From gobbling up datamining to avoiding spoilers at all costs, how do you consume the story of a new World of Warcraft patch?

The final chapter of The War Within is here, with Ghosts of K’aresh taking us on an out-of-this world adventure. Besides collecting all of the extremely cute new companion pets in order to restore an alien ecosystem, the thing I’m most excited about is seeing how the overarching story of the Worldsoul Saga will continue after the events that we experienced in Undermine.

The problem is that there are a wide variety of approaches to seeing the plot unfold in World of Warcraft. It’s quite different from experiencing the story arc of a TV show, movie, or even another video game. Players get an initial preview of the overarching features of a new patch weeks ahead of time, and then the PTR cycle kicks in. These Public Test Realms are extremely useful in ironing out all the bugs and balancing new content, but they make dodging story spoilers feel like having to carefully coordinate your movements on Deathwing’s spine.

Many players will run through the main campaign quests on the PTR as soon as it goes live. I haven’t taken that path because I know I’ll be doing it again once the patch goes live, and my gaming time is incredibly limited by things like “Life Stuff” and “Ow, My Body Decided To Not Cooperate Today.”

I also don’t really want to simply read through someone else’s summary of what transpires, because I’m all about experiencing things for the first time as they happen. It’s been 20 years since I’ve watched a movie trailer for a film that I already know I am going to see, because they give away so many of the important things that happen and often show the coolest sequences.

That leaves me with plugging my ears and trying to avoid seeing any details on what’s coming up in the next chapter of WoW’s story. Yet by the time a patch finally launches, I often feel like I’m very far behind everyone else. It’s a bit like finally watching last summer’s big blockbuster and being excited to talk about it, only to find that society has moved on to talking about the next movie.

In the end, I always end up playing through the new campaign at my own pace. Spoilers are unavoidable, and I don’t have the time to really engage with the PTR overly much, so I’ll end up dedicating some time one night this week to finding out exactly how The War Within is going to wrap up its narrative. So how do you approach new story developments in World of Warcraft?