Why Lore Matters: Driving Player Experience in Splinterlands

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'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.

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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.

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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.

Would Kron the Undying not be so powerful if we didn't know that he was undisputed leader of the Centauri people? But also mysterious through his extremely old age and the fact that he knows something more about the dark energy in the world but doesn't speak of it. When will we learn more about him?

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What about when the world was torn asunder by the forces of the Chaos Legion? And the great defenders and warriors of Praetoria came forth to answer the call. One such hero was the stalwart and honorable, Grund. Charging headlong into battle swinging his dual hammers, crushing bones and sending the lifeless bodies of his enemies back into the abyss.

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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/

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As someone who typically completely ignores the lore of any collectible I play, I'm curious: What is the biggest draw for lore for you in a world you can't interact with directly as in any of the examples you've listed?

Basically, how do you tie lore to cards as opposed to being immersed in the lore provided by the examples you listed? For me, I'm so focused on the strategic aspect that I tend to create my own lore based around the teams/decks/groups/whatever I've pulled together to form my deck.

!1UP

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Hey @entrepidus!

Okay, first of all you are right in the sense that it is inherently more difficult to create immersive lore when you can't walk around and interact with the world and characters like you can in Mass Effect, The Witcher etc. The challenge is being creative with the strategies you use in a game like Splinterlands.

In Splinterlands, you are only really directly involved in a small component of the lore through direct gameplay. I.e. You with your Summoner and your team of monsters fighting another Summoner with their team of monsters in the arena. And as you said, you create your own experiences through the teams that you create. You create favourites/team compositions that you are inclined to use.

Additionally, with the example monsters I used, Kron the Undying and Grund; they both feel powerful. The abilities tied to the cards creates symbolism to enhance the character. For Kron, he has heal, divine shield and last stand because he that undisputed leader who knows more than he lets on. Both wise and powerful. For Grund, who has double strike, trample and cripple; you can visualise him tearing through the enemy team with his hammers. Through this mechanism you are essentially receiving a show, not tell approach to lore.

Let's talk big picture. So consider the release of the Chaos Legion set as the next big narrative push. Or chapter. Untamed was one and now we onto Chaos Legion, where those evil forces have spewed forth and we are introduced a whole suite of new monsters, summoners and characters. For the most part this time, it is through the release of the Tomes of Chaos, short stories and
narrated Youtube clips. As always, you can also select the cards and read their lore tab for some background information. These narrative objects all work together to make a what is essentially a large spiderweb of storytelling.

Now let's look speculatively now: The next major update, land. This is a big opportunity to physically allow players to 'walk/move' around Praetoria. This will provide a much more tangible delivery of lore/storytelling to the player. More akin to what you would expect from an RPG.

I also feel the addition of the animations to the battle screen will only serve to improve the interpretation/feel of the characters and monsters.

The way the team is implementing updates to the game leads you to suggest that no matter what the update/addition is. It is tied to the lore/story of the Splinterlands universe. Take the SPS validator node concept art for an example. It could have very easily been not linked at all to the game but through the concept art you can see that there is a story to eventually be told.

Overall, that was quite long but I am glad you asked and I hope this answers your question. I wanted to omit some of my opinions from the actual article to generate some discussion such as this so thanks!

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Awesome post about the importance of lore and story in a video game; you are absolutely correct in that it adds depth flavor and replayability to game.
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