Mod edit: Please do not discuss prerelease spoilers in this topic, or any spoilers at all for that matter. If you want to do that, there is already a topic dedicated to exactly that discussion here. Thanks!)

This is just a quick public service announcement: there are some really ruinous spoilers floating around and I advise you to be very careful over the next ten days. The strategy guide has leaked (and is rumored to be over 300 pages holy shit), including images and a full translation (the leaked guide wasn't in English). I'm too scared for my own sake to confirm these leaks but it was bad enough that the Metal Gear Solid subreddit has gone into full lockdown.

From here on out, watch yourself. Youtube video titles, fourm titles (even here on GB, although the mods are usually really on the ball), Reddit, and 4chan will all be minefields from now until release. If spoilers aren't your thing, stay safe and keep your head down.

I totally read some of those spoilers. It will be fun to see whether they are real or not when the game releases. This is the first time I get to experience an MGS release and the levels of hype and speculation is something I have never seen for any game before. It's quite amazing.

@mirado: Thanks for the warning duder! Like @confusedowl said, this is my first time to experience a MGS release too.

Thanks for the heads up duder! Shit is getting real.

Ruh-oh. Time to go full ostrich.

After being partially (and unwillingly) spoiled on elements of the ending, I went down the rabbit hole and have been looking over all the spoilers in the leaked guide. Oh boy.

Don't do it folks. There's stuff in this game you'll want to see with your own eyes.

I hope it's a game that'll still hold up narratively if you know what's coming. How getting there could be the interesting part.

But that sucks. Granted, it'll probably take me months to finish so there's no way in hell I'll avoid things that long (although I still somehow don't know who the Arkham Knight is).

@csl316: I believe it will still hold up for most people even if they are spoiled. The spoilers are so completely insane that I question whether they are even real at all, but this is Metal Gear after all.

I definitely don't encourage people to look them up unless they don't mind spoilers.

I'm going to have to restrain myself from actively seeking out spoilers. I really want to see what sort of bonkers nonsense Kojima has cooked up firsthand.

Hell, you guys are killing me with these black bars. So tempting to just click...

Alright, I gotta throw this phone across the room.

Well considering I'm banned from NeoGAF again and dont go on Reddit or 4Chan I think I'll be good. But yeah, stuff has been slowly leaking out over the last few days/weeks. Its at fever pitch now though.

@confusedowl said:

This makes me so happy and so afraid.

@demoskinos: Stay away from non-GB (maybe even non-premium GB) chat rooms as well. Chat room spoiler spamming has become the preferred method of many assholes in the streaming age.

@n7: You bastard! The reply notification page doesn't black out anything! Aaaahhhhh!!!!!!!

(That sounds dope)

@hassun: I don't think I really watch non-GB live streams much at all. Sometimes I'll pop into Maximillian's stream if I'm up but since he is west coast he usually always streams way way to late for me with me having to be up at 3:30am for work.

Good thing they moved the PC release date to September 1st. Imagine being the guy/gal who has to endure almost a month of this shit.

I'm legit scared about this; like, holy shit.

I've literally never been in a situation where I've head to go into info-blackout mode over a game. This should make for an interesting week and a half...

That would have been me, but then my buddy sold me his CE. Like right afterwards the release date was pushed up but whatever, now I'll have a sick robo hand.

I've browsed through the NeoGAF spoiler thread and if some of this stuff is true, it's going to be really interesting to see how it all unfolds in the game and how people react to it.

Stay safe out there, duders.

Without giving anything away, it's worth noting that there is a QR code in the official guide that links to some info that won't go live until Konami/Kojima says so. So even with the official guide out there, mysteries and rampant speculation persist.

@chaser324: You're a crazy man. :p

Yeah. The MGS Reddit is just a ton of people arguing about the legitimacy of spoilers right now. Nobody seems to know the truth, or in some cases, some people don't want to admit that these spoilers could be true.

Well that sucks.

I like the sound of the fact that the spoilers are so weird that people think they could be fake. Thats my kind of metal gear.

he sounds like a real cool dude

All these leaks are coming from a copy of the guide that is out there from some dude that was putting up youtube videos right? Is Kojima insane enough to fake this stuff? I haven't looked into what the spoilers are but knowing him, I wouldn't put a fake leak past him just to fuck with people.

Though, given everything that happened with Konami that's probably not super likely...

Man, I'm even scared to watch anything Metal Gear related on Youtube with how many things have been spoiled for me because of their terrible recommended video system and assholes that put spoilers in video titles.

Is it September yet?

This isn't what it was like before. MGS2, had a lot of hype leading up to it, but MGS 3 and 4 were just games. There wasn't whole lot of fervor about them.

I think the fervor for 2 was so high because it was the flagship game that was supposed to actually do what Sony was lying and saying the PS2 was capable of at the time. People wanted to see the console make good on the hype. But MGS2 asked a bunch of questions and then MGS3 was announced to be a prequel and not star Snake, again. Without the promise of it being a technical marvel, without it answering the questions MGS2 raised, and without it starring Snake, I think the excitement over the game was much more muted. MGS4 hit when the world was on the side of Xbox and their 360. The obscene cost of the PS3 alongside it's negative reputation of having games work particularly well killed a lot of the hype for the game.

So, in short, the level of hype for this game is higher than others have been in the past.

Yeah, I was coming here just to say that, I've been spoiler diving out of curiosity and across the boards out there, there is so much in fighting about what is and isn't real and troll 'false' spoilers and all of that, that if anyone in here does get 'spoiled' at this rate its about 50/50 if someone is just telling a straight up lie to mess with people so don't let it get to you too bad. It's a mad house right now.

I saw a pretty good post (forget where exactly) that theorized this was all on purpose to tie into the general theme of language that seems to be in the game as Kojimas way of going "Look what I made you all do with language! You spread all of this insanity!"
That would be nuts and super cool but I think I'm with you on the not super likely front haha.

I believe the leaked stuff. Seems tonally and thematically aligned in the way Kojima would put it together. I read it knowing that I would play and enjoy it regardless. Prepare for some surprises.

Also will there be a official spoiler thread on GB or is that against policy?

@indeedcodybrown: As long as it's clearly labeled, a spoiler thread is totally fine.

@chaser324: Okay thanks. I'm going to go start that then.

I might have just been spoiled on a little detail... the good news is that it doesn't really make any sense to me.

Hey everyone. I'm considering putting up a dedicated forum post for this, but just because this thread is here: The mod team here on Giant Bomb has always taken the handling of spoilers and those who spoil things quite seriously. We are always actively monitoring topics and blogs for unmarked spoilers and spoilers in thread titles, and editing or deleting things where appropriate.

Please flag spoilers either by using the Flag button found on all posts, or by using the PM All Mods link to easily send a group PM out to every active moderator. You can always find this link in the pinned Community Rules thread. This will give you the fastest response, as usually whoever sees one of these messages from the community first will go ahead and act and handle it. Response times for high priority messages regarding things like major spoilers in thread titles are usually measured in minutes, or even seconds. We'll be watching, but a little help finding this stuff is always appreciated, and the few seconds you take out of your day to notify us about the spoiler you just saw will go a long way towards ensuring your fellow Giant Bombers aren't unnecessarily spoiled as well.

As moderators, it puts us in a position where we inevitably are forced to read spoilers for a game we care about. Whether that is because we are always reading as many topics as we can, or are scanning thread titles throughout the day, or looking at flags or PMs from the community that contain spoilers themselves, or reviewing Wiki edits or image submissions that are loaded with spoilers. Thankfully, I don't particularly care about Metal Gear Solid, so getting part or all of this game spoiled for me isn't a big deal. However - I know a few of my colleagues are big fans of this series, and I would hate to see them get unnecessarily spoiled. So, I'm going to ask you a favor and a bit of special handling when it comes to Phantom Pain spoilers:

If you are going to send us a group PM about a Metal Gear spoiler, please clearly notate in the subject line that the message contains MGS-related spoilers. For the body of the PM, if there is a way for you to describe the nature of the spoiler and where it is without actually spoiling the entire mod team in the process, please do so! For instance - you could say something like, "In this post (give link to exact post or thread) user XxSpoilerDude420xX spoils the end of MGS V." That would be highly preferable to a PM that is more like, "Some user spoils the end of MGS V by saying the world explodes and nanomachines take over." I know this is a bit of an extreme example, but trust me...it happens. You can also use spoiler tags and spoiler blocks within PMs, so I definitely encourage you to do so if you feel they are needed to report a spoiler properly. Just clearly notate in the body of your PM that you're about to discuss the spoiler in question, and mark it off with a spoiler block. That way when we review the PM as a group, the mods who are actively trying to avoid any spoilers for Metal Gear can simply leave it, and people who don't care so much about the game can review stuff like that so they don't have to.

Regarding thread titles - Spoilers in thread titles are never permitted. This is a difficult subject because different people have differing definitions on what constitutes a spoiler. We ask that when you are crafting thread titles, keep this in mind and ask yourself, "Is this something that some people would like to discover on their own about Phantom Pain?" Remember, it doesn't even necessarily have to be about the main plot of the game to be considered a spoiler for many people. It could be something like the name of a boss, the return of a character from a previous Metal Gear game that surprised you, things like that. Here is an example of what I would consider a thread title that is a minor spoiler, but a spoiler nonetheless: "Covert Mantis Badger (3rd boss) is unbeatable!" Now, the name of a boss might seem like nothing to you, but it may be a big deal to someone else. A much better option would be this instead, "The third boss is unbeatable!" This way people who have already gotten to or beaten the third boss know they can safely come into the thread and read about it or help others with their strategy, while not needlessly spoiling the name for people who haven't gotten that far yet. Please just think about others when writing your thread titles and try to err on the side of caution. Threads with spoilers or borderline spoilers in the title will be edited, or in some cases removed.

Finally: any user maliciously spoiling games for others may find themselves unable to participate in any Giant Bomb community features for a lengthy period of time, if not forever. So please, don't be that guy. It isn't funny and no one wants people like that around, so please just don't put the mods in a position of having to ban you because you thought it would be cute to try and spoil a game for a bunch of people.

Phew, that's a lot. Thanks for bearing with me, I just want to make sure that as few people as possible end up getting The Phantom Pain spoiled for them. This is just a first draft and I'll probably do some editing and maybe another draft before putting up a copy of this as it's own post in the Phantom Pain forum sometime over the next couple of days or so. To everyone who got this far...thanks for reading this long ass post!

I would also recommend not posting any spoilers in this thread at all, tagged or not. It's silly to post spoilers in a thread warning people about spoilers.
There is a spoiler thread for the game, go there if you want them.

I suppose I can support zero tolerance. This is the end of a thing forever, it's a special case!

@Mike: See what I mean? You guys and gals are always on the ball. Maybe I can actually stay on GB before the release! :D

Thanks for the devotion; the mod team is one of the reasons why GB is such a good thing to be a part of.

That's a good idea.

I went ahead and removed a couple of the posts in this topic from people who wanted to discuss spoilers, or the nature of the spoilers, or if certain spoilers were real of not, and also a couple of people who posted both fake spoilers and nonsense marked as a spoiler for no reason.

If you want to go talk about the spoilers, there is a thread for that already here:

http://www.giantbomb.com/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain/3030-40796/forums/spoilers-prerelease-mgsv-tpp-spoiler-discussion-1780924/#12

Let's just keep all spoilers and discussion of the stuff that has already been spoiled out of this topic completely. There's no reason to bring that stuff in here, please try and keep it contained to the appropriate threads.

Thanks

I have never gone Internet silent before for a game. I'm basically just going to watch GB and a few YouTube videos. I'll still love the game if it gets spoiled for me, but man I'd love to go in knowing nothing.

I got spoiled to some degree about one particular thing, i have no idea if it was big or small thing to the overall game aswell and if it was true or not, and its super frustrating because i dont want to know a fake spoiler, so i have now decided to go as silent as i can on this game, and experience the crazy myself.

You know what will help pass the next week and some change? A delightful, robust, cyberpunk RPG by the name of Shadowrun: Hong Kong. I plan on unplugging from the Internet and playing that instead. You guys should think about it, too.

Listen to this man. I sure as hell will.