the shit out of me. They can be anywhere, and humans aren't very hydrodynamic. It could be swimming thousands of meters below you, and you would never know. That's why it took me forever to fight the water boss in Shadow of the Colossus.

 

[rob_simple]

I think, like anything else, it's scary depending on how scared you are of it. I'm genuinely terrified of drowning so I hate games that make me go underwater with an oxygen limit, but at the same time I have a fear of heights so I'm not crazy about games like Uncharted making you walk along rickety beams hundreds of feet above the ground.

Sea monsters scare the shit out of me. They can be anywhere, and humans aren't very hydrodynamic. It could be swimming thousands of meters below you, and you would never know. That's why it took me forever to fight the water boss in Shadow of the Colossus.

I'm the same, so things like this put the shits right up me.

 

[Something Amyss]

Water generally doesn't bug me. However, years of gaming has programmed me to hate water levels, assuming they will be at the least annoying.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

No, not really. It's just that water levels in video games are usually controller snappingly frustrating. Like say for example the Dam level in the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for the NES. Fuck I hated that level! Only ever beat it ONCE!

 

[Thyunda]

I'm not scared of water in games...but I do tend to avoid it. I procrastinate exploring the submerged areas of Fallout: New Vegas' Vaults, and even with the rebreather, I still didn't want to go into it.
I think the amount of time I sank into Fallout 3 had an impact - I avoid water in even Skyrim, for a bizarre fear of radiation sickness.

 

[deathzero021]

I think gamers fear water because there are WAY too many games that KILL YOU if you fall in water, either that or your character has an incredibly short amount of time while underwater and drowning is common in those games.

 

[SaetonChapelle]

Its hard to see in water. Water makes you slower. You're still able to think, and you want to perform an action, but your limbs are unable to do it at the same speed as you normally would be able to. What's in water is a mystery. So yeah, water is a scary thing. And often times water enemies are significantly harder to defeat than normal enemies, even if they're just as week.

Example, Resident Evil Revelations. I hated those water levels because I could do little in those levels to defend myself. Not only did I have the annoying enemies to worry about and my inability to use my gun, but my speed was also a factor, and the fact that I had to worry about my oxygen supply. It wasn't scary per say, but I found myself having a slight but of anxiety every time I had to dive under.

Controls are frustrating, and from childhood I learned that in video games water often meant certain death. For some reason my character could kill enemies with a single blow to the face, but the aspect of swimming was foreign to them and they would often drown. Logic right out the window.

Water levels are annoying, water enemies are annoying, and generally controlling the character in water is friggin' annoying.

 

[MalkavianLunatic]

Y'know, I know that water levels in games shouldn't be scary, logically speaking. However, I fear I've got a bit of bathophobia. Most underwater segments in games make me twitch.

Seriously, the whale shark in WoW scares the daylights out of me, too. >.> *grumbles*

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I hate water in games because there's a fear of the unknown, which I'm sure a fair number of other people have too.

There's always a chance that there's something in there that wants you for dinner that's 5 times your size. Considering most enemies like this cause instant gameovers...yeah. Don't like them. Doesn't matter if it's just a giant shark or a sea monster to me; I'll still be shivering in terror.

Hell, I don't even have to BE in water and I will be terrified just knowing that there is something there that I will eventually have to kill/bypass/swim in the same body of water with.

 

[Tragedy's Rebellion]

As a kid the serious sam underwater level freaked me out so much it scarred me for life and I'm incredibly scared in deep water ONLY in games. I don't have any fear of deep water in real life ;d It's kinda weird. It's mostly fear of underwater creatures than the water itself though.