MMO focussed on lore, could it work?

gobla

When using big IPs in MMOs, or any games for that matter, the lore has generally been sacrificed in order to create balanced and working gameplay. And, when done right, this has worked great. We get a bit of a feeling as to what it's like in our favourite fantasy world while still having the gameplay we all know and love.

But do you think it could work to create a game that didn't sacrifice any lore and instead sacrificed balanced gameplay to create a game that really brought a fantasy world alive. That while the moment-to-moment gameplay wasn't as great as other games there was still this massive immersive conflict going on to draw you in.

A game where a small goblin race was in every way and form weaker then a large orgre race. So people playing goblins would either need to gang up on said ogres or find alternate forms to attack the ogres. And those ogres would be amazing in direct combat but wouldn't be able to for example steal things like the goblins could.

A game with factions that weren't balanced. Humans for example could be allied with dwarves and elves. While the ogre race wouldn't have any allies at all but instead not only be at war with that human alliance but also with the orcs and goblins.

A game where if you were defending a human fortress from goblins you wouldn't be arming the siege machines but instead checking all the possible entrances to make sure none of the sneaky bastards are crawling in to stab you in the back. But if you were fighting ogres you'd be manning those siege engines and firing as long as possible but abandoning the fortress as soon as they thrased the gate as there's no way a human can take an ogre in close combat.

Where for example specialising in magic really would make you more powerful then any other specialisation in combat, but also make you very reliant on ingredients and completely useless against magically resistant enemies.

Where certain races simply made for better archers while other races got penalties on ranged combat.

In most fantasy books and movies elves really are superior fighters then humans. Equally equiped an elven warrior would easily slaughter a human one. But, in the world's history, to compensate for that humans might have a much more lax attitude on dark magic as they really need that to survive against the elves, while the elves do fine without it and thus don't accept anyone in their society who practices it.

Thus if you were playing as a human swordsman you really were inferior to an elven swordsman. And thus, as a human in that fantasy world would really do, you'd have to seek out dark magic to enhance your powers in order to be able to compete. And then you'd still have to deal with the fact that the elf could also seek out the same dark magic and still be superior to you in almost every way, except that elf is now kill on sight to his own faction while you can still freely enter human cities. But if you meet in battle then you're still screwed.

In the end there'd still be a balance that every advantage comes with a disadvantage but without the current fixation that every class should be able to output exactly the same numbers and that all factions and races should be equal. So that your choices in character creation really determine how you'll experience the game instead of, in the end, being mostly cosmetic changes and minor changes in playstyle.