Breakfast Topic: La la la I'm not listening
Spoilers. The word strikes fear into the hearts of many a fan, whether it involves books, television, or video games. Some people are fanatical about not learning information before it's officially released. Others love nothing more than to run around and spoil things for the general public who would rather have the experience of being surprised.
My first real experience with spoilers was way back when I was playing a little game called Final Fantasy VII. I had played (and still own!) all of the prior Final Fantasy games, so this was something I'd been dying to play since the moment it came out. I was making pretty good progress through the first disc and working my way to the end of it when it happened. A coworker and I, who had hit it off quite well talking about video games, were discussing what we were currently playing one day in the break room. I mentioned I had finally gotten FFVII and was slowly making my way through the first disc, when he turned to me and blurted, "Man I hated the part where Aeris dies!"
He survived the subsequent pummeling.
Since then I've taken a far more casual approach to spoilers -- yes, there are things I'd rather remain a secret, but there's a part of me that loves learning about things ahead of time. It's probably the same part that enjoyed trying to find where my parents hid the Christmas presents every November*. Still, I do respect people that wish to remain unspoiled, and make it a point to always post a spoiler warning on information I think people might not want to see. I do it because I remember that moment of sheer devastation when I realized the character I really liked was going to bite the dust, and nothing that I did in the game would prevent it.
With the release of the Icecrown Citadel patch, and now that 3.3.3 is on the PTR, what do you think about spoilers? Do you shy away from spoiler tags, or are you the type that gleefully ruins the surprise for other people?
*They were always in the closet in their bedroom. Mom and Dad were so predictable.
