Today's Round-table posted here.
The question:
What is your favorite way to consume the lore of EverQuest Next?
At the time of writing this, here is how everything stacks up:
This post, I'm going to do things a little differently. I think by evaluation the options and pointing to glaring discrepancies and the "missing" options, Sony might be throwing a blind shoulder to me. So, in an effort to draw some Sony attention to my blog I won't be saying that they missed critical options, or that their poll is one-sided and they've already made up their minds.
So, my thoughts:
Lore has always been a dangerous balancing act in any game. Cut scenes add to games, but also take away from games. When I watch a cut scene something is generally going on in an instance OR is bridging the gap between one part of an instance and another.
I'm an anti-instance kind of guy. I think that when a cut-scene comes up my immersion into the game actually goes DOWN because I'm forced to watch the exact same re-count of an event every time I go through it. Likewise, everyone that has ever gone through said event see's the same thing. And no, it still counts as "the same" even if you get to select option A or option B, or if your party show up on the screen instead of Soandso's party.
EverQuest however, relied on a tactful, and perhaps lucky balance of introducing lore while not cramming it down our throats. Allow me to explain.
Let's go back to that first critical moment that you started EverQuest, this one:
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| Classic EverQuest - Kelethin Starting Point |
That death aside, you progressed through the game without much understanding of lore, aside from what you picked up while visiting your class trainer (or Guildmaster) and what you heard while running from bat to bat. That was the beauty of it, you played the game and didn't worry about lore. It wasn't required to progress. No cut scenes, no books, no long quest dialogues (unless you wanted to!).
Flash forward, and you're fighting in Crushbone. Some silly bard /shouts "Dvinn to zone". Doesn't make any sense to you, because you're a newbie. Boom, you're dead, and this silly dark-elf says something about the Indigo Brotherhood and runs off to kill another newbie.
Fast forward some more, and you're across the world in Northern Ro, killing Derves with your buddies when some dude that looks JUST like D'vinn pops infront of you! You're buddies go and check him out, you scream a word of warning, but it's not required. D'vinn didn't agro them, but he's only KOS to you!
Then it dawns on you, killing all those Orcs was lowering my faction with the Indigo Brotherhood, that must be a group of these dark-elves! Interesting stuff, but now from your own playing experience you now know there is an elite group of Dark Elves that are spread about the world grouping with various "bad guys" and slaying newbies. You didn't need to read a book for it to happen, you EXPERIENCED IT, WITHOUT A CUT SCENE!
Most importantly, Dvinn and his buddy Dorn in North Ro didn't become "evil" to you because they were part of a cut-scene that said they are evil. They became evil to you because they either slayed or wanted to slay you. They didn't become part of some elite evil dark-elf group because the cut scene told you so, they were part of that group because you observed it!
To your friends, he's still some dark-skinned elf with a magical dagger fresh for the taking. They don't know these things. They haven't experienced them. For all you know, they could be allies to the Indigo Brotherhood, hell-bent on slaying wood elves and making platinum. The game has evolved differently for both you and your friends, and THAT is a key part of EverQuest, and it should be a KEY part of EverQuest Next.
Another path, let's say your lone ranger is about to quest out into the world, potentially to collect his Raincaller bow! The undisputed awesome bow of the classic era. You head over to Lesser Faydark, start exploring, and this lovely fellow pops by to say hello.
Yup, you're dead again! And in EverQuest, death is pretty powerful stuff. You know this horse means business and you want to make sure it doesn't get you again! You ask questions, you research where it spawns, and that leads you to some powerful Lore.
You see, Lesser Faydark used to be very safe, with the odd bandit running around. Cazic Thule corrupted it, including the horsey you see above (actually a Unicorn). To end the corruption, Firiona Vie broke off Equestrielle's horn, but the corrupted horsey remained to plague the forest.
I didn't have to watch a cut scene to tell me that, I found it by talking to fellow players that experienced the event and by research some stuff on the internet about what other people had EXPERIENCED.
What I'm trying to say is this:
Cut Scenes are not effective. They are pretty and pampered ways to bridge gaps in content.
The best way to introduce Lore, is to have it AVAILABLE and let players experience it at their own pace.
To clarify, available means:
- Websites
- In-game Books
- Story Telling NPCs
- Quest NPCs
- etc.
Just look at the wealth of knowledge collected here, it's incredible: http://www.elitegamerslounge.com/home/lore/
Let players make their own experiences and their own decisions WITH Lore. Don't use pre-determined experiences and decisions (movies, cut scenes, etc) to teach the lore.
Let players make their own experiences and their own decisions WITH Lore. Don't use pre-determined experiences and decisions (movies, cut scenes, etc) to teach the lore.
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| Choosing 1, 2 or 3 is not a sandbox RPG, it's a choose your own adventure novel. And you know what you need to make a novel? Printed pages to flip to. You aren't writing your own story, you're following one. |
Final words:
I want lots of lore, everywhere, and it all has to be 100% optional content. No required reading, no required cut scenes. Make it part of the game, with all players exposed to it, but not all players required to participate in it. Players will be inclined to immerse themselves in the lore, rather than have you force it down their throats.
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