Don't tell me!

Started by pkmin3033 May 25th, 2016 11:19 PM
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Resurrecting an old semi-discussion we had in the DCC again under an odd topic title because the topic title I would have used was already taken

We live in the *ahem* Golden Age of the Internet, and people like to discuss things like video games. It's inevitable - especially when a new game is released - that people are going to start talking about later points in the game, and reveal things not immediately apparent when you first start playing, or discuss things as they stand later in the story. Such is the nature of spoilers.

Spoilers are a contrary thing that mean different things to different people. For some people, developers spoil the game by revealing the cast or by showing off gameplay features - and indeed, trailers often will use footage from later points in the game. Others want to know everything, and the more they know, the more excited they are for the titles in question. There is also the question of spoiler cutoff points: when is a spoiler not a spoiler? Revealing major plot points of a new JRPG is generally considered bad taste, but it's absolutely fine to talk about games years old even though not everyone has played them yet. With no set of ground rules beyond marking everything as a spoiler - which absolutely nobody does - the topic of spoilers is a veritable minefield.

So, what do you think of spoilers? Are you the kind of person to avoid them, or do you seek any and all knowledge about a game so you know what to expect going into it? Have you ever been spoiled when you didn't want to be? And, most importantly, do you think there is a cutoff point for spoilers? Can you consider it a spoiler when the game has been released for years, or is it just common knowledge by that point regardless of whether or not you've played the game?

...also, if you're going to provide examples, use the spoiler tags please; we don't need actual illustrations of people getting annoyed over differences in values~

machomuu

Stuck in Hot Girl Summer

She/Her
Take a left, turn right at the next stop, bear left for a few mil
Seen March 4th, 2023
Posted April 26th, 2022
10,505 posts
15.1 Years
Heh, I kinda made my point pretty clear in the DCC, but I'll say it in short here.

Not a fan of spoilers. I think it makes sense that one would want to discuss something with reckless abandon- there's no obligation to do otherwise. At the same time, I feel that there's this etiquette to do otherwise, I feel, is pretty damn awesome. Spoilers are enough to ruin an experience, or at least give one a lot less of a punch. And if that game's strength happens to be its story rather than its gameplay? Whew, really hurts there.

I also think that this idea that things need to be experienced when they come out or otherwise it's your fault is pretty hilarious. Terranigma ain't Final Fantasy VII- Aeris dying is common knowledge, but don't go spoiling the many twists of Chrono Cross just because "if they wanted to play it, they would have already done so by now." Apart from devaluing both the size and the substance of the medium as a whole, there's a list of solid reasons as to why someone wouldn't have experienced the game yet. Many of which can't be applied to books, movies, etc.

That said, if you wanna avoid spoilers...c'mon. Don't go looking at wikis for the game or its series. Don't go in threads and discussions for it when they explicitly say "Unmarked Spoilers". I mean, it can get pretty silly, how some people end up spoiling things for themselves.

GanguEevee

~Calamity Trigger~

Age 22
Female
Bronx, NY
Seen April 14th, 2023
Posted November 12th, 2020
296 posts
11.2 Years
I really, really, REALLY, FREAKING HATE spoilers. My hatred for spoilers wasn't all that big. I mean, I will make sure that I avoid them as good as possible, but it was mostly because it was actually very easy to avoid them.

And then Undertale came out. Oh my good god, ****ing Undertale.

And now my hatred for spoilers has now boiled up to the breaking point. Many videos on my sub box that was about Undertale all had spoilerific thumbnails. Except for a few videos, because as least they respected people who have a burning passion to hate spoilers. Most of the time, the spoilers for the games I have and games I will probably play were actually tame, and mostly not major. Undertale? If anyone, AND I DO MEAN ANYONE wants to even play this game without being spoiled, they probably can't anymore. As soon as they take just possibly ONE trip into Google, Facebook, Steam, Youtube, Etc., and look at the discussions and stuff without knowing what's coming for them as soon as they search for 'Undertale', they have now been spoiled thanks to either the images, the thumbnails, the names on the discussions or threads or videos, ANYTHING that their eyeballs can see.

And I hate it. I hate it. I ****ing hate it. It's like that fanbase doesn't seem to give two craps about spoilers. At least during it's showing in the 2015 Game Awards thing, they made damn sure all the footage they showed off was from the trailer, which meant they weren't spoiling much. I have been making sure that I didn't see any spoilerific stuff for Undertale at all except for those stupid thumbnails. If I was very mean, I would have flaged those videos as soon as possible, just because of their stupid thumbnail that spoils a possibly major part of the game.

TL;DR: I hate spoilers and I want to burn anyone who spoils anything without even thinking if anyone would care with a big giant supernova.
~Calamity Trigger~
"O' silver blade forged in the depths of the beyond, heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way! Lay waste."

Firebolt

Reach for my hand, I'll soar away~

Age 25
Male
Land Down Under
Seen 21 Hours Ago
Posted 4 Weeks Ago
927 posts
7.7 Years
I don't think anyone likes spoilers to be honest. I don't think people should have to avoid them. It should be common courtesy not to spoil content for other people, especially if it's only been out for a little while, and especially if everyone is hyped up for it, and especially on a global chat that no one has control over what can be seen and you decide to spoil the damn ending to Star Wars VII cause you're a heartless prick who has no consideration for other people who were waiting for a free weekend to go watch it at the cinemas (rant over). But I can't blame other people for getting spoiled, I accidentally spoiled a (somewhat important) plot scene for Fire Emblem Fates for myself (at least I think it's important; I'm glad that I don't know that yet XD). I guess there really shouldn't be a cutoff point for when you can talk about spoilers unless it's FF7, because everyone and their grandma, even the ones who haven't played the game, know what happens in that. However, people should be able to talk about spoilers. Forums like these should have special posts/chats where people can freely talk about a movie/game. I, for example, was extremely tempted to go online and discuss theories and stuff after Civil War, but I watched it within few days of release, so I knew not many people know what happens XD And people should always definitely use the Spoiler button function thingy when talking about spoilers in a general discussion thread. Just because people are posting on it and viewing it, doesn't mean they've finished the game yet.

Spoiler: Spoilers for Star Wars VII and Captain America: Civil War (DO NOT OPEN IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN BOTH MOVIES!)
Can't believe I knew Han Solo was gonna die before he died... And I can't believe Captain America didn't die like in the comic version of Civil War.

JJ Styles

The Phenomenal Darling

Male
NCR
Seen November 10th, 2019
Posted November 10th, 2019
3,924 posts
8.4 Years
I'm usually immune to Spoilers that i accidentally see mainly since I can easily force myself to forget what i just saw.

One special instance though was Metal Gear Rising Reveangeance. Yes, this was a memetic thing back in its day, and i wanted to play it but we didn't have a PS3 years ago. Then I already knew who the final boss was since MGRR's memetic status back in 2013 was something quite special. But i still got the game in order to find out why was he was the final boss and what led to all of those events and memes. And since i got MGRR for dirt cheap at our game store a few months ago, i feel no regrets on playing a game where i already knew who the main antagonist was. What did matter to me were the reasons, and the fact that MGRR was Raiden's spinoff game. Of course i got it.

Okay, so we all would universally agree on one thing about story related spoilers: They suck. They would make you want to pluck your eyes out. But I'll just talk about one thing that's mentioned in the opening post:

developers spoil the game by revealing the cast or by showing off gameplay features - and indeed, trailers often will use footage from later points in the game
Now for me, developers spoiling things by showing off gameplay features is for most of the time, not a serious issue for me. I mean, I would like to know what we can do when we get their game, and I don't mind seeing what a later point of the game would look like as long as I can see something that the player character(s). I think I'm absolutely fine on that. And for most of the time, they use only flashes or glimpses of the stage anyway in showing off a feature.

I'd like to cite an example of Idsoftware and on their game, DOOM. While most of the time they basically featured things such as weapons, weapon mods from combat drones, the glory kills/fatalities, Doomguy's ability to double jump and whatnot, Elite Guard Tokens to help upgrade the Doomguy, etc. what they didn't spoil before the game's launch was this:

Spoiler:
Aside from the already mentioned Elite Guard tokens, The Doomguy himself can be further upgraded with various upgrades from completing tasks, achievements (in-game, not steam), and rune trials = basically bonus sections in the game where you have to complete a task in a VERY limited amount of time in order to get a character upgrade thus making the Doomguy even stronger. And i forgot to mention that you can allocate your own upgrades depending on what you feel is pretty useful for certain parts of the game. HUGE SPOILER BTW. I thought that was pretty clever since they never showed any aspects of further character customization in DOOM's single player campaign, and these aspects somehow reminded me a lot of DMC and a lot of post-2000 action games.. yes that's a very weird resemblance. DEVIL MAY DOOM! And did i mention that DOOM and DMC have so much in common!?


Oh and for some basic funnies, HEY GUYS YOU ALL WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN DYNASTY WARRIORS 8 LIKE THE FINAL ENDING?!?!?!?!!?

Spoiler:
None of the three kingdoms get to unite China. it was the Sima Clan and the Jin Dynasty who would do it. SPOILAR? Heck no, since I read about some abriged Three Kingdoms History (the actual Three Kingdoms history, not ROTK which is historical fiction) already. Same ending applies to Romance of the Three Kingdoms if played in the "historical" mode.

mew_nani

Pokécommunity's Licensed Tree Exorcist

Female
Far Lands
Seen May 28th, 2019
Posted August 25th, 2018
1,839 posts
13.4 Years
I really, really, REALLY, FREAKING HATE spoilers. My hatred for spoilers wasn't all that big. I mean, I will make sure that I avoid them as good as possible, but it was mostly because it was actually very easy to avoid them.

And then Undertale came out. Oh my good god, ****ing Undertale.

And now my hatred for spoilers has now boiled up to the breaking point. Many videos on my sub box that was about Undertale all had spoilerific thumbnails. Except for a few videos, because as least they respected people who have a burning passion to hate spoilers. Most of the time, the spoilers for the games I have and games I will probably play were actually tame, and mostly not major. Undertale? If anyone, AND I DO MEAN ANYONE wants to even play this game without being spoiled, they probably can't anymore. As soon as they take just possibly ONE trip into Google, Facebook, Steam, Youtube, Etc., and look at the discussions and stuff without knowing what's coming for them as soon as they search for 'Undertale', they have now been spoiled thanks to either the images, the thumbnails, the names on the discussions or threads or videos, ANYTHING that their eyeballs can see.

And I hate it. I hate it. I ****ing hate it. It's like that fanbase doesn't seem to give two craps about spoilers. At least during it's showing in the 2015 Game Awards thing, they made damn sure all the footage they showed off was from the trailer, which meant they weren't spoiling much. I have been making sure that I didn't see any spoilerific stuff for Undertale at all except for those stupid thumbnails. If I was very mean, I would have flaged those videos as soon as possible, just because of their stupid thumbnail that spoils a possibly major part of the game.

TL;DR: I hate spoilers and I want to burn anyone who spoils anything without even thinking if anyone would care with a big giant supernova.
Aw lord, Undertale. Undertale was the ONE game out there that you were supposed to go into spoiler free because of how expansive and surprising the game can be, and not two days after it comes out your Youtube recommendations get flooded with videos pasted with thumbnails that are essentially giant spoilers on their own. It was really bad with fan remixes of the songs; they'd post pictures of Asriel (who is supposed to be secret) up and if you so much as looked at the comment section for two seconds the whole game would essentially be spoiled for you. It's a bit easier to dodge the spoilers now as long as you don't go looking up the OST or characters but if you do a lot of the magic that game has is taken away because you know how things are going to happen, and that's no fun at all. At least Tvtropes has the common decency to put their spoilers in text you have to click on and highlight!

But yeah, I'm not that fond of spoilers. Video games tend to be at their best when you go in knowing next to nothing about them, unless the video game is a sequel or prequel to another game and you're expected to have played the original game first. There's a special magic in playing a game you got because you liked the cover art or you heard a song online with no prior other prior knowledge, and it's just not the same when you already know exactly what will happen. Even Final Fantasy VII which was mentioned earlier with that specific spoiler that isn't a spoiler at this point because we already know what happens still has a lot of twists and turns in it that are best left hidden until you come across them while playing the game, and it's much more mind blowing when you go in blind than when you read up a walkthrough and get the entire plot handed to you. The only exceptions to this rule are spoilers shown in trailers, and those are at least tolerable because you have no idea what's going on and you won't know what's going on until you get to that point in the game. As long as it's not someting really spoileriffic I can tolerate and understand it as they have to get you wanting to get the game SOMEHOW.

I support:

R.I.P Isaac J. Southerland Jr.
1946 - 2017