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Is there a statute of limitations on spoilers?

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B

brian577

Banned
I just got chewed out on another site (won't say which)
it was reddit
over posting spoilers in the topic title about the original Bioshock, a fucking 9 year old game. I'll be first the first to say I don't like spoilers, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect this kind of thing to be relaxed after at least a year. Hell, with something big like The Force Awakens, I think six months is more than reasonable. If you haven't played the game by now, I don't give a shit. I'm going to talk about it, and I'm not going to tip toe around late comers.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
I'd say there is, but I would also say you should have had common sense enough to avoid spoiling a game that just got an HD remaster and is likely going to be experienced by a bunch of new people in the coming weeks.
 
SJRB

SJRB

Gold Member
Common sense, mostly.

In your case: Bioshock is 9 years old, yet they just released a remaster which will without a doubt get played by people who never played the original games. So yeah, no spoiler tags on a game that released last week wasn't smart.
 
K

KingBroly

Banned
It depends on the work, honestly. Its' length, importance, etc. A book is usually a year from the initial hardcover release. A movie...when the DVD comes out which is 3-4 months on average. Games it can range from a week to months or years depending on the length of a game to how 'OMGMINDBLOWN' the spoiler in question is.
 
L

liliththepale

Banned
we had this same thread when the hobbit movies were coming out. Martin Freeman spoiled the ending in an interview which he thought was fair game since the books are so old.

Generally, yes, there's a statute of limitations, but be perceptive to when a large influx of new audience arrives
 
F

Fudgepuppy

Banned
I'd say it depends on the story and medium.

Something like Star Wars ep7 works to talk about, whereas I still avoid speaking too loudly about Fight Club.

The twist in Fight Club is just more precious for first time viewers.
 
S

Santiako

Member
Also, keep in mind that many people buying the game now for the first time were 8-12 years old when it first released so weren't able to play it back then.
 
B

brian577

Banned
Santiako said:
Just use common sense, the game was just re released, and many people are playing it for the first time, just don't be an ass.
Click to expand...

The fact that
Fontaine is still alive
is practically as well known as "I am you father" or "it was his sled".....I'm not going to win this argument am I?
 
I

Ishan

Junior Member
Pop culture / super popular stuff a 3 weeks rest is a crapshoot depends on when it airs reboots late watchers non internet folks etc . Not talking about it unless you know they watched / experienced it is a good rule of thumb
 
I

Ishan

Junior Member
brian577 said:
The fact that
Fontaine is still alive
is practically as well known as "I am you father" "it was his sled"
Click to expand...
No idea what it was his sled refers to lol ( but you're safe i subscribe to the spoilers are okay crowd actually research backs up my crowd)
 
T

The Kree

Banned
brian577 said:
I just got chewed out on another site (won't say which)
it was reddit
over posting spoilers in the topic title about the original Bioshock, a fucking 9 year old game.
Click to expand...

You were interacting with a complete tool. Happens to all of us at some point. It's not your job to shield random people you don't know from decade-old fictional outcomes. Next time demand a blowjob.
 
V

Vulcano's assistant

Banned
If we based this on how much the given plot points affect the experience or not rather than just by time it would be better for everyone. Things being old isn't that much of an excuse when people are born everyday. Seems like we only get to that point after decades after the work was released and the "I was there; why were you not there?" mentality becomes meaningless.
 
V

Veelk

Banned
It's not reasonable to use age as a metric. There are plenty of movies from the 80's that I bet you haven't seen. Should I ruin them because their 20 odd years old? I've been putting off playing Planescape forever. Should someone here spoil it for me? It's a game even older than bioshock, that's for sure.

There's plenty of things no one has seen just because they haven't gotten around to them. Spoilers aren't a rule, they're a courtesy, and it's one you'll either offer or you won't. All it is is an indication of how thoughtful you are to the people around you.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
brian577 said:
The fact that
Fontaine is still alive
is practically as well known as "I am you father" or "it was his sled".....I'm not going to win this argument am I?
Click to expand...

I think you are vastly overestimating how well known that is.

The Andrew Ryan scene, maybe, but your spoiler, I bet a lot of people even replaying the game could barely tell you that character's name, let alone his role in the story offhand. It is nowhere near as ubiquitous or iconic as your examples.
 
Freshmaker

Freshmaker

I am Korean.
I'll never understand why people horrified of spoilers don't avoid threads which will likely contain spoilers.

Then they're all "That dude spoiled me! DISGUSTING! DISGUSTING!"

Also, the whole spoiler culture seems to completely devalue a story. It all hinges on one point and without that one point, a story's no longer interesting or possible to enjoy? Grow up.
 
A

archnemesis

Member
No. There is plenty of old media I haven't got around to consuming yet. I don't want to know any details of Anna Karenina, 12 Angry Men or Planescape: Torment.
 
I

Ishan

Junior Member
Vulcano's assistant said:
If we based this on how much the given plot points affect the experience or not rather than just by time it would be better for everyone. Things being old isn't that much of an excuse when people are born everyday. Seems like we only get to that point after decades after the work was released and the "I was there; why were you not there?" mentality becomes meaningless.
Click to expand...

Would you like to know if the sun revolves around the earth or the other way round also . Pushing that reasoning to that extreme is ridiculous . Here spoiler alert mammoths are extinct .
 
M

MrBadger

Member
Didn't a remaster just come out? I imagine lots of people are currently playing it for the first time because of it.
 
I

Ishan

Junior Member
Zelenogorsk said:
But If someone hasn't played the game by now, OP doesn't give a shit. He's going to talk about it, and he's not going to tip toe around late comers.
Click to expand...

Not to mention how many significant plot twists eg vader or mgs controller swap etc are part of our cultural pop /gaming fabric at this point .
 
C

ClosingADoor

Member
Movies maybe for the theater run. Series until the end of the season. Games maybe 3 months. And that is just to be nice. If you enter a discussion about Star Wars or whatever, don't come complaining people didn't pay attention and asked you whether you saw the movie. Own risk.

Veelk said:
It's not reasonable to use age as a metric. There are plenty of movies from the 80's that I bet you haven't seen. Should I ruin them because their 20 odd years old? I've been putting off playing Planescape forever. Should someone here spoil it for me? It's a game even older than bioshock, that's for sure.

There's plenty of things no one has seen just because they haven't gotten around to them. Spoilers aren't a rule, they're a courtesy, and it's one you'll either offer or you won't. All it is is an indication of how thoughtful you are to the people around you.
Click to expand...
I'll be sure to never discuss movie plot points in a conversation on the off chance someone might want to see a 20 year old movie. Seriously, if you haven't gotten around to seeing something after 20 years, you probably weren't that interested anyway.
 
V

Vulcano's assistant

Banned
Ishan said:
Would you like to know if the sun revolves around the earth or the other way round also . Pushing that reasoning to that extreme the is ridiculous .
Click to expand...

Not it is not ridiculous at all because only a handful of actual plot point would be classified as real spoilers. It is just more mental than counting days work for some, but the differences are not that complicated. Knowing that x characters dies at the end is not the same in every work, some tell you at the beginning, but a handful of works real consumption may depend on ignorance of certain information. Sure if one kid had her ice cream melted by standing in the sun it is her fault, but walking into the ice cream store with a 12KW lamp would not be acceptable.
 
M

MrBadger

Member
Ishan said:
I can agree with this be mindful but the whole it's never too late to discuss opinion is ridiculous .
Click to expand...

I think it depends on the context you're spoiling it in. For example I don't expect anyone to spoiler tag the big twist in Fight Club, but a couple of years ago I was told what happens right after I told someone I'd never watched it and was about to watch it for the first time. Which is a bit of a dick move.
 
I

Ishan

Junior Member
Vulcano's assistant said:
Not it is not ridiculous at all because only a handful of actual plot point would be classified as real spoilers. It is just more mental work for some, but the differences are not that complicated. Knowing that x characters dies at the end is not the same in every work, some tell you at the beginning, but a handful of works real consumption may depend on ignorance of certain information. Sure if one kid had its ice cream melted by standing in the sun it is his fault, but walking into the ice cream store with a 12KW lamp would not be acceptable.
Click to expand...


I can guarantee you you explaining mammoths are extinct or existed will take more mental work than any video game plot . And dude if you can work out the earth revolves around the sun with no prior knowledge please get in touch with me I would love to ask you a few more fundamental science questions . You're pushing this argument down ridiculous lines . Ice cream melting due to heat a 5 year old could explain .


Saying only ridiculously obviously points are worth discussing is silly
 
I

Ishan

Junior Member
MrBadger said:
I think it depends on the context you're spoiling it in. For example I don't expect anyone to spoiler tag the big twist in Fight Club, but a couple of years ago I was told what happens right after I told someone I'd never watched it and was about to watch it for the first time. Which is a bit of a dick move.
Click to expand...
Agree with you completely on this . As I said if op knew it was the guys first time playing bio shock dick move just as if I wont have you know. In got blah blah blah (I don't know if you have so I don't comment ) but is it unnatural for me to open up a thread saying got season 3 (3 years) back had this this this issues blah blah . Nope don't think so. As I said context is indeed important
 
V

Vulcano's assistant

Banned
Ishan said:
I can guarantee you you explaining mammoths are extinct or existed will take more mental work than any video game plot . And dude if you can work out the earth revolves around the sun with no prior knowledge please get in touch with me I would love to ask you a few more fundamental science questions . You're pushing this argument down ridiculous lines . Ice cream melting due to heat a 5 year old could explain .
Click to expand...

I was not comparing you to a kid eating ice cream, I'm sorry if it came out that way.

Here's the thing a bit more clear.

a)Some people use time passed after the release of the work as the only metric, and my argument is that this is a really poor metric, and it is even worse when it is the only one being used.

b)So it takes a bit more mental work to stop and think, "does this plot point really make the book that much more tense and enjoyably (no matter when it was released) and does the person who I am talking to has already consumed it? (is he/she inside the store or not), if yes go a head, but if chances are that this isn't the case, then I will ask before saying the plot point out loud. (But only if If I was able to tell that the knowledge of that plot point actually mattered for the overall enjoyment)

c) The kid that had her ice cream ( a product that is best consumed under the condition that it is frozen) melted, however, walked outside under the heat of the sun on her own so the fact that the ice cream melted (that the plot points that that may have made the work more enjoyably if she did not know them, got to her) was her own doing, because not every zone should be a spoiler free zone.
 
Z

Zakalwe

Banned
brian577 said:
Rerelease or not, it's a classic game of the 7th gen. If you haven't played by now, that isn't my problem.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but no. Plenty of kids won't have played it, and taking the time to not spoil the story takes very little effort on your part.

Dick move. Stop seeking validation for it.
 
S

Sir_Crocodile

Member
brian577 said:
The fact that
Fontaine is still alive
is practically as well known as "I am you father" or "it was his sled".....I'm not going to win this argument am I?
Click to expand...

I've never played bioshock (and have no intention to) and I had no idea what was under your spoiler tag until I quoted to reply.

Now that I see it, I don't recall ever seeing that statement before. So you are correct, you won't win that argument.
 
B

Bishop89

Member
I dont have a problem controlling myself before spewing out a spoiler, though if you go into a topic relating to x game/movie/tv its your own fault, stay the fuck out.

If im talking to someone like a co-worker, I wont spoil twists or plot points, but if somone complains to me that I mentioned that "the bar scene from inglorious basterds was fucking awesome, go see this movie NAOOO!" and they respond "WTF man, there's a bar scene and something cool happens? WTFFFFF" I have no time or care for these people.

the colour of shirt the main character is wearing is not a spoiler.
 
J

Jazzem

Member
It's really not hard to drop a quick spoiler warning, so unless it's an absurdly obvious one (Rosebud/who Luke's pappy is) I'd argue they should never be outright said without caution.

Of course though, folks should exercise caution if they don't want to be spoiled; maybe use Twitter's filters to remove tweets about certain media, or stay out of certain forum threads.
 
Correctomundo

Correctomundo

Member
It's a mixture of common sense and common courtesy.

I remember when TFA came out, and a Facebook group I was a part of had people posting spoilers for it by the following Monday, reasoning that "if someone really cared, they would have seen the movie by that point". Which, naturally, is both a ludicrous claim and an impossibly dickish move.

Can you imagine if you were in line for the second showing, and as I walked out, I spoiled it for you as I passed? Why not? If you really cared, you would have been in the first showing.

It's this kind of arbitrary authority crap that turns it from a matter of statute of limitations to a matter of goddamned human decency.

My personal policy? Don't outright spoil anything, regardless of age, factoring in relevant variables like company discussion is occurring in and the nature of the spoiler.

Spoiling the Empire Strikes Back in a group of my mom's friends? Probably not a big deal. Shooting my mouth off about Frank Fontaine in a group with people who have an interest in the both the medium and potentially the game itself? A world class dick move, and I'd deserve any flak I got for it.

Don't be a jackass. Discuss spoilers behind closed doors.
 
J

Jazzem

Member
Correctomundo said:
It's a mixture of common sense and common courtesy.

I remember when TFA came out, and a Facebook group I was a part of had people posting spoilers for it by the following Monday, reasoning that "if someone really cared, they would have seen the movie by that point". Which, naturally, is both a ludicrous claim and an impossibly dicking move.

Can you imagine if you were in line for the second showing, and as I walked out, I spoiled it for you as I passed? Why not? If you really cared, you would have been in the first showing.

It's this kind of arbitrary authority crap that turns it from a matter of statute of limitations to a matter of goddamned human decency.

My personal policy? Don't outright spoil anything, regardless of age, factoring in relevant variables like company discussion is occurring in and the nature of the spoiler.

Spoiling the Empire Strikes Back in a group of my mom's friends? Probably not a big deal. Shooting my mouth off about Frank Fontaine in a group with people who have an interest in the both the medium and potentially the game itself? A world class dick move, and I'd deserve any flak I got for it.

Don't be a jackass. Discuss spoilers behind closed doors.
Click to expand...

It's been a while since I've so wholeheartedly agreed with a long post so much!
 
D

DiGiKerot

Member
Ishan said:
I can agree with this be mindful but the whole it's never too late to discuss opinion is ridiculous .
Click to expand...

Discussion is one thing, but the OP put the spoiler in the thread subject line on a group that might just be attracting a bunch of new users because of a release of a game that's nine years old. I doubt anyone would bust too many guts if he mentioned it in an overall discussion of the game or anything, but the place for dropping spoilers isn't in the one field of a forum post which is openly exposed to casual users.

(And, as a gaming forum, I seriously think people are overestimating the reach that any of the events in Bioshock have had in a broader cultural sense. It's not actually that well known a thing)
 
M

Mechanized

Member
The same week something is released. Spoiler culture is shit. Your whole enjoyment of something shouldn't rely on a twist or reveal.
 
E

EGM1966

Member
Sorry OP but your goof was the timing of the remaster. Sure people should expect spoilers to be discussed after a reasonable time but they also, reasonably, expect you to move back into avoiding spoilers during period of re-release.

The remaster will produce a spike of new customers. Some won't have played it and want to experience what's considered a classic game "clean".
 
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