The Daily Grind: Is lore important to you?

It's one of the most important aspects for me, in a game, and one of the reasons why I'm still playing LOTRO, while eagerly awaiting SW:TOR!

One of the things I love most about MMOs is the fact that you have a (mostly) free-form world in which you can immerse yourself, but to do so properly one does require a decent story and background so as to understand why your character is there and why he/she should want to level up and prepare to fight in a raid to kill the big story boss. Without some sort of motivation there is no point, for me at least, in wanting to level up or continue in a game.

Also, in-game implementation of lore is very important too, whether through quest text or through NPCs talking to one another about local or world events. Without in-game lore implementation there might as well just be a long line of mobs for one to button-mash their way through, and indeed some games do do this, but they're the ones I find I tend leave fairly sharpish...

Depends on the game.

If it is based on an IP (AoC, WAR and especially LOTRO) lore is extraordinarily important. Respect for the Lore was the reason I stayed with LOTRO and disrespect for the Lore was the reason I left WAR.

If the company owns their own IP (WoW, EQ etc) then I couldn't give a crap.

is there any other reason to play an RPG than the lore? RPG's go beyond just reading the story to experiencing the story (at least they should) and being a part of it as it twists and turns, even if those turns are pre-programmed and not up to the player... it is the story, and the history behind it, that drives progression for me. RPG's and MMO's devoid of this don't hold my attention long, if at all.

Lore.. it matters when it feels instinctively part of the game. A pop up text box explaining why I have to kill ten of something followed by the boss at the end of the tunnel doesn't really work and when over long just adds irritation. A good game is not a book and nor should it be, unless it's a MUD and those were a long time ago now.

I remember a while back reading something that a dev at Blizzard I think it was said, about how game designers aren't Tolstoy or something like that, and he was right. As an avid book reader I can say that game GUI panels are NOT the place for long winded text. More is achieved with good music, lighting, cut scenes to set the mood and so on than all the long winded rambling things that no one reads anyway if they are honest. So I best stop now.

Lore is pretty important to me. Interestingly, my academic background is pretty similar. My undergrad degrees are in classical archaeology and religious studies. I wonder how many of us classics geeks are gamers? ;)

It's all exploring other words I guess. 19th century St Petersburg on paper or Northrend in glorious over coloured cartoon style visuals, all a desire for the new and different.

Never had a problem with class imbalances or poor expansion packs on the Nevsky prospect though.

I fully enjoy lore in MMO games, especially Guild Wars. I think Lore is vital to any adventure game no matter what genre it portrays. I think there needs to be greater focus on making Lore important aspect of MMOs, so that it becomes more immersive to the players. There are far too many players who skip the lore and kill 10 rats, because Lore isn't vital to the success or failure of playing.

I don't think you should able to play a game and disregard the lore, because it defeats the whole aspect of immersive roleplay.

The way to change this is to have NPCs challenge your knowledge of the game lore. Reward or punish you for the resulting answers you provide. The challages could be riddles or just plain questions about certain aspects of the lore you been privy to. Even could create quest on basis of your resulting answers to NPC's questions.

Basically we just need more interactivity between players and NPCs that challenge us mentally as well as our character's physical abilities.

It was a fateful day when I stood in the store with LOTRO in one hand and WOW in the other. I had never played an MMO before. I knew several people who were avid WOW players and no one who played LOTRO. I've always been a huge fan of the LOTR universe, and that made my decision. The lore brought me into the game, and the development of the storyline has kept me involved. I've still never played WOW for more than a trial.

Gameplay and content.
Based on Lore.

Lore is only indirectly important to me, it could make no sense as long as it makes the games content work.

When lore is done well -- as perhaps best exemplified in Lord of the Rings Online right now -- I'm all over it.

When it's done sort of as an afterthought of a placeholder, it can actually push me out of a game.

WoW's stuff just feels like a pastiche of a D&D backstory to me, and doesn't seem to affect gameplay in any consistently interesting ways.

EverQuest II is better, but again, the lore feels "tacked on" in many respects.

EVE online has a metric tonne of lore but, when I played, it all seemed little more than "background wallpaper" to the gameplay.

Likewise, Warhammer fantasy has some _great_ lore, but most of this is merely "wallpaper" in Warhammer Online.

If lore actually affects the quests, stories and events you experience in a game, then it's great -- but too few MMORPGs use their lore for anything besides vague flavoring.

LotRO uses its lore very, very well -- and even Age of Conan, for all its history of problems, embraces the Conan lore (with the Thoth Amon uber-plot) strongly. Most other MMORPGs I've seen? Not so much.