POLL: How are you going to play ReMI?

[ThunderPeel2001]

Another "fun" a little poll

Edited September 6, 2022 by ThunderPeel2001

[BillyCheers]

I wanna take my time and avoid spoilers if possible. This game’s too important to me to ruin it that way.
 

As for hints… as I once said: I’m not the biggest puzzle solver. Although I tried playing easy adventures without any hints the last month (e. g. Loom and Sam & Max Episode 1) and that worked extremely well. So I’ll try to do everything on my own. But if I’ll get stuck for much too long, I’ll take a look at the hint book as the story, the atmosphere and everything else are more important to me.  

[JacquesSparkyTail]

Think i’ll race through it the first time and then immediately go round again slowly, taking everything in. I don’t have the patience to let the story take it’s time. I’ll definitely be too excited to find out what happens. 
 

I’d love to say i won’t use a guard but i’d be a filthy liar. I’ll avoid it as much as i can but being all grown up means you can’t really spend days at a time on one puzzle. I usually give up and get a hint after half an hour nowadays. 
 

I really don’t mind spoilers at all. The way i look at it is, without spoilers I’ll occasionally get a nice surprise that will be exciting for a few minutes and then i’ll move on. With spoilers however i can spend hours excited waiting for something cool to happen that i know is about to show up. 

[ThunderPeel2001]

36 minutes ago, JacquesSparkyTail said:

I really don’t mind spoilers at all. The way i look at it is, without spoilers I’ll occasionally get a nice surprise that will be exciting for a few minutes and then i’ll move on. With spoilers however i can spend hours excited waiting for something cool to happen that i know is about to show up. 

 

You and I have a very different relationship to spoilers. I *hate* waiting to get to a point in the story where I don't know what's going to happen.

 

Here's a serious exercise I think everyone should do: When was the last time something totally blew you away? Like, one of those incredibly rare moments where you walked out the cinema, or finished a game, and went "HOLY SHIT - THAT WAS INCREDIBLE". I don't mean, "Wow, that was good." I mean, "I'll never forget this moment" level reaction.

 

And then: When was the last time you were seriously *disappointed* in something? When you walked out and went, "What the hell was all the fuss about?" or "I don't understand why everyone loved that?" Again, I can think of only a couple of hugely disappointing moments in my life along those lines.

 

Now: When I think of both of these examples from my life, they directly relate to spoilers...

 

First example: Seeing FIGHT CLUB for the first time, knowing LESS THAN NOTHING about it. Seriously, it was opening night and I was one of 8 people in the cinema. All I knew was the title. I hadn't even seen the poster.

Second example: Seeing JURASSIC PARK after watching every trailer, sneak peak, interview, EPK, advert, behind-the-scenes video you can imagine.

 

I've NEVER regretted not knowing anything before going (unless there was some pre-required knowledge you were supposed to know, natch). But I've SOMETIMES regretted knowing spoilers.

 

Anyways, as you can see, I've thought about this a lot 😅

[JacquesSparkyTail]

4 minutes ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

 

You and I have a very different relationship to spoilers. I *hate* waiting to get to a point in the story where I don't know what's going to happen.

 

Here's a serious exercise I think everyone should do: When was the last time something totally blew you away? Like, one of those incredibly rare moments where you walked out the cinema, or finished a game, and went "HOLY SHIT - THAT WAS INCREDIBLE". I don't mean, "Wow, that was good." I mean, "I'll never forget this moment" level reaction.

 

And then: When was the last time you were seriously *disappointed* in something? When you walked out and went, "What the hell was all the fuss about?" or "I don't understand why everyone loved that?" Again, I can think of only a couple of hugely disappointing moments in my life along those lines.

 

Now: When I think of both of these examples from my life, they directly relate to spoilers...

 

First example: Seeing FIGHT CLUB for the first time, knowing LESS THAN NOTHING about it. Seriously, it was opening night and I was one of 8 people in the cinema. All I knew was the title. I hadn't even seen the poster.

Second example: Seeing JURASSIC PARK after watching every trailer, sneak peak, interview, EPK, advert, behind-the-scenes video you can imagine.

 

I've NEVER regretted not knowing anything before going (unless there was some pre-required knowledge you were supposed to know, natch). But I've SOMETIMES regretted knowing spoilers.

 

Anyways, as you can see, I've thought about this a lot 😅

Interesting way to look at it. I think i just maybe don’t value surprises as much as you do. I prefer knowing what’s coming so that i have full context for every action made by a character. For example if a character is slowly but unwittingly crafting their own downfall, armed with spoilers, i can watch them do that  and understand the full impact of every choice they make. I’ll lose out on an “oh shit!” moment later when the twist is revealed but in return i would have been on a much more emotional and impactful journey in the preceding hours. With the spoilers i’m screaming at the tv telling the character to stop what they’re doing. Without the spoilers I don’t even realise anything interesting is happening. 

[ThunderPeel2001]

6 minutes ago, JacquesSparkyTail said:

Interesting way to look at it. I think i just maybe don’t value surprises as much as you do. I prefer knowing what’s coming so that i have full context for every action made by a character. For example if a character is slowly but unwittingly crafting their own downfall, armed with spoilers, i can watch them do that  and understand the full impact of every choice they make. I’ll lose out on an “oh shit!” moment later when the twist is revealed but in return i would have been on a much more emotional and impactful journey in the preceding hours. With the spoilers i’m screaming at the tv telling the character to stop what they’re doing. Without the spoilers I don’t even realise anything interesting is happening. 

 

Interesting. My favourite show of the past few years has been BETTER CALL SAUL... and one of the main reasons I loved it was the ambiguity of the character's actions. I loved watching it, trying to understand why he was doing something.

 

While there is a certain satisfaction in going back and re-watching what was going on with the knowledge I have now, I also love making my own deductions while watching the first time. It's incredibly satisfying. 

 

Do you have two moments? What were you spoiler levels going in? 

 

Or maybe our brains are just very different

Edited September 6, 2022 by ThunderPeel2001

[Laserschwert]

I've had that blown-away moment once, and it was probably one of the best ones you can get with movies: The Sixth Sense. We knew nothing about the movie, just that it's a Bruce Willis flick. Holy cow! But that was 1999... by now it's been done and done, and even a good twist wouldn't necessarily "blow me away".

Edited September 6, 2022 by Laserschwert

[JacquesSparkyTail]

4 minutes ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

Or maybe our brains are just very different

I think it’s as simple as this... but honestly, doesn’t that just make the world a beautiful place? 
 

So to sum up, you like it when ed norton punches brad pitt. I like it when he punches himself. That seems like the main takeaway here. 

[KestrelPi]

32 minutes ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

 

You and I have a very different relationship to spoilers. I *hate* waiting to get to a point in the story where I don't know what's going to happen.

 

Here's a serious exercise I think everyone should do: When was the last time something totally blew you away? Like, one of those incredibly rare moments where you walked out the cinema, or finished a game, and went "HOLY SHIT - THAT WAS INCREDIBLE". I don't mean, "Wow, that was good." I mean, "I'll never forget this moment" level reaction.

 

And then: When was the last time you were seriously *disappointed* in something? When you walked out and went, "What the hell was all the fuss about?" or "I don't understand why everyone loved that?" Again, I can think of only a couple of hugely disappointing moments in my life along those lines.

 

Now: When I think of both of these examples from my life, they directly relate to spoilers...

 

First example: Seeing FIGHT CLUB for the first time, knowing LESS THAN NOTHING about it. Seriously, it was opening night and I was one of 8 people in the cinema. All I knew was the title. I hadn't even seen the poster.

Second example: Seeing JURASSIC PARK after watching every trailer, sneak peak, interview, EPK, advert, behind-the-scenes video you can imagine.

 

I've NEVER regretted not knowing anything before going (unless there was some pre-required knowledge you were supposed to know, natch). But I've SOMETIMES regretted knowing spoilers.

 

Anyways, as you can see, I've thought about this a lot 😅

 

I totally respect people's desire not to want spoilers. But I also think a few things:

 

Firstly I think everyone would agree different people have a different relationship with spoilers and I don't think it makes sense to assume what is true for one person about them is also true for everyone else.

 

I also think attitudes to spoilers have changed a bit over the years to the point that I feel like if I, personally, treated spoilers with the same level of aversion that some people do, then it would ruin a different pleasure for me - that is to say, the pleasure of anticipating something through the slow drip of information.

 

I like this bit - obviously I don't want to know the whole story, all the twists, all the jokes, and I'm looking forward to meeting characters, visiting locations, hearing music and solving puzzles for the first time when I play the game. But I... basically trust that Ron and team also don't want to reveal anything they believe is best experienced fresh in the game for the first time. So I don't feel like I want to cut myself off. I enjoy the bit where we get to analyse every shot, guess at what it means, speculate on stuff. It's always been part of the fun for me. I did it for CMI, EMI, Tales.

 

If I tried to shut my eyes and close my ears, I might, possibly, be improving my first time experience of whatever 60 seconds of game I refuse to watch, or I might not see something about the themes of the game that Dave mentions in an interview, but I'd also simultaneously be denying myself the joy of speculation, that drip of information that heightens my anticipation. I only get to play the game for the first time once, but I also only get to anticipate the release once too - and I can't replay my anticipation.

 

I do think that some movie trailers do a pretty poor job of holding stuff back in a way that could lessen enjoyment. But as far as ReMI goes, if you'd told me know I could erase my Monkey Island related memories of the last 6 months and so play the game as if completely unseen, I think I'd still say no, because that would mean erasing all the fun I've had wondering about what will happen, hanging on Ron and Dave's every tweet, pausing the trailer every half second to get a closer look.

 

I mean... I THINK we've had fun... right?

 

 

Edited September 6, 2022 by KestrelPi

[ThunderPeel2001]

12 minutes ago, KestrelPi said:

I mean... I THINK we've had fun... right?

 

 

Pfft! Maybe! 

 

Actually, in all seriousness, do me a favour and complete the exercise I suggested. Sit and think of examples of two moments from your life that match my descriptions, and then share your pre-knowledge of them both. Be honest. Go with the first and most honest examples that come to you, not ones you think you can wangle a counter-argument out of.

 

This isn't an exam, you're only cheating yourself if you're dishonest!

 

I'm genuinely interested to hear other people's examples and experiences.

 

14 minutes ago, JacquesSparkyTail said:

So to sum up, you like it when ed norton punches brad pitt. I like it when he punches himself. That seems like the main takeaway here. 

 

This is most definitely not the takeaway, but I appreciate our differences 👍

Edited September 6, 2022 by ThunderPeel2001

[Garystu]

1 - I'm playing slowly, but I also have a fair amount of free time. If its a 10-20 hour casual playthrough like past games, I can play slow and still tear through it too fast.

 

2 - I've never solved a Monkey Island game on my own. I heavily used guides for all my first playthroughs of past games. I look forward to solving one without a guide. But I will use hints if I'm really stumped.

 

3 - I only consider spoilers to be major plot beats, shocking or surprising moments, and the final act of the story. None of the promotional material for RTMI so far qualifies as a spoiler by my standards.

 

I respect people have different standards, but I think my definition of spoiler isn't uncommon either.

 

I will be avoiding the spoiler thread, but look forward to reading it later. I think it will deepen my enjoyment of the game to read what other people think. But I also want the space to have my own thoughts.

[ThunderPeel2001]

44 minutes ago, Guybrush Transmasc said:

I think it will deepen my enjoyment of the game to read what other people think. But I also want the space to have my own thoughts.

 

Bear in mind that the "spoiler free" thread will have thoughts in it, too

[KestrelPi]

1 hour ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

 

Pfft! Maybe! 

 

Actually, in all seriousness, do me a favour and complete the exercise I suggested. Sit and think of examples of two moments from your life that match my descriptions, and then share your pre-knowledge of them both. Be honest. Go with the first and most honest examples that come to you, not ones you think you can wangle a counter-argument out of.

 

This isn't an exam, you're only cheating yourself if you're dishonest!

 

I'm genuinely interested to hear other people's examples and experiences.

 👍

 

The thing is, I'm not sure I subscribe to the premise of the thought experiment.

 

Firstly both the examples you gave were of films. The experience of watching a film is very different to that of playing a game. If you watch even 5 minutes of a film in advance you've seen a significant chunk. If I gave a few examples I would want to think of games, because I think my attitude to game spoilers is somewhat different to film spoilers.

 

But I'll try.

 

Incidentally, though, it's difficult for me to think of films I've been disappointed by... I tend to only watch ones I think I'll like and I'm usually right, so it would be hard for me to think of film examples. Nothing comes to mind right now. I'm not a huge moviegoer.

 

As for game disappointments - the Longest Journey, that's my go-to one. My pre-knowledge of TLJ was that it was very very highly regarded as an adventure game, and I believe I'd played a demo of it once too, but by the time that I got round to playing it I had no memory of the demo except that I think part of it was on a boat.

 

As for game 'blown away' experiences, there've been quite a few. Deus Ex springs to mind from way back (I played the demo over and over trying to complete it in every possible way, and remember it being one where I read a lot of previews and saw a lot of buzz pre-release). Portal would qualify - I didn't know very much about that one going in. The Stanley Parable, similar. Grim Fandango... I believe I must have looked at everything I could get my hands on for that game, but I can't say I remember well.

 

If I had to give film examples I'd say recently in the +++ pile, Everything Everywhere All At Once - I knew some of the stars, and that there was some sort of multiverse plot line but I knew nothing else. Knives Out I knew was a mystery and nothing else.

 

In the --- pile as I say, it's much harder for me to think. Maybe Star Wars: Rogue One? Most of my friends loved it and I just thought it was okay. I knew it was about the Death Star plans, apart from that, I don't recall looking up much about the film, maybe I saw a trailer. The 3rd of the new Star Wars films too. That was disappointing. I really enjoyed The Last Jedi but I had a feeling the 3rd one wouldn't deliver on its promise. I didn't expect it to fail as badly as it did. I did follow some of the pre-release material for that, but not really very closely. I'm not sure if it's a good example as I didn't have high hopes for it. This was a case where it failed to meet even my pretty low expectations.

 

My overall sense is that it varies, that's why it's hard for me to give just one example. Sometimes I feel that going in completely sight unseen enhanced the experience, other times not so much. I don't ever recall a game being ruined for me by a spoiler, I'd have to think about that very hard. It's possible! But it's not actually something I spend that much time thinking about because I'm someone who ... doesn't seek spoilers but isn't particularly concerned about them either. I wouldn't want to hear about big twists, but I can't think of an example of being spoiled on a big twist.

 

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm trying to construct a counterargument, as I'm really not, I'm just trying to come up with examples as honestly as I can, and when I look at it it's hard for me to come up with the examples you want because I just... don't think about this stuff in these terms. Sometimes I like a thing, sometimes I don't. Sometimes it blows me a way. Often that's when I know nothing in advance, but not all the time, and I feel... perfectly comfortable with my current approach to spoilers, which is why I just don't really think about it much.

 

You, as someone who obviously thinks about it a lot might not understand the perspective of someone for whom this is just not... really a big thing. Not in the sense of I don't care about spoilers, I do, to the extent that I try not to be spoiled on big plot details and twists, etc. But I really spend zero time worrying that I'll see too much of something, so answering your question, in the way you frame it, is genuinely hard for me.😅

[ThunderPeel2001]

28 minutes ago, KestrelPi said:

But I'll try.

 

Thanks for being honest and sharing your memories. It's genuinely interesting to me!

 

I kind if misrepresented it a bit because my experiment (which I've asked others to do before) is really more about expectations. (Spoilers can tie into this by affecting expectations -- so I wasn't being totally disingenuous. Probably the worst thing spoilers can do is ruin great moments -- undercutting emotional impact and surprise. But sometimes it's impossible to spoil things, because of how they're constructed, relying less on surprise and more on drama (great example: The Wire). And honestly, sometimes even I care less about spoilers. It depends how excited I am to watch/play something. If I'm less excited, I don't care if people spoil things.)

 

More important than avoiding spoilers is expectation. That to me, is the thing that matters most (and actually what part two of this poll was supposed to be about -- until I hit the limit on the numbers of questions you can have in one poll!). What's really interesting to me is that almost every example of you being blown away seems to relate to low/no expectations. And every example of you being disappointed seems to correlate with high expectations. (There are exceptions, of course.)

 

Disappointment:

Quote:  "My pre-knowledge of The Longest Journey was that it was very very highly regarded"

Quote: "Star Wars: Rogue One? Most of my friends loved it"

 

Delight:

Quote: "Portal would qualify - I didn't know very much about that one going in. The Stanley Parable, similar."

 

Of course, sometimes a stinker is a stinker (I agree with you about Rise of the Skywalker), but sometimes I've found myself enjoying terrible things because I'd heard just how awful they were and my expectations were rock bottom.

 

Generally I feel there's a correlation between high expectations and disappointment. And low expectations and enjoyment. Sometimes things still manage to exceed/match my high expectations (Monkey Island 1, Grim Fandango, Portal 2) but most of the time they only serve to scupper my enjoyment.

 

(If I recommend a film to a friend, I never talk in hyperbole because they're always disappointed if I manage to convince them it's great before they watch it. It's a tricky balance: "You should check it out. It's definitely worth watching." instead of "Holy shit! You need to watch it, it's amazing!")

 

And personally I try to keep my expectations as low as I can... I don't know how successful I'm being with regards to ReMI 😬

Edited September 6, 2022 by ThunderPeel2001

[JacquesSparkyTail]

You know when someone asks you to think of something specific and suddenly you can’t think of anything at all. I drew a total blank but i think i finally thought of a few examples. Spoilers for ffvii remake, red dead 2, broken sword 2 and sam & max vr.

 

during red dead 2 at one point when you are travelling across the open world arthur will suddenly start to pass out and eventually falls off his horse. It’s then slowly revealed that early in the game arthur contracted tuberculosis and the effects are starting to show. He goes on to die from the illness towards the end of the game. I knew nothing about this but the way it’s handled is so effective and it came as such a gut punch. It totally blindsided me. 
 

the ending of final fantasy vii remake reveals that, through means not yet revealed, the villain of the original is rewriting history, hoping to succeed in his second attempt. It’s not a remake at all. Its a sequel. This was probably the most mind blowing plot twist i’ve ever seen and i went on to immediately play the game twice more in succession, the only time i’ve ever done anything like that. Here’s the twist though, i knew all about it before ever booting up the game and the knowledge did nothing to reduce my enjoyment. My mind was still blown. 
 

sam & max: this time its virtual on the psvr is virtually unplayable and was probably my biggest let down in all of gaming. I was aware of its less than stellar reputation when i bought the game though. There were no surprises but that did nothing to lessen my annoyance. 
 

broken sword 2 on the other hand blindsided me. Its a fine game but fine is not good enough for the sequel to one of the greatest games ever made. I had heard many times that the first 2 broken swords were great and the series started to go down hill with the third installment so to find it such a disappointment was a surprise. 
 

i think the thing i take away from this is that for me spoilers are completely irrelevant. I can hit the emotional extremes with or without them. 

[BaronGrackle]

I don't know if I've ever been "blown away" in the nature described by a twist, but I have been surprised by them before. Psycho's classic twist authentically got me.

 

But my moments of being blown away and being disappointed... they rarely have to do with surprises and spoilers.

 

My most recent moment being blown away was probably... the Amphibia finale? I enjoyed the ride. I went in with high expectations, snd they were met.

 

My most recent moment being extremely disappointed was... The Force Awakens? I've always been a Prequel hater, so I really expected the Sequels to be things I could get behind. Force Awakens successfully lowered my expectations for the rest.

Edited September 6, 2022 by BaronGrackle

[ThunderPeel2001]

44 minutes ago, JacquesSparkyTail said:

the ending of final fantasy vii remake reveals that, through means not yet revealed, the villain of the original is rewriting history, hoping to succeed in his second attempt. It’s not a remake at all. Its a sequel. This was probably the most mind blowing plot twist i’ve ever seen and i went on to immediately play the game twice more in succession, the only time i’ve ever done anything like that. Here’s the twist though, i knew all about it before ever booting up the game and the knowledge did nothing to reduce my enjoyment. My mind was still blown. 

 

Fuck me. I 100%'d FFVII Remake and I totally missed that twist 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

 

33 minutes ago, BaronGrackle said:

I don't know if I've ever been "blown away" in the nature described by a twist

 

The description was nothing to do with "twists". Just being blown away by something.

[KestrelPi]

1 hour ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

 

Thanks for being honest and sharing your memories. It's genuinely interesting to me!

 

I kind if misrepresented it a bit because my experiment (which I've asked others to do before) is really more about expectations. (Spoilers can tie into this by affecting expectations -- so I wasn't being totally disingenuous. Probably the worst thing spoilers can do is ruin great moments -- undercutting emotional impact and surprise. But sometimes it's impossible to spoil things, because of how they're constructed, relying less on surprise and more on drama (great example: The Wire). And honestly, sometimes even I care less about spoilers. It depends how excited I am to watch/play something. If I'm less excited, I don't care if people spoil things.)

 

More important than avoiding spoilers is expectation. That to me, is the thing that matters most (and actually what part two of this poll was supposed to be about -- until I hit the limit on the numbers of questions you can have in one poll!). What's really interesting to me is that almost every example of you being blown away seems to relate to low/no expectations. And every example of you being disappointed seems to correlate with high expectations. (There are exceptions, of course.)

 

Disappointment:

Quote:  "My pre-knowledge of The Longest Journey was that it was very very highly regarded"

Quote: "Star Wars: Rogue One? Most of my friends loved it"

 

Delight:

Quote: "Portal would qualify - I didn't know very much about that one going in. The Stanley Parable, similar."

 

Of course, sometimes a stinker is a stinker (I agree with you about Rise of the Skywalker), but sometimes I've found myself enjoying terrible things because I'd heard just how awful they were and my expectations were rock bottom.

 

Generally I feel there's a correlation between high expectations and disappointment. And low expectations and enjoyment. Sometimes things still manage to exceed/match my high expectations (Monkey Island 1, Grim Fandango, Portal 2) but most of the time they only serve to scupper my enjoyment.

 

(If I recommend a film to a friend, I never talk in hyperbole because they're always disappointed if I manage to convince them it's great before they watch it. It's a tricky balance: "You should check it out. It's definitely worth watching." instead of "Holy shit! You need to watch it, it's amazing!")

 

And personally I try to keep my expectations as low as I can... I don't know how successful I'm being with regards to ReMI 😬

 

Ah see .... I don't worry about expectations.

 

I agree that high expectations can lead to disappointment. But... so what? There are worse things in the world by being disappointed by a piece of media. It's not very often these days I'll be anticipating something so much I will follow every little piece of information coming out about it. About the only things that currently do this for me are ReMI and whatever's going on in FFXIV. But it happens from time to time. And I enjoy getting excited about a thing. That feeling lasts a long time, and is nice.

 

If I'm disappointed by it in the end, that feeling might be quite intense depending on how much I was looking forward to it. But it's also fleeting. There's always another thing. That thing didn't work out? Oh well, it's really no biggie. Maybe the next thing will. I'm not going to spend very long moping about what might have been.

 

Expectations might affect my experience but at absolute worse I'll be a bit sad it wasn't what I hoped , or in the opposite situation the best thing that could happen is that I'll get a pleasant surprise. So I don't feel compelled to organise my behaviour around managing my expecations. Sometimes they'll be exceeded and that's nice. Sometimes they'll not be met and that's a bit of a bummer. Such is life.

 

(incidentally my friends saw Rogue One at the same time as me, but I might recall it getting some buzz at the time. Everything Everywhere all at once was getting huge buzz when I saw it, and I did know about that, and it didn't stop me getting blown away)

[BaronGrackle]

2 minutes ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

The description was nothing to do with "twists". Just being blown away by something.

Now, for video games? I'm still geeking out on Shovel Knight: King of Cards. That's something to write an essay over.

Edited September 6, 2022 by BaronGrackle

[ThunderPeel2001]

19 minutes ago, KestrelPi said:

I agree that high expectations can lead to disappointment. But... so what? There are worse things in the world by being disappointed by a piece of media.

 

Is there?!? 😳

 

19 minutes ago, KestrelPi said:

Expectations might affect my experience but at absolute worse I'll be a bit sad it wasn't what I hoped , or in the opposite situation the best thing that could happen is that I'll get a pleasant surprise. So I don't feel compelled to organise my behaviour around managing my expecations. Sometimes they'll be exceeded and that's nice. Sometimes they'll not be met and that's a bit of a bummer. Such is life.

 

For me, one of life's great enjoyments is art, shared culture, and entertainment. I guess I take it a lot more seriously than most, but that's fine. 

 

I want to experience that best version of something I can, and I'm prepared to put in work in order to appreciate something wonderful. Just how I'm wired, I guess.

 

If adjusting my expectations allows me to have a wonderful experience, I'm more than prepared to make that adjustment.

 

 

Edited September 6, 2022 by ThunderPeel2001

[BillyCheers]

I for myself knew lots of plot details from “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and was sooo disappointed.

And I knew absolutely nothing of “Parasite” and was totally blown away.

 

But that doesn’t prove anything, because objectively the one movie is better than the other. 
 

I think, if a movie (or anything else) is great, it is great - and no spoiler can change that. I can still rewatch “The Sixth Sense”, “Inception” or “Memento” again and again and they don’t lose anything good.

 

Nevertheless, I still love/prefer to experience something for the first time without spoilers because this experience is just unique.

Did this post help? I guess not. I just love good stories. 🤷‍♂️

Edited September 6, 2022 by BillyCheers

[KestrelPi]

The perfect example of the trade-off for me, is that recent video of Guybrush's visit to the SCUMM Bar (spoilered below in case anyone doesn't want to see anything about it)

 

Spoiler

It's been my absolute favourite clip so far, and it made me very excited. First to see and think about all the possibilities of the new interface (I don't think it's an unreasonable expectation to suppose they're going to have some fun with this feature), and then to enjoy the music, and how it then transitions to the version with the new pirate leaders. Then the little details - thinking about how the cast of characters looks different from the trailer and what that could mean for this location over the course of the story.

 

All of that stuff is really fun. I don't think it has catapulted me into the realm of unreasonable expectations, but it does excite me and delight me, and I really enjoyed talking about it with people, especially thinking about how the interface might be used.

 

But it's true, I now won't hear and be surprised and delighted by that music transition for the first time, in the game. I've already seen it. I already have an inkling of what the interface is like too. I guess those things would have been cool to discover in the game for the first time. But it's not really a big deal because they were ALSO cool to discover in advance. I was surprised and delighted by these things few weeks ago, instead of surprised and delighted a few weeks from now.

 

And even a few weeks from now, I know I'm going to still get a different sort of kick out of it when it's me controlling when Guybrush crosses that music transition threshold for the first time, and when it's me deciding what to hover over and get Guybrush to think about. That's another way in which I find it's different for games - it's always a bit of a different feel when you're in control of it.  After all, I never tired of playing around with those iMUSE transitions in Woodtick and being in control of when they happened, even though I'm well familiar with how it works by now.

 

In essence, I think it's a fair trade - weeks or even months of fun speculation and excitement in exchange for perhaps a very, very slightly less fresh first play.

 

16 hours ago, BillyCheers said:

I for myself knew lots of plot details from “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and was sooo disappointed.

And I knew absolutely nothing of “Parasite” and was totally blown away.

 

But that doesn’t prove anything, because objectively the one movie is better than the other. 
 

I think, if a movie (or anything else) is great, it is great - and no spoiler can change that. I can still rewatch “The Sixth Sense”, “Inception” or “Memento” again and again and they don’t lose anything good.

 

Nevertheless, I still love/prefer to experience something for the first time without spoilers because this experience is just unique.

Did this post help? I guess not. I just love good stories. 🤷‍♂️

Quite. I'm a certified The Last Jedi liker, and I'm pleased that the first time I saw it I knew very little, because I got to experience all the fun surprises and subverted expectations that it set up. I'm glad that I had that experience, but I don't think it had much to do with why I ended up really liking it. For all I enjoyed that, it was only after rewatching it twice that it really became cemented as one of my favourite Stars War.

 

I've had this experience with a lot of music. I'm an album sort of person, I like an album that I can listen to start to finish, I rarely listen to my music collection on shuffle and I think the skip button really is a double edged sword for music likers. There are albums which have really impressed me on first listen, but failed to stick with me on repeat hearings - the kind often which are catchy but sort of 'empty music calories' and don't reward repeat listening. I've also experienced albums that did very little for me on first play but grew on me a whole lot over time if there was something about them that made me intrigued enough to give it more chances.

 

Games are tricky because there are so many I want to play and they're so LONG. Even some of my favourites I've maybe played a handful of times, maybe even once. I tend to revisit the LucasArts back catalogue habitually, but that's about it. Maybe some games would grow on me if I replayed them a lot, but who has the time?

 

So yeah, I do think there is something unique about the first play, I just don't think that I need to treat it as so sacred that I have to ensure that it's done with a certain 'purity'. I do like to try to recapture that feeling of a first play, if I really enjoyed it - which I've found it's possible to get a taste of by watching another person play it for the first time. Just a little second hand buzz of discovery.

 

Do you find when you play someone else a song you really like for the first time, you listen to it with sort of fresh ears? Pay attention to it in a way that you'd forgotten how to? I find that at least. I'm sure there's some psychological mechanism at work.

 

 

[ThunderPeel2001]

18 hours ago, BillyCheers said:

I think, if a movie (or anything else) is great, it is great - and no spoiler can change that. I can still rewatch “The Sixth Sense”, “Inception” or “Memento” again and again and they don’t lose anything good.

 

Expectations can spoil all of those. Parasite was an amazing movie, but everyone I saw it with was disappointed: It has just won the Best Film Oscar a few days before and their expectations were through the roof. I absolutely loved it, though. 

1 hour ago, KestrelPi said:

I'm a certified The Last Jedi liker

 

The Last Jedi is the best Star Wars movie. There I said it. Nobody believes me, but I think I can construct a sound argument where it just slightly ekes out Empire. (And Rise of the Skywalker is sadly the worst.)

[BaronGrackle]

I'm also recently realizing that there are genre spoilers we'll probably never get as adventure gamers again, or as Monkey Island gamers.

 

When I first played Secret (after playing Indy 3, Loom, and at least one Sierra game), it took a little while for ne to get a gauge of how much of this world was serious business versus how much was comedy. There are bones in that game that show how the tone could have veered differently. The conversation with Mancomb Seepgood... you can say "I've come seeking my fortune" instead of declaring you want to be a pirate. If you ask who's in charge, he'll drop a bit of worldbuilding of Governor vs. Pirate Leaders that never gets mentioned again.

 

Coming out of Indy 3, I'm not sure how long it took me to realize I couldn't die (minus that one part). At the bridge, I think I believed the Troll was going to kill me if I gave three incorrect items. At Captain Smirks, I was authentically surprised that the combat system was dialogue based instead pf resembling Indy 3 or Sierra's Conquests of Camelot. I was paranoid of running out of the 480 pieces of eight in my inventory. I tried to be careful not to miss any important items that I might need later when escaping Germany... I mean, exploring Monkey Island.

 

We aren't getting that experience in a MI sequel, nor can we.

EDIT: Do we need a new thread to discuss why The Last Jedi is the third worst Star Wars movie, after the other two Sequels? I'm on a hate reddit for that kind of discussion. I can link you to things, or summarize.

Edited September 7, 2022 by BaronGrackle

[BillyCheers]

30 minutes ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

Expectations can spoil all of those. Parasite was an amazing movie, but everyone I saw it with was disappointed: It has just won the Best Film Oscar a few days before and their expectations were through the roof. I absolutely loved it, though. 

Sure, it can. But that also depends a bit on how treat those expectations. I also had massive expectations because of the media buzz and the Oscar – and I wasn’t disappointed. But I expected a really great movie, nothing life changing…

 

30 minutes ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

The Last Jedi is the best Star Wars movie. There I said it.

It probably is. Even if it lacks good old Harrison. The old ones are a fun movies, but sometimes pretty trashy, the prequels … well. “Force Awakens” was a nice remake that felt a bit like a marvel movie and “Rise”… well… no. 😅
 

EDIT: disclaimer: I only watched the SW movies when I was about 22, so no nostalgic feelings I guess…

Edited September 7, 2022 by BillyCheers