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[Tawa]

I react very poorly to jump scares. I think the scariest video game I've ever played was Zelda: Twilight Princess, and solely because of the zombie knights that pop out of nowhere in the prison dungeon. Nothing else seems to faze me, though. The last time I saw a horror movie that didn't rely on jump scares, I turned it into an MST'ing session and spent most of the film poking fun at the rather lucid plot.

[Egan_BW]

I am somewhat vulnerable to the spookscares in videagaem format. I gave up on both Amnesia and SOMA at certain points despite enjoying the plot of both. I can get through Dead Space, but only by willfully ignoring what I'm walking into. Ravenholm is fine provided that I have a firm hold on a saw blade, and becomes trivial once I get muh precious shotgun.

[SalmonGod]

Jump scares are the most reliable way to turn anything that's trying to be scary into a joke to me.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

A scary game isn't "don't pop out at me, don't pop out of me, AAH". A scary game is "Oh. Oh god what the fuck. You're just fucking with me right? You wouldn't actually write it this way, I'm just drawing false conclusions, I have to be."

The really scary games are just a constant mental wide-eyed ".......".

[IronTomato]

Jump scares get me pretty much every time, but at the same time I'm used to them enough that they don't really bother me. The fact that the jumpscares in Spooky's are mostly things like cute carboard squids and skeletons jumping out at you and saying "boo" also acually makes them kind of funny when they do manage to jump you.

So far what I love about the game is that it kind of gives you the best of both kinds of spoopy by also providing you with genuinely horrifying encounters with monsters. For example,

Spoiler: Spoilers, I guess? (click to show/hide)

There is one encounter fairly early on in the game which very nearly made me shit my britches even though I never even actually saw the monster. You end up stumbling across a kind of laboratory area full of weird-looking body parts in tanks, one of which is broken. There are also very obvious holes in the ceiling. You then also stumble across several notes talking about how one of the subjects supposedly escaped, the final one stating that it seems to have gotten into the air vents. After I read that, suddenly hearing it skittering around above me induced a feeling deep in my gut which can only described as "nope". I ran away very quickly and didn't even bother looking behind myself to see if I was being followed.

The way I'm describing it probably doesn't make it sound very spoopy, but when I experienced it it was.

The game is full of different monsters like this, all of them terrifying, and each with their own different gimmicks and shit. For some reason, the Ben Drowned looking guy who chases you when you can't see him really did it for me. I kept losing sight of him, inducing a deep feeling of paranoia about where he might be, and then trying desperately to find him again only to have his knife find my back first. Eventually I lost my composure enough that he was able to kill me completely, allowing me to view one of the game's many joyous and disturbing death cutscenes, which was just the cherry on the steak. I then decided I'd take a second to wipe off my hands to relieve my palm's profuse perspiration, and to play the happiest and least violent game that I could think of, which ended up being Pokemon, before I went to sleep.

A scary game isn't "don't pop out at me, don't pop out of me, AAH". A scary game is "Oh. Oh god what the fuck. You're just fucking with me right? You wouldn't actually write it this way, I'm just drawing false conclusions, I have to be."

The really scary games are just a constant mental wide-eyed ".......".

I'm not sure what you mean by the last couple things, but I agree with the jumpscare thing completely. The jumpscares in Spooky's are kind of an exception since it's not the game's primary source of scare, or really a source at all, but rather the game trying to troll you for lulz.

Unless you weren't referring to the jumpscares in that game, in which case just ignore me I guess.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I was talking about horror design in general. I actually kind of appreciate Spooky's because it at least tried to delve a little deeper than Steam Greenlight trash, which is respectable.

[MidnightJaguar]

Really the only game I've played thats actually legitimately scared me was a point and click called The Last Door.

No clue why I was so scared by it though.

[Tiruin]

I am incredibly easy to scare. Like, laughably easy. To the point where it stops being funny sometimes.
And I still torture myself because I absolutely love horror games, movies and stories.

Yoooo, this is meeee.

* Tiruin scared herself bleh-y while reading TWOO PHILIPPINE GOOOHST STORIES during her childhood. But given the many factors in place, she gained a better attitude towards these kinds of themes :v (It's a real book--search up 'True Philippine Ghost Stories'...may be cliched in many parts though!)

But jumpscares don't phase me for some reason ._. Even after me watching many stuffs on Youtube about the games or movies that show them. (I blame watching The Ring early in my childhood too V:)

But Spiders. As in GIANT ones. Like the ones in Skyrim?
...Yeaaah, that hits my big red button of PANIC AND ATTACK. :I

I really loved Spooky's.
At least for me, it managed to pull off the 'gradually drive you mad' gimmick really well.
I also liked the DLC quite a bit, though that one was unfortunately much shorter.

"Run to the door D: Scary noise! Don't look back! Oooo, nice reference o_O Wait I'm dead?!"
Spooky's is nice But it got renamed because of issues. :O (Not anymore Spooky's House of Jumpscares, but Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion!)

Really the only game I've played thats actually legitimately scared me was a point and click called The Last Door.

No clue why I was so scared by it though.

Raven, Raven, Raven, Raven, Bunny!
It was less scary and more surreal and thrilling. I especially loved the poetry in them (ie That one tree in that one tomb). Peaceful and nice contrasts all around.
...Other than being an unofficial accomplice to murder. >_>

[Egan_BW]

A scary game isn't "don't pop out at me, don't pop out of me, AAH". A scary game is "Oh. Oh god what the fuck. You're just fucking with me right? You wouldn't actually write it this way, I'm just drawing false conclusions, I have to be."

The really scary games are just a constant mental wide-eyed ".......".

What? Writing isn't scary, silly! Plot and lore and stuff can be disturbing, but I only really get scared if the game poses a credible threat to me, and I don't fully understand it. It's the opposite of the stealth game fantasy; in a stealth game, you hold information that you withhold from the game. In soviet horror game, the game holds information that it withholds from you.
But nah, writing is just words.

[NRDL]

Filipino ghost stories are the worst, the monsters are pretty bad because of the constant rural aesthetic.  They all take place in the provinces, the victim usually sleeps in a bahay kubo, nobody around to help, just so easy to visualise spooky, full moon type shit.  As for verbally spoken ghost stories, brrrrrr. 

[Tiruin]

Filipino ghost stories are the worst, the monsters are pretty bad because of the constant rural aesthetic.  They all take place in the provinces, the victim usually sleeps in a bahay kubo, nobody around to help, just so easy to visualise spooky, full moon type shit.  As for verbally spoken ghost stories, brrrrrr.

OH you would love the feel then :3 As in, it's scary if you think about it that way, but wow is it effective when you're actually living it. There are no public lights in the area--road ways are usually only lit by the light of the moon, vast plains of farmland are all that are between your home and the mountains/other terrain features, and there's a lack of wildlife (but usually when there is, it's in a forested area near your home--and many sounds are to be heard \o/)
In the urban context, it's usually ghosts. In the rural ones, it's usually a mix of any mythological or folklorish nature, as well as ghosts or natural entities. :O

So it's pretty much hearkening to times where stories are told orally. Much much fun. \o/
Reminds me when I spent the summers in the provinces (since I'm in a mountain city :V). MUCH MUCH FUN!
Though, y'know, I had a friend ghost. :v SO childhood was fun.

Reminds me of one time, years ago back when I was 15, give or take a couple years back, where I left my phone in my bedroom, while my dad was watching the tv there (yeaah.), and when I came back and checked my photos, there were around 3 new photos, all depicting a child-like visage with the flash of my camera turned up full blast facing the doorway outside from my room.
My phone has no flash on since I disabled it, and my dad was all "What are you saying girl o_O Woah, that's nice."
And then I deleted the photos while being all respectfully 'oh ok, that's cool. Probably someone else in my room. K.'

I mean there were occasional times before that--but wow was I skeptical until I actually experienced it, then that gave me insight to the two sides of the coin towards these, from skeptical to 'wow I experienced this but it seems unbelievable :I Humf!' I can get the really skeptical side, but what I do notice towards personal experiences are that it's not significant, generally. As in not that impactful to cause a jolt in your life in the most. Personally, anyway.

[NRDL]

snip

Yeah, all that white lady multo shit can nope right the fuck off.  The scariest ghost story I ever heard is still one I heard in the house of my mom's family, one of those "it totally happened to a friend of a friend of a friend of a..".  Guy in the story is an ardent skeptic of ghosts, openly boasts about.  Real smart.  Sleeps alone in his house, when he suddenly smells something...rotting. 

He opens his eyes, and an inch from his face is a ghost ( I can't remember the description but you really don't need one ) which basically holds the guy down and shouts "Naniniwala ka na ba!?" ( Do you believe now!? ) in the spookiest, shrieky voice.  Guy gets up, terrified to the point of insanity, of course there's nothing there.  Story ends with him apparently still being in an asylum.

This is the point in my life where I resolved to either stay the hell away from ghosts, or at the very least, do absolutely nothing to intentionally antagonise them. 

[Tiruin]

Man, your ghost knows how to use phones? Mine just stomps around, and way back in the day, flipped a light switch and turned the old Macintosh back on. That's not cool at all.

Friend ghost, eh? More to that story?

I know I should've just saved the pics but I was young back then and it sorta had the idea of 'Oh, oops ._.', so I deleted them.
And more to that story? It's...eeeeeh.

{Snip! I'd rather have this in a PM x_x not because anything happened but because I'm shy!}

snip

Yeah, all that white lady multo shit can nope right the fuck off.  The scariest ghost story I ever heard is still one I heard in the house of my mom's family, one of those "it totally happened to a friend of a friend of a friend of a..".  Guy in the story is an ardent skeptic of ghosts, openly boasts about.  Real smart.  Sleeps alone in his house, when he suddenly smells something...rotting. 

He opens his eyes, and an inch from his face is a ghost ( I can't remember the description but you really don't need one ) which basically holds the guy down and shouts "Naniniwala ka na ba!?" ( Do you believe now!? ) in the spookiest, shrieky voice.  Guy gets up, terrified to the point of insanity, of course there's nothing there.  Story ends with him apparently still being in an asylum.

This is the point in my life where I resolved to either stay the hell away from ghosts, or at the very least, do absolutely nothing to intentionally antagonise them. 

Ahh, and that's what brought me to give our idea of respect to that idea :O Of all the ghosts--most speak of the Spanish times (300 years and all dat of colonization and brutal stupid oppression and having our WHOLE country designated as a colony when those jerks only colonized part...), which meant brutal stupidity and oppression killing locals, because of brutal stupidity.
So vengeful ghosts and all are the staple--but many also speak of general times not inclusive with history, soooo yeah. :3 Much fun ._.

[SalmonGod]

I love when people share stories of weird shit happening to them.  Need more of that in this thread.  Pictures appearing on your phone of a person by your room is pretty good. 

I haven't experienced much that was noteworthy myself, but many people I know have.  Not talking friend of a friend stuff, but my wife, parents, etc.  But I'm always hesitant about sharing stories, because of the aggressive skeptic brigade.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

A scary game isn't "don't pop out at me, don't pop out of me, AAH". A scary game is "Oh. Oh god what the fuck. You're just fucking with me right? You wouldn't actually write it this way, I'm just drawing false conclusions, I have to be."

The really scary games are just a constant mental wide-eyed ".......".

What? Writing isn't scary, silly! Plot and lore and stuff can be disturbing, but I only really get scared if the game poses a credible threat to me, and I don't fully understand it. It's the opposite of the stealth game fantasy; in a stealth game, you hold information that you withhold from the game. In soviet horror game, the game holds information that it withholds from you.
But nah, writing is just words.

What do you think plot and lore and stuff is if not writing? There are threats other than the screaming mutant teeth machine coming right at you. The overarching power of dread is so much greater.