When are spoilers allowed to be talked about in games publicly?

I'd say you can talk about them whenever you want as long as you provide a spoiler tag or warning. As for openly discussing them without such warnings I'd say a couple of years, it's really a difficult thing to decide on.

@Claude said:

@Mb246 said:

bad/vague choices.

bad/vague answer.

Meaning the choices to the poll. What else would that message mean exactly?

Atleast 200 years...

Never.

If you must talk about them, use spoiler tags and be careful not to give away anything in the firkken title (which happens far too often around here). If somebody wants to go back and play through Fallout 1 or 2, they should be able to enjoy the experience without some inconsiderate ass spoiling the story.

The only exception are with spoilers that are so ingrained in popular culture that it doesn't even matter. Saying that Darth Vader is Luke's father or that Aerith dies in FF7 doesn't matter, because everybody knows.

After around 6 months or so, but there definitely should be a limit on that. I find avoiding spoilers of really old products really dumb because IF there are people who still want to play it they wouldn't be searching around forums about it as they should (in my opinion) logically play it first (unless it's specifically about purchasing or questioning reviews and general reception of a game or similar kind of non-spoiler example). I should be able to talk about the end of a lot of older games without spoiler tags and shouldn't have to be kept quiet for the 4 dudes that have not yet played a game after so much time has passed.

Mario saves the Princess in New Super Mario Brothers Wii. Take that.

It's always okay, as long as you use a spoiler tag or something. 

@ShiftyMagician said:

After around 6 months or so, but there definitely should be a limit on that. I find avoiding spoilers of really old products really dumb because IF there are people who still want to play it they wouldn't be searching around forums about it as they should (in my opinion) logically play it first (unless it's specifically about purchasing or questioning reviews and general reception of a game or similar kind of non-spoiler example). I should be able to talk about the end of a lot of older games without spoiler tags and shouldn't have to be kept quiet for the 4 dudes that have not yet played a game after so much time has passed.

Mario saves the Princess in New Super Mario Brothers Wii. Take that.

Many people don't buy games until they're cheaper, don't have the system to play it on until later, are just waiting for a price drop, etc.

If you use spoiler tags, fine, but I don't see why something should be spoiled for everyone else, just because it's been out for a while. I don't see how waiting 6 months and doing it is any different from me telling you all what happens at the end of Skyrim in a week because "ya'll had plenty of time to play it!". People have different priorities when it comes to gaming and play at different rates.

At the very least, talk about these things in a topic clearly marked as such, but I'm sick of seeing so many different topics around here discussing the same aspects of the endings for games like Batman and Uncharted 3, just days after they're released, especially when the titles alone give away so much. I do try and avoid these topics, but when they're called things like "What did you think of Sheppard killing..." it's hard not to piece it together, or at least getting some idea of the major twists.

@WinterSnowblind said:

@ShiftyMagician said:

After around 6 months or so, but there definitely should be a limit on that. I find avoiding spoilers of really old products really dumb because IF there are people who still want to play it they wouldn't be searching around forums about it as they should (in my opinion) logically play it first (unless it's specifically about purchasing or questioning reviews and general reception of a game or similar kind of non-spoiler example). I should be able to talk about the end of a lot of older games without spoiler tags and shouldn't have to be kept quiet for the 4 dudes that have not yet played a game after so much time has passed.

Mario saves the Princess in New Super Mario Brothers Wii. Take that.

Many people don't buy games until they're cheaper, don't have the system to play it on until later, are just waiting for a price drop, etc.

If you use spoiler tags, fine, but I don't see why something should be spoiled for everyone else, just because it's been out for a while. I don't see how waiting 6 months and doing it is any different from me telling you all what happens at the end of Skyrim in a week because "ya'll had plenty of time to play it!". People have different priorities when it comes to gaming and play at different rates.

At the very least, talk about these things in a topic clearly marked as such, but I'm sick of seeing so many different topics around here discussing the same aspects of the endings for games like Batman and Uncharted 3, just days after they're released, especially when the titles alone give away so much. I do try and avoid these topics, but when they're called things like "What did you think of Sheppard killing..." it's hard not to piece it together, or at least getting some idea of the major twists.

After even a few months, a game loses its immediate relevancy and importance to many as either people have completed it or just didn't buy it in its time-frame of relevancy because either due to disinterest or other reasons you described. It is clearly different than if it was in a day or week because you are then attempting to spoil the highest concentration of gamers that are obviously playing it in the time-frame.

After a long period of time, most people will have finished the game or didn't bother to finish (there are exceptions but they are almost always a small minority) and the potential damage is minimised only to those real late to the party. Those people should logically know that if they didn't want to get spoiled after such a long time (far more than a mere week or two of course for fairness), they really shouldn't poke in forum threads unless it's about non-spoiler stuff. I definitely agree no spoilers in titles as involuntary spoiling is just tasteless. Other than that, it is always the responsibility of the people who haven't played yet, not the other way around.

Don't expect me to look around the Assassin's Creed Revelations forum for example, as I don't trust the threads to not attempt to spoil it for me due to jerks. If I wanted to know about the game, I'd go to gaming news sites and official sites, not reading the relevant forums or comments in the articles. Common-sense helps a lot here.

I can definitely understand people disagreeing with me on this as everyone has a right to a differing opinion. However as I stated in my last entry, it's my opinion of the situation and what I thought would be a good time-frame to answer the thread, nothing more or less.

I think that if a title is mainstream or large enough then spoilers are acceptable within a couple of years. Although, with that said, I had the end of Metal Gear Solid 4 spoiled for me a year or two ago and I'm still mad about it. MGS is one of my favorite franchises, but it's such a popular game and I still haven't played it. So, to be fair I don't really think my anger is justified.

...I'm still going to stay angry though. Just so you know.

@rebgav said:

@Adus said:

@rebgav said:

@Adus said:

If you read a wiki summary before watching a movie, can you honestly tell me that you're going to get the same amount of enjoyment from watching it compared to if you hadn't? Because if the answer is yes then I really don't believe you.

By that logic, it is impossible to enjoy watching the same movie twice.

No, because that's not what I said at all. I just said it wouldn't be the same amount of enjoyment. I love the movie Aliens and find it pretty exciting even though I've seen it a hundred times, but it still doesn't compare to the first time.

I don't find that to be the case at all, I can enjoy a good movie again and again. I find that my appreciation for something good grows with exposure to it, if my appreciation diminishes it's because there are glaring flaws which only become more annoying each time.

At this point I don't think the conversation is relevant to spoilers at all, because there's a difference between knowing what's going to happen because you've seen it before and knowing because someone told you.

We could argue the semantics of 'appreciation' and 'enjoyment' all day and probably not really get anywhere.

It's just that everyone has that situation where they see a movie trailer and it gives away a bunch of awesome scenes, and while it might inspire a person to see the film, once they do it's hard not to see those scenes and go "oh yeah, that was in the trailer." That or you're just sitting there wondering when they're going to happen. Especially annoying if the scenes shown were from the end making it easier to discern what happens or what characters will be around, etc. The point is people generally enjoy things more not knowing what's going to happen, therefore spoilers are annoying and people should be careful with them. People should also probably not flip out over them either.

@Afroman269 said:

You can talk about spoilers whenever, just put up a warning first.

I don´t mind spoilers for games I don´t care but seriously just put a tag on it , I say trailers give most of the spoilers now days.

Spoliers (Troll).

Nah, really you should probably put a spoiler alert or something. I honestly don't mind reading them or hearing them. If it's a movie I still watch the movie, same goes for Video Games.

There isn't really a time in which it's acceptable or unacceptable to talk about spoilers. The way I see it, if you're going to talk about spoilers at least have some form of warning (like the spoiler tag) before posting them.

After a week, because everyone who cares enough about a game has already beaten it by that time.

Yes, I just said that most games are not longer than a week, and no, Skyrim won't be either(Main quest at least)

Depends how old the game is. The spoiler tags are a safe bet, saves all the spoiler crazy people going crazy.

Any time after release is fair game in my opinion, people wanting to divulge everything before that time (like with GOW3) are just relentless trolls. Obviously this is in between fair warning of course, I have read threads in the past that are about something completely unrelated just to snare people to read the spoilers buried.

If you go looking for information its the risk you take, sure its never nice to have something spoiled for you but everyone should be aware of it by now.

I've always considered it more of a gentleman's agreement more than anything, if people want to talk about it, they will.

@Afroman269 said:

You can talk about spoilers whenever, just put up a warning first.

This.

I try to follow the Wil Wheaton rule of "Don't be a Dick" when it comes to spoilers both in regards to saying them or hearing about them. I try not to spoil things for people who might be trying to avoid them but if someone accidently gives a spoiler I don't get bent out of shape.

Now if someone deliberately spoils things just to be an ass it's a whole other story.