God fucking dammit, I just got that game and had no idea there was a fuel depot.

I spoilered it! Your own damn fault, noob.

Which is a whole separate pet peeve of mine -- when people use spoiler tags without giving you any indication of what they are spoiling, so you have no way to know whether to click the tag. If I see a post that says:

I have no idea whether clicking the button is going to ruin something for me. Give me something outside the tag like:

They kick people off of survivor?!

I know what you're bitching about... which is why i proposed a vote next week which all you dudes ignored!

There's a Quote button for that.

So? You still have to read through other posts to see if someone posted a response. Besides, not everyone uses the quote button to respond to others.

you got that right flashburn!

You can read the first few pages of user impressions before getting spoiled by anything, which should be more then enough to get an idea of the game and not have read all 1000 posts to make up your mind. Or if you don't trust certain reviewers, check out aggregate review sites like GameRankings and MetaCritic.

And like pinata said, it's more of an annoyance of reading through certain posts rather then being lazy about tags.

Also, you can ask a question and usually get a quick reply. The chances of catching a major spoiler out there in the open is probably pretty slim.

If I'm interested in a game or movie, I bow out of threads a week before they come out (with movies, sometimes more). That way, I don't accidentally walk into any spoilers.

I would say that it should be common practice to go ahead and post spoiler tags in threads as a common courtesy, but if you really don't want stuff spoiled for you, don't go into the threads until you're done with the game.

oh no - looks like i was the straw that broke pinata's back.

i think that if spoilers are to be used, they should be used liberally. what one person considers general information, another considers spoiler-worthy.

I agree 100%

I agree with JasonF, but the safest thing to do is not click on the spoiler tag. IIRC, it wasn't a problem until pinata brought it up.

It takes two seconds to do, and who cares if there's a ton of spoiler tags in a thread? People like pinata that have finished the game shoud have no problems with clicking the spoiler tags without worrying about anything being ruined.

Yeah! Eff that guy!

I'd say a year. A full year. Or better yet, once a sequel comes out. When Mass Effect 3 comes out, THEN you can not worry about spoilerizing Mass Effect 2.

Not everyone has the free time to get a game on release date and play it nonstop for 40 hours. I certainly wish I did. If I could, I would. But some of us have lives and just want to read about how good a game is before buying it and not have major plot points ruined.

Don't read the thread. It's that simple.

The two thread system works great on other forums. It doesn't clutter anything up. There's no reason why it wouldn't work here.

Count me in as someone who thinks spoiler tags should be used and keep it in one thread.

If we absolutely need a cut-off point when spoilers are all open then make it by generation.

I also don't think it is that big of a deal either way and would just deal with it both ways because i am not new to the internet.

Burn him!

I think we need to rebuild this site from the ground.

If there's a consensus on removing spoiler tags after a certain period of time, I'd be fine with it, but we'd have to make sure everyone adheres to the time period. If we say a month, I don't want to see Pinata posting a spoiler without a tag 29 days in because the thread is already 900 posts long.

I don't like the idea of two separate threads for each game, because inevitably the one without spoilers will get a lot less conversation, will drop off the front page, and then people will go into the spoiler thread for info, and complain about all the spoilers.

What is going on in the Heavy Rain thread that I need to look at?

OMG! Darth Vader was Luke's father!

I hope to god you aren't serious about a year on spoilers. That's ridiculous. If you are so concerned about how a game is before you buy, use MetaCritic or something. Sheesh. Also, why should we (those that do have time to play a new release) be punished just because you don't? You are the minority, not the majority.

I still haven't played KOTOR. I'm starting now, and have luckily not had it spoiled for me. I heard something that clues me in to what might happen, but nothing explicit or concrete. I appreciate that people are considerate enough to understand that people may want to play something, but just haven't gotten to it for whatever reason. So when the discussion isn't about that game, I like that people will say "spoilers about KOTOR" before going into it.

At the same time, I would expect major talk about that game's plot points in any thread that might pop up (or be resurrected) about it now.

Punished by using spoiler tags?

The thought of a suspension must be like a nuclear attack if being forced to use spoiler tags is a punishment.

I mean in the sense that we have to continue using them a fucking year after a game is out just because the off chance someone, somewhere hasn't played the game yet and might get spoiled. Guess what, if you haven't played a game after a year that it has been out, you probably shouldn't be reading a 14 page thread on the game.

So, are we in agreement that if someone is stuck on a level of a year-old game, they should start a new thread to ask for help since posting it in the existing game thread might cause them to see unobstructed spoilers? There's no easy answers here (well, besides using spoiler tags), but since we have another thread here that states people are basically idiots for buying just released new games, I think there might be some people who think playing a year-old game isn't reason alone to have the ending ruined for them.

I agree a year is a bit much, but again, how fucking hard is it to use spoiler tags? If you ever talk about the ending of a game or movie, or something crucial in the plot, you should spoiler it just in case.

Why take a chance? Do you feel more manly if you type the spoiler straight out?