Spoiler Alert!

[Fearzone]

Last Year I was standing in line to see the Star Trek movie, the one where they are still at Star Fleet Academy. While standing there the prior audience was exiting.

One yelled: "You want to know how it ends? Everyone lives!"

 

[tkioz]

Spoilers suck! People who shout them in places without proper warnings in the first few days/weeks after something come out need to be strung up by their heals and dangled over a nest of ants.

I've been trying to avoid all spoilers about Mass Effect 2, but I've been afflicted a few times in unrelated topics, someone brings it up, then someone says something about part X was cool and I want to smash someones face in because I haven't got there yet >.<

 

[tkioz]

I find spoiler alerts annoying. For me, information is important. Knowing all the plot twists in a good movie only encourages me to see the film, as a well executed plot twist is a sign of a good movie. I find that my enjoyment of something is independent of my knowledge. Knowing the good bits (aka spoilers) allows me to better judge how well I'll like something. I relate media entertainment (Movies, books, games, etc...) to a roller coaster. One can see the whole track from where one is, but one's knowledge of the track does not diminish one's experience on the ride.

Knowledge, in fact, can heighten the experience. Having been told the upcoming plot twist, questions of execution and reaction come to the forefront. How will the plot twist be executed? Where will it come from? When will it happen? How will the characters react? Take the roller coaster example. You see a sharp turn ahead, as your car barrels on down the track. You anticipate how you will react to the gut wrenching turn. That anticipation accentuates the emotions you feel, ones of terror and exhilaration. No amount of knowledge, no amount of spoilers, can substitute for the actual experience.

That's personal preference, you enjoy knowing that before you get it, but most of us are okay with little things like the basic setting, or things in the trailer, but knowing the ending and things the designers want to be a surprise, that's something we'd enjoy not knowing before hand.

So yea spoiler alerts may annoy you, but at least your information is under them, without them we have our enjoyment ruined completely.

 

[Plinglebob]

I'm a bit schitzophrenic when it comes to spoilers as I hate know whats going to happen but sometimes the tension or the plot drags on so long I go find out the end out of sheer frustration. I still haven't watched any of Lost yet for this reason. Overall, I play games for the story and as such do try and avoid spoilers where I can. Going to be having a complete black out on any Bioshock 2 (though they'll never top the last one), Heavy Rain and Final Fantasy threads/reviews/news for this reason.

 

[Illustro Cado]

I stopped caring about spoilers a long time ago. I'm one of those people that can hardly fathom how it's possible for something to be spoiled in the first place. Knowing what happens doesn't take the magic out of the event, does it?

Yeah, in some cases it does. I'm really good at suspending disbelief and getting wrapped up in the moment, but if I'm in a mood where that's particularly difficult I feel kind of cheated when I know what's gonna happen next. Part of that is because I'm jaded-plots are often so predictable you just gotta figure out the archetype and fill in the blanks-and part of it is a longing for unpredictability that cannot be fulfilled even when the things I knew were gonna happen didn't happen as expected.

All that is probably a bit confusing, but when you get to the nitty gritty all I'm trying to say is don't be a dick. Seriously, guys. Just don't.

 

[Ren3004]

I hate spoilers. I hate it when I'm going through a game, get to a certain part and think to myself 'Yeah, now the plot twist's coming'. I like to experience the story by myself, not have someone else tell me.

So please, use spoiler tags. Even if it's for something 'we should already know'. Some people just haven't got around to watch those movies, play those games or read those books yet.

EDIT: And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who will have to wait before they get ME2 because they have other things to do first. So please... please... don't spoil the game.

Also, that was a very good article, I almost punched my desk in frustration when I got to the part where the two women spoil the result.

 

[Chipperz]

You know, I feel compelled now to add in a little story of my own about spoilers;

Transformers 2 had been out for a week. Considering the first one did a good job of making a decent action movie out of a toy advert and everyone hated it for how little it was like it's toy advert roots, I was really psyched for it. Problem was, I had no money. Eventually, a group of mates who are going to see it offer to pool together and pay for me, which is really cool, but also happens to be the weekend of my roommate's birthday. In trying to convince me, one of them lets slip a little gem...

Spoiler

"C'mon, it's a great film! You'll love it! It made me cry when Optimus Prime died!"

...Yeah. Still haven't entirely forgiven the *****.

Also, before I hit post, for everyone ready to reply with "lawl transfermors 2 sux balz" or whatever, I enjoyed it, so what exactly do you intend to do about it?

EDIT - also... Portal. Yeah, if you've heard it dozens upon dozens of times, the whole "cake is a lie" and "companion cube" jokes just aren't that funny from the original source. Sadly, the game isn't that great without them...

 

[Orange Monkey]

*gives Susan a sympathetic hug* That has happened to me more times than I care to count.It tends to happen a lot more in Malta, cos we get pretty much everything a Year after it has come out in the big countries. In have yet to watch a season of So You Think You Can Dance where someone hadn't told me who won

 

[DTWolfwood]

my condolences Susan

 

[Gunner 51]

That's why we have the joy of Spoiler tags here on the Escapists. While I can understand revealing snippets of the storyline is a little annoying, but what's the harm?

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE!!
Oh lordy, I do beg your pardon, don't know what came over me. Ahem.

I slightly over-reacted when someone spoiled that for me. Apparently I was/can be quite scary when I put my mind to it.
Good article, which raises good points, methinks, but I don't think it's that hard to avoid spoilers, if you're really that bothered. What really annoys me is when Developers/Publishers spill the beans themselves, in the name of generating hype/publicity.

 

[Jandau]

I actively avoided Mass Effect 2 previews and articles. I watched some early gameplay videos and decided I liked what I saw, and then I went into as much of a blackout about it as I could for nearly a year. I managed to avoid the worst of it. Occasionally, I'd get hit by some piece of info that I didn't want, but managed to repress most of it.

Today I finished ME2 for the first time and I'm quite glad I did all of the above. It kept the game fresh, the characters interesting and the overall experience far more engaging. Sure, the way the story is told and the alternate ways to handle certain situations will make it interesting on subsequent playthroughs, but I honestly wanted that first time to be completely fresh and unspoiled.

If that's wrong, I don't want to be right!

 

[AvsJoe]

Spoiler: Spoiler Warning! Read at your own risk!

I dislike the most of the sports in the Olympic Games. All I care about is hockey and total medal count. Go Canada!

 

[HentMas]

I know next to nothing about Mass Effect 2, the only things I have heard are (or where) spoken as "probably" like how they will "probably" take out some races from the game or how they will "probably" make your previous character part of the game, but its kind of weird that every time I see "spoiler alert" in a review page I close it and move on, I dont really care if I am told about certain things or if they tell me all the damn plot, but I do care enought that they give me the choice to not know, and thats common courtesy, wich many people seem to overlook on their own exited existence, because in the end people only brag or yell to the 4 winds what they know because they want everyone to share the joy of knowing about a particular thing about their game.

and the bragging "I knew first about that"

 

[Myan]

...
Same principle as with movies for me. If you haven't seen "The Game" with Micheal Douglas yet and somebody tells you how it ends, there is almost no point watching it anymore.

Everytime I see someone spoiling an experience without proper announcement, I always come to think that they were just too lazy to describe the event in terms that wouldn't give away the surprise.

Twists are something I hugely appreciate in every kind of media with a story and as a good one can almost save a mediocre title, a spoilered one is typicall dead on arrival.

I completely agree. I've been in movie lines for the latest blockbuster when the previous show gets out and the people who have just seen this highly-anticipated movie with lots of twists and turns begin to stop in front of the line and start discussing the ins and outs of the plot. This has happened multiple times. I think it comes down to respect of others ultimately.

Also,

Please don't tell me that you've been part of the community for a year and a half and this is the first time you've ventured into the discussion thread for one of our articles?

Please excuse me, Sir Buzz-Kill, I wasn't aware that I had to use forum mark-up to express the tone of my posts. I apologize.

[sarcasm]
Two links and a sentence? If you weren't part of the Escapist Committee, you'd be probated for low-content posting.
[/sarcasm]

Happy now?

Rule of thumb in life, don't be a dick. Rule of thumb in the Escapist forums, don't be a dick to anyone, especially a member of the staff and a mod. That's not sarcasm, that's just plain asshatery.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Rule of thumb in life, don't be a dick. Rule of thumb in the Escapist forums, don't be a dick to anyone, especially a member of the staff and a mod. That's not sarcasm, that's just plain asshatery.

You can't take away a person's right to be an asshole.

People who post spoilers or who make spoilers their lifes' big quest are nothing but attention whores pure and simple, they don't care what kind of attention they are getting as long as they are getting it.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Then, do not read the threads.
Case closed.

Yes and no. If there's a "Mass Effect 2 Plot Twists" thread, then yeah, pretty easy to avoid. But if the thread is about something like "Favorite Videogame Characters" and someone just blurts out a spoiler, you have no reason to expect that or guard against it.

But yes, there needs to be common sense on both sides of the spoiler avoidance equation.

 

[Virgil]

Fun fact: The spoiler tag on our forums not only hides the content from normal view, but it also encodes it so you can't see the spoilers if you view the page source, and so search engines can't grab it for their preview text. It doesn't get converted into readable text until you click on it.

Archangel is actually...

For games that I know I'm going to buy, like ME2, I don't read anything in advance. No previews, trailers, the official site - nothing - for exactly this reason. I didn't know this going into that mission, and the game was definitely better for it.

You can't take away a person's right to be an asshole.

Perhaps not in life, but we can take away their ability to do it here.

 

[commasplice]

Then, do not read the threads.
Case closed.

Yes and no. If there's a "Mass Effect 2 Plot Twists" thread, then yeah, pretty easy to avoid. But if the thread is about something like "Favorite Videogame Characters" and someone just blurts out a spoiler, you have no reason to expect that or guard against it.

But yes, there needs to be common sense on both sides of the spoiler avoidance equation.

Exactly. Unless you completely cut yourself off from the outside world, there's really no way to 100% protect yourself from spoilers and insinuating that it's the spoilee who is at fault is kind of like saying, "You don't like cigarette smoke? Then don't go outside." Yeah, sure, it's fine if you want to smoke and everything, but if we're both at a hot dog stand, waiting to be served, I'd appreciate it if you held off on that smoke until we've both gone our separate ways.