Thread:Deathstalker666/@comment-1496755-20170225142933/@comment-3547390-20170405143846

Can't open a door in a level? You are pretty busy indeed, though it sounds like it based of the assembly.

Exactly what I always say about getting feedback, I like to give good feedback when possible. I do agree these worlds fell due to reasons unknown, being shells of what they once were. I just cannot accept it being humans that made it, that sounds too limited. Lovecraft playing a huge role in Quake means that we cannot rule out the fact that they were likely not human. I am heavily reminded of The Shadow Out of Time, unless a Yith appears human to you. Trust me, spelling mistakes are the bane of my existence. You can do everything to make things quite well crafted, but then mess up with a few spelling mistakes that somehow went under the radar. These easy mistakes are those that tend to get missed for years, I just figured I would let you know what I caught :P

You believe that simply because you have seen me play Doom and Hexen. Game lore can be done quite nicely, look for example to my favorite game of Thief, which is quite literature heavy. Between that and Unreal, my problem isn't so much with reading as it is with meaningless prose. I cannot stand RPG lore, it bores me to no end and is instantly forgettable. The Heretic series had stories written like that, way too world-centric which provides less of an impact on the reader. The stories must not be overwhelming in facts. They must instead be added... slowly... carefully.. over centuries, in order that the quality be preserved. The stories must not be written like they are meant to be read out of an encyclopedia to be interesting, plus they must be about something I can relate to. The Star Wars Ewoks series, for example, bored me because they suddenly threw a bunch of cartoon characters at you that you never knew before and expected you to assimilate. Look at the Han Solo series, suddenly they throw you in a different time with only one familiar character and by the end of three novels you feel sick to your stomach. Years after that stuff, I couldn't tell you much about those stories, which tells you how little of an impact they had on me, the reader. The best stories offer a narrow lens while at the same time offering depth for those that seek it. Thief is a great example, the interest as a novice will be heavily different from one experienced with the game, but both can get helpful nuggets for their level.

The problem with all of this is that it needs to give meaning and meaning is worthless if the entire thing is a short story. I have never read fan-fiction that made me heavily enthusiastic. Even for Thief, I have read some of the most praised works of fan fiction in the community and found myself bored (in fact I consider some of them to be the worst fan fiction for Thief). For a game that heavily drew me in and I want to learn every bit of detailing about the world, even from fan levels, I just cannot be drawn into fan fiction in the slightest. These stories work the best when tied into the source without a heavy handed requirement that I read a lot of boring prose. So it can work, but it must answer the question of why it should matter. Almost any RPG storyline I forget beyond maybe a few important points because they laid a lot of facts on me. A great example of that is Baldur's Gate, I couldn't tell you a thing about the game because of all the lore I had to read in the towns.