Request: No spoilers in the launcher slides

[Chewy2nd]

The 2.x series is a good example of how it should be done, instead of showing any main plot spoilers, they showed a Goblet along with the Cloud of Darkness and Odin, two well known bosses.





Even 3.1 was done well enough, you could argue that 3.2 is vague enough too, I just want to make sure that they don't go throwing a

Massive twist in the Heavensward finale

onto the banner, what kind of brought this on is

Estinien is used in the Duty Commenced banner

. They've just got to remember to be vague with what they show in places like the launcher and lodestone.

[Laerune]

But doesnt the spoiler image work the other way aswell? Newcomer sees Minfilia being stuck to a Crystal and with long hairs. He or she knows that this will happen to Minfilia, but they do not know why or when. This could also motivate them to want to do the questline.

Still I do agree that having Minfilia while its pretty to look at, it screams spoilers.

[ElHeggunte]

But doesnt the spoiler image work the other way aswell? Newcomer sees Minfilia being stuck to a Crystal and with long hairs. He or she knows that this will happen to Minfilia, but they do not know why or when. This could also motivate them to want to do the questline.

Yes. I would call all of the examples in this thread "teasers" (or even "previews") rather than "spoilers", but that's just me. They need proper context to be a spoiler and all of those banners lack that context. They show you the "what", but you still have to progress through the game to learn the "how" and the "why". Just like a movie trailer or a book synopsis. It's good strategy to show someone just enough to get them hooked and wanting to find out what happens next.

Still I do agree that having Minfilia while its pretty to look at, it screams spoilers.

Even with the Minfillia example the only thing it showed us is that...

We finally found her again. To anyone who's gotten far enough in the story to know that she even disappeared it's obvious that we were going to find her eventually. The only remaining question would be why she looks the way she does and if anything is wrong with her, but the picture doesn't tell you that. For any new player who hasn't gotten far enough to even meet Minfillia they're only going to wonder who the hell that woman is on the banner and whether or not she's important. If someone has gotten far enough to know who Minfillia is, but not far enough to know she vanished they're still only going to be wondering what caused her to take on such a drastic appearance change and they still need to play to find out.

If you require context or hindsight to understand what you're looking at I wouldn't call it a spoiler.

[Canadane]

Using characters involved in the plot is normal for advertising and it's not really something I'd call spoilers.
All you see is the character, you know nothing about what's going to happen to, with, or around said character. The actual events are the important bits.

[Evangela]

Not sure how those images can spoil anyone. It's a spoiler just because you see the characters? You thought Minfilia and Estinien were dead or something? It's not like it's a picture of Estinien piercing his spear through Alphinaud or something that actually spoiling you the story.

It's like seeing Darth Vader on a poster of the latest Star Wars movie and you complain that it spoiled you about Vader is going to appear in the film.

[Aldora]

The thing with trailers and banners like these, is that the creator needs to find something that will excite his/her consumer base enough to keep them interested. You can only do that by giving them a sneak peek about what’s to come.

The banner you are referring to is doing just that, but without context you wouldn’t know what they are aiming at. So, for someone who is new to the game and has yet to go through the story, the banner in question won’t be much of a spoiler. You know that it’s a “spoiler”, because you know the context behind it (which you could only have known after finishing the MSQ story so far).

The same goes for the Promotional Sites they made for each patch. Only if you know what’s going to happen, will the images and the text on these sites make sense. If you look at each banner they used for the patch notes, they all contained some kind of a spoiler. Mostly which character/boss was going to appear in that patch as well as a hint of the location where they would appear.

But, when they first released those images, most of us didn’t know what to expect. We just saw something familiar (Odin, Cloud of Darkness, Diabolos, Leviathan, Ramuh, etc). Heck, even the concept art of the 2.1 patch showed us things that ended up being released in 2.5, but we didn’t know that at the time. I can’t really say i got spoiled by that.

The only real spoiler i’ve seen, was the trailer for Heavensward, where they gave a recap on the things that happened in 2.x. But due to that, a warning message was placed at the beginning of that particular trailer saying that the trailer contained material that could be considered as spoilers.

Personally, i think it’s impossible to use a banner without spoiling “something” for someone. Actually, I know more people who would actively dissect the banner to see what it could mean and how the piece fits within the puzzle that is called the Eorzean Lore, then know people would think of it as a spoiler.

It all depends on how you look at it.

[Chewy2nd]

I'm not against spoilers, lol, using them in promotional materials is a good way to get people exicted about the new content. However, people go onto promotional sites and trailers in the expectation that there will be spoilers, to not expect them there would be silly, the same can't be said for the launcher.

My issue with them possibly using

Estinien for the 3.3 banner is, for someone who would be half way through Heavensward, they'd see the blood red AF1 armour with what looks like the eyes of a dragon attached, it's hardly a subtle hint.

I didn't really mind them using Minfilia for 3.2, there was nothing that really gave away her upcoming story, and it was just sorta saying "Minfilia stuff coming up!"

[Felis]

The 2.x series is a good example of how it should be done, instead of showing any main plot spoilers, they showed a Goblet along with the Cloud of Darkness and Odin, two well known bosses.

The Goblet is a big spoiler to the 2.x story end

[Chewy2nd]

The Goblet is a big spoiler to the 2.x story end

With no context, it's just a goblet.

[Ashkendor]

If you require context or hindsight to understand what you're looking at I wouldn't call it a spoiler.

People are way too quick to scream "omg spoiler!!" around here. :|