yep grew up most my life in vero beach Fl, spent lots of time enjoying waves and such until at 14 I got caught in my first rip current with my cousin. it took every last bit of energy to get out alive and it was a terrifying experience.
at 18 I saw a man FISH A 7 foot Shark straight off the coast of the beach and bring it up onto the sand. and started to think about how much we really swim right next to these things without knowing they are right there. next YOU completely oblivious
4 years later Great White sharks started to appear next town over (when previously thought to be a very uncommon sight) caught on tape and I decided I didn't really care much for swimming anymore. Subnautica captures that feeling of helplessness and dread in an open ocean full of terrors and beautiful sights that remind you that this is not your world just like the ocean is not your environment.
here's that shark too btw, think I'll just enjoy my games now thank you (note I still do go to the beach, but I won't go more than a few feet out to submerge unless I'm with other people)
Lol, all you guys who love the ocean. I mean it makes sense for people who love the ocean to play a game like Subnautica.. probably makes little sense that someone like me with the phobia would play it.
For all those who have no fear, let me try to explain what playing this game for the first 20 hours was like by sharing the moment in the game that made me have an actual panic attack.
What you go on to describe has nothing at all to do with fear of the ocean/water.
Your experience is something we all love about Subnautica, but that's a rational fear, it's something any sane person would be terrified of, if it was happening in reality. The only time I still feel any sort of rush in Subnautica is when I get caught by my own complacency; it's dark, I'm running out of air and I can't find the Seamoth.
I'm wondering more about why someone would be scared on the surface of the water, on a boat for example, when there's no danger of being attacked by a real life predator and even if the boat did capsize you'd be able to swim the 100 feet to shore in no time, for example.
My issue with oceans and other large bodies of water is a bit... different.
I won't soak in a bath because all I can think of is that I'm actually soaking in my own dirt and dead skin cells. Same with the oceans, seas and lakes. The fish live there, poop there, die there. Millions of tourists soak their bodies there, pee and leave their own skin cells in the water. There is sewage dumped there. Toxic waste. Wrecks of countless ships, planes. Gods only know how many human corpses... I could go on. My brain happily dumps all that into on me the moment I get close to the water and it either triggers me into a full-feature panic attack, or into severe nausea. Most of the time it's both. I don't think it's officially recognized as an actual phobia, but it does give me a crippling fear and forces me to take an uncomfortable, 40-50 minutes long shower in too hot water if someone so much as splashes sea water on me. I am perfectly okay sitting on the beach, away from the water edge, and admiring the waves, but that's about it.
That said, this is why I love Subnautica so much. This game, thanks to depicting underwater in such a realistic way, allows me to experience the ocean for the very first time in my life - I know that it's all pixels, it's not really filthy or toxic, so I can persuade myself to play it, and once I do, I enjoy myself immensely.
What you describe sounds a lot like a germ fear to me, being such a fantastically inept armchair psychologist. Do you exhibit the stereotypical OCD cleaning in other areas of life?
I can relate to the pollution thing, kind of. It's not enough to keep me out of the water because I realise how great the ocean is at dealing with it's pollution and "cleaning itself". All those dead cells and decomposing bodies aren't around long enough to be a threat, especially when you consider how even in this day and age the pollution is quite literally a drop in the ocean.
However, it's always on the rise, and it bothers me. Of all the damage mankind does to the planet it's the ocean damage that annoys me the most.
I agree with the bath issue, though I haven't had a bath since I was a little child. I have a particularly taxing job and can get pretty disgusting after a long, hot Summer's day. I dread to think about sitting in my own filth after one of those.
Anyway, I'd recommend looking into how effective nature is at dealing with it's own mess.
But stay out the bath, you're doing the right thing there.
I've lived on an island almost all my life. However, I can't swim. Can't say I have a fear of the ocean, though. I'm happy sitting in it on the shore. Just don't push me over the side of the boat in deep water. Huge chance I'll never make it back to the surface. Either I'll panic so much that I'll drown, or I'll be pecked and eaten to death by hordes of peepers...
I would be very anxious about swimming in the open ocean in a dive suit, and hesitant about swimming to far from shore. But give me what we get in this game (or RL equivalents) and I would be fine. Which might be ironic being a former Navy woman.
What you go on to describe has nothing at all to do with fear of the ocean/water.
Eh? If course it is. A big aspect of thalassophobia is fear of the immensity and unknowability of the ocean. It's huge and dark and God knows what could be lurking just beyond the range of your Seamoth lights. The crabsquid doesn't scare me.. it's the fact it could be out there 100m away and I wouldn't know it. All that other stuff I describe is just symptomatic to the underlying fear.
I hate not seeing the bottom of the ocean, i was extremely tense when i went to floater isle without a seamoth.
Ditto. I'm fine if I follow the bottom out from safe shallows, but I do NOT like murky depths below me. It's better now, with a Cyclops, and the knowledge that the Reefback is totally harmless, and the Reaper won't go to the surface.
Real ocean? Oh my no. I have NO idea what is down there specifically, and a general idea of what COULD be down there is bad enough.
At least in this, I know it's probably just one of the 4 shallow/medium critters, or a Reaper. And I feel LOADS better when I activate the invisibility cheat. XD
I'm terrified of being in the ocean and looking down at the bottomless void. When I first started playing subnautica it took me forever just to venture past the kelp forest. Then I tried swimming to the aurora with just a seaglide and a reaper decided to spawn 3 feet from my face. Miraculously I made it back to the safe shallows in one piece, but I didn't leave the safety of the shallows for a long while after that. Even after I gathered up the courage to go exploring again I was always wary that a reaper might warp in and grab me.
HAHA yeah. I started a new game and went out to the Aurora after the boom. The game decided to spawn in a Reaper almost right on top of me. NAUGHTY.
yep grew up most my life in vero beach Fl, spent lots of time enjoying waves and such until at 14 I got caught in my first rip current with my cousin. it took every last bit of energy to get out alive and it was a terrifying experience.
You swam directly against the current, didn't you? I count myself lucky to not have been caught in one yet, but I'm curious about your experience all the same.
Eh? If course it is. A big aspect of thalassophobia is fear of the immensity and unknowability of the ocean. It's huge and dark and God knows what could be lurking just beyond the range of your Seamoth lights. The crabsquid doesn't scare me.. it's the fact it could be out there 100m away and I wouldn't know it. All that other stuff I describe is just symptomatic to the underlying fear.
Yes but what you described (for the most part) is something we all experience in that particular given situation. There's nothing irrational about it, and it's not the water that's terrifying but the thought of dying or even the unknown.
I love the water but I can still sympathise with your story, I too have felt the fear of being disoriented and confused and panicking whilst deep down, that doesn't mean I too am afraid of the ocean, it means I'm a normal person with sensory perceptions.
It's a bit like saying "I have a phobia of guns" because someone happens to be shooting at you.
Thalassophobia and "fear of the immensity and unknowability of the ocean" are very different than what you described.
(Though what you describe are very definitely symptoms of a deeper phobia, sure, but they're not unique to any particular fear. You do however have my sympathy for the whole hyperventilating thing.)
Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying you're "wrong" or anything, and I'm not trying to be a dick, I just don't think your story made the point when you said..
For all those who have no fear, let me try to explain what playing this game for the first 20 hours was like by sharing the moment in the game that made me have an actual panic attack.
... because the story and even the emotions are common to all of us. It's just that most of us don't have a panic attack because of them.
I guess what I really wish to know is why the moment which causes a rush of adrenaline and enjoyable fear in someone else causes a full on panic attack in you.
It's all well and good saying "fear of the unknown" but why is that scary to you? I could even argue it's not the unknown, as we know pretty much everything about the ocean, at least the bit of the ocean you or I would be in.
I love the Ocean, am a strong swimmer and spent much of the summers in my youth swimming on rivers and against strong currents..... However, I HATE deep water and that includes deep swimming pools. It's odd, but the idea that something could be under me and me not knowing about it just freaks me out and it's one of the only things that can induce raw panic out of me. I'm a very calm person and have even jumped (many times) from planes and have always had a never panic mindset, but deep water scares the jeebus out of me.
I love ocean documentaries and visiting the ocean and have always been fascinated about sharks, whales and all sorts of marine life, but I can't ever partake in it. I just can't:P Hell, I almost took Oceanology as my major:P That would have been really stupid in hindsight. I usually pass it off as "I watched Jaws as a child" but that's just a scapegoat.
I sometimes get freaked out when playing this game, but I just let the cold sweats have their way and press on...most times...
It's a bit like saying "I have a phobia of guns" because someone happens to be shooting at you.
I'm not sure this is a good analogy, because unlike someone whose actively shooting at you most of your time spent in Subnautica is free of real danger. It's more like saying 'I have a phobia of guns even when one isn't around, but god.. anyone could be packing at any moment and I wouldn't know it.'
Thalassophobia and "fear of the immensity and unknowability of the ocean" are very different than what you described.
It's actually a very common aspect of the phobia? The real definition of the phobia is pretty vague, actually. It's just 'fear of the ocean'. The specific reasons for that fear are very different for everyone who has the phobia, but the most common ones are it's 'emptiness', 'vastness', and 'creatures living there'.
Though what you describe are very definitely symptoms of a deeper phobia, sure, but they're not unique to any particular fear.
I only ever experience those kinds of emotions in this very specific setting(the ocean). I don't fear the vastness of my back yard or the pitch black darkness of a starless, moonless night. It's entirely acceptable that some phobias or fears may have symptoms that overlap of course. Some people who play this game will be very uneasy about venturing into the darker depths of the game but their reasons for doing so could be.. anything. A general unease of the dark, or a weariness of being attacked by a big predator.. The game itself of course does everything in it's power to set up a very tense, immersive, and atmospheric environment so it's easy to get lost in for anyone. But for me? There is a very real phobia attached. Sorry if I didn't express that very well in my post.
I guess what I really wish to know is why the moment which causes a rush of adrenaline and enjoyable fear in someone else causes a full on panic attack in you.
I dunno. Why are some people afraid of spiders? They don't bother me in the slightest, nor does being high up, or any of a plethora of other common phobia's. They are, at their core, 'irrational'. Most all of them likely developed due to some very specific circumstance during ones formative years.. Though the point I am making here is that the simplest answer to that question is: I have Thalassophobia and you evidently do not.
Your experience is something we all love about Subnautica, but that's a rational fear, it's something any sane person would be terrified of, if it was happening in reality. I'm wondering more about why someone would be scared on the surface of the water, on a boat for example, when there's no danger of being attacked by a real life predator and even if the boat did capsize you'd be able to swim the 100 feet to shore in no time, for example.
As I mentioned above it's because the fear is mostly irrational. Fear is a normal and natural response to many situations. It's our brain trying to keep us safe from potential hazards. And you know, the open ocean is an exceedingly hostile environment for a human to be in without proper equipment or a boat, it's natural to feel a sense of unease I'm sure.. most people can ignore it or suppress it. Someone with the phobia? Not so much. The fear is 'persistent', and.. well. Irrational.
You could put me(or anyone with the phobia) on a huge cruise liner, surrounded by professional sailors and staff. An abundance of life rafts, sophisticated communications equipment to ensure speedy rescue, and an astronomically low chance of a real disaster happening. I'm still going to feel immense anxiety at the thought of the ocean being 'out there' somewhere even if I burrow into the deepest deck of the ship.
Of course if the ship DID hit an iceberg and start to sink.. well, yeah, I think everyone is going to start panicking at that point.
Though there is a difference between panicking into action and panicking yourself into a corner, rocking back and forth. : p
I won't soak in a bath because all I can think of is that I'm actually soaking in my own dirt and dead skin cells. Same with the oceans, seas and lakes.
The irony for me is that I love taking really long showers. Soaking in the shower is my Zen place. Though hydrophobia and thalassophobia are entirely different things.. though in your case it almost sounds like a combination of hydrophobia and germophobia.
Being an Australian living on the Gold Coast, water is an essential part of life. I often go swimming in summer, and the beach isn't to much of a problem thanks to shark nets spanning the perimeter and a constantly patrolling helicopter that can and will spot any net breaches and will radio in the lifeguard towers who will literally raise an alarm.
My most frightening events in Subnautica would have to be hearing a Reaper, yet not seeing it. Case in point, these three events:
Event 1: Was in my seamoth in the plateaus at night, when I found myself in this weird barren location. I now know that biome in particular is called the dunes, thanks to a friendly and familiar face popping up in the dark, 1 destroyed seamoth, and a hasty retreat to base with my seaglide in a state of shock.
Event 2: Was finding silver in my newly made Prawn suit, when I started hearing Reaper roars. I did a quick jump, and realized I was in the forest that was right at the rear of the Aurora. I some time spent poking around, I finally decided to send myself packing when I saw part of its body phase through the terrain.
Event 3: Had just finished getting mod station fragments from the blood trench wreck, and was poking around the root caves intent on filling my inventory with crystals before I left. Somehow, the caves must've been right underneath the dunes, and I wasn't concerned until I reminded myself of Event 2 and hightailed it out of there once I had a full load.
Yeah, the Reapers are pretty bad at avoiding terrain. I've seen one swim right into sand, because it was an incline on the edge of Dunes.
I rather dislike large things moving around underneath me in murky depths, and I VERY MUCH dislike knowing that a large carnivore is moving around underneath me.
I like piloting from the Cyclops cockpit, precisely because I can't see anything, and have the near-invulnerable metal shell around me. I hope they add defensive module upgrades to the Cyclops if they implement a way for it to take damage. Something like hull auto-repair, electrified hull, and repulsion AOE options.
Also, I'd like an afterburner for the Seamoth and Cyclops, so that I can try and line up on nasty things and smash them with my face. Hopefully any such module drastically reduces frontal impact damage during and a little after burner use. :P
I rather dislike large things moving around underneath me in murky depths, and I VERY MUCH dislike knowing that a large carnivore is moving around underneath me.
You should've seen the old sand worm creature that was probably gonna be added to the dunes, but was ultimately scrapped.
yep grew up most my life in vero beach Fl, spent lots of time enjoying waves and such until at 14 I got caught in my first rip current with my cousin. it took every last bit of energy to get out alive and it was a terrifying experience.
You swam directly against the current, didn't you? I count myself lucky to not have been caught in one yet, but I'm curious about your experience all the same.
funny you ask i thought about including this detail.
all my life I was taught to swim at an angle to mitigate the effect of the rip tide,
part of what makes it so scary is knowing and literally feeling the moments where you realize you are in the current, usually when you try to start getting back, I tried for a few minutes with my cousin to swim out that way until it wasn't helping it was just getting worse and we were starting to drift out terrifyingly far from shore, my cousin and I had a brief second where we looked at each other acknowledging the severity of the moment, and I think he said FUCK IT and just started peeling back to shore with a burst of what energy he had with a coming wave and I too in the moment went with it instinctively and we swam back to shore like fucking madmen trying to stay alive and made it back thankfully before it got any worse. not saying it's the right thing to do but we did it anyway and was so exhausted i fell asleep on the sand for awhile after. lol I didn't underestimate it after that.
If I may add a tuppence on rip currents, I've been in a couple myself, though I was rowing an inflatable dinghy both times, and not swimming. The idea is indeed to head parallel to the shore, not because it's easier to swim against the strong current, but simply to get right the hell out of the rip altogether to a position where you are able to get back. It worked for me. I'd guess you must have been just out of the edge of it if you managed to get back. The thing that traps a lot of people is that rip currents don't come alone, they're separated by gaps, so even when people swim parallel they sometimes go too far and end up entering a second rip current.
The first time it happened to me I was about 14 too, and I was taking my mother out for a row. She panicked like hell and I had to calm her down, we actually ended up a good mile down shore, past some cliffs and on an entirely different beach than the one we'd left. I don't envy you being in the water, I was worried enough in a dinghy.
After that first time I learned to spot the tell-tale signs of currents from shore. The second time it happened was only a few weeks later and I was actually tempting fate, trying to feel the power of it. Bad idea, because it took me about 90 minutes of back-breaking work to get back. I have to admit I was scared, though I could see (and be seen) from my family on the shore so I knew they'd get the lifeboat out if I became a tiny speck somewhere out on the Atlantic.
Props to those guys by the way, RNLI, US Coastguard etc.
Those guys all deserve more attention than they get.
I must say that I am completely terrified of the Ocean to the point that I don't even go below like 500-700 meters in game and I never go any place that I can not see the ocean floor. It's really really hard to play. Hell, I sometimes stop playing just because the noises coming from the unknown deep scare me soo bad. And it's not the water i'm scared of, the the nothingness, in the ocean there is just dark void in all direction for as far as you could ever see or travel.... F*** THAT!!!
I must say that I am completely terrified of the Ocean to the point that I don't even go below like 500-700 meters in game and I never go any place that I can not see the ocean floor. It's really really hard to play. Hell, I sometimes stop playing just because the noises coming from the unknown deep scare me soo bad. And it's not the water i'm scared of, the the nothingness, in the ocean there is just dark void in all direction for as far as you could ever see or travel.... F*** THAT!!!
I get that feeling too. And watching Shark Week on Discovery only made it a bit worse now that I know sharks like to attack from below...
Drowning survivor, here. I have a real world fear of drowning again, that is *really* strong when I am swimming/floating on the surface, yet much reduced when I am using scuba and underwater (true story, I fell asleep underwater once, in a swimming pool scuba class). It was kind of embarrassing, being the only one in the group who is super tense and wide eyed while we're all floating on the surface waiting to descend, and then being the only one who relaxes and feels a huge sense of relief at 40 ft depth, because breathing through the regulator is much less scary that having water splashing in my face on the surface.
I enjoy Subnautica because it reminds me of the best aspects of scuba diving. I still hate swimming on the surface, even in the game - the usual swim to the floater island is always tense for me, much worse than say collecting nodes in the grassy kelp area underwater.
I don't fear the ocean so much as that surfaces make me angry. I nearly drowned when I was about three (and another time some years later, but that is not relevant here) in a canal and have a distinct memory of the blue-gray of the sky being closed off by greenish water. I don't remember my emotions, but I suppose some understanding was going on that I still have that memory but not of how I fell in the first place or of the rest of my time in the water until I'm suddenly back on land thanks to a person I only remember by his red shirt.
Surfaces anger me, because it's what I remember and because it's nonsensical. It's not a barrier that in any way prevents you from passing through, but for a human there's life on one side and death on the other and "somehow" despite the (effective) lack of barrier resistance people cannot keep themselves on the side where they'll live. It's an anger that comes up in all cases where I detect a (metaphorical) life/death barrier, but remains strongest with large bodies of water. Pictures or recordings from just below the surface like people might make to capture their recreational diving experience confuse me in that I know they are beautiful and meant to capture a joyful activity, but I can't help but ponder that there are people who never reach the other side again.
I needed to get used to and take a moment for myself during the first few LPs of Subnautica I watched whenever the LPer would get near the surface. The depths don't mean more to me than any other form of darkness does, but the surface is a reminder. Getting to play the game myself helped a lot because when I play I control when I get up rather than depend on the LPer.
On a more positive note, I have also kept a strong sense of "you're not dead until you're dead" or more everyday "it's not over until it's over" from the drowning experience, which Subnautica taps into to with its drowning mechanic. I love that when the oxygen is depleted, it isn't immediately over. You can keep going for a little while longer even as you lose sight and just maybe that's enough to survive. It's perfect, and as "traumatizing" drowning in the game is to me with its doom-filled music, there's a deep satisfaction when I do make it.
The only thing I remain in need of is a boat, because right now the most logical vehicle to explore with is the Seamoth and finding the FI is best done above surface which is unpleasant to accomplish with the Seamoth. For reasons that it looks like struggling to keep afloat.
I actually do have a severe phobia of the ocean, and any open body of water like lakes and rivers. That's one of the things that makes subnautica so fun to me; even though it's not designed like one, it's a lot like a horror game for me. The first 20 hours I put into it I never left the safe shallows, and even then there were certain areas of the shallows that I didn't visit because they were just too deep or had too many caves and tunnels. It took me forever to finally work up the nerve to just swim to the floating island, and even then I stayed on the surface of the ocean and never looked down, and panicked the entire time.
My fear of open bodies of water is so severe that just seeing a picture of the ocean gives me bad anxiety, so actually being in a game where you spend 99% of your time under water keeps me on an anxious edge. When I'm playing subnautica I'm constantly on high alert, I'm anxious, I panic over absolutely everything that happens. My heart races any time I leave my base, my heart races even more when I leave the seamoth or cyclops in any area other than the safe shallows. Every time I have to leave my seamoth to do something, I shake in real life and get extremely nervous, frantically trying to accomplish whatever I need to as fast as possible so I can get back to the seamoth.
I was once in the mountain range trying to get the resource for nuclear reactors or whatever, and I was checking everywhere for reapers. I did see one after a moment of scanning around in my seamoth, but he was so far away that I could barely see him. I scanned the mountain wall, and found a few little rocks that I needed. I got out and headed to the wall, and just as I turned around I saw the tail end of a reaper fly by my screen, and I jumped out of my chair and screamed in real fucking life. I almost turned off my computer right there, but I quickly tried to find my seamoth, only to find out that the reaper had pushed it far away from me. He was looping back around, and I almost had an actual heart attack while I swam for my life to get back to the seamoth. I went straight back to my base, saved the game, and quit for the day.
So yeah, as much as I love subnautica, it actually scares the absolute shit out of me.
The first time that I saw a Reefback, I didn't know it was passive. That sighting canceled an exploratory trip out to a signal or something, I forget.
I'm generally fine, as long as I keep headlights on, and follow the bottom. That and the Cyclops only has one window. For me, a big stress reliever is the Cyclops near-invulnerability, and the invisible cheat...
With a Cyclops and personal invisibility, I'm pretty good anywhere. Still don't like diving out in the void, though. So I stay in map areas, which are more interesting anyway. :P
I have a fear of the deep sea, always have, always will. I love swimming though, but the fear of not knowing what's below me has always rubbed me the wrong way.
Is anyone genuinely afraid sometimes to explore in Subnautica? Especially when it's dark, silent, and full of nothingness?
From the time I watched Jaws at the drive-in as a wee lad (demented parents!), I've been terrified of bodies of water, other than pools, and even big pools in the dark are still sketchy.
I'm now 43 and have played video games my whole life, and never, NEVER, have I been the least bit scared playing ANY game. Ever. Period. Subnautica changed all that.
It sounds crazy, I know, but I was glad to read it wasn't just me! I literally get anxiety playing this game when I have to leave the shallows. I can barely do it! My eyes even well up. I just dangle at the edge, staring out, afraid to look around me. Sometimes, I even just stop playing. Yet, it's that VERY reason I love Subnautica. It makes me FEEL SOMETHING. A lot of games carry on about their stories or engaging characters (and for some folks, this may very well be true), but I've never had an honest emotional response based solely off playing a game by myself. It's the craziest thing.
I try to play with the lights off, headphones on, but sometimes I just can't. I do best if I play during the day, with maybe some tunes in the background.
The best I can sum it up is, when I can't see 360 degrees, there's a drop off, it's murky, dark, and I have no idea what's lurking in the blackness. I just know I'll see some scary big toothey mouth, larger than a ship, come drifting out of the gloom and it'll be too late!!!
The movie "In the Deep" is a good comparison to how I perceive the game. The scene with the "lighting the flare" about sums it up perfectly, oh, and when she swims out over the abyss--- and when she swims halfway up--- and the part where she hides--- yeah, all of it, really, lol.
Thalassophobia and yes.
I would piss myself and literally freeze if I was swimming with a whale, let alone an alien leviathan several times larger that the larges creature to have ever lived on Earth.
yep, sometimes subnautica can be worse though, the knowledge that there is something out there going to come after me in a place where i am slow and they are fast always coming and i have no real way to defend myself.
I can be in the grand reef as long as I'm somewhat close to the bottom, even if I cannot see light from above, it doesn't bother me, but being on the surface and looking down into nothing, that makes me rather uncomfortable. Even in a lake, where I know the deepest point is 40 feet, I get uncomfortable jumping off a boat. Not so bad that I can't overcome it, but it does make me tense. When I go out to floater island, I follow the ocean floor in my seamoth and go straight up to it. When I leave I go straight to the bottom and follow the ocean floor. Hence I do not go there until I have the 500 meter upgrade. Same with the mountain island, I'd rather sneak past the reaper at the ocean floor than safely go along the surface.
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at 18 I saw a man FISH A 7 foot Shark straight off the coast of the beach and bring it up onto the sand. and started to think about how much we really swim right next to these things without knowing they are right there.
next YOU completely oblivious
4 years later Great White sharks started to appear next town over (when previously thought to be a very uncommon sight) caught on tape and I decided I didn't really care much for swimming anymore. Subnautica captures that feeling of helplessness and dread in an open ocean full of terrors and beautiful sights that remind you that this is not your world just like the ocean is not your environment.
here's that shark too btw, think I'll just enjoy my games now thank you (note I still do go to the beach, but I won't go more than a few feet out to submerge unless I'm with other people)
What you go on to describe has nothing at all to do with fear of the ocean/water.
Your experience is something we all love about Subnautica, but that's a rational fear, it's something any sane person would be terrified of, if it was happening in reality. The only time I still feel any sort of rush in Subnautica is when I get caught by my own complacency; it's dark, I'm running out of air and I can't find the Seamoth.
I'm wondering more about why someone would be scared on the surface of the water, on a boat for example, when there's no danger of being attacked by a real life predator and even if the boat did capsize you'd be able to swim the 100 feet to shore in no time, for example.
What you describe sounds a lot like a germ fear to me, being such a fantastically inept armchair psychologist. Do you exhibit the stereotypical OCD cleaning in other areas of life?
I can relate to the pollution thing, kind of. It's not enough to keep me out of the water because I realise how great the ocean is at dealing with it's pollution and "cleaning itself". All those dead cells and decomposing bodies aren't around long enough to be a threat, especially when you consider how even in this day and age the pollution is quite literally a drop in the ocean.
However, it's always on the rise, and it bothers me. Of all the damage mankind does to the planet it's the ocean damage that annoys me the most.
I agree with the bath issue, though I haven't had a bath since I was a little child. I have a particularly taxing job and can get pretty disgusting after a long, hot Summer's day. I dread to think about sitting in my own filth after one of those.
Anyway, I'd recommend looking into how effective nature is at dealing with it's own mess.
But stay out the bath, you're doing the right thing there.
I would be very anxious about swimming in the open ocean in a dive suit, and hesitant about swimming to far from shore. But give me what we get in this game (or RL equivalents) and I would be fine. Which might be ironic being a former Navy woman.
Real ocean? Oh my no. I have NO idea what is down there specifically, and a general idea of what COULD be down there is bad enough.
At least in this, I know it's probably just one of the 4 shallow/medium critters, or a Reaper. And I feel LOADS better when I activate the invisibility cheat. XD
HAHA yeah. I started a new game and went out to the Aurora after the boom. The game decided to spawn in a Reaper almost right on top of me. NAUGHTY.
Yes but what you described (for the most part) is something we all experience in that particular given situation. There's nothing irrational about it, and it's not the water that's terrifying but the thought of dying or even the unknown.
I love the water but I can still sympathise with your story, I too have felt the fear of being disoriented and confused and panicking whilst deep down, that doesn't mean I too am afraid of the ocean, it means I'm a normal person with sensory perceptions.
It's a bit like saying "I have a phobia of guns" because someone happens to be shooting at you.
Thalassophobia and "fear of the immensity and unknowability of the ocean" are very different than what you described.
(Though what you describe are very definitely symptoms of a deeper phobia, sure, but they're not unique to any particular fear. You do however have my sympathy for the whole hyperventilating thing.)
Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying you're "wrong" or anything, and I'm not trying to be a dick, I just don't think your story made the point when you said..
... because the story and even the emotions are common to all of us. It's just that most of us don't have a panic attack because of them.
I guess what I really wish to know is why the moment which causes a rush of adrenaline and enjoyable fear in someone else causes a full on panic attack in you.
It's all well and good saying "fear of the unknown" but why is that scary to you? I could even argue it's not the unknown, as we know pretty much everything about the ocean, at least the bit of the ocean you or I would be in.
I love ocean documentaries and visiting the ocean and have always been fascinated about sharks, whales and all sorts of marine life, but I can't ever partake in it. I just can't:P Hell, I almost took Oceanology as my major:P That would have been really stupid in hindsight. I usually pass it off as "I watched Jaws as a child" but that's just a scapegoat.
I sometimes get freaked out when playing this game, but I just let the cold sweats have their way and press on...most times...
It's actually a very common aspect of the phobia? The real definition of the phobia is pretty vague, actually. It's just 'fear of the ocean'. The specific reasons for that fear are very different for everyone who has the phobia, but the most common ones are it's 'emptiness', 'vastness', and 'creatures living there'.
I only ever experience those kinds of emotions in this very specific setting(the ocean). I don't fear the vastness of my back yard or the pitch black darkness of a starless, moonless night. It's entirely acceptable that some phobias or fears may have symptoms that overlap of course. Some people who play this game will be very uneasy about venturing into the darker depths of the game but their reasons for doing so could be.. anything. A general unease of the dark, or a weariness of being attacked by a big predator.. The game itself of course does everything in it's power to set up a very tense, immersive, and atmospheric environment so it's easy to get lost in for anyone. But for me? There is a very real phobia attached. Sorry if I didn't express that very well in my post.
I dunno. Why are some people afraid of spiders? They don't bother me in the slightest, nor does being high up, or any of a plethora of other common phobia's. They are, at their core, 'irrational'. Most all of them likely developed due to some very specific circumstance during ones formative years.. Though the point I am making here is that the simplest answer to that question is: I have Thalassophobia and you evidently do not.
As I mentioned above it's because the fear is mostly irrational. Fear is a normal and natural response to many situations. It's our brain trying to keep us safe from potential hazards. And you know, the open ocean is an exceedingly hostile environment for a human to be in without proper equipment or a boat, it's natural to feel a sense of unease I'm sure.. most people can ignore it or suppress it. Someone with the phobia? Not so much. The fear is 'persistent', and.. well. Irrational.
You could put me(or anyone with the phobia) on a huge cruise liner, surrounded by professional sailors and staff. An abundance of life rafts, sophisticated communications equipment to ensure speedy rescue, and an astronomically low chance of a real disaster happening. I'm still going to feel immense anxiety at the thought of the ocean being 'out there' somewhere even if I burrow into the deepest deck of the ship.
Of course if the ship DID hit an iceberg and start to sink.. well, yeah, I think everyone is going to start panicking at that point.
Though there is a difference between panicking into action and panicking yourself into a corner, rocking back and forth. : p
The irony for me is that I love taking really long showers. Soaking in the shower is my Zen place. Though hydrophobia and thalassophobia are entirely different things.. though in your case it almost sounds like a combination of hydrophobia and germophobia.
My most frightening events in Subnautica would have to be hearing a Reaper, yet not seeing it. Case in point, these three events:
Event 1: Was in my seamoth in the plateaus at night, when I found myself in this weird barren location. I now know that biome in particular is called the dunes, thanks to a friendly and familiar face popping up in the dark, 1 destroyed seamoth, and a hasty retreat to base with my seaglide in a state of shock.
Event 2: Was finding silver in my newly made Prawn suit, when I started hearing Reaper roars. I did a quick jump, and realized I was in the forest that was right at the rear of the Aurora. I some time spent poking around, I finally decided to send myself packing when I saw part of its body phase through the terrain.
Event 3: Had just finished getting mod station fragments from the blood trench wreck, and was poking around the root caves intent on filling my inventory with crystals before I left. Somehow, the caves must've been right underneath the dunes, and I wasn't concerned until I reminded myself of Event 2 and hightailed it out of there once I had a full load.
I rather dislike large things moving around underneath me in murky depths, and I VERY MUCH dislike knowing that a large carnivore is moving around underneath me.
I like piloting from the Cyclops cockpit, precisely because I can't see anything, and have the near-invulnerable metal shell around me. I hope they add defensive module upgrades to the Cyclops if they implement a way for it to take damage. Something like hull auto-repair, electrified hull, and repulsion AOE options.
Also, I'd like an afterburner for the Seamoth and Cyclops, so that I can try and line up on nasty things and smash them with my face. Hopefully any such module drastically reduces frontal impact damage during and a little after burner use. :P
You should've seen the old sand worm creature that was probably gonna be added to the dunes, but was ultimately scrapped.
Can't help wonder why....
funny you ask i thought about including this detail.
all my life I was taught to swim at an angle to mitigate the effect of the rip tide,
part of what makes it so scary is knowing and literally feeling the moments where you realize you are in the current, usually when you try to start getting back, I tried for a few minutes with my cousin to swim out that way until it wasn't helping it was just getting worse and we were starting to drift out terrifyingly far from shore, my cousin and I had a brief second where we looked at each other acknowledging the severity of the moment, and I think he said FUCK IT and just started peeling back to shore with a burst of what energy he had with a coming wave and I too in the moment went with it instinctively and we swam back to shore like fucking madmen trying to stay alive and made it back thankfully before it got any worse. not saying it's the right thing to do but we did it anyway and was so exhausted i fell asleep on the sand for awhile after. lol I didn't underestimate it after that.
The first time it happened to me I was about 14 too, and I was taking my mother out for a row. She panicked like hell and I had to calm her down, we actually ended up a good mile down shore, past some cliffs and on an entirely different beach than the one we'd left. I don't envy you being in the water, I was worried enough in a dinghy.
After that first time I learned to spot the tell-tale signs of currents from shore. The second time it happened was only a few weeks later and I was actually tempting fate, trying to feel the power of it. Bad idea, because it took me about 90 minutes of back-breaking work to get back. I have to admit I was scared, though I could see (and be seen) from my family on the shore so I knew they'd get the lifeboat out if I became a tiny speck somewhere out on the Atlantic.
Props to those guys by the way, RNLI, US Coastguard etc.
Those guys all deserve more attention than they get.
I get that feeling too. And watching Shark Week on Discovery only made it a bit worse now that I know sharks like to attack from below...
I enjoy Subnautica because it reminds me of the best aspects of scuba diving. I still hate swimming on the surface, even in the game - the usual swim to the floater island is always tense for me, much worse than say collecting nodes in the grassy kelp area underwater.
Surfaces anger me, because it's what I remember and because it's nonsensical. It's not a barrier that in any way prevents you from passing through, but for a human there's life on one side and death on the other and "somehow" despite the (effective) lack of barrier resistance people cannot keep themselves on the side where they'll live. It's an anger that comes up in all cases where I detect a (metaphorical) life/death barrier, but remains strongest with large bodies of water. Pictures or recordings from just below the surface like people might make to capture their recreational diving experience confuse me in that I know they are beautiful and meant to capture a joyful activity, but I can't help but ponder that there are people who never reach the other side again.
I needed to get used to and take a moment for myself during the first few LPs of Subnautica I watched whenever the LPer would get near the surface. The depths don't mean more to me than any other form of darkness does, but the surface is a reminder. Getting to play the game myself helped a lot because when I play I control when I get up rather than depend on the LPer.
On a more positive note, I have also kept a strong sense of "you're not dead until you're dead" or more everyday "it's not over until it's over" from the drowning experience, which Subnautica taps into to with its drowning mechanic. I love that when the oxygen is depleted, it isn't immediately over. You can keep going for a little while longer even as you lose sight and just maybe that's enough to survive. It's perfect, and as "traumatizing" drowning in the game is to me with its doom-filled music, there's a deep satisfaction when I do make it.
The only thing I remain in need of is a boat, because right now the most logical vehicle to explore with is the Seamoth and finding the FI is best done above surface which is unpleasant to accomplish with the Seamoth. For reasons that it looks like struggling to keep afloat.
My fear of open bodies of water is so severe that just seeing a picture of the ocean gives me bad anxiety, so actually being in a game where you spend 99% of your time under water keeps me on an anxious edge. When I'm playing subnautica I'm constantly on high alert, I'm anxious, I panic over absolutely everything that happens. My heart races any time I leave my base, my heart races even more when I leave the seamoth or cyclops in any area other than the safe shallows. Every time I have to leave my seamoth to do something, I shake in real life and get extremely nervous, frantically trying to accomplish whatever I need to as fast as possible so I can get back to the seamoth.
I was once in the mountain range trying to get the resource for nuclear reactors or whatever, and I was checking everywhere for reapers. I did see one after a moment of scanning around in my seamoth, but he was so far away that I could barely see him. I scanned the mountain wall, and found a few little rocks that I needed. I got out and headed to the wall, and just as I turned around I saw the tail end of a reaper fly by my screen, and I jumped out of my chair and screamed in real fucking life. I almost turned off my computer right there, but I quickly tried to find my seamoth, only to find out that the reaper had pushed it far away from me. He was looping back around, and I almost had an actual heart attack while I swam for my life to get back to the seamoth. I went straight back to my base, saved the game, and quit for the day.
So yeah, as much as I love subnautica, it actually scares the absolute shit out of me.
I'm generally fine, as long as I keep headlights on, and follow the bottom. That and the Cyclops only has one window. For me, a big stress reliever is the Cyclops near-invulnerability, and the invisible cheat...
With a Cyclops and personal invisibility, I'm pretty good anywhere. Still don't like diving out in the void, though. So I stay in map areas, which are more interesting anyway. :P
Is anyone genuinely afraid sometimes to explore in Subnautica? Especially when it's dark, silent, and full of nothingness?
I'm now 43 and have played video games my whole life, and never, NEVER, have I been the least bit scared playing ANY game. Ever. Period. Subnautica changed all that.
It sounds crazy, I know, but I was glad to read it wasn't just me! I literally get anxiety playing this game when I have to leave the shallows. I can barely do it! My eyes even well up. I just dangle at the edge, staring out, afraid to look around me. Sometimes, I even just stop playing. Yet, it's that VERY reason I love Subnautica. It makes me FEEL SOMETHING. A lot of games carry on about their stories or engaging characters (and for some folks, this may very well be true), but I've never had an honest emotional response based solely off playing a game by myself. It's the craziest thing.
I try to play with the lights off, headphones on, but sometimes I just can't. I do best if I play during the day, with maybe some tunes in the background.
The best I can sum it up is, when I can't see 360 degrees, there's a drop off, it's murky, dark, and I have no idea what's lurking in the blackness. I just know I'll see some scary big toothey mouth, larger than a ship, come drifting out of the gloom and it'll be too late!!!
I would piss myself and literally freeze if I was swimming with a whale, let alone an alien leviathan several times larger that the larges creature to have ever lived on Earth.
plus bone shark screams are horrible.
Fear of ocean, ehh? Nobody knows what lies beneath dark waters of the ocean...