Alright my friend and I got into an argument today during school. He argues that World of WarCraft has more lore to it than the elder scrolls. I told him theres no possible way. I know that this is an elder scrolls site, but for those of you who have played both and know a little about both which has more?

:facepalm:

Has your friend even stopped to look at TES lore?

Thats excatly what I said, every little thing has background to it. A great aspect of the series. He argued that same thing about wow. Now im not a wow player but I know enough that it's not that in-deep. He says that it's deep because every instance has a storyline or a little history. Also that the few gods wow has if they have any have lots of background on them.

This is going to get the crowds rowdy.

I should admit that I haven't payed WoW, but I have played all the other Warcraft games and read what I can about the WoW background through websites and places like Wikipedia. I'd say irrespective of the volume, TES wins, because Warcraft doesn't have lore, it has your average fluff. Even if we call the fluff lore, and even if there is more of it written, it's not going to equal the depth, complexity and maturity of TES.

Quoted from http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/index.html, which showed up when I typed 'wow lore' into my address bar.

Someday? That sounds like a well thought out and developed piece of literature....

[edit]: Yes, the word someday is italicized and underlined in the original quote.

~TK.R

Did Warcraft have lore before the Reign of Chaos? I thought it was just portal opens, Orcs invade, and I hear the background announcer in his annoying British accent.

Not that TES didn't have a humble beginning. But, I started in Morrowind, not Arena. Unlike WC where I started in the second one.

Odd, this appeared a day after my Orcs from Draenor thing.

Im not sure but the lore in Reign of Chaos was actually in-depth. I used to enjoy reading the small but somewhat thick booklet that came with Warcraft III because the stories were generally good (just like Starcraft). However, it cannot hold a candle to the vast and rich lore of TES.

Not really. See the opening paragraph in the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft_II:_Tides_of_Darkness

Damn, their names are pretty cheesy.

Of course. It has a story, and a lot more oomph. It's too bad I can't care about Blizzard's backgrounds.

Only one I liked was the little cursed town of Khanduras...and King Leoric.

En Taro Tassadar.

Like Albides said, regardless of quantity, The Elder Scrolls series has a lot more to it than most fantasy and science-fiction novels today, including (and even especially) the Forgotten Realms series, in terms of quality. Much of Elder Scrolls lore is based on profound philosophy and real world mythology. Warcraft is just rehashing old ideas; a copy of a copy of a copy of which the original has been lost.

Show your friend http://www.imperial-library.info/obscure_text/vehk_teaching.shtmland dare him to equal the depth and complexity. Heck, if you want some more straightforward, encyclopaedic lore, show him http://www.imperial-library.info/obscure_text/census_daedra.shtml; even it is better written and conceptualised than anything the monkeys chained in Blizzard Interactive's office cubicles can come up with.

I haven't played ANY of the games and I feel I can make that same assessment. It just LOOKS superficial, honestly, and I haven't come across a fantasy game universe yet that has the amount of lore TES has, excluding LotR because that's more literature based.

I have played both, and enjoy both. TES has more lore, imo ^_-

Easy. I've been an avid reader of TES books since I purchased TES:III GOTY in 2004, and the amount of history, literature, reasons, morals, religions, and politics blew me away.
Then, there's WoW.
WoW is the cess pit of RPG. The Wal Mart of RPGs. There's substance, there's money, there's customers, but there's no SOUL.
Sure, every instance has "history"- some guy, that has no life, that only stands for the purpose of giving you a quest, that does not carry over into the next game, will tell you to kill something, bring him it's heart or whatever, and then he basically ceases to exist. The only in game books can rarely be truly read, and do not have any true history other than the fact that some war was fought, some maelstrom blew everything up, and the Gods are not happy about it. And those Gods play little to no role within the game itself.
Hands down, TES has not only more lore, but is vastly superior to WoW.
By the way, hi, this is my first post.

Yeah, I remember...

I can remember those irritating narrators:

"THE HORDE HAS INVADED DALARAN."

"THE HUMANS HAVE DESTROYED OUR BASE"




Despite their failure to get my interest in background, I always felt like Blizzard treated me right when I played their games.

Quite solid they were.

Morrowind took me a while. That game was left in its box while I played Diablo II.

Oh, and I always hated the night elves. All that greco-roman/druidic crap of mt. hyman or something never interested me.

I think the intro had a over the top narrator too, didn't it? Almost as bad as the narrator from the later Dawn of War games. "AND SO THE ARMIES OF AZEROTH..."


Yeah, I know, but I'd like to at least pretend to give the thing due consideration. It is a very cheesy sort of fantasy, though, and some might think it good comfort food, I suppose. Fiction as hot chips. Or hot fries, as the yanks would call it. I don't think Warcraft's fluff ever tried to even give the illusion of depth, so there isn't much point wailing on it. I might be wrong, but I don't think they have people who have a bachelor of arts or history writing for them, either.

Hmmm...this topic motivated me to dig up old game manuals.

Did you know that Illidan Stormrage is 15032 years old? Most of the game manual is fast food lore.

I'm gonna check the Diablo 2 game manuals as well.

At least the Warcraft narrators weren't as crazy as Mariah....

~TK.R

I think he's the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU-n8UZM5Cc

Warcraft lore doesn't have our favourite mind[censored]ing stuff like enantiomorph, Godhead, and 36 sermons.

Yup. Still, he's no worse than the Daggerfall narrator.

Whatever happened to the guy who played the Emperor back then, anyway? I'd pick him over Patrick Stewart any day.

By the way; I've played all the Warcraft games, except for World of Warcraft. They were all good fun, and indeed quite solid. However, they left no real impression for reasons already stated.

Thats true, sadly that voice is forever burned in my mind

The first two Warcraft games were just RTS games with superficial lore. The third one added some lore, but still not enough to compete with the TES series of RPGs which actually have massive amounts of books and history within the game. WoW really hasn't added that much.

TES dominates the Warcraft world lore-wise.

Same. Warcraft 3 never really gave me an impression either. Must be because the only game that had extended lore was WCIII, and its lasting appeal was minimal compared to SC and Diablo.

But, I do have to thank Morrowind. I disliked several aspects of the game, but its few redeeming features was lore.



It's not so much the massive amount. Just the effects. You don't get the same mystery from the Monomyth as you get the history of Kalimdor.

We have more to talk about when MK posts than me quoting "The Sundering of the World."

TES certainly has more lore, and more in-depth, but that doesn't mean that Warcraft's isn't top quality stuff. I really enjoy Warcraft's lore, and think it really is part of the games that make them unique. Sure, they have orcs, elves, dwarves, but the presentation is where Blizzard wins, and that's where I REALLY love the background of the games.

TES domiinates everything lore wise, play wise and everything wise!