Spoiler Chat Ingame

[weebtext]

Zenos twerks in Endwalker.

[Breakbeat]

The spoiler culture is so annoying and dumb.

Yeah, I remember the days before anyone said that word, and those days were good.

One blustery evening in 1999, people somehow decided that 'spoilers' were an actual thing. Being so horribly disappointed by the Phantom Menace, folks started going outside after the movie and yelling 'spoilers' to the crowd waiting in line. I literally never heard the word before that. Thanks, George Lucas.

- Never went to school in 1985 and said, "DON'T tell me what happened on Knight Rider - SPOILERS!"
- Never showed up at work in 1990 and heard anyone bitching about someone spoiling Twin Peaks for them. "Laura's dad... is BOB! ... AARGH, SPOILERS!"
- Never had anyone walk out of T2 while I was waiting in line in 1991 and yell, "He ends up in a pot of molten steel!"
- Never saw anyone at work or school complaining about Star Trek: Voyager spoilers in 1995. And whoa boy, did we talk about it.

(Further on that last particular point, by '95 I was involved in heavy online discussion centered around ST and ST: Voyager in particular. There was nary a mention of 'spoilers' in thousands and thousands of usenet posts and endless hours of IRC.)

But, somehow, on that fateful day in 1999, everything changed. You could try to argue the point that people didn't "spoil" things before that day... but that would be ludicrous. Surely people went to work and school and the movies back in the day and talked about Knight Rider, Twin Peaks, Terminator 2 and Star Trek. We just didn't care if we heard an 'ending' or a 'secret'. At the very worst, it might have been a momentary pang of disappointment upon hearing these things.

Back in the day, we just dealt with 'momentary pangs of disappointment' on a personal, internal level. Today, we go online with 'momentary pangs of disappointment' to find the other sixty-five people that felt the same pangs, and turn that into a 'trend' or a #hashtagmovement.

Another point in the 'social media is a friggin' disease' column.

One day many years from now, we're going to look back on social media with the same disdain we have now for things like smoking. I mean, we quantify the cancer risk from cigarettes, and put it on the package. One day we will grow the hell up and realize that the brain is as valuable an organ as the lungs. Strike that - it's more valuable. You can live without lungs via machinery, or get a lung transplant. You cannot live without a brain under any circumstances.

Further, I'd argue that a broken brain is as hellish to live with as a cancerous lung. Maybe even more so, since a broken brain can be a life sentence, whereas cancer is either cured (you live normally) or it takes you (you have no further worries). You don't live out your life with 'a little bit of lung cancer that makes day-to-day life really suck'.

'Till we come to our senses, though, we just keep puffing away on social media. Ten packs a day. Adults, children, all of us. Puff, puff, puff.... #exhale.

[Catwho]

When a new expansion comes out, I disabled all chat outside of my FC. No shout, no yell, no say chat. Just me and the story until I get all the way through.

I learned this the hard way during Heavensward when people shouted two character deaths in Churning Mists.

[Kepii]

My FC discord has a spoilers channel, but it's really annoying not to be like "holy crap X was awesome" in FC chat itself. The "spoilers" culture is fricking nuts here, especially on content that's already over 5 years old.

I typically do not hold spoilers on movies that are that old, or tv series that's that old, so why the hell should I hold video game stories that are that old?

Sounds like you're one of those people who don't let new players experience the fun of the story then.

When a new expansion comes out, I disabled all chat outside of my FC. No shout, no yell, no say chat. Just me and the story until I get all the way through.

I learned this the hard way during Heavensward when people shouted two character deaths in Churning Mists.

Yeah, it sucks that there is no option to avoid all of that. Someone did the same thing on accident in chat when I was playing through. We have a lot of new players who are going through the stories, if people want to chat about the spoilers fine just avoid fc chat.

Either way, linkshells work ok but you can't just join at your leisure, you still have to ask for an invite, etc.

[Asari5]

where would i have to write if i have a question about yotsuyu? i didnt finish the story yet so im not in the spoiler chat.... but that would srill be a spoiler for people in HW

[lezard21]

where would i have to write if i have a question about yotsuyu? i didnt finish the story yet so im not in the spoiler chat.... but that would srill be a spoiler for people in HW

In shout chat in one of the main cities or in Novice Network. That's where you'll more likely find people able to help you. No Spoiler freaks will just need to learn to cope with imaginary problems.