Summary
World of Warcraft: The War Withinis just around the corner, bringing with it exciting new zones. Each of these is full of new and familiar creatures, but most notable is the secret kingdom of Azj-Kahet and its featured raid. This area is full of nerubians, a race of spider-like creatures who have long haunted the minds of bug-wary players.
While it’s fair to say that most people find spiders and their ilk a little unsettling or creepy, some people are deeply affected by the mere sight of them. Arachnophobia is characterized by a serious and debilitating fear of spiders and other eight-legged creepy crawlies, one which can cause severe psychological discomfort and even lasting trauma. Luckily for these players,World of Warcrafthas provided an out.
How WoW’s Arachnophobia Setting Works
It’s estimated that around one in twenty people suffer from arachnophobia, so immersingWoW’s entire player base in a raid full of spiders could become a problem. Nerub’ar Palace, along with its surrounding zone, features arachnoid bosses and countless other spiderNPCs, but The War Within’s new Arachnophobia Mode can change all that in a moment. It’s a seamless transition that works the same way many of the game’s toys do, but instead of changing everyone into corgis or gnolls for a giggle, this feature has a noble purpose.
Coming with the new expansion, this change is a simple setting that players can toggle to make most spider and nerubian models appear as crabs and similar crustaceans instead. This way, the NPCs can still keep their respective crawling animations but with ten legs instead of eight. It also applies to other players' arachnids in the game, namely spider mounts and pets, but this will likely become the case soon enough. Evenspiders in old zones like Azjol-Neruband Naxxramas have been serviced for this mode, since these areas are only meant to be creepy, not terrifying.
Why Crabs Have Come to the Rescue
It might seem counter-intuitive to replace spiders with crabs, which are basically aquatic creepy crawlies, but there might be method to this apparent madness. In fact, kabouraphobia, or the fear of crabs, is far less common than a phobia of spiders, and exposure to crabs has been used to successfully desensitize arachnophobes and help them control their fears. So, not only isWorld of Warcraftnot hurtingarachnophobia sufferers, but it could even help them.
It’s not clear why crabs just aren’t considered as scary as spiders, but it could be for several reasons. Crabs only have two eyes, they move much slower, and they’re scavengers instead of hunters. Most of all, they don’t hide under people’s beds, behaving themselves by staying in and around bodies of water. Regardless of why,arachnophobes who playWoWcan rest easy knowing that instead of facing freaky fangs, they’ll just have to deal with clicky claws instead.
World of Warcraft Is Setting a Compassionate Standard
Much likeWorld of Warcraft’s color-blind filters, Arachnophobia Mode is meant as a helping hand to a minority of players who could hugely benefit from just a few small changes to the game. Another example of this being implemented in Dragonflight was the addition of dynamic flight settings that help reduce motion sickness or disorientation in players. It shows how the game has tried to make itself more accessible to everyone, which can only be a good thing.
