Off My Mind: Do Spoilers Take Away The Fun?

Spoilers, some people love them and some people despise them. These days, it's almost impossible to keep things from getting spoiled. Finding out what is going to happen won't necessarily ruin a good story but it can take the fun out of it. With the speed of the internet, it's almost as if people race to become the first one to spoil things for others. They take pride in being the first one to know how a story will end. This is fine for those that want to be spoiled right away but if not handled properly, it can make its way to those that don't want to be spoiled.
 
Deaths in comic books are usually one of the first things to get spoiled. Just yesterday I read two comics that featured the death of a "major character," one in X-Force #26 and the other in Green Hornet #3. With X-Force, we knew a death was coming but luckily it was one of the first comics I read so the fact that this particular character died in this issue was a surprise to me (there has been a lot of deaths in the Second Coming comics). Even with that, I knew, or had a really good idea that this character was going to die. This was spoiled, or perhaps teased by Marvel. What about the death in Green Hornet? That was pretty much spoiled by one of the final covers. 
== TEASER ==
Besides readers wanting to be the first to spoil things, sometimes publishers are to blame. Usually things are handled well. There is a matter of  marketing an event in order to get people to want to buy it. Sometimes even the vague solicit information can give things away. Despite my job here on site, I try to avoid reading that information so I can still enjoy the comic when it does come out. Other times, like the ending to Iron Man 2, there's just no avoiding the spoilers.
 

I understand that we are in the information age and people want to find things out right away. There are people that live for spoilers. They need to know things right away. What I don't understand is why people feel the need to spoil things when it's not being asked. Is there a satisfaction from being the first to publicly put the information out there? Some people do it because they're asked, some do it to be that first person and others do it just to ruin things.
 
I don't get bent out of shape if something is ruined. I understand that, especially with the internet and different time zones, information will get out there before I get a chance to find out for myself. That's just the nature of things. I would just hope that people are responsible when talking about spoilers. A big warning should go out if some juicy secret information is going to be mentioned. This is why we even developed the spoiler feature on the site. Spoilers can be fun if it's something you want. I just don't think it's necessary to purposely try to ruin the surprise for others. 
 
And hopefully I haven't ruined 2008's Marley & Me by posting the image that made the news shortly after the movie was released. What are your thoughts on spoilers?