Do spoilers bother you?

[Elf Witch]

I don't care one way or another. But I do care about the absolute whining that accompanies a spoiler. Especially when the movie or TV show has been out more than a year. I had some moron get upset over my saying that Stargate SG1 starts out episodic then later goes into more overall reaching mega plots. This was five years after the show was off the air. If spoilers upset you and makes it impossible to enjoy the the movie or TV show then maybe you should more of an effort to seeing things in a timely fashion.

Times have changed with the internet it is almost impossible to keep a secret.

 

[Morrus]

If spoilers upset you and makes it impossible to enjoy the the movie or TV show then maybe you should more of an effort to seeing things in a timely fashion.

Even if that means breaking the law? Sometimes you don't get a choice when you can see it.

 

[Elf Witch]

Even if that means breaking the law? Sometimes you don't get a choice when you can see it.

That is hard in the old days of Dr Who we saw the shows years after they were shown in the UK. We already knew when Tom Baker was going to regenerate and who he was going to regenerate into. If you were a casual fan and didn't read magazines or got to cons you might not get spoiled. But what are you going to do but try your best to avoid articles or any conversation of a show. I knew what was going to happen on Downton Abbey and Sherlock because they showed in the UK before they showed here.

I am not advocating deliberately spoiling it for someone. I got spoiled on what characters don't live through Thor the Dark World. And this was while it was out only two days.

But it is annoying when a show has been out and if you wanted to you had access to it but you made the choice not to watch it and then get bent when someone spoils something.

The person who was complaining about Stargate was an American who had access to cable and actually owned the DVDs he just had to gotten around to them.

 

[Tom Strickland]

But I do care about the absolute whining that accompanies a spoiler.

"But I do care about the absolute whining that accompanies [being asked not to provide] a spoiler."

 

[Elf Witch]

"But I do care about the absolute whining that accompanies [being asked not to provide] a spoiler."

I have never seen anyone behave that way in my real life. Most of the people I know when asked not to say anything stop talking about it or leave the room with the person they were talking to so they can finish the conversation without spoiling it for someone else.

The internet is another matter because there are people who love nothing more than to cause drama.

But I have also seen people come onto a thread talking about last night episode of a show and then get angry when they read spoilers.

 

[billd91]

Even if that means breaking the law? Sometimes you don't get a choice when you can see it.

Then maybe people should be a little more judicious about what conversations they monitor. I don't have much sympathy for people whining about spoilers long after they've been out in the public discourse. Sooner or later, that spoiler becomes common knowledge and fodder for cultural literacy, not a surprise twist.

 

[Umbran]

Then maybe people should be a little more judicious about what conversations they monitor. I don't have much sympathy for people whining about spoilers long after they've been out in the public discourse. Sooner or later, that spoiler becomes common knowledge and fodder for cultural literacy, not a surprise twist.

There are rules:

[video=youtube_share;v8IAhI-B6UU]http://youtu.be/v8IAhI-B6UU[/video]

 

[Morrus]

Then maybe people should be a little more judicious about what conversations they monitor. I don't have much sympathy for people whining about spoilers long after they've been out in the public discourse. Sooner or later, that spoiler becomes common knowledge and fodder for cultural literacy, not a surprise twist.

We're not talking about "monitoring conversations" - that's a strawman. We're talking about unavoidable open spoilers. And we're not exactly talking years afterwards; we're talking near(ish) broadcast or - in some cases - before broadcast.

But judging people on their inferior spoiler avoidance adherence methods is not really the question. The question was much more simple than that -- do spoilers increase, decrease, or not affect you enjoyment of something?

Would you (or maybe did you?) be affected by knowing the end of The Sixth Sense? Would it be more fun to *not* know when the Doctor is going to regenerate? Would it be more fun to watch Batman vs. Superman and have a surprise "Holy crap! It's Wonder Woman!"?

(They kept Capaldi's brief appearance in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode completely secret somehow; we saw it in the cinema, and there was an audible gasp of surprise and delight around the entire theatre when he appeared - that was something I'd not have felt had we known about it beforehand).

 

[Umbran]

Would it be more fun to *not* know when the Doctor is going to regenerate?

This one's a particular bit, and it speaks to the point that what story you're talking about matters.

The folks making Doctor Who *know* the set is being watched. They know the fans are trading information all over the place. Keeping it secret isn't an option. So, they write the stories to suit. They don't write the story so that it being a surprise matters - they instead play with the inevitability of it, and use it to some advantage.

I can think of another movie that plays with this -

Spoiler

the 1998 Denzel Washington film, Fallen.

.

 

[billd91]

We're not talking about "monitoring conversations" - that's a strawman. We're talking about unavoidable open spoilers. And we're not exactly talking years afterwards; we're talking near(ish) broadcast or - in some cases - before broadcast.

But judging people on their inferior spoiler avoidance adherence methods is not really the question. The question was much more simple than that -- do spoilers increase, decrease, or not affect you enjoyment of something?

If you find that spoilers ruin what you're watching, maybe you should cultivate good spoiler avoidance techniques. Avoid threads where people are talking about the show. Avoid reading the entertainment magazines or news articles that cover the show. I'm not at all convinced a spoiler is unavoidable.