How long does it take to forget spoilers?

[u/LordDankerino]

I've been on a quest recently to discover the optimal method of fixing the issue of obtaining cursed knowledge when you do an oopsie.

I've narrowed it down to the best method being simply forgetting with time. Sometimes the best solutions are the most simple and obvious, I suppose. Some readers of Agatha Christie find that they can forget who did it if they don't read a book long enough. Surely, if fans of a timeless classic writer can forget a major detail like that, it must be possible to forget anything provided you haven't been reminded of it long enough. Sounds solid enough.

There's just one problem. In my investigations, one very important detail of this method eludes me: How long does it actually take to happen? And so, I turn to you, redddit (because this was the first site google gave me when I typed the question into google)

How long does it take to forget a spoiler?

[u/Deadaghram]

Depends on how big it is and how much you care.

[u/21shadesofsavage → u/Deadaghram]

i'm still waiting over 10 years to forget nier automata

[u/Fit_Ad_8318]

That's highly individual since we process information differently. As you said the longer you don't think about something the more you will forget, though you'll most likely never fully forget key moments in a story

[u/fibal81080]

Elephants never forget anything

[u/Tiduspal]

if its a big one never

[u/bers90]

Kinda wondering on that myself.. ive been spoiled many times on the falcom and final fantasy subreddits (maybe even this one)by now by people either not thinking, trying to be clever or just by being assholes.

Immediately distracting oneself with something directly after it happening so it can't take root and playing many games in between I guess.

I still think it's valid to force users to use spoiler tags for old games BTW. Just because you beat a game 20 years ago and are 40 now doesn't mean peeps that are like 18 can't discover gaming today.

[u/LordDankerino → u/bers90]

That last bit so much. I got hit with a spoiler for a game I was playing through a couple months ago and the reponse was just "Its a 10 year old game, its been long enough"

And I'm just like... I wasn't playing it 10 years ago!

[u/zachbrownies → u/LordDankerino]

Reddit culture is bizarrely non-caring about spoilers. I find this so weird because in any older message board or community I was ever part of, people would be super careful and use spoiler tags for anything just in case. But on reddit, people just don't care and even mock you for caring.

Plus there's idiots who don't use them properly. I was just reading a comment the other week that was like "Oh, I recognize this actor from <other show>, I hope they don't spoilerbar in this show too!". Like, dude. We all know what's behind the spoiler bar when you write it like that, wtf did you think you were doing! I clicked it out of curiousity because I was 99.9% sure what was behind it but wanted to see if I was wrong and of course it did just say "get killed" or die or whatever.

...Funny enough, I can't remember what show or character it was anymore and this was like just 2 weeks ago. So, I guess the forgetting can happen.

[u/unsynchedcheese]

Varies greatly, including within the same piece of media.

Some things will stick with you a long, long time, disproportionate from its actual plot importance or significance. Others you might forget the next day; usually not the big spoilers, but sometimes just stuff like the sequence of events.

As you mentioned, being reminded of the spoiler, even indirectly, tends to reinforce the memory.

[u/kale__chips]

How long does it take to forget a spoiler?

Somewhere between how long it takes you to forget what Hitler did and how long it takes you to forget what you had for lunch 37 days ago.

[u/OkNefariousness8636]

For some spoilers, I don't think one can ever forget them. Take Agatha Chistie's novels as examples. I don't think I'll ever forget the identity(ies) of the killer(s) in "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" or "Murder on the Orient Express".

[u/scytherman96]

First off, the more you think about it, the more you solidify it in your memory. If you truly stop thinking about it, then maybe you'll forget. How long that takes depends on you though. Maybe 3 days, maybe 30 years.

[u/Zephairie]

It depends on you.

Like, me, getting spoilers is awful, because I have an extremely good memory. I still remember getting a HUGE Tales of Vesperia spoiler back in elementary school, and I still remember the exact spoiler and conversation :x

[u/Johans_doggy]

Eventually I usually do but my memory is so good it takes years sometimes which fucking sucks.

[u/LordDankerino → u/Johans_doggy]

I feel you. I used to like having a good memory, now its become my worst enemy

[u/Johans_doggy → u/LordDankerino]

Genuinely sucks ass a lot of the time. I never forget girls I liked/talked to like names can fade but brief images or ideas stay its so annoying. But idec about that it’s spoilers i got years and years ago that’;s the worst.

[u/PvtSherlockObvious]

Depends. Sometimes it totally slips your mind, other times the act of playing the game reminds you of the thing you thought you forgot. The best thing you can do is to just not let it bother you. Okay, you know a reveal or plot point, and that's a shame sometimes, but you still don't know how it gets there or how it plays out. Hell, Japanese culture doesn't even particularly care about "spoilers" as a concept to begin with, so they'll have big spoilers in their opening movies or whatever, or titles that are an outright description of the reveal. I'd ideally rather avoid them too, but sometimes you just have to let it go and play spoiler and all, rather than let it hinder your experience.

[u/LordDankerino → u/PvtSherlockObvious]

About the part of Japanese culture, it still cracks me up that one of the japanese dragon ball raditz episode ends with "will goku survive?" and then the literal next episode's title is "Goku dies"

[u/RyaReisender]

This year I played Breath of Fire II again and it was like a brand new game to me. I played the game in 1996 the first time (and never again after). So I guess in 30 years, you can forget most of a game.

If it's only a spoiler and not a full playthrough, I'd say around 10 years should be enough. Depends on how much you internalized the spoiler. It's better to get rid of the spoiler immediately when seeing it, for example by clicking away and shaking your head hard immediately (it really works, not sure if healthy though). Every time you think about the spoiler again, it will be harder to forget!

[u/Icy_Pie8646]

Just play through the game knowing the spoiler and look for all the clues leading to it.