Why be a part of a fandom that you know nothing about? Seems rather pointless to me. You don't know the plot, you don't know the characters, you can't possibility know what's going on when people start talking about the series. Why not just enjoy a series that you do know and do have an interest in?

btw, plenty of crappy authors get told their characters are IC when they're not. The only way you know if you're a good author or one of those many bad ones if you actually play the game because then you'll know for yourself if the characters in your fics are IC or not.