Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
What MMOs have the most intricate lore/story?
GPrestige
Member UncommonPosts: 523
This isn't a LFGame post.
After playing TESO beta for a bit, I realized that despite its shortcomings, I absolutely love the fact that there is a massive story behind everything. It made me realize just how much I value lore and story, even though I'm not even slightly interested in RPing.
I'm aware that due to the size of an MMO and the fact that they are ever expanding, a game may retcon some lore after time, but it doesn't bother me as much as a game that doesn't put any effort into the story at all. And there are quite a few MMOs that throw together a game with great PVP and acceptable PVE, only to have a thin layer of storytelling draped over it as an afterthought.
So, I ask, what MMOs in your opinion have the most intricate story and lore?
-Computer specs no one cares about: check.
-MMOs played no one cares about: check.
-Xfire stats no one cares about: check.
-Signature no one cares about: check.
------------------------------------------------------------
-Narcissism: check.
Comments
The Secret World has had the best easily of any mmo I've played, and the best quests that tell such a story. SWTOR has story but that's all it's got, I absolutely despised that game. Final Fantasy XIV has a good story too but it's hard to catch back up on everything missed with the 1.0 launch - plus the story with the relaunch is weaker in my opinion. Still, it has a very story oriented game world. I almost forgot LOTRO had a good an continuous story throughout the game too, haven't played it in years though.
Winner - The Secret World
Lotro, obviously, is the best...hands down.
TSW is very good from what I've played.
SWTOR is obviously very good as well.
TESO and WildStar both have great stories and lore.
FFXIV supposedly does, but from the limited time I played, I found it very cheesy. I would imagine it gets better.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
-Unconstitutional laws aren't laws.-
I liked wow's lore up to wrath. After that I stopped paying attention and the whole deathwing thing was lame but it's one of the few games I actually knew who a raid boss was and why he was there etc. That and actually seeing them in game and getting to fight them was cool.
Most mmos now I just know the loot table...at most.
I mainly play Runescape for it's lore. The Runescape team is especially good at long and short teases with big reveals for the lore whores in the game like me.
The game has an epic arc. But, also every region has it's own deep history and arc for your adventures in it. The tail ends of which are ongoing as they simultaneously tie into the epic arc. Then aside from that there are mini story lines. and even storylines for each of the minigames. For instance with dungeoneering, you will as you progress into deeper and deeper floors of daemonhiem find papers. Some are pages of journals that you can collect and read through to find tells about characters that may have seemed at first to be one dimensional. Others, when asking an old sage about outside of daemonhiem, he "tells you a story" in which you play through what happened in the tale as the main characters.
My favorite ones involve animal speak amulets. Like the monkey speak, cat speak, and camulet (camle speak), amulets. Turns out my cat is a jerk, and as far as he is concerned I belong to him. he says I have a performance review coming up -_- . Heck even little things like that. Like you learn the rules of being a cat.
1) If at first you don't succeed, take a nap.
2) If you make a mistake, console yourself with grooming as you simultaneously pretend it was intentional.
(those are the ones I got so far, I gotta find and talk to more cats).
One of the most exciting things currently is the 6th age content. In which players are charting the course of the game. Like right now players can help Armadyl or Bandos (or even the godless, or just ignore the content). But one thing is for sure. Unlike the previous fight between Zamorak and Saradomin...by the end of this fight. A god will die.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
LotRO, TSW and AoC, that's exactly why I play them the most. Lore / story ftw.
STO on the second place, it has great storylines and in the Foundry there's a massive amount of well-written fan content as well, but the game is not always a perfect match to the lore (canon) - just like the new movies.
I haven't played TOR in almost a year, but I admit it has at least 2 awesome, and a few good class stories. I rather wouldn't comment the lore part, for me this late jarjar-ification and cartoon-clone wars isn't part of the lore
You should read more Pratchett
A'Tuin rocks in that department.
WoW before Cata did the best job employing its lore of the games I've played (I only have limited experience with the EQs). They certainly altered and shoehorned things for gameplay purposes, but I loved coming across locations, characters, and quests that referenced the RTSs, and there was very often an underlying story unifying quests that unfortunately most people didn't appreciate because they don't read quest text. The game itself built up an entire history for Azeroth, from the great troll kingdoms down to the smaller settlements. Although of course, things were located where they were for gameplay purposes, vanilla WoW's writers often felt the need to provide in-world reasons for them being there.
Star Wars has a ton of lore, far more detailed than WoW and I imagine nearly every other game setting, but SWTOR always felt to me like Bioware desperately wanted to do its own thing, choosing to acknowledge the lore via loose associations (like the races and the planets the action takes place on) and sticking the rest in infodumps (the datacrons for example). The art direction ripped off a lot from the movie era as well, which compromises the feeling that the SWTOR period somehow fits in a larger unified timeline IMO.
Incidentally, the Forgotten Realms might have even more lore than Star Wars, but by the time you get to 4e and Neverwinter a lot of it got nuked to irrelevance.
i think LotRO is a clear leader in this. the complex nature of a story universe built on top of, and for the purpose of expressing, imaginary languages just can't be beat.
however, i really don't think it's a fair comparison. JRRT built his world around his languages as an Oxford Don and with decades of linguistic experience and in the study of mythology. added to this another 'apples and oranges' aspect is that he was free to write however he wanted. games have player interaction at a level unprecedented in story-making.
so LotRO aside i would want to say TSW is certainly up there, but i didn't make it far in the game and wonder how well all of the varied stories are woven together into a whole picture.
other than that i'd have to say the Everquest and Warcraft franchises. i found the lore in the EQ IP to be a bit of an overload in trying to get hold of it's central themes and progression (i still do, tbh). whereas in WoW i found that when they weren't 'retcon'ng' the heck out of their lore Blizzard's was more easily comprehensible overall.
i put them both together because they each have great lore one is more complex than the other, but doesn't do quite as good of a job of making the overall story accessible. (you can guess which one is which.)
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
This is a tricky one... Should one regard the entire mythos or just the lore connected to the game...
If we go by "mmo-exclusive" lore i´d say the EQ series have some pretty deep and well developed lore. TSW is another one that rank very high and that i would strongly recommend if you can look past the horrid animations.
If we look at lore in general i´d say that the top three (for me) would be WoW, SWtOR and WAR (yes it is dead but the lore was so well intergrated)
Not on this list but worth mentioning is LotR:O... Not on my top three as all they had to do was not bungle up. But if you want a rich, massive fantasy world generally Tolkien is a good place to look.
This have been a good conversation
FFXI has the most in depth story,i had to play a long time before i realized it and how big that story is.Each expansion has a massive story with characters in the game actually a part of it.
What sets it apart is comparing for example to TSW.In TSW you are forced to follow a linear path ,so the story is forced,it is not like a RPG story which is suppose to be YOUR adventure that unfolds as you wish,when you want it to.In TSW you don't advance,you are stagnant unless you keep following that linear path and their story is as i said forced onto each linear path.
i can use one small example from FFXI to show how it is all over the game.In FFXI the whole premise is to battle the beast hordes and save the mother crystals all the while entwined with the Avatars the almighty supreme creatures similar to gods.as we know it.,you do that all the time.There is a NPC named CID you can see him at ANY time in the game working in his shop,he is a part of the whole FF story line,he goes back to prior FF games,he built the Airships.
See the difference,the story is throughout the game instead of do quest now you get to see the next phase but none it is really in the game world unless you unlock it.SWTOR does the same thing,each red zone has to be unlocked,the rest of the game world is not tied into the story and it should be.
Also in FFXI almost if not every single creature is from mythology of various cultures,it is not just made up out of thin air.
Example Odin is of Norse mythology and Leviathon is a sea monster referenced in the Tanakh, or the Old Testament. The word has become synonymous with any large sea monster or creature.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
EQ franchise, simply due it's longevity has a huge storyline.
WoW also has a gigantic storyline that is augmented by books to fill in what online adaptions can't. Lorehounds eat them up like candy, and even side swipe the Blizzard devs when they mess up on the lore (the famous "red shirt guy" incident). WoD will be the third version of the Outland story as well (which hopefully explains the existence of the Draneali and Blood Elves better) ...well, better than this...
.:| Kevyne@Shandris - Armory |:. - When WoW was #1 - .:| I AM A HOLY PALADIN - Guild Theme |:.
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
World of Warcraft, no other game had me interested in it's lore that i actually read some books and i frequently visit the wiki to read up some background Lore, it also helps that i played Warcraft 2 and 3.
SWTOR was meh and forgettable, i liked the Agent story line but that's about it.
TSW deployed it's story very good, i really liked the starting area but the game has way to many shortcomings, that i couldn't play this for a long time.
Middle Earth was here long before Star Wars, no mmo can come close to lotro for lore.