I Know You Don't Think You're Spoiling Stuff To Me
I've taken a lot of things for granted for many years, mostly assuming it was "common sense".
Yeah, different people, different cultures, but there's a certain degree of "I know you, I know us, this is probably going to upset us both if I do it" that I'd just assumed was normal, you know? I'm not talking about mind reading (hate when people read between the lines stuff I've never said), it's "I arrive 10 minutes later every single time we pick a time to meet up and then waste time on useless things before we start the thing, so half an hour has been wasted on nothing".
Even just writing that upset me.
In episode 546 of "I didn't know that was because I was on the spectrum", I realize two things:
- If I say "Please don't tell me anything, because I will just make assumptions and I don't like that", most people will assume I'm exaggerating on purpose. I'm not. I'm serious.
- Most people really suck at pattern recognition.
The second one is not an attack. I suck at a lot of things in comparison, and while it pains me to accept it, I just can't be good at everything1. But as I realized it, it finally dawned on me: they just don't get it. So what I accept as common sense is just a me thing. Or a me-and-some-others thing. I'm perfectly aware this applies in reverse too, and it annoys me to no end. Getting people is hard.
Back to the title, prompted by my recent experience with Clair Obscur. I've tried my best to keep as spoiler-free as possible, especially since I really dislike feeling like the general public is telling me how to feel about a game2. I will be spoiler-free here, but if you're good enough at pattern recognition you might gain some hints anyway. If you're like that, you probably already know it's better to stop reading. I'm like that too.
I've received exactly one explicit spoiler and it was the most obvious thing in the game probably, so I wasn't even mad. When you don't play games at day one, it's something that might happen. I'm much less affected by spoilers nowadays then I was when I was a teen.
What I feel like most people don't get is that there are implicit spoilers everywhere you can look. If I know 10 people and their opinion on the game, especially on the ending, and I'm aware of their personal preferences on other similar games, I can probably at least vaguely guess either major plot points or how the ending kind of goes. I'm not a psychic, and this isn't to say "I'm flawless and can predict every story with the right amount of information", it's just that I've always assumed everyone was like this.
Also, after hearing the third "You don't know what to expect, the game hasn't shown itself to you yet!" I can probably guess what you're talking about. Please don't tell me what to think or feel.
By the way, I also guessed that one right.
Some people think stories need to surprise you to be good, and I'm firmly against it. I've guessed almost every plot point in AI: The Somnium Files and I loved it. The big Clair Obscur plot twist I'm talking about was very fun to guess as the game gave me hints3, and the reveal was pretty satisfying too because it was coherent.
That's the thing. Stories are a dialogue with the people who experience them. If you're telling me your story from the safety of a stage, in a way that sounds preachy and patronizing, or maybe just as a way to show off, I want to get up there and punch you. If you're right beside me, waiting for me to pick up on your clues, showing me your themes as if they were precious seashells you picked up before we met and want to share with me, I can't help but think my time wasn't wasted, even if I didn't really like your story4.
I guess in the end I'm just upset when I can't have a chat with the author through a story because I feel like people around me are adding in unnecessary commentary. I need some (a lot, sometimes) time to form my own thoughts before sharing them with other people. Otherwise, it's just noise.
ACK!!!!↩
It's probably the number 1 cause of me hating of stuff, and I absolutely despise it. I want to experience things in my own terms, not as the mirror of others' experiences! Be that love or hate! Unfortunately, as much as I try to do so, it's still pretty hard for me sometimes...↩
I've got harsh (overall positive) opinions on this game because some things I really like, but in general I've found it extremely shallow in its execution, and it often treated me like I was an idiot who needs to be told how to feel at a certain moment and after that it's just gone, back to the next plot point. There's also the whole "Oh by the way, the game's about this other thing" that would've hurt a lot less if I didn't spend 20 hours in Act 1, but that's on me for not rushing a game the developers thought people wouldn't spend a lot of time on (bros...). But when it tells you stuff subtly it's really fucking good.↩
I think of Kentucky Route Zero as the former, and NieR Automata as the latter. KRZ is one of those games I think back to with unfathomable annoyance, as I've felt from it nothing but spite for me, the player, as I painstakingly played through it all (that's when I realized I don't like game clubs). NieR Automata is pretty close to Clair Obscur for me as a "masterpiece that I only give 7/10 to personally" (and also a bunch of other details in experience that are kind of funny when you think about it), but I respect Yoko Taro a lot and in the end it's a game I'm glad I played and experienced in my own way. Specifically because I could feel the person behind it, and it was in the shape of a friend. Maybe that's all there is to it?↩