Spoilers That Can/Can't Be Spoiled (given the circumstances)

DirgeNovak

I'm anticipating DmC. Flame me.
Jul 23, 2008
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Queen Michael said:
Kakulukia said:
Okay, I don't mind getting that spoiled because I don't watch game of Thrones and have no plans to ever do it. But you've got to understand that there are lots and lots of ways a person might be unable to get that far before now.
Maybe their mom didn't allow them to watch it until they were old enough.
Maybe they didn't think it would be any good, but loved the first episode when their friends forced them to watch it.
Maybe they didn't have the time to follow a long series until now.
And in all these instances, a spoiler will ruin the experience.
So we're supposed to never ever discuss pop culture in the public space because maybe somebody's mom didn't let them watch a thing?
I agree that it sucks to get a good plot point spoiled and people shouldn't be total dicks about it and spoil for the sake of spoiling, but after a whole year has passed, I won't stop myself from referencing a plot point in conversation.
I've had things spoiled to me too, but if I'm late watching it, I can't blame anyone for it.
 

SSJBlastoise

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Dec 20, 2012
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I don't think it's really ever ok to spoil anything outside of something that has happened in history, like the Titanic. Not everyone is able to watch every single thing when they come out and even if they had the money too they would never have the time. I still want to catch up on The Walking Dead (just started), Game of Thrones (thanks to the person spoiling stuff in this thread as well) and Breaking Bad. I don't pirate my TV shows and I don't have Foxtel (cable in Australia) so I either have to wait to see it on free to air TV (which The Walking Dead is doing now) or buying the DVDs and this means I'll automatically be at least a year behind.

People need to remember that soooo much stuff is released each year and people have jobs which take away time to interact with the newer stuff so they fall behind or they simply can't afford it. I don't care how old the spoiler is, you should always have a warning.

The one where Brian dies.
 

Queen Michael

has read 4,010 manga books
Jun 9, 2009
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Kakulukia said:
So we're supposed to never ever discuss pop culture in the public space because maybe somebody's mom didn't let them watch a thing?
I agree that it sucks to get a good plot point spoiled and people shouldn't be total dicks about it and spoil for the sake of spoiling, but after a whole year has passed, I won't stop myself from referencing a plot point in conversation.
I've had things spoiled to me too, but if I'm late watching it, I can't blame anyone for it.
Strawman much? I'm not saying we can never evr discuss pop culture, I'm saying that the kind of thing that you definitely are better off checking with people before you discuss. And I really dislike the idea of a time limit. It's not fair to stress people like that. They should be able to watch a series when they get the time or feel like it. Not to mention that a one-year limit just isn't enough, considering how many good series are on nowadays.
 

Jolly Co-operator

A Heavy Sword
Mar 10, 2012
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I try to use spoiler tags or some sort of warning whenever I can, even if the property in question is somewhat old. Even if something has been around for a few years, keeping up with pop-culture can be tough. Maybe someone didn't have the right console to play a certain game until recently, or they just weren't considered old enough by their parents to see that movie / read that book / play that game. Using tags really takes such a minuscule amount of effort from me, so I see no logical reason not to spare people from spoilers when I can.

As for how I feel about having things spoiled for me, I don't mind it too much for games or movies. Sure, I'll be somewhat annoyed that someone thoughtlessly spoiled it, but I should still be able to enjoy the property in question. However, if a book, anime, or TV series is spoiled for me, I find that to be considerably more irritating.

With a game or movie, I'll still be able to enjoy the spectacle and / or gameplay even though I know the story. With a book, there's really nothing but story for me to enjoy, so enough major spoilers can really kill it for me, especially since I'm fond of rather lengthy fantasy series that require a considerable time commitment (if someone had spoiled "Toll the Hounds' for me, there would have been blood).

Although I could still enjoy the spectacle in a TV show or Anime, they require a larger commitment of my time than a movie, so having it spoiled just a few episodes from the end can be somewhat aggravating.
 

Mocmocman

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Dec 4, 2012
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I'm rather cool with spoilers. When I got Bioshock, I played until the start of Neptune's Bounty. About then I went on a family vacation, where I didn't have my computer to play it. Because the vacation was visiting relatives, I was spending a good amount of time browsing the internet with my mom's laptop, and ended up spoiling the whole game for myself. If anything, the spoilers made me more interested in the game knowing all of the stuff going on. However, I do respect that spoilers do hurt some experiences. Some dick spoiled Infinite, rather hurt a lot of the enjoyment of the ending on my part.

One book that I read, the author gave the ultimate ending of the series away in the forward. I don't think that this really counts as a spoiler, as the ending is something that is kind of assumed, and he didn't really tell me anything that happens in the first hundreds of pages of the book. As others here have said, it's more of the journey than the ending.

I think something isn't a spoiler if it is knowledge assumed that the audience would know beforehand. Such as the Titanic's sinking isn't really a spoiler for the movie Titanic, as it's presumed the audience would know of the event beforehand. A time limit before you can spoil things is kind of dumb. I didn't really start playing video games until mid 2012, so does that mean that I should get spoilers for a game that I had only just found out about?

I'm rambling, aren't I? I always err on the side of caution, as giving a spoiler warning or putting spoiler tags on something is not to much of a hassle, and people have different ways they want to experience a story, and who am I to ruin it for them?
 

game-lover

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Dec 1, 2010
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Spoilers don't bother me.

In fact, spoilers tend to make me want to read something/watch something more.

After all, generally spoilers tell you just what happens. People hardly ever say how it happens.
 

Strain42

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Mar 2, 2009
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I dunno. I've noticed it really comes down to a case by case basis. In the end though, I don't think any spoiler is necessarily justified. Like I played BioShock YEARS after it came out, and I'm really glad that hadn't been spoiled for me, because I genuinely enjoyed the reveal that came from that game.

On the subject of spoilers though, here's something I find VERY odd. And that is how strongly people will DEFEND spoilers. And not even ones that they themselves posted. I mean of course there's always the old chestnut of "Well, the story is X years old. Anyone who cares should already know." which I find total BS but...okay here, lemme tell a story from last year as an example here. The following story contains Persona 4 spoilers. Please read at your own risk

Okay, so last spring/early summer or so, a lotta people (myself included) were super psyched for Persona 4 Arena, the fighting game sequel to the hit RPG Persona 4. But one of the big news items about Persona 4 Arena was that certain characters would be getting new voice actors, most notably the mascot character, Teddie.

So Siliconera did an article talking about how everyone's favorite bear would be receiving a new voice actor. That was it. That was the whole point of this article. Just to discuss the new voice actor. The article itself had nothing to do with the story from Persona 4 or Persona 4 Arena.

However, one part of the article was basically them going "Here's a video where you can all hear what Teddie's old voice sounded like for comparison." Now Persona 4 has a lot of voiced dialogue in it. Hell, there are even like 30 second videos that Atlus USA put up for the sole purpose of showing off a character's voice. But did they put one of those up? No. What did they put up instead? The 10 minute video of Teddie's big speech at the end where he reveals that he was a Shadow the entire time. Arguably one of the biggest spoilers of the game being put into an article simply about a voice actor change, at a time when a lot of people who were looking forward to P4A were probably playing through P4 for the first time.

And so I kinda pointed that out. I was like "Hey, did you really need to use such a spoiler filled video just to demonstrate the old voice?" and people JUMPED on me like I'd just given them the finger and farted on their lunch. I got so many downvotes and people going "Persona 4 Arena is a sequel to Persona 4. Spoilers should already be implied!"

and if this article had been about P4A's story, I might have agreed with that...but it wasn't...It was simply about a voice actor change and for no logical reason contained a video with a big spoiler in it.

So yeah...some things I just don't understand.
 

FPLOON

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Jul 10, 2013
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SSJBlastoise said:
The one where Brian dies.
At first, I thought everyone who overreacted about Brian's death forgot about that one two-part episode taking place at James Wood's mansion... Then again, you can argue that most of the characters that did get killed off in that particular episode didn't really change anything, so there wasn't really any sense to care about them long after the episode was over... I think the reason why Brian's death was reacted the way it was was because of how much it seems ironic in general... From Stewie smashing the time machine to what actually killed Brian, no matter how serious the show was taking this, there were still elements that really hurt that seriousness of the whole situation even more than I feel was intended... Sure, just like with that one Simpson's episode MovieBob mentioned when he talked about this episode of Family Guy, time will pass and things would blow over like someone getting over a death of a family member (bad metaphor, I know), but I still feel that the way the show handled Brian's death overall was what caused this whole "hoopla" in the first place...
Strain42 said:
On the subject of spoilers though, here's something I find VERY odd. And that is how strongly people will DEFEND spoilers. And not even ones that they themselves posted. I mean of course there's always the old chestnut of "Well, the story is X years old. Anyone who cares should already know." which I find total BS but...okay here, lemme tell a story from last year as an example here. The following story contains Persona 4 spoilers. Please read at your own risk

Okay, so last spring/early summer or so, a lotta people (myself included) were super psyched for Persona 4 Arena, the fighting game sequel to the hit RPG Persona 4. But one of the big news items about Persona 4 Arena was that certain characters would be getting new voice actors, most notably the mascot character, Teddie.

So Siliconera did an article talking about how everyone's favorite bear would be receiving a new voice actor. That was it. That was the whole point of this article. Just to discuss the new voice actor. The article itself had nothing to do with the story from Persona 4 or Persona 4 Arena.

However, one part of the article was basically them going "Here's a video where you can all hear what Teddie's old voice sounded like for comparison." Now Persona 4 has a lot of voiced dialogue in it. Hell, there are even like 30 second videos that Atlus USA put up for the sole purpose of showing off a character's voice. But did they put one of those up? No. What did they put up instead? The 10 minute video of Teddie's big speech at the end where he reveals that he was a Shadow the entire time. Arguably one of the biggest spoilers of the game being put into an article simply about a voice actor change, at a time when a lot of people who were looking forward to P4A were probably playing through P4 for the first time.

And so I kinda pointed that out. I was like "Hey, did you really need to use such a spoiler filled video just to demonstrate the old voice?" and people JUMPED on me like I'd just given them the finger and farted on their lunch. I got so many downvotes and people going "Persona 4 Arena is a sequel to Persona 4. Spoilers should already be implied!"

and if this article had been about P4A's story, I might have agreed with that...but it wasn't...It was simply about a voice actor change and for no logical reason contained a video with a big spoiler in it.

So yeah...some things I just don't understand.
Wow, even though I was never one to defend spoilers, per se (even though I still never cared about spoilers either way), that was something that never made sense to me, in terms of talking about sequels or spin-offs... Sure, most sequels and "some" spin-offs do sometimes "imply" spoilers from their previous source materials, but that doesn't mean EVERYONE already knows about them going in learning about said sequels... The story you stated (if you don't mind me implying what you're spoiling without going into spoiler details, mind you) is something I'm not a fan of, especially since there was no mention of an incoming spoiler, let alone the spoiler in question really should not have been said in the first place, given what the subject was mainly focusing on...

If you're going to defend a spoiler, at least be nice about it... Respect that not everyone wants to be spoiled right off the bat and, if you're the one spoiling, at least give a warning about it for those just tuning in... Even with those "rare" spoilers that have become more universally well-known than finding reasonable arguments on YouTube[footnote]I suck at meaningful metaphors...[/footnote], still wonder how big of a spoiler in question is before you "spill the beans"...