Lore of the Lore Enthusiasts and The Forum

[Vyrerus]

So, I've been squirreling around, wondering about this lore thread for awhile now. I know the basics, I think. Moose and his Lore accomplices had a big thread related to Lore that just kept burgeoning until the devs made this space, right?

Beyond that though, being relatively new to being a regular there's just so much I don't know about the people here. Who has cliques, what's kept people coming back, who's been here the longest? etc.

Do any of y'all meet outside of the forum in other virtual spaces to discuss lore? I know Moose has a discord, but I'm not sure what that entails related to this place.

I myself became a regular mainly because I work nights, and since raiding stopped in April, my FFXIV friends haven't been so active in or out of game. Last year, before that, I'd gone on raiding hiatus, and so I was talked to less by my friends who didn't go on hiatus. On top of that, though, my other late night friends talked to me less, too, for reasons unknown.

So, for me, the Lore forum is a place where my efforts for socialization go, though I also spend a little too much time in General Discussion. I'm big on lore, gameplay, and lore expressed via gameplay... as well as loads of speculation. That was surely obvious, but that's about the gist of why I'm here, and why I'm so active.

What about you?

Does anyone have a timeline for lore enthusiasts/the forum? I guess the easiest first link is noting that it started August 21st, 2013, so I guess you could think of this thread as a late celebration of its 8th anniversary (Edit: Rannie informs me that it was March 12th 2013 rather than the Welcome to Lore thread's post date ooh lala, already learning!).

[Rannie]

The Lore Forum started on 3/12/2013 (the start of the 1.0 main forums basically) I can't remember if they had these forums for lore in Beta though... I doubt it but.... i've been lurking around since then... the big players were mainly Anonymoose and some others hell isn't the other guy and Anonymoose still mentioned around in Limsa by two NPCs?

[Anonymoose]

Moose and his Lore accomplices had a big thread related to Lore that just kept burgeoning until the devs made this space, right?

The official forums themselves opened half a year after 1.0 dropped (Mar 2011), so it was clear at the time already that things weren't quite going to plan. A lot of early forum discussion was just like, "I like this" / "I dislike this" / "Well, if you dislike change so much, FFXI is still there." Our community spirit hadn't really formed yet, lol.

But one of the forums they opened was LOCALIZATION, where one can go to report text bugs. Quality assurance in a game is about more than grammar, though. Text bugs can be inconsistent dates, inconsistent pronouns, NPCs talking about something like you should know what it is when it's never been introduced, etc. And 1.0 had a lot of bugs, so these things started pouring in.

The thing was, the localization team would not only fix the bug, but explain a little bit about why it was wrong and why it's now right, dropping little nuggets of new information. So for a few bored souls who felt the story was the only thing with potential we could actually interact with effectively, the hunt was on. Essentially, the goal became to find problems to exchange for lore trivia. Fernehalwes, better known today as one KOJI M.F. FOX, only encouraged this.

But then we started lingering around talking about lore, making new posts about lore, distracting the bug-fixing team. This was probably all some sort of complex Koji Fox master plan, as after CG MIDLANDER went on too long, they made the lore forum basically just to evict us and clean up the loc. forum.

I never expected lore to get this big; I thought it'd always just be a fringe group of archivists and theorycrafters bs-ing around a campfire enjoying each other's company. (I still keep an evolved form of that mindset today.) I'd joke about being a Lore King the way Strong Bad claims to be the sovereign of the abandoned lot out back. Everything just grew organically from there as Koji and his little crew of enthusiasts somehow got a snowball rolling and now it's so big even the Japanese players are exploring world-setting details (a relative rarity).

I love story-driven, world-driven games so I want to keep that ball rolling if I can.

Who has cliques, what's kept people coming back, who's been here the longest? etc.

I'm afraid to even name-drop old-timers because I know I'd miss someone and feel super bad about it.

I think a number of them that seem absent are still here but lurk more. I still get occasional DMs from people who are a bit shyer about posting since combative and condescending attitudes became more tolerated outside of General Discussion. People who assumed good faith and tried to debate in good faith in turn got quieter and frankly it kills the mood sometimes. There are periods in here where it feels like the aim of the discussion is, "How can I make the least generous interpretation of each post possible?" lol. But that's a whole other can of worms.

Do any of y'all meet outside of the forum in other virtual spaces to discuss lore?

E V E R Y W H E R E...

But like as a group of the same people you'd see here? I'm not sure.

I just hang out with whoever's on Twitter, Gamer Escape, any Discord with a lore room...

I know Moose has a discord, but I'm not sure what that entails related to this place.

It's very smol and there's at present not with much overlap with the forums, tbh. It's a few old lore hats from a variety of communities and then a few people who wanted a place hang around and discuss curiosities. It's not like it's closed to the public or anything but it does follow The Old Laws of assuming good faith and not treating disagreement or debate as an attack on one's character and ability to read that must be immediately and publicly avenged, lol.

hell isn't the other guy and Anonymoose still mentioned around in Limsa by two NPCs?

If there are any references to me in-game I have not been told! (Ne'er mind in me 'ome city.)

BUT DON'T TELL ME YOU'VE NOT HEARD OF THAL ICEBOUND!?

[Vyrerus]

The Lore Forum started on 3/12/2013 (the start of the 1.0 main forums basically) I can't remember if they had these forums for lore in Beta though... I doubt it but.... i've been lurking around since then... the big players were mainly Anonymoose and some others hell isn't the other guy and Anonymoose still mentioned around in Limsa by two NPCs?

Oooh, March 12th 2013? :O! I was just going by the, "Welcome to the Lore Forum!" post's date.

EDIT INCOMING

*Rubs hands together* Dis gon' be good.

[Rannie]

Oooh, March 12th 2013? :O! I was just going by the, "Welcome to the Lore Forum!" post's date.



*Rubs hands together* Dis gon' be good.

Yeah that's the post date for Gildrien and Ferne in the 1.0 archives.... however I get the feeling anonymoose will have the bigger and better picture in this LOL ....and now we all shall keep hitting refresh with bated breath until he is finished so i relinquish the floor to him.

[Rannie]

The snipD!?

Oh kupo was it thal?!?!? I'm soooooo sorry I thought it was you lol hey atleast I thought something good I guess my old age is finally creeping up on me ROFL

Lol I knew your post would be a good post anonymoose

[Vyrerus]

Strong Bad.

THAL ICEBOUND!?

Well, that was very informative ! I think around that time I was still in FFXI, occasionally watching/rewatching the trailer for FFXIV, hoping that the PS3 port would launch sooner, rather than later, as some of the things it showed very much spoke, "Updated graphics version of FFXI" to my 20ish year old self.

In FFXI, the story was something that was generally agreed upon to be good, but nobody I knew every really went ham on the lore, so this has been a relatively new experience for me (outside of my brain selectively embracing and memorizing game stories that it really really likes) even though it's FFXIV.

I rather like the Strong Bad analogue. ! Now we just need Stinkoman 20X6 version of Moose.

What or rather who is Thal Icebound? :O!?

Also, sorry for being part of the problem, in regards to the more gladiatorial style forum posting/responding. I just really like sticking up for my angle, as I think a lot of people like to puff out their chests for theirs. Can you describe this problem in more detail? Or is it like, that's all there really is to say about it, and it's too hard to really pin down?

The Lore forum has been one of my favorite places to post, so I'm all for making it more welcoming for more interactions. Just show me the way /Mando-Lore Helmet on.

[Catapult]

A portal opens, accompanied by a noise that can only be described as a yeet!

Moose summoned me. Apparently, someone has heard of me?

(Currently raiding, I'll drop some reflections in a bit.)

((Edit: OMG that sig block. I've barely been on here since Heavensward, haven't I?))

[Mieck]

CG Midlander was such a cool thread. I went back to read some of it a while ago, and got a great chuckle from how much some of us (me included) were convinced Siren was the primal of the five races. The sequence where the identity of the children we see in Echo flashbacks who are adults in the present 1.0 timeline was good fun, too. The most obvious example, of course, was Ascilia / Minfilia.


This place and some of the regular contributers have helped me always try and base my speculation upon the facts we have, and work from there, rather than letting my preferences and imaginings get in the way of the clues each patch gives us, so I'm really grateful for that, even if I generally don't post very regularly.

[Elladie]

I am one of the lurkers - and occasional posters - who pretty much disappeared about 18 months ago because even the peace and quiet of the lore forums became something of a myth, and posts became unpleasantly combative often. Been back a couple of weeks, not sure if I can stand to stay or not this time around, as the GF seems even worse and no one posts much in Lore any more except for patch days. But I'm still a huge lore enthusiast; like Moose, I love all the world building and fitting all the bits and pieces together