Kotaku just posted a Batman: Arkham City spoiler involving death.

Don't go now unless you don't care about the story of the game, it's front-paged and IN THE TITLE. This is the final straw so I downloaded BlockSite for Firefox so now all links and extensions are blocked to Kotaku's child monkeys.

It was pretty obvious that Batman was a ghost all along after reading they'd cast Haley Joel Osment as Robin.

@rebgav said:

That "spoiler" has been common knowledge since the game was announced.

No it wasn't.

I quickly scrolled to the bottom of this page so as to not look at any posts, but I feel for anybody who got spoiled by Kotakus article. Someone posted a thread on these forums that spoiled GoW3 for me.

It is a big fat spoiler. So people who haven't been to Kotaku yet, please watch out. As if the interface wasn't enough.........

@rebgav: Not quite. Briefly hinted at? Maybe, but not straight out spoiled in big bold text.

Batman's parents die!

It was a spoiler to me. Now I really don't feel like playing it.

@rebgav said:

@Mentalnova said:

@rebgav said:

That "spoiler" has been common knowledge since the game was announced.

No it wasn't.

It was one of the first details which leaked about the game. They're encouraging people to report on it, according to that Kotaku article, so it's probably going to be the subject of a bunch of preview articles now too.

For people who DON'T READ PREVIEWS to avoid stuff like this, especially ones where they say it right in the title is most juvenile.\

Made me cancel my Amazon pre-order.

I didn't know there would be any deaths in the game. You just spoiled me with your topic title.

@Aishan: I could be talking about Bruce's parents for all you know.

@Mentalnova: But that wouldn't be topic-worthy. The death clearly has to be important or it wouldn't have gotten you so riled up.

This could be Quake 4 Egregiousness, fuck Kotaku and Rocksteady.

@Mentalnova said:

Don't go now, it's front-paged. This is the final straw so I downloaded BlockSite for Firefox so now all links and extensions are blocked to Kotaku's child monkeys.

Oooh sounds interesing, www.kotak....wait a minute! You're just trying to get me to go to Kotaku aren't you! I heard about this, you go create controversial content on sites like this, Gizmodo article about internet dating where girl meets magic player and rejects him cause he plays magic.

Then you go start internet posts about how awful it is and drive millions of people to go see your site!

Well it worked!

Apparently the joker dies early in the game. Oh well.

And I just noticed that this forum software is called Parchment?! When did you start stealing IP from Bethesda!? Rabble rabble rabbble, I like coffee.

@rebgav: could you find an early example of this from back when the game was announced and PM it to me please? I don't think this fact has been blatantly written about by the press until today.

@rebgav said:

@Mentalnova said:

@rebgav said:

@Mentalnova said:

@rebgav said:

That "spoiler" has been common knowledge since the game was announced.

No it wasn't.

It was one of the first details which leaked about the game. They're encouraging people to report on it, according to that Kotaku article, so it's probably going to be the subject of a bunch of preview articles now too.

For people who DON'T READ PREVIEWS to avoid stuff like this, especially ones where they say it right in the title is most juvenile.\

Made me cancel my Amazon pre-order.

Yo, it's called marketing. If they're showing that part of the game and telling people to write about it then they're actively trying to get that information out.

But it totally makes sense that you wouldn't want to buy Arkham City now that the assuredly rich and complex story has been "spoiled" for you. How would you be able to enjoy punching guys in the face now, knowing that?

Post their thread title on these forums and see how long you last.

And who the fuck are you to tell me how to enjoy my games?

maybe take this opportunity to stop visiting kotaku.

chances of regretting your decisions are zero

I would've avoided it, but Stephen Totilo retweeted it. He was basically the only Kotaku guy I kinda liked. Think I started following him after that one PAX Bombcast.

Goddammit.

I like how they made a giant banner out of the spoiler and put it right on their front page.  
 
Really, really classy. I don't care either way but do they get off trolling their user base or something?  

We all knew Kotaku was a shit site already, didn't we?

Patrick's tweeting about it. I'm glad the Bomb has enough sense not to punch their users in the nuts.

Wow OP way to spoil the fucking game with your title.

Im sure you did this on purpose too.

@GlutenBob: Now imagine if I actually was specific, how mad would you be? The part where Batman reflects on life and death in a monologue...

I don't care about the story's content, it's the presentation that bothers me. This is one game I've been avoiding reading about so I could go into the experience knowing only what I know form the previous game and various other odd bits. To put what can only be considered a major plot point in the headline is such bad form for the enthusiast press that it's mind boggling.

As to the arguments of "The developers want it written about," what Rocksteady makes available to the press is their prerogative, but it's the press's job to present that information in a way that serves their interests. It appears Kotaku has made the decision that their primary interest is page views or "buzz," because writing that headline and revealing a major plot point couldn't have been done without knowing what kind of reaction would come from something that even skirts the edge of spoiler territory.

I swear I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I do find it odd that this kerfuffle pertains to a game and publisher who Kotaku publicly called out for their application and administration of NDAs just a few months ago and threatened/promised/stated they were withholding all coverage of that publisher. It probably means nothing, but hopefully that won't stop more baseless speculation like what I've engaged in here.

I thought they already announced that you play as Professor Layton, solving the MUUURRRDEEERRR of Batman.

It's Gotham City. You can't spit without hitting someone who knows where to find a Lazarus pit to ressurrect whoever kicked the bucket this week. It's almost guaranteed they'll be back on their feet in time for the post-credits sequel hook.

Batman's parents die!

@Asmo917 said:

I swear I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I do find it odd that this kerfuffle pertains to a game and publisher who Kotaku publicly called out for their application and administration of NDAs just a few months ago and threatened/promised/stated they were withholding all coverage of that publisher. It probably means nothing, but hopefully that won't stop more baseless speculation like what I've engaged in here.

Makes sense, if Kotaku don't get their way, they like "payback". e.g. They started posting weekly gaming deals to an unknown website when clearly the majority of the deals come from Cheap Ass Gamer, but their creator decided to hold a contest to see if their members could post a blog and get featured on Kotaku and when that happened with Kotaku humiliated that's when they started posting deals to an obscure site as payback (taking away referrals from CAG who contribute lots to Child's Play).

Now I feel like pre-ordering again, I mean, a kid could of registered on the forums here and had that as their thread title and I would of been in the wrong place and wrong time and while it takes away from the grandeur of the game that I can never have back, part of it is the experience leading to and the circumstances to the outcome.

I really wish people would use the blocksite add-on for Firefox and shove it up Kotaku's asses still.

@rebgav: Couldn't agree more. And it's a shame, because one of the old Bombcasts just singled out Totillo as a good journalist for his then-current work at Multiplayer. Then there's stuff like this, and the following headline of "Oh well, It Looks Like Rage Probably Ain't Happening" to spotlight a story NOT about a game that's gone gold and shipped, but the unlikely nature of asteroids causing armageddon and leading to a bleak post-apocalyptic world.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice...it won't happen, because it's an easy bookmark to stop clicking.

I doubt it will be permanent. I mean, how many characters can you think of that have died in comics and stayed dead if you don't include Ben Parker?

I can understand being upset by the way Kotaku chose to handle that information, but cancelling a pre-order or never playing the game because of it makes no sense to me. Especially considering the developers apparently wanted this reported on.

If I ever play Arkham City, it will be for the gameplay, and not the story. Comic books don't do it for me any more, but melee combat sometimes does. Kotaku, if I remember correctly, spoiled Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for me a while back, which really frustrated me.

@Mentalnova: You shouldn't have been so specific in your title, though, and you should have thrown an all caps "SPOILER" warning up there to be polite.

Don't pin this all on Kotaku. Brad's preview article has the same spoiler.

@FreakAche said:

Don't pin this all on Kotaku. Brad's preview article has the same spoiler.

Not in the title and like I said, I don't read previews to avoid these kind of spoilers to begin with. Looks like people are complaining in his article though, I mean he doesn't have any spoiler warnings.

@iDarktread: I posted what would of deterred me if I was anticipating this game's story.

@Mr_Skeleton said:

Batman's parents die!

Motherfucker! Use spoiler blocks, jerk!

@Mentalnova: The only reason I'm here is because I wasn't anticipating the game's story to begin with, so you're partly correct. It's just not very thoughtful to post up anything plot-related, especially when a game has a limited cast of characters to apply the spoiler to.

Okay, time for me to exit this thread.

Well, guess I won't be looking at Kotaku for a long time to come. That was kind of a dick move on their part.

@Mr_Skeletonsaid:

Batman's parents die!

Everything about Batman has now been ruined for me. Great!

I thought we all knew something like this was going to happen when Mark Hamil announced his retirement from voice acting...

before I was a little tiffed they said Joker died, but then I realized it's fucking Batman, the Joker doesn't die with Batman

Oh please, even if it did happen, it means absolutely nothing when we're talking about Batman as a whole, villains and heroes always come back. Though, if this is somehow the sequel of all sequels in the Batman canon, they better make it emotional, even for a bad guy.

@iDarktread:And yes by the end of page 1 I wanted to change the title to take out death, for all the smartasses out there, but of course these shit forums won't allow title changes.

I saw Patricks tweets and thought, "I'm guessing this was Kotaku" and still went there anyways and saw it. That was kinda my fault though. Looks like i'm gonna stick to Joystiq from now on.

@metalhead87 said:

I can understand being upset by the way Kotaku chose to handle that information, but cancelling a pre-order or never playing the game because of it makes no sense to me. Especially considering the developers apparently wanted this reported on.

Exactly. Kotaku acted irresponsibly, but letting that ruin the whole game for you is overreacting. Seriously, across all possible forms of fiction, comic book characters are the least likely to have a meaningful, permanent death.

Some games have MAJOR plot twists that put the entire game in a new perspective. "Some comic book character temporarily dies" is not such a twist. The story will carry on, and then surprise-surprise, that character will be back from the dead somehow. Hell, I think something like Metal Gear Solid 2's "You don't play as Solid Snake for the vast majority of the game" is a way bigger spoiler than this Arkham City stuff.

@BisonHero said:

Exactly. Kotaku acted irresponsibly, but letting that ruin the whole game for you is overreacting. Seriously, across all possible forms of fiction, comic book characters are the least likely to have a meaningful, permanent death.

Some games have MAJOR plot twists that put the entire game in a new perspective. "Some comic book character temporarily dies" is not such a twist. The story will carry on, and then surprise-surprise, that character will be back from the dead somehow. Hell, I think something like Metal Gear Solid 2's "You don't play as Solid Snake for the vast majority of the game" is a way bigger spoiler than this Arkham City stuff.

I do agree that the game won't be ruined for me if I find out what this spoiler is about and, above all, that Kotaku can go die in a fire. But I have to say that the bolded text is a terrible excuse, especially taking into account that, for all intents and purposes, Batman, the Joker and the rest of the casts are video game characters in this case. You're not reading a comic book, you're playing a game. It's what TVTropes calls "Schrondinger's Cast": the status of a character may change in different adaptations of the universe it's part of. Recent example: Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler is dead in the comic books, but it's alive and well in X-Men: Destiny. I'm playing a game and what pertains the plot of the game I'm playing is what I care about, not what the original version in the Marvel Universe comic books is doing.

"There are bigger plot twists that have been spoiled" is also a lame excuse.

Why would you cancel a pre-order for something that happens an hour into the game? That's like not going to Star Wars because somebody told you that they blew up a planet.

Overreactions over a spoiler like not buying the game is stupid. But having a plot point spoiled sucks too and I can see why people get angry over it. I'm sick of people going "lol Vader is Luke's dad!" like it's a valid counter argument. What if someone spoiled that plot point before the movie was released? That certainly changes with context doesn't it? A plot isn't reliant on one twist alone, it's a roller coaster ride with many rises and lulls and having a big "drop" taken out of a rollercoaster, while it doesn't ruin the experience overall, still makes it a less enjoyable and exciting one than it would have been. So yes, having something spoiled is something worth getting miffed about, definitely not "I'm not buying this game!" worthy, but people are allowed to get mad over spoilers.

That said, I've only recently seen just how shitty Kotaku can be. I've been noticing more and more misleading, sensationalist headlines that are just fucking stretches of the truth as long as you can draw em. And here they just put a big old spoiler in the headline. What angers me more is Totilo's failure to understand the readership. Yes, Rocksteady might have wanted you to promote this point of the game, but that shouldn't you have taken the audience into consideration? There are people that like to avoid any articles or previews of a game and Kotaku denied them even that by flatout putting a spoiler in the title. And then justifying by saying "we shouldn't have to self censor ourselves and misconstrue the truth from our readers" or some bullshit like that. A) You're a videogame blog site, not a world news site. B) Having a spoiler warning or at the very least not putting the spoiler in the title is not the same as omitting the spoiler itself, so it isn't censorship, it's having some consideration for the readers. C) They misconstrue the truth all the time with their shitty sensationalist headlines like "RAGE isn't happening."

I never really liked Kotaku's editors, Totilo seemed like the only good one and I guess he's just trying to back up his fellow co-worker. But Kotaku in general just turns me off, it's mostly their unwillingness to ever admit fault. Especially Brian Ashcraft and his articles about Asian girls that barely relate to anything just to garner hits. Not to mention they've got a shitty interface. The only good thing about Kotaku is their "quantity over quality" approach to games coverage.

Gamesradar and 1up have a similar story on their front page

WARNING

Don't read Brad's article because it contains the same spoiler. Maybe I can save one of you duders the spoil like I was *trying* to avoid myself.

WARNING