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Google autocomplete and YouTube algorithm are spoiling the new God of War

Google autocomplete and YouTube algorithm are spoiling the new God of War

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You might want to just completely stay off the internet at this point

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God of War

If you’re looking forward to playing the new God of War, a word of advice: be extra careful around Google or YouTube, which are accidentally spoiling major plot points of the game through rogue algorithms.

Without going into specific details (since I’d like to avoid leaving you to the mercy of those same spoilers), even typing in phrases as seemingly innocuous as a character’s name brings up massive spoilers for the end of God of War as the first suggestion on Google search results. (We’ve tried this ourselves and it definitely works). And there are multiple Reddit threads complaining of similar spoilers of boss fights or crucial moments in the game through suggested YouTube videos.

It’s a tough bind for players; the twists and turns of God of War’s campaign are really best experienced in the narrative, but it’s tough to avoid spoilers when Google and YouTube are serving them up to you at the slightest provocation. And ironically, it’s the algorithm’s own design to be helpful that likely is affecting the most zealous fans — if you’re someone who had been watching trailers before release, you’re probably both the kind of person who’d least want to see spoilers and yet most likely to get served them by YouTube.

It’s not entirely clear what an easy fix for this would be, either, short of Google and YouTube taking Twitter user Julian Sanchez’s suggestion and installing a spoiler monitor or some other filters to block out specific content. But for now, if you’re looking to enjoy Kratos’ journey without spoilers, you might want to stay off Google for now.