what constitutes a spoiler?

[kevkiev]

My question is specifically about the Skyrim General Discussion thread, but I imagine it pertains to other games too.

 

Warning: Spoilers ahead (or not?)

 

 

 

In answering a question about the possiblity of hi-rez textures in the Dawnguard DLC, my post referred to a lot of Dawnguard taking place in the vanilla Skyrim world space, and also referred to some of the new items/characters. The latter coming from the official trailer, which I'd imagine wouldn't qualify as a spoiler, but the former coming from various reviews of the DLC. I later added spoiler tags out of an abundance of caution but it got me thinking about what actually constitutes a spoiler? I don't think I'm the only one wondering about this, as I noticed another member had put spoiler tags on a post in which she included a screenshot from wiki of the new werewolf perk tree. I'm pretty sure the official trailer, and/or subsequent Bethesda interviews/videos mentioned the new perk tree, although perhaps not the details that the pic showed.

 

I can see someone wanting to go into a new game or DLC without knowing anything about what they're going to encounter, but that would set the bar pretty high for a general discussion thread. The "No Spoilers" sticky by Vagrant 0 in the Skyrim General Discussion mentions avoidance of key plot points, which is clear enough, but also about "things which may not be common knowledge" which opens up a bit of a judgment call. For example, say someone posting about the Civil War quest mentions the PC attacking a bunch of forts - I don't think that would be a spoiler but, yeah, I'm not really sure since a lot of people probably wouldn't know that before doing that part of the quest.

 

I could ramble on, but maybe someone could chime in with some guidance? My own suggestion would be to always ask yourself "would someone who hasn't done that particular part of the game be angry with me after reading my post."

 

Thanks.

[Thandal]

Anything that gives away information that a Player-Character may not yet have received (plot points, locations, abilties not displayed in the "constallations", other NPCs yet to be encountered, etc.) can be considered "spoilers".

 

Whether they are major ones or not depends on so many variables (like what a given player has already done) that it's impossible to say.

 

When in doubt, and not already in a "Spoilers allowed" forum, it's best to use the "[ spoiler ] tag just in case... :thumbsup:

[Rabbit1251]

I have avoided the Official Trailer and all magazine articles just so to avoid the spoilers. Because it's been published by someone shouldn't make it general knowledge.

 

 

Rabbit

[kevkiev]

Ok, thanks for the replies. Rabbit, your approach is a good example as to why the bar should be set rather high. Abundance of caution it is!