Videos of people falling over, how-to guides for building a rocket to Mars, and the songs of David Hasselhoff. The internet brings us many things, wondrous, weird, and terrifying. We get what we want, when we want, and little appears to be out of our grasp. Well, aside from manners and common fucking decency. What also comes on swift wings and swifter broadband, however, is the wrong kind of information – the kind that makes our toes curl with rage, and triggers snarky, passive-aggressive or full on ranty social-media fallouts.

Whereas before you had to actively be a part of a community, now spoilers come straight to you, courtesy of social media and selfish, thoughtless people. Thanks to Facebook and Twitter, inconsiderate friends, colleagues, and relatives can ruin a fave TV show or upcoming film. And it isn’t just them – get used to the US Twitter folk rushing to ruin TV shows hours before they air here in the UK. And don’t forget Spoiler Trolls – those special people who scan Twitter hashtags for certain TV shows for the specific purpose of ruining upcoming episodes/events for those talking about them. I didn’t dare tweet anything Twin Peaks related until I had watched the entre two seasons, because people are dicks. These things can be accidents, and it’s easy to let things slip (most of us have probably done it), but for some people it seems to be a frustrating pattern of behaviour. And gaming is far from immune.

With games becoming more and more story based it is harder than ever to ignore or avoid spoilers, and with games as expensive as they are, it’s tough to snap up every one on release. Many people resort to binge playing new releases to insulate themselves, but for those who can’t afford the money or time – perhaps for months – it becomes a nightmare to avoid any spoilerific crap before having the chance to play.

I often wonder why people – trolls excepted – do it. Is it ignorance, accident, or essentially using a spoiler to scream ‘FIRST’ in someone’s face because they have to show they’ve played the latest thing and need to scorch the emotional earth for those lagging behind? It also occurs to me that many people value story less in games, and therefore treat it in a more blasé fashion than they would film. For some, it’s all about the gameplay or the shooty bang-bang stuff. Quests, kills, loot drops, chests, multiplayer, achievements and trophies, leader boards… we all have our gaming poison. But with even shooters striving for better stories and being criticised when they don’t deliver, you can’t deny that games, as much as they are here to entertain thorugh gameplay, are here to tell us a story. Or at least let us construct one with what we’re given. And when those stories are ruined it can sting just as much as it can with other entertainment mediums.

If you’re unlucky enough to be in the middle of playing a game, upwards of ten, fifteen, or even fifty plus hours of gameplay and grind is a lot to flush away because of one inconsiderate bastard. I’m lucky in that I’ve pruned or let fade many people who routinely did stupid things like that online. When it’s closer to home, though, it can be far more difficult. I have a relative – now retired from gaming – who loves the Assassin’s Creed series. Not the games but the tie-in books that are released alongside each one, and which are, essentially, the story of the game but padded out. I rarely play an Assassin’s Creed game on release, but now, thanks to someone armed with knowledge from the books, they can get too easily spoiled. It isn’t malicious or deliberate, it’s more an enthusiastic oblivion that leads to the spilling of spoilers, even with ‘don’t tell me, I haven’t played the game yet’ warnings, but regardless of intent it’s still bloody disheartening.

It isn’t just the balls-out spoilers that can dampen enthusiasm for, or outright ruin, a game, though. There’s a thing I call Soft Spoilers. These are the things that people say or hint at, which lead you down the inevitable, miserable path to spoilerville. They may avoid outright saying The Thing, but with enough of the right words or declarations you can pretty much figure it out. Whether it’s a celebration or talking about someone getting their comeuppance, or talk of justice, sadness, or whatever, if you are just a few steps behind them in a TV show or game you’ll likely have a pretty good idea of what just happened. Even if you don’t, it can be easy to work out. Some things are practically signposts.

For example, the second someone says ‘it was really sad’ it flashes a huge neon Grim Reaper sign over the game. The protagonist dies or, more likely, their wife/girlfriend/other female character dies. If you know a person well then their reaction can soft spoil a story easily. I worked out the ending of Goodbye Deponia without having played it (I’d played the first one), based on one pissy sentence from someone I knew, who’d just finished it. I knew them, knew what pushed their buttons, and thus knew the end of the game before I had even reached the full stop on their sentence. Then you start from the Big Thing and work backwards, using your loose knowledge of the story and characters, and construct the rough circumstances of that ending for bonus spoilerage. At least I did.

The thing is, can we be pissy at Soft Spoilers? They aren’t deliberate – not in a malicious sense. The person is making an effort to avoid directly spoiling but wants to convey their feelings to the world about it. If you know them or what they are likely referring to, can that be helped? Isn’t that just tough tits? We can’t expect everyone to shut up and never say anything or even be jubilant about shows and games they love, just because someone may correctly infer certain events from their words. Can we? Maybe we can if the show is hours old, or we know who you like/hate or what you want from something because your strong reaction can give it away even without being specific.

And time is everything. I’ve often wondered at what point do gamers have the right to turn around at stick their fingers up at people covering their ears and screaming ‘spoiler’. Where’s the line? What’s the statute of limitations on spoilers? There’s nothing worse than being in a company of gamers where no one can discuss the end of a game because one person present hasn’t played it yet. I’m guilty of being that person. I hate it. I also know that if I walk in on discussion of a ten year old game that I own and haven’t yet bothered my arse playing, then it’s tough luck. It may be fucking shit and disappointing, but I’m not entitled to shut down conversation because something is on my to-play pile.

Putting a game on those piles doesn’t place it behind a shield, sadly. We may be setting it aside, but others haven’t. I hate having stories ruined, because they make a game for me, but I also have to respect the fact that if I’ve waited years to play something, then I’m just playing spoiler roulette until I get it finished. Someone deliberately coming at you out of the blue with a spoiler for a game they know you haven’t played is another thing altogether though, and unacceptably dickish. As is anyone spoiling a new or newish game.

I suppose in the feeding frenzy surrounding entertainment, and its churn rate and immediacy, spoilers are never going to go away. We can only do our best to insulate ourselves from those wank-waffles who will ruin the stories we’re following (or hope to follow). Avoiding social-media discussions, especially on other people’s uncurated Facebook walls is probably best avoided if you don’t want to be blindsided by oblivious friends of friends or spoiler trolls. When avoidance forces us to change our behaviour in bigger ways, however, it’s beyond sad. Many gamers I know have to wait until Christmas or birthdays to get games, or otherwise have to wait until a distant payday, or the next Steam sale. The alternative of splurging stupid money on every game and exhausting yourself playing them just to prevent someone ruining it for you isn’t ideal. We shouldn’t have to do that, even if we were able. For all the great things delivered to us in split-seconds across the internet, a little more consideration wouldn’t go a-fucking-miss.

Last five articles by Lorna

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