[Spoiler for LS4 EP3] Spoilers in update notes

"Palawa Joko is gone" - in the very first non-title line of the update notes.

Apparently this happens regularly with updates and I'm not really sure why. This time I looked I haven't been playing much the last few months and now that I decide to come back for regular play, the plot for most of living season 4 seems to be over in that single sentence right at the top of the update notes.

It's a very big spoiler and I don't really see the point behind it. And certainly not in putting it right within my gaze on an updates page (I was actually looking for any profession balance changes). It's not news for those who have been playing, but it's certainly a damper for me, and possibly other players who have been off for a while, which includes potential customers who need to purchase the new living world due to not logging in.

I think whoever writes the patch notes should consider leaving these out from now on, or putting a tag on it somehow.

By contract, the very next line "But when a leadership summit in Jahai receives an unexpected guest, Elona finds itself at the center of yet another crisis. How will Aurene and her champion cope with the immense task they now face?" - is more than enough to get people excited for the new story IMO.

It doesn't say how he's gone. The Order of Whispers had him "gone" for a long time, as did Balthazar. He could be gone on vacation to Southsun Cove raising an army of awakened karka for all anyone reading the patch notes knows.

By your definition, any TV show that recaps the previous episode before the new one is giving spoilers.

This community really will create things to whine about over nothing.

I agree with OP. Not everything people "whine" about is unjustified. It won't hurt anyone to not include this information in patchnotes, and it only benefits those who want to avoid spoilers.

It's been three months, and people have been posting about Joko's death left and right. This is less of a spoiler reveal than the very promotions for Path of Fire that spoil Season 3, or Heart of Thorns promotions that spoil Season 2.It's rather hard to promote a sequel without some degree of spoiling for the prequel.

I've heard the opposite, too- people who are grateful for the little blurbs, so they can hop right back into the story without feeling out of the loop, needing to catch up on the content they'd now need to pay for, or go digging through five pages of wiki summary. Just one of those things where you can't please everyone.