There was a time when I would have considered WOPR to be living up to their namesake and telling one when they say they're not scared by some of the things in Minecraft, but having yet to discover a game that actually scares me in the traditional sense, I must feel inclined to say that while Minecraft isn't scary to me, per say, it has elements which could be considered disturbing and/or startling.
The caves for instance can be quite unnerving when it's dark or little light and you have all these walls around you, hearing strange sounds but cannot find the source, only to turn around and have it in your face. Likewise, suddenly being seeing a creeper can be rather startling, but as before this isn't actually fear but reaction.
I think some people mistake one for the other because it's a thin line and hard to see. As has already been said people have different thresholds and tolerances to being frightened. Something that truly makes me feel afraid in the game might be when I have a low render setting and I cannot see very far and I know things are out there waiting to get me and I've little to defend myself with. But that is because I have agoraphobia and not because I'm scared of creatures or the area itself, rather that the act of being in a large open area where visibility is limited triggers something in the back of my head.
Of course, because I can turn up the render setting to see the ceiling of the world, that pretty much takes any possible agoraphobia encounters down to zero. Unless I fall into the water, then we're talking something else entirely and I still think the blame for that falls squarely (no pun intended) on Emerald Weapon in FFVII as a combination of the agoraphobia and the lurking horror.
Oh, and when I say that I've yet to find a game that can actually scare me in a traditional sense, I have played (and sometimes loved) games like Eternal Darkness, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, DOOM, and various other games with a horror-esque feel to them. Did I jump when the dogs burst through the windows in Resident Evil 1? You bet, but it didn't scare me it just was something I wasn't expecting. Shooting it in the face kinda helps alleviate that "gah, what the hell?" feeling, too.
I do personally know people that find Minecraft scary, but again, you have a threshold. Some people also scream at anything. My mother screamed during Happy Feet for gods' sakes, and trust me, there's little to match the startling potential for watching a movie with NO scary bits whatsoever and then having a woman scream at the top of her lungs cause something startled her. Hah...
The caves for instance can be quite unnerving when it's dark or little light and you have all these walls around you, hearing strange sounds but cannot find the source, only to turn around and have it in your face. Likewise, suddenly being seeing a creeper can be rather startling, but as before this isn't actually fear but reaction.
I think some people mistake one for the other because it's a thin line and hard to see. As has already been said people have different thresholds and tolerances to being frightened. Something that truly makes me feel afraid in the game might be when I have a low render setting and I cannot see very far and I know things are out there waiting to get me and I've little to defend myself with. But that is because I have agoraphobia and not because I'm scared of creatures or the area itself, rather that the act of being in a large open area where visibility is limited triggers something in the back of my head.
Of course, because I can turn up the render setting to see the ceiling of the world, that pretty much takes any possible agoraphobia encounters down to zero. Unless I fall into the water, then we're talking something else entirely and I still think the blame for that falls squarely (no pun intended) on Emerald Weapon in FFVII as a combination of the agoraphobia and the lurking horror.
Oh, and when I say that I've yet to find a game that can actually scare me in a traditional sense, I have played (and sometimes loved) games like Eternal Darkness, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, DOOM, and various other games with a horror-esque feel to them. Did I jump when the dogs burst through the windows in Resident Evil 1? You bet, but it didn't scare me it just was something I wasn't expecting. Shooting it in the face kinda helps alleviate that "gah, what the hell?" feeling, too.
I do personally know people that find Minecraft scary, but again, you have a threshold. Some people also scream at anything. My mother screamed during Happy Feet for gods' sakes, and trust me, there's little to match the startling potential for watching a movie with NO scary bits whatsoever and then having a woman scream at the top of her lungs cause something startled her. Hah...
