Player Created Lore Books Concept

Gidorick · May 2016

"Chasing the Dreamsleeve : Confessions of a Skooma Addict."

Gidorick · May 2016

"A Flame to Plague: Memoirs of an Ex-DragonKnight"

rotaugen454 · May 2016

"If I Did It..."- by an accused but totally innocent humble Khajiit

Gidorick · May 2016

rotaugen454 wrote: »

"If I Did It..."- by an accused but totally innocent humble Khajiit

HA! I now wish we had an EPIC button @rotaugen454 !!!

Egonieser · May 2016

As much as I like the concept you provide, I will stick to what the actual creators of the lore invisioned. Sure they claim that it is up to us to interpret it as we see fit, but that doesn't change anything, it is still their vision and story.
I don't want to read some "fiction in a fiction" or what some random khajiit did in the bushes one day, or people changing the lore per their standards.
Lorebooks in this game are sacred to me, in a way. It is the very vision of the creators of the franchise, and while I do truly believe there are some creative and good writers amongst players, they are just that - players, I don't want to see the true lore taintend by players, as crude as it may sound.

This is also a reason why I don't play community mods in games, the ones that are made like sequels or prequels to the original story, because - they are not true, as close as they might try and make it - it's still not the original.

Taisynn · May 2016

You expect ZOS to moderate player made content when they can't even afford to test and moderate their own damn content? You are super naive...

rotaugen454 · May 2016

Make any player-created books glow red. That way, all the persnickety "lore masters" out there won't have a massive heart attack when they read something non-canon.

Gidorick · May 2016

rotaugen454 wrote: »

Make any player-created books glow red. That way, all the persnickety "lore masters" out there won't have a massive heart attack when they read something non-canon.

The thing is @rotaugen454 , these books wouldn't exist out in the world like lore books do. They would exist only as items in player's inventories ( and maybe on bookshelves in player homes ). Lore books only exist in the world, and cannot be carried around with you. Players can, however, read the lore that they've discovered once they unlock eidetic memory.

It's a pretty simple distinction.

Find a book in the game that you can't take with you? Official Lore.

Buy a book in a guild store or get one from a friend that goes in your inventory? Player lore.

They'd be pretty easy to ignore.

Volkodav · May 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

Volkodav wrote: »

If a player creates a new book,it isnt Lore.Lore is what has been there for a very long time.
Having said that,it is fun to write ingame books.
I have a mod that lets me do that.It gives me three notebooks to write anything I want in.As many pages as I need.

You know @Volkodav , this concept started with the idea of submitting lore to ZOS for a quarterly "Adventurer's Tales" publication (something no one has even mentioned on this thread, but was included in the OP) , then the idea went to players being able to write and publish books to have in their home. THEN the idea went to being able to give those books to friends and those books are bound there in the friend's inventory. Then the idea went crazy from there.

My initial concerns were much like all of yours, not flooding the market with... well... junk fan-fic. This is why I thought it would make sense to limit the sharing of these books to friends or at most guilds.

But then I thought: Hey, I make these concepts as pie-in-the-sky what if concepts. might as well go wild with them.

I think it would be fine for new books,..as long as they were Lore friendly.Meaning of the right topics. Not just add sci-fi or detective books to the game for fun.
Good novellas that would enhance ingame reading wouldnt hurt much.Just my opinion though.

Gidorick · May 2016

Volkodav wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Volkodav wrote: »

If a player creates a new book,it isnt Lore.Lore is what has been there for a very long time.
Having said that,it is fun to write ingame books.
I have a mod that lets me do that.It gives me three notebooks to write anything I want in.As many pages as I need.

You know @Volkodav , this concept started with the idea of submitting lore to ZOS for a quarterly "Adventurer's Tales" publication (something no one has even mentioned on this thread, but was included in the OP) , then the idea went to players being able to write and publish books to have in their home. THEN the idea went to being able to give those books to friends and those books are bound there in the friend's inventory. Then the idea went crazy from there.

My initial concerns were much like all of yours, not flooding the market with... well... junk fan-fic. This is why I thought it would make sense to limit the sharing of these books to friends or at most guilds.

But then I thought: Hey, I make these concepts as pie-in-the-sky what if concepts. might as well go wild with them.

I think it would be fine for new books,..as long as they were Lore friendly.Meaning of the right topics. Not just add sci-fi or detective books to the game for fun.
Good novellas that would enhance ingame reading wouldnt hurt much.Just my opinion though.

I can 100% get behind that. I would personally prefer ZOS to hold monthly contests to write lore for ESO that gets included into ESO as official lore.... but I have absolutely zero confidence that they would ever do such a thing.

I feel very strongly about there being player created lore that is included in the official canon of TES lore. There are just so many wonderfully creative people that are part of the TES community, it would be a same to never allow them to have a chance to make an actual contribution to the franchise.

I agree that people writing batman fanfic in TES would be... inappropriate... and I think it would be up to the community first to report these types of writings, and then it would be up to ZOS to remove them from the game. I truly believe that, given the right guidelines and the right tools, this concept would end up creating some amazing publications. There would be a growing period while the players who abuse the system are reprimanded or banned from ESO but the end result would be worth the growing pains.

But that's just my opinion and assumption. Maybe the TES (or specifically ESO) community is made up of more trolls than I am choosing to believe.

Volkodav · May 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

Volkodav wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Volkodav wrote: »

If a player creates a new book,it isnt Lore.Lore is what has been there for a very long time.
Having said that,it is fun to write ingame books.
I have a mod that lets me do that.It gives me three notebooks to write anything I want in.As many pages as I need.

You know @Volkodav , this concept started with the idea of submitting lore to ZOS for a quarterly "Adventurer's Tales" publication (something no one has even mentioned on this thread, but was included in the OP) , then the idea went to players being able to write and publish books to have in their home. THEN the idea went to being able to give those books to friends and those books are bound there in the friend's inventory. Then the idea went crazy from there.

My initial concerns were much like all of yours, not flooding the market with... well... junk fan-fic. This is why I thought it would make sense to limit the sharing of these books to friends or at most guilds.

But then I thought: Hey, I make these concepts as pie-in-the-sky what if concepts. might as well go wild with them.

I think it would be fine for new books,..as long as they were Lore friendly.Meaning of the right topics. Not just add sci-fi or detective books to the game for fun.
Good novellas that would enhance ingame reading wouldnt hurt much.Just my opinion though.

I can 100% get behind that. I would personally prefer ZOS to hold monthly contests to write lore for ESO that gets included into ESO as official lore.... but I have absolutely zero confidence that they would ever do such a thing.

I feel very strongly about there being player created lore that is included in the official canon of TES lore. There are just so many wonderfully creative people that are part of the TES community, it would be a same to never allow them to have a chance to make an actual contribution to the franchise.

I agree that people writing batman fanfic in TES would be... inappropriate... and I think it would be up to the community first to report these types of writings, and then it would be up to ZOS to remove them from the game. I truly believe that, given the right guidelines and the right tools, this concept would end up creating some amazing publications. There would be a growing period while the players who abuse the system are reprimanded or banned from ESO but the end result would be worth the growing pains.

But that's just my opinion and assumption. Maybe the TES (or specifically ESO) community is made up of more trolls than I am choosing to believe.

I like the idea of ZOS holding contests for Lore friendly player created books.
And there would be no need for anyone to report any books that didnt fit because ZOS would pick those allowed to be set ingame.No players could just put a book ingame. That shouldnt be allowed.
Just have those books offered to ZOS and let the creativity begin!
Having been into the Morrowind modding community,including books,and quests,I know there is a whole lot of talent out there. And that the room for player created content,even to quests is greatly untapped.
Not only would contests for books be fun,but for player written quests.
Have contests for people to write either a synopsis for a quest,or the entire thing.Then,when the winner is picked,give them a reward of say 1000 crowns,and they name added to a new list of ESO contributors.
Call it ESO Content contributors.
Also,maybe an ingame title? ESO Contributor?

Gidorick · June 2016

Volkodav wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Volkodav wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Volkodav wrote: »

If a player creates a new book,it isnt Lore.Lore is what has been there for a very long time.
Having said that,it is fun to write ingame books.
I have a mod that lets me do that.It gives me three notebooks to write anything I want in.As many pages as I need.

You know @Volkodav , this concept started with the idea of submitting lore to ZOS for a quarterly "Adventurer's Tales" publication (something no one has even mentioned on this thread, but was included in the OP) , then the idea went to players being able to write and publish books to have in their home. THEN the idea went to being able to give those books to friends and those books are bound there in the friend's inventory. Then the idea went crazy from there.

My initial concerns were much like all of yours, not flooding the market with... well... junk fan-fic. This is why I thought it would make sense to limit the sharing of these books to friends or at most guilds.

But then I thought: Hey, I make these concepts as pie-in-the-sky what if concepts. might as well go wild with them.

I think it would be fine for new books,..as long as they were Lore friendly.Meaning of the right topics. Not just add sci-fi or detective books to the game for fun.
Good novellas that would enhance ingame reading wouldnt hurt much.Just my opinion though.

I can 100% get behind that. I would personally prefer ZOS to hold monthly contests to write lore for ESO that gets included into ESO as official lore.... but I have absolutely zero confidence that they would ever do such a thing.

I feel very strongly about there being player created lore that is included in the official canon of TES lore. There are just so many wonderfully creative people that are part of the TES community, it would be a same to never allow them to have a chance to make an actual contribution to the franchise.

I agree that people writing batman fanfic in TES would be... inappropriate... and I think it would be up to the community first to report these types of writings, and then it would be up to ZOS to remove them from the game. I truly believe that, given the right guidelines and the right tools, this concept would end up creating some amazing publications. There would be a growing period while the players who abuse the system are reprimanded or banned from ESO but the end result would be worth the growing pains.

But that's just my opinion and assumption. Maybe the TES (or specifically ESO) community is made up of more trolls than I am choosing to believe.

I like the idea of ZOS holding contests for Lore friendly player created books.
And there would be no need for anyone to report any books that didnt fit because ZOS would pick those allowed to be set ingame.No players could just put a book ingame. That shouldnt be allowed.
Just have those books offered to ZOS and let the creativity begin!
Having been into the Morrowind modding community,including books,and quests,I know there is a whole lot of talent out there. And that the room for player created content,even to quests is greatly untapped.
Not only would contests for books be fun,but for player written quests.
Have contests for people to write either a synopsis for a quest,or the entire thing.Then,when the winner is picked,give them a reward of say 1000 crowns,and they name added to a new list of ESO contributors.
Call it ESO Content contributors.
Also,maybe an ingame title? ESO Contributor?

I like this middle ground between player created content and ZOS controlled content @Volkodav... The whole book copying and crafting could still exist for in game official lore books. That was actually kind of the core concept of this post. It got lost in the whole fan-fiction issue.

It does kind of saddens me that the whole concept of community created content is so scoffed at by the community. That is an extremely compelling parts of an Elder Scrolls title and ESO is completely missing out.

Dahveed · June 2016

I love the overall concept... but some players have expressed concerns about "crazy" things happening (i.e. flying camels and such).

My only concern is that about 99% of all human beings really, REALLY suck at writing. Even most professional writers kind of suck at it.

I remember I made a Skyrim mod a while back which consisted solely of a 7-part series of short stories. I thought I was really on to something while I wrote it.

Looking back at it today makes me cringe.

I have a feeling that the vast majority of the stuff players make will just make everyone cringe.

Finally... who would decide what is "worthy"? This would be the hardest part. Someone (or a team of someones) to sift through the 400 tonnes of diarrhea would be expensive to pay for.

I really feel bad about leaving a negative comment about something that seems so interesting, and about which your are obviously passionate based on the length of your comprehensive and well structured post. But I just don't think something like this could truly work.

Sorry

Gidorick · June 2016

lol. think nothing of it @Dahveed . I actually don't consider your post to be negative... It's constructive. You're right that not everyone can write a compelling story. If there ever was a franchise to ever embrace those crappy stories, I think it would be The Elder Scrolls. The "slate wiping" would be a crucial part of the inclusion of these books. There would have to be a way to destroy them, lore wise.

The slogging would be helped by ZOS' required number of books to be submitted that wouldn't be available to general public. Considering there is one book that starts... and that book needs to be copied to a blank book to submit for scrutiny. A binder is needed to craft it and a scholar to copy it and THEN it needs to be submitted X number of times to even be considered for Canonization or moderation and I think ZOS could put effective enough standards on books to weed out some of the riff raff even before they will consider reading it.

Let's say the number of books needed to be summited is 500. That would be quite a bit of work on players parts. if too many submissions were entered, they could raise the required number. OR they could, every week/month/whatever, look at the top 10 books submitted.

Where I think most of the dev involvement would come from, in the beginning, is moderation. The number submitted to be considered for moderation would be much lower. Like 10.

There are many things that could be added to keep the spirit of this concept alive but would prevent crap from filtering out into the streets. A couple off the top of my head would be:

Limit the selling of books to player-to-player interactions. No guild stores.
Limit the players who you can sell to. Friends only
Limit player written books to be home decorations ONLY so the only way you can read the book is to visit the home of the author and read the book there.
Tie book creation to Guild capabilities and make it so the guild has to "approve' the book. Make the repercussions of repeated banned book offensives server.

But everyone who is saying there would be a torrent of junk in ESO is right and I agree there could be a bit more in the way of moderation within this concept. After all, there aren't many of us that would enjoy My Little Pony fan-fiction within ESO.

Dahveed · June 2016

But Gidorick, you still didn't respond to my final criticism, which as I say is "the hardest part", and (unfortunately) takes us to the realm of resources, i.e. real-world money.

From a gameplay/mechanics perspective, i.e., how you'd actually implement this thing, that is one discussion. If ZoS had the will to carry out the idea in the first place, these are details which I'm sure they'd be competent enough to iron out so that only the quality, SFW stuff would float to the surface.

But the greatest obstacle is simply logistics, i.e. money. It might sound easy, but I am guessing that even a small team of moderators to filter through the thousands of pages of crap would cost tens of thousands, indeed hundreds of thousands per month.

Let's say your "moderator" team was made up of only five ZoS employees from their artistic dev team. Scratch that: I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say only two. TWO employees whose job it is to read all this crap every month and have some sort of process for approving, rejecting, editing, then finally incorporating these stories into the game.

What's next? You need your coding team to create an interface for the actual game, i.e. the technical, logistical aspects (menus, sub categories, itemization, server allocation, etc etc... I'm not a programmer so I can't fathom what this process actually entails).

Then you have to communicate this to players: advertisement (forum announcements), guidelines, rules, restrictions, etc etc.

Am I missing anything?

I don't know what the standard fees are these days for devs and mods, but I'm guessing at a bare minimum this is stuff that would cost several thousand dollars, probably tens of thousands of dollars, per month... for something that honestly wouldn't have that great of a payout.

Again I love the idea in theory, but there are just too many technical problems for it to work in the actual game.

.....................

An alternative suggestion, which might be a decent halfway meeting point, would be to hold some sort of monthly contests here on the forums for player-submitted stories.

Anyone could submit their story on a separate ESO forum page where players could rate them out of 10. The last week of every month, the top 3 rated stories could be selected for editing and polishing by the ESO mod team and added to the game.

This would ensure that the game wouldn't be inundated with childish drivel, and from a technical standpoint is far more manageable (both technically and financially) by ZoS.

I would LOVE to see something like that... and even if most stories didn't actually make it, they could still be archived, so that some of the highly rated but unused stories are still available to be read out-of-game.

What do you think?

Volkodav · June 2016

Dahveed wrote: »

I love the overall concept... but some players have expressed concerns about "crazy" things happening (i.e. flying camels and such).

My only concern is that about 99% of all human beings really, REALLY suck at writing. Even most professional writers kind of suck at it.

I remember I made a Skyrim mod a while back which consisted solely of a 7-part series of short stories. I thought I was really on to something while I wrote it.

Looking back at it today makes me cringe.

I have a feeling that the vast majority of the stuff players make will just make everyone cringe.

Finally... who would decide what is "worthy"? This would be the hardest part. Someone (or a team of someones) to sift through the 400 tonnes of diarrhea would be expensive to pay for.

I really feel bad about leaving a negative comment about something that seems so interesting, and about which your are obviously passionate based on the length of your comprehensive and well structured post. But I just don't think something like this could truly work.

Sorry

Hence contests for best written quest ideas.

Volkodav · June 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

Volkodav wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Volkodav wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Volkodav wrote: »

If a player creates a new book,it isnt Lore.Lore is what has been there for a very long time.
Having said that,it is fun to write ingame books.
I have a mod that lets me do that.It gives me three notebooks to write anything I want in.As many pages as I need.

You know @Volkodav , this concept started with the idea of submitting lore to ZOS for a quarterly "Adventurer's Tales" publication (something no one has even mentioned on this thread, but was included in the OP) , then the idea went to players being able to write and publish books to have in their home. THEN the idea went to being able to give those books to friends and those books are bound there in the friend's inventory. Then the idea went crazy from there.

My initial concerns were much like all of yours, not flooding the market with... well... junk fan-fic. This is why I thought it would make sense to limit the sharing of these books to friends or at most guilds.

But then I thought: Hey, I make these concepts as pie-in-the-sky what if concepts. might as well go wild with them.

I think it would be fine for new books,..as long as they were Lore friendly.Meaning of the right topics. Not just add sci-fi or detective books to the game for fun.
Good novellas that would enhance ingame reading wouldnt hurt much.Just my opinion though.

I can 100% get behind that. I would personally prefer ZOS to hold monthly contests to write lore for ESO that gets included into ESO as official lore.... but I have absolutely zero confidence that they would ever do such a thing.

I feel very strongly about there being player created lore that is included in the official canon of TES lore. There are just so many wonderfully creative people that are part of the TES community, it would be a same to never allow them to have a chance to make an actual contribution to the franchise.

I agree that people writing batman fanfic in TES would be... inappropriate... and I think it would be up to the community first to report these types of writings, and then it would be up to ZOS to remove them from the game. I truly believe that, given the right guidelines and the right tools, this concept would end up creating some amazing publications. There would be a growing period while the players who abuse the system are reprimanded or banned from ESO but the end result would be worth the growing pains.

But that's just my opinion and assumption. Maybe the TES (or specifically ESO) community is made up of more trolls than I am choosing to believe.

I like the idea of ZOS holding contests for Lore friendly player created books.
And there would be no need for anyone to report any books that didnt fit because ZOS would pick those allowed to be set ingame.No players could just put a book ingame. That shouldnt be allowed.
Just have those books offered to ZOS and let the creativity begin!
Having been into the Morrowind modding community,including books,and quests,I know there is a whole lot of talent out there. And that the room for player created content,even to quests is greatly untapped.
Not only would contests for books be fun,but for player written quests.
Have contests for people to write either a synopsis for a quest,or the entire thing.Then,when the winner is picked,give them a reward of say 1000 crowns,and they name added to a new list of ESO contributors.
Call it ESO Content contributors.
Also,maybe an ingame title? ESO Contributor?

I like this middle ground between player created content and ZOS controlled content @Volkodav... The whole book copying and crafting could still exist for in game official lore books. That was actually kind of the core concept of this post. It got lost in the whole fan-fiction issue.

It does kind of saddens me that the whole concept of community created content is so scoffed at by the community. That is an extremely compelling parts of an Elder Scrolls title and ESO is completely missing out.

I know.People are too critical of player created things.
People who havent played the TES games that allowed for player created content have no idea of how much fun the mods are.I say "are" because they are still in use today.All the ones for Morrowind,Oblivion,and Skyrim.So many great quests and entire continents.
I have a character named for one of the MW mods.The White Wolf of Lokken. Not only does it allow for children,but also marriage and having kids as well.The quests are so incredibly well written and intricate it rivals ESO. Just my humble opinion though.
Too bad we arent allowed this type of thing.

Gidorick · June 2016

I thought I did address the costs @Dahveed , with

Gidorick wrote: »

lol. think nothing of it @Dahveed . I actually don't consider your post to be negative... It's constructiI think ZOS could put effective enough standards on books to weed out some of the riff raff even before they will consider reading it.

Let's say the number of books needed to be summited is 500. That would be quite a bit of work on players parts. if too many submissions were entered, they could raise the required number. OR they could, every week/month/whatever, look at the top 10 books submitted.

Where I think most of the dev involvement would come from, in the beginning, is moderation. The number submitted to be considered for moderation would be much lower. Like 10.

ZOS needn't tell us their criteria for submitting books. They could find effective ways to bring their workload number down.

The hardest part would be managing the books reported for inappropriateness. That could get unruley, but there could be some opportunity for automation. If a book is reported 10.. 20... however many times: Auto lockdown, all copies are sealed shut, and the author is notified. The author has 7 days to con tact ZOS to submit a grievance to have their book judged.

In most cases, when the author is adding stuff they shouldn't, the author will know and, not wanting to bring attention to themselves, will just go about their business. After 7 days, all copies crumble to dust and the original remains uncopyable.

Moderation with no input from ZOS.

If you're loozing for costs justification? Original books must be bought from the crown store. Motifs, picture packs, icon packs, font packs as well as blank copyable book packs could be sold.

The revenue would be there.

Are you concerned about people trolling the system and reporting books that shouldn't be reported? There could be repercussions for that. If a player reports too many books that are subsequently judged and deemed appropriate, their account could be subject to the same administrative actions as those who wright the inappropriate books.... i.e. suspension and banning.

Can you remove the need for moderation in all? No. But it can be mitigated quite a bit.

Volkodav · June 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

I thought I did address the costs @Dahveed , with

Gidorick wrote: »

lol. think nothing of it @Dahveed . I actually don't consider your post to be negative... It's constructiI think ZOS could put effective enough standards on books to weed out some of the riff raff even before they will consider reading it.

Let's say the number of books needed to be summited is 500. That would be quite a bit of work on players parts. if too many submissions were entered, they could raise the required number. OR they could, every week/month/whatever, look at the top 10 books submitted.

Where I think most of the dev involvement would come from, in the beginning, is moderation. The number submitted to be considered for moderation would be much lower. Like 10.

ZOS needn't tell us their criteria for submitting books. They could find effective ways to bring their workload number down.

The hardest part would be managing the books reported for inappropriateness. That could get unruley, but there could be some opportunity for automation. If a book is reported 10.. 20... however many times: Auto lockdown, all copies are sealed shut, and the author is notified. The author has 7 days to con tact ZOS to submit a grievance to have their book judged.

In most cases, when the author is adding stuff they shouldn't, the author will know and, not wanting to bring attention to themselves, will just go about their business. After 7 days, all copies crumble to dust and the original remains uncopyable.

Moderation with no input from ZOS.

If you're loozing for costs justification? Original books must be bought from the crown store. Motifs, picture packs, icon packs, font packs as well as blank copyable book packs could be sold.

The revenue would be there.

Are you concerned about people trolling the system and reporting books that shouldn't be reported? There could be repercussions for that. If a player reports too many books that are subsequently judged and deemed appropriate, their account could be subject to the same administrative actions as those who wright the inappropriate books.... i.e. suspension and banning.

Can you remove the need for moderation in all? No. But it can be mitigated quite a bit.

Actually,Gidorick,there wouldnt be these problems if the books were submitted to the Devs and not allowing players to just put them ingame.Have contests,as we spoke of,and the top winners would have their books added ingame.No need to worry about inappropriate things in the books to be reported.

Dahveed · June 2016

Gidorick I am generally on your side for the overall idea, but your version of it just seems too complicated and too much of a hassle for not enough payout.

If you imagine how many players would actually use this new feature *for free*, it's pretty negligible. If you'd also want people to pay for it in the Crown Store? Now you're just fantasizing. This version wouldn't happen in a million years... sorry.

I hate to say it but your version of this idea is just too complicated, too resource-intensive, and would probably be too rife with lore-breaking, inappropriate content, and just out right trash, that it would be a nightmare to moderate. I mean seriously, who wants to read 30 short stories just to *maybe* find one good one? You couldn't pay me to do this. And now you want ZoS to do it... or alternatively, you want the players to do it for free? What? Sorry, that is crazy talk.

I think a simple forum contest with 1 winning entry per month (or 2 or 3 depending on the turnout) would be a very simple way to involve the community in lore creation, and would ultimately leave ZoS fully in control of what kind of content makes it into their game, without all the needless hassle.

That's my last $0.02 I have to spend on this, my resources are all spent

Good luck and hf.

Gidorick · June 2016

hehe @Dahveed , I will admit this concept got away from me a bit. While I stand by the "It could work!!" nature of my suggestion I agree it that it would be too much effort on ZOS part to just have there be a thousand knockoffs of The Lusty Argonian Maid.

I'm kind of liking the solution of:

Buying blank books from the Crown Store for your OWN home if you want to have them. People who visit you can read them if you want them to.
Crafting books (Binder+Scribe) to make actual books of in-game lorebooks
ZOS hosting monthly contests for player-made lorebooks to be added to ESO

It kind of has the best of this concept and none of the...erm... possible (read definite) abuse. Best yet, there would be no moderation, no reporting of books, no junk lore being circulated. Want to have a book club to read some fanfiction? Cool... make multiple versions of the book and have your friends come over to read them in game, but they stay at your place.

Volkodav · June 2016

I stand by my thoughts of Forum contests.

Solid_Metal · June 2016

how dare you to give great idea to ZoS !!!!!!

honestly i want this to be implemented, but its highly unlikely, since they cant even finish the barber shop -_-

Volkodav · June 2016

Solid_Metal wrote: »

how dare you to give great idea to ZoS !!!!!!

honestly i want this to be implemented, but its highly unlikely, since they cant even finish the barber shop -_-

Writing code for the barber shop is a lot harder than writing code for a little book now and then.XD

Publius_Scipio · June 2016

What Really Happened in Cyrodiil I-VI by Publius Scipio
Cracking Elf Skulls by Publius Scipio
Distinct Khajiit and Argonian Odors by Publius Scipio
Imperial Greek Yogurt Recipes by Publius Scipio
How To Land Your Dream Breton by Publius Scipio
The Khajiit in the Hat by Publius Scipio
Green Sweet Rolls and Ham by Publius Scipio
The Code of the Covenant for Dummies by Publius Scipio

Dahveed · June 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

Buying blank books from the Crown Store for your OWN home if you want to have them. People who visit you can read them if you want them to.

Crafting books (Binder+Scribe) to make actual books of in-game lorebooks

ZOS hosting monthly contests for player-made lorebooks to be added to ESO

NOW you're talking! I would particularly get behind point 1 (personal use and for friends) and/or point 3 (monthly contests).

Crafting physical books (point 2) seems interesting, but I'm not sure what the point would be? Could you elaborate? (I kinda miss having the Skyrim/Oblivion style "physical" copies of books, but only for nostalgic purposes... I think the lore library for ESO is a decent compromise).

Korah_Eaglecry · June 2016

Egonieser wrote: »

As much as I like the concept you provide, I will stick to what the actual creators of the lore invisioned. Sure they claim that it is up to us to interpret it as we see fit, but that doesn't change anything, it is still their vision and story.
I don't want to read some "fiction in a fiction" or what some random khajiit did in the bushes one day, or people changing the lore per their standards.
Lorebooks in this game are sacred to me, in a way. It is the very vision of the creators of the franchise, and while I do truly believe there are some creative and good writers amongst players, they are just that - players, I don't want to see the true lore taintend by players, as crude as it may sound.

This is also a reason why I don't play community mods in games, the ones that are made like sequels or prequels to the original story, because - they are not true, as close as they might try and make it - it's still not the original.

Players making their own lore that spits in the face of the established lore would be the biggest hurdle to such a concept and exactly why it would never happen. Not in a million years would ZOS or Bethesda give up their authority on the lore. Heck even ZOS needs to get everything signed off on by the people at Bethesda.

Faulgor · June 2016

Taisynn wrote: »

I did not come here for fanfiction. I came here for the pure and true Elder Scrolls universe, and if some fanboys decide they want to write their own stories, fine by me, but I shouldn't have to acknowledge it as fact nor would I want to. It is not Elder Scrolls. It's fan fiction. End of story.

Do you even C0DA?

There is no pure Elder Scrolls universe. There is very little that could be considered canon. Elder Scrolls embraces that everyone has their own interpretation. Lore purism is exactly what Elder Scrolls is not.

Honestly, there is so much great community apocrypha (especially if you are one of those people who consider Kirkbride's work "fan-fiction"), I feel people who don't participate in it are missing out on the Elder Scrolls experience. The development teams certainly engage in it, and have acknowledged some of the stuff coming out of the community. And if there is a way to expose more people to it by making it available in the game within reasonable ways, I'm all for it.

I certainly think more people should read stuff like This Many Goblins Left the Cave, Alduin was NOT the World Eater, The Sky Is Not Blue, or any of the top contributions in /r/teslore.

I recently posted one of my own stories there, and do I expect people to just "acknowledge it as a fact"? Of course not. Everything is there to be questioned, so I don't see how coming upon something like it in the game would somehow interfere with your experience. Taking everything at face value misses the whole point of TES.