Editor's Corner: Is Gaming Lore Important?

Yesterday (May 17, 2007) the latest installment of the Darkfall Dev Journal was released. The Sands of Rubaiyat gave us more lore behind the story of Darkfall. This got me to thinking about how many people actually read game lore.

In UO we saw a pretty basic lore wrapped around Lord British, Lord Blackthorne, Minax, and Mondain. It was pretty basic. In games today we see very detailed race lore and centuries of history behind the worlds themselves such as in SWG. If you are a Twi'lek and want to know about your race, you can look at what is given in game and you can also Google it. You can find information of all kinds' right down to wedding ceremonies including macros.

The flip side of the coin is how many people just think a game sounds good...buy the game, install it and start playing. If you are a crafter, do you need to know lore to make a piece of armor, or a weapon? The answer to this could be both yes and no. If there is racial clothing, weapons, etc, it could be quite beneficial to learn about the race you are playing...and yet, you would be able to play quite well without knowing it at all. Do you care about lore if your only plan is to go in a pk every person you run see? If you are an Orc you can quite easily just go around killing everyone and no one give you a second look. But do you know why everyone hates you and you hate everyone?

The lore readers and non readers are equal. Neither is better than the other. The lore readers will insist that you can't get the full benefit of the game without knowing the history behind it. This might be true. The non readers will tell you it don't matter and just let them play the game.

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Generally true, though i believe we have been informed that DF lore, because of the game mechanics, do tell us strategic or other wise useful things instead of merely fluff. Since there is dynamic weather that effects things for instance, knowing what you could run into prior to traveling would be a good idea.

Knowing the lay of the terrain...hilly...mountainous...all of that also acctually matters as you can scale mountains and as hiding is a true skill in DFO far as we know. Even taking note of strong winds matters in DFO, for sensory cues sake (some animals "smell" you) and for the same of certain arms and forms of travel.

Lastly, the places described and their ledgends i believe acctually hold salt in DFO instead of merely being something that existed and has absolutely nothing to do with the here and now. I could be wrong here as i've not truely analysed the lore, but that wasn't the point i was trying to make.

Kilmoran:
Lastly, the places described and their ledgends i believe acctually hold salt in DFO instead of merely being something that existed and has absolutely nothing to do with the here and now. I could be wrong here as i've not truely analysed the lore, but that wasn't the point i was trying to make.

I would agree. It would appear that DF lore points in the direction of the game's progressive and unfolding storyline. The Chaldeans, the ancient magical artifacts, portals and vortexs into alternate planes of exsistance, all point towards both making the present world of Agon believable and giving the game a direction to advance.

If you just play to the numbers and ignore what the game is truly about then these games must get quite boring. I have always viewed mmorpg's as the advancment of Pen and paper rpg's like D&D. That update was a nice taste of exactly what goes on there on a daily basis. The main town, quests, dungeons and creatures.

I think these replies have been great. The lore in any game is there to be used as a background tool. Whether or not a player uses it is up to the player.