It raises another interesting question : What about Heavy Rain? Even if you played through the game and saw an ending, someone else's experience might have been very different. If there were a spoilerific thread dedicated to that game, wouldn't it still "ruin" things for others? I don't know myself, but it's something to think about.

i vote no dual threads, and continue with spoilers for a month or so. if you continue reading the thread after that, it's your own fault the game gets spoiled.

I say let's keep this discussion going, then early next week all the suggestions are put into a public poll (where your vote is shown)? Thoughts? Fucking democracy at work.

FWIW - my thoughts echo those of Deftones and others like his.

Yeah, I don't like the dual thread idea at all. I appreciate having spoiler tags for specific plot points that might ruin games for others. That way I know not to read that post if I don't want anything spoiled.

"Mass Effect 2 Spoiler-Free Discussion" vs. "Mass Effect 2 Gameplay/Story Discussion -- BEWARE: SPOILERS".

I'm not really opposed to the bombardment of spoiler tags in a thread, for those that wish to read them, but that's not a bad idea.

Heavy Rain will clearly need at least 5 threads.

while not that big a deal, "clicking on a spoiler to view it, clicking on it to close the spoiler tag, hitting the space bar to scroll down, oops did not actually close the spoiler so instead of scrolling down the spoiler pops open again" gets annoying when an entire page is filled with spoiler tags. i personally do not venture into game threads if i am worried about reading spoilers. hell, in this thread alone, there are very specific plot points revealed about recent games. i am in favor of two threads - spoiler free and spoiler without tags. if a game discussion thread goes beyond 200 posts, i think we should break out the second spoiler thread.

Not based on the number of people that played the demo.

I won't read every word of a long thread about a game, but I may skim it for impressions. Reviews are one thing, but don't always give me a good idea of whether I will like the game personally. Maybe I don't like inventory micromanagement, and if I skim a thread and see a dozen people complain about the inventory system, I'll know this might not be the game for me no matter how well reviewed the game is.

Or I might check in if I'm having problems with a certain area to see how others handled it or other general gameplay tips. IMO, these are all fine to be discussed out in the open, but major revelations about the plot, its ending or twists along the way should be spoiled.

I'd say we could shift the time frame on a case-by-case basis for longer/shorter games, but a month seems about right to me. Gives some of the more "casual" gamers plenty of time to finish and the bargain hunters time to pick up a copy and dig in.

And we need a Paragon and Renegade spoiler thread for ME2. Don't ruin my renegade second playthrough with your spoilers in my paragon thread!

Even if major review sites don't cover that complaint, that sort of thing would probably be discussed within a couple days after the game is released and before you got to any major discussions about the plot.

And this is in reference to spoilers being no longer needed a month after release, not right away. For a story heavy game like Mass Effect 2, it can get annoying a month after to still have to read through spoilers when talking about characters and plot points. I can understand new players who are starting the game later on asking questions, but even then you can just post a question without reading everything prior in fear of spoiler. Or Google it.

Maybe at some point, whether it's a couple weeks, a month, whatever, a mod makes a nice big, bold post that spoiler tags are no longer needed. People wanting an impression of the game can read up to that point safely and not worry about accidentally stumbling over some massive plot point.

What if your mod is too chicken shit to go into a thread because he's still playing the predecessor of said game?

I like this idea much better than duplicate threads. That gives people 30 days to post spoiler free(well, w/spoiler tags anyway) info which is plenty of posts for someone to gauge interest of a game.

I think the threads here are pretty good. As has been mentioned, most threads for big games follow a similar trajectory. The first page or three is anticipation, then everyone starts talking about the game with spoiler tags for another 2 to 5 pages, and then the spoiler tags start to fad away -- save for only the biggest spoilery aspects of a game.

I do think games like Mass Effect and Heavy Rain might have special considerations, but for most games I think the threads are fine as is.

That's what I look for. He opted out of the Heavy Rain thread to avoid spoilers so I'm going apeshit over there.

I hate you guys.

I'm gonna start fights in the Heavy Rain discussion threads just so you have to go in, read through the stuff, and take care of "business".

All I'm saying is that if you guys want to post those kinds of weird, disgusting pictures over in the Heavy Rain thread, at least use the NSFW tags.

paging suprmallet to the heavy rain thread, suprmallet - heavy rain thread. Take care of these freaks for me.

I trust actual people more than sites like IGN and Gamespot that often get paid to do a good review.

Pre-game release talk might get my hyped for a game but it won't seal the deal.

I agree with Decker. How hard is it to make a spoiler tag. Some people are just lazy.

There's even a in the reply box (not quick reply) which lets you highlight text then add spoiler action around it.

One other thing to consider if we just go all out spoilers in a thread the day a game releases, is what if a person wants to come in and ask a question? It would be impossible to ask that question and not accidentally read someone elses post where they might spoiler a major plot point of the game.

So again, I vote for two threads for the more popular story-driven games. I'd say for the other games, just do a month or two of spoiler tags, then free reign.

It really has nothing to do with being lazy about posting, more about reading. You think I was joking earlier? Here's an screenshot of the 3 posts directly preceeding my original question:



It's just tedious to have to see that shit all the time when the only people it's meant to protect are people that should have the common sense not to be in there in the first place.

It's like missing Survivor and then being pissed off you watch the CBS Early Show Friday morning and they interview the person kicked off.