Fanart by TheNekow @ DeviantArt

I’m usually not the hugest fan of spoilers. Sure, if it’s about a book, movie or game that I have no interest in, then I don’t really care whether the main character was dead all along. But when it comes to those series that I am a fan of, I typically keep away from spoilers in favor of discovering the juicy tidbits on my own terms — by actually experiencing them in the moment.

And here comes the quandary. When you’re as big of a fan of WoW as I and most of you reading this are, it’s hard not to come across mountains of spoilers. And when they’re so easily accessible, it’s also hard to turn your head away. A peek of a screenshot here, a leaked little factoid there, a piece of guild chat that unwillingly meets my eyes in-game.

Pretty soon, and I’m hooked. What I have seen cannot be unseen! And it leaves me thirsting for more! It’s a real problem, fueled by my added self-reassurance that I need to know these things in order to write and podcast chat about them.

I suppose this whole rant was brought on by our readers’ reactions to the recent posts that include masses of leaked info from the Cataclysm Friends and Family Alpha. For some fans, seeing huge amounts of spoilers serves as a way to fuel the anticipation factor.

But it seems that of you also try to stay away from the hoopla. Some fans even are turned off by leaked information because, for them, it only dulls the rising anticipation of the impending game release. Some readers try to stay away from this information altogether, while others read the information that pertains to their class so they can plan for how to stay in the game, while avoiding all other spoilers.

It seems that those players have one thing that I do not, at least when it comes to WoW: Resolve. I’ve accepted my lack of it, and decided to embrace it. If it lessons my surprise while in-game, so be it — instead, I’ll score my cheap, little thrills now.

Who else has wrestled with the decision of whether or not to read WoW leaks and spoilers?

Hark! Do you hear that sound? It’s thousands of people typing out hurried e-mails to Blizzard employees they’re friends with, flamed on the forums, brushed past at BlizzCon, or even currently stalking from a car parked across from the Blizzard campus (though those kind of requests are usually delivered in the form of cut-out letters on a sheet of paper, tied to a brick, and thrown through the front window).

The Friends and Family Alpha for World of Wacraft: Cataclysm has officially begun, and a few lucky people out there are already downloading, installing, and probably playing the heavily-anticipated expansion. This really doesn’t mean a whole lot to the rest of us for a couple of reasons:

One, F&F Alpha is usually a very small test group, meaning that you’re waiting in the same boat as most other fans and there are less people to party/play with. Two, it’s under heavy NDA. So, while I expect some information to leak out (it always finds a way), I wouldn’t expect many people to try their luck at smuggling images and content out until at least the closed beta happens. We may not even really be able to report much if they do, either, considering how harsh Blizzard can be towards those sites that do so.

Still, it’s a positive note, and it means that the closed beta phase should only be a few weeks out. Chances are if you’re accepted to this Alpha, then you already know someone who works at Blizzard and what e-mails you can trust. I urge everyone else to not fall for scams in the meantime, meaning don’t click on suspicious links, respond to fishy e-mails, or respond to any in-game messages that might promise you early access to Cataclysm. That’s just not the way Blizzard handles things.