Itsy Bitsy Spider

AVP2 is the only FPS I cheated to finish (except Wolfenstein). I have an extreme phobia against eightlegged creatures, spiders, octopuses etc, and thus I couldn't finish the missions with facehuggers around. So I noclipped through the walls in the end of the Predator campaign.

Originally Posted by JemyM
AVP2 is the only FPS I cheated to finish (except Wolfenstein). I have an extreme phobia against eightlegged creatures, spiders, octopuses etc, and thus I couldn't finish the missions with facehuggers around. So I noclipped through the walls in the end of the Predator campaign.

I wonder what this is about. I'm not afraid of spiders, but I find them extremely disgusting. Both my daughters have been/are afraid of them, and I often have to help even my wife to get rid of them (I KILL them, no pussyfooting!).

Sometimes I think there must be something very fundamental in our nature here. After all, spiders are much more common in horror movies and games (DOOM 3 has it's share) than other arthropods.

Originally Posted by lghartveit
I wonder what this is about. I'm not afraid of spiders, but I find them extremely disgusting. Both my daughters have been/are afraid of them, and I often have to help even my wife to get rid of them (I KILL them, no pussyfooting!). Sometimes I think there must be something very fundamental in our nature here. After all, spiders are much more common in horror movies and games (DOOM 3 has it's share) than other arthropods.

It have happened that we get spiders into the bathroom, both in my parents home and where we live now, and I end up screaming like something was about to kill me… Used to scare my mother half to death and now I scare my cohabit half to death for the same reason. Can't explain why… They need to be of some size to get me off though.

I was uncomfortable with DOOM3, but the AvP2 facehuggers was insta-death and covered the entire screen…

But there's another game… For some reason I managed to get through that level, but i cursed the developers for making it. Spider Level… Dark Messiah of Might & Magic…

Originally Posted by lghartveit
I wonder what this is about. I'm not afraid of spiders, but I find them extremely disgusting. Both my daughters have been/are afraid of them, and I often have to help even my wife to get rid of them (I KILL them, no pussyfooting!).

Sometimes I think there must be something very fundamental in our nature here. After all, spiders are much more common in horror movies and games (DOOM 3 has it's share) than other arthropods.

I have a similar suspicion. I sometimes even believe it's in our genes (together with the fear for snakes).

I recently read about a scientific study which showed that indeed bad experiences can be passed to the next generation in mice. If they show, that's a different question, but the tendency is there.

Apart from that : Someone made a small mod to change the textures of spiders in Drakensang into the ones of wolves … You'd have to ask around in the Drakensang forum for that, because I don't remember anymore where this was.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I have a similar suspicion. I sometimes even believe it's in our genes (together with the fear for snakes).

Or maybe you guys are just pussies.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Or maybe you guys are just pussies.

Yes. It's in our genes. It's a survival track, we won't pick up black spiders with a red stripe on it's back.

My girlfriend's Australian so I can forgive her being unreasonably scared of spiders, but daddy longlegs and moths?

I don't have any particular fear of spiders, although I did use a glass and post card instead of my bare hands to eject a wolf spider colloquially known as a Mediterranean false tarantula when one was inspecting the premises during our French vacation last summer.

(Photo inside spoiler tags so I won't weird out JemyM.)

Originally Posted by Benedict
My girlfriend's Australian so I can forgive her being unreasonably scared of spiders, but daddy longlegs and moths?

I have no phobia whatsoever to any insect… It have happened that I grab or smack wasps with my bare hand. I also do not have any problems with daddy longleg spiders either. I only have problems of fattier spiders larger than 1cm (body) and octopuses.

Seriously though, my spider phobia have taken off during recent years… I begun to study Psychology in school and tried some behaviorist therapies on myself.

*shudders*

I can usually handle spiders in games, most of the time they aren't done so realistic as to provoke any noteworthy reaction (scariest moment was in Ambermoon though, keyword Gigantula — one moment there was nothing, the next moment she was filling the screen). That said, I do suffer from mild arachnophobia. Real life spiders? The bigger their butt, the more I get grossed out. It's a sudden feeling, though. Scientifically I don't mind looking at them for a prolonged amount of time too much or watching them in films (I saw the movie Arachnophobia without problems). But when they get near me, all my primal instincts kick in and I'm going into defense mode.

My nightmares usually involve spiders too.

I think it's from re-reading Lord of the RIngs too many times.

PJ, your post seems to contain the only spoiler tag I could actually resist.

Admit it, you're curious. /\oo/\

Hehe, yeah, don't worry, it's neither animated nor in 3D. Still, might want to be careful. Very careful.

(Maybe I should implement a function to allow only gradual spoiler tag openings - like: "oh, let's see… a little more … a little more … Too much info! Too much info!" )

I couldn't bear myself from clicking it too. Not the creepiest spider image I have seen to be honest. When I was young, we used to have a book on the rainforest, with a double A4 zoomed-up photograph right into the face of a spider eating a mouse. That one might have contributed to my phobia.

I thought this spider was funny. Almost cute.

Originally Posted by JemyM
I have no phobia whatsoever to any insect… It have happened that I grab or smack wasps with my bare hand. I also do not have any problems with daddy longleg spiders either. I only have problems of fattier spiders larger than 1cm (body) and octopuses.

That's an interestingly specific phobia, there. What do you think is the cause? Were you scared by a spider of that description when you were very small, or something?

I seem to share the same kind of phobia as JemyM, though it's relatively mild overall. I don't fear spiders as such, but they can provoke a strong instinctual reaction if they surprise me, and are of a certain size.

I tend to respond really quite violently, and kill them as if they were threatening a loved one.

If they don't surprise me, I just find them somewhat disgusting - but get rid of them in a restrained way.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
I think it's from re-reading Lord of the RIngs too many times.

I've read it only once and interestingly, I didn't find the spider too scary. Must be another size thing, if it's too big, it's just another animal. What's creepy is those little house spiders that sneak into your shoes when you are not looking.

There's an urban legend that says you are swallowing an average of 4 spiders during sleep each year (or any other amount). Freaky when you think about it, even if it's probably not true. But it might be …

Originally Posted by Prime Junta
That's an interestingly specific phobia, there.

Same here, so it's probably not too specific. No idea as to the cause. I think it's genetic survival instincts or something along those lines.

Originally Posted by Prime Junta
That's an interestingly specific phobia, there. What do you think is the cause? Were you scared by a spider of that description when you were very small, or something?

I have a couple of memories in particular that can have set it off. The image I presented in the post you quoted (before I edited it), being bitten by a spider i in the cellar when I was young, my mothers phobia, a large spider in the sandbox when I was young etc. And then there are a couple of movies (including Alien) which made me extremely scared for octopuses. At least I do not live in their natural habitat… I have actually seen one live while diving in Hawaii though.

Could be genetic of course (mothers side), could be bad memories, could be socialized (mother again)…

I have no fear whatsoever of reptiles (including snakes) and I even had a strong interest in reptiles and frogs when I was young. I also have no problems with rats or mice.

Originally Posted by Prime Junta
Admit it, you're curious. /\oo/\

Erm… yes. And no.

I'm, well, scared by these beasts. I can't watch them in movies (going to watch Arachnophobia was a waste of money, I spent most of the time in the theater with my eyes closed), and I can hardly bear to see them - much less fight them - in games. Hexen 2, Thief, DMoMM… it doesn't matter, I have to fight game spiders with my eyes closed. The only non-scary game spiders I encountered were those in Ken's Labyrinth …

When Sonny was given a really lifelike plastic wolf spider yesterday, it took me some convincing to carry if for him. But after having it sit on my palm for two hours my skin didn't crawl anymore.

I can't kill wolf spiders IRL because I don't want to get that close. Using the vacuum cleaner, okay, that's a way of dealing with them (and no, I don't mind if they get out again as long as they do it somewhere far away where I can't see them doing it). But I haven't vacced a spider since Sonny's birth…
I told him it was wrong to kill animals who don't harm us, or those who aren't usually eaten (though I have seen a recipe for wolf spiders somewhere) , so I couldn't kill them, right? My son's presence even forced me to catch a spider in a glass and evacuate it *shudder*.

Once Sonny had left a glass with orange juice in the living room. The next morning… well, I just saw a pale (!) creature swimming in the juice, just from the corner from my eye. I told hubby-the-spider-resisting-hero, he examined the glass, saw that it contained a huge, bloated, pale(!), drowned wolf spider… lifted the glass… and the spider spread its legs. No, it wasn't dead. Yes, it filled the glass. No, I'm not scared by face huggers, not in the least, but I'm really scared by pale, bloated, pale (!) wolf spiders feigning death while diving in glass filled with orange juice..