My psychology doesn't allow me to play Assasin's Creed 4

[Someone Depressing]

I find sea-life more beautiful than the disgusting shells of mucas and flesh known as humans.

Una Thurman is the exception.

And this sort of thing is pretty common, I can't play many horror games because I'm shit scared of the dark (don't judge) and thus, I can't play first person horror games that well. I jump, I somtimes flee from the monitor, ect.

It's actually pretty funny, when I'm watching myself do it.

Also, there are only 5 kinds of sharks which are predatory, or intentionally harmful to humans - 3 of which are usually accidental. If you really wanted to make a shark run, aim for the eyes, or general face. Most fears of animals are usually very irrational; fear of snakes is pretty dumb, snakes are usually quite harmless if you leave them alone, fear of spiders is actually quite understood, seeing as how poisonous ones seem to be good at migrating from country to country, and fear of cows is pretty dumb. They're cows. They moo, they're so cute.

 

[DeltaEdge]

Count me among the ranks of people that can't deal with spiders. I will never, EVER, play Limbo because I would have too many nightmares. I seriously had nightmares just from seeing a trailer for the game before I knew it had a giant spider in it.

I remember playing Twilight Princess, and seeing those goddamn skulltulas for the first time, and losing my mind. I actually turned off the console right there without saving, left the room, and didn't even go near my Wii for like 3 days. I eventually decided I REALLY wanted to play through the game though, and just barely managed to brave my way through the dungeon, but let me tell you. Most of my time spent in the dungeon was not spent joyfully traversing it. It was spent tilting the camera through every possible angle checking for skultulas or any other spiders, and each battle with one probably took about 5 minutes because I refused to let them hit me, and hitting their skull didn't damage them, so I ended up flailing the controller around for a long time until they died. Still not sure how I managed to look them in the eyes for however long it took me to beat them. Maybe I should say that I was entranced, and absolutely could not look away until they were dead.
-100 Manliness points

For some reason though, I can deal with seeing and looking at spiders in real life as long as they are not right up on me. My bike seems to be a spider magnet, and I often need to just man up and flick them off my bike, even if they are black widow sized. Some days I can, somedays I can't. But yeah, I just can't deal with seeing them on tv or on screens and such.

 

[MiskWisk]

Never been unable to play a game due to things like that. Although, early playthroughs of Halo 3 had me avoiding any and all puddles in the level Cortana like they had the plague. I have no clue why, but every time I saw the water I would immediately try to pass it without touching it.

 

[Trivea]

I'm terrified of being chased and hiding (couldn't even play tag or hide-and-seek as a small child), so I could never get past the very first "monster" section in Amnesia and I just gave up after that. I'll watch LPs, thank you.

Oddly, though, I also hate spiders and insects, and those don't bother me in games. Not even the room filled with insects in Silent Hill 2. (Though being chased by Pyramid Head through the hospital basement nearly made me quit. Same with all of Ao Oni.)

 

[Something Amyss]

you know what's odd. i have a terrible fear of heights and falling. but i'll be damned if when i play an open world game i dont go find the highest point on the map and jump off it for the lols. wonder why your fear effects you like that and mine doesnt.

I'm pretty much the same way. I loved taking VTOLs around Saints Row 3 and jumping from high places, near misses with tall buildings, and all that jazz. In SR2, the first thing I always get is the no fall damage one from the parachuting so I can do ridiculous skydives. And Just Cause....Yeah.

But I am terrified of heights. I hate hate hate airplanes.

 

[Kenbo Slice]

I find sea-life more beautiful than the disgusting shells of mucas and flesh known as humans.

Una Thurman is the exception.

And this sort of thing is pretty common, I can't play many horror games because I'm shit scared of the dark (don't judge) and thus, I can't play first person horror games that well. I jump, I somtimes flee from the monitor, ect.

It's actually pretty funny, when I'm watching myself do it.

Also, there are only 5 kinds of sharks which are predatory, or intentionally harmful to humans - 3 of which are usually accidental. If you really wanted to make a shark run, aim for the eyes, or general face. Most fears of animals are usually very irrational; fear of snakes is pretty dumb, snakes are usually quite harmless if you leave them alone, fear of spiders is actually quite understood, seeing as how poisonous ones seem to be good at migrating from country to country, and fear of cows is pretty dumb. They're cows. They moo, they're so cute.

Seeing your post made me think of this:

I know I shouldn't find it funny. But I really, really do.

OT: I'm scared of needles but if I see needle torture in movies and games or whatever it doesn't bother me.

 

[thejackyl]

Underwater areas in video games tend to freak me out regardless of what they are in. 2D games tend to be okay, as I've only had an issue with Maridia in Super Metroid due to Dragoon being freaky as hell.

The Eel in Super Mario 64 still scares me
I almost gave up Metroid Prime 2 (there was a whole underwater sub-world, complete with underwater boss iirc.
I STILL cannot progress past a certain quest in Oblivion due to the giant slaughterfish being in the water. I beat the mission once before I knew or even encountered it, but my second run through I ran into it and the game received all of my "NOPE!"
Surprisingly I found the underwater sections in Bioshock 2 relaxing
The second worst part of Amnesia: The Dark Descent was the invisible waterlurker. The worst was the chase near the end. I don't even know what's chasing you, I never turned around.

I HATED the underwater Colossus in SotC, but was able to beat him. I'm not playing the game again due to many of the Colossi being more annoying than challenging to take down. (Him being one, the laser crab and the final one topping my list).
The underwater mission in GTA V was unnerving, but not too bad.
Fuck being underwater in Farcry 3 though... I went to hunt a shark (mistake 1), and have hated the water in that game since.

you know what's odd. i have a terrible fear of heights and falling. but i'll be damned if when i play an open world game i dont go find the highest point on the map and jump off it for the lols. wonder why your fear effects you like that and mine doesnt.

I think it's a matter of choice. Most games with underwater areas... they aren't usually optional, also I too am afraid of heights. It might also be a lack of the feeling of vertigo that one gets when they are high off the ground. (I think that might be the right term). Whereas underwater areas usually have things that make them scary in real life in them. Limited vision, and a sense of danger most prominently

 

[Headsprouter]

No. I have no irrational fears that extend to the game world.

I've played one "legitimately scary" game, and that was Amnesia. The first one, the second was a cakewalk. Actually, you might count Slender...

But yeah, I was uncomfortable, as normal, but the monsters were told to fuck themselves. Actually, it was more like I wanted to...examine them...

I like monsters and creepy shit. Slender was jumpscares, and I hate those, but I got used to it, but it started to bore me, so I never got all the pages.

But, yeah, that's really unfortunate that it affects you in that way. I hope you're able to suppress it enough to give the game a try sometime.

Then there was the water beast in Amnesia. I managed to finish the game but running through the waist deep water with the sound of louder and louder splashing.....urgh.....

Ahhh, the Kaernk. Only certain people seem to find them scary, on the first encounter, I was like "Ooh look, splashes...oh, I'm dead...well I guess I should avoid that." I'm a bit slow on the uptake, if that wasn't obvious.

So, yeah, I'm not one of those people! The only thing that bothered me about them was that screechy music. Eugh.

 

[MammothBlade]

So, fellow escapees, as I was just skim reading through the assassin's creed IV review (and by skim reading I mean looking at the star ratings and the pretty pictures) I found myself looking at a screenshot of the protagonist Edward Kenway swimming underwater with a shark. Not only this, but in a later screenshot, he was spearing a shark as it was attacking him in a rowboat.

Now, I'm not going to lie here. I hate sharks. I hate the ocean. I don't mean the beach - I love the beach. Australia has lovely beaches.

I mean anything that is deeper than 7 feet, has sand at the bottom and is filled with salt water.

Why? Well, like I said, sharks, but not only this - most sea creatures just look damn unnatural. Seas cucumbers creep me out. Anemones creep me out. Now I can handle them on my territory (i.e. me catching them on land with a gun) but when I'm on their turf, I can't handle it.

Well, what has this got to do with anything? Well let me explain what I'm trying to say here.

I struggle to handle being immersed in an underwater environment. I can do it, but I'm largely uncomfortable with it. As such, I find myself either:

a) Avoiding games with water largely based underwater/sea based mechanics (Treasures of the deep on ps1 freaks me out, can't play echo the dolphin, get nervous whenever I go sailing in LoZ: Windwaker, also get nervous in any boat racing/jet skiing game)

or

b) Being unable to progress through games that may have a segment of gameplay involving an underwater segment

As such, I have come to the conclusion that I may not buy Assassin's creed IV because of the potential death by ocean involved in the game. Obviously, I'm not surprised that this happened as the game was about pirating and assassinating and all good things associated with the Caribbean, but it's slightly disappointing that I may miss out.

This got me thinking though, just thought it'd be interesting to see if there were any other escapists here who had a similar quirk? i.e. Was unable to play a not necessarily scary game, out of fear of some aspect of the game? Or perhaps some other psychological quirk has prevented you from playing a game? Elaborate, explain, discuss!


tldr: Being underwater in games scares me as much as amnesia does, so I don't play the games. What psychological things (fear, ocd, anger) stop you from playing games which may not be necessarily associated with those emotions?

Wonka, my friend. YOU MUST OVERCOME YOUR FEAR.

Isn't this the perfect opportunity to conquer that which paralyses you?

 

[Miss G.]

I'm afraid of roaches (and roach-like things), so much so that obviously fake ones or ones in games (even just the ones for minor atmosphere like in TLoU or Bioshock: Infinite) will freak me out. I usually just cover my eyes until they're off the screen. Butterflies, I can only really handle if they're not that realistic, like my Butterfree, because they freak me out even more than roaches (making that one Spongebob episode a nightmare).

 

[KazeAizen]

I'm not necessarily scared of games but one game gave me nightmares and made me fear stuff in real life. My mom likes the Myst games and going through Myst 3 she reached the final puzzle how do you escape and keep Mr. Hammer Pants in? Well she failed a few times and you know what you see? That crazy person running at you and hitting you with his hammer. I was afraid to go into dark rooms by myself because I though he'd be there with his hammer. I'm over it now but I think I was in the age range between 5-10 so yeah that stuff got to me a bit.

 

[The]

I have a friend who's afraid of warthogs in video games, but still likes them anyways. I let him borrow Red Dead Redemption and he'd tell me these amazing stories of running into one of those boars. And when I was playing Far Cry 3, he was freaking out the whole time I was getting chased by a warthog. I ran, turned around, and there it was right behind me.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Water in Far Cry 3 scares the shit out of me, in the ocean, its sharks, in the the rivers, its alligators, it was freaky as hell to have the camera jut to a shark chewing on your arm.

Also, in GTAV, I was paranoid outside the sub looking for the botched submarine parts, those sharks circle you...

Swimming through caves looking for shinies was the worst. I hate water, my main strat for hunting sharks in that game was sniping the one closest to land then legging it over to skin it then panic swim back to land, repeat X times.

I spent ages looking for one of those underwater statues which I deduced was probably under this rock cave thing, I was already paranoid for crocodiles, I spent a good five minutes being paranoid, decided to abandon looking for the statue because I was never one for 100% completion then SUDDEN FUCKING CROCODILE!

Those waters were CLEAR. I was lurking in the area for ages, sure this wasn't a crocodile area then two of them in a row. I was just annoyed at the second one though, I saw it coming.

I would like a game where you play something that is designed for the water, like a shark. Not an indie game like that shark vs divers game (which is terrifying by the way) a fully fleshed out action/rpg/whatever the fuck genre where you play a fish.

I only hate water because people aren't designed to be there. I would imagine the deep blue terrifying abyss would be great fun if you got to play the giant squid living there.

OT: Anything overly negative really, I don't mean dark or weird, I like that. I mean things where the entire universe is fuckin' abysmal in atmosphere and setting. The Warhammer 40k universe would fall under this if the Tau did not exist. I know people were bitching about "oh too nice, gtfo off my Grimdark" so they added some dark "might be mind controlled or some shit" vague undertones but fuck off, SOMEONE had to notice all this war is pointless and self destructive.

The most recent example would be The Last of Us. Yes I know all your logical reasoning and "oh it makes sense in context lol" but I just hate how horrible the entire setting is. I was one of those people who hated the ending let's say.

Every single person is a selfish prick, from government to small self contained societies to cannibals. The only exception is the guys with Ish who all fucking die anyway because they left a fucking DOOR OPEN. Can I say worst plot device shoved into a game for added feels ever? Because it comes close. Like that could happen honestly. There's blaming human error then there's that.

 

[Senaro]

The underwater thing is something that gets me as well. Sailing in Wind Waker is fine, being on the ocean is fine, but having to swim in the ocean in a game where something can eat you? Screw that.

I'm also the kind of person who gets freaked out playing Endless Ocean outside of the reef zones, and nothing in that game can even hurt you. It took me a long time until I was able to play Jolly Roger Bay in Mario 64 without having a panic attack.

 

[Irridium]

Yeah, I definitely know that feeling. For me, as long as my feet are on the ground and my head is above water, I'm totally fine. But the moment where I have to keep myself afloat... I don't know, but I just go into panic mode. In real life and games.

Games it's not so bad since I'm able to separate myself enough from it when needed, but I do try to limit the amount of time I'm in the water as much as possible. Every time I dive in somewhere... it just feels like I'm immediately being chased. If I have to get in, I do what I need to do and get the fuck out.

Side-note: Thank god for the Elder Scroll's walk-on-water power.

 

[conmag9]

Games with free fall (much less so when a parachute is involved, but the fear doesn't quite vanish entirely). It isn't even heights, really, just falling uncontrollably that terrifies me. Heck, even if there's a ledge I can slightly control the decent, no problem, but when you've got absolutely nothing to grab onto? Yeah, that terrifies me. Mirrors Edge freaked me out completely, Skyrim did it a few times, Uncharted. My little brother used to call attention to it when he was playing games, just to freak me out.

It's rarely so crippling that I can't play at all, but it certainly makes certain stretches much less pleasant.

 

[TheCommanders]

wasn't there a patch/mod that removed all spiders from skyrim because the first level ones are unavoidable? can't say i've personally been unable to play a game due to any fears or worries etc

Yup. The one I saw turned them into bear. They might have improved it since I last checked, but originally the way it did it caused the bears to be frozen in their default hind legs position while still behaving and attacking normally, but with spider noises. I think that would probably be worse, honestly...

OT-
I'm terrified of drowning in real life, so I joined a swim team, and was on it for 7 years. Still scared of drowning, but now I'm less likely to. My real world fears (drowning, insects) don't really carry over into games very much. To scare me, a game has to have atmosphere and pacing (and preferably a really good soundtrack).

 

[Edapurg]

I was really freaked out by the giant ants and Centaurs (and blowflies, to a lesser extent) in Fallout 3. It didn't really make me stop playing the game, but whenever I considered starting a melee-based character I dropped the idea immediately once I realised it meant I'd have to get close to the ants and centaurs.