• Let's move past spoilers, as a concept
    28 replies, posted
[url]http://www.pcgamesn.com/lets-move-past-spoilers-as-a-concept[/url]
[quote]Now look, I’m all for the death of social media and a bit of alone time.[/quote] oh
Sorry but almost all narratives require a linear progression in order to get the most out of it. It's the crux of almost any story and I doubt the writer or anyone could name a single story where prior knowledge enhanced the piece in any way. It's also double important for reviewers who want to have an un-biased account of the media they're reviewing but hey who cares its just stupid video games.
"Don't let spoilers bother you and the pain will go away" Stopped reading there, that's not how it works. A big part of consuming media is the ability to immerse yourself in whatever story is being told, and what makes up a gigantic part of that is the inability to see where the story is going. Obviously not all spoilers are the same, there are thematic spoilers - those that have to do with themes explored in the story and can unwittingly give-away content and context, context-free spoilers - those that give away events that happen in the story but with no background , and gaping butthole spoilers - because you're reading comments somewhere but screw you here's an unavoidable one sentence summary of the ending you mongolian. Each of these can have a different effect on the enjoyment of the media, it's not as simple as someone dies oh lordy sudoku time, what you're saying can only ever apply to context-free spoilers, as context is everything, you can still look forward to the why, if not the what. The reason behind the anger is simple: we want to enjoy these things the first time around without the experience being tarnished, because we bloody well care about whatever media we're investing our time and passion into. I had everything spoiled for me last year, so while I'm no expert I'm aware of how much these things can tarnish the experience, and I can tell you not being angry does absolutely nothing to change the fact that a whole lot of build-up (and in the case of video-games, effort) has just been utterly obliterated by some prick who just couldn't keep this shit to themselves.
Snape kills Dumbledore. How the fuck should any kind of storytelling with a dramatical build up work? How should Heavy Rain work if I know from second one who the killer is? Sure there is some more to the story, we still have the story of a father who tries to rescue his son. Still the overall plot is who is the culprit, and that one completely fucks everything. There is no debate wether I want to empower spoilers or not. It's not a thing I simply can leave behind, spoilers RUIN stories. What the fuck do I care about after that? If I get spoiled the article suggests that I dont react? Or just ignore the fact so that the person who spoiled me doesn't feel empowered. This doesn't help my case at all. I still have to isolate myself from certain media to be spoiler free. [quote]And when you choose not to get angry, when you choose to enjoy it anyway, the spoilers stop being spoilers. You've dissembled the apparatus that the internet stranger who wanted to ruin your day was using to do so.[/quote] "Oh is that "The Judge and His Hangman" you are reading there? By the way ******* is the murderer." There is no choosing to enjoy it anyway. This certain story is RUINED if you know who the murderer is, because the story plays around the fact that you as a reader try to identify the murderer together with the protagonist. Just because SOME stories are not ruined by spoilers, doesn't mean ALL are immune, what a stupid piece of shit article.
'Don't let spoilers bother you' means basically don't play any games with a story, or anything.
[QUOTE=Naught;49515073]'Don't let spoilers bother you' means basically don't play any games with a story, or anything.[/QUOTE] Either that or it means "Don't have any emotions" which is equally ridiculous. There's games that are entirely built around the concept of surprising the player, Undertale being a very recent and notable example. If someone had just told me what would've happened throughout the entire game, the experience would just not have been the same. Yet I still enjoy its story, so much is true, but there's a kind of excitement to play it through for the first time without knowing what's coming, one that you can only experience once for each game. If someone removes that through spoilers, it can never be regained, and that's what makes us angry. We permanently lose something and we couldn't do anything about it. It wasn't our fault.
just ignore the bullies and theyll go away right guys? that works so well too
Let's move past PCGamesN as a news source
That was a lot of words. I don't think you can choose to be unaffected by spoilers. Not all stories are ruined by spoilers but that depends on the story, not on your attitude.
That would make stuff like Telltale series and similar games pointless since they are mostly about the story.
If this was a regular (proper) normal news source this guy would have gotten a lot of shit from his employer, or at least fired.
i have a feeling someone recently sent the author some spoilers lol
Journey and Spec Ops have been completely ruined for me because of spoilers when you know spec ops is supposed to be [sp]some crazy bait and switch grimdark ironic military shooter[/sp] the whole concept kind of falls apart and journey just feels like another boring and pretentious walking simulator when you learn the schtick before you play it
Honestly spoilers in games don't bother me one bit. A sentence that maybe says what happens in a game at the end doesn't change anything about the process of me getting there and it certainly has no impact on the gameplay experience. I really don't think games can be spoiled as easily as movies can.
why is this even an article?
[QUOTE=spekter;49514857]Sorry but almost all narratives require a linear progression in order to get the most out of it. It's the crux of almost any story and I doubt the writer or anyone could name a single story where prior knowledge enhanced the piece in any way. It's also double important for reviewers who want to have an un-biased account of the media they're reviewing but hey who cares its just stupid video games.[/QUOTE] Actually if I recall, some study did actually come to the conclusion that spoilers had no impact enjoyment of a media piece. [URL]http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/archive/newsrel/soc/2011_08spoilers.asp[/URL] The hate for spoilers really comes down to feeling cheated by someone else, rather than enjoying something less. Take people who reread, rewatch or replay. They all know the story, often by rote, yet enjoy it still, often for it's very merits, rather than just I can't wait to see what happens.
Another shitty article from PCGAMESN
[QUOTE=simkas;49517118]Honestly spoilers in games don't bother me one bit. A sentence that maybe says what happens in a game at the end doesn't change anything about the process of me getting there and it certainly has no impact on the gameplay experience. I really don't think games can be spoiled as easily as movies can.[/QUOTE] Good for you, but just because you are not bothered by spoilers doesn't mean no one else should. To some people, knowing how a videogame ends can seriously ruin their enjoyment in the game no matter how good the gameplay is, just like with movies, books, and TV show. You wouldn't like it if someone were to say that your favorite TV show character died before you even had the chance to see it, how would you like it if someone said that your favorite videogame character died before you saw it?
when it comes to video games, sometimes there can even be "gameplay spoilers", such as how to beat a really hard boss. figuring out the trick to beating a boss, working it out in your brain and toughening it out through deaths and game overs and start overs, and finally figuring out that trick and beating the boss can be an extremely satisfying journey. imagine how fucking boring that fight would be if someone told you ahead of time the exact correct thing to do, what item to use, what weapon to equip... etc. it's like enjoying a good crossword puzzle, or a good jigsaw puzzle. if someone just showed you a photocopy of what all of the solutions were, the journey from knowing nothing to completing all of the hard work wouldn't be worth anything, or even exist for that matter. yeah but i guess you can just i dunno not give a shit??? ever just not give a shit, stupid fucking idiot??? then maybe it wouldnt bother you so much you son of a bitch???
[QUOTE=TheJoey;49518606]when it comes to video games, sometimes there can even be "gameplay spoilers", such as how to beat a really hard boss. figuring out the trick to beating a boss, working it out in your brain and toughening it out through deaths and game overs and start overs, and finally figuring out that trick and beating the boss can be an extremely satisfying journey. imagine how fucking boring that fight would be if someone told you ahead of time the exact correct thing to do, what item to use, what weapon to equip... etc. it's like enjoying a good crossword puzzle, or a good jigsaw puzzle. if someone just showed you a photocopy of what all of the solutions were, the journey from knowing nothing to completing all of the hard work wouldn't be worth anything, or even exist for that matter. yeah but i guess you can just i dunno not give a shit??? ever just not give a shit, stupid fucking idiot??? then maybe it wouldnt bother you so much you son of a bitch???[/QUOTE] Want some life advice? Stop letting stupid, pointless shit bug you. People get too wound up over little things nowadays, and while it might seem innocent enough on its own when you start to pile up all of the tiny little things people stress out about on a daily basis it actually winds up becoming a huge, overwhelming avalanche of angst and stress. Just cut it out. Something gets spoiled from you? Fine. Maybe mutter under your breath, but don't dwell on it. Go and watch the movie, read the book, play the game anyway. Enjoy it for what it is. Don't sit there and whinge about how it's ruined the media you're consuming; just consume the damn media. I guarantee you you'll live a happy life. Seriously, I know that might sound stupid, but it's done me wonders. I used to be a grumpy, miserable, angsty little shit in my early to mid teens, and eventually I decided it wasn't worth it and forced myself to change my mindset. I've had the unique experience of being on both ends of the spectrum, so I kind of [I]can[/I] comment on it being possible to change your mindset and your outlook, and I can tell you this side of the spectrum is faaaar more pleasant than the other side.
[QUOTE=wraithcat;49517293]Actually if I recall, some study did actually come to the conclusion that spoilers had no impact enjoyment of a media piece. [URL]http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/archive/newsrel/soc/2011_08spoilers.asp[/URL] [/QUOTE] this is meaningless. the fact that people don't give lower ratings of something just because they had it spoiled means they're not complete morons. obviously nobody is going to have a movie spoiled and then turn around and say "it was a shit movie, I knew what was going to happen the whole time." it's absolutely no indication that they're enjoying it just as much as they would have. that article even goes as far as to suggest that Mystery, a genre in which the entire point of the story is keeping the audience in the dark until a final climax, is completely unaffected by spoilers.
I hate spoilers as much as the next guy, but I think there should be some kind of drop-off that isn't years down the road where you can discuss them openly. For instance, I got [sp]the reporter girl's death[/sp] spoiled for me in House of Cards, but that was my fault for not having watched through season 2 after season 3 had ended. Hasn't made the show worse for me, because I saw it coming, but I did miss the tension of seeing that play out. I think Netflix and instant streaming are kind of causing these sorts of issues in larger numbers, and making them more noticeable. When a series is on TV, or a film is in theaters, it's an event. Most people see it relatively close to the air date. It becomes part of the zeitgeist, there's generally a safe time to discuss openly why Snape kills Dumbledore, and the repercussions of that, without making people upset. You can't really do that with something like Breaking Bad, though, where people who haven't seen it are still discovering it through Netflix, and at any point in their binge-watching marathon do not want the ending spoiled. And it's different than having it on a DVR or VCR, because there's no real rush to finish the series. The result is that we can't discuss anything openly (Red Wedding's still off-limits in the office, we've got five people working on that season), and we've got to stick spoiler warnings on everything. The result of all of this is that I, and most people I know, have just stopped talking about TV and films with our friends. It's not worth anyone getting upset if you spoil what they're watching, so we don't bother.
[QUOTE=wraithcat;49517293]Actually if I recall, some study did actually come to the conclusion that spoilers had no impact enjoyment of a media piece. [URL]http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/archive/newsrel/soc/2011_08spoilers.asp[/URL] The hate for spoilers really comes down to feeling cheated by someone else, rather than enjoying something less. Take people who reread, rewatch or replay. They all know the story, often by rote, yet enjoy it still, often for it's very merits, rather than just I can't wait to see what happens.[/QUOTE] This was proven categorically false by two subsequent studies. The authors deliberately used both anecdotal and pre-biased sources, in addition to loaded questionnaires.
[QUOTE=Swiket;49515250]Let's move past PCGamesN as a news source[/QUOTE] Just ignore it and it'll go away, just like spoilers
[QUOTE=sltungle;49519796]Want some life advice? Stop letting stupid, pointless shit bug you. People get too wound up over little things nowadays, and while it might seem innocent enough on its own when you start to pile up all of the tiny little things people stress out about on a daily basis it actually winds up becoming a huge, overwhelming avalanche of angst and stress. Just cut it out. Something gets spoiled from you? Fine. Maybe mutter under your breath, but don't dwell on it. Go and watch the movie, read the book, play the game anyway. Enjoy it for what it is. Don't sit there and whinge about how it's ruined the media you're consuming; just consume the damn media. I guarantee you you'll live a happy life. Seriously, I know that might sound stupid, but it's done me wonders. I used to be a grumpy, miserable, angsty little shit in my early to mid teens, and eventually I decided it wasn't worth it and forced myself to change my mindset. I've had the unique experience of being on both ends of the spectrum, so I kind of [I]can[/I] comment on it being possible to change your mindset and your outlook, and I can tell you this side of the spectrum is faaaar more pleasant than the other side.[/QUOTE] hey heres an idea lets both stop worrying about things so much AND try not being rude by spoiling things for other people it would be great if both happened.
Gladly I'm immune to spoilers. I can enjoy movies and games with the knowledge of key elements of the story. For me the whole experience of the storytelling (the build-up, the pacing, the way it's presented) matters more than isolated climax scenes (such as X does Y). But that's just me and don't think it's a good idea to spoil the story. I really appreciate that people here spoiler tag anything that's not even related to thread topic.
[QUOTE=woolio1;49520367]I hate spoilers as much as the next guy, but I think there should be some kind of drop-off that isn't years down the road where you can discuss them openly. For instance, I got [sp]the reporter girl's death[/sp] spoiled for me in House of Cards, but that was my fault for not having watched through season 2 after season 3 had ended. Hasn't made the show worse for me, because I saw it coming, but I did miss the tension of seeing that play out.[/QUOTE] For future reference, you should mention the work you're spoiling [i]before[/i] you post the spoiler, so people don't accidentally learn that [sp]Han Solo dies[/sp] in The Force Awakens.
[QUOTE=KillerJaguar;49529080]For future reference, you should mention the work you're spoiling [i]before[/i] you post the spoiler, so people don't accidentally learn that [sp]Han Solo dies[/sp] in The Force Awakens.[/QUOTE] Just read the whole sentence before clicking?
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