What Are You Afraid Of, Gamers?

I raised this in a recent night note, but since I got so many interesting responses, I figured I’d throw it out to the masses: is there anything in real life that scares you so much it affects your gaming?

https://lastchance.cc/i-am-afraid-of-angry-things-that-live-under-the-water-5531464%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E

For me, it’s underwater monsters. Mostly when it comes to games, that means sharks, but really, it can be anything that comes at you, unseen, from underwater. That’s the catch: if the game is set entirely underwater, I’m fine, but if it’s set mostly on land, and it drops you in water only briefly and then something’s coming to get you, I go to pieces.

I don’t mean it in a way that developers will think they’re doing a good job in provoking an emotional response from me. I mean it in a way that I will try and cheat or otherwise break a game to get out of/past those sequences. It’s not a challenge. It’s a total nothankyou.jpg.

Silly, I know! Irrational, even. But hey, that’s what fears and phobias are

This makes me wonder how many of you are also missing out on sections of games, or skipping games entirely, based on a real-world phobia, rather than a virtual world preference.

Some of you mentioned a fear of heights, which would be a problem for any game with a sense of verticality. Mirror’s Edge must be a killer. But what else is there? Was anyone afraid of the dark so much they couldn’t play Doom 3 (or, for that matter, won’t play the almost perpetually-dark Alan Wake)? Or so afraid of spiders they couldn’t play Ocarina of Time?

It’s also OK to say you’re terrified of Fallout 3’s beards. I am too.