Blizzard’s media machine seems to be in full swing at the moment, what with daily screenshots of Cataclysm, regular blue posts and the emerging previews on the main CAT site, its getting hard to avoid not getting into spoiler territory. If you’re a person who wants to be surprised by Cataclysm, do not click on those links! Don’t even blink at them. Because let’s face it, Cataclysm is going to recombobulate our virtual lives upside down and the devil is in the details. If you truly want to know nothing about what will befall you in the next expansion, you have to either become an internet hermit or be very very careful about what you click on. In fact, given I’m about to discuss the nature of a few spoilerific spoilers in this post about spoilers, maybe if you don’t want anything spoiled you should not continue to read this! π
You can still participate in the poll though!
Spoilers are tricky things. Once a friend made one single comment to me about Battlestar Galactica and even though he didn’t think it was a spoiler, my too-agile mind was able to decipher its meaning to work out the massive shocker at the end of season 3. This really really pissed me off! I don’t like to know about things before they happen in my various forms of entertainment. I want to be immersed, I want to be surprised. Now admittedly, I’m not one of the aforementioned people who wants to know nothing at all about Cataclysm. Gameplay changes, hints at what we can expect to see and do during the next expansion that’s all fine. But I really don’t want to get too clued into whats going to happen with the lore, storyline and general experience.
There’s a fine line between tantalising glimpses which get you excited, and so much information that you already know what’s going to happen well before you get there in-game. It’s the same as the difference between good movie trailers and bad movie trailers. A good trailer gives you cool flashes of the movie, giving you a sense of what it’s about, without giving you any clues whatsoever as to the serious plot points. A bad movie trailer includes hints or even outright exposure of the movie’s main reveal or ending (which is a sadly common trend I’m seeing in the Hollywood crap of the last couple of years).
The picture above is an example of a good teaser, as it acts as an intriguing clue to what may happen in that zone, yet we are bewildered as to how it will happen. Technically it is a spoiler, but it’s so light that I will happily view it, others may disagree. Similarly I feel that Blizzard’s released review of Vashj’ir was a good teaser of the zone without showing us anything important. However in my eyes they went too far with their description of Hyjal. I mean, they just outlined most of what we’ll be doing, what will happen, and revealed that Malorne is alive! Oh, and since there’s really only one candidate for who the demi-god mentioned could be, that’s pretty much ruined that for me too!
Whilst I’ve been super-excited about Cataclysm, I feel that even Blizzard’s own press releases may be stealing away some of the experience from me. I guess I’ll have to be a little more selective about what I look at in future. How do you feel? Are spoilers bugging you or are you an information hog? Let us know on the poll above!
P.S. In the interest of being spoiler-friendly, please don’t post anything detailing any major spoilers about Warcraft, or shows like Dr Who and Battlestar that I’ve referenced. Minor stuff like I’ve discussed here is fine.
I had to practically close my eyes earlier when scouring Wow.com for any Children’s Week posts :p that was “fun”.
spoilers….
gotta love ’em & gotta hate ’em
I like to know abit, however I always go futher when doing researching spoiling lots more then I want to know, this time however I will try to change that just by stopping to visit sites like mmo-champion when the beta is active, cataclysm is gona be awesome and full of surprises and I don’t want the experience to be less then normal this time π
Just don’t blink. Don’t even blink!
β€
(yeah I have nothing of import to add, I am just drawn to who references like a wasp to beer on a hot summer day.)
Hehe. Snared ya!
When it comes to games I’m not too bothered about spoilers. It bothers me a lot more when it comes to movies/tv shows. I hate how some movie trailers show a scene that’s like 5 minutes from the ending of the movie. That really spoils it for me.
For WoW.. Bring it on! π
I like knowing about talents, spells, UI changes, New rotations etc…etc….
Lore?
STFU
thats just imo of course =)