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Lore - the 'secret' ingredient in MMO's ?
jatski
Member UncommonPosts: 32
We got two major mmo game titles coming out this year. Both which clearly base on a long and thoroughly history of it's lore. WAR & AoC. I wonder how big of importance the lore really is to attract new players. I believe that lore somehow connect the player and game better. You feel somewhat more attracted to the game, you're character and the enemies. Everybody wants to feel a little bit unique and special.
Even if you really don't care about the lore (like me), you still got the option to someday read the whole history about everyone and everything. Also knowing that 'this game is based upon heaps of stories' might give you the impression that the game will be better. Furthermore it has several options to expand. Many will probably also want expansions since this let them explore their mystic world even further.
Well obviously this is a trend in the mmo market. To reshape books or movies into the mmo-genre. Starwars, Lotr, Matrix (there is a matrix mmo right?). Of course keeping the player base is another thing. But the game sure did get a head start by only it's name.
Any thoughts on this matter? Is lore one fundamental corner stone in every successful mmo?
Just airwalking.
Comments
Lore is a major plus in an mmorpg. Just look at world of warcraft, it has a rich lore which is indepth and quite interesting which keeps pulling me back to play : /
I know WoW is a decent game. WoW is although infesting every mmo discussion there is nowadays. Very often the topic is forgotten and all that remain is the ancient discussion if WoW will die when X is released.
This was
i noticed.
Just airwalking.
Riiight..i was only saying i admire lore in a game and gave you an example of an mmo which i think had a good lore back story...but alright nervermind.
I believe Immersion is a major factor in retention of players for the long term. It may not get the players there initially, but once they do play for the first month, immersion will keep them playing. WoW , love or hate it, has a decent amount of backstory and lore.
However, Gameplay trumps everything. It doesnt matter how immersive the game is, if the gameplay is bad, it wont do well
Torrential
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
I dont know!
Lore or a famous IP? Have that become one today? Both WAR and AoC must have hundreds of writers working for decades. TCoS have just a real gamelore and nothing else.
So i dont know wich one would be the real deal. But nothing will matter if the game sucks. Thats for sure.
Game play leads to immersion. I the controls and game world are fluid then the game has a more immersive feel. I do not believe lore is all that important in a MMO. I think the most important quality any MMO can have is polish. If the tooltips, quests, and GUI seem natural then players will stay regardless of lore. Few people want to fight controls or poorly written text.
--John Ruskin
"lore" is not necessarily tied to a famous IP.
Look at Anarchy Online, for example. Before SL was released, the game really felt like another world. FC did an amazing job of making the place seem alive, and there was SO much going on in the game. This enhanced the immersion factor immensely, making the game much more interesting and fun.
I'll use LORTO as well here, even though it IS a famous IP. I've never been a raving Tolkien fan myself. The movies were OK, the books were good, but that's not why I decided to try the game. (I was bored, looking for something to play).
However, the fact that the world feels alive, and there is lore, history, and a reason for what is happening in the game, make it that much more immersive, and fun. Keeps me playing.
IMO, a game will do better if it draws you in, makes you feel like you are a part of something, rather than just an excersise in game mechanics.
Putting out a game about a story with an established fan base is guarenteed to pull in at least a few people who try it because of the name. Reading the forums on LoTRO before and just after it began there were up to a hundred or more people who HAD NEVER PLAYED MMO's before (including me) who just decided to try the game and therefor the genre because of the Name, because we are fans of Tokien.
I suspect many games are going that route figuring that either once they pull them in they will stay - or that all they want is that first flush of gamers the marketing ploy that comes from having a "name" game.
Something that is fun about the people that has enter the MMO world after LOTR movies, is that love for legolas, and this stupid progenie of Leegolas, Legooolas, Legoolaleses, Legoslas and.. finally, my favorite: Drizzztgolas of Gandolfus.
good gameplay = fun > lore
I'm thinking player controlled economies, crafting, hobbies (like fishing and such), and great guild management system are secrets to MMOGs that seperate the real MMOGs and the pretenders. In other words, it is all about the community and social interactions within the game world that make it happen. Look at DDO for example. They've built the game with great lore. Yet, after the combat is done, there is absolutely no reason to stick around the servers. You don't really get to know anyone. To me, I think that is why the game is dead compared to LoTRO, EQ2, and such.
Look at runescape and Shadowbane. Both games are free. Both have crap engines. One has a wide open social system and the other is gank central. No one trusts each other. One has more servers and players than ever, the other is completely dead on life support.
It is the little things that matter most.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
For those who have attention spans and read the quest text, then maybe. It helps give a game the "alive" feeling, but only if you take the time to learn about it. And lets face it, not many people are going to do that. Imo, the secret ingredient(s) are the things that go unnoticed; improvements that are made or totally new ideas that work well. This will make a game enjoyable and that's the real secret ingredient!
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A human and an Elf get captured by Skaven. The rat-men are getting ready to shoot the first hostage with Dwarf-made guns when he yells, "Earthquake!" The naturally nervous Skaven run and hide from the imaginary threat. He escapes. The Skaven regroup and bring out the Elf. Being very smart, the Elf has figured out what to do. When the Skaven get ready to shoot, the Elf, in order to scare them, yells, "Fire!"
Order of the White Border.
In theory, the lore guides the developers in the choice of game mechanics, map design, art design, and so on, but just putting a backstory or a series of short stories together and not tying the game itself to them makes no sense to me and it's a waste of time of a writer who could be more productive writing his/her 'American' novel. If you (the developer) use lore to guide the development of the game, then yes, it can help much, otherwise you're wasting the time of players.
-- Brede
I somehow wanna draw a connecting line here. Just out of the blue. If the game, say a game on the brink of it's release is based upon a movie, book, former board game etc. The mmo will receive massive free advertisement. Just by it's name. Fans are fans of a reason, they like that book (movie, whatever) because it speaks to them. This also perform as a safety net for the developers. They know they have a fanbase without the game even released yet.
Although I know lore can only do so much to help lift a game. Then what makes a game 'near perfection' is highly personal.
Just airwalking.
For me good lore (not just masses of it) are vital for the long term fun in a MMO, but I tend to shun IP's because of their limited nature and the regular strife with lore-mongers. I see IP's only as advantage if ppl dont cling too tight to it. But I definitely want some good lore to give me a feeling for the world and a reason for my doings.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
The funniest Name I've seen lately in LoTRO was a player with a pet. The pet was "Sideous, ally to Darkside". I think all the Lego-alikes have gone by now.
Lore is an element of the bigger picture of immersion and it essential to help create the feeling of being immersed in an MMO. It probably requires the most creativity of any facet of an MMO and it's one of the major "ingredients" as the OP puts it to drawing a player into the game and keeping him/her there.
Think of an MMO as being like a story. No one likes a story unless it has an interesting plot. Lore is the plot of an MMO. The more of it there is, the more fun the game is. Of course, it has to be coherent as well. You can't just make up all these story lines that when taken as a whole don't make any sense and call it lore. So it has to be deep and rich, yet still interesting to follow. That's the trick.
You can have lore without immersion, but you can't have immersion without lore.
Make a game with no lore, then come back and show us that a MMORPG needs no lore
Heck, the current SWG is almost loreless..only got the textures from some known lore
While lore is important, there are points at which it must be diverged from (if you are using an outside IP) sometimes in order to actually promote better game play. Nothing like a good Lore Nazi.....
I think that lore can be important, but the problem is too many MMORPGs build their lore in a way that doesn't really effect gameplay in any way. For example, you can read the "backstory" to WoW, but it won't really have anything to do with how you actually play the game or what you're doing in the game. Cheap lore is only good for cheap RP.
Good lore is lore that is going to contribute to the progressing story as people play. For example, City of Heroes is constantly writing new lore and people are living through it in the game. Circumstances inside the game change as the story progresses and people become a part of that lore. Nexus TK, oooold Nexon MMORPG, also was very good with it's lore. It didn't have a lot of visible backstory, but after people had been playing for years lore built itself with the help of players. People who were veterans in the game could remember back and tell younger players of the amazing things they'd seen and experienced. For new players, this was real game lore and it was recorded and passed down by those who experienced it. This is GOOD lore.
We need to see lore used in a way that will make the players a part of the world. I don't want to spend a long time reading back about characters and stories who have nothing to do with the current gameplay; that's a huge waste of my free time that I would rather spend having fun.
I'll end my rant here.
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Lore makes no difference.. Lore is only for people who like reading.. I never read any lore when i play games. I have no patience for it.
lore really isnt that important to be honest. i have played many games where the lore makes no sense but the game is reasonably popular (vanguards lore makes 0 sense and its got a decent population...sort of, runescape is another one). gameplay is the real factor (as it is in ANY game because that is why we play them) if we wanted to see pretty pictures we could look at photos or watch a movie, if we wanted decent lore we could read a book. gameplay is what makes a game...a game
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
and it usually turns out being a big pile of shit