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Comment by jordigh | Hacker News Reader

It appears I'm pretty unusual in that I actually like reading spoilers and they don't really spoil anything for me. The few times that people have had spoilers but still read or watch the story in question, I've asked them, "did you enjoy it less because you knew what would happen?" and they said "no". I don't know of someone who actually had their enjoyment of the story modified by knowing the story, but many people who loudly proclaim that spoilers make them upset.

A good story should work even if you know what will happen. The components of the story (such as the easter eggs in the present discussion) should be more interesting than some gimmick of a big reveal. The whole concept of spoilers is extremely modern, probably invented by Hitchcock as marketing to sell more tickets to his movies. When you go see the ballet or an opera, you're given the whole plot upfront as part of the programme.

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When a story is well done, I can immerse myself in it and see it from a character's point of view. So I can still enjoy a movie with a big reveal at the end even if I already know the reveal.

On the other hand, some movies are simply too intense to be enjoyable for me. So I often pull up Wikipedia first to make sure that the payoff is going to be worth it.

An example that falls into both categories is "The Fugitive" (Harrison Ford movie based on the TV show). I already know who the villain is and who dies at the end, but I can still enjoy Harrison Ford piecing it together and Tommy Lee Jones trying to stop him. And the last part of the movie is more intense and action-heavy than I really like, but I can take it because I know how it turns out.

I sometimes joke that I'm a member of the "Wikipedia Film Club" because I read about more movies than I actually end up watching.

You've seen it and know you enjoy it. Surely you experienced the twists of The Fugitive unspoiled by the media. Additionally, I don't think anyone could have pictured Harrison Ford as the actual killer in the movie. And you always have to suspect the overly slick friend/business partner.

I'll admit, for a while, I spent a lot of time on themoviespoiler, a website dedicated to, well, movie spoilers. Like you, I sometimes can't take an emotionally exhausting ride. I like to watch movies for a little escapism, not to come out of the other side drained.

I sometimes joke that I'm a member of the "Wikipedia Film Club" because I read about more movies than I actually end up watching.

That's so funny. I definitely do that too. However, a lot of the times I don't end up watching the movie unless it's really good. That's probably my favorite use of Wikipedia.

The ferishizstion of spoilers is very modern. The very term dates from usenset I believe. However, the first movie that the had a mainstream "don't spoil" movement I can remember was The Crying Game. The meme at the time was "Don't tell the secret!" and "What is the secret of The Crying Game?" (Note the lack of the term "spoil.") The secret is that the girlfriend is trans. (There. I "spoiled" a 25 year old movie you probably had never had any intention of watching, that is really only notable for "the secret" and the socialization around it for a few months in 1992.)

I think it's a great film, and it would still be a great film without the twist.

It's also a case where knowing the twist in advance really would profoundly affect a lot of people's experiences of the film, probably even more so in 1992.

Like the character during the reveal.

> A good story should work even if you know what will happen.

Agreed. My first play-through of Dark Souls was thoroughly spoilerified, because I was consulting a walkthrough and reading a little bit ahead of my current progress, from start to finish. And you know what? It was still a phenomenal experience.

In fact, the experience was enhanced somewhat by knowing what was coming ahead. I could look forward to facing a boss like the Four Kings, having already read some of the lore and knowing it would be a brutal encounter.

Later in the series, my first play-throughs of Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 were blind and unspoiled, but I don't think the experience was gigantically better for it. Some reveals were pretty cool [1], but I don't think I would have suffered to have known about them in advance. In fact, I still thoroughly enjoy all of those games, despite knowing them inside out and back-to-front.

[1] I'm thinking specifically of the transition from The Consumed Kings Garden to Untended Graves in DS3. Probably better unspoiled.

> When you go see the ballet or an opera, you're given the whole plot upfront as part of the programme.

How else would you know what is going on?

They're both very expressive. Opera used to be in common languages instead of "foreign" languages like Italian or German, so people could actually understand the words. Nowadays, each time I've been to the opera it has had supertitles. It's not difficult to know what is going on if you don't read the programme.

Ballet is a bit more like miming, but overall, the plots are still obvious, and frankly, very thin. We don't watch the Romeo and Juliet ballet wondering if they will survive or not, but rather wondering how they will express their anguish and suffering through dance.

> I don't know of someone who actually had their enjoyment of the story modified by knowing the story, but many people who loudly proclaim that spoilers make them upset.

You don't know anyone? At all? Isn't that a bit... arrogant to presume?

Or it could also mean I have no friends and that's why I don't know enough people. :-)

I really do think the same. Actually the crime sera drama "Columbo" worked that way as we knew beforehand who the culprit was. The point of the whole episode was to discover why the victim was killed and not how or who by.

Two other examples:

'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' explicitly based its plots on discovering the motivations behind the crime, while the perpetrator was known to the audience from the start.

'Criminal Minds' similarly examines profiles the state of mind of the perpetrator to identify a suspect, with the person's identity known to the audience in advance more often than not.

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