It's been going on for a while, and it's a pain. Lots of info on plots and characters is available well in advance, you can spoil a lot of surprises just by reading a magazine or browsing over a website.

I consciously avoid hunting for details on FFXII and FFVII:AC simply because enough has been given away about those two titles already, and I'd rather have a surprise or two left before I start out on a fictional journey, especially one of FF-epic proportions.

Back when FFVIII just came out, before I bought it, I was browsing through a magazine, looking at a review. A review, where people are supposed to find out whether they might like the game, whether they want to buy it. So the magazine goes and says that the antagonist of the game is (SPOILER)"a sorceress from the future". Way to take the edge off disc three and four... not a huge spoiler, but it did mean I had little reaction to revelations like (SPOILER)Ultimecia's location and Ellone's power.