If you've got an uncontrollable fear of spiders and you can't bear to see them, even in video game form, never fear, because a new database dedicated to phobia triggers in games has launched.
"My wife had been watching me play Dragon Age: Origins, and wanted to play a similar game. However, due to an unfortunate incident with a banana spider when she was three, she is very arachnophobic."
"I set out trying to find a good RPG that doesn't contain giant spiders, and believe me, that's a tall order, especially because there is no centralized database for that sort of thing," says Andrew Rasmussen, one of the founders of GamePhobias.com, in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz.
While purely a voluntary, crowdsourced endeavour at the moment, its founders hope to grow to a size at which they'll be comfortable contacting developers directly in order to collect information about potential phobia triggers found in their games. This is sure to be a valuable tool to those suffering from intense fear reactions to certain triggers, especially as games are not particularly known for warning players before a specific danger is about to emerge.
According to About Education, the three most common phobias are arachnophobia (the fear of spiders), ophidiophobia (the fear of snakes), andacrophobia (the fear of heights). One can quite easily name games that feature each of these situations without necessarily making that obvious beforehand, potentially causing psychological harm to the unsuspecting player.
"Our goal is keeping gaming a safe space for everyone to enjoy," Rasmussen concluded.