Breakfast Topic: Spoiled rotten vs ignorant bliss
by Dan O'Halloran 
Jan 29th 2008 at 8:00AM
With Patch 2.4 close to going live on the PTR, thousands, if not tens of thousands of players are ready to descend on those poor servers to dig into Sunwell's secrets. We will, of course, be reporting on the good stuff here on WoW Insider, but I'm curious to know how many people avoid the spoilery information versus how many surf the net tirelessly until they know every last detail?And for those who don't want to be spoiled how the heck do you manage it? Between guild chat, general chat and news sites you would be hard pressed not to hear tantalizing details from the test patch. I get that you want to be surprised and experience the new content in-game, but do you have to be a virtual hermit to achieve that? And, then, how do you plan on your day's activities in-game when it all goes live? Will you just head over to the new Sunwell area when it goes live and let the NPCs lead the way?
Where do you fall between knowing everything in advance and blindly stumbling into fun and adventure as it comes, learning along the way?
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Unundead Jan 29th 2008 8:05AM
This game is such a time hog you kinda need to know some stuff I guess.
Also I don't have time for endgame raiding so if I don't spoil it for my self I'll never it anyway :/
Nick S Jan 29th 2008 8:08AM
what that guy said.
plus, knowing from general chat is nothing like knowing from feeling the wrath of one of kael's pyroblasts... i don't really feel "spoiled" when i read about what the encounters are like.
Hokuto Jan 29th 2008 8:15AM
Reading about it is entirely different than experiencing it. On PTR you can experience, therefore spoil the fun.
dotorion Jan 29th 2008 10:02AM
QFT.
I don't mind reading about it, just don't feel a need to try it in advance as well.
Mats Jan 29th 2008 8:17AM
Now, I don't much like to do stuff on the PTR, as it seems like a wast of time. When I do stuff on my character, I like doing stuff that sticks.
However, I do like to know everything about whats going on, so that I can proceed with maximum efficiency when everything goes live.
Jasperwind Jan 29th 2008 9:29AM
Well, I still need to get the 3rd Kara key fragment, so it will be a long time before I get to most content. It's always been that way for me. I hear all out new instances, but then so many months pass before I can get to them that I simply forget what I heard. Plus the fact that by the time I get to anything it is old news and guilds have farmed them for months and have moved on.
Bearskunk Jan 29th 2008 9:47AM
won't see the raids anyway so I can as well read about what they wasted their effort on
Syme Jan 29th 2008 9:52AM
I try to avoid spoilers, but if one plays a fair amount and reads sits for other kinds of news and tips, it's hard to avoid them. There are probably a lot of people who don't see the spoilers, but they probably don't do that content either.
One of the reasons my guild was excited to go into ZA as soon as it opened was that the strategies with accompanying graphs and math charts weren't yet plastered everywhere. Our leaders had looked up the abilities of each boss, but we had fun working on our own ways to beat them.
Milktub Jan 29th 2008 10:20AM
I like just enough surprise. I'll read text. Words can't spoil it for me. But I pass on seeing video or screenshots of something I haven't seen.
Good_Idea Jan 29th 2008 10:40AM
Seriously, no one is talking about Sunwell details unless you dig deep. Hell, some players have no idea it's even coming.
The percentage of guilds that will even attempt Sunwell (25-man), is going to be ridicuously small.
The 5-man is going to be meh after a few weeks. Are there going to be casual awards? That's the only thing a casual player would be remotely excited about.
Jack Spicer Jan 29th 2008 11:06AM
I'm not really sure there is anything that can truly be "spoiled" in this game. Sure you can read ahead about something in the game that you haven't yet experienced, but I would argue that nothing in WoW loses value through spoilers as much as content in other games/media does.
Besides, avoiding spoilers in WoW just makes you uniformed and wastes your time. Like players that level to 65 and then realize that there are portals in Shattrath.
stonehead Jan 29th 2008 12:10PM
I agree with this guy, although I didn't get my uniform...who do I need to talk to about that?
One of the beautiful things about more free-formed games like WoW, games that don't rely on the exposition of a story line for their playability, is that it is hard to spoil them. Because the fun of it is not finding out what happens, the fun is all about being there and making it happen for yourself.
Personally, I've never played on a PTR, but that's because my play time is limited and I really want to advance my character with my guild buddies; but since our guild is finally starting to catch up with the newer content, it might be worthwhile to check out the PTR, so I can waste less of my hard-farmed gold on wipes with my real character.
Suzaku Jan 29th 2008 11:36AM
I don't go on the PTR, but I *always* spoil myself, not just with WoW, but with everything. New game out? I've already played the Japanese version. New movie? Read the plot summary on wikipedia. Wrath of the Lich King? I'll know plenty of details by the time it hits.
It personally doesn't sap any of the fun out of it for me, though I'm a bit easy to please. Still, reading about something in WoW is nothing like playing through it.
Jurarandonee Jan 29th 2008 12:22PM
Well, truth is, there is a lot of repetition in WoW- same mobs, different costumes or abilities, same sort of countyside, different colors or tree shapes- if you play at all, you have a pretty good feel for what is "new" allready.
I manage to miss the spoilers anyone is jabbering about on trade or general channel, because I don't multi task that well- if I'm playing, I concentrate on that and not the chatter- plus a lot of chatter goes by so fast I miss the context when I am in a location thst allows for reading (ie in a city or town).
On top of that, all of my toons are too low to even go to the Outland let alone anywhere else that will be "New" any time soon.
Sooooooo. I don't look for spoilers, but I will look stuff up if I'm having trouble with an instance or finding something :-).
Cheers,
Jurarandonee
Thander Jan 29th 2008 6:51PM
I'm pretty casual and my guild is also casual. I'm the only one that reads WoWInsider so I don't ever get spoilers ingame. I usually watch one of the raiding videos to see what it's all about a few months after its out. Sometimes it's hard to get one that isn't completely edited, because I like to see the whole setting Blizzard creates for each raid. And the story quality for these things is nowhere near what it was in Warcraft III or the previous games. They have to make it pretty simplistic so it can fit in the game engine.