Avoiding Spoilers & Reveals

[Ziggy]

Does anyone else feel like it's hard to avoid spoilers these days? This could be for anything, but I guess I'm primarily talking about video games and movies.

Video games are probably easier to avoid spoilers for than movies, but there's still a LOT of content out there to avoid. And with video games, I'm not just talking about the story. Sometimes I don't even want to know about a game mechanic or power up or whatever. For the more popular releases, there almost always a ton of info out there on the game. Could be leaked, could be YouTubers with pre-release copies so they can review, new sites, and of course forum posts. Sometimes there's so much game content that you can find online before a game is released that by the time you play the game it doesn't feel like you're playing it for the first time. This is an important aspect for me, experiencing a video game for the first time. You can only do it once.

Movies are even worse. There's all of the above, plus trailers. Trailers are the absolute worst when it comes to spoilers. For a movie that I care about, I tend to not watch the trailer before seeing it. And that's on top of having to avoid a million YouTube videos.

I never see this get mentioned, but I've thought about this for a while now: DVD and BD menus. They often spoil a LOT in montage format.

There's also if an actor makes a comment in an interview or late night show. If someone states negative thoughts about playing a role, now I wont be surprised if that character is killed off or is not in future sequels.

Anyone else feel like it's an uphill battle to avoid spoilers?

[Sload Soap]

I'm sure there was some research done that indicated that spoilers not only didn't necessarily negatively impact on a persons enjoyment of a story, in fact it was shown to increase it in some cases. I think if a film trailer gives you big spoilers, famously with Terminator: Genysis, it is probably a better indicator that that movie will be a bit shit as they have literally nothing else to goad the audience with.

So I don't let them bother me. Why Snape killed Dumbledore is more interesting than how. I heard people were annoyed that Tom Holland had somehow spoiled Iron Man's death in Endgame in an interview with a national newspaper, but the interview was for the new Spider-Man. If you're that annoyed about a spoiler but haven't bothered your arse to go an actually watch/read/play the media in question, you probably aren't all that fussed to begin with.

That said please don't spoil Shazam for me, I haven't seen it yet. Kthnx.

[pierrot]

That said please don't spoil Shazam for me, I haven't seen it yet. Kthnx.

Spoilers: It was bad.

Actually, I vaguely remember liking it, as a kid--.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Personally, I think people should only respect spoilers for a few weeks (a month at most) after something’s release. I think it’s reasonable, within that time period, for people not to want a plot point “spoiled” for them and for there to be a critical mass of people who want to experience something but have not yet had the opportunity to experience it. After that time, though, I think it’s reasonable to assume that everyone truly interested in something has experienced it or had the chance to experience it, and I think it is unreasonable of people to expect others to frame their discussions in such a way as to accommodate them. At that point, if someone wants to avoid spoilers, it’s entirely on him or her to do so (or, you know, go read the book, see the movie, play the video game, etc.).

My two cents. Also...Rosebud’s a sled.

[Ziggy]

I guess I'm mainly talking about pre-release, where you couldn't possibly have a chance to experience it yet. Or, in the case of DVD and BD menus that have a montage of the movie playing, you must select play from the menu so you can't help but see something.

[Nemoide]

I'm not especially concerned about spoilers, unless there's a BIG TWIST and the movie/book/game's enjoyment hinges on you being surprised (ie most M. Night Shyamalan movies, which aren't that satisfying on rewatching). On the other hand the previously mentioned spoiler that "Rosebud is a sled" has almost no bearing on one's enjoyment of Citizen Kane. The movie isn't really about the meaning of Rosebud, even though it acts like it is, it's about the main character's life and the movie stands up perfectly fine after being "spoiled"

When Avengers: Endgame came out, I found myself rolling my eyes at a lot of the spoiler warnings I saw. It seemed like some folks were trying to avoid looking at the poster and were trying to avoid that Thanos was the big bad guy. When I finally saw the movie, I found it completely predictable and disengaged with it.

But context is the most important thing. I do find it a little annoying when people just say something along the lines of "oh wow, when **CHARACTER** stabbed **OTHER CHARACTER** in the back, and betrayed everyone, it was SO COOL" because telling me that it's cool doesn't really convey any great meaning, it's just spoilery smalltalk. But if someone is talking about themes and meaning, analyzing the work (ie something like "when this character betrays all those around him, it ties into the movie's critical view of performative masculinity, how he cannot live peacefully with others out of fear that this gets perceived as weakness"), I say those folks can SPOIL AWAY in the interest of saying something meaningful.

Basically spoilers aren't a big concern of mine, but I don't appreciate people who talk about the endings of new movies and the like just to say "it was cool" or something like that.

[alienjesus]

Personally, I think people should only respect spoilers for a few weeks (a month at most) after something’s release. I think it’s reasonable, within that time period, for people not to want a plot point “spoiled” for them and for there to be a critical mass of people who want to experience something but have not yet had the opportunity to experience it. After that time, though, I think it’s reasonable to assume that everyone truly interested in something has experienced it or had the chance to experience it, and I think it is unreasonable of people to expect others to frame their discussions in such a way as to accommodate them. At that point, if someone wants to avoid spoilers, it’s entirely on him or her to do so (or, you know, go read the book, see the movie, play the video game, etc.).

My two cents. Also...Rosebud’s a sled.

Sorry, but I don't agree with this at all. Take the new Fire Emblem game for example - I adore that franchise, but due to a combination factors such as money, time and already-having-too-many-games-to-play-as-is', I've determined to wait on buying this one and ask for it for Christmas. Even then, it's Christmas, my birthday is the day before and odds are I'll recieve quite a few games - I havent finished playing through all my Christmas games from last year yet! I love the series but I feel it's unfair to practically say 'either play it now. accept spoilers, or avoid the internet for the next 6 months'.

Also, I'm in a pretty comfortable position in my life where I can make the decision to buy it now if I want to, but not everyone is. Should everyone who doesn't have the money to go and see the new Star Wars at the cinema day one, or to buy the new $60 God of War game within the month it drops be expected to not enjoy things in the same way because they don't have the wealth of others?

[Sload Soap]

But you can extend that time frame indefinitely so why expect people to hold off talking about story elements indefinitely as well? It's on you now to avoid having anything spoiled as you're the one who has set an arbitrary time limit on your "time to play".

[PartridgeSenpai]

While I don't really think anyone is exactly a captain of wit for deliberately spoiling things for people (it's a dick move, plain and simple), I don't think the whole concept of spoiler culture has made for very good storytelling. Like Nemoide said before, knowing that Rosebud is a sled has very little to do with one's enjoyment of Citizen Kane as a film. In my opinion, if your story can be rendered completely without merit or engagement simply because of one or two twists being revealed pre-watch, you have a pretty paper-thin story that is apparently only one long anticipation ride to one BIG twist. Reducing a narrative down to its "spoilers" sells the text short of the pathos and depth that comes with the pacing of a well-told story, and trying to base your movie/game/whatever around spoilers means you're setting out to make a work that has very little value past the first viewing. Again, I still think that deliberately spoiling things for people makes you a dick, especially if it's fairly close to the release of the product, but I also think that the concept of "spoilers" has given an undue amount of weight to stories that are otherwise very shallow experiences that happen to contain big twists.

On that note, I also totally agree with Sload Soap that a TON of movies these days are just "trailer movies," where they're so otherwise boring that all the best bits are just in the trailer, so you've sneakily been given no reason to actually watch the film itself

[marurun]

I am one of the majority of viewers (whether they realize it or now) for whom spoilers actually enhance my enjoyment of things. I typically don't like to go into things blind, because I simply don't have time to watch and re-watch, or play and re-play, or doodle about completely clueless. That said, there is a group of people for whom, for whatever reason, having any kind of foreknowledge just makes them not want to bother. I think it is therefore appropriate to use the forum spoiler tags for anything fairly recent (a year, maybe) and to keep spoilers in the realm of more meaningful discussion where possible. That said, I'm not sure we really have a big problem with that, here (correct me if I'm wrong). Out there in the wider, wilder world, however, it's a crap shoot.