Black/white or grey/grey?

[ncvr]

Back when Warcraft: Orcs and Humans came out, Blizzard didn't really care about the lore at all either. They weren't known for spending a significant amount of time working on their games - it was just churn them out and make your profit like everybody else, with some storyline about demon-loving green monsters charging out from nowhere to kill humans.

Anyway, my point is that no matter how bad the lore is right now, NGD could always improve it and make it make sense. That way, players will actually feel like a part of the realm they're fighting for, and they'll feel like they're actually fighting for something other than a meaningless number.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1965567959 <- 19 page thread about ONE character.

[Arafails]

My memory of the lore as written in Ignis quests is, on the whole, that the nation is striking back at an oppressive Syrtis who keep doing bad things to them (eg, destroying the aqueduct to Medenet). I don't know where you're getting this "I like to use evil magic" thing from unless it's the runestones quest line, but AFAIK this is common to all realms.

[-Logan-]

I have to agree with what Mira said, because most of those thoughts are my own as well. The lore is NGD's last point of interest, and I think they don't even know that the majority people laugh at their game (and become unimpressed, contributing to leaving) when they read the lore. NGD doesn't know how a game story is supposed to look But at the same time I guess what more could they have done, they would need to hire a good person who could spell out the basic lore, and monitor changes to it.

...Then again this role usually falls on the lead designer, and since chilko has it in his ass as something unimportant, meh <_<

Originally Posted by chilko

what does a new player in the game knows about the storyline?

Duuuuuuuuuuuur, what you tell them in their first 5 minutes?

Originally Posted by Arafails

My memory of the lore as written in Ignis quests is, on the whole, that the nation is striking back at an oppressive Syrtis who keep doing bad things to them (eg, destroying the aqueduct to Medenet). I don't know where you're getting this "I like to use evil magic" thing from unless it's the runestones quest line, but AFAIK this is common to all realms.

Afair, and unless it has been changed now, Marlak will say the desert rock golems in central desert destroyed the aqueduct. The only Syrtian infiltration in Ignis would be Amina Fenixsteel (double agent). But since she's the generals daughter they just shrug it off and go, meh. Again, lulzy Ignis nobles for you there. Actually, I don't think Amina Fenixsteel works with Syrtis, she actually is conspiring with the Orcs.

Anyway, the "I like to use evil magic" is hardly present in Ignis in reality. We are talking about how theoretically all the realms are presented based on NGD's vision, which is seen very clearly on in the first 5 minutes of the game. It's NGD's vision that uses this "I like to use evil magic" theme.

[mr_scsi]

Originally Posted by Necrovarus

Nothing I've seen in Ignis comes off exactly as evil, maybe brutal or dark, but not sadistic or anything, so I'm leaning towards shades of grey.

Damn I guess I gotta up the evil a bit.

[mr_scsi]

I never understood all the need for lore. This is NOT a fantasy novel. Its a war game,
But its NOT warhammer or wow or any of the others, yet everyone compares it to them.

Why not just skip all the lore and lets kill some greenies...... That's all I need to know.

[El_Naso]

Originally Posted by mr_scsi

I never understood all the need for lore.

It makes lvling more enjoyable and less like grinding. Though that's only one factor in that equation.

[Miraculix]

Originally Posted by mr_scsi

I never understood all the need for lore.

It's not necessary when you're level 50, or even when you're 40 or whatever. But it helps to attract new players to the game, who need this kind of immersion in the game to be able to see some reason (at first) to choose one game over another, and later on one realm over the other (what chilko thinks is a "gut choice" is actually mostly dependent on the game lore).

[El_Naso]

Originally Posted by Miraculix

(what chilko thinks is a "gut choice" is actually mostly dependent on the game lore).

I have to disagree with you on this one Mira. It is a gut choice, Lore infused or not, because everything, even colors have values attached to them, not to mention races, subclases, general setting, landscape, weather, the list is endless.

It is how we relate with these values* what makes it a gut choice. We have long term expectations of the game from the beginning, we want our experience to be the most like what we expect and choose relam, subclass and our character's name and race accordingly. Popular choices involve popular values and induce overpopulation in a relam independently of the bonuses that were put in place to encourage an even population growth across relams. It's a gut choice because these values are part of our common knowledge.

*(by values I don't mean the moral values but rather "red means violence, blood and fury, blue means cold, green means nature and elves mean legolas" kind of values).

[-Logan-]

Originally Posted by mr_scsi

I never understood all the need for lore. This is NOT a fantasy novel. Its a war game,
But its NOT warhammer or wow or any of the others, yet everyone compares it to them.

Why not just skip all the lore and lets kill some greenies...... That's all I need to know.

If a game has no background, then it's weak. Maybe not to some people such as yourself, but there are many people in the MMO audience that look to lore as one of the key elements of a game. Yes, the most important thing in Regnum is the RvR aspect, but it needs sense or it doesn't click together when you look at it closely.

It's funny because lore is usually the foundation of an RPG game. If you want to make a game, you (usually the lead designer) go out and create a concept for your world. Then the rules come after it, in a way that fits in. You don't go out there and say, I want to make a game like Dark Age of Camelot, but it doesn't need a story, all it needs is the war element so people won't even know why they are fighting. If there was no story, then Regnum wouldn't stand out at all against games in the same genre.

If Regnum was like that then NGD would have been better off making an FPS arena styled game like War Rock or something. Fantasy MMO's especially need to have some sort of lore. Smart developers (and successful developers) are those that found the perfect mix between the two.

[ncvr]

It gives us a reason to go to war.

Fight for your realm, not for realm points and whatnot.