Dragon Age Series Ditches Those Disgusting Spiders in The Veilguard

Wokeness has gone too far. You can't even scare someone with a virtual spider nowadays. In the good old days it would be Spider Age: The Spider Guard and it'd be wall to wall spiders.

Alongside the dark tone,blood magic , beautifull women etc etc,them will love it,but not us.

I do suffer from Arachnophobia . However in video games they never bother me.🤔🤔

Ohhhh come on..... the world of the week...

I hope this game is wonderful...but I might wait for Avowed. Obsidian is up there for me. It's the writing and humor.
There's just always too much competing for my money. I haven't even caught up to 2023. So if I'm buying a big game, I have to be really picky.
Looking forward to the reviews.

I didn’t realize that there are actually people who are that afraid of spiders…

@Dobbos Because you know what is real and fake. I have a pretty big fear of heights but they never affect me in games since I know it's just a game.

I mean if it's not in the game because of story related reasons that's whatever, but if you just straight up took them out entirely because there's a person scared of them that's incredibly stupid.

But what about snakes?!

@Khayl "Are you glad Dragoon Age: The Veilguard is ditching spiders entirely, disappointed, or entirely indifferent?"

New Dragoon game confirmed! Thanks!

@dark_knightmare2 they just don't have spiders in the game, that's it.

Spiders deserve to see themselves represented in video games to.

@EchoRange yes but we know why! They didn’t just decide for the fourth game to get rid of an enemy that’s been part of the bestiary for the series and is a fantasy series mainstay. It’s also not just about this game but other games that include arachnophobia modes it’s ridiculous and when does it stop?What about people with fear of water or heights or any number of phobias? Its just crazy that society has become so soft that ***** like this needs to be done when in all the decades before people could differentiate between reality and a show,movie,game etc and they were more than fine

I have a phobia („suffering“ would be too drastic), and I know the best cure is cognitive behaviour therapy.

So, make this game a cure and flood it with spiders!

Scared of spiders in a video game? whatever next. That would like me being too scared to play Silent hill 2.... Oh, wait a minute 🤔

I'm sure this will go down well with everyone who already thought this entry was way too safe, cartoonish, etc.

@dark_knightmare2 there's cartoons on Sunday with sodomy jokes, prime time slot. You can look up literally any depraved act in the world, anywhere, at any time. Calm down, bro.

I can see why they've made the decision to remove them. It should be an option, but when you have a vocal minority saying "we won't play a game with spiders in" then it's not a big leap to remove them because you want their money as well, plus it's not as if people who don't have arachnophobia are saying "we won't buy the game if it DOESN'T have spiders".

Personally it makes no difference to my enjoyment of a game, but as I said, it should be an option. You don't order a burger as is and complain if there's cheese, you just request for it not to be there on your specific burger, so as not to impact others' experience or enjoyment.

🙄 thats my comment..
And spiders are some of the least annoying small critters, and actually very useful.
And many are beautiful.

@grubsteak fairly certain that's kind of a thing. Meek inheriting the earth, turning the other cheek, being as a lamb, etc.

@FuriousMachine is that said anywhere? All I'm seeing is someone saying there aren't spiders.

Doubt this has much to do with arachnophobia, probably looking for cuts to make and this one made the most sense. I mean if you want to do them properly they probably take a alot of animation work and you can only use them in dark caves or forests.

I do wonder about this game though, I have played all the DA games and enjoyed them, though I did think Inquisition was by far the weakest.

I'm playing the original Baldur's Gate on my PS5 right now, I last played it 20 years ago. It's so good, even today, the mechanics are complex and the story and world building are amazing. Yes it's clunky and obtuse by today's standards but maybe that's why it sucks you in. There is a reason BG3 was such a success, people like deep games, the thing that worries me about Dragon Age is each iteration has tried to appeal to the mainstream, I think they will just end up with no one. If it doesn't sell well I do wonder if it's the end of Bioware, they have become something else, Larian carries the torch now.

I'm going to wait until player reviews are out before I consider Veilguard, Bioware was once an automatic buy for up until Inquisition. I don't understand why they felt the need to move away from their niche, I guess because of greed. People have been asking for a follow up to Origins since they released it and instead we get a 3rd person action game with no party control.

@dark_knightmare2 no need to be this emotional over it tbh

Comments are so confusing. At no point did they say they removed spiders due to arachnophobia, just that they weren’t in the game so people so concerned don’t have to worry about it. How are people now bemoaning the state of gaming from this? Do spiders have a divine right to be in a video game? Are spiders absolutely critical to the lore? Most of this game is set in the fey, why would there be spiders there? From the same people who like to moan about people moaning.

@ShadowofSparta Don't get me wrong, I feel the identity politics are being pushed in some games, like AC Shadows. But you are correct I don't think that applies here. It's turned into a bit of a Witch (Or Woke) Hunt

@ShadowofSparta I Take it you don't remember Dragon Age Inquisition because the last time your characters went to the fade they most definitely had to deal with spiders.

I'm afraid of stupid directors. Will they be removed from studios???

Funnily enough, Spiders make better games than BioWare nowadays.

@tpepper1985 To be fair, you can tell your party when to use their moves/spells and what to use them on. The only thing you can't tell them to do, as far as I can see, is where to stand.

In terms of chasing what's popular, well BG1 did that. It was meant to be turn-based, like actual DnD, but the higher-ups insisted it play like an RTS because they're were incredibly popular at the time. Bioware didn't want to do it but in the end gave in, with the RTwP compromise. It was the equivalent thing at the time of if Dragon Age had been made into a hero shooter - at least in terms of combat - because that's what's popular now.

It's also worth remembering that everyone loves ME1 yet that saw Bioware going from making deep, tactical, top-down RPGs with full party control to... A cover-based third-person shooter (very much the flavour of the month at the time) where you only directly control one character as you run through linear corridors with your military super commando shooting aliens. Yet, again, people typically love it.

@ApostateMage Zing!

@Matroska Mass Effect's gameplay is pretty lackluster if you ask me, all 3 of them. I did enjoy them but for me those games were carried by the choices you made, the story, world and characters. The same system seems to be here in Veilguard, the debuff / detonator I was not a fan of it ME, hopefully it's implemented better in Veilguard.

I get what you mean about BG1 but it doesn't really feel like a realtime game to me, if you compare it to Diablo they are very different. In Diablo you are clearing screens of enemies by spamming 1 or 2 abilities. In BG if you play without pausing you are not going to get very far.

I am not a fan of spiders irl but I don’t mind setting them on fire with magic in games, a little scare every now and then is fun c”mon.

@Shepherd_Tallon Maybe ease up on the valium 😟. You seem more kind hearted than myself as I just want to kill them. 😟😟

I think that the reality is that the developer just didn't decide to include spiders, and not that the developer decided to not include spiders.

Not every fantasy RPG has to include spiders, wolfs, rats, goblinoids ...

This is more like part of a desperate PR attempt to drum up interest in another AAA game that is going to bomb hard for all the obvious reasons.

@Bramble Yeah, pretty sure that's it. It's simply that quite a few games have arachnophobia mode and many ones that don't have mods for it (like Skyrim, so this idea goes back at least 13 years) so it stood out that this didn't - at least to whoever asked Bioware about this. Then they simply said "can't have an arachnophobia mode without spiders" and now, typically for the internet, people are reading into it and politicising it.

I think people who read this as 'spiders have been censored from this game' are simply looking for things to complain about.

If the game does not have them, then I assume they wanted to more creative with their bestiary than simply add something we have all seen so very many times before? I applaud that.
The buzz around this title from those that have played some of it, has been pretty promising so far, so I'm keen on seeing the final reviews and I expect to grab a copy and enjoy it. It would be great to see Bioware hit a home run with this one...

I'm looking forward to the game and I have surprisingly seen quite a lot of other players excited about the game. I don't think it will win over many of the older DA player base but it seems to be picking up a lot of new fans, me being one of them. Also why does everyone have to use the word "woke" for anything that might be ever so slightly out of the norm. It's such a cringe and lazy term that should be banned from existence.

I think this whole cutting spiders out of a game is a non issue. Based on the pre order numbers I'm getting from my workplace I don't think this is going to bomb like the echo chamber online thinks it is. PS unsurprisingly has especially strong numbers. Xbox, not so much haha.

Well, I've still got Dracophobia after living in Wales, so I will be passing on this game.

I'm not not going to play the game because it doesn't have spiders in it...

@Areus Fair point, I don’t remember that.

I really dislike the fact Push square regularly promotes arachnophobia. I don't need reminding you're from Australia - spiders aren't out to get you 😂 It's fine if it's just part of general news but can you stop dumping your personal fear into every article relating to spiders please.

There are far worse arthropods out there - mostly the disease carriers and parasites. Learn about those and you'll appreciate spiders a lot more for what they remove from our environment!

Arachnophobia spreads because of this stuff. It's cementing an unnecessary fear in people's heads by repeatedly doing this as well as normalising violent responses to what are essentially harmless and very useful creatures. Luckily the highly venomous spiders that are the more rational part of the fear are rarely in human habitats but even then they want to be left alone/ run away.

I wouldn't say this to a commenter but I feel for journalism, in any form, comes with some responsibility. And I wouldn't leave a comment about most other fears but arachnophobia is one of the most widespread and also the most unnecessary. Sorry if I sound like a d**k 😂 - I'm just meaning to be constructive. This all also applies to any pathetic use of "arachnophobia modes" in games, which seem to be gaining traction.

(This is from someone who used to be a big arachnophobe and worked with others to undo theirs)

HARD SKIP!

...

Until I find the time to finish Inquisition that is. Yes, I bought in 2014 and still need to play it!

@tpepper1985 politicals have been in games forever just most u were clueless on till a random person told u on the Internet lol

@Silenos let wait for the reviews of the game before we think it going to bomb because u have a vendetta lmao

Disgusting? Filthy? Dudes, you could only wish to achieve the superiority of a spider. Puny, and for real, dirty humans!

@C25CLOUD Nothing wrong with games being political, so long as it makes sense in the world and setting that's it really.

@C25CLOUD I think you're the one who is clueless if you're one of those people who believe "all art is political." You only believe that now because some rando on the internet somehow convinced you that the painting of The Scream is about intersectional class struggle rather than the human condition of anxiety lol.

@Matroska Remove blood next. What about people with hemophobia? Get rid of caves too. What about people with claustrophobia? Heights? What about people with a phobia of heights?

It's less about the game being "woke" and more about people wondering how a series that was originally dark fantasy and somewhat "gritty" is toning down the "darkness" because some people are apparently scared of fictional things in a video game, including things that are part of the real world. I wonder if the removal of giant spiders also means there won't be any small ones in the environment or cobwebs.

That's just being too sensitive.

Not April 1st rubs eyes okay then

Spiders are cool, they keep the house bug ecosystem in check.

@Loamy Well said.

No spiders because the devs have that irrational fear.

@Titntin Have you seen how they designed the qunari? There is no creativity shown so far so it's not a creative choice it's one of the devs being scared of spiders.

If i was making a game post BG3 I would be adding spiders, making qunari monstrous again like in DA2 instead of sims 4 occult sim rejects and i certainly wouldn't have gone with the Fortnite/Ratatouille art style they've gone with, that one companion with the long face literally looks like food critic from ratatouille!

@Deityjester
lol at the food critic!
I like the style, got no problem with it at all, and I think several of the creature designs are interesting. Having worked for several AAA game companies (including E.A.) I'm entitled to a view that I've been paid to provide for several of the biggest dev houses. BUT, that doesnt make my view any more right than yours and I accept you do not like it. That's OK my friend, I'm happy that we don't all like the same thing, and there is no 'right', just preferences.
I'm likely to pick this one up - I'm getting a vibe that you will not be... 🤣

So now they pleased all 10 arachnophobia people. What about us billions of people who LIKE spiders^^ what about SpiderMAN??! xD

Wasn't there another game recently that allowed you to turn off or limit the seeing of spiders?

Lol at this point I've heard more about what won't be in this game than what will.

I welcome this news.

I still think the web spinners/spiders in the original Resident Evil are the creepiest. That unholy combination of red, yellow, and black still sends chills down my spine.

@Loamy I agree with the sentiment. For the first half of my life it was the natural response if you saw a spider to just smash it. But if you stop and think about it it's there for a reason and it's eating something and has its own little mission. It's like the shark thing with Jaws sort of. I give the spiders in my home rules and if they break those rules, like entering my bed space or making a web that is in a common walking path, they know the consequences. Otherwise we all live in peace.

Still waiting for Arachnophobia mode in Spiderman 2. Won't buy until they patch it in and let me just play the whole game as Peter and Miles without the scary spider suit.

@AfroMario I don't blame you to be honest. While 99.9% won't do you any harm, spiders that live in our houses still have the inate ability to appear out of nowhere very quickly, so it's understandable they can cause a few jump scares and quick reactions 😂 I've swatted a few unwanted, nearby visitors in my time.

I feel that having a personal distaste is fine but to use 'frightened' or 'disgusted' language on a public platform, like in this article, just adds to those with severe phobia when it's highly unnecessary and completely unfair on our 8-legged friends and phobia sufferers alike. I know it's fighting a losing battle as spiders are so unpopular but when I hear grown men saying that they're terrified of tiny creatures you just wonder why they want to hold onto that fear and spread it around to others.

I'm just sick of "set it on fire" BS to be honest 😂

Edit: and I am aware of the true origin of fear-spreading is our media itself adapting these common situations at home. Spiders, rats and bats etc. are always used as disgusting, villainous creatures. However, as an individual you need to contextualise it and educate yourself - just like with violence in media. I won't go on but I guess you could write an entire essay on the subject 🤔

I'm afraid of people, or humanoid representations of people, please remove.

What about Dracophobia? Magiphobia? EtcPhobia? Why are these issues not being addressed?! LOL: This is just PATHETIC!!!