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[KingZog3]

We give ratings to video games, why not books?

Because the sight of someone getting beheaded is much, much worse than a description of someone getting beheaded.

Have you read Game of Thrones?

No, but I have read Saya no Uta. Which is a bit weird though, since it's a visual novel and also counts as a game and actually has an age rating of 18+, but still, I had no problems reading it (I was underage back then) and I'm relatively sure that I still couldn't watch a movie based on it.

I just don't see a difference. If you rate movies, games, even music that has explicit lyrics, why not put a warning on Game of Thrones for almost pornographic sex detail and gory torture scenes?

[Awaclus]

We give ratings to video games, why not books?

Because the sight of someone getting beheaded is much, much worse than a description of someone getting beheaded.

Have you read Game of Thrones?

No, but I have read Saya no Uta. Which is a bit weird though, since it's a visual novel and also counts as a game and actually has an age rating of 18+, but still, I had no problems reading it (I was underage back then) and I'm relatively sure that I still couldn't watch a movie based on it.

I just don't see a difference. If you rate movies, games, even music that has explicit lyrics, why not put a warning on Game of Thrones for almost pornographic sex detail and gory torture scenes?

I don't really get rating music with explicit lyrics either, though I could see rating music that has sounds of people getting killed or something. The lack of audio and moving picture makes a ton of difference, it leaves everything up to your imagination.

[eHalcyon]

We give ratings to video games, why not books?

Because the sight of someone getting beheaded is much, much worse than a description of someone getting beheaded.

Have you read Game of Thrones?

No, but I have read Saya no Uta. Which is a bit weird though, since it's a visual novel and also counts as a game and actually has an age rating of 18+, but still, I had no problems reading it (I was underage back then) and I'm relatively sure that I still couldn't watch a movie based on it.

I just don't see a difference. If you rate movies, games, even music that has explicit lyrics, why not put a warning on Game of Thrones for almost pornographic sex detail and gory torture scenes?

I don't really get rating music with explicit lyrics either, though I could see rating music that has sounds of people getting killed or something. The lack of audio and moving picture makes a ton of difference, it leaves everything up to your imagination.

Sometimes imagination is worse.

[Donald X.]

I don't really get rating music with explicit lyrics either, though I could see rating music that has sounds of people getting killed or something. The lack of audio and moving picture makes a ton of difference, it leaves everything up to your imagination.

I would like non-explicit lyrics marked, so I don't accidentally buy the censored version of something, which I have.

[Awaclus]

We give ratings to video games, why not books?

Because the sight of someone getting beheaded is much, much worse than a description of someone getting beheaded.

Have you read Game of Thrones?

No, but I have read Saya no Uta. Which is a bit weird though, since it's a visual novel and also counts as a game and actually has an age rating of 18+, but still, I had no problems reading it (I was underage back then) and I'm relatively sure that I still couldn't watch a movie based on it.

I just don't see a difference. If you rate movies, games, even music that has explicit lyrics, why not put a warning on Game of Thrones for almost pornographic sex detail and gory torture scenes?

I don't really get rating music with explicit lyrics either, though I could see rating music that has sounds of people getting killed or something. The lack of audio and moving picture makes a ton of difference, it leaves everything up to your imagination.

Sometimes imagination is worse.

I'm not a psychologist, but somehow I don't find it very likely that anyone would be overly disturbed by anything they themselves can imagine.

[eHalcyon]

I'm not a psychologist, but somehow I don't find it very likely that anyone would be overly disturbed by anything they themselves can imagine.

You would be surprised!

[KingZog3]

I'm not a psychologist, but somehow I don't find it very likely that anyone would be overly disturbed by anything they themselves can imagine.

You would be surprised!

Like I said, Game of Thrones. You read, then imagine, then spend ten minutes cringing at what you just pictured.

[werothegreat]

I'm not a psychologist, but somehow I don't find it very likely that anyone would be overly disturbed by anything they themselves can imagine.

You would be surprised!

Like I said, Game of Thrones. You read, then imagine, then spend ten minutes cringing at what you just pictured.

I don't think my story is quite as bad as Game of Thrones, but someone does get disemboweled at one point.

[pacovf]

I'm not a psychologist, but somehow I don't find it very likely that anyone would be overly disturbed by anything they themselves can imagine.

You would be surprised!

Like I said, Game of Thrones. You read, then imagine, then spend ten minutes cringing at what you just pictured.

I don't think my story is quite as bad as Game of Thrones, but someone does get disemboweled at one point.

Dude, spoilers! Not cool man, not cool.

[theory]

SPOILERS
make my car go faster

because i routinely drive at speeds necessitating downforce

[KingZog3]

SPOILERS
make my car go faster

because i routinely drive at speeds necessitating downforce

Seriously? Whats the point now? Why even bother reading any of it.

[werothegreat]

I'm not a psychologist, but somehow I don't find it very likely that anyone would be overly disturbed by anything they themselves can imagine.

You would be surprised!

Like I said, Game of Thrones. You read, then imagine, then spend ten minutes cringing at what you just pictured.

I don't think my story is quite as bad as Game of Thrones, but someone does get disemboweled at one point.

Dude, spoilers! Not cool man, not cool.

I remember one time in, like, kindergarten, where the teacher was talking about drugs or something like that, and she said that if you're going to talk about a person who takes drugs or is doing something bad, you don't say their name, you say "someone I know."  So, technically, this wasn't really a spoiler, because I said someone.

[Ozle]

I'm not a psychologist, but somehow I don't find it very likely that anyone would be overly disturbed by anything they themselves can imagine.

You would be surprised!

Like I said, Game of Thrones. You read, then imagine, then spend ten minutes cringing at what you just pictured.

I don't think my story is quite as bad as Game of Thrones, but someone does get disemboweled at one point.

Dude, spoilers! Not cool man, not cool.

I remember one time in, like, kindergarten, where the teacher was talking about drugs or something like that, and she said that if you're going to talk about a person who takes drugs or is doing something bad, you don't say their name, you say "someone I know."  So, technically, this wasn't really a spoiler, because I said someone.

Snitch!

[Awaclus]

I'm not a psychologist, but somehow I don't find it very likely that anyone would be overly disturbed by anything they themselves can imagine.

You would be surprised!

Like I said, Game of Thrones. You read, then imagine, then spend ten minutes cringing at what you just pictured.

I don't think my story is quite as bad as Game of Thrones, but someone does get disemboweled at one point.

Dude, spoilers! Not cool man, not cool.

I remember one time in, like, kindergarten, where the teacher was talking about drugs or something like that, and she said that if you're going to talk about a person who takes drugs or is doing something bad, you don't say their name, you say "someone I know."  So, technically, this wasn't really a spoiler, because I said someone.

Actually, getting spoiled before reading something makes you enjoy the work more. So obviously werothegreat is using that to his advantage here.

[sudgy]

I'm not a psychologist, but somehow I don't find it very likely that anyone would be overly disturbed by anything they themselves can imagine.

You would be surprised!

Like I said, Game of Thrones. You read, then imagine, then spend ten minutes cringing at what you just pictured.

I don't think my story is quite as bad as Game of Thrones, but someone does get disemboweled at one point.

Dude, spoilers! Not cool man, not cool.

I remember one time in, like, kindergarten, where the teacher was talking about drugs or something like that, and she said that if you're going to talk about a person who takes drugs or is doing something bad, you don't say their name, you say "someone I know."  So, technically, this wasn't really a spoiler, because I said someone.

Actually, getting spoiled before reading something makes you enjoy the work more. So obviously werothegreat is using that to his advantage here.

I disagree.  There are some spoilers that would completely ruin something for me (a big example are main characters dying).

[eHalcyon]

SPOILERS!!

Bandit Camp, Marauder, Pillage

[Awaclus]

I disagree.  There are some spoilers that would completely ruin something for me (a big example are main characters dying).

Ruin the surprise, improve the overall experience. http://www.wired.com/2011/08/spoilers-dont-spoil-anything/

[eHalcyon]

I disagree.  There are some spoilers that would completely ruin something for me (a big example are main characters dying).

Ruin the surprise, improve the overall experience. http://www.wired.com/2011/08/spoilers-dont-spoil-anything/

Very interesting study, but it is not at all definitive.  Some things to note:

- The study participants were predominantly female, which might skew things
- Even if the average suggests that spoilers increase enjoyment, it's still an average.  It'll be different for different individuals.
- They only used short stories for this study.

This last point is pretty huge.  If I'm going to read a short story, I won't care that much whether you spoil the ending for me.  It's a short story, I'm not invested in it.  But if I'm a huge, huge fan of a long running series, a spoiler for that can certainly ruin my day.

Pretty curious about how people feel about spoilers though.  I'm ambivalent about them.  I don't go out of my way to seek them out, but I also don't really avoid them.  Most people I talk to seem not to care either, for most things.

[Awaclus]

I disagree.  There are some spoilers that would completely ruin something for me (a big example are main characters dying).

Ruin the surprise, improve the overall experience. http://www.wired.com/2011/08/spoilers-dont-spoil-anything/

Very interesting study, but it is not at all definitive.  Some things to note:

- The study participants were predominantly female, which might skew things
- Even if the average suggests that spoilers increase enjoyment, it's still an average.  It'll be different for different individuals.
- They only used short stories for this study.

This last point is pretty huge.  If I'm going to read a short story, I won't care that much whether you spoil the ending for me.  It's a short story, I'm not invested in it.  But if I'm a huge, huge fan of a long running series, a spoiler for that can certainly ruin my day.

Pretty curious about how people feel about spoilers though.  I'm ambivalent about them.  I don't go out of my way to seek them out, but I also don't really avoid them.  Most people I talk to seem not to care either, for most things.

I have pretty much always wanted to know about any major plot twists before reading, playing or watching anything. If the story is well-written, there are always things that you will understand in a completely different light when you know what is going to happen, and when the twist finally happens, my reaction is "YEAH HERE IT COMES!" rather than "Well, that was unexpected".

I don't watch ongoing TV shows for this reason.

[sudgy]

I disagree.  There are some spoilers that would completely ruin something for me (a big example are main characters dying).

Ruin the surprise, improve the overall experience. http://www.wired.com/2011/08/spoilers-dont-spoil-anything/

There's a show I'm thinking of, where one of the main characters dies 3/4 of the way through the series.  With the way they built the characters, it would make all of the earlier parts of the show meaningless to know that that one character dies.

Now, I will agree that a fair amount of spoilers are okay to know beforehand (I would rather not, but that's just how I like to do things).  I was more saying that there are some that are bad to know.

PPE:

I have pretty much always wanted to know about any major plot twists before reading, playing or watching anything. If the story is well-written, there are always things that you will understand in a completely different light when you know what is going to happen, and when the twist finally happens, my reaction is "YEAH HERE IT COMES!" rather than "Well, that was unexpected".

There are some spoilers (see earlier in my post) that you would not want to come.

[werothegreat]

I think the rise of "spoilers" has something to do with a shift in literature (and film) from "journey" stories to "destination" stories.  Everyone knows that Oedipus kills his dad and marries his mom.  Everyone knows Romeo and Juliet die in the end.  Everyone knows that Frankenstein and his monster don't really get along that well.  And yet we still read (and watch) these stories.  In fact, in ancient Greek plays, the chorus would inform the audience beforehand what was going to happen.  The audience was far more interested in how the characters end up at the places they know they have to.

But nowadays, it's usually the end of the book/movie that is most interesting.  We find the climax and the reveal more interesting than the setup.  We like being surprised by where a story leads, and get upset when plot points are either predictable or blurted out to us by those who've read/watched it already.  Perhaps we can blame M. Night Shyamalan for this (I'm sorry, but aliens who are allergic to water just so Mel Gibson can be a priest again is the stupidest thing ever), but this is a observable trend in modern media.

However, this can be overturned again in books and movies start with the ending, or at least with characters who reveal their ending, and then we just have to keep reading/watching to see how they get there, or if they're just unreliable narrators.  I'd name examples, but hey, spoilers. 

[2.71828.....]

However, this can be overturned again in books and movies start with the ending, or at least with characters who reveal their ending, and then we just have to keep reading/watching to see how they get there, or if they're just unreliable narrators.  I'd name examples, but hey, spoilers. 

The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss is a great series that I started reading that does this sort of thing.  The main character is introduced to the reader as an innkeeper in a remote village where he is basically hiding from the world.  The story is about how he got there.  Unfortunately, this is a very new series and it is still incomplete.  Two books are released and the third is expected to be published in August (2015) so if you want to wait to start reading until you can actually read the whole story I don't blame you.  Having one unfinished series on the shelf is bad enough (A Song of Ice and Fire).

[Awaclus]

There's a show I'm thinking of, where one of the main characters dies 3/4 of the way through the series.  With the way they built the characters, it would make all of the earlier parts of the show meaningless to know that that one character dies.

Have you tried re-watching that show?

[Ozle]

I hate knowing how things turn out. I am a big fan of surprises despite my incredibly 'need to know' everything nature.

If I knew a main character died in a book and the how and when it would ruin that section of the book for me.

[KingZog3]

I think it depends on the magnitude of the spoiler. I can tell you someone dies, but with no context it's still a surprise. However if I tell you everything, there seems little point in completing the book/movie/game.