Videogames Scarred Me For Life

Video games have made me happy, sad, extremely frustrated and yes even scared. But I never thought that video games would traumatize me!  Yes I said traumatize. Videogames helped me develop a fear; a fear I never had till playing countless hours of games. A fear so dreadful it sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it; what is this fear you ask?
It is spiders. I know what you’re thinking, but let me start off by saying it wasn’t always like this.

I didn’t use to fear spiders, I didn’t love them nor did I hate them; they were just something that existed. If I ever saw a spider on the wall or ground, I could’ve easily smacked it or stomped on it. That all changed, when I bought Resident Evil; the very first Resident Evil. I was all smiles, shooting, running, and dodging all the slow walking zombies, things were going great. Until, I entered a particular level in the game, a wooden room with plant vines consuming most of the wall, my first thought was “Great now I get a flamethrower.” I slowly walked towards the door down the hall, (The game conditioned me not to run, due to the random traps in the mansion) I opened the door and entered the cutscene, and once the cutscene ended I was standing in a small room, with two larger than normal spiders standing in front of me. There was no sense in sneaking around them they already spotted me, besides the room was too small to even do such a thing.

 

It was bad enough my health was low but the fact that there were two of them was just completely unfair. I ran around in the little space I had shooting at the spiders, trying my best not to get cornered by these eight-legged freaks. After a minute shooting at just one, I was happy to see it fall on its belly and explode, little did I know the worse was yet to come. The spider had burst and gave birth at the same time, little baby spiders were now all over the room along with the one big one. Due to the shock I was in, I found myself corned by eight baby spiders and one huge spider; I died. I wasn’t automatically afraid of spiders then and there, like everything else it took time; the more I played Resident Evil and its series the more my fear grew. I grew a phobia of spiders. Every dark corner I turned and every creepy tunnel I walked through, I was afraid of a spider jumping on my face (much like a Facehugger) and consuming my flesh. Resident Evil’s spiders aren’t the only spiders I’m afraid of. A good example for the modern era are the spiders in Skyrim. My encounter with Skyrim’s spiders is not as bad as Resident Evil’s, but they sure are scarier looking, with their huge venomous fangs drooling with hunger. To turn your back for one second and back around to see a Skyrim spider jumping towards you is a feeling I hate but also love; the feeling of fear.