Q: Does lore matter to you?

Konfess

Q: Does lore matter to you?  Can you start playing a game and not know who first used this skill.  Who first defended this land and built this keep or castle?  Are you fine appearing in a new game world and assuming a role.  Not knowing what your side stands for or why you are fighting the other side(s)?  

How about slowing discovering the lore over an extended time period.  Previous game text may not comply comply when lore is presented.  Landmarks may need adding, changing, or they may be left right where they are and conflict.

Reading material going back 1000 years or more.  The history and time lines.  Just about everything.

cameltosis

Voted "no" based on my current understanding of lore:

Lore is everything that is not relevant to the current situation / setting. So, in a game with 2 factions that are at war, I wouldn't count the names of those factions, the existing npcs within those factions nor the reason those two factions are at war as being part of the lore. They are simply the games setting / story. I perhaps don't even need to know the reasons why the two factions are fighting. 


So basically, I only need the bare minimum of information to give context to the current situation in the game, then from there everything should be determined by the gameplay. 

I don't ever feel the need to learn the history of places, npcs etc. It never helps with my immersion and most of the time I don't find it interesting enough to want to find out more at the expense of gameplay. 

However, if the gameplay shifts for whatever reason (e.g. a 3rd faction is introduced to the game) then I'd want to know that factions name and the names of their NPCs. But again, wouldn't necessarily care about where they came from or why they're fighting. In fact, I often find it more interesting to imagine where they've come from, it generates a lot more interesting discussions and theories. 

Flyte27

I guess this is personal preference. 

For me it comes down to how it's presented.  Playing through the Witcher 3 I find there are lots of books that I don't want to spend the time to read.  The reason is that the game itself is so long even if you skip the books it takes quite a while.

I find that it's better if you have the lore incorporated into the world.  Let it unfold in a more natural way as you play the game.  I don't think many people want to sink extra time into a long game just to learn a fake history that was conjured up by someone reading lots of in game books.

k61977

To me yeah lore matters.  I like understanding the back story and reason for why things are the way they are.  It's just like in real life those that do not know history are doomed to repeat it.

I take time to read quest and explore when I play games as I like to know the 5 W's.

H0urg1ass

I don't think that lore should require pre-reading in order to play the game, but I do think that it should always be available for those interested.  This is only in reference to MMORPG's.  When it comes to games like DOOM, then no lore is necessary in reality.

laserit

I love a good story but that doesn't mean it's mandatory.

Kyleran

I like a decent backstory, but care more about the story the players in the game are creating than any in depth lore from the past or from Devs/NPCs in the present.

Although...sure would like to know where the npc Sleeper story is going in EVE. Scares me every time one of their scouts starts scanning me, especially if I'm hauling a few billion ISK of ore around.

mastersam21

Lore matters to me. Good lore draws me into the world, keeps me wanting more. With that said I wont mind getting into something that is just starting anew. If I didn't care to know what happened to  Arthas after the events of Warcraft 3, I probably wouldn't have been so hungry to get into WoW in 2004. There's a reason why big franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek, ect. has such a massive following.

Ltldogg

Lore matters to me big time; especially in-game lore as I progress in the game.  

Flyte27

mastersam21 said:

Lore matters to me. Good lore draws me into the world, keeps me wanting more. With that said I wont mind getting into something that is just starting anew. If I didn't care to know what happened to  Arthas after the events of Warcraft 3, I probably wouldn't have been so hungry to get into WoW in 2004. There's a reason why big franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek, ect. has such a massive following.

I knew little of the lore in regards to Star Wars, but I still watched the movies many times when I was a kid.  The adventure itself was often good enough for me.  That are actually some cases where learning about the lore actually subtracted from my enjoyment.  For instance I never liked the lore that came along with the prequel trilogy that added things like the name younglings and the title padawan.  I also didn't care much for the politics going on in the background.

Amathe

I want to say that lore matters and that I read it and keep up with it. 

But if I am honest with myself I find I care little to nothing at all.

Even when I played my first mmo, Everquest, I recall my deity was named Tunare. I think she liked woods and bears. That's all I've got. 

Flyte27

Amathe said:

I want to say that lore matters and that I read it and keep up with it. 

But if I am honest with myself I find I care little to nothing at all.

Even when I played my first mmo, Everquest, I recall my deity was named Tunare. I think she liked woods and bears. That's all I've got. 

In everquest most of the lore was at character creation so reading about the available deities and the different class backgrounds wasn't so bad.  It gave you a sense of what you were striving to do with your character in game and was also linked with factions.  I'd rather have that than lots of books to read about battles that took place in the past.

almerel

It is somewhat important to me as long as the story progresses as my character does. However, I have found myself playing a lot of survival games like Ark and 7days2die (I have over 1k in each) and the story is yet to be seen. However, the non-linear nature of the games is great. 

dave6660

Don't care, never have, never will.

Amathe

DMKano said:

yet they talk to all players as if they were the chosen one.

So you're saying ... I'm not the chosen one? OMG!  All those NPCs have been lying to me. Even after I gathered their apples and pine cones. 

maskedweasel

I voted no, but only because I think it's dependent on the game type more than anything else.   There are games where lore matters a lot, simply because some game mechanics or puzzles are built around that lore.

There are other games where lore is just a filler.. something that doesn't really affect the gameplay or what you're doing, but it's there if you want to stop and read about it.

mmorobo

Depends on the game.  Some games I like the lore (The Secret World), most I don't really care.

Arglebargle

coretex666 said:

Lore matters, to me.

I think that, for instance, Warcraft's amazing lore was a significant reason why I enjoyed WoW so much. Suddenly, you could enter the world where all the amazing events took place .

On the other hand, I have to admit that I played quite many MMORPGs where I did not care about the lore at all.

For me, WoW's lore and stories were so terrible, it was the reason I almost immediately quit.

Arglebargle

Lore is really important for me.  Without good writing or lore, the game will have no staying power.   It's like a dull bed of pixels.    Sadly, this means a lot of games don't muster up. 

Because every single developer ever born thinks they are a good writer.

scribeofsalmacis

I answered that lore doesn't matter at all, but this is at least to some extent because I keep encountering lore than nurtures hard stereotypes, lazy stories, insensitive gender dichotomies, polarisation where applicable and lack of the out-of-the-box that makes the best touches of literature in the history of writing. It's unfortunate. I believe these games are worth more. As a long-time bibliophile, I'd go as far as to argue that bad literature is what made me a PvPer.

Azaron_Nightblade

I like lore in general, but the game really has to interest me to read the lore before actually playing it. Ideally a good deal of it comes through the in game story though.

waynejr2

The poll doesn't do it for me.   Consider an RPG.  To have an RPG without lore would suck.  Therefore lore matters for an RPG.  Now we have game mechanics.  If there is a situation where sticking strictly to the lore would ruin game play, then lore has to be put aside for that game play aspect.  That is as simple as I can make it.

Wizardry

Yes itmatters a LOLT because i want to see and play a game that looks cohesive in all of it's design.
I want to know there is REASON for the creatures,the world the mechanics etc etc.

I absolutely cannot stand games that just looked tossed together to meet a few criteria for a mmorpg,like we have dungeons,we have creatures and we have quests..oh YAY   NO THANKS,show me some effort in game design.

Sovrath

Wizardry said:

Yes itmatters a LOLT because i want to see and play a game that looks cohesive in all of it's design.
I want to know there is REASON for the creatures,the world the mechanics etc etc.

I absolutely cannot stand games that just looked tossed together to meet a few criteria for a mmorpg,like we have dungeons,we have creatures and we have quests..oh YAY   NO THANKS,show me some effort in game design.

Wow ... I agree with Wizardry's post ... completely.

I'm kind of scared now. Sort of think that if I look out the window it will be the zombie apocalypse ...

SEANMCAD

speaking of Zombies I hear a lot of people saying they are not intrested in 7 days to die because its a zombie game. Except that for me zombies are just a target, it could very well be warewolves as far as I am concerned. I am just trying to build a clever structure quickly so that I can survive their attacks. Those attackers being zombies, wearwolves, vampires, iClones and if their mothers loved them in the previous life or not is non of my concern.

Axehilt

Awkward poll. Lore isn't reading.  Lore is lore.  Text-boxes are one of the lowest-fidelity means of telling a story, especially in interactive visualized entertainment.

Lore matters to RPGs because one of the core pillars of RPG design is story.

Lore isn't required for me to enjoy a game, but if a game lacks story then it's not really going to be an RPG (which can be fine, but there's always a place in my gaming roster for a good RPG.)