Arachnophobia and Ashes

We have not received permission from Kilion to share the quoted post.

This reaction was predictable, but helpful. I really hope that Intrepid takes note of it.

When your point ends up being supported by 'finding other people who suffer similarly and therefore would also need to be helped', at least one of two things is happening. Either you just don't want to change your stance and view 'everyone suffering equally' as the optimal state, or you've recognized your stance is changing but aren't good at communicating it.

There's a viable 'inbetween' ofc, and it's possible for both to happen at once.

I'm perfectly willing to comment on canines and snakes, actually, but before that, since that is subjective and brings in a lot of research papers, consider if you really need me to, or if you're in the state above. Would me going 'oh, no, you're right, (we shouldn't do anything for arachnophobes, they should have to suck it up, because) people who fear dogs or snakes didn't get any changes and it's not fair', be a positive outcome here for you in terms of 'discussion'?

We have not received permission from Kilion to share the quoted post.

I mostly want to figure out how much energy I would have to put into this to have any real impact, even on just you. So I'll try the low effort version first. Forgive me if you feel this isn't sufficient reasoning or proof, but as you know, I'm disincentivized from continuing since one still easily gets responses like:

We have not received permission from Mag7spy to share the quoted post.

(I know it's pointless to bring this up, but this number if it were EXACTLY correct would mean that Ashes contained more Arachnophobes than Tanks )

So, back to Kilion. Again, note that this is the low effort that I 'expect Intrepid already knows'.

The process by which fear of dogs is triggered is much more auditory than visual. They absolutely can do something for people with fear of dogs, many games just do it and don't say anything. The specific sounds one has the dogs make, and the timing of the sounds, contributes much more than the appearance of the canids, for a much larger number of people.

This is very similar to the fact that the process which triggers the fear of spiders is often related to the movements of their legs, and by simply removing the legs, the problem is resolved for many players. Hence the 'blob' approach or the various hilarious ones. It's technically the same 'tier' of solution.

The process by which fear of snakes is triggered is more complicated, but it is generally 'sufficiently less visual' that the percentage of people for whom you have to do something about the reptile visually is much much smaller. And many games still simply don't add them, or it's clear from the beginning because the game will obviously contain quite a few of them based on its genre.

Others reserve snakes for boss mobs, often optional ones, make 'Lamia' type mobs for the same effect (I have no data on how this affect Herpetophobia sufferers, actually, but I know it's related) or just utilize them differently in their design spaces. A counter-example (where it is done in what might be a bad way) would be the Moonlight Desert in TL, where there are constantly snakes wriggling literally out of the sand randomly as you move around, and the area is difficult to traverse while avoiding them.

We have not received permission from Mag7spy to share the quoted post.

Is this your 'I don't believe stuff people post unless I have experienced it personally' reaction or your 'I don't believe in statistics' reaction?

You know I don't actually wanna engage with you, but now you're at 'biased viewpoints' which... what?