Player Created Lore Books Concept

Gidorick · May 2016

One of the most important aspects of the larger TES narrative is lore. Not only does the entire franchise revolve around the existence of ancient scrolls which creates and/or records the major events of the world as Lore, a defining characteristic of a TES game is the in-game lore that can be discovered and read by players. Each TES game adds a veritable library of lore books to the collection of TES lore that exists in the world.

The ESO Loremaster Lawrence Schick speaks of lore as being a personal experience based largely on perspective. Each player experiences their own lore and that lore is as valid as any lore book written. This is supported by written lore that conflicts with other written lore within the official canon of the game. The existence of ESO has even put the validity of some of the previous game's lore into question.

Considering all of this, I find myself wondering why there isn't more interplay between ZOS and the community to add Player Created Lore within ESO. In a persistent game that evolves and grows over time, there is an opportunity for the developers to tap the community's creativity for content within the game.

This is quite long so...
TL/DR
ZOS should allow the community to create shareable lore books and should also provide the means for players to submit their lore to ZOS for ratification and canonization so that some community lore can become official TES lore.

Topics:

Adventurer's Lore Books
Resurrection of Tales From the Dead
Adventurer's Notes
Adventurer's Tales
Reconciling Player Lore outside of ESO.

Adventurer's Lore Books
This product would be the core component of much of this concept, and it's a simple concept. Players should be able to take a blank lore book, and write their own lore within that book and share that lore with friends. The mechanics of this, however, could provide a new gameplay opportunity for players.

Sub-Topics

Obtaining Blank Adventurer's Lore Books
The Scribe's Code of Ethics
Writing the Adventurer's Lore Book
Sharing the Adventurer's Lore Book
Crafting Adventurer's Lore Books
The Scribe's Guild
Building a Collection
Submitting Lore for Canonization & Writs
Obtaining Blank Adventurer's Lore Books
ZOS could provide one means by which players are able to obtain a blank, writable lore books: The Crown Store.

The price of these books could be set on the high side to make the purchase and creation of lore books more meaningful to the player. If the books were craftable in game, or sold for too few Crowns, there would be players who would abuse the system and fill the market with useless, inappropriate drivel. No matter how expensive ZOS makes the book, it would be inevitable that there will be some players who will write inappropriate material anyway and there could be ways to combat this.

The Scribe's Code of Ethics
Before a player completes the purchase of their first Adventurer's Lore Book they should be prompted with an agreement: The Scribes Code of Ethics would be the guidelines by which players should be writing their own lore. The code should be such that players agree to not write obscene or out-of-world lore. If players write such lore, and that lore is reported, the player created lorebook (and all copies as described below) would be subject to removal from ESO.

Writing the Adventurer's Lore Book
Writing in the Adventurer’s Lore Book should be simple and possible on both PC and console. Using the in game typing, players should be able to write directly in their lore books. PC players would have the extra advantage of being able to use the “paste” function native to the system.

Aside from the Imperial (Roman) alphabet players should have access to the Daedric alphabet, images, iconography, and various diagrams to use in their lore. This could even include collectibles that could be scattered throughout Tamriel. Perhaps players would need to find and collect Daedric runes to be able to fully use the Daedric alphabet.

This could eventually be expanded with an artistry class/skill/activity that could allow players to create in-game paintings from in-game scenery and activities… but that’s for another thread.

An Adventurer’s Lore Book should be bound to the player and editable until the player is finished. Once the player finishes book, it unbinds from the player and is available to share.

Sharing the Adventurer's Lore Book
Adventurer’s Lore Books can be traded, sold, swapped, and treated like any other item in the game. These books are physical items, unlike other lore books in game, and would consume inventory spaces.

The lore contained within these books would not be added to the Eidetic Memory of the player, well, not until the lore is canonized by ZOS.
Players should also have a means by which they can share a book without losing possession the original book.

Crafting Adventurer's Lore Books
There should also exist a way for players to take existing Adventurer’s Lore Books and reproduce them to share. The ability to create these new books could even be a new Crafting Skill line: The Binder’s Craft. The different levels in the skill line could allow the player to create books with different materials to have different covers and different color pages. These styles could be obtained by the player by finding Scribe’s Motifs, similar to how armor motifs work.

Binders could also be able to create blank scrolls that serve similar purposes as Lore books, but offer a much smaller area on which to write.

Binder’s Stations could be located within the Mages Guild, which would make sense since mages are concerned with the preservation of lore. Binders could also unbind books, which would give them materials. There could also be a Binder’s Hirelings, which would function the same as the other hirelings in ESO.

This could also mean that all original books bought from the crown store could all look alike creating an “Original Edition” market. Perhaps there might even be players that collects original editions of Adventurer’s Lore Books. There would, however, be a more substantial reason for original editions existing… we will cover that in a bit.

That, however, would just be the creation of the blank book itself. The content of the lore book could be dependent of another skill, a Scribe’s Guild Skill.

The Scribe's Guild
The Scribes Guild would be a skill line dedicated to filling out Adventurer’s Lore Books and scrolls and creating shareable lore within ESO. The different skills of the Scribe could allow players to take an existing Adventurer’s Lore Books and copy them into a blank lore books, make physical copies of official books from eidetic memory, and enchant books for player use.

Similar to researching, copying books could take a while. Each book could take a certain amount of time dependent on how many pages the book has and the skill of the Scribe. Leveling the Scribe’s Guild skills could decrease the amount of time it takes to copy each book, how many books could be copied at a time and the length of book that can be copied.

There could also be a skill that allows a Scribe to enchant the book so that upon reading the book the player gains a passive or active boost. Enchanting books could require the same runes players must find to learn the Daedric skill line. This would incentivize players to find more than one of these runes. The enchantments could be dependent on which runes are used to enchant the books.

Enchantments could be passive, increasing player stats and attributes for a limited time. They could also be Active, allowing players to place books on their quick-access wheel to be used during battle. These enchanted books could have offensive and defensive AOE effects. Only completed books should be permitted to be enchanted and some enchantments could wear off through use.

Players could be required to research enchanted books to discover new rune combinations for enchanting.

I could even see mechanics that makes the difference between scrolls and books being their permanent nature. Enchanted player scrolls could be consumed upon use and books could be reusable. I could even see a situation where a player using a one handed weapon could equip an enchanted book on their offhand and could use that as a magical weapon while scrolls are placed in the quick-slot wheel and consumed like potions.

Perhaps the enchantment could even be dependent on the amount of Daedric Text contained within. The more Daedric text, the more runes that could be used for enchantment. It would take a considerably accomplished scribe to create truly powerful books and scrolls within ESO.

To give players a level of control over the reach their book has, a higher level scribe should be able to write a book that cannot be copied by another scribe. This might manifest as a special enchantment high level scribes can place on their books. Perhaps they could even set a binding spell to books so that if they give a book to another player (or another player buys their book), that book is bound to that player and cannot be traded.

Also, each book should not only contain the original author's name, but should also contain the name of the scribe who copied the volume.

Building a Collection
Once housing is released, players should be allowed to build a collection of books with bookshelves within their homes. Each bookshelf should have a limited number of spaces and the visual representation of the book should be reflected within the bookshelf. This will allow players to amass a collection of books without consuming their inventory.

Submitting Lore for Canonization & Writs
Within the Mages Guild, near the Binder’s Station, there could be a member of the Scribes Guild posted. Talking to this Scribe would give players a few options:
- Purchase Binding supplies
- Accept/Submit a Scribe Writ
- Submit book for Consideration
- Report book for Violation
  Purchase Binding supplies
  These would be the supplies that a player uses to create blank Lore Books. Not much more to say about that.
  
  Accept/Submit a Scribe Writ
  A Scribe Writ would charge players with copying lore books for the Scribes Guild. Players would be given the title of a Lore Book that already exists (one that exists within Eidetic Memory) to copy. If the player has that book in memory it would be as simple as obtaining a blank lore book and writing down the contents of the book from memory. If they do not have this particular lore book in memory, the player could copy the book much in the same manner as Adventurer’s Lore Books.
  
  Players could trade or buy copies of the official lore book from other players. Reading these books would NOT commit the book to eidetic memory. Players would still need to find the lore book in world to do that.
  
  Submit book for Consideration
  Players who feel an Adventurer’s Lore Book is particularly good can submit the book for consideration to ZOS. However, just because a book is submitted doesn’t mean ZOS will take a look at it. ZOS could have a set number of copies that need be submitted in order to be considered. Submitting a book will remove it from the player’s inventory, removing it from the world.
  
  Consideration means ZOS is going to consider making the Adventurer’s Lore Book official ESO Lore. If a book is accepted as Lore, it will be added to an Adventurer’s Lore section of Eidetic Memory and all players who read that book from there on out will have the lore added to their Eidetic Memory. This would not act retroactively.
  
  The Original Edition of the book should NOT be able to be submitted for Consideration. The only way these editions should be able to be removed from ESO is by ZOS .
  
  Report book for Violation
  Reporting a book for Violation would function similarly to Submitting a book for Consideration, but would have the opposite impact on the existence of the lore. The more copies of the book a player reports, the more likely it is ZOS will take a look at it. Reporting a book removes that specific copy from the world.
  
  If a book is found to be in violation of the Scribes Code of Ethics all copies of the books are reduced to cinders in player’s inventories. Also the cover of the original book is rendered black and it could no longer be copied. This would be the only copy left in existence.
  
  Now, there are a couple of options here, the book could…
  - Stay unbound and available to read.
    or
  - Stay unbound and locked from reading
    or
  - Be bound to the player, and stay available to read.
  I would find it interesting if players could trade these banned books and collect banned books but I am not sure if ZOS would like players being able to have access to books they have deemed to be inappropriate for ESO. So I think they would either want to bind the book to the player who currently owns the original or they would allow the book to be traded, but not read.
  
  I would think the ESRB rating saying that “Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB” would cover these banned lore books. But ZOS would surely want to maintain a certain amount of control over what Adventurer’s Lore Books remain in the wild. I could see there being instances in which the original book is removed from ESO as well, but that would up to ZOS.
  
  Now, the only way a book should be able to be banned and removed from circulation is if the book is reported. Assume whatever opportunities you will from that.

Resurrection of Tales From the Dead
ESO used to have a community event called “Tales From the Dead” where ZOS would show a death scene from ESO and would ask players to write the note that was left near the player. ZOS would choose three winners who would get $25 gift certificates to the Bethesda Store.
(https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/126012/tales-of-the-dead-contest-entry-thread/p1)

I think ZOS should bring back the event but there should be one prize which would place the winner’s note into the scene and make their story part of the in-game Lore.

Adventurer's Notes
Around Tamriel ZOS could add random player notes. When a player reads the note they are given two options.

Read the Note
Leave a Note

This is sort of self-explanatory. Reading the note would pull a random note from the database of notes that have been left. Players would be given the option to destroy the note, or leave the note. If they destroy the note, it removes the note from the database of notes. If they leave the note, it is left for another player to find.

Leaving a note would allow the player to write a short note of their own to leave for other players to read. This note is in a set place in the world and would allow players to communicate with each other passively. If you know Demon's Souls... you know the kind of system I' talking about.

Adventurer's Tales
In addition to all this lore, ZOS could release a quarterly volume of player submitted lore in the Crown Store. ZOS could take the best of the best Adventurer’s lore that has been accepted as official Lore and collect these stories in one volume and could sell that in the Crown Store for Crowns.

In addition to providing players with regular new, player created lore, these books could also provide players with an XP gain boost for a period of time. This would be an incentive for those who care and those who do not care about lore to participate in Adventurer’s Tales.

These would also be physical books and would also add the associated lore to the player’s Eidetic Memory.

Reconciling Player Lore outside of ESO
One of the problems with adding all this lore to ESO is the lack of their existence in the core TES franchise. If ZOS were to support this sort of content in ESO they might be compelled to find a way to explain the lore’s absence after the second era. This could be accomplished with an official lore book that tells of a mass burning of books that occurred once the empire was reestablished.

That being said, there’s no reason that Bethesda couldn’t take some of the player created lore from ESO and include it in future TES games. This would be an amazing incentive for the community to create quality, lore appropriate content

So what do you think? Would this be worthwhile for ZOS to pursue? What problems do you see arising? Anything you would want to add?

Daraugh · May 2016

I *love* this idea! <blushes> I....keep a couple of journals for my characters... The day to day type of reflections that you find in journals in game. I tried just creating backstories, but they got stale. I tried creating a narrative, but that was too constraining. Being able to share it with my friends in game would be so fun. Being able to record our adventures and then send a story of it for a special event or occasion like a birthday would be amazing!!

What a way to draw players into the world. Even though removing the books via mass burning is devastatingly sad, it has such depth that just questing can't touch.

idk · May 2016

1. I could not read the entire wall of words but read enough to contribute.
2. Lore created in a players mind is all good and great. Especially for RP sake but doesn't need to be forced onto other players that do not wish to partake.
3. Most importantly, played created content that I've seen (as in Neverwinter) has been of much lower quality than what the professionals greeted.

In the end, if Zos where to consider permitting played created content/lore books most of them (99.9%) would be rejected due to quality in order to prevent a deterioration of game quality.

Zos doesn't want to get into the business of telling players they suck so this will not happen.

jcasini222ub17_ESO · May 2016

This is an utterly badass sandbox approach to lore. Awesome concept. You certainly know how to sandbox it up Gidorick and Im a fan of that approach.

JD2013 · May 2016

Oh god imagine how many Lusty Argonian Maid iterations there would be!!

LadyNalcarya · May 2016

That's why there are fanfiction sites. For example, https://www.fanfiction.net/ or http://archiveofourown.org/
I dont think its a good idea to implement this in game, as it would be hard to control the quality and lore of those books. Since I dont know about others, but to me tons of someone's ERP and Mary Sues would certainly be immersion-breaking.
Also, there are people who are really into TES lore, and using player-created books as proofs might cause confusions, as those stories would still be non-canon.
Speaking of sharing stories, I think it would be better to implement ingame character profiles, that could be visible for other players (perhaps an extra option in "interact" menu?). Something like social network pages. This will allow roleplayers to show their character's stories without interfering with the lore and game's world.

Gidorick · May 2016

You seriously keep journals of your characters @Daraugh ? That's amazing! I imagine many more people would do so if they had a way to record them in game. I could see players, such as yourself, releasing different volumes and other players could follow your adventures as they are released.

It would be pretty great!

Daraugh · May 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

You seriously keep journals of your characters @Daraugh ? That's amazing! I imagine many more people would do so if they had a way to record them in game. I could see players, such as yourself, releasing different volumes and other players could follow your adventures as they are released.

It would be pretty great!

Ummm, yeah... Two of them right now. One for Gisele, a Breton farmer who was living and working the family land at Northsalt Village. The second is for Silken Purr and it's very different, very much in the now, less story and reflection more Khajiiti philosophy. <blushes harder>

LadyNalcarya · May 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

You seriously keep journals of your characters @Daraugh ? That's amazing! I imagine many more people would do so if they had a way to record them in game. I could see players, such as yourself, releasing different volumes and other players could follow your adventures as they are released.

It would be pretty great!

Video game fanfiction is a thing, yeah.

But since everyone has different tastes, fanfiction sites often have a lot of tags/filters, and summaries are a must, so you can skip the content you find inappropriate or just dont like. This is a very important part.

ShedsHisTail · May 2016

I've always ben a big fan of the idea of player created books.
Though I think it's important that any non-Canon player created "lore" be clearly marked as player created, or be made available in the "Fiction" section of your local Mages Guild.

LadyNalcarya · May 2016

Also, there's one more thing: content ratings (PEGI). Any online game's disclaimer says that online interactions are not rated, but the content is.
And even though ESO has 18+ rating, some fanfiction genres might cause issues on this side.

Gidorick · May 2016

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

That's why there are fanfiction sites. For example, https://www.fanfiction.net/ or http://archiveofourown.org/
I dont think its a good idea to implement this in game, as it would be hard to control the quality and lore of those books. Since I dont know about others, but to me tons of someone's ERP and Mary Sues would certainly be immersion-breaking.
Also, there are people who are really into TES lore, and using player-created books as proofs might cause confusions, as those stories would still be non-canon.
Speaking of sharing stories, I think it would be better to implement ingame character profiles, that could be visible for other players (perhaps an extra option in "interact" menu?). Something like social network pages. This will allow roleplayers to show their character's stories without interfering with the lore and game's world.

Does fiction in the real world bother you @KoshkaMurka ?

I don't think ZOS would NEED to control the quality of the lore. That's why they would have the Scribes Code of Ethics and the reporting system. If you found a book you felt was inappropriate you could report that book for breaking the code of ethics.

This does bring up an interesting idea that I think will add to the main post: An enchantment that prevents the book from being copied. This way a scribe could relegate the number of books out there, if they wanted to.

Gidorick · May 2016

ShedsHisTail wrote: »

I've always ben a big fan of the idea of player created books.
Though I think it's important that any non-Canon player created "lore" be clearly marked as player created, or be made available in the "Fiction" section of your local Mages Guild.

I completely agree @ShedsHisTail ... and one very VERY distinct way players will be able to tell player created "fiction" from actual lore is the physical book. You can't carry around official lore in ESO. The books don't exist as items.

RAGUNAnoOne · May 2016

Seems very in depth as usual and very good points but I don't agree with the enchantments especially if these are crown store unless the enchantments are something like gain skills faster or gain a level in blank skill line to not give a PvP or trail advantage even if small. I think it would be better for ZOS to add public lorebook submissions and give crowns if they pick your book then add a library to major cities that sell these player made books for gold IE Daggerfall style. who knows the books could act sort of like stock with fluctuating prices based on demand using a similar process to track sales as the master merchant addon I hear so much about.

Daraugh · May 2016

I had forgotten about the Tales of the Dead, I loved reading those!

Gidorick · May 2016

RAGUNAnoOne wrote: »

Seems very in depth as usual and very good points but I don't agree with the enchantments especially if these are crown store unless the enchantments are something like gain skills faster or gain a level in blank skill line to not give a PvP or trail advantage even if small. I think it would be better for ZOS to add public lorebook submissions and give crowns if they pick your book then add a library to major cities that sell these player made books for gold IE Daggerfall style. who knows the books could act sort of like stock with fluctuating prices based on demand using a similar process to track sales as the master merchant addon I hear so much about.

That would be an AMAZING way to regulate this @RAGUNAnoOne. It wouldn't be as open and would act as more of a way to have your lore added to ESO's lore, but it would cut out all the filth (fun?) that would otherwise be written.

The enchantments would be added to the player crafted (non crown store) lorebooks. Players would need the crown store lore books to write the original book. Then they would need the Binder's created blank books for a scribe to copy and enchant a new lore book book. Individual players wouldn't have to spend a dime.... but there WOULD have to be a player to buy a crown store book at some point to create the original copy.

Taisynn · May 2016

I'm sorry, but no. Many of the people who play do not speak English as their native language. There will be a ton of gramatical errors, people using 'u' for you because it's shorter, and overall you'll have people writing ERP and all kinds of junk.

We already have a player created content section on the forums - write your fan fiction there. Or go to one of many fanfiction forums and websites where it's wanted.

Honestly, OP, your ideas are just... Maybe you should be playing a different game. Because many of your ideas just don't go with Elder Scrolls. They're all based on other game content.

LadyNalcarya · May 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

That's why there are fanfiction sites. For example, https://www.fanfiction.net/ or http://archiveofourown.org/
I dont think its a good idea to implement this in game, as it would be hard to control the quality and lore of those books. Since I dont know about others, but to me tons of someone's ERP and Mary Sues would certainly be immersion-breaking.
Also, there are people who are really into TES lore, and using player-created books as proofs might cause confusions, as those stories would still be non-canon.
Speaking of sharing stories, I think it would be better to implement ingame character profiles, that could be visible for other players (perhaps an extra option in "interact" menu?). Something like social network pages. This will allow roleplayers to show their character's stories without interfering with the lore and game's world.

Does fiction in the real world bother you @KoshkaMurka ?

I don't think ZOS would NEED to control the quality of the lore. That's why they would have the Scribes Code of Ethics and the reporting system. If you found a book you felt was inappropriate you could report that book for breaking the code of ethics.

This does bring up an interesting idea that I think will add to the main post: An enchantment that prevents the book from being copied. This way a scribe could relegate the number of books out there, if they wanted to.

I dont understand the question. Its not a real world, but in real world fiction and "lore" (science, history, etc) are separated. And if it would be possible to mistake fan fiction book for an official lorebook, it can and will cause confusion. I already saw people using articles from this wiki in discussions even though the front page already states its made for fan fiction.
Code of ethics sounds nice in theory... But you know, when you install the game, you have to accept user agreement that says that you're not allowed to use exploits. And how many people use all available exploits despite that agreement?
Also, like I said, fanfiction is already a thing. And there is established etiquette: writing summaries, tags, content ratings... So these also have to be implemented somehow. Speakig of the ratings, rating of the game itself and some of the fiction pieces may differ drastically, which might cause legal issues (and copyright issues too, as there might be crossover fanfics etc).

Gidorick · May 2016

Taisynn wrote: »

I'm sorry, but no. Many of the people who play do not speak English as their native language. There will be a ton of gramatical errors, people using 'u' for you because it's shorter, and overall you'll have people writing ERP and all kinds of junk.

We already have a player created content section on the forums - write your fan fiction there. Or go to one of many fanfiction forums and websites where it's wanted.

Honestly, OP, your ideas are just... Maybe you should be playing a different game. Because many of your ideas just don't go with Elder Scrolls. They're all based on other game content.

What about this concept is reflecting another game? What other game features Lore like TES does @Taisynn ?

The Player Created Lore would be segregated between servers and I think it would be kind of great to find lore that isn't in my own native tongue!

And you're not the first person to tell me to go play a different game, and you certainly wont be the last.

LadyNalcarya · May 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

The Player Created Lore would be segregated between servers and I think it would be kind of great to find lore that isn't in my own native tongue!

First of all, the correct term for "player-created lore" is fan fiction.
Secondly, on our server (EU), not everyone can play the game in their native tongue...

And also, if other languages would be supported, who (and how) would review reported books?

rotaugen454 · May 2016

"Shalidor's Guide to Ayleid Yo Momma jokes"

Gidorick · May 2016

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

That's why there are fanfiction sites. For example, https://www.fanfiction.net/ or http://archiveofourown.org/
I dont think its a good idea to implement this in game, as it would be hard to control the quality and lore of those books. Since I dont know about others, but to me tons of someone's ERP and Mary Sues would certainly be immersion-breaking.
Also, there are people who are really into TES lore, and using player-created books as proofs might cause confusions, as those stories would still be non-canon.
Speaking of sharing stories, I think it would be better to implement ingame character profiles, that could be visible for other players (perhaps an extra option in "interact" menu?). Something like social network pages. This will allow roleplayers to show their character's stories without interfering with the lore and game's world.

Does fiction in the real world bother you @KoshkaMurka ?

I don't think ZOS would NEED to control the quality of the lore. That's why they would have the Scribes Code of Ethics and the reporting system. If you found a book you felt was inappropriate you could report that book for breaking the code of ethics.

This does bring up an interesting idea that I think will add to the main post: An enchantment that prevents the book from being copied. This way a scribe could relegate the number of books out there, if they wanted to.

I dont understand the question. Its not a real world, but in real world fiction and "lore" (science, history, etc) are separated. And if it would be possible to mistake fan fiction book for an official lorebook, it can and will cause confusion. I already saw people using articles from this wiki in discussions even though the front page already states its made for fan fiction.
Code of ethics sounds nice in theory... But you know, when you install the game, you have to accept user agreement that says that you're not allowed to use exploits. And how many people use all available exploits despite that agreement?
Also, like I said, fanfiction is already a thing. And there is established etiquette: writing summaries, tags, content ratings... So these also have to be implemented somehow. Speakig of the ratings, rating of the game itself and some of the fiction pieces may differ drastically, which might cause legal issues (and copyright issues too, as there might be crossover fanfics etc).

Are you saying that fiction doesn't exist in the Elder Scrolls world? Hmm... that's interesting. I've never thought of that before. Hey! That could be a reason all these books are burned. The Mages Guild destroys all books that are found to be "Fallacy".... nice.

And as I said in another post @KoshkaMurka , player written lore would be actual in-game items. Official lore doesn't exist as in-game items. So players wouldn't confuse the two. ZOS could even have a pop up when a player opens a community lore book stating that the book is a community creation and that ZOS is not to be held liable for the content... blah blah so on and so forth. The pop up would obviously have to have a "do not show this again" check box so as to not be annoyingly there every time you open a book.

Since ZOS wouldn't be making money off of the fiction itself (only the books on which players would write it) I don't think it would be an issue legally. User created content falls under "fair use" in a lot of situations and there would have to be a means by which copyright holders could file claims with ZOS (which would be different from the player reporting, of course). ZOS couldn't be held liable unless they had reckless disregard for copyright laws. But, I'm not a copyright lawyer so I don't know all the specific laws... obviously.

Bottom line is, if ZOS wanted to do something like this, they could pull it off. Of course it wouldn't be cut/paste what I have suggested, but every single technical and legal hurdle that you might come up with has been solved by some other medium in some other format at some point.

Gidorick · May 2016

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

The Player Created Lore would be segregated between servers and I think it would be kind of great to find lore that isn't in my own native tongue!

First of all, the correct term for "player-created lore" is fan fiction.
Secondly, on our server (EU), not everyone can play the game in their native tongue... And also, if other languages would be supported, who (and how) would review reported books?

In the context in which I'm speaking player-created-lore is a very specific way of dealing with those writings which includes digital items and their distribution so no, fan fiction is not the same thing. Perhaps what is contained within the player created lore could be considered fan fiction but the just referring to it as fan fiction isn't really relaying the scope of this very specific concept.

As for languages and reporting books... you're talking about a situation where a book written in a language ZOS community team doesn't speak gets reported? I dunno... how do they handle those situations on the forum @KoshkaMurka ? However they handle that on the forums... same way.

Gidorick · May 2016

rotaugen454 wrote: »

"Shalidor's Guide to Ayleid Yo Momma jokes"

Would buy @rotaugen454 !!!!
1000 gold?

rotaugen454 · May 2016

"Coldharbor on 20 Gold a Day"

rotaugen454 · May 2016

"Dolmens for Dummies-6th Edition"

k9mouse · May 2016

I am not against player made lore per say... Lore is the reason I play TES / ESO after all, but I have some DEEP, DEEP concerns about player made lore... Some players will go off the deep end with stupid ideas like flying camels mounts or make some people too powerful and God like or put the known events in the wrong time line. I do not want player made lore in MY game.

I have no problem if your RP make up some lore, (aka fan fiction); it is YOUR RP, not mine. BGS and ZOS both have some goals and rules that us players do not know about to make lore in the 1st place. Therefore, it is best to let them make and keep the lore in the game, not players.

rotaugen454 · May 2016

"The 10,000 Greatest Cheeses of All Time" by Uncle Sheo

Gidorick · May 2016

k9mouse wrote: »

I am not against player made lore per say... Lore is the reason I play TES / ESO after all, but I have some DEEP, DEEP concerns about player made lore... Some players will go off the deep end with stupid ideas like flying camels mounts or make some people too powerful and God like or put the known events in the wrong time line. I do not want player made lore in MY game.

I have no problem if your RP make up some lore, (aka fan fiction); it is YOUR RP, not mine. BGS and ZOS both have some goals and rules that us players do not know about to make lore in the 1st place. Therefore, it is best to let them make and keep the lore in the game, not players.

I completely get those concerns @k9mouse, but don't you think that people would write fantastical stories if they lived in a world like Nirn? We even have official lore that has been retconned into fiction, the woolly caterpillar in Orsinium is one example.

The way I've suggested Player Created Lore be inserted into ESO means that YOUR game would never have to have this player created lore. I'd imagine the enchantments wouldn't be exclusive to lore books and could be obtains by another means within ESO. You could just ignore their existence or you go meta and make it your mission to find books that you find distasteful and report them to the Scribe's Guild.

That would be an interesting way to play.

But as for the core idea of letting players add their own lore. One of the great things about TES is that people feel like they have a sort of ownership of it. The experiences they have are near and dear to them. You obviously feel that way. Giving those players a way to express those feelings, and to share their adventures with other players as their characters within a TES world would be such a special thing. A thing that only TES could provide.

I personally think that would be worth having flying camels and dragons that fart gold. In fact, I think that would just add to the endearment.

But that's just me.

rotaugen454 · May 2016

"Travels with Raz-1001 Drunken Misadventures" by Queen Ayrenn

LadyNalcarya · May 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

The Player Created Lore would be segregated between servers and I think it would be kind of great to find lore that isn't in my own native tongue!

First of all, the correct term for "player-created lore" is fan fiction.
Secondly, on our server (EU), not everyone can play the game in their native tongue... And also, if other languages would be supported, who (and how) would review reported books?

In the context in which I'm speaking player-created-lore is a very specific way of dealing with those writings which includes digital items and their distribution so no, fan fiction is not the same thing. Perhaps what is contained within the player created lore could be considered fan fiction but the just referring to it as fan fiction isn't really relaying the scope of this very specific concept.

As for languages and reporting books... you're talking about a situation where a book written in a language ZOS community team doesn't speak gets reported? I dunno... how do they handle those situations on the forum @KoshkaMurka ? However they handle that on the forums... same way.

Well, if you want these books to instantly become "canon", then its a big no-no from me. Like many other people I love TES world the way its created, and I dont want it to be infested with unique races and ***. You seem to be very idealistic or very unfamiliar with fic writers community if you think it will work.
Also, you didnt reply to the rest of my points, about ratings, content tags and such.
The way they handle other languages on forums... They dont allow posting in those languages.

You seem to be a very passionate person, @Gidorick, and you have some interesting ideas, but the problem is, many of them would utterly destroy ESO as it is now, as TES game. And TES universe is the main selling point of this game.

k9mouse wrote: »

I am not against player made lore per say... Lore is the reason I play TES / ESO after all, but I have some DEEP, DEEP concerns about player made lore... Some players will go off the deep end with stupid ideas like flying camels mounts or make some people too powerful and God like or put the known events in the wrong time line. I do not want player made lore in MY game.

I have no problem if your RP make up some lore, (aka fan fiction); it is YOUR RP, not mine. BGS and ZOS both have some goals and rules that us players do not know about to make lore in the 1st place. Therefore, it is best to let them make and keep the lore in the game, not players.

This.