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Do Spoilers Ruin The Fun? | GameSided Roundtable

By Martin Benn

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Greetings! This is our weekly GameSided Roundtable feature, where our writers converge to provide their opinions, wishes, statements or critical thought on one general topic centered around video games. Sometimes it can be funny, sometimes it can be serious. Contemporary, classic; we hope to cover a wide variety of things in this segment as a group. If you wish to submit an idea for a GameSided Roundtable discussion topic, you can leave the editor an email at: daniel.george@fansided.com. We’ll totally give you (and your Twitter account, if applicable) a shoutout!

This week’s GameSided Roundtable topic: “Does someone spoiling something about a video game ruin your experience? Have you ever dropped a game because of lost interest after said spoiler?”

Warning: It’s a spoiler discussion. We’re going to spoil some games, including the end of Final Fantasy VII’s first act and a story plot of the original Resident Evil.

Martin Benn (Twitter)

I do not believe in spoilers. A story is only as good as the mechanisms propelling you towards the end. If a game is good, I can play it regardless of knowing the endings. The same goes for movies or books for me, too. I have beaten the original Uncharted at least 3 times, and I plan to beat it a fourth this fall with the Uncharted collection. With all of that said, if I do not find the mechanics fun and I already know the ending I am really unlikely to keep playing that game. For example, I think the first Infamous game has a terrific ending, but getting to that point is such an example of an open world chore. I will likely never play that again.

A part of me does like the surprise of not knowing. That is also a part of the journey. Sometimes you know where you are headed and sometimes you do not. I do not mind either way. Just make getting there a fun time.

Keith Myers (Twitter)

I honestly cannot think of a single example where spoilers have ruined a game experience for me. The only one that was close was finding out that Aerith dies in FF7. That removed the emotional impact of that scene, but it certainly didn’t spoil the overall experience of playing a tremendous game.

On the other hand, I can think of an example where I wish I had heard about a “plot twist” ahead of time. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time had a plot twist that completely ruined the entire series for me. Had someone told me about it earlier, I likely would have skipped that game and still be able to enjoy replaying the previous games.

Rebekah Valentine (Twitter)

Spoilers and I have a complex relationship based on two factors: my desire to know absolutely everything about a game as quickly as possible, and the heavy emotional investment I make in most games.

I have an impossibly hard time avoiding spoilers. I love looking up things. All things. So when I run across an item, or legend, or sidequest, it’s very difficult for me to stay away from anything that could tell me more. Furthermore, my investment in a video game always goes beyond the surprise at the end. I’m in it for the gameplay, and for watching the journey unfold even if I know how it all turns out. Taking away the “Big Reveal” only takes away a small piece of the pie for me. I’ve never dropped a game because it was spoiled for me.

That being said, that doesn’t mean I like spoilers. I get frustrated with myself when I wander into the Plot sections of Wikipedia articles, and provide angry internet glares to those who post them without cuts or warnings. Even if the surprise isn’t everything, your best friend turning out to be your greatest foe is still a fabulous emotional moment I hate to lose. So while it won’t ruin the whole game for me, nobody tell me how Xenoblade Chronicles ends! I’m still working on it.

Daniel George (Twitter)

To be frank, taking on this role as editor of a video games website means I’m reading, researching and watching a lot of video gaming content. Whether it be Let’s Plays to catch the jist of a video game I don’t have the time (or platform) to try out, looking up a piece of history about a game’s series to bring to a story about the latest title’s upcoming release, I go poking my head around the internet to learn as much as I can. Because of that, sometimes you just get inadvertently spoiled.

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I don’t have the luxury of avoiding spoilers, but at the same time I don’t care too much about them. In fact, I feel people are starting to get a little too overboard with them. Hearing spoilers about Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain before the game’s even publicly available; sure, that’s a major disappointment. However, getting chided for revealing that Wesker is secretly a bad guy in the first Resident Evil game is perplexing. The game is decades old. He’s even been shown as evil in the movie adaptations!

Stories in video games aren’t well told enough to the point where getting spoiled ruins the fun. No, if anything spoiler-related were to tick me off, it would be about cool gameplay changes that come as a surprise in the middle of the game. Anything that comes out of the blue is a welcomed surprised, and finding that out early is only a minor inconvenience. Opening your mind and not worrying about minor plot points make the gameplay experience that much more enjoyable.

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Looking to write about video games? Join us at GameSided! Contact the editor to apply or if you have any inquiries/tips: daniel.george@fansided.com.

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