Poll: How much equals a spoiler to you?

[tippy2k2]

I was discussing spoilers between myself and a co-worker the other day and a kind of a funny difference popped up between the two of us...

I am one who goes into a media blackout once I decide something is worth seeing. I don't look for trailers for movies, I don't look for game-play videos for games, I don't go onto message boards about any piece of media if I am interested in a piece of media. I want to go into the experience as "pure" as possible. If I stumble across something so be it but I do everything I realistically can to avoid even the most basic of information.

My co-worker on the other hand actively seeks out spoilers. I watch Game of Thrones on Sundays and he watches it later on Monday. He asks me every Monday during work what happened, was anyone murdered, did X happen to Y as he thought was going to, etc. He actively encourages that I spoil things for him and if I say he should watch it, he just goes and reads a re-cap so that he can discuss it with me. He fully intends to watch the episode later that day.

We've had plenty of discussions on this board as to when a spoiler is no longer a spoiler and how much do they matter to you but I'm curious other people's habits when it comes to spoilers here. To help illustrate, I will use a popular and common movie "STAR WARS" as the example. Pretend like you never saw it (or if you actually have not...uh....spoiler alert I guess)

Spoiler: Meanings

Full Media Blackout: Everything is off the table. Once you've determined you want to see it, you completely avoid it.

Big Stuff: "No...I am your father" is off the table. However, finding out that Luke's uncle/aunt bite it (since it's early) is fine but the "big twist" needs to stay a secret.

Uncaring: You don't exactly seek out that Vader is Luke's father but you'll go through Star Wars info and whatnot and if you stumble across it, so be it.

Spoil Away: You actively search to find out everything you can. You want to know before you're in the theater all the twists and turns beforehand. You'll sit there with a smug look on your face as everyone else has their mind blown by Vader's words.

Other: What'd I miss?

 

[Zontar]

The concept of a spoiler is a very fluid one. While no one cares that it was his sled (which more people know about these days then have actually watched that movie) and some spoilers are forgot conclusions (the good guy winning at the end of a superhero movie) others are not, and there seems to be no set time as a movie just out of theaters can be considered ok to spoil, while a show that has been out for years is not.

Spoilers are a very confusing thing, mainly because no one is consistent in what is and isn't ok to spoil. And I mean no one.

It would be a bigger problem if I actually cared, but I don't. Hell, sometimes learning a spoiler will make me interested in seeing something I didn't otherwise have any interest in, like X-men first class. I didn't plan on seeing the movie until I came across how it ended, then I wanted to see how it was handled.

 

[Little Woodsman]

I voted 'uncaring' in the poll but it would be more accurate to say that it's generally not a big deal to me.

Most of my friends ototh, act like the tiniest spoiler is the end of the world.
Shortly after X-Men 2 came out, I was discussing it with another friend who had seen it while two of my other friends who had not yet seen it were in the room. We were standing at the other end of the large room, but still trying to avoid giving spoilers. However I did mention that

Spoiler: spoilered just in case...

... Colossus was cool too!

my two friends who had not seen it yet flew off the handle for *that* spoiler (a particular character was in it, and I thought he was cool in it) one of them even going so far as to say that there was no point in him going to see the movie now.

 

[Liquidprid3]

I'm definitely a big stuff type of guy. I'm all for minor spoilers, I really don't care. But anything major will really tick me off. It doesn't necessarily put me off from finishing the game/series, but it wil make me angry for a bit, and I'll try to not think about it. I tell myself I read it wrong, and it usually goes fine.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I'm somewhere between big stuff and uncaring. I normally try to avoid major spoilers, but I wouldn't say my enjoyment of something is seriously hindered if I get any spoilers. However, I do enjoy not seeing major twists coming, so getting a major spoiler will affect my enjoyment to some degree.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

I think it is great to have absolutely no preconceptions going in.

Sadly, this can often end in disappointment though.

As to actual upcoming content spoilers, I don't see any advantage in hearing about the content before it has happened. Just ruins it for me, no matter how small the detail.

It is quite a common practice publicly in the UK though, in regards to our 'TV soap dramas'. These are often spoken of prior to the episode, about the actual content of the episode, by people who plan to watch it. Presumably they watch to see how it pans out, but I don't understand why people would want to be spoiled. But apparently people do.

 

[MrBaskerville]

If a spoiler ruins a movie for me, the movie probably sucked. I don't watch stories for twist and turns, i watch them for the journey and for all the interesting stuff. It might be better with a surprise, but it's not a deal breaker, spoilers might even make me more interested in something that i was previously uninterested in. I don't run around and read everything about a movie before i watch it, but if i accidentally come across some spoilers, it's really no big deal. If it was, i wouldn't be able to rewatch as many movies as i do.

 

[BeeGeenie]

I really, really don't care. The way I see it, if something is worth watching then it will be good, even if you go in knowing what to expect. I don't generally go out of my way to find out every little detail beforehand, but I also don't care if I do hear things about it.

The whole spoiler thing does kind of annoy me when it's something that's based on a book. If this guy in your office has already read the books, then he's just interested in "how" the story was presented, so it's not spoiling anything.

If not, then if he really cares about the story of Game of Thrones as much as he seems to, then next time just tell him to crack a f***ing book once in a while.

 

[Tom_green_day]

I think it's ridiculous when people say 'oh it's been out for 10 years, I can spoil it now'
Just because it's been out for that long doesn't mean I've experienced it! Would you be fine with me spoiling something like Frankenstein, hundreds of years old, if you hadn't read it? Of course not!

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I try not to spoil anything for myself. I want to experience the thing as seamlessly as possible.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Spoil away for me not so I can act like a smug when it happened, I just can't keep myself unspoil when it's already up (like a film US release is a month ahead to the UK). Granted I don't do it to all media, if it's a media that I gonna watched/ read and like it alot like e.g. the Marvel movies then I will keep myself not spoiled as much as possible.

 

[Zontar]

I think it's ridiculous when people say 'oh it's been out for 10 years, I can spoil it now'
Just because it's been out for that long doesn't mean I've experienced it! Would you be fine with me spoiling something like Frankenstein, hundreds of years old, if you hadn't read it? Of course not!

Well, can't really say much for the thing that came out 10 years ago (let me guess: Game of Cones?) but for your counterexample, it definitely falls under "It was his Sled", where not knowing it at this point if all on the person hearing the spoiler, and if they had a problem, well, they had a lifetime to read it before now.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

It really depends in my case wether or not I go full media blackout or not. I've done this for GTA5 until it gets released on PC.

On the flip side, my most anticipated game is Witcher 3 and anything regarding that game I want to see be it spoiler or not.

When I've heard the controvery with ME3 ending I immediately went and spoiled myself about it because I wanted to join in on the discussion.

Regarding TV shows: I heard in an IGN comment something about "Lady Stoneheart" and went on wikis and searched that and spoiled it for myself..that and some others. That was pretty much self inflicted and I am aware of that.

So it's pretty much depends on a game to game basis to me really.

 

[Angelous Wang]

Depends how much I care about what is being I suppose.

I don't care about TV spoilers much.

Game of Thrones for example I read the of fire and ice wiki and have pretty much already spoiled everything major for myself. I know when everyone important is going to die and how. (Though because I have not read the books or the entire wiki I can still be surprised by smaller events and deaths).

Movies are pretty much spoiled by trailers anyway.

Video games is the one I care the most about if I really want a game then I will go on Full Media Blackout to make sure I get the most out of it.

 

[DanielBrown]

Uncaring, I guess. Spoilers have never bothered me. Even if I know what's gonna happen it doesn't distract from my experience. Most often I forget all about it and remember the spoiler after it has happened. Some people are a bit too touchy with spoilers, but I assume they have a bigger emotional attachment to the game/movie/book/whatever, and I simply don't understand them.

Can imagine it sucks though.

Spoiler

I can never resist clicking those spoiler boxes...