Lore is important

Lore matters. It's often considered to be low on the list of game features, it won't save a game that is otherwise lackluster or missing content, and it can't be the only reason you play a game. But it still matters, and it still has a lot of importance, and Kill Ten Rats has offered a long essay explaining exactly why lore is so important to the games we play and enjoy. Even if you generally don't think of yourself as someone who enjoys lore, it matters to you, and you would notice if it wasn't there.

The image above is a dramatization -- which looks more interesting, an elaborate piece of concept art of a character class or a square black box blankly listing attributes? As the essay points out, would you rather be fighting dragons and ogres, or hexagons and trapezoids? There's a very good reason why we need lore in our games and why we don't see any games that don't attempt to provide it, and it's explained here very, very well. Whether or not you consider yourself to be a fan of lore, you owe it to yourself to read the essay, and perhaps re-evaluate the way you see the backstory of the game.

Filed under: Culture, Lore, Opinion, Academic

Lore is important originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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