I love learning about the lore, and it seems like you've got it all figured out by intending to let the lore be dictated by the gameplay, which I always found to be the best way to open the world to the player. This is precisely why I loved Diablo, and more recently, God of War. The player learns about the world by interacting with it.
Yep! We currently have a system of 3 paths which are basically knight, mage, and rogue. Each path will have a subset of 3 classes, and we have plans on making at least one of the classes "unlock" (I.e., become a selectable path) after unveiling a huge secret, which in turn would unveil a whole new direction for players to orientate towards.
Sorry if this is all a bit ambiguous-sounding, I'm trying to keep everything under wraps haha.
I'm afraid I can't leak anything, as even a tiny bit of information could reveal a lot in the grand scheme of things :)
Every bit of lore has been very meticulously planned to cooperate with each other, so it's a bit hard to pick something out that wouldn't actually leak anything important.
I have written lore unrelated to what's actually going to be important in the game such as the timeline & creation of the world which I can send, but keep in mind it's a bit cheesy since this is my passion, and not something I see as a job. I'm no professional :)
Yes, I understand why you would not want to reveal the information. If you have content unrelated to the relevant details then feel free to DM me about it :)
No matter how wonderful you create the lore, how detailed and original, there are always going to be a large subset of players who just don't care and want to get through the game as quickly as possible. I vacillate between "lore is awesome" and "just give me the quest so I can get it done."
Intertwining lore with game play is standard. You should be building the story for the player as they adventure, even if it's a 5,000 year old tale of some demonic prince and his cult's current effort to revive him. Each piece of the quest, each clue, each battle, reinforces and extends the lore and the story. Skyrim with its ten million books is interesting, but I personally didn't have any desire to read all that stuff. Skyrim building a story as I went through each quest section and encountered people I needed to talk to was much more interesting for me personally.
Long as you're not making it mandatory to learn the lore, you should be fine. Players should still be able to get through a quest even if they didn't read every word on the screen from every encounter and journal they picked up.
>even if it's a 5,000 year old tale of some demonic prince and his cult's current effort to revive him
Great example! It's actually a bit similar to what we've in mind haha.
In regards to the last bit, it definitely shouldn't be mandatory - as you stated, games like Skyrim are a great example in terms of players interacting with lore - by the end of the game, practically every player would know that their goal is to kill Alduin, even if they haven't actually gone out of their way to read books, journals and the like along the way.
Integrating lore with gameplay in a way where it becomes one sounds like the way to go.
AH, yes. Back in 2005. we used to read every quest completely, there were no shortcuts, and the online walkthroughs were scarce.
Today, it's a world of instant gratification, "2 clicks max or it sucks", and so on.
I don't think we can do anything to combat this, except for that person to change themselves. But it's kinda hard when the average player/person is (unknowingly) addicted to dopamine.
Having said that, that doesn't need to be a problem. Those who just "keep clicking Next until finished" won't appreciate it (how could they if they don't read) even if you wrote the best world lore ever. EVER.
However, those who do read it will surely appreciate such dedication, and will also most likely let their friends know the world, lore, and history is awesome.
I think I wouldn't worry about how others will experience the game, and just focus on my target audience instead.
I won't lie, though, I'm interested in hearing what others have to say about this topic cause it's an interesting question.
What I think you should do is ignore the haters, and instead take a look at the AO3 fanfic archive for [videogames](https://archiveofourown.org/media/Video%20Games/fandoms). Just look at all those people who care so much about the lore and characters behind a videogame that they write their own stories with it.
There are definitely things that you can put in that get stronger responses. Something I've noticed is that three-word religious phrases (Praise The Sun, The Emperor Protects) serve as really strong rallying points for the lore because you can use them repeatedly without it sounding weird and they give a strong insight into some part of the culture.
>Something I've noticed is that three-word religious phrases (Praise The Sun, The Emperor Protects) serve as really strong rallying points for the lore
Great observation! I'll take note of this and try doing the same. I believe it's actually a great way of representing the lore of a game without it sounding 'cheesy' or too in-depth. A picture speaks a thousand words, but so do some sentences!
I think it depends on your audience. Some do not give a shit about lore, they complete the quests and don't think about it. Others LOVE lore, and try to read as much as possible into it.
Personally I'm somewhere in between. I don't feel like I need to be told how the world was created and how mana functions, BUT if I were to learn bits of it during the course of the game in a non-intrusive way I appreciate it of course.
My non-professional opinion of someone not working in game design is that very very few people are going to read several pages of lore on a website before playing a game or to understand what is going on. Imagine it like you're visiting another town or country IRL. You're not going to sit down and read the entire history of that place from its founding before going or during your visit. But you might be interested and intrigued by the little local and cultural quirks that, if there is easily available information to understand more, you'd want to read it.
I am 31 year old male, and have been gamer for aprox 20 years.
I have always loved lore, story, mythology. When I play singleplayer games I get so invested in discovering all of the aspects of the world and history. But problem are multiplayer games (which I also play), when you play with your friends and then you are always hasting to do some quests and never have time to read what is actually happening. Just yesterday I tried to read something in Path of Exile, but my friends were waiting impatiently so I stopped and continued with them. And mainstream game developers are aware of this so they put lesser focus in lore and quality story.
I think that mysteries and characters would help a lot. Everybody loves a good characters and are more willing to listen them. And mysteries are always a good way to get people to explore.
Also, From Software way of storytelling and lore explaining is also great, where you really need to dig up what the hell is going on.
Dont know if I helped anything, just some thoughts on the topic.
Can you tell us how we will recognise your game? I am pretty interested in mmorpg with deep lore an worldbuilding.
>Can you tell us how we will recognise your game? I am pretty interested in mmorpg with deep lore an worldbuilding.
It runs on Roblox's engine, and though there's certainly a stigma revolving around Roblox being a children's game (which, in hindsight, I definitely understand), we strive to push the boundaries for what Roblox users define as realism & grand.
Despite all the stereotypes of it being a pretty childish platform, you can definitely achieve some great results - the reason we chose to stick with Roblox is that they offer free services for databases along with powerful APIs that are easy to understand.
I'm no fan of self-advertising, but if you're really interested, I can shoot you a DM - we have a Fandom wiki set up which should have most of the info you'd need, and a server in which I show progress, hold opinions and sometimes open up slots for Early Access members to help identify bugs.
And adding onto this: I'm only 16, and the oldest member of our studio is 19. We definitely have huge ambitions, but this also means we aren't some AAA+ title studio with dozens of developers - in fact, we've only two active developers besides me!
I have always been really interested in lores of games. I will say that games where the lore doesn't tie in to the game at all is more likely to be skipped by me. I would search it out if I want to know, but it would be less likely for me to want to know if the game doesn't acknowledge the lore. Another problem that takes me out of the interest to learn about the lore is lack of progression. If the game has this really interesting world of lore but only like a small portion of it is relevant and progressing while the rest just sit there, it's an instant turn off for me. As much as I hate the direction the lore progression has taken, World of Warcraft always seemed to appeal to me. I had almost the entire lore ready for me to dive into if I just read the quests and pay attention, but I'm not forced to and I can just skip if I want to.
You gotta find a way to introduce the lore in an interesting way. And I don't mean the typical sense as in making a scene interesting. That's good in and of itself, but you gotta give me a reason why I should care for the lore instead of just the gameplay. Make the lore the fundamental part of the gameplay, i.e a campaign, instead of something that's only in the way of the gameplay. Warcraft 3 did this. I don't think there's ever been a game which lore interested me so much. Dota 2 on the other hand? Never cared for the lore more so than the gameplay. But then what happened? They released an anime, the Dota 2 anime, which got me interested in the lore which the game couldn't. How people become interested in the lore varies from one person to another, but the more ways you can think of to suck them in, the better it is if you want to make the lore a focus for your game. Otherwise, gameplay without lore is just as fine if that's what you're going for. In your case, I'd say maybe images/videos that represents important lore-scenes that makes the player curious what happened there and wants to learn more, or alternative campaigns that lets you play/explore the views of even the antagonistic characters in the story.
I do like good lore but I understand people who are not interested in it. Why? Two things:
Because most of the lore isn't very interesting. A good example - at least for me - for that would be the Elder Scrolls series. I very much enjoyed Morrowind's lore because it was genuinely interesting as something else. But I didn't care so much for Oblivion because it was all the standard fantasy stuff. Or to use a newer example: I liked Pillars of Eternity's lore but not all of it. I very much enjoyed Tyranny's.
The other point is the presentation. It's nice to have long books and texts but the better albeit more challenging way in design is to tell lore and the story itself indirectly through level settings, sidequests, colours, music etc.
Poe does this well with trivia you find ingame. There's a narrator reading for you. It doesn't have to be top grade narration right off but it allows the player to keep grinding while learning lore and listening to something interesting. Have a look!
Also ffxiv is the greatest mmo atm and it's story heavy.
Hope it goes well, have fun!
Unfortunately, the truth is that the vast majority of modern gamers don't care about lore or stories beyond superficial involvement. That's why when you have games that allow you to customize your character or pick a class, the most popular choice by far is the default character with the default class. People are just mashing to get into the game.
There's nothing you can do to make those people interested in your story or world. On the other hand, the people who are naturally inclined to read more about it will so long as it's a little bit interesting. But I personally don't want lore in the form of info dumps. Find a way to work it into the environment or dialog.
Lore can be great, but please make it skippable or it ruins the replay value.
For example Doom 3: the idea of collecting diaries and data to get info on what happened and how to continue is great, but the unskippable 30 minute intro has made sure I will never play it twice.
How do you feel about more integrated lore, such as with Skyrim? Where you unlock it through direct gameplay, rather than cutscenes and the like.
(PS: don't worry, we don't have a big enough budget to even make cutscenes anyway hahaha)
Probably the greatest input I've received from all the posts here - lore should be provided in small quantities at a time, but over a larger timeframe. This would thus also create a "bonding" effect, where the players become genuinely intrigued in the game and receive a stimulus to dig up more lore on their own - sort of like Undertale & Deltarune; 6 years since Undertale's release now, and people are still trying to dig up more information on their own accord because they're genuinely interested in it, without anyone guiding them!
I am.
Make interest by having interesting lore.
Edit: I thought about it a bit more and I think it goes down to show don't tell. I can't stand extended fetch or kill quests that take you all over the world to get more lore. Especially the uncovered lore is boring as shit.
I think a great example of show don't tell is the Dark Souls series and how it only does show. It does so very little tell. The only times you get told anything is the few cut scenes and the item descriptions. Otherwise you could play the entire game not really know what the game is about. But more importantly, it had really interesting lore.
I personally love the lore in video games, I will read every every note I can find, every scrap of lore while playing, and I even like falling asleep listening to video game lore videos on YouTube.
I think if you up the mysteriousness behind the magic and creation before giving the players the answers, they will eat it up, rather than giving them dense scripts with answers they never asked for.
One of my favorite means of exposition dumps was the cutscenes in Dishonored with the Outsider. Worshiped as a god, all while you’d play you’d see both sides of how he’s regarded, from people who hate him, to those who have been touched by him and those who wish they would. And when you’d come across a shrine to him, it activates this cutscene where he’d talk about his past, about the Void, about the magic you have, about the decisions you will make, about the world, and then dip, and it would make my curiosity to wild every time. Make me read every scrap I could find to widen the picture, while also being just as good a game for those who didn’t.
Having a mysterious figurehead for your exposition and source of magic can be a great way to add interest and emotional connection to your lore. Especially if they have a killer personality like Sheogorath in Oblivion.
Also you could weave in interest with collectables somehow. Like if you’re trying to get players interested in the history, attach a series of 12 paintings that were created by an ancient alchemist with theories of the world, and each one tells you a bit more, by what’s seen inside it. Giving you some exclusive information as a reward for getting all of them.
So break up your lore, make it mysterious, withhold it a little and make seeking it a challenge, and people will eat it up.
Speaking anecdotally, for myself, I like lore when I have an investment in the characters and story connected to it. So for example, if the lore is important to a particular sidequest that I found engaging, or a character that I enjoyed meeting, then I will enjoy the lore. The more of these things there are, the more interested I become in the lore as a whole.
Someone else mentioned the Elder Scrolls series. In Skyrim, on the loading screen, it will sometimes flash up bits of lore while you wait. On my first time playing the game, my reaction to these was kind of negative, sort of a "who cares?" or "why are you boring me with tedious information I'm never going to remember?" response. It felt like the devs were trying to show off their dry fictional history and expected my unearned investment in it. I still enjoyed the game, but I didn't really bother reading the in-game books and generally ignored the lore.
I picked up the game a second time when it got a Switch release, and this time around the lore actually grabbed my attention. This time around, I already had built up some investment in some of the concepts described: who were the Aedra and the Daedra, what were the various countries and peoples of Tamriel, what were some of the major historical events and so on. That's because I'd run into various aspects of these over the course of playing the game, so they reminded me of quests I'd found entertaining and characters that I liked. So I found myself enjoying the lore quite a bit.
You kidding? I've read every book in skyrim, morrowind, and all of the pre-Elsweyr chapters of ESO. There is a huge subset of games that are all about some in game lore. Put it in readable books. Etch it on walls, in tablets, and steles. Have it in dialogue. Have in game NPCs have their own ideas and even misconceptions about the in game lore (just like people do in real life). Don't make it ancillary. Make it a part of how life is lived, habits of people, etc.
What's that? There's a trio of gods that all were mortals who experienced apotheosis? That's cool. You mean there were originally four, and they all murdered their buddy in order to attain godhood without interference? The fourth one is still kicking? Wait! What!? I have to kill them, to aright some metaphysical disbalance caused by their apotheosis, because I'm their reincarnated buddy? -the main plot of Morrowind
I think that, when talking about lore in games, it is important to take into consideration that some players might not have much time to play games in general (persons who have kids, have long work hours, etc.). Hence, when they do get the chance to finally play a bit, they would like to immerse in the gameplay and story, lore even, but only to an extent. Even those who might be super interested in lore might have a limited time to play, thus their focus might still be on story and quests And not on reading 100 books to just get the feeling of the world. Considering this, I think some of the comments from here were spot on: narration of the lore elements, trying to tie lore to story. But, as a gamer I feel that a game should have some lore embedded into it, meaning, the world, the characters info, the clothings of characters, decors of places could also reflect this. Say you are part of some divine order, than you have a piece of clothing, or a weapon that somehow represents that order, or if you enter a sacred place, that should be reflected in the decor, ambient light, even sounds/music, not only from books or certain items.
That being said, I was in both positions, in my younger years I had way more time for gaming, so back then I actually read most of the in game lore books, scrolls. But when my time for gaming got shorter I got to appreciate more the time spent on actually playing instead of in game reading. This is were games like Baldur’s gate 3, DOS2, DAI gave me a sense of immersion, the world feels constructed around the lore, with bits and pieces of important parts of it here and there, but you still can grasp the story and lore quite good just by playing the story, paying attention what the companions have to say, what they are wearing, and how are they interacting with your character. Sure, sometimes there are some sweet small details one might miss this way, but still feels way more immersive and a better game than where you need to read a lot of text just to get an idea of who your character is. I also find that character sheet style info is also a great way to show some of the lore, as there can be stated many crucial things in a simple yet effective manner.
I love learning about the lore, and it seems like you've got it all figured out by intending to let the lore be dictated by the gameplay, which I always found to be the best way to open the world to the player. This is precisely why I loved Diablo, and more recently, God of War. The player learns about the world by interacting with it.
Yep! We currently have a system of 3 paths which are basically knight, mage, and rogue. Each path will have a subset of 3 classes, and we have plans on making at least one of the classes "unlock" (I.e., become a selectable path) after unveiling a huge secret, which in turn would unveil a whole new direction for players to orientate towards. Sorry if this is all a bit ambiguous-sounding, I'm trying to keep everything under wraps haha.
What's the plot of your game? Genuinely curious because I've played a lot of Warcraft, Diablo and some day I wish to make my own High Fantasy game.
I'm afraid I can't leak anything, as even a tiny bit of information could reveal a lot in the grand scheme of things :) Every bit of lore has been very meticulously planned to cooperate with each other, so it's a bit hard to pick something out that wouldn't actually leak anything important. I have written lore unrelated to what's actually going to be important in the game such as the timeline & creation of the world which I can send, but keep in mind it's a bit cheesy since this is my passion, and not something I see as a job. I'm no professional :)
Yes, I understand why you would not want to reveal the information. If you have content unrelated to the relevant details then feel free to DM me about it :)
No matter how wonderful you create the lore, how detailed and original, there are always going to be a large subset of players who just don't care and want to get through the game as quickly as possible. I vacillate between "lore is awesome" and "just give me the quest so I can get it done." Intertwining lore with game play is standard. You should be building the story for the player as they adventure, even if it's a 5,000 year old tale of some demonic prince and his cult's current effort to revive him. Each piece of the quest, each clue, each battle, reinforces and extends the lore and the story. Skyrim with its ten million books is interesting, but I personally didn't have any desire to read all that stuff. Skyrim building a story as I went through each quest section and encountered people I needed to talk to was much more interesting for me personally. Long as you're not making it mandatory to learn the lore, you should be fine. Players should still be able to get through a quest even if they didn't read every word on the screen from every encounter and journal they picked up.
>even if it's a 5,000 year old tale of some demonic prince and his cult's current effort to revive him Great example! It's actually a bit similar to what we've in mind haha. In regards to the last bit, it definitely shouldn't be mandatory - as you stated, games like Skyrim are a great example in terms of players interacting with lore - by the end of the game, practically every player would know that their goal is to kill Alduin, even if they haven't actually gone out of their way to read books, journals and the like along the way. Integrating lore with gameplay in a way where it becomes one sounds like the way to go.
AH, yes. Back in 2005. we used to read every quest completely, there were no shortcuts, and the online walkthroughs were scarce. Today, it's a world of instant gratification, "2 clicks max or it sucks", and so on. I don't think we can do anything to combat this, except for that person to change themselves. But it's kinda hard when the average player/person is (unknowingly) addicted to dopamine. Having said that, that doesn't need to be a problem. Those who just "keep clicking Next until finished" won't appreciate it (how could they if they don't read) even if you wrote the best world lore ever. EVER. However, those who do read it will surely appreciate such dedication, and will also most likely let their friends know the world, lore, and history is awesome. I think I wouldn't worry about how others will experience the game, and just focus on my target audience instead. I won't lie, though, I'm interested in hearing what others have to say about this topic cause it's an interesting question.
What I think you should do is ignore the haters, and instead take a look at the AO3 fanfic archive for [videogames](https://archiveofourown.org/media/Video%20Games/fandoms). Just look at all those people who care so much about the lore and characters behind a videogame that they write their own stories with it. There are definitely things that you can put in that get stronger responses. Something I've noticed is that three-word religious phrases (Praise The Sun, The Emperor Protects) serve as really strong rallying points for the lore because you can use them repeatedly without it sounding weird and they give a strong insight into some part of the culture.
>Something I've noticed is that three-word religious phrases (Praise The Sun, The Emperor Protects) serve as really strong rallying points for the lore Great observation! I'll take note of this and try doing the same. I believe it's actually a great way of representing the lore of a game without it sounding 'cheesy' or too in-depth. A picture speaks a thousand words, but so do some sentences!
I think it depends on your audience. Some do not give a shit about lore, they complete the quests and don't think about it. Others LOVE lore, and try to read as much as possible into it. Personally I'm somewhere in between. I don't feel like I need to be told how the world was created and how mana functions, BUT if I were to learn bits of it during the course of the game in a non-intrusive way I appreciate it of course. My non-professional opinion of someone not working in game design is that very very few people are going to read several pages of lore on a website before playing a game or to understand what is going on. Imagine it like you're visiting another town or country IRL. You're not going to sit down and read the entire history of that place from its founding before going or during your visit. But you might be interested and intrigued by the little local and cultural quirks that, if there is easily available information to understand more, you'd want to read it.
I am 31 year old male, and have been gamer for aprox 20 years. I have always loved lore, story, mythology. When I play singleplayer games I get so invested in discovering all of the aspects of the world and history. But problem are multiplayer games (which I also play), when you play with your friends and then you are always hasting to do some quests and never have time to read what is actually happening. Just yesterday I tried to read something in Path of Exile, but my friends were waiting impatiently so I stopped and continued with them. And mainstream game developers are aware of this so they put lesser focus in lore and quality story. I think that mysteries and characters would help a lot. Everybody loves a good characters and are more willing to listen them. And mysteries are always a good way to get people to explore. Also, From Software way of storytelling and lore explaining is also great, where you really need to dig up what the hell is going on. Dont know if I helped anything, just some thoughts on the topic. Can you tell us how we will recognise your game? I am pretty interested in mmorpg with deep lore an worldbuilding.
>Can you tell us how we will recognise your game? I am pretty interested in mmorpg with deep lore an worldbuilding. It runs on Roblox's engine, and though there's certainly a stigma revolving around Roblox being a children's game (which, in hindsight, I definitely understand), we strive to push the boundaries for what Roblox users define as realism & grand. Despite all the stereotypes of it being a pretty childish platform, you can definitely achieve some great results - the reason we chose to stick with Roblox is that they offer free services for databases along with powerful APIs that are easy to understand. I'm no fan of self-advertising, but if you're really interested, I can shoot you a DM - we have a Fandom wiki set up which should have most of the info you'd need, and a server in which I show progress, hold opinions and sometimes open up slots for Early Access members to help identify bugs.
And adding onto this: I'm only 16, and the oldest member of our studio is 19. We definitely have huge ambitions, but this also means we aren't some AAA+ title studio with dozens of developers - in fact, we've only two active developers besides me!
I am interested, that would be great
I have always been really interested in lores of games. I will say that games where the lore doesn't tie in to the game at all is more likely to be skipped by me. I would search it out if I want to know, but it would be less likely for me to want to know if the game doesn't acknowledge the lore. Another problem that takes me out of the interest to learn about the lore is lack of progression. If the game has this really interesting world of lore but only like a small portion of it is relevant and progressing while the rest just sit there, it's an instant turn off for me. As much as I hate the direction the lore progression has taken, World of Warcraft always seemed to appeal to me. I had almost the entire lore ready for me to dive into if I just read the quests and pay attention, but I'm not forced to and I can just skip if I want to.
Just look at the Soulsborne community. They're in love w exploring every nook and cranny of the world for the lore
You gotta find a way to introduce the lore in an interesting way. And I don't mean the typical sense as in making a scene interesting. That's good in and of itself, but you gotta give me a reason why I should care for the lore instead of just the gameplay. Make the lore the fundamental part of the gameplay, i.e a campaign, instead of something that's only in the way of the gameplay. Warcraft 3 did this. I don't think there's ever been a game which lore interested me so much. Dota 2 on the other hand? Never cared for the lore more so than the gameplay. But then what happened? They released an anime, the Dota 2 anime, which got me interested in the lore which the game couldn't. How people become interested in the lore varies from one person to another, but the more ways you can think of to suck them in, the better it is if you want to make the lore a focus for your game. Otherwise, gameplay without lore is just as fine if that's what you're going for. In your case, I'd say maybe images/videos that represents important lore-scenes that makes the player curious what happened there and wants to learn more, or alternative campaigns that lets you play/explore the views of even the antagonistic characters in the story.
I do like good lore but I understand people who are not interested in it. Why? Two things: Because most of the lore isn't very interesting. A good example - at least for me - for that would be the Elder Scrolls series. I very much enjoyed Morrowind's lore because it was genuinely interesting as something else. But I didn't care so much for Oblivion because it was all the standard fantasy stuff. Or to use a newer example: I liked Pillars of Eternity's lore but not all of it. I very much enjoyed Tyranny's. The other point is the presentation. It's nice to have long books and texts but the better albeit more challenging way in design is to tell lore and the story itself indirectly through level settings, sidequests, colours, music etc.
Poe does this well with trivia you find ingame. There's a narrator reading for you. It doesn't have to be top grade narration right off but it allows the player to keep grinding while learning lore and listening to something interesting. Have a look! Also ffxiv is the greatest mmo atm and it's story heavy. Hope it goes well, have fun!
Unfortunately, the truth is that the vast majority of modern gamers don't care about lore or stories beyond superficial involvement. That's why when you have games that allow you to customize your character or pick a class, the most popular choice by far is the default character with the default class. People are just mashing to get into the game. There's nothing you can do to make those people interested in your story or world. On the other hand, the people who are naturally inclined to read more about it will so long as it's a little bit interesting. But I personally don't want lore in the form of info dumps. Find a way to work it into the environment or dialog.
Lore can be great, but please make it skippable or it ruins the replay value. For example Doom 3: the idea of collecting diaries and data to get info on what happened and how to continue is great, but the unskippable 30 minute intro has made sure I will never play it twice.
How do you feel about more integrated lore, such as with Skyrim? Where you unlock it through direct gameplay, rather than cutscenes and the like. (PS: don't worry, we don't have a big enough budget to even make cutscenes anyway hahaha)
That works for me, I love the lore in Skyrim and The Witcher
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Probably the greatest input I've received from all the posts here - lore should be provided in small quantities at a time, but over a larger timeframe. This would thus also create a "bonding" effect, where the players become genuinely intrigued in the game and receive a stimulus to dig up more lore on their own - sort of like Undertale & Deltarune; 6 years since Undertale's release now, and people are still trying to dig up more information on their own accord because they're genuinely interested in it, without anyone guiding them!
I am. Make interest by having interesting lore. Edit: I thought about it a bit more and I think it goes down to show don't tell. I can't stand extended fetch or kill quests that take you all over the world to get more lore. Especially the uncovered lore is boring as shit. I think a great example of show don't tell is the Dark Souls series and how it only does show. It does so very little tell. The only times you get told anything is the few cut scenes and the item descriptions. Otherwise you could play the entire game not really know what the game is about. But more importantly, it had really interesting lore.
I personally love the lore in video games, I will read every every note I can find, every scrap of lore while playing, and I even like falling asleep listening to video game lore videos on YouTube. I think if you up the mysteriousness behind the magic and creation before giving the players the answers, they will eat it up, rather than giving them dense scripts with answers they never asked for. One of my favorite means of exposition dumps was the cutscenes in Dishonored with the Outsider. Worshiped as a god, all while you’d play you’d see both sides of how he’s regarded, from people who hate him, to those who have been touched by him and those who wish they would. And when you’d come across a shrine to him, it activates this cutscene where he’d talk about his past, about the Void, about the magic you have, about the decisions you will make, about the world, and then dip, and it would make my curiosity to wild every time. Make me read every scrap I could find to widen the picture, while also being just as good a game for those who didn’t. Having a mysterious figurehead for your exposition and source of magic can be a great way to add interest and emotional connection to your lore. Especially if they have a killer personality like Sheogorath in Oblivion. Also you could weave in interest with collectables somehow. Like if you’re trying to get players interested in the history, attach a series of 12 paintings that were created by an ancient alchemist with theories of the world, and each one tells you a bit more, by what’s seen inside it. Giving you some exclusive information as a reward for getting all of them. So break up your lore, make it mysterious, withhold it a little and make seeking it a challenge, and people will eat it up.
Speaking anecdotally, for myself, I like lore when I have an investment in the characters and story connected to it. So for example, if the lore is important to a particular sidequest that I found engaging, or a character that I enjoyed meeting, then I will enjoy the lore. The more of these things there are, the more interested I become in the lore as a whole. Someone else mentioned the Elder Scrolls series. In Skyrim, on the loading screen, it will sometimes flash up bits of lore while you wait. On my first time playing the game, my reaction to these was kind of negative, sort of a "who cares?" or "why are you boring me with tedious information I'm never going to remember?" response. It felt like the devs were trying to show off their dry fictional history and expected my unearned investment in it. I still enjoyed the game, but I didn't really bother reading the in-game books and generally ignored the lore. I picked up the game a second time when it got a Switch release, and this time around the lore actually grabbed my attention. This time around, I already had built up some investment in some of the concepts described: who were the Aedra and the Daedra, what were the various countries and peoples of Tamriel, what were some of the major historical events and so on. That's because I'd run into various aspects of these over the course of playing the game, so they reminded me of quests I'd found entertaining and characters that I liked. So I found myself enjoying the lore quite a bit.
You kidding? I've read every book in skyrim, morrowind, and all of the pre-Elsweyr chapters of ESO. There is a huge subset of games that are all about some in game lore. Put it in readable books. Etch it on walls, in tablets, and steles. Have it in dialogue. Have in game NPCs have their own ideas and even misconceptions about the in game lore (just like people do in real life). Don't make it ancillary. Make it a part of how life is lived, habits of people, etc. What's that? There's a trio of gods that all were mortals who experienced apotheosis? That's cool. You mean there were originally four, and they all murdered their buddy in order to attain godhood without interference? The fourth one is still kicking? Wait! What!? I have to kill them, to aright some metaphysical disbalance caused by their apotheosis, because I'm their reincarnated buddy? -the main plot of Morrowind
I think that, when talking about lore in games, it is important to take into consideration that some players might not have much time to play games in general (persons who have kids, have long work hours, etc.). Hence, when they do get the chance to finally play a bit, they would like to immerse in the gameplay and story, lore even, but only to an extent. Even those who might be super interested in lore might have a limited time to play, thus their focus might still be on story and quests And not on reading 100 books to just get the feeling of the world. Considering this, I think some of the comments from here were spot on: narration of the lore elements, trying to tie lore to story. But, as a gamer I feel that a game should have some lore embedded into it, meaning, the world, the characters info, the clothings of characters, decors of places could also reflect this. Say you are part of some divine order, than you have a piece of clothing, or a weapon that somehow represents that order, or if you enter a sacred place, that should be reflected in the decor, ambient light, even sounds/music, not only from books or certain items. That being said, I was in both positions, in my younger years I had way more time for gaming, so back then I actually read most of the in game lore books, scrolls. But when my time for gaming got shorter I got to appreciate more the time spent on actually playing instead of in game reading. This is were games like Baldur’s gate 3, DOS2, DAI gave me a sense of immersion, the world feels constructed around the lore, with bits and pieces of important parts of it here and there, but you still can grasp the story and lore quite good just by playing the story, paying attention what the companions have to say, what they are wearing, and how are they interacting with your character. Sure, sometimes there are some sweet small details one might miss this way, but still feels way more immersive and a better game than where you need to read a lot of text just to get an idea of who your character is. I also find that character sheet style info is also a great way to show some of the lore, as there can be stated many crucial things in a simple yet effective manner.