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What do you think is the acceptable grace period regarding spoilers in a game?
- Thread starter WestEgg
- Start date
Why say:
Why is There a Tree in Uranus in The Groundhog 64
When you can say:
The Groundhog 64 Question About Uranus
Latter will still drive in your target audience.
Why is There a Tree in Uranus in The Groundhog 64
When you can say:
The Groundhog 64 Question About Uranus
Latter will still drive in your target audience.
Depends on what we're considering spoilers here.
If at some point in a certain game you play as another character briefly, I won't complain that people are talking about this freely after a while. But spoiling an ending just because it's been however long just seems weird to me. It's not hard to use the spoiler tag, people who played the game will just click it and the conversation can continue.
If at some point in a certain game you play as another character briefly, I won't complain that people are talking about this freely after a while. But spoiling an ending just because it's been however long just seems weird to me. It's not hard to use the spoiler tag, people who played the game will just click it and the conversation can continue.
I think spoilers are always courteous, and it's discourteous to spoil things that are still fresh on public attention, but once they're slipped out of focus it starts to become selfish to demand everyone in the world have to curb to you. If a game's been out for like three years and I haven't played it yet, I'd appreciate spoilers, but I also wouldn't expect people to dance around talking about it just for my sake. If it's been ten years with nothing new on the horizon to bring a big wave of new people into it and I got spoiled I'd probably laugh that off.
A week or two before release, there was a demo kiosk back in the day that had Metroid Prime 3 going. I remember passing by it as a kid was playing. A cutscene came up with one of the characters saying the word "damn". I thought this was pretty humorous at the time considering it was a Nintendo game. A couple days later, I was hanging with a friend, who is a mega Nintendo fan, and the topic of MP3 came up. I mentioned being surprised that (mild) cursing was in the game without thinking, and he was furious that I was dropping spoilers on him (it was the only element of the game I'd mentioned). Didn't talk to me for like a week.
Since then, I try to tread as lightly as possible when talking about plot details of games around friends.
Since then, I try to tread as lightly as possible when talking about plot details of games around friends.
Generally, you should never spoil, as you never know if a current or even potential player is going to see/hear the spoiler ad have something ruined for them. Realistically, it depends heavily on context. Some spoilers are more damaging than others.
The thing that happens at the end of the first disc of FF7 is a powerful and surprising moment, but it doesn't hurt the game as a whole if you go in knowing it happens, especially 22 years out. It sucks that it's one of the most casually spoiled moments in gaming, but it's not a game breaking spoiler. Same goes for, say, the twists of the Bioshock games.
Finding out the identity of the mastermind in Danganronpa 1 is the central mystery to the entire game and knowing it in advance ruined a huge part of the experience. Even spoiling other killers and victims in the series removes a major element of fun for the games, so spoilers for those games should never be acceptable.
The thing that happens at the end of the first disc of FF7 is a powerful and surprising moment, but it doesn't hurt the game as a whole if you go in knowing it happens, especially 22 years out. It sucks that it's one of the most casually spoiled moments in gaming, but it's not a game breaking spoiler. Same goes for, say, the twists of the Bioshock games.
Finding out the identity of the mastermind in Danganronpa 1 is the central mystery to the entire game and knowing it in advance ruined a huge part of the experience. Even spoiling other killers and victims in the series removes a major element of fun for the games, so spoilers for those games should never be acceptable.
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Ya'll take made-up things too seriously. Spoiler: Mario and Link both save their respective princesses.
Being empathetic is not a bad thing.
But you also have to know when you've done nothing wrong. A friend throwing that kind of fit for the "spoiler" of a swear word is ridiculous and shouldn't have sparked the sensitivity.
Link's Awakening Remake announced
How timely, someone just got mad at me for mentioning something that appeared in the trailer for the RE2 Ghost Survivors DLC, even though we were in a thread that was explicitly meant for discussing the contents of said trailer lol
It depends on the game, if the core of the series is the story like the Kiseki series then never fucking spoil it.
Context is key.
A thread named "Biggest Plot Twists Ever" is fair game for anything.
Making the plot twist the title of a thread is in bad taste, I don't care how old the game is.
If you are unsure just use spoiler tags. It's 1 second of effort.
A thread named "Biggest Plot Twists Ever" is fair game for anything.
Making the plot twist the title of a thread is in bad taste, I don't care how old the game is.
If you are unsure just use spoiler tags. It's 1 second of effort.
Link's Awakening was released in 1993, and then again in 1998, and then again in 2011, and now again in 2019.
Avoiding spoilers is the burden of the spoilerphobe at this point.
Avoiding spoilers is the burden of the spoilerphobe at this point.
I dunno but some people around here were dropping KH3 spoilers casually a week after the game was out. That's pretty annoying. I'd say it depends on the severity of the spoiler though.
Yeah really. I'm usually the type where I think 'spoilerphobia' is a concept some people have taken to ridiculous extremes, but I saw people on my Twitter timeline OPENLY discussing the EPILOGUE to KH3 and I was a little annoyed though I did scroll past all that stuff.
Dickmove of the Catholic church to use crosses with Jesus hanging from them. Now I know he ends up hanging from a cross and probably dies.
But seriously this obsession about spoilers is one of the worst parts of modern culture. I usually spoil myself on stuff because the ultimate result isn't that important to me, the road to that result is important.
But seriously this obsession about spoilers is one of the worst parts of modern culture. I usually spoil myself on stuff because the ultimate result isn't that important to me, the road to that result is important.
Always be considerate. Never put spoilers in a thread title. Use spoiler tags if you think it could be a spoiler.
It isn't that hard.
It isn't that hard.
I think there's a lot of contextual questions regarding spoilers that determines how I feel. First, it depends on who I'm talking to. For example, if I'm trying to convince a friend to play a game, I'm not going to tell them any spoilers, bc usually there's something big I want them to experience.
When there's a reasonable expectation that the ppl I'm talking to have played a game, I play fast and loose with spoilers starting a few weeks after the game has come out. On a gaming forum like Resetera, I think 6 months is an appropriate time to avoid major spoilers.
Afterwards, I think it's the fault of the person who wishes to remain spoiler free if they see anything. There's a thread with "spoilers" in the title about Link's Awakening, which is just ridiculous.
When there's a reasonable expectation that the ppl I'm talking to have played a game, I play fast and loose with spoilers starting a few weeks after the game has come out. On a gaming forum like Resetera, I think 6 months is an appropriate time to avoid major spoilers.
Afterwards, I think it's the fault of the person who wishes to remain spoiler free if they see anything. There's a thread with "spoilers" in the title about Link's Awakening, which is just ridiculous.
Ah man that sucks. It just makes want to finish the game faster... which isn't possible right now haha.
Copy/pasting a couple things I said about the Link's Awakening discussion:
You can't expect things to stay in stasis for your benefit decades after they were released. People will have plenty of fresh experiences with new games... that will eventually get "spoiled" for new players 30 years from now. Going out of your way to ruin someone's day? Sure, not cool. But discussing a 30-year-old property in hushed tones can't be expected.
I'm not saying people should go out of their way to spoil anything. But people who haven't played a nearly 30-year-old game have to be realistic about the discussion. Not every thread is going to cater to that type of person, and there doesn't need to be a mini-meltdown whenever someone (in good faith) says a story beat about something that came out decades ago.
Don't be a dick, yes. But on the other side of the fence, you have to be realistic about it.
You can't expect things to stay in stasis for your benefit decades after they were released. People will have plenty of fresh experiences with new games... that will eventually get "spoiled" for new players 30 years from now. Going out of your way to ruin someone's day? Sure, not cool. But discussing a 30-year-old property in hushed tones can't be expected.
I'm not saying people should go out of their way to spoil anything. But people who haven't played a nearly 30-year-old game have to be realistic about the discussion. Not every thread is going to cater to that type of person, and there doesn't need to be a mini-meltdown whenever someone (in good faith) says a story beat about something that came out decades ago.
Don't be a dick, yes. But on the other side of the fence, you have to be realistic about it.
I really don't give a shit about spoilers. Like I asked for spoilers on the Far Cry New Dawn end boss because of a reviewer saying it was so dumb (spoilers: he was right, it is terribly dumb lol.)
But I'm one of those few people who don't, so be considerate.
After a year, I say you can probably talk about it freely but when discussing on a message board, use Spoiler tags.
But I'm one of those few people who don't, so be considerate.
After a year, I say you can probably talk about it freely but when discussing on a message board, use Spoiler tags.
To the 'anti-spoilerphobe' crowd when have you ever needed to share a spoiler?
My experience is I can always preface a potential spoiler with a 'Did you play...' / 'Have you finished...' question. Making the attempt to preserve a person's first experience of a work isn't such a burden that I would need a time limit on it.
My experience is I can always preface a potential spoiler with a 'Did you play...' / 'Have you finished...' question. Making the attempt to preserve a person's first experience of a work isn't such a burden that I would need a time limit on it.
Personally I feel, if you go into a thread about a game you haven't played or beat yet that is your fault.
If you're dropping RDR2 spoilers in a Fortnite thread you're a jerk.
If you're dropping RDR2 spoilers in a Fortnite thread you're a jerk.
If there's a remake coming and people are for the first time able to play a game they may have otherwise not played? Don't be a dick and tag your spoilers.
"But you had 30 years to play it" No I didn't, I didn't own a Nintendo console until last year. I'm glad for all of you with unlimited time and money though.
We made the effort to tag spoilers in the RE2 thread, it costs literally nothing not to ruin a new experience for someone who missed out.
"But you had 30 years to play it" No I didn't, I didn't own a Nintendo console until last year. I'm glad for all of you with unlimited time and money though.
We made the effort to tag spoilers in the RE2 thread, it costs literally nothing not to ruin a new experience for someone who missed out.
But you can understand that they can be important to other people, right? Like, just because some people aren't on shit Day 0 doesn't mean that they don't care about spoilers.
As hard as it is to believe, the Switch is somebody's first Nintendo console, even here.
Shit, there are people on this board that likely weren't even born when Link's Awakening DX released.
Yes definitely, that's why I usually refrain from talking about spoilers. When talking with friends we usually just check how far everyone is and just talk about everything up until the earliest point someone reached. Except for my brother-in-law. He's throwing a tantrum when he basically hears stuff like "yeah, in RDR2 there's the possibility that it rains". So we usually end up feeding him false spoilers lol
I think there is a grace period, but I just want to make the point that it resets whenever the game is rereleased. Like they just announced Link's Awakening, so we shouldn't openly discuss spoilers because there are people who are looking forward to playing it for the first time.
Yeah, but I think the secret of Koholint Island is up there with Aeris dying when it comes to video game twists.
To be honest, I would not go all "LOL Dumbledore dies" in a Link's Awakening thread, but I probably would not really think twice about discussing the plot without spoilers.
Also DX? Pfffft. Vanilla is where it's at.
I personally do not much like spoiler tags because they sometimes make threads unreadable when it's just a series of spoiler tagged posts. I realize that could just be me, but I'd like some feature like TVTropes have for example, where all spoiler tags are automatically visible if you want it.
I made this point the first time this thread came around regarding a poster saying that the the end of RDR1 fell into this "widespread knowledge" category, but I don't think some spoilers are as widespread as you may think they are. Like, in my almost 10 years browsing GAF/ERA, I never just casually came across people mentioning the ending of either of those games. I always work under the assumption that no matter how long something has been around, there is always going to be someone experiencing it for the first time. Whether that's because they didn't gain an interest in the game/series until much later, or they simply weren't born yet, a person doesn't deserve to have something spoiled just because of the the age of the game/movie in question.
And I mentioned DX because that was the first time Link's Awakening was re-released, which also happened to be how I first experienced the game, because I was just over a year old when the original released. There are plenty of people out there that are in the same boat in regard to this, as a lot people born within a similar timeframe of DX's release are going to be 20-21.
It really depends on various factors such as the amount of time the game has been out and how integral the spoiler is to the plot. In general, the most polite thing to do is to add spoiler warnings for sensitive plot material whenever possible. "Quarantining" spoilers for a lack of a better word is the best action to take so that people "infected" with plot knowledge can discuss the material while "healthy" people can avoid the plague of spoilers.
Speaking of deadly viruses, I remember in a thread a while back that people were still unaware a decade after the fact that
If something of such common knowledge is known of for a decade, I think that it is the fault of the victim of spoilerization and that they should have educated themselves sooner.
Speaking of deadly viruses, I remember in a thread a while back that people were still unaware a decade after the fact that
Wesker dies in Resident Evil 5
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In terms of social courtesy, there is no limit. You're always a douche when you purposefully spoil something for someone.