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Modern Spoiler Culture - BULUPTAX - 27-04-2025
This has been something I've observed lately and I'm not sure how many people can relate. I also put this in "Off Topic" because it covers, games, movies, tv and even books and comics
Whenever a new, highly anticipated piece of media is released, everyone on the internet will brazenly talk about spoiler content without warning, for all to see, regardless of who hasn't seen or played it yet. It was a huge problem when The Last of Us Part II was released and it even extends to the second season of the HBO show.
The most recent example for me was with Andor season 2. They dropped the first 3 episodes on day one but I only had time to watch 2. When I was casually scrolling through my phone the next day, I copped so many spoilers about the third episode just from Reddit and Twitter's home page. Even though the episodes only came out the night before, people were just posting about massively important developments that most people would like to find out from the show itself, and not from some thoughtless sacks of shit on the internet
It mostly happens with big, tent pole franchises, like Marvel or Star Wars. If you don't want anything spoiled, you really GOTTA see it on opening day. Deadpool & Wolverine was the most excited I'd been for an MCU movie in a while and I'm very glad I caught it on opening night, because people were already making memes and posts about all the cameo's and interesting story beats the very next day.
Has anyone else felt really frustrated about this kind of thing recently?
RE: Modern Spoiler Culture - Wayno - 27-04-2025
I think spoiler etiquette died well over a decade at this point. I always go back to Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 9, The Rains of Castamere as the moment consideration of other people's enjoyment died.
GoT was an absolute cultural phenomenon, it was must see TV at its finest and this episode is arguably the most talked about to this day, well, the most discussed episode for GOOD REASONS, to this day. And what did a free, widely circulated newspaper in the UK do in the aftermath? They fucking ran an article discussing it the next day with no warning. They even ran a story afterwards about if they should have ran the story originally and talked about spoiler etiquette because people were so pissed. https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2013/06/05/was-metro-right-to-spoil-the-ending-of-game-of-thrones-3829249/amp/
I also think the way social media has got people wired to get their dopamine from likes and upvotes etc they HAVE to be first in the discussion to get it. It's almost like competitive media consumption.
RE: Modern Spoiler Culture - Jassassino - 27-04-2025
(27-04-2025, 06:54 AM)Wayno Wrote: I think spoiler etiquette died well over a decade at this point. I always go back to Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 9, The Rains of Castamere as the moment consideration of other people's enjoyment died.
GoT was an absolute cultural phenomenon, it was must see TV at its finest and this episode is arguably the most talked about to this day, well, the most discussed episode for GOOD REASONS, to this day. And what did a free, widely circulated newspaper in the UK do in the aftermath? They fucking ran an article discussing it the next day with no warning. They even ran a story afterwards about if they should have ran the story originally and talked about spoiler etiquette because people were so pissed. https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2013/06/05/was-metro-right-to-spoil-the-ending-of-game-of-thrones-3829249/amp/
I also think the way social media has got people wired to get their dopamine from likes and upvotes etc they HAVE to be first in the discussion to get it. It's almost like competitive media consumption.
Even before reading your post, I was going to comment highlighting GoT and Rains of Castamere + Purple Wedding. People I knew just openly reacted to this kind of thing on Twitter, and instead of the responsibility being on the person who had watched it first being to preserve the first-time-viewing experience for others, it switched to those late-comers having a responsibility to not spoil discussion being had online by audiences.
Honestly, the more divorced I become from conventional social media, the more I actively enjoy my time with products. Because Soph works as a journalist, she's browsing Social Media a lot for stories, making her feel insane pressure to watch new TV and films immediately.
(27-04-2025, 05:34 AM)BULUPTAX Wrote: This has been something I've observed lately and I'm not sure how many people can relate. I also put this in "Off Topic" because it covers, games, movies, tv and even books and comicsYeah it feels insane that this extends even to comics. I caught up with the newest Ultimate Spider-Man run after about 12 issues (it's a monthly release I believe) and just after I'd caught up, but hadn't yet read the 13th issue, the Spider-Man subreddit openly had a spoiler for a reveal/plot point as a hot post on my front page. You would think for a community who's participants are actively smaller than ever, that they may be a bit more considerate when something kicks off in popularity, but instead it becomes an echo chamber of "you should've read it already bro!"
RE: Modern Spoiler Culture - NateDog - 27-04-2025
I think Wayno's first sentence sums it up for me. Whenever I'm interested in anything now and know I want to see or play it, I go on a blackout on information about it. There is no etiquette about spoilers any more, people on social media and on forums or boards want to be the first to say "oh I finished it and X was amazing / so powerful / so upsetting / etc.", and the majority of news outlets aren't any better with some deciding to spell it all out in titles just to try to stand out (whether that's in a negative sense to get attention, or a positive sense).
Places like Twitter (which I am loathe to continue using but can't help because I get so much news about movies and venues there that haven't moved properly or at all to Bluesky) will shove every possible post about it in your face if you express any interest in it. Two recent examples of pieces of media that I was interested in for a while and wanted to experience but blew up in popularity to an incredible extent were Sinners and particularly Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The former was helped by places like Variety doomposting about it trying to act like its opening was awful, alongside exceptional reception from pretty much everywhere else. The latter is a game from an incredibly small studio which I have been following since its reveal last year and that is now the best reviewed game of the year and has been called GOTY by a number of outlets.
I'm delighted for the reception of both of these of course, but particularly with the latter you can see so many people and sites that have no interest in it jumping on board to show they're in with the hot thing at the minute, and particularly in those cases they just don't give a real fuck so they'll happily shout from the rooftop about its best moments as they plough through it. I was lucky that I wanted to see Sinners in advance so I planned and made time for it within its first week (and it would have been on the first day had times worked out), so nobody got the chance to throw the reveals out around me. But my brother in law (who I saw it with) told me on release day that he had already been spoiled on one thing.
With Clair Obscur, I take so long to get through games that even something like this that Sandfall said wasn't going to be an ungainly large game and is around 35-40 hours to finish will take me a month at least to get through. By that stage everyone else has long finished with it and act like after a week or so is enough time for society to be done with it so I'll be lucky to avoid it. I can't enter any threads on it on a place like Resetera because even on a forum dedicated to gaming, people are far too loose with words and descriptions as if every new release should and can be finished within a week by everyone.
RE: Modern Spoiler Culture - BULUPTAX - 27-04-2025
(27-04-2025, 08:03 AM)Jassassino Wrote: Yeah it feels insane that this extends even to comics. I caught up with the newest Ultimate Spider-Man run after about 12 issues (it's a monthly release I believe) and just after I'd caught up, but hadn't yet read the 13th issue, the Spider-Man subreddit openly had a spoiler for a reveal/plot point as a hot post on my front page. You would think for a community who's participants are actively smaller than ever, that they may be a bit more considerate when something kicks off in popularity, but instead it becomes an echo chamber of "you should've read it already bro!"
I've been getting a lot of that in the X-Men subreddit. They'd post several pages of newly released issues, I haven't touched upon the newer stuff but I've seen some important bits from that subreddit against my will.
On a similar note, hearing too much about one thing before seeing it makes me not want to watch it. When Squid Game first came out, I kept hearing about it everywhere to the point where I lost any interest in checking it out myself. I'm starting to feel the same way about that new Sinners movie
RE: Modern Spoiler Culture - Dirty Duck - 09-05-2025
Had something about Sinners I wouldn’t have guessed spoiled for me from a YouTube short autoplaying with closed captions while I scrolled through the app. Social media is so bad for this and there is just 0 grace period of etiquette around any of it. It doesn’t help that I’m someone who wants to know as little about something as possible before going into it-meaning even quite innocent and non-spoilery stuff I’d rather not see most of the time.
RE: Modern Spoiler Culture - Jassassino - 09-05-2025
Feel blessed that I saw literally nothing regarding Sinners before seeing it. Glanced a poster when I went to the cinema last and honestly just thought it was some cowboy film or something, then went to see it because I had a cinema day. Cannot stand social media spoiling everything ASAP.
RE: Modern Spoiler Culture - BULUPTAX - 09-05-2025
I saw WAY too much about Sinners. I finally saw it yesterday and there were still a few surprises but I really wish I knew less than half of what I did going in.
Also kinda related. The new MCU movie "Thunderbolts*". They said that the asterisk in the title would make sense after seeing the movie, making it a spoiler IMO, but Marvel themselves revealed what it was in marketing right after its first weekend. They didn't even give most people the chance to find it out. I guess if you don't see their movie right away, they don't give a shit about you
RE: Modern Spoiler Culture - NateDog - 09-05-2025
I was lucky in that I avoided anything about Sinners, but I saw it early and did my best to avoid it. Although my brother in law (who I saw it with) said he was spoiled on parts of it. But afterwards he said the main premise was what he was spoiled on and I kind of thought it was known by anyone with an interest so now I'm not sure really.