Is non-storyline lore important to you?

[DAWUSS]

It's what helps build the universe IMO.

[NoxNoctum]

Yes this is one of the best things to make a world come alive to me.

 

However, I dislike how games like Mass Effect do it (i.e. something triggers and then you see "Codex Updated" flash)

 

I would prefer instead to stumble across some bloodied scrap of writing on goat skin near a fire. (generic sounding but just trying to give an example )

 

I really enjoyed how the roguelike TOME handled this... I remember fighting my way through this range of mountains in-game and finding traces of a doomed expedition that went before me through left behind journal notes. That's the way to do it. Added immensely to the tension and I knew something bad was waiting for me at the end of it all...

 

Ideally, and I don't know how feasible this is, I'd like for it to pop up Myst style for me to decipher.

 

EDIT: Ok now I actually bothered to read the thread a bit, this guy is saying what I wanted to but more coherently :

 

Yes, but only if it's integrated into the world somehow (books, expositional dialog, sidequests, whatever). I'm not a fan of codexes, as it's always felt kind of like, "Well, we're a bit too lazy to actually incorporate this into our game, so have an info dump!". Maybe I'm just cynical.

Edited September 16, 2012 by NoxNoctum

[leokhorn]

I liked how Baldur's Gate handled lore: Scattered bits attached as descriptions to items, or books you can find in various places, or in NPC dialogue. (...)

 

I loved how PS:T handled lore: Pretty much only through NPC dialogues (banter and quest) (...)

 

I couldn't stand DA:O's handling (...)

 

I'll agree with all this. What was great about PS:T is how you *lived* the lore. It was not a side note but something you witnessed or learned from actual characters. Companions tell you about them, lore bits linked to their life and, of course, lore bits linked to their race (and how they were different from the baseline). The many NPC's were similar, just less detailed. Nothing felt tacked on, which is the most important part.

 

I'm usually not a big fan of books

Edited September 16, 2012 by leokhorn

[silvercross]

Unimportant (to me). BUT, if they must include it, I really hope it's not a gazillion books/tomes and codex stuff.

 

I'd much rather encounter lore. Like say I walk by some random bones, and I get a vision/description of its last moments in some big war. Or maybe there's an abandoned building with graffiti throughout the ages, some from criminals, exiled kings etc. (Maybe some of them are false!) Surprise me.

[OldRPG'sAreGood]

Important to me, very important. I enjoy finding info about what's the world like, why is it like that, what is currently happening in the world and so on. It is what makes a game immersive for me, and well, I find reading about lore enjoyable.

[SnideCipher]

Important - espciially if the lore is about dwarves.

 

This guy knows what makes a good RPG.

[Sammael]

One reason why Icewind Dale was a superb game, despite it's focus on dungeon crawling, was the absolutely MASSIVE amount of background lore about the area that created a deep, rich world for the player to interact with. So yes, it is pretty damn important...

[dlux]

Good lore is extremely important for any game, especially fantasy games.

 

Just look at Skyrim. While it is a decent game, the fact that there is hardly any lore makes the world feel extremely sterile and undynamic.

[LadyCrimson]

Don't generally care about oodles of books per se, but I do like non-story lore, statues with info-plagues, legends, decoration-lore (tapestries, rugs, designs on items that seem linked to said in-game legends), and so on. I also like the decoration aspects because sometimes I get tired of going into places/exploring where apparently every single dweller in each city (or whole world) buys their pottery and rugs from the same store.

[Monte Carlo]

It's important but should be in chunks that allow you to enjoy it at your leisure, or perhaps avoid if you ain't in the mood. The books in BG2 were a great way of handling them (plus, you could sell them).

 

Like clothing, knowledge should be a mechanic. Maybe as you learn more lore something happens. Maybe your character gets a bit wiser, or can influence other characters by story-telling, or gain a skill. I'm digging this idea that an immersive world in a game is one where all sorts of stuff ticking away in the background becomes dynamic. So the involvement in the world's lore works in all sorts of ways...

[Highwinter]

Very important. The world should be deep and immersive, so having a lot of unrelated lore and background information you can find out about everything, helps a lot.

[Nakia]

Yes it is important as it makes the world seem more real. It can give back ground to NPCs making them more interesting. It can also be just fun things not really lore.

 

On the subject of lore if the lore whether story related or not becomes so dominant that people start arguing, not discussing, but arguing than I don't like it. Common sense needs to be used when dealing with lore. Lore can be fact, fiction, myth, someones biased interpretation or even a misunderstanding. Game lore is what Obsidian says it is not what I say it is.

[Posbi]

Lore is the bread and butter of RPGs. And since this is going to be a completely new IP I'm all for getting as much lore as the game mechanics anc environment make possible without it being an avalanche drowning me.

[Nonek]

Even the most mundane of items is enhanced through a few lines of well written dialogue, it's cheap, powerful and enormously immersive to be carrying items that are detailed and unique rather than longsword (iron).

[Tagaziel]

Talking of nuances and rooms for interpretations around the world setting, how about different lores/historical views depending on the group of people who described them through in-game materials. If it is realistically difficult, how about only for important items/historical events?

 

Brilliant idea. Andrzej Sapkowski explores this subject in his Witcher septalogy. It'd be interesting for a questline to rely on researching and tracking down stuff by looking for information and weeding out the chaff from racial-centric accounts. And then get hit with a more or less honest text from the day.

 

Or working off a commonly accepted version of history, only to find a discredited, banned book that contains a different account. Not entirely different, but enough to warp the entire perception of the history and its participants. We see that all the time now.

[Moonlight Butterfly]

It's very important to me, I love getting in game lore, books and background on NPC's I am dealing with.

[The Sharmat]

Talking of nuances and rooms for interpretations around the world setting, how about different lores/historical views depending on the group of people who described them through in-game materials. If it is realistically difficult, how about only for important items/historical events?

 

Brilliant idea. Andrzej Sapkowski explores this subject in his Witcher septalogy. It'd be interesting for a questline to rely on researching and tracking down stuff by looking for information and weeding out the chaff from racial-centric accounts. And then get hit with a more or less honest text from the day.

I bring up Morrowind all the time, but this is something that made its lore great. There were at least three versions of one of the major historical incidents that influenced the main quest, and even once you'd finished it you weren't really sure which was the accurate account.

[Wombat]

I bring up Morrowind all the time, but this is something that made its lore great. There were at least three versions of one of the major historical incidents that influenced the main quest, and even once you'd finished it you weren't really sure which was the accurate account.

Morrowind is my most favorite in the Elder Scroll series. Even the main story, which I personaly found an intetresting twist to the chosen one cliche, lets the player go through different image of heroes in different cultures in multicultural Morrowind, reminding me of the Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Cambell. Rolston has worked on some of Rune Quest suppliments, from which, I believe, he got that in-word writing styles. They were designed to inspire the imagination of the GMs and the players as well as offering possible scenarios without restricting too much.

[Troller]

If I wanted to read a book, I'd get a book, I play games for it's gameplay and sure a good and elaborated story is good, like in PST, no need to stack books and books of content into the game to cater to a very little percentage of people that actually go through it all, most people don't even care enough to read all the dialogue.

[The Sharmat]

most people don't even care enough to read all the dialogue.

I find it hard to believe that that's the case for the demographic that's demanding a return to the isometric RPG.

[Jozape]

If I wanted to read a book, I'd get a book, I play games for it's gameplay and sure a good and elaborated story is good, like in PST, no need to stack books and books of content into the game to cater to a very little percentage of people that actually go through it all, most people don't even care enough to read all the dialogue.

 

The dialog is 'gameplay' for a large portion of us. Role-playing alone is the entire reason why many of us play role-playing games. And what the characters say, how they react is important to their development and the story.

 

And lore doesn't just have to be books. It can be expressed through dialog and songs that NPCs sing.

[Lostbrain]

Important, that's give life to the fictionnals worlds.

[Troller]

most people don't even care enough to read all the dialogue.

I find it hard to believe that that's the case for the demographic that's demanding a return to the isometric RPG.

You would be surprised, for lot of people what they want is to blow up stuff with their fancy powers, not listen to a man whining about his hurt feelings or w/e

[Any_ILL]

Of course it's tremendously important. It makes the world feels real and interesting. It also allows us to discover new details, pieces of informations in new playthroughs. And it's kind of mandatory if you really want the players to feel connected enough to your world to come back without hesitation once the next game is released.

 

You would be surprised, for lot of people what they want is to blow up stuff with their fancy powers, not listen to a man whining about his hurt feelings or w/e

 

I kind of agree with The Sharmat, I mean it's probably true for the general population of gamers but those who would back such a project... Seeing the result of this poll it seems we massively care ^^

Edited September 16, 2012 by Any_ILL

[GhostofAnakin]

I consider it important. I like learning about the "world", so to speak, that I'm playing in, even if it isn't necessarily directly related to the actual storyline of the game. It just fleshes out the world to make it seem more alive.