I think the problem here is that the "hide True Names" camp is coming from the same dogma, as well as the notion that "spoilers ruin a story". In fact, studies show that spoilers don't ruin anything, and actually make poeple enjoy the story more.
https://www.wired.com/2011/08/spoilers-dont-spoil-anything/
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/spoiler-alert-spoilers-make-you-enjoy-stories-more
https://gizmodo.com/stop-worrying-about-spoilers-they-actually-help-you-en-1778452171
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH86XMZ8vn8
Spoiler alert: If you're driving up Highway 1 through Big Sur, you can see otters frolicking in the surf.
This seems consistent with the survey results where 55.76% of respondents said they don't care about spoilers in tags.
goldenrider006 said:
You're letting your obvious disdain towards FGO cloud your judgement. The game is absurdly popular, and you're denying reality.
I don't think MyrMindservant is showing a disdain for FGO, but is rather following a dogma of "A spoiler is a spoiler no matter what", which is false for long-running franchises. For some examples, let's see what we would have to tag as a spoiler if we actually followed "a spoiler is a spoiler forever and ever and ever no matter what even if a creator says it's no longer a spoiler":
- Any picture with Alicia Testarossa, because her existence is a spoiler for Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha.
- Any picture where Takamachi Nanoha and Fate Testarossa are friends, because Fate switching sides is a spoiler for the 1st season, regardless of following seasons being pretty open about it.
- Any picture with Reinforce, because she only appears at the end of Nanoha A's, and maybe also Reinforce Zwei because her debut is in the epilogue.
- We can't tag Nanoha and Vivio as mother and daughter, because Nanoha adopting Vivio is a spoiler for Strikers, regardless of how Vivid starts.
- We can't tag Subaru, Ginga, or Genya Nakajima with any family tag when together with Cinque, Dieci, Nove, and Wendi because Genya adopting one third of the Numbers is a spoiler for Strikers, regardless of how upfront Vivid and other sequels are about it.
- Any picture where Yukine Chris is friends with Hibiki or Kazanari Tsubasa, because Chris joining them is a spoiler for Senki Zesshou Symphogear.
- Any picture with an X-Drive because its existence is a spoiler for season 1 of Symphogear, to the point X-Drive first appeared without any foreshadowing of such a form being possible.
- Any image of Maria Cadenzavna Eve with Airget-lamh, because her using that gear is a spoiler for Symphogear G, regardless of what GX has to say about it.
- Any image of the Maria, Akatsuki Kirika, and Tsukuyomi Shirabe being friends with Hibiki, Tsubasa, and Chris, because they joining the Division 2's side is a spoiler for Symphogear G, regardless of what GX's opening depicts.
- Any image of Kohinata Miku wearing the Shénshòujìng, because it's a spoiler for G. XD Unlimited openly advertising it in the opening, official posters, and even the official website, is irrelevant because once a spoiler always a spoiler. Speaking of which, most of Miku's Shénshòujìng pictures are tagged as spoilers, but the most recent ones aren't, and I assume it's because of XD.
- Heck, if we are super ultra serious about it, we might as well tag every Symphogear picture as spoiler given how much effort the pre-release promotion for season 1 put into making people believe the protagonists would be Kanade and Tsubasa only for Kanade to die in ep1 and Hibiki suddenly being the protagonist.
- Any picture of Lillie's new clothes in Pokémon Sun and Moon, which are openly advertised in USUM's promo (post #2864698). Speaking of which, I don't have a 3DS and have yet to watch a walkthrough of SM, so sorry if I'm missing something, but, why the heck do we those new clothes as spoiler? It's just a costume.
- Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Akizuki Ryou's gender a spoiler? I'm not familiar enough with Dearly Stars to know, but I remember headlines about it in an anime site about how pre-release fanart depicting him with a female body was now wrong.
- Any picture of Yagami Hikari with the Chosen Children from Digimon Adventure, because her being the 8th Chosen Child is a spoiler, even if the second ending didn't make any effort to hide it despite coming before her joining the team.
- Also, how dare we reveal that Kimura Kouichi exists and Minamoto Kouji is not an only child like he believed he was.
- While we are at it, any Sixth Ranger from a Toei franchise (Super Sentai, Precure, etc.), or maybe from any yearly reboot franchise in general, should be tagged as spoilers. How dare we reveal that there's a Go-On Gold and Go-On Silver who join the Go-Ongers (and take away the unprecedented surprise of TWO sixth rangers in the same series!), that a Shinken Gold exists, or that Eas/Higashi Setsuna becomes Cure Passion?
- Speaking of which, isn't Aesha Krishnam a spoiler? I have only watched the Sky Girls pilot OVA and not the series, so all I know about Aesha is that she's not in the opening (unlike Elise von Dietrich, who also doesn't appear in the OVA) and has the least images out of all five girls. Considering that, and the fact there's many images with the other four girls but no Aesha, I'm assuming she joins the cast later, and I don't see a spoiler tag on any of her images.
- And also, maybe any Zettai Karen Children picture where The Children are not 10-year-olds except for when they are 20 (example post #326606) in the prophecy about the future war, because it spoils that the series also covers them growing up into middle school and, currently, high school. Example: post #593966, post #972825, post #972826, I don't know the exact ages in the images because I'm still in age 10 arc, but you get my point.
- And Son Gokuu from Dragon Ball also grows up like The Children, and he even has a kid at some point. We shouldn't spoil that, right? I mean, it's still a spoiler, even if most people remember adult Gokuu more.
- And maybe Nina Wang wearing the Ultimate Black Diamond should be a spoiler since it doesn't happen until after mid-season, when the plot shifts from "look, I'm in a prestigious school" to "oh no, Garderobe was invaded, Nagi wants to take over, and I can't believe Erstin is F-ing dead".
- Also, all these Otome robes, of which most don't appear until the final battle, if I'm remembering correctly. And honestly, I may be exaggerating the number because of just how many characters My-Otome has. Shiho is the only one I'm 100% sure doesn't use the Spiral Spin Serpentine until the final battle.
I'm having trouble thinking of any other example right now, but I think you get my point. As a franchise continues, things stop being a spoiler. We don't tag Matoi Ryuuko and Kiryuuin Satsuki as sisters because Kill la Kill doesn't have a sequel dictating "that is not a spoiler anymore", while Nanoha and Vivio being mother and daughter is pretty public as of Vivid and Force, and it's literally impossible to pick Vivid without being spoiled that. Actually, I think it's impossible to enter the Lyrical Nanoha franchise without knowing that StrikerS takes a 10 years time skip.
Symphogear AXZ's non-X-Drive final battle forms are currently spoilers, but will stop being so when they inevitably become playable in XDU and anyone will be able to gacha roll them without having watched the series. Yagami Hikari is part of the main characters from the get-go in Digimon Adventure 02 and Digimon Adventure tri.. I think Tougou Mimori and Sumi Washio being the same person is very public in Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Hanayui no Kirameki but I'll have to watch more of the walkthroughs to be sure. The game definitely spoils that Tougou recovers her ability to walk and that Minowa Gin dies. In fact, from what I've read, there's a whole drama about Tougou and Sonogi not wanting to tell their younger selves and Gin that Gin is dead.
The longer a series or franchise runs, the bigger the chance of spoilers expiring. So, yes, spoilers DO expire, for long-running franchises. Fate/Grand Order is just the point where those previous spoilers are no longer spoilers. What it does is no different than Nanoha Vivid telling us off the bat that Nanoha adopted Vivio, or Digimon Adventure 02 and tri. telling us right off the bat Hikari is a Chosen Child with Tailmon as her Partner.
EDIT: Corrected typos and added Akizuki Ryou from Idolmaster to examples.
WakuWaku said:
Fate/Extra is actually a good example to show the limits of class based naming. We already use true names for both gawain_(fate/extra) and nursery_rhyme_(fate/extra) because of how otherwise confusing it would be to handle two Servants of the same class from the same series.
I just want to say that the Fate/EXTRA material uses "Saber (White)", "Archer (Green)", Caster (Fox), etc. in some cases, but doesn't seem to be very consistent about it.
willsolvit said:
The new adaptions are getting a lot of first timers that are told to start with FSN when asked.
When? I don't remember the official FGO site telling people to watch FSN before playing the game. Likewise, when I watched Prisma Illya and the UBW movie, there was no notice telling me to watch FSN first.
willsolvit said:
If the entry point hides spoilers then we should too.
I'll have to look up again when I have time to, but I think I remember Nasu saying in a pre-release interview that FGO is the intended entry point for the franchise, and was made so the franchise could reach a wider audience. That seems as "I expect you to play this before watching anything else" as it can get.
Didn't someone in this thread mention that Fate/Apocrypha only got an anime adaptation because its Servants were popular in FGO? Or was it on Reddit? I only remember I saw someone quoting an interview about that.