World of Warcraft: Forever made it to launch. So did the spiders. For players hoping to adventure through Azeroth with substantially less scuttling, Blizzard is discussing an arachnophobia mode—but evicting the eight-legged residents isn’t simply a matter of copying a setting from modern WoW.
The subject came up in RaiderIO’s interview with developers Tim Jones and Nora Mills. Host Sean asked on behalf of a friend who is extremely afraid of spiders whether Forever could get the option. Mills said the team had been discussing it, but hadn’t had enough time to get it in for launch.
She also addressed the tempting suggestion that Blizzard could simply borrow the existing implementation: “I’ve seen people say like we can just ‘oh, they could just copy paste it from modern.’”
“I wish it were so simple,” she said.
Somewhere, a very convenient imaginary development schedule disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The request has a perfectly sensible precedent. Modern World of Warcraft already has an arachnophobia filter, introduced with The War Within. Blizzard’s explanation described replacing spider creatures with crabs. Azeroth’s answer to an uncomfortable number of legs was, apparently, a different arrangement of legs.
It’s a visual accessibility option rather than a way to make combat easier. Blizzard’s update notes say it doesn’t change gameplay or difficulty, while its filter guide cautions that not every spider model is replaced. The appeal is being able to face the encounter without having the creature’s appearance become the bigger obstacle.
For Forever, Mills didn’t announce a release date or promise a particular implementation. She described an internal accessibility channel where people raise issues ranging from arachnophobia to lighting that may affect players with epilepsy, controller support, and other assistance players need.
“Our tech will evolve, our accessibility capabilities will evolve,” she said, describing the game as something the team will keep developing beyond launch.
That’s encouraging, even if it leaves spider-averse players waiting. An accessibility setting can look wonderfully simple from the outside: tick a box, replace the offending creature, carry on with the quest. The useful part of Mills’ answer is that the team is discussing the request without pretending that the checkbox writes itself.
For now, the spiders retain their tenancy. Hopefully the eventual eviction process involves fewer engineering meetings than legs.
