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VanHemlock Podcast
Host: Van Hemlock and Jon
Ramblings about games.

Related site: http://vanhemlock.com

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Van Hemlock Episode 21
Wed, 8 Oct 2008 00:57:00 GMT [download/play]

This week we talk about spoilers, and how they've impacted on our game playing. This may be because we're playing A Tale in the Desert without looking at spoiler sites, but it effects the other games we're playing too.
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Episode 21 Discussion Thread

'Ep21' by Klojamir

Submitted on 2008-10-09 11:25:56 CST
The outro music FTW.

Thanks guys another good show.

Noooo.... that's not true... it's impossible...
Search your feelings, you know it to be true...

Noooo......

'Early Conan...' by Zoso

Submitted on 2008-10-10 16:12:21 CST
One time I was quite glad of zone wide spoilers was Age of Conan shortly after release. Though it wasn't *really* spoilers, more...

"Where's (NPC goal of quest)?"
Chorus of "Bugged/stuck in wall/in a totally different place to the one marked on the map"

'Spoilers and gameplay styles' by Sinaea

Submitted on 2008-10-20 05:13:22 CST
I'm an SAEK, being primarily a socializer and secondarily an achiever.

I am one of those people who answers the questions of people who ask, "Where do I find such-and-such?" in open channels. Talking to other people about the game and helping out is just something I do. Fortunately in LOTRO, there's an Advice channel that you can turn off without having to cut yourself off from everyone in general.

Also, wandering around forever looking for the mob that I need to kill is not my idea of fun. I want to achieve my objective and have it done, hand in that rat tail and be on my way. That way I can get on to more important social matters like grouping up with my friends for some PvP or other end-game content. Or simply wandering around taking amusing screenshots so I can post them on my guild's forums and make people laugh.

Exploring is fun to an extent for me, but I know that it will never be something I do extensively. There are tons of areas even in Guild Wars where I have never bothered to go, because in over three years, no quest or farming run ever took me there.

When talking about "spoiler sites," I go to places to find out where quest items or mobs are all the time. How is this different than the little green arrow or star that appears for Guild Wars quests? There's really no difference, as far as I'm concerned, except that in Guild Wars, it's actually built into the game.

I will concede though that I absolutely detest storyline spoilers. Someone ruined a revelation at the end of Prophecies for me, so when Nightfall came out, I kept all chat channels and blocked PMs until I finished the game so that no one could ruin it for me. That's the definition of Hell for a socializer, but what can you do.

'Good show' by welshtroll

Submitted on 2008-10-20 19:16:35 CST
very enjoyable show guys

As you mentioned it frequently I had a thought regarding the spoiler elements and how they are frequently a core part of the game community Take the official guild wars wiki as a prime example.

Do you think that maybe the trick is discover the type of player you are dealing with via an ingame Bartle Test?
Customising the in game content to suite the player and thus making it less frustrating for player that don't want to /haven't the time to explore and seek out all the cool stuff themselves.

Anyway just a thought.

Keep up the good work.