worst lore in history of mmo-rpg's

[Drakent]

here so far on ffxiv,

a country call them self the empire when to war against then entire world ( star wars any 1) they where winning the fight so a old guy cast a spell that teleported every 1 out to save the good ppl , now here where the story starts going down hill, what
in hell happen to bahamut? he wasn't defeated so how is that 5 year later has pass from that great war that the empire was winning and now they starting all over.

here the next part of the story , avatars on this game are evil and they are being awoken by each beastman tribe and all nation are afraid so they want you so stop them and unlike ffxi where the avatars look all bad ass and they had a story behind but on this game they just act like bullies who just need a spanking

[Kirosuu]

snip

this...is fail
the lore is everywhere actually and there reason for everything if you know where to look
you are the type that need "silverspoon" on everything
also maybe you never care about sidequest/random npc chat

[Peptaru]

Some of, lots of?, sidequests and npc chats are there to add to immersion but not all of that adds to lore. It's easy to blend those areas together, but they're quite separate.

[WellFooled]

I'd have to say I've got the opposite view Drakent, FFXIV's lore is really what hooked me into the game. The main storyline took awhile to really get the hook into me, I'll admit, but not so with Eorzea as a whole. Every NPC has a history, every city a reason for being there, and every FATE tells a story. The amount of detail really sells the world as a real, living place--which to me is the most important part.

[Wolfandre]

Stopping in to say that those that say the lore is "bad" are those that are just waiting for the story to be told to them. This is a game that doesn't feed you the story through the main scenario. If anything, the main scenario is really just a welcome back to the game and some plot to get you going. The real lore, the real meat, is in exploration and the patches/expansions to come. The Lore team does an absolutely fantastic job making everything detailed and intricate. Read some quest dialogue or, Twelve forbid, your Journal for some insight into the game's excitement. Go beyond that and just watch NPCs.

I will level with you. I became emotionally attached to Lillisette and (especially) Aphmau, and I have yet to share that level of connection with a character in FFXIV. BUT! That does *not* mean the story is not well told or not told in a way that is meant to fully immerse the players.

TL;DR: Go play the game. Scratch that. Go live in Eorzea for a little while. Stop spamming dungeons, stop teleporting everywhere, stop everything and look around you. Good place to start? The U tribe is a fantastic glimpse into Seeker of the Sun culture and their relations with the other races of Eorzea and the Amalj'aa.

[Enkidoh]

To the OP, I don't mean to sound Miss nasty here, but you're falling into the trap again of comparing a game that is a five-month old reboot of a game which had barely 2 years worth of story development made (FFXIV), with a game that has been out for over a decade and has had it's story expanded considerably in many directions via expansions and add ons (FFXI).

You say that FFXI has a much deeper storyline - please elaborate. You simply summarized FFXI's story in very vague and generic ways ('demon king'?). How was FFXI's generic bad-guy #3 a better villain than say, the Ascians or Gaius in FFXIV? (At least until his big reveal as a misunderstood rebel who simply loved the wrong woman - yawn). Ditto with the evil brothers from another time, undead pirate used as a host for a summon, evil parallel-world twin, etc etc. See where I'm going here?

FFXIV ARR has only been out for barely 5 months now. FFXI was released in Japan in 2002 and has had five expansion packs and six add on packs released for it which all have taken the story in different directions, which as I said, simply cannot be compared. However, if you compare FFXI, at it's own launch to FFXIV ARR as how it is now, not even five months from launch, then, you would see a very different picture. FFXI's story at launch finished at the Shadowlord fight. That was it. No more storyline. Players didn't get more story for over a year until the Rise of the Zilart expansion was released (which the US version came with), which also continued the aborted nation storylines as well.

Compared in such a way, one might say FFXIV actually does things better than FFXI. FFXI's lore actually was good, but it was so subtle as to be there more for momentary narrative convenience and then handwaved away (this has led to story contradictions in later expansions and addons).

I mean, even now, eleven years after it's original launch, there still isn't a Lore section on the FFXI forum where players can discuss the storyline. It's as if the story doesn't even warrant examining. FFXIV however, got it's Lore forum just after the original shutdown of version 1.0 (thanks to head translator and lore writer Fernewalhes who actively involves himself in this section), and is being debated and examined constantly, and as a result, FFXIV's lore and setting just feels more deeper and immersive, something that I never felt sadly with FFXI's storyline.

Don't get me wrong - I love FFXI still, I've loved it ever since I first started playing at the start of 2005. But FFXIV I just feel for me at least, has a far better story of which we are just barely starting to scratch the surface of.

[Naraku_Diabolos]

Why would the OP of this thread complain about the lore in this game when he actually enjoys the story? That bothers me and contradicts itself. I have yet to get even to the Titan fight (being busy with my own personal life), as I'm just trying to get my character to Lv50 with his jobs and get AF so I can prepare against the story-mode Titan so I won't run into any difficulties. I love the story and lore of ARR moreso than 1.0 offered. I got REALLY confused with a lot of the plots in 1.0 at the beginning, not knowing what some of the things were going on besides the Gridania quest line. I really was not sure what was going on in Coerthas in 1.0 with the plot (it was late at night when I was playing the game at that point, plus I had schooling I was doing)... But I've really enjoyed the story and lore more so in ARR than XI. I didn't get far in XI either because I really did not know where to go next in the story.

[RexValentino]

edited due to horrible wording and lack of thought before posting ... apologies XD

I do think there are too many forced puns, memes, cultural references, etc. that don't really do much but distract from the in-game lure that has already lost a lot of its feeling since 1.23 became 2.0.

[Wolfandre]

They did sorta crap all over whan 1.0->1.23 had going for it. If i see one more forced cultural reference i'm going to explode ;p (seriously, when quest are so easy and it is one forced witty play on word after another ... with none of it connecting to the main story or feel of the world ... it sucks!)

A game can tell its story through its mechanics and wordplay. It can. But they are simply not doing that with FFXIV. I can't think of a modern MMO that does do that. The mechanics are there to make an enjoyable game that is accessible by all, and the wordplay is to make it relate-able by all. That isn't lore, that's just design style.

Lore is the story, setting, the background, the flavor. Why is that cat man picking on other cat men but not cat girls? Why is that giant guy blue and THAT giant guy red? Where did those little people come from and why do they live here but not over there?

Lore is not how certain aspects of design decisions make you feel and it is not a direct influence of how you play the game.

[Alkimi]

worst lore in history of mmo-rpg's

Apparently you haven't played Tera. Nobody cares about the story in that, the game certainly doesn't either.

Aion had a decent backstory about the Elyos/Asmodians but as far as the main scenario while levelling was concerned it was just a bunch of dull unconnected quest chains about various beastman tribes that you never cared about.

ARR certainly makes a lot more of an effort in it's main scenario than anything in recent years, whether you like it or not is your call. Some people enjoyed the story, some didn't.