Do spoilers bother you?

[Zombie_Babies]

Let's clarify this:

Your statement is true FOR YOU.

I'm a smart guy. I like to figure things out. if you blab the answer to the mystery, you have robbed me of my entertainment.

So for me, spoilers damage the product because I want to see if I can figure it out before the author gives it a way.

So people that don't care to try and put every little clue together aren't as smart as you or something? Umm ... ok.

I disagree. Some thing does change - you. More specifically, your knowledge of the journey changes. That extra information can greatly reduce dramatic tension for the reader. If you know your favorite character survives some will find passages with them at risk lose their anticipation and savor. Similarly, if you know a particular character is doomed to die, a reader may not invest much caring into the character.

How? I don't think that most spoilers are presented nearly as well as the story in question reveals the events. Earlier I said 'Sturm dies'. Now tell me what that really says. Not a lot, right? How does he die? When? Where? And even if I went on to explain the whole situation, would I do it as well as the author? I don't think so. There's plenty of meat still on the bone even after something is 'spoiled'.

True. And, that matters if you're into that sort of thing. But, you similarly lose the experience of putting the clues you do see together as they are doled out, and to the folks who are into that sort of thing, that matters.

No you don't. A spoiler isn't a word for word explanation of what happens - at least not in 99%+ of spoiler situations. You don't know that on page 74 when the author wrote about her brother's penknife that it'll later be used to carve the pumpkin that scares the author's aunt into a blah blah. The clues are still there for you to find on your own.

Depends on the case. For a straight up mystery... it'd need to include some outright stellar acting to get me to bother seeing the movie after having read the book.

Interesting. I think the different media is enough of an incentive in its own right in a lot of cases. I mean, I read The Road but I didn't actually see it, yanno? I 'saw' it but it's not quite the same. Then again, that's not a mystery.

 

[Janx]

So people that don't care to try and put every little clue together aren't as smart as you or something? Umm ... ok.

I didn't say that. I stated 2 sentences. One that I am smart and two, that I like to figure things out.

There are some dumb people who also like to figure things out, though by definition, they aren't likley to be successful.

There are some smart people who don't like to figure things out as well.

And of course, in the 4th quadrant, there are dumb people who don't like to figure things out.

Let's try not to segue off topic in mock offense over nothing or we'll be harkening back to the bad times.

In reality, my point was to address the desires of people who live in the "likes to figure things out" half off the graph. I obviously didn't need to digress into the Smart people quadrant, but you also didn't need to drag it down as an insult either.

 

[tomBitonti]

How? I don't think that most spoilers are presented nearly as well as the story in question reveals the events.

Spoiler

Earlier I said 'Sturm dies'. Now tell me what that really says. Not a lot, right? How does he die? When? Where?

And even if I went on to explain the whole situation, would I do it as well as the author? I don't think so. There's plenty of meat still on the bone even after something is 'spoiled'.

I'd consider that a significant spoiler. Even missing context, knowing the outcome could have a large effect on the reader's experience of the story.

Now, once the outcome is known, going back and rereading with that known would be interesting. The spoiler has a value to some readers. But I wouldn't want to rob readers of their first time experience, based on not knowing the outcome.

True, at the beginning of the whole story, the outcome won't have much meaning. The reader isn't yet invested in the story or the characters. But, later on, as the story progresses and his storyline begins to gather weight, knowing the outcome is very important. That is, throwing out

Spoiler

Sturm dies

to an audience that doesn't care is not a defense to spoiling the audience that does care.

Note:

Spoiler

From a dramatic point of view, the outcome is predictable. But, I'm thinking, the uncertainty, however slight, still adds to the experience.

Thx!

TomB

 

[nerfherder]

Yes, spoilers bother me. I take some responsibility to avoid them - e.g. by avoiding any threads with the name of the show/film/book in the title - and I also avoid giving away spoilers in the titles of threads. I still remember being annoyed at the writer of the newsgroup thread entitled something like "Sixth Sense - did anyone else figure out that he was dead?". IIRC, this was during or just after the opening weekend.

 

[Zombie_Babies]

I didn't say that. I stated 2 sentences. One that I am smart and two, that I like to figure things out.

There are some dumb people who also like to figure things out, though by definition, they aren't likley to be successful.

There are some smart people who don't like to figure things out as well.

And of course, in the 4th quadrant, there are dumb people who don't like to figure things out.

Let's try not to segue off topic in mock offense over nothing or we'll be harkening back to the bad times.

In reality, my point was to address the desires of people who live in the "likes to figure things out" half off the graph. I obviously didn't need to digress into the Smart people quadrant, but you also didn't need to drag it down as an insult either.

I'm sorry but I have to question what value you saying 'I'm smart' added to the conversation. As such I can't see a whole lot of good reasons to have said it. As we've dealt with each other before, I'm willing to consider it a misunderstanding. I just thought it an odd thing to say.

I'd consider that a significant spoiler. Even missing context, knowing the outcome could have a large effect on the reader's experience of the story.

Now, once the outcome is known, going back and rereading with that known would be interesting. The spoiler has a value to some readers. But I wouldn't want to rob readers of their first time experience, based on not knowing the outcome.

True, at the beginning of the whole story, the outcome won't have much meaning. The reader isn't yet invested in the story or the characters. But, later on, as the story progresses and his storyline begins to gather weight, knowing the outcome is very important. That is, throwing out

Spoiler

Sturm dies

to an audience that doesn't care is not a defense to spoiling the audience that does care.

Note:

Spoiler

From a dramatic point of view, the outcome is predictable. But, I'm thinking, the uncertainty, however slight, still adds to the experience.

Thx!

TomB

It's a difference in thought process. When some hear 'Sturm dies' they get upset about missing out on the experience. When I hear something like that I think 'how' and read on. Meh, I guess it's all in how ya see things. To me, he's gonna die regardless of when or how I find out so it doesn't matter. Hell, he's already dead. You're reading a history, so to speak, not a live account of events. And, as I've said, the knowledge changes nothing about the book itself so I don't see an issue.

Oh, and in this case the Sturm spoiler shows another benefit of spoilers: If you're not terribly interested in the book or show or whatever but do have some minimal interest because a friend or whatever is interested, a spoiler like this can get you into the discussion without the need to pay the terrible price of reading something that's totally awful. That's what it did for me. I know he died, I know how and I can talk about it on some level but I never, ever had to actually suffer through the text. Bonus.

 

[jasper]

Anyone remember Arsenio Hall's spoiler of "War of Roses".... The jerk gave away the ending of the movie while interviewing the actor the week the movie was release. That is bad spoiler. Who is going to be the villain, cast, general plot I don't care. I like the college humor limits.

 

[tomBitonti]

It's a difference in thought process. When some hear

Spoiler

'Sturm dies'

they get upset about missing out on the experience. When I hear something like that I think 'how' and read on. Meh, I guess it's all in how ya see things. To me, he's gonna die regardless of when or how I find out so it doesn't matter. Hell, he's already dead. You're reading a history, so to speak, not a live account of events. And, as I've said, the knowledge changes nothing about the book itself so I don't see an issue.

I guess its a difference between what impact a spoiler has on different people.

Several different questions:

*) Does the spoiler matter to you.
*) Might the spoiler matter to anyone else.
*) For folks as a whole, what is a good map of how much the spoiler matters?

That is, while a spoiler might not matter to a particular person, it might matter to a different particular person, perhaps a little, perhaps a lot.

Returning to the original question, that leads to different interpretations of the question (since "you" is ambiguous):

Do spoilers matter?
Do spoilers matter (to you)?

Thx!

TomB

Edit: There is a looseness to the poll question. When "spoilers" is stated, does it mean, "does the fact that spoilers exist bother you?" The poll question seems to be getting at finer questions, which is, "to what degree do spoilers bother you", and "how often do you find you enjoyment impacted, or significantly impacted, by a spoiler".

 

[Morrus]

Well, I now know exactly how last night's (in America) Walking Dead ends. And I was being really careful not to.

In other news, The Walking Dead season 4 begins tonight at 9pm in the UK. Awesome! I can't wait to find out what happens!

I really should just start torrenting this stuff. That said, I'd still be at least a day late, so it wouldn't have helped in this case.

Didn't bother with SHIELD after I was told upthread (in a thread about spoilers) about Sky getting shot. Just kinda lost interest. So yeah, in answer to my own question - I guess spoilers make me less interested in watching something if I know exactly what's going to take place.

 

[billd91]

Didn't bother with SHIELD after I was told upthread (in a thread about spoilers) about Sky getting shot. Just kinda lost interest. So yeah, in answer to my own question - I guess spoilers make me less interested in watching something if I know exactly what's going to take place.

But do you know exactly what's going to take place? Do you know who shot Sky? Do you know what happened on the train? Do you know what Mei did that surprised Coulson?

Do you ever watching things more than once? Are you less interested in watching them the second, third, or fourth time because you know exactly what happens?

 

[Morrus]

Do you ever watching things more than once? Are you less interested in watching them the second, third, or fourth time because you know exactly what happens?

It depends what it is. On a show like Walking Dead or Breaking Bad or something, no, I'll never go back to them. A movie like Ghostbusters I watch for entirely different reasons, but immortal classics aren't the norm.