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Button Mashers is a periodic audio podcast covering a range of topics in the gaming industry. This blog was created for myself, Tetsuotrunks, as well as a few guest co-hosts, to contribute our 2 cents on topics that really don't warrant any discussion, or to just express things that we'd like to get off our chests. Check back often, as we update frequently and feel free to leave any feedback.

May 2008
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Home » Archives » May 2008 »
Spoiler Alerts!
By TetsuoTrunks on 05.18.08 at 05:46 PM CST
So MGS4 comes out soon. Like, really soon. 3 weeks from Thursday to be exact. And while that doesn't seem like a relatively long time, it can be AGES. What doesn't help though is the endless barrage of media coverage of the title. We have transcripts of press conferences, commercials (international and domestic) product placement in-jokes, etc. The list just goes on.

We even have some spoilers. I don't think we have spoilers that are drastic enough to reveal the ending of the game (SNAKE IS A WOMAN, you heard it here first!), but we have things like 'hidden' weapons, 'secret' cameos, etc. Part of this is of course a balance problem facing Kojima. He has to make trailers and preview builds and movies that all showcase the things he wants people to see, without giving away too much. But its also MGS 4 and so what passed in previous games isn't enough anymore. People don't want to just see Snake press up next to a wall and watch the camera cut around the corner for them. They also don't care as much that first person aiming is available. These aren't anything new. Instead, he has to focus on some of the new moves in the game. Show off some of the ways the NPCs interact (and how that affects you). Of course, the real focus is on the character interactions. It really leads to the area of 'how much is too much' for 'spoilers'?

I was away at camp the summer before Majora's Mask came out. Back then, I didn't care WHAT was 'spoiled' for me. IGN was running a frequent feature on how various gameplay systems worked in the title, how things interacted, etc. And it came to the question of 'Does Adult Link appear in this title?' I couldn't have been any more impatient to see the answer. My feeling at the time was 'if they're going to release the info, I want to know about it. If the info leaked, I want to know about it. If it in any way pertains to this title, I'd LOVE to know what it is." I felt that the more I read, it almost made me feel like I was that much closer to playing the title. In hindsight, all I really did was pass some time and...it isn't really 'ruining' the game, but it made less of it a surprise. On a Zelda title, that isn't actually so bad. Most of the gameplay is puzzle based, so even being told "you're going to be confronted by a puzzle that acts like this", you aren't actually 'experiencing' the puzzle; you still have to do that on your own. By contrast, reading spoilers in MGS will most likely, as I said, involve character reveals or motives. Which takes away a lot from the experience, as MGS is primarily a story driven experience. Thus, I stay away from MOST MGS4 spoilers like the plague. I watch a lot of the trailers, but I try to avoid the excessive amounts of coverage.

So what do you guys think? Better to spoil everything beforehand to know what you're getting into? Or hold off everything and let the director surprise you?

Final quick note; Anyone who's interested in helping out this blog, PM me (TetsuoTrunks). Thanks!
Comments

Replies: 1 Comment

By Biccy on Monday, May 19th:

I'm a bit odd with the spoilers.

I really do try and keep away from them, as I do like to find the little surprises and stuff. But as long as the whole game isn't given away, I'm not *too* fussed.

For example, on the Brawl page they hid possible spoilers under big question marks. I had to click them. They're giant question marks ffs!