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[Freddo]

I've pretty much been on a media blackout for the past ~15 years since Morrowind. After following the development of Morrowind like a maniac, reading every preview and hunting the official forums for dev posts and so on, I realised when I actually played the game, that I shouldn't have.

It's quite rare I read previews these days and so on. Despite being a huge fan of the Yakuza series, it was still a surprise for me when I played as Majima in Yakuza 0, which was awesome. Or not knowing anything about Dishonored 2 (except the E3 trailer) or Prey before playing them, and so on and on.

On the flip side of things, there is currently no upcoming game I really look forward to. I'm sure there would be if I allowed myself to spend more time with the gaming news.

 

[jetsetrez]

I'm the opposite, most of the time. I think there's a difference between not wanting to know spoilers and putting yourself on an entire media blackout. I definitely don't want to have story elements spoiled either, but seeing footage or having features demonstrated or having sick cinematics hype up a game for me makes the anticipation greater and I generally have a better expectation of the game. I find most of the time when I've tried to go fully media blackout, the game disappoints me because my expectations were unrealistic. I feel like this is one of those things that people convince themselves that they like, but that most of the time doesn't actually produce the desired result except in those rare cases of truly exceptional releases.

 

[Benzychenz]

Yeah all I've seen of Odyssey is the reveal and E3 trailers, haven't watched any of the treehouse footage or previews or anything since.
Like why would I spoil myself on stuff when I can go in with it all new?

 

[Merchandise]

I derive as much enjoyment from trailers and pre-hype as I do playing the actual game, so. Why wait until it comes out? I get an extra year of fun this way.

 

[clay_ghost]

Sure but what if after the media blackout you discover that there are loot boxes in your games?

 

[Slamtastic]

I'd love to do this, but usually fail at it with thread titles and social media gifs ruining what could have been surprises.

 

[Azriell]

I've more or less been doing this since around 2007ish, when I realized I was spending more time looking forward to games that were a year or more out rather than enjoying the games in front of me. Bioshock was the catalyst, actually, because I was pining for that game for what seemed like an eternity, and it just made me realize what I was doing.

Now I feel more in the moment with the games I have. Of course I'm also actually surprised when things happen in games, which is great. I also try to avoid guides and FAQs at all costs (short of quitting a game out of frustration), because it just makes the whole journey feel far more organic and personal. I don't worry about getting the best weapons or whatever, because I've realized that once you finish a game, all of that shit stops mattering.

 

[DonF]

Been doing it for movies and games. It's awesome most of the time...damn you James bond Spectre!
For movies is really really awesome. I actually saw kylo Ren for the first time in the supermarket, in a cereal box, like one week before episode VII. Game trailers spoil too much now a days.

 

[Aswitch]

I’m starting to feel the same way. Evil within 2 in Particular i started doing this. Just saw the few trailers and was set for when it was going to release. I just feel that horror games specifically can get really spoiled from a media standpoint. I’ve felt glad after playing the game so far of moments that I would have liked to discover rather than be aware before starting. I definitely see myself doing this with more games i know for a fact i’ll Pick up. For games i’m On the fence about though. I’ll continue to follow regularly. Which is honestly what I think extended gameplay segments are for.

 

[Cramoss]

I only watch the first trailer and it has worked wonderfully to me

 

[Kinsei]

With ho expensive games are media blackouts seem really dumb to me. There's no way I'm risking that much money and not watching the trailers, gameplay, and reviews.

 

[Danjin44]

With ho expensive games are media blackouts seem really dumb to me. There's no way I'm risking that much money and not watching the trailers, gameplay, and reviews.

Well that depends. There are games I know I'm going to love like recent Evil Within 2 so I don't really need to watch any footage.

 

[Smasher89]

I "try" to avoid pokemon spoilers more then trailers, then the game gets leaked 1 month before release and its everywere on the internet, hopefully nintendo is a lot more restrictive with the ultra games to not get the 3rd pokemon game in a row leak waay to early.

 

[zoodoo]

I have yet to see any gameplay of witcher 3 and it's installed on my xbox one.

 

[Blyr]

I do this with many games, to the point where it will sometimes annoy my friends, >.<

"WOAH XYZ IS IN THIS GAME? HOLY CRAP"

"yeah dude that was in the trailer..." etc.

There are a few games I'll watch all the marketing material for and follow it closely, but most of the time if I know I'm going to be interested in a game or might be curious about picking it up, I'll ignore most coverage of it outside of checking the pulse of it on places like here, just to be sure it's good, no gamebreaking bugs, etc.

 

[WooHooAlex]

I’d love to go full blackout on Kingdom Hearts III, but I’m too weak.

 

[Rock And Roll]

I do a lot of media blackouts but staying clear of BotW was the smartest decision of my life. Not knowing anything about that game made it an incredible experience.

 

[7DollarHagane]

The true secret to enjoying games. Don't read or view anything about them until you play them.

Maybe get a sense of the reviews if you aren't sure about it but that's it.

I am on blackout for Mario and Wolfenstein for that reason.

 

[Zeneric]

Same here. Love being surprised/awed.

-currently on Wolf 2 and Destiny 2 black out (I did play Destiny 2 PC beta but it didn't offer much content - beyond that I've no idea what Destiny is except that it's "MMO with guns", and "like Borderlands 2 or Warframe").

 

[SomTervo]

100%.

I only started doing it this year when I realised how much the hype train can turn into a wreck for you.

Since then I've been blackout on movies, TV shows, games, music; anything I'm remotely interested in, I'll wait until it comes out.

And by jove I've been enjoying things more than I have in years.

With ho expensive games are media blackouts seem really dumb to me. There's no way I'm risking that much money and not watching the trailers, gameplay, and reviews.

You can just take a glance at review score aggregates and then a scoring breakdown. You don't need to read every preview and watch every trailer and gameplay video to get a sense of if a game, broadly, is good or not.

That's the only thing that numerical scores are good for and they're in abundance.

If a game has a 90+% average it's very unlikely you're going to have a bad time (but, of course, possible).

 

[Kain-Nosgoth]

i always do media blackout about games i'm interested! Outisde of the very first trailer, it's total surprise after that!

Did it for a lot of games including MGSV, nier automata, persona 5, Zelda, and now mario odyssey (didn't even see the e3 trailer, aside from the amazing music)

same for movies! I tend to go at the very end to avoid trailers but if i stumble upon them, i close my eyes (yeah that probably look dumb, but i don't care)

i actually managed to avoid knowing that spiderman was in captain america 3, don't know how, but it happened, haha

 

[nicolasacmf]

Kid Icarus Uprising is the game that made me realize how much more I enjoy games when I'm on media blackout. Seriously, as I first held the game in my hands I realized I knew close to nothing about it as I had only watched one or two trailers. The game blew my mind when I

Spoiler

defeated Medusa on Chapter 9 and the staff roll start playing only for Hades to tear the credits screen in half to introduce himself. In hindsight, I should've realized that wasn't the end since it had a pretty glaring hanging thread in the form of Dark Pit.

Man, thinking about it, this game was such a ride lol, I have to play it again sometime.

But yeah, after last year's E3 I pretty much went on media blackout for BotW (I watched parts of the Switch presentation trailer because I was weak) and I was absolutely blown away by it. I spent my first 10 or so hours just having fun and discovering new stuff on the plateau. I've also been on almost total media blackout for Mario Odyssey as well. Watched the E3 trailer and that was it. The guys on EasyAllies mentioned how the last trailer for SMO was kinda fast and loose with spoilers, so I'm glad I looked away and turned the volume off when that was shown lol.

 

[epmode]

Yeah, I do this for almost everything I know I’ll buy and it really improves the game. I do the same for movies and TV.

 

[Thoraxes]

More than media blackouts, I find that avoiding hot takes and thread discussions about a game have vastly improved my enjoyment of a game.

Hate going into a game with someone else's baggage I read about on my mind, and much more fun to just go in with zero expectations. Then I don't look for any of that shit and just have fun.

 

[Luminaire]

More than media blackouts, I find that avoiding hot takes and thread discussions about a game have vastly improved my enjoyment of a game.

Hate going into a game with someone else's baggage I read about on my mind, and much more fun to just go in with zero expectations. Then I don't look for any of that shit and just have fun.

Also this.

Some people exist to be disappointed by everything and have discovered their goal in life is to let as many people know as possible.

 

[hwy_61]

Fuck yeah. If I’m into a game, it’s effectively dead to me until release day. It makes it so much more special not seeing anything leading up to release.

THAT BEING SAID, I will be attending Nintendo’s super Mario odyssey tour thing in Chicago this weekend...so I almost made it.

 

[afternoon delight]

Extend this to films, books, and television as well and you’ll find the same positive benefits.

 

[The Dear Leader]

I spend too much time on the internet looking at video game related stuff for it to be something I can really do.

 

[Haines]

Yep made breath of wild amazing. Hoping mario too.
I almost never watch trailers or previews. When i was a kid i did tho for sure.

I actually feel bad for some of the people that rob themselves of an experience by spoiling it all beforehand, but they will prob learn eventually

Just play other games, instead of drooling over unreleased omes

Hell, ive been playing stardew on switch and maybe glanced at its thread for a whole 10 posts

 

[Ctlead]

I'd like to go completely dark on something I'm hype for, but I can't do it. Have no self control.

 

[iidesuyo]

Yes, I agree.

I went blind into BotW and Persona 5 and it was awesome!

 

[OnemanTEAM23]

I just usually watch the trailers and go by that. However, most of the games I do go without much knowledge.

 

[texhnolyze]

Yup, it is.

Especially trailers, they're full of spoilers. I avoid trailers except for the announcement one, and I usually watch a couple of gameplay video and I'll be set.

 

[SoundPulse]

I don't blackout, per say. I'll watch some trailers and just naturally reach a point where I just don't have any inclination to see more of a game until I can actually play it. Works fine for me.

SMO's an example at the moment.

 

[MattKeil]

Makes no difference either way to me. Spoilers aren't a real thing and games are either fun or they aren't.

 

[Deleted member 465307]

I definitely agree, but I rarely put forth the necessary effort to commit to this. Ideally, I'll avoid more games' marketing schedules in the future and jump into more games blind. The surprise and discovery that offers is a big part of why I enjoy playing video games.

 

[Lynx_7]

I wish I had this kind of determination, but I just can't. If there's a title I'm excited about then I want to know more about them immediately. I usually do hit a point where I'm like "ok, that's enough", which is generally after 1 or 2 really good trailers, but going completely blind? I can only do that with some older or lesser known titles that I know I'm probably going to like.

 

[MrBS]

I derive as much enjoyment from trailers and pre-hype as I do playing the actual game, so. Why wait until it comes out? I get an extra year of fun this way.

Yep the meta game with MGS2 made watching trailers a sport ever since. Love it.

 

[Aters]

I never go on media blackout, but I usually don't watch extensive ingame footage so every game feels fresh to me.

 

[psyfi]

I'd love to do this, but usually fail at it with thread titles and social media gifs ruining what could have been surprises.

I definitely get small stuff spoiled, but it's usually minor enough that it makes for a fun tease, and without knowing the larger context it sometimes gives more questions than answers. It's like being a kid and hearing someone tell you the new Mario game has a racoon power up -- you can imagine it taking a million different forms but still be surprised when you play the game.

 

[GamerJM]

This mentality is foreign to me. Maybe it's because I never grew up in the wild wild west of gaming; I started gaming in the late 90s when I had older cousins who followed the industry intensely, and I got handed my first gaming magazine when I was like 5, so I've never lived in a world where I DIDN'T know about games coming out in the future. But for me the fun of games is never the surprise or the excitement of discovering something new or finding out that some new mechanic or character is in the game. It's the joy of playing the game itself.

The condescending part of me wants to say that people who feel this way don't even really like playing games as much as they like being surprised and the process of unlocking things, but that's probably just a really cynical view that comes from my own personal failings of not understanding the opinions of others.

Also I will say that if you are on media blackout, at least avoid topics about the game. I don't want to have to tip-toe discussion around your fear of "spoilers" (that, imo, aren't actually spoilers if they're not related to plot specific details).

 

[eKongDiddy]

This mentality is foreign to me. Maybe it's because I never grew up in the wild wild west of gaming; I started gaming in the late 90s when I had older cousins who followed the industry intensely, and I got handed my first gaming magazine when I was like 5, so I've never lived in a world where I DIDN'T know about games coming out in the future. But for me the fun of games is never the surprise or the excitement of discovering something new or finding out that some new mechanic or character is in the game. It's the joy of playing the game itself.

The condescending part of me wants to say that people who feel this way don't even really like playing games as much as they like being surprised and the process of unlocking things, but that's probably just a really cynical view that comes from my own personal failings of not understanding the opinions of others.

Also I will say that if you are on media blackout, at least avoid topics about the game. I don't want to have to tip-toe discussion around your fear of "spoilers" (that, imo, aren't actually spoilers if they're not related to plot specific details).

That’s a weird way to think. My thoughts: We enjoy the game so much that we want to expierence it ourselves without knowing every single thing about it. What’s the point of playing a story based game if you know everything that will happen? It’s like going to see a movie that someone has spoiled for you. I have fun when I get to expierencd things myself and not knowing everything that will happen or about the secret level at the start of the game.

 

[Soodanim]

I do like a blackout, but you have to be careful about what you pick. Fallout 4 was a disappointment in a number of ways, for example.

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

I do this for most of my big games now, or at least as much as I can. Started doing it more after the MGS V trailers, and also coincidentally the Sicario (film) trailer. For both stories, in hindsight I thought their trailers revealed too much and I regret not having been 100% blind to most of the scenes in those trailers.

It's tricky though... because MGS 3 had brilliant trailers, and MGS V could be a somewhat unique in that it doesn't have much story anyhow so when you show most of the cutscenes in the trailers and don't bother to add more lol... But, even for Sicaro (

Spoiler

the 'Bridge of Americas' shootout

), last few years I've felt I saw a few too many trailers that felt like they were putting 'selling the product' too far ahead of what's best for the actual viewing of the product. So, mostly blind on important games (and movies, for that matter) -- other than maybe the original reveal/teaser trailer just to get an idea of the game.

Deus Ex MD was another one where I wish I hadn't want the gameplay walkthrough of golem city. Again, thought maybe it'd be OK...I avoided all other Deus Ex MD previews, but I watched the Deus Ex HR gameplay walkthrough when they showed The Hive nightclub in Hengsha, and Deus Ex HR in general had incredibly trailers that only helped -- in no way hurt -- the story. But in hindsight, I felt Deus Ex MD in showing all of Golem City spoiled too much of a cool gameplay area and actually a pretty important event in the story.... I mean, for a mid-game story 'controversy'

Spoiler

that guy dying

is actually a pretty big deal.. I wish I hadn't known that going into the city. that whole chapter was kinda spoiled and it was a much bigger 'event' than equivalent gameplay walkthrough/demo they did for DXHR.

 

[MattKeil]

That’s a weird way to think. My thoughts: We enjoy the game so much that we want to expierence it ourselves without knowing every single thing about it. What’s the point of playing a story based game if you know everything that will happen? It’s like going to see a movie that someone has spoiled for you. I have fun when I get to expierencd things myself and not knowing everything that will happen or about the secret level at the start of the game.

Nobody has seen a Shakespeare play in 400 years without knowing the ending. They tell you the ending in the titles most of the time. Romeo & Juliet tells you the ending in the opening scene. A great story or a great experience does not lean on surprise to make itself great. Surprise can be part of it, but if lacking the surprise ruins it, the only great part was the surprise, not the thing itself.

 

[Biscotti]

I agree to a certain extent but if I went on media blackouts then I would be buying Destiny 2 for pc in a week.

 

[Voyevoda]

I went on a media blackout for Assassin's Creed Revelations, and I honestly think it enhanced my experience of the game.

So yeah, I feel you.

 

[GasProblem]

I think I'll do this with most Nintendo first party titles. I know they'll be good. Going into games like Fire Emblem and Pokemon blind should be fun. Also not watching anymore God of War or Monster Hunter World footage.


Basically, there are some games I trust being good. I don't want to spoil those for myself. If I have doubt, I'll wait for reviews and see what the general consensus is.

Wish I could avoid movie trailers but I go to the movies almost every week. I could close my eyes I guess.

 

[xVodevil]

I've done that with RE7 and now TEW2. Also I stopped watching movie trailers 5-6 years ago. I'd say it pretty much worth it!

 

[hydragonwarrior]

does this thread have sonic mania spoilers

something something sonic werewolf