Spoiling games

[elmuerte]

Let's talk about games that spoil what's going to happen.
 
For example this screenshot from Darksiders II:

 
It's quite obvious that after you enter this room, it will be locked, and you have to fight a few waves of enemies that spawn out of nothing. When a room doesn't have doors, or openings in the ground near entrances you know for sure that there won't be a fight in the room.
 
The same thing also happens in a lot of third person games which feature cover mechanics. As soon as you reach an area where you see a bunch of chest high walls you know for sure you're going to be attacked. (Usually by previous invisible enemies).
 
It's not just more recent games. Doom 3 was also riddled with predictable elements, although not that visible as the above examples. Doom 3 quite often had the sequence of: shallow hallway, light breaks/goes off/..., enemy spawns behind you. At some point in the game I simply walked backwards through these hallways go kill the imp directly when it spawns.
 
These repeating game elements really make the game predictable, and there for boring. It really doesn't have to be like that.

[Sno]

Mass Effect got to be just absolutely awful with the "I am on this non-combat, discussion-focused quest, but this room i just walked into has a ton of convenient waist-height cover points."

I'm somewhat of the mind that these elements aren't actually always negative though, at least in the context of when they aren't spoiling plot elements.

An upcoming arena battle should be obvious, it should be something you're allowed to spot and have a few minutes to prepare for.

[clyde]

I really liked how in Far Cry 3, I would hear gunfire or a car coming down the road and I would carefully crest a ridge or quickly find cover because I wasn't sure what the situation was going to be until I saw it. The noises were great way to say "Heads up!" while not telling me what to expect. There might be friendlies shooting a tiger in the distance or three jeeps of enemies on patrol.

[Thrik]

Foreshadowing and warning is fine, but third-person action games really do take it to ridiculous levels sometimes — especially ones of the hack-and-slash variety. Many of the combat arenas are so contrived it just makes me wince then I see them, obliterating any illusion that these epic action sequences are happening in a remotely real world. It's an extremely bad habit that developers really need to get out of; if they can't make interesting gameplay in anything but a huge circular arena then there's something awry.

[Tanukitsune]

I think this is more about being predictable that spoiling themselves, like how you know these statues will attack the moment you open this chest or how you know some other sort of trap will trigger the moment you do something else.

 

Speaking of which, I can the situation you talk about "lazy locked arenas", because the game is too lazy for level design and just locks you in a room and throws enemies at you until you're bored or dead.

[Gormongous]

I'm thinking of a similar instance, mostly in RPGs, where you take the clearly wrong branching path because, chances are, when you take the right one, you'll be locked out of backtracking and getting all the content.

 

"We're looking for a famous wizard, right? Let's go ahead and meet with the queen. I'm sure she knows right where he is and that'll be the end of our quest. No need to go tramping around in a swamp looking for a rumored hermit, that can't be him. It's probably the easiest, most straightforward option."

[Professor Video Games]

I'm playing through Bioshock Infinite right now, and their tell is one of two things; skyrails/hooks and tears. I see them from a distance (especially the tears since they make noise every time you look at them) and there are enemies waiting for me, or there are no enemies there and I get "ambushed" at some point. In the last Giant Bombcast, someone mentions that in Last of Us every time you see an area littered with bricks and bottles it's a sure thing there will be a combat encounter there.

 

And all they'd need to do is use these elements in places where there isn't combat to keep you on your toes and make it feel even a little bit more organic. But they *never* do.

[dartmonkey]

I dislike the predictability of it, though it's only a big problem for me if the ensuing combat or whatever isn't fun. If a battle is flagged up and I'm thinking 'jeez, more of these arseholes to grind through' then there's something wrong at a deeper level.

I don't like it when I've anticipated the triggers, tried to counter them and the game doesn't allow it. Eg. every survival horror game ever. I know that the body in the corner is going to reanimate the moment I switch the light on/open the door/chest/whatever but it still does so no matter how many precautionary bullets I fill its head with. That pisses me off.

[melmer]

I played through half of.... Can't remember what its called now, capcom game, dude with 8 arms. ASURA'S WRATH

So the game plays out in chapters, little half hour episodes. But before each episode starts, the game shows you a 'this week on asuras wrath' cutscene showing/spoiling all the interesting gameplay and cinematic moments you are about to experience in the next half hour. That was the absolute worst

[Nappi]

The Tibetan village in Uncharted 2 is the best example of this that I can think of. Waking up disoriented in a peaceful mountain village after an epic scene was one of the best moments in the game. Unfortunately, the experience was immediately ruined by the fact that the only purpose for the layout of the village was to serve as one huge battle arena. I knew that the place would be filled with enemies when I come back, not because I was sure they wouldn't rest until I was dead and therefore had inadvertently sealed the fate of this poor little village (which would have been pretty amazing), but simply because the level design was so transparent. 

[elmuerte]

I played through half of.... Can't remember what's its called now, capcom game, dude with 8 arms. ASURA'S WRATH

So the game plays out in chapters, little half hour episodes. But before each episode starts, the game shows you a 'this week on asuras wrath' cutscene showing/spoiling all the interesting gameplay and cinematic moments you are about to experience in the next half hour. That was the absolute worst

The Walking Dead also does that a bit. But it's rather weird, because what you see might in the preview might not even be what you will experience in the game. However, I am rather annoyed by the previews, because it will kind of steer my actions in the game because I have an idea what might come. I guess the previews worked while you had to wait a while for the episode to appear. But I'm playing it with all episodes available. So I have a fresh memory of the stuff in the preview.

[clyde]

Korean dramas show spoiler previews too. I cup my hands to my eyes like horse blinders and watch my wife's face as it contorts in a quick succession of surprise, disappointment, and confusion. When we watch the episode that only she has seen the preview of, she often explains that they mix the context of the clips in such a way that it makes you expect things to happen that are diametrically opposed to how they actually occur. Still, I'm not sure what spoiler previews are for. Maybe they thought the cliff-hanger wasn't enough?

[Thrik]

I hate promos at the end of TV shows. There's usually not that much crazy action-packed stuff that happens in a TV episode, so a trailer that nicely gives them all away isn't really what I want.

[melmer]

The Walking Dead also does that a bit. But it's rather weird, because what you see might in the preview might not even be what you will experience in the game. However, I am rather annoyed by the previews, because it will kind of steer my actions in the game because I have an idea what might come. I guess the previews worked while you had to wait a while for the episode to appear. But I'm playing it with all episodes available. So I have a fresh memory of the stuff in the preview.

I purposely muted the tele and looked away from the screen for the walking dead trailers, they didn't do one for episode 4 for 5. Hopefully they won't do them at all next time round, or at least give the player the option to few or not few the next episodes trailer

I hate promos at the end of TV shows. There's usually not that much crazy action-packed stuff that happens in a TV episode, so a trailer that nicely gives them all away isn't really what I want.

God whenever that shit comes on at the end of an episode we go fucking nuts, "next week on the season finally of madman" AHHHAHZhGHzh dontlookatitdontlookatit BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH turnoverturnover where the fuck is the remote AHGGzgjHZhADfredytfjhnkh,n.ko@£('l?!£@@& 9

WTF I just turned up in will and grace!? By me I mean roger sterling

[BigJKO]

Or Battlestar Galactica's "Here's a quick preview of what is in THIS episode before you actually watch it".. God, that was the worst thing ever.

The Mad Men Next Week's are completely (and perhaps deliberately) useless. They just string absolute nonsense together, showing the least exciting scenes of people saying random, meaningless sentences. It's useless, but doesn't really spoil anything.

[SecretAsianMan]

Arrested Development was the best at the preview spoilers, showing scenes that never actually occur in the next episode and often cap off a short plot thread.

[I Saw Dasein]

Alan Wake did cool "last week on Alan Wake" bits between "episodes". As far as TV goes, I really liked the "next weeks" on Twin Peaks. Partly because the bits they chose to show were always really weird and nonsensical, just like the show. Twin Peaks is the greatest btw.

[youmeyou]

Or Battlestar Galactica's "Here's a quick preview of what is in THIS episode before you actually watch it".. God, that was the worst thing ever.

The Mad Men Next Week's are completely (and perhaps deliberately) useless. They just string absolute nonsense together, showing the least exciting scenes of people saying random, meaningless sentences. It's useless, but doesn't really spoil anything.

 

They're actually my favorite next-week promos ever. They spell out the tone without revealing content. Some of my favorite movie trailers do the same. It's an awesome technique.

[Patrick R]

The Mad Men Next Week's are completely (and perhaps deliberately) useless. They just string absolute nonsense together, showing the least exciting scenes of people saying random, meaningless sentences. It's useless, but doesn't really spoil anything.

 

Matthew Weiner has stated in interviews that he does that deliberately, because the only reason they exist in the first place is because he was contractually obligated to include them.

[Argobot]

Or Battlestar Galactica's "Here's a quick preview of what is in THIS episode before you actually watch it".. God, that was the worst thing ever.

The Mad Men Next Week's are completely (and perhaps deliberately) useless. They just string absolute nonsense together, showing the least exciting scenes of people saying random, meaningless sentences. It's useless, but doesn't really spoil anything.

 

I'm so glad someone mentioned the Battlestar Galactica style of 'let's preview the episode you are about to watch so we can ruin any enthusiasm you might have about watching the episode.'

 

I came to the series late, so I watched about 3 seasons worth of episodes in a few weeks time. While the pre-trailers don't explicitly spoil anything, they do reveal enough that I could usually guess where the episode was headed, which is a bummer, and slightly ruined my marathon watch. I can't remember if the show eventually dropped the pre-trailers or if I just got really good at starting the episode right after they finished.