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Spoilers?
Topic Started: Sep 14 2011, 12:46 AM (234 Views)
Enrei
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Chinese Gold Farmer
Over the past few weeks during Skype calls with friends as I play other games, mostly a few years old and story heavy, my friends will try to throw spoilers at me, claiming studies have shown you enjoy a game more if it's spoiled for you, and that "it doesn't matter, the game has been out for several years, you should know the story now!"

But, why would I want a story spoiled if I am reading a book or playing a game FOR THE STORY? The driving factor for me during Braid, Bioshock, SMT: SJ, Persona 3, and countless other games was the story and the mystery of what would happen next. Without a story, a game becomes a horribly expensive pile of mechanics that, in many cases, really isn't much different from another game. Games really need the story to set them apart and push players through them, so why spoil it, even if it makes you "enjoy it more?"

If one were to tell m the deaths, events, war outcomes, and so forth of A Game of Thrones and the entire series, I'd have no reason to read all 5,000(and counting) pages of it, and I'd be extremely furious about it, since a key part of GoT(and Braid/Bioshock/etc.) was the mystery.

Now, I don't scream my head off at them, I'll simply say something along the lines of "no, I don't really want to know what happens, I'm playing for the story." followed by a "no, seriously, fuck off." if it continues, and now I'm just turning my headset off or leaving calls when I play games, but they still continue on, thinking it doesn't matter(and these are RPG fans, mind you, not mindless FPS monkeys) even when the conversation isn't even about the game.

So, general opinions on spoilers of any kind? It should be very clear I hate story spoilers(yes, even in games with nearly non-existent or bad stories) but I also try to avoid spoilers about bosses/levels/puzzles unless the gameplay is absolutely horrible, or I'm stuck beyond hope.
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Catbread
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welcome to the cauldron of hate
Ya, I got a similar opinion. I hate spoilers!

I heard that study about the enjoying things more after they've been spoiled. It seems hard to believe...maybe it differs on a person-to-person basis?

Even with the gameplay, I've ruined more than one game for myself by overdosing on content before the game actually came out!
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mediarulesworld
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Be seeing you.
Bioshock was spoiled for me. I was angry. >_<
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Lotus Prince
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There's a reason that the term is "spoil" instead of "pleasantly surprise." Stop talking to them, or tell them that their studies are bullshit, considering that they haven't linked you to an article about how people like spoilers, even though you clearly don't.

Also, I knew everything that was going to happen in Bioshock, because I'd already played System Shock 2. It is the SAME. FUCKING. GAME. I know that everyone says that Bioshock 2 is inferior, but I don't care, because it's fucking ORIGINAL.
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WolfenAmphithere
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The Crazy Hat Lady
I agree with Lotus here.
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Enrei
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Chinese Gold Farmer
Quote:
 
Although the study could not explain why, it suggested the brain may find it easier to process a spoiled story. ... Co-author Jonathan Leavitt added: "It could be that once you know how it turns out, you're more comfortable processing the information and can focus on a deeper understanding of the story."(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14521627)


I suppose that's the article, and if you read that CORRECTLY, that doesn't mean it makes the stories easier to enjoy, it means it makes them easier to understand for morons!

In books I've read for school, many of which I didn't give two shits about it the ending, it was much easier to see symbolism at any given moment, simply because I knew I wasn't reading for enjoyment, but to find the symbolism and all that, and I suppose, in that case, knowing the ending would have the same effect.

Also, irony.
Edited by Enrei, Sep 14 2011, 11:22 AM.
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Super Slash
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Rank 14: Omega
I feel the same way you do Enrei. I'd stop talking to them on Skype if they don't listen to you.
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WolfenAmphithere
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The Crazy Hat Lady
or at least stop talking to them while you're playing games.
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Polantaris
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Die pig!
They actually DID do a study about it. Your "friends" probably watched the Colbert Report, cause he did a big thing about it.

They did a study where they had two groups of people, all read something like 12 short stories. One group was given the endings prior to starting to read, and the other wasn't. Every single story, the group that knew the ending claimed they enjoyed the story more than the group that didn't know the ending.

Honestly, I don't see how that is. People really want to know everything before they do anything? Are we all that cautious and boring? Honesty, I hate spoilers myself. If someone told me the ending to some of my favorite books before I read them, I probably would have never have finished them, and they wouldn't be some of my favorite books. Same thing with games. If I knew Suikoden II was going to go through so many twists throughout the story...I don't think it would be one of my favorite RPGs, because it's that way largely because of the story and how it was done. It's really not the same to know something before it happens. Watching Star Wars Episode I - III isn't as good as I would have liked...because we all knew where Anakin's struggle between the Dark and Light sides of the Force was going to end up, and overall I think that made the movies less enjoyable than they should have been.
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Lotus Prince
Rank 11: Bahamut
Polantaris
Sep 14 2011, 03:48 PM
They actually DID do a study about it. Your "friends" probably watched the Colbert Report, cause he did a big thing about it.

They did a study where they had two groups of people, all read something like 12 short stories. One group was given the endings prior to starting to read, and the other wasn't. Every single story, the group that knew the ending claimed they enjoyed the story more than the group that didn't know the ending.
That's what a second playthrough is for; so you can appreciate things you've missed.
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