Lore is important - Massively

Reader Comments (3)

I agree with this article's assumptions but I disagree with how it's been written. I predict this devolving into a semantic argument and it's completely the fault of the author.

Lore matters. Does it? To whom does it matter? The players? The developers? The businesspeople who profit from both?

As far as the original article, let's break their experiments down a second.

1- NetHack, Rogue and MUDs for years had us fighting in ascii code. That we have graduated to virtual flesh and bone nemeses is more an indicator of our expectations for graphics in games, not a need for lore-fleshed foes. A better argument might have been that people played those games because the lore dictates that the @# in the corner was a manticore and we knew it meant us harm because the lore of the universe dictates that. Thus, we happily fight trapezoids because they are evil.

2- Same as example one, only personal.

3- Aside from the inability for most people to be able to separate aesthetic attraction to one over the other, this experiment's outcome assumes that we will appreciate 2 over 1. Perhaps there are people who appreciate the clean, efficient look of number 1. The Bauhaus art movement and the Art Deco movement, capitalized on minimalism, as do any number of artistic pushes. Who is to say someone out there doesn't like number 1 for those reasons, or perhaps BECAUSE it's impersonal and detached from any context?

If our expectations are for good graphics and a world in which to descend, then context is important for developers to create that world. It's not necessary for lore to be important for a player, even on a subliminal level as the article suggests.

Reply

whoops, forgot my point.

it's context that is important in the sense that the article argues. People don't want to fight trapezoids for no good reason. If that trapezoid represents something that you want to kill, like another player or a monster or something then people will. You don't need volumes of this person having done that thing.

Dragon Age is a good example of this. We don't actually start learning the lore until after the setting is established. Many people didn't read or even find a lot of the lore pickups. Killing an Archdemon is a pretty good way to motivate, though, and the ability to choose some noble (or really awful) paths is also a draw. If lore facilitates the creation of this context, then it is important to its creation. For the consumer, that's us, it's not necessarily important to the consumption.

Reply

Here's my quote on his page I made the other day:

I think well written lore, as in it fits with the world or story, really helps suspension-of-disbelief.

In one movie we say “OMG he’s FLYING, psssh, /done”, while in another we’re like, “Yeah okay I can dig it”. In this way it helps establish parameters for writers.

suspension of disbelief and many other factors of story writing and reading, are, you could say, almost subconscious. It’s hard to take that fact, for what it is, and apply that to any realm of a persons intelligence one way or the other, as it’s a human condition.

We all do it. We watch movies, and simply by into the fact that the guy can fly. We don’t hypothesize why compared to the rest of the story(well some of us do).

Also in this respect, if you start to theorize about it, where does the game end and the lore begin? Because really if I took WoW and took out the name of NPC’s and the name of the spells, and everything else, you’d be left with what? Would the game be as enjoyable to the world in large?

I think a lot of players, who may not even know how to voice their opinion, would want just enough lore to mesh everything together enough to suspend their disbelief regardless of what they choose to do in an MMORPG, while to anywhere from slightly above that sense of lore to near infinite amounts above that other players want more lore or story.
------------------------------------------------------

I think you can draw some lines because we're no longer dealing with MUDs, we're dealing with fully produced graphical games and the psychology behind it doesn't distinguish a difference, in my opinion.

Reply