Not an overall blackout, but rather specific game related. Primarily applied to RPGs, but depending on the game I'll spread it over to other genres as well.
Essentially, when a game comes along that I know I'm going to buy even if I have to sell a spare kidney to get it, I stop reading about it. New Pictures Of Super-Secret Charaters! announce the headlines, and I'll just blip on past. Don't want to know, I'll have a blast with it when I play it (or not, depending) at the appropriate time. Ever since the big FFVII plot spoiler reared its ugly, misshapen head, I've been pretty paranoid about spoilers.
There are a few details I'm always happy to get, such as gameplay mechanics, but as often as not there's some other piece of info in the article I'd be just as happy to have found out in the course of the game. About the only fair-game plot spoilers, for me at least, is anything in the first 30 minutes of play. The main character thinks he's an orphan but his parents are really alive, mom fighting for one side and dad on the other? Well, so long as there's a couple of scenes right there at the very beginning telling us that, I suppose I can let it slide. If it's not supposed to be revealed until the big, semi-climactic battle at the halfway point, I might be a little less happy to know it going in, to the point that it has a significant diminishing effect on my enjoyment of the game.
Latest offender, and this isn't aimed at TNL specifically but rather is an example- the Kingdom Hearts to be released early article. An early release is news I want. The addition of ------- is news I want to avoid.
James
