Why Lore Matters: Driving Player Experience in Splinterlands
'That which was splintered, shall be made whole' - Unity Prophecy
Lore is a core element of great gaming experience and is commonplace amongst the games which we place at the top of the pedestal. It adds depth, creates background and when done appropriately, creates a living ecosystem for the game to reside within. It becomes the foundation as to why you remember a game and why you are nostalgic about it. Lore drives emotions and is the reason you have such fond memories of your time playing.
It is rarely the mechanic of a game that is the reason you keep playing a game or returning for another playthrough. It might be the initial hook or draw but that can only last so long. It is the characters, the world they live in and how they all interact together that keeps you there. Lets look at few examples: Would The Legend of Zelda be the same if you didn't play as Link and couldn't explore Hyrule? What about The Witcher series if there was no Geralt of Rivia? Or Halo with no Master Chief? Even those games that aren't story rich have lore development through characters. Like the Call of Duty series with CAPT 'Soap' Mactavish and Ghost.
Lets consider some of the biggest commercial failures in gaming over the last ten years and why they got it wrong. The quintessential example of this is No Man's Sky but I feel like that has been done to death; rather I will look at Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Throughout it's development cycle Anthem was labelled as the game that was going overthrow the Destiny series. It was overhyped to completely revolutionise the massive multiplayer online gaming world. The reality was that it was a visually stunning game with a new and interesting combat system but it suffered from an empty world, repetitive missions and a rather shallow story. It couldn't provide anything to the player base outside what they already had. There was no mysteries in the world to uncover, no characters to love or to hate and nothing to keep a player interested after the initial surge of enjoyment.
Mass Effect: Andromeda was the make or break for the series. The community was left with a sour taste in their mouth from Mass Effect 3 and were searching for the high from the first two games in the series. They wanted a game with characters who meant something, who were developed and had a personality. They wanted a world to explore and interact with, to discover. What they got was a scope for a procedurally generated world that on the surface was significant larger but in reality felt smaller than the earlier titles due to lazy or shallow writing and a difficulty in creating meaningful content in a protracted timeframe which meant that a large portion of the scope didn't see final release.
It should now be pretty clear to see through the examples of both good and bad lore development that a well written story, developed, relatable or hateable characters and a world for this to take place in is paramount in creating a good player experience in a game.
Splinterlands, since it's inception, has focused on creating content and characters that feel like they come from a real world. The Splinterlands universe is vast. There are maps and timelines about the world, there are races and characters all with their own backgrounds, there is stories, songs and videos about key events, or just general life and how the world is. It has been years in the making to produce this and with the addition of Chaos Legion, more Lore is being developed and released in a time and manner that is unmatched in the past.
I am only really scratching the surface of what Splinterlands has to offer in terms of lore and story writing. I implore you look at the lore of your favourite characters, read about their homelands and what makes them unique. I can only imagine that lore will have a bigger part to play in Splinterlands as more features are released. These characters and stories will be the reason that you remember Splinterlands in years to come.
Images sourced from: https://www.splinterlore.com/