A Rebuttal to "Sense-Making Game 2 Turbo"

by Galendo Domine 

While I agree that, ultimately, people are responsible for protecting themselves from any spoilers that they do not wish to see, I think that both common courtesy and common sense argue for spoiler warnings to be placed in any written document placed on rpgamer. Before I continue, however, I would like to suggest a different definition of "spoiler" than Mr. Gover puts forward. In his own words:

"It seems to me that a lot of gamers seem to think there is some middle ground or unimportant level of spoilers -- "oh, its just a town name, its not a spoiler!" Not so, I say -- a spoiler is a spoiler is a spoiler, be it a name of a character or the name of the last boss."

I would like to argue this point and agree with the "lot of gamers" with which Mr. Gover disagrees. I would define a spoiler as anything story-related that is not immediately obvious or to be greatly expected upon starting the game and that changing would alter the story to a greater or lesser extent. For example, the fact that FFII's Cecil is a Dark Knight is immediately obvious, and should not be considered a spoiler, while the name of a town, such as FFII/IV's Baron, could be changed without changing the overall story one bit. On the other hand (FFII/IV Spoiler Warning!), the fact that Golbez is actually the mastermind behind Baron would be a spoiler because it is not immediately obvious and, were the king of Baron actually to blame, the game would be entirely different (end of FFII/IV Spoiler Warning!). To make a long story short, anything that would spoil the enjoyment of the game for a player should be considered a spoiler, and anything that would not should not be.

In order to avoid spoilers, Mr. Gover suggests the three following ideas:

1. "Finishing the game, and doing it quickly. If you haven't finished Xenogears or Phantasy Star IV by now, I think its [sic] pretty evident that you never will."

Stating that everyone who wishes to avoid spoilers should finish every game quickly is, I think, a big mistake. Speaking for myself, I have logged about thirty hours in Xenogears, have not finished it, and do not foresee myself finishing it in the near future; yet I *do* intend to finish it. There are many reasons why I have not finished this game, first among them being that I am a college student and cannot afford to distract myself with video games at this time, but just because I have not finished it is no reason to say that I will not finish it. Not everyone has so much time that they can squander thirty or so hours each week in order to play the newest game, nor so much money that they can afford to buy each and every game as soon as it comes out in order to beat it as quickly as possible. Some do, and I say more power to them, but many of us do not. Yes, Xenogears has been out for quite a while, but I'm probably not the first person who missed a good game the first time around and wants to go back and play it. Some games are not dulled by the passing of time, but that's no reason to dull them with spoilers.

2. "Not reading about the game before you finish it -- don't look at screenshots, don't read the soundtrack's track list, don't look at character art, and don't read interviews with the creator, ad ininitum. Doing these things is just asking to have a game spoiled for you."

Again speaking only for myself, I rarely look at screenshots (and never the spoiling ones), I don't read the soundtrack list, I don't look at character art, and I don't read interviews that are likely to contain spoilers. However, there are several things on rpgamer that I do read, one of them being the editorial section. This section is not devoted to any one game; if it were, and if I had not yet beaten the game, I would avoid it like the plague. Simple spoiler warnings allow me and other like-minded individuals to read this section and yet skip over the editorials or parts of editorials that might make less enjoyable games that we have not yet beaten. The small courtesy of placing a spoiler warning helps us out a lot. I don't read the last page of a book until I've read the rest of the book; I don't want to know how a game ends until I've played through to the ending.

3. "Stay out of game related forums for the same reason. If you feel you absolutely can't stay out of the forums, avoid discussions where the particular game you care about is being discussed. Don't ask for the discussion to be ended, leave!"

I've never been to a game forum, to tell the truth, but if I understand correctly, the forums are just like live conversations that happen to use typing to communicate, such as ICQ or AIM. If I am not mistaken, then I actually agree with Mr. Gover on this point. If a lot of people are discussing a game, expect spoilers to pop up from time to time. Just because one person hasn't witnessed a particular scene in a game is no reason for the rest of the world to never mention it.

Mr. Gover ends his editorial by saying, "In the end, it is not an issue of politeness or courtesy, it is an issue of personal responsibility. We are not slaves to the mouseclick, we can chose [sic] what we will and will not read pertaining to games, and I suggest we all begin doing so just a little more carefully." I would like to end my editorial by saying that it *is* an issue of politeness and courtesy, as well as one of personal responsibility. We *can* choose what we will and will not read pertaining to games, and spoiler warnings help us do just that. I know that I would hate needing to chose between not visiting rpgamer and having games spoiled for me; the spoiler warnings let me not make that choice.

Questions? Comments? Write to galendo@juno.com.