This month's topic is a request from CCP Sisyphus who wants to know how important is Lore in EVE Online?
"How important is “fluff” in Eve online?
Would eve online be the same if it were purely numbers and mechanics, or are
the fictional elements important to the enjoyment of the game? Would a pure
text, no reference to sci-fi or fancy names still be an engaging game? Should
CCP put more or less emphasis on immersion?"
Lore plays a key role in the continuing success of a
franchise. The immersion factor is just
half a sandwich, if you leave it out, guess what...you only have half a
sandwich. While I doubt a lot of people
take as much enjoyment as I do when I read the info on missions. With it being there it shows me the creators
care about their creation, if they didn't they can just tell me to go kill
Blood Raiders and collect five metal scraps (but even though all the ships are
made of metal, only one in a hundred drops scrap).
The world of Eve is fascinating and has so much
potential. With it being as vast as it
is, tons of little offshoot fiction stories are able to take place. When a game fails to have a compelling story
I often times fail to finish the game. CCP
should ask themselves if they are meeting the basic needs of their
consumers. The one thing they should be
concerned about is providing entertainment.
While there is a balance to juggle, if you leave out lore eventually you'll
lose a portion of your player base and from what I've noticed is a lot of your
big promoters enjoy a bit of lore.
I find lore to be a main driver of game progression. While it may not affect whether or not I blow
someone up, or have grand sweeping ripples across the universe. The fact it is there waiting for someone's
attention, plays a key role for future development. Take for example "Star Wars", how
much entertainment has that brought since it was first introduced? I know I have a whole bunch of books sitting
on my shelf and I've played a lot of games staged within its universe. It brought me massive entertainment when I
was younger and occasionally still does.
Would it have been as successful if the lore was never developed?
If you never give a good foundation the walls you build
later may come crumbling down. Even with
a good foundation a complete disregard for story elements can have devastating
results. How many concepts and ideas
have withered over the years because they failed to make a lasting impression or
will people look back on Eve and remember the battle for Caldari Prime?
While a lot of people don't care about what's going on in
game and focus solely on their play style.
Lore still has an impact on their gameplay. Would Gallente still be drone focused? How about the Missile using Caldari? Can the Amarr keep their gloriously golden
hulls, or the Minmatar and their rust bucket reputation? Lore helps provide life and color to an
otherwise grey universe. If CCP wants to
give us less lore so the game turns into something akin to Team Fortress 2, I
demand they at least give my spaceships hats.
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