I’ve been slacking lately on writing something deep and meaningful. I blame it on a busy house and a lack of caffeine! Hopefully I have redeemed myself.
Inspiration often comes from reading as much as I possibly can about a subject until something just pops out at me. While browsing boards today I discovered several topics on lore in general, whether they be from novels such as the Warhammer novel announced this week or from a general study of a wiki site. There’s almost nothing we can’t know these days with access to the web and it’s multitude of resources. So like I said I was browsing a Warhammer Online board I came across this topic asking “Is knowing the lore an advantage or disadvantage?”. It’s a question that does cause you to stop, think to the last game with a decent story, ponder if you knew anything about it, and then come to the conclusion whether or not it had any impact on your gameplay.
To sort of tie in other games with this topic I can think of only a handful of games that I knew something about the story before logging in. Star Wars Galaxies and Lord of the Rings Online have to be the two biggest games without question. Both games have enormous back story, history, lore, and even a universe surrounding them. I remember logging in to Star Wars Galaxies for the first time and saying “oh…my…god.. I’m on Tatooine”. The sites were familiar, the world was familar, and it made the game feel like home; like comfort food would. I remember finding Jaba’s palace and saying to myself “Gamorrean Guards are going to be there!” and the only way I would have known this is obviously from watching Return of the Jedi 7,204 times and reading several novels. Finding Han Solo and Chewbacca was on my to-do list and I knew right where to find them without knowing for sure where to find them – does that make sense? It was obvious that Han and Chewy would be in Mos Eisley and it was obvious that this city was going to feel like a wretched hive of scum and villainy.
In LOTRO I remember playing the first 2 minutes and saying to myself “Ugh, these animations are horrible”. I thought it was a done deal that before even finishing the tutorial I was going to toss the game aside for feeling too much like another Turbine game. However, once I progressed 5 minutes more to the end of the tutorial I saw a Nazgul and the eye of Sauron gaze upon me. I saw the dread engross my character and the darkness envelope all hope that was left in me. Then I saw elves bust out of the bushes and I knew that I was going to be okay. Why would I have any idea that I was going to be okay? It’s because I knew the lore that I was given this sense of immersion. When traveling to Rivendell for the first time there were sights that I wanted to see well before I was given a quest to explore them. I knew Elrond’s home, the Last Homely House, would be right above the Falls of Imladris. Knowing the lore of the Fellowship of the Ring it was obvious that The Fellowship would be in Rivendell preparing to set out on their journey. Running through the streets and finding over a dozen familiar names added to the experience of LOTRO like nothing else could. If not for the lore I would not be playing.
So let’s look deeper into this question. Is knowing the lore an advantage? Has knowing the lore put me at any sort of advantage or disadvantage over someone else? From a gameplay perspective both tactical and practical no, it does not. I am at no advantage over anyone else simply because I know the Moons of Endor in alphabetical order. The lore has simply been another dimension of my game experience. It’s a layer that I would have never had without the prior knowledge. In all cases it has compounded my enjoyment of the games. Perhaps that is indeed an advantage afterall. Looking at the question from another perspective… will you have the advantage of more fun if you know the lore? It’s absolutely possible.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is going to be very lore intensive. Gamesworkshop is working diligently to keep the game within the bounds of the lore to keep the Warhammer experience intact. EA Mythic has, from the start, told us that several things will be a certain way because the lore dictates that it must be so. To be completely honest I know very little about Warhammer. I’ve been semi interested lately in learning about the different races and their history merely in order to help myself make the right choice of character. Knowing that the game will stick heavily to the lore it could be an advantage to know what I’m getting myself into. I’m half tempted to pick up a copy of “World of Warhammer” (No you didn’t misread that, it’s really a book) and brush up on the story. With the novel coming out it’s also tempting to read other material.
It’s also interesting to note that over the past few years several MMO’s have been a success and several have been less successful and even failed. It’s a curious conclusion that I have drawn but let’s take a look at the games. Star Wars Galaxies had an enormous amount of lore to go on, World of Warcraft had lots of lore, Lord of the Rings had plenty of lore. Vanguard had no previous lore, Auto Assault had no lore, Everquest 2 had some lore, and Horizons had no lore. The ones with solid lore before the games released were a huge success and the ones with minor to no lore were failures. There are of course some that break the mold such as Lineage 2 and City of Heroes but those are too few. Looking at this comparison should make you think: Does lore give the game an advantage? All signs point to yes.
As the next wave of MMORPGs make their way into beta testing it’s interesting to apply the same comparison.  Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, and Star Trek Online all have an established lore. Pirates of the Burning Sea, Tabula Rasa, and Gods and Heroes have no lore. It will be interesting to see which games will be a success and which will fall by the wayside. I’m definitely looking forward to a future blog entry where I reference this post to analyze if perhaps there is a connection between lore and success.
Brush up on that lore! It might just be fun.
You nailed it. Lore doesn’t give a practical advantage with the current state of things, but it can certainly lend to immersiveness and fun. I hope that someday there can actually be puzzles, riddles and mysteries within MMOs where knowing the lore will be the only way to solve them and possibly progress. But as long as Allakhazam and WoWhead are around, it’s going to be tough to do things like that.
In terms of upcoming games, I think you might be right. I was re-listening to the VirginWorlds Top 10 MMOs of the Future podcasts on my drive this past weekend. This very subject came up – Will people, knowing nothing about either game, be more willing to try out StarGate Worlds or Tabula Rasa. The point was, the pre-existing IP will pull people in because they’ll have at least some familiarity with it. Exactly the same as your other examples. So yeah, it will be interesting to see if there’s a connection.
I’d say City of Heroes had some sort of lore to go on from Marvel/Dark Horse Comics even if it wasn’t specific to them as the characters from the comics lived in the real world, so it wasn’t more than a simple step for someone to associate what it was like to be a superhero.
I agree with what you say though, all my friends that played Warcraft 3 are still playing WoW, the ones that didn’t stopped playing.
I disagree that specifically ‘lore’ makes a game successful. It does, however, force an even playing field, between development, management, testers, and players…. which (in my opinion) forces ‘expectations’.
Without expectations, games die. There’s very little fan-base input driving the (for lack of a better word) ‘content’ and ‘play style’ of the game.
You’ve got one glaring item missing from your article – the original Everquest, which did so well that an IP spawned FROM it. Prior to the developers creating their own storyboard for EQ, nothing existed, yet the game still persists today what, 9 years later?
Pre-existing IP (lore) can be both a benefit and a detriment. It takes an exceptional team to work around lore shortcomings to deliver a FUN game. The eye of sauron and the nazgul may have drawn you in, but it was the presentation and accessibility of that lore that made you continue to play until you were high enough level to brave that trip to Rivendell, not just the lore itself.
Just because a game has lore does not guarantee it success (matrix online anyone?) and neither does it doom it to failure.
@ pcmodem: You are correct. I left out the games that I felt launched the genre, such as EQ1, DAOC, Asheron’s Call, etc. I feel those were original enough to draw the crowds simply because they were new and original. The direction of my post was to try and draw a conclusion based on the information we have about games that have released since the original generation. It does seem that games with a solid lore and history have outperformed those without ‘overall’. Of course I must add in again that there are the exceptions such a Lineage2.
There are many factors that determine a successful MMO and never before have I included lore among them. It’s always been development, production, implementation, gameplay, support, and things along those lines.
Thats because there are a lot of players who simply click through that content to get to the “game”. Its not necessarily needed to progress, but yes, I do think that those who immerse themselves into the lore of the world will find it harder to leave that world.
I really liked that correlation between games that have done poorly and their lore content. However, VG did have a big following when the lore was released periodically on the old website and there was even a compendium floating around before release. I think they were indeed trying to create a good back-story for the game, but as the developers are now acknowledging, the game itself did little to bring it together for the players.
Jump over to Ryzom and I seriously think the lore is what is holding that game together. The in game events bring the world together and keep all of the players going.
There is no doubt that lore has an impact on the success of a game, I think thats why we are all eager for Bioware to get cracking on their MMO.