Poll: Does the magnitude of a spoiler matter?

[The Funslinger]

you should take care not to spoil

being careless with spoilers is kind of a dick move in some instances

Especially when you're trying to convince someone to watch a series. I have a friend who keeps doing that.

Stargate Atlantis: "Oh, X character dies!" "WHAT THE HELL, WOMAN!?" "Oh, it's okay, I didn't say when he dies!"

And

Spoiler: Star Wars: Clone Wars spoilers

"Obi Wan Kenobai gets a love interest!" "Why did you tell me that!?" "No, it's someone he knew before--" "SHUT UP!"

Edit: That I failed to correctly spoiler that is a bit...

My baaaad. -_-

 

[The Funslinger]

My cousin spoiled the end of Red Dead Redemption for literally no reason before I even played it (I told I was planning to)

Yeah, that really sucked, but I got back at him, there was this Family Guy (when he was still a fan) murder mystery episode that he was waiting ages to watch and I casually told him who the killer was (I watched it before) I say I got back at him.

So yeah, spoilers really take a lot of the impact out of the games story when you know what happens, doesn't make the game any less fun, but the story experience will be lessened. It doesn't really depend on the magnitude.

Oh God, when I was in secondary school, there was this really spoiled kid I really fucking hated. Due to his spoiled nature, he basically got all the big releases before me, and relished finding me so he could ruin plots for me.

Including, but not limited to: Red Dead Redemption, Halo: Reach, Portal 2, and Fable 3.

And let's face it, nobody played Fable 3 for anything other than the story.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I hate any kind of spoilers, even snarky roundabout "well let's just say it gets worse :3" spoilers annoy me. I can and will take any sort of comment about a series and apply it to what I know to deduce the most likely outcome so yeah, i practically spoil myself for overthinking it

I am terrible at talking about Persona 4, everything is so tightly knit together that spoiling one part rapidly leads to spoiling like half the game. Then there's just offhandedly mentioning who the killer is with no spoiler boxes. That's unforgivable as far as i'm concerned

 

[Weaver]

I can accept certain things. If someone tells me "Oh there's an Easter Egg the director put into this episode, keep an eye out for it!" that's technically a spoiler, but to me it's okay.

To me, the most subversive spoilers are the ones people give when TRYING to avoid spoilers. "I won't spoil anything, but this episode was really funny!" I hate these because it now loads up this episode with expectations that the show never, ever lives up to. Also, you can't get mad at the person for spoiling things, because they're all like "BUT I DIDN'T SPOIL ANYTHING!"

Prople, please stop trying to hype things up to get your friends to watch it. Like I finally watched full metal alchemist a few years ago and it was fucking shit compared to the angelic praise people were singing about it. I didn't even crack a smile while watching "it's the funniest show ever" 30 rock, and I just can't tell you how many series have been ruined for me by being completely exaggerated.

 

[Goro]

I was watching Big Bang Theory and Sheldon spoiled (spoilered?) walking dead season 3 for both Leonard and me. I was surprised at how annoyed I was, and that was 'people' I trusted. S'funny....
But there are definitely magnitudes of spoil, and I think they count

 

[Signa]

Absolutely yes. In fact, I think spoilers that are bad twists should always be spoiled. I have no problem going into depth about how fucking awful Battlestar Galactica was, because no one should have to sit through that and be lead along for those reveals. You don't lead your audience along for 4 seasons just to tell them at the end that all the mystery they've been returning for is just a big cop-out by saying "God did it!"

Conversely, movies like 6th Sense shouldn't be spoiled because it changes the whole movie for first-time viewers.

 

[Talaris]

I got Naruto spoiled for me by Dansen in another thread. When discussing a show, especially one as long as Naruto where most won't have seen the latest episodes, you should know better than to list a bunch of names of big characters who die. Someone spoiled an earlier character death in Naruto for me some time ago, and luckily I was able to forget about it when that scene came. I only hope it can happen again.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Meh, I've never much minded spoilers. I've gotten into games BECAUSE some element of the game was spoiled and that made it interesting for me. The same goes for books, TV series, etc.

 

[afroebob]

While there are some I can live with I still get mad at the spoiler, often out of principle. I do feel that if your already talking about a game your playing that you can start to say a spoiler if you do make it clear your about to, and if they don't call no spoilers than you can spoil. Otherwise, I don't care how small it is its a dick move.

 

[Longstreet]

Yes.

Lets say, in that new black flag AC game we all know that is gonna happen in the pirate era.

Now let's say that during the game, you get a brief playable part as Altaïr / ezio / connor or hell, Desmond. This was not released before the game came out. No one knew before someone spoiled it on the net.

In my eyes. That doesn't really affect anything. At the most some will say fuck yea and some will say oh hell no.

Now let's say someone spoiled the ending of a game to you. Or a major plot twist. THAT would be bad

 

[ImperialSunlight]

Generally, I find that others care about major spoilers a lot more than minor spoilers.

I don't care about spoilers at all, though, regardless of magnitude, since I can understand the emotional quality of something even if its surprises aren't shown to me for the first time in context.

 

[ChemicalAlia]

Someone on this site spoiled what happens at the end of The Walking Dead. I was only starting episode 2 at the time and since reading that spoiler my drive to play it has been non-existent.

So yeah....spoilers matter.

Same thing happened to me with Gears of War 3, after something was spoiled for me I pretty much lost all my drive to finish the game, and the story isn't even that great to begin with.

 

[uchytjes]

A spoiler is a spoiler no matter how you look at it, but magnitude does factor. It is best to go into something completely blind under any circumstances, but sometimes the right spoiler in the right place can be interesting enough to evoke enough curiosity to go see the thing. For an example, I'll use an anime I've been watching recently. If you wish to be unspoiled at all about it, go watch it now. (I also recommend the show whether or not you like anime, so theres that.)

Spoiler: minor spoilers for Madoka Magica

It starts out fine, but then something happens. then it gets worse, then even worse, then Kyubey... He... ;_;

You see, that is a tantalizer, something that could evoke curiosity and make you ask "what is this and why does it exist?" but would be better off not knowing if you are going to watch the show because it is better left as a surprise than something that may or may not meet your expectations.

Spoiler: this, however is a MAJOR SPOILER. So if you have any passing interest. ANY INTEREST AT ALL. Or even if you have NO interest at all, go watch Madoka Magica NOW.

In the end, Madoka becomes a goddess in order to save all magical girls from becoming witches and being sacrificed to preserve the energy within the universe. Also Kyubey is an alien.

THAT is a major spoiler. It is something that can ruin the ENTIRE surprise of the show and thus ruins the impact. Personally I am fine with most minor spoilers to anything as long as they don't mess up the experience too much and I am also okay with major spoilers to things that I know I will not play/watch.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

For me, I don't like spoiling anything story-related.
Tell me about an awesome death scene without telling me the characters involved.
Tell me about some awesome visual effect without telling me the context.
That kind of stuff.

 

[BrotherRool]

I voted yes but I really meant other. It's not a yes or no, it's a sliding scale. There's plenty of stuff you can spoil that aren't important and won't annoy most people, but some people (OP included obviously) want to experience things completely fresh. So if you spoil a small thing you're annoying a smaller subset of people so the spoiler is clearly less important, but it's not 'only important spoilers matter'

But there is research that spoilers don't matter at all. I don't know what to make of that
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/spoilers-dont-spoil-anything/

 

[Raikas]

I voted "other" because in general I think you should be careful, but if we're talking minor spoilers ("he gets a dog in episode #10!") I don't see why people would get upset. Similarly, I think anything that's more than 5 years old is fair game.

I mean, ideally it would be wonderful if everything could be read/viewed/played fresh, but that's hardly realistic.

 

[Ollybol8]

I think that a small spoiler that will enhance my understanding of the story I wouldn't mind but, anything more is a no go area