How long does the "No Spoilers" game need to be played?

[Carlston]

It's a old question I have. Basicly goes back to seeing the first Lord of the Rings. Was at the theater enjoying the movie, after the credits I said "Well that was the start of it, can't wait till they get the ring to Mount Doom." at this point a fellow movie goer turns and does the comic book guy from the Simpsons impresstion "Oh man spoilers you ruined it for me." I laughed at him. And he said "No serious, keep it to yourself I don't want to know the end."

That point I just couldn't stop making fun of him. "It's a 80 year old or so story. Oh Spoiler, Titanic sinks, Jesus gets crucified and the rebels blow up the death star."

I kinda pegged on him. Never once feeling bad. Still don't. Guess the Navy made me cold to the feelings of others in such a manner.

Now, it keeps happening, mostly now since I'm retired I go to a lot of Cons. Sci Fi to Anime and the same thing happens. I try and talk about Starship troopers. And someone comes out of left field sticking their nose into the conversation about "spoilers"... Kid chances are you didn't read the 1959 novel, let alone even want to see the movie. Who cares?

I mean 40-50 years old? And you want me to pretend like I need to hide the end of a story from you? A story you don't care about, never wanted to read or even watch a badly done movie about?

Really?

Now even with Anime. There are some series in the 700's now. But there is a crowd who will only want to hear about what the "English Dub" and they don't want spoilers. Jesus things like One piece are 15 years old! ( Ace dies. Five year old story get over it ) I mean you can even find online the title of a episode "The Death of Portagus D.Ace. Not a big secret...


Seriously. I try to at least worry about spoiling something for my friends. But for god sake, when does this end? It's like some people don't even get the basics of culture. What else do I have to "not spoil" for someone? History?

Now games, I give a month or two, not that your local Prima guide doesn't spoil the game experience in the first place. Or the week after release Youtube videos of the story...

But anime? Things 20 years old only now getting a English dub. How far does one need to go to be polite?

And god forbid something gets two companies dubbing a series like 4Kids and you break someone's heart that Yeah she didn't go to a dungeon, she was murdered in front of her kids shot through the chest.


But really 80 year old stories and the like? What is considered good form. And what point when someone used the stupid "OMG spoilers" line do you just call them stupid? Romeo and Juliet's ended? What 400 year old story? Why do I have to tip toe around a strange who is basically uncultured.

Eh more ranting. But serious. When is a good time to keep the ending to ones self or even the current story line... always seems at least one person is gonna *****. Even those who have no business in my conversation to begin with...

Ideas? I mean I do go to Scifi cons to speak about well...scifi. Not play hide the very public and not so secret ending to a 50 year old story...

 

[ohnoitsabear]

Well, the thing is, even if a lot of these are older stories, in all of the examples you listed, they're stories that many people are likely to be experiencing for the first time. Like with the Lord of the Rings example, I'm sure a very large amount of the people watching it that hadn't read the books for whatever reason. Odds are, they wouldn't want it spoiled for them. The age of the story really has nothing to do with it.

Also, just because the ending of something is well known to you doesn't mean it's well known to everybody. For example, I only vaguely know what Starship Troopers is, let alone how it ends. That's not to say it's something I wouldn't be interested in, it's just that it's something that I've never come across, as someone who doesn't know very much about Sci-Fi novels. That doesn't mean I want somebody going and spoiling it for me, in case I do happen to read the book or see the movie.

Look, I'm not trying to defend strangers not involved in a conversation butting in to try to stop you from spoiling something. They can probably just ignore the conversation, so it's their own damn fault if something gets spoiled. But otherwise, you should probably try to be a little more sympathetic to the other person's perspective in regards to spoilers.

 

[Batou667]

Something as well-known as LoTR, I'd say that's fair game to open up for discussion and meta-talk. It's the archetypal high-fantasy story, if you can't guess how it ends after the first 30 minutes you'd have to be some kind of traveler from the Planet Zog. Ditto with Titanic, Star Wars, anything Shakespeare, anything Kubrik. They're part of our culture and constantly being referenced in real life anyway.

Other films, games, series? Err on the side of caution, I guess. There are plenty of people out there who due to age or plain laziness only get round to watching a series on second or third repeat, or when it becomes available as a boxed set or for digital viewing. Case in point, I started watching 24 for the first time this year (majorly late to the party, I know) and would be annoyed if somebody spoiled that for me. Ditto with series I haven't picked up yet but plan to, maybe, one day - like Lost, Jailbreak, any of the recent Dr Who, Merlin, etc. (Man, I really don't keep up with modern TV).

 

[Eleuthera]

When talking with someone I will ask if they saw/read/played it, and if not if they mind getting spoilered.
It's not my fault if you overhear me talking about it though.

Online, I'll use spoilertags or warnings even for very old stuff, it's easy enough to do and keep the amount of bitching down...

 

[lechat]

FFS i was gonna watch lord of the rings this weekend and now i know they take the ring to the big fire mountain thing
spoilers please!!!11!!! one one one and so on

 

[Cloake]

In my opinion, it's all about context and where you are. I think that it would have been fine to discuss the Lord of the Rings ending anywhere except the theater where they were showing the first part.

 

[Lilani]

I feel like you should never discredit somebody's first experience with something. I just finished Bioshock for the first time yesterday. The closest thing to a spoiler I ever saw was a picture of Atlas with the text "Don't believe his lies," but I didn't consider it a big deal because I suspected him right from the get-go with his whole "wife and child" schtick. And I did tell my boyfriend I was playing the game recently, and he was kind enough to not spoil anything for me. Who Atlas turned out to be was still a surprise, and I was rather surprised by what Andrew Ryan revealed about the player character. I don't know how I've avoided spoiling that all this time, but I did. And not knowing those twists will be just as valuable to somebody who's playing the game 50 years from now. That is what made those moment so special to us in the first place--the sting of betrayal, the confirmation of our worst suspicions.

As for your specific situations, OP, I feel like "the ring is going to Mount Doom" is a spoiler on the same level of "Voldemort is going to be defeated." Like yeah, it is the ending, but they called it right from the start and those aren't the kinds of stories to have some huge, game-changing twist at the end that completely alters how they approach the villain. The closest Harry Potter got was the Horcrux thing, but they were still resolved to beat Voldemort regardless. So, yeah. I do think your friend was being a bit silly, being worried about knowing the ring is going to Mount Doom. It's not that the story is old that makes it a pretty mild spoiler, it's that the fellowship was established with the purpose of getting the ring there, and it being a hero's journey we know it's going to get there one way or another. The things in the Lord of the Rings that you don't want to spoil aren't the ending, they're the things that happen inbetween and what get them to the ending.

 

[senordesol]

I have a one year rule on media. If it's less than a year old, I'll censor myself, any older than that and it's fair game.

 

[kailus13]

I'd say about a year for any one thing. At that point most people have either been spoiled by someone else, don't really care about it, or have already seen/played it themselves. As for the Mount Doom example, that's fine. It's obvious that they were going to get to Mount Doom at some point, so it's not really a spoiler.

 

[BrassButtons]

It doesn't matter how old a story is. I mean, there are people who are just now being born--they aren't going to know how something ends just because it's been around for 50 years. And not everyone has a lot of time to devote to reading/watching movies/playing games. Some of us have long lists of media that we want to experience, but haven't gotten around to yet. It's pretty ridiculous to assume that because someone hasn't seen/read something yet that it means they don't actually care about it. We don't all operate on your timetable.

Now, if you're chatting with friends in a public place and someone overhears a spoiler then that's unfortunate, but I don't think you should constantly censure yourself just because you might spoil something for somebody. At the same time, though, setting matters. In the theater immediately after the first movie in a trilogy is not the place to start talking about the climax of the third movie.