The most annoying gaming spoilers you've ever stumbled across

So, this morning I have become very annoyed, as Kotaku posted an article with a headline that gave away what looks like a HUGE spoiler for the Bloodborne DLC, which I was so looking forward to playing and exploring on my own. I'm someone who really dislikes spoilers, and I'll go out of my way to try and avoid most trailers and information about games I really want to play (I really don't understand people who want to read storylines to games on reddit before they're released!)

What is your worst experience of discovering a spoiler about a game (whether it be about gameplay mechanics, story or something else) and how did you discover it?

Spoiler:

Get them spoiler tags ready ;)

For Knights of the Old Republic! I was being super slow about finishing the first game, but I knew there was some kind of big twist that I hadn't gotten to yet. I'd managed to avoid getting spoiled on the twist, and had every intention of playing through the rest of the game at some point.

Then, I was reading a preview of KotOR 2 in PC Gamer, and plopped right into the middle of the article was

Spoiler:

a throwaway sentence about big reveals like finding out Revan is you in the first game.

Well, thanks for that, PC Gamer. Just drop that in with no warning, sure, it's fine. I'm not sure if it was because of that, or that I just haven't gotten around to it, but I still haven't finished either KotOR game.

2 different podcasts gave me 2 separate spoilers for Mass Effect 3, significant story spoilers too. I unsubscribed from both.

Still haven't played the game yet :).

Actually, I had a podcast drop a major spoiler for one of the companions in Dragon Age: Inquisition, about eight months after the game came out, and right as I was about 30 hours in. I still listen to the podcast, but now that I know they're perfectly willing to spoil things that they've both played, I immediately skip the episode whenever they're talking about something that I wouldn't want spoiled.

What made it more annoying was that they said "Oh, spoiler", then immediately spoiled the thing. My hand was actually mid-way to the skip button when the spoiler came out. Like, if you're going to give a spoiler warning, you've still got to give the listener a chance to do something about it, or just don't bother.

I had Bioshock more or less ruined by everyone talking up that there was a twist, though I didn't ever explicitly have what it was spoiled.

Honestly, as much as I love mystery and joy of discovery, I've moved on from spoilers. To me avoiding spoilers is focusing too much on the destination and less on the journey. To me games are now all about the journey.

I had a big part of the Fallout 4 ending spoiled for me due to some asshat on YouTube putting it in all caps. Thanks, you teenage troll.

Brother - A Tale of Two Sons. Someone mentioned an important event in the game in passing shortly after I purchased the game.

Can't think of any other game related ones, though I do recall a few from other media.

I think there is a reasonable expectation of people not spoiling things the first few weeks it is out. But after a while it is ludicrous to expect everyone to continue to use spoiler tags for games that years old. At some point it becomes the responsibility of the person to avoid sources of potential spoilers and not upon everyone else to tread lightly in fear that there might be someone out there who hears a spoiler.

For instance, KOTOR was released in July 2003 for the XBOX and Windows in November of that same year. KOTOR II was released in December 2004 (XBOX) and February 2005 (PC). If you're reading a preview of KOTOR II prior to the release, that means KOTOR was probably released a full year before the article. I think it was logical for PC Gamer to assume that those who are reading the article had plenty of time to purchase and play the original. That's a pretty logical decision, especially since KOTOR 2 dovetails on the events of the first.

I think most of us can agree spoiling FO4's ending right now is a bit of a dick move. But for how long should people avoid spoilers? Three months? Six months? Is Divinity Original Sin now fair game to discuss spoilers? How about Mass Effect 3? KOTOR2? Planescape Torment? Should we not reveal that the Guardian is a bad guy in Ultima 7 for fear that someone may have not played this 23 year old game? (oops) Can there never be a podcast or article out there that discusses game endings because someone may be spoiled? Do they have to say "spoiler warnings" every single time? No, they do not.

Like it or not, that spoiler grace period is going to be measured in months and not years. Anything longer and it's on you to avoid spoilers.

I avoid posting spoilers forever, especially in this period where a lot of people (myself included) are playing very old games for the first time).

For me it was Bioshock, which I still haven't played all the way through.

MGS5:

Spoiler:

I wish someone would have spoiled the second ending of the game for me so I wouldn't have been so devastated by Kojima's misstep.

Ending of Ico by some online article.
Of course fan speculation has it that

Spoiler:

Shadow of Colossus takes care of that predicament.

Granath wrote:

Like it or not, that spoiler grace period is going to be measured in months and not years. Anything longer and it's on you to avoid spoilers.

This kind of thinking is further evidence that unless you consume a piece of media within the first few weeks after it's available, you can basically write off talking about it at all. Does it really take that much effort to say "hey, we're going to talk about the ending of [thing X], so here's your chance to bail"?

I don't know, I might just be cranky about the issue. Lately, I've been getting kind of frustrated that as someone who usually doesn't play games at release, and plays them slowly too, I never get to actually participate in the conversation about them. Getting told that I also then have to avoid any threads, conversation, or articles about the game or its sequels/DLC more than a few months after release, because talking about the ending is now fair game, adds that extra bit of kick in the pants.

Chaz wrote:
Granath wrote:

Like it or not, that spoiler grace period is going to be measured in months and not years. Anything longer and it's on you to avoid spoilers.

This kind of thinking is further evidence that unless you consume a piece of media within the first few weeks after it's available, you can basically write off talking about it at all. Does it really take that much effort to say "hey, we're going to talk about the ending of [thing X], so here's your chance to bail"?

I don't know, I might just be cranky about the issue. Lately, I've been getting kind of frustrated that as someone who usually doesn't play games at release, and plays them slowly too, I never get to actually participate in the conversation about them. Getting told that I also then have to avoid any threads, conversation, or articles about the game or its sequels/DLC more than a few months after release, because talking about the ending is now fair game, adds that extra bit of kick in the pants.

Asking people to hide things in spoiler tags, censor what they're going to say and announce every little spoiler is a bit much when we're talking about a release months or years in the past.

You're not being told to avoid any threads. You're being told that at some point in time those threads are going to contain spoilers and thus reader beware. Please feel free to join in the discussion (if there is any to be had on older games) but don't complain about it if you do. That's like showing up to a dinner after the feast is over and complaining that all the roast beast is gone.

Granath wrote:

Asking people to hide things in spoiler tags, censor what they're going to say and announce every little spoiler is a bit much when we're talking about a release months or years in the past.

You're not being told to avoid any threads. You're being told that at some point in time those threads are going to contain spoilers and thus reader beware. Please feel free to join in the discussion (if there is any to be had on older games) but don't complain about it if you do. That's like showing up to a dinner after the feast is over and complaining that all the roast beast is gone.

It depends on the spoiler and peoples sensitivity to them. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect people to tag/hide major spoilers.

Let's pretend for a second that Empire Strikes Back was new-ish (within a few years).

Darth Vader is Lukes Father = MAJOR spoiler, should be tagged, hidden etc.
Han Solo gets captured and frozen in carbonite = MAJOR spoiler, should be tagged, hidden etc.
Han Solo and Princess Leia fall in love = BIG spoiler, probably should be tagged
We get to see a glimpse of the Emperor = medium spoiler
Luke learns to be a Jedi = medium spoiler
They go to an ice planet, a swamp planet and a city in the clouds = minor spoiler

There are people who don't distinguish spoilers like this. For them, all of these are MAJOR spoilers. So yes, those people should avoid everything about the movie: clips, forums, news stories etc

For the rest of us, it is not unreasonable to expect MAJOR and BIG spoilers to be hidden.

RooksGambit wrote:
Granath wrote:

Asking people to hide things in spoiler tags, censor what they're going to say and announce every little spoiler is a bit much when we're talking about a release months or years in the past.

You're not being told to avoid any threads. You're being told that at some point in time those threads are going to contain spoilers and thus reader beware. Please feel free to join in the discussion (if there is any to be had on older games) but don't complain about it if you do. That's like showing up to a dinner after the feast is over and complaining that all the roast beast is gone.

It depends on the spoiler and peoples sensitivity to them. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect people to tag/hide major spoilers.

Let's pretend for a second that Empire Strikes Back was new-ish (within a few years).

Darth Vader is Lukes Father = MAJOR spoiler, should be tagged, hidden etc.
Han Solo gets captured and frozen in carbonite = MAJOR spoiler, should be tagged, hidden etc.
Han Solo and Princess Leia fall in love = BIG spoiler, probably should be tagged
We get to see a glimpse of the Emperor = medium spoiler
Luke learns to be a Jedi = medium spoiler
They go to an ice planet, a swamp planet and a city in the clouds = minor spoiler

There are people who don't distinguish spoilers like this. For them, all of these are MAJOR spoilers. So yes, those people should avoid everything about the movie: clips, forums, news stories etc

For the rest of us, it is not unreasonable to expect MAJOR and BIG spoilers to be hidden.

You just spoiled the damn movie for me!!! How dare you!

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See how dumb that sounds? At some point these things pass into the public domain. Things like movies and games have a short shelf life while books have a longer one. Either you are on board early or you run the risk of being spoiled.

Let's take something more recent - like the second Telltale Walking Dead game. It was released a little over a year ago and in a related thread I would fully expect to find spoilers without tags. It's going to happen because at some point the game passes out of general public awareness and when that happens people stop caring about trying not to spoil the game for others. It's out of sight and out of mind. However, I would not do so here because it is not a related thread.

Plus, there are hosts of problems with trying to identify and cover up spoilers. As you said, some people use the term spoiler to be anything while for others it only applies to major plot points (and those are different from person to person). Other times the spoilers have been released on mass media and people still get upset - for instance John Connor being the Terminator in the latest movie. This was widely revealed in the trailers and yet some people get ticked off when it is mentioned. Finally, some spoilers are so widely discussed that the spoiler itself becomes part of the public psyche. The aforementioned "No, I am your Father" line was pretty widely known a week after The Empire Strikes Back was released. It was impossible to avoid. The ME3 endings is another example - the massive, public controversy over the endings made it so well known that they were not really spoilers any more.

To sum it up, if someone is trying to avoid spoilers on older games, movies or any other media that is fine but they should not get upset when it happens. That is the price of not being current.

I find it a lot easier to avoid spoilers in text than in audio form though.

Spoiler:

Sorry, but the Princess is in another castle!

Well GREAT, now I know how and where this is going to end!

Back in college, I picked up Final Fantasy 6 for the first time. Over lunch, I mentioned to a guy I was seeing that I had just started the game last night, and his response was, "When I played it, I was so blown away that Terra was an Esper!" I dumped him shortly thereafter.

IMO, there's giving up on a spoiler statute of limitations, and then there's just being a dick. I wouldn't tell my kids while popping in A New Hope that Darth Vader is Luke's dad, and I wouldn't tell someone who just started FF6 who is and isn't an Esper. That's just rude. So if someone requests spoiler warnings, or tags so they can block a blog post, or whatever, I don't see how it's a huge hardship to do so, especially when something is still relatively fresh. (I'm looking at you, Jessica Jones Tumblr fandom. GRR.)

Sorry, I think I accidentally sidetracked this thread into something else. The bigger discussion about where spoiler territory lies and whether people should expect to be spoiled if they don't consume media immediately after release is probably its own thread.