Incentivize reading

Tendrielle · January 2022

There's such great content in all these scrolls and books, but tbh, I (and many many others) almost always just click them for the XP or companion's favor. Why not incentivize actual reading, @ZOS_Kevin ? Just reward it when leaving the book dialog 20 sec open or such, with double XP and companion favor. For me, it would do the trick.

Fennwitty · January 2022

tldr?

Drammanoth · January 2022

[bitter sarcasm]
Bah, who has the time to read when NPCs are slinging missiles at us?
[/bitter sarcasm].

But this idea is doable guess... there could be a workaround - when you get Shalidor's Library, you could actually read the book for more than 20 sec and get double experience.

cyberjanet · January 2022

Eh what? I read the books without an incentive. I enjoy (many of) them and have even written a little story in the style of a lorebook.

This is why I am so pro story mode dungeons, because it is hard to read when people are running through a dungeon like the world's about to end and they have to get through it NOW.

Now there's an idea, perhaps the story mode dungeons can have extra lore books .... or ( and I am thinking of my husband here, because he has stopped playing due to finding it impossible to get antiquarian leads) ... leads to special lore books that you can read and place in your home as furniture. You'd probably need an achievement or lorebook line as well, and it would be fun if visitors to your home "discovered" the lorebook when they read it.

Varana · January 2022

Tendrielle wrote: »

There's such great content in all these scrolls and books, but tbh, I (and many many others) almost always just click them for the XP or companion's favor. Why not incentivize actual reading, @ZOS_Kevin ? Just reward it when leaving the book dialog 20 sec open or such, with double XP and companion favor. For me, it would do the trick.

You just know that five minutes after implementation, someone will write an addon counting down 20 seconds, and players will just check their phones while waiting.

Drammanoth · January 2022

Varana wrote: »

You just know that five minutes after implementation, someone will write an addon counting down 20 seconds, and players will just check their phones while waiting.

Short attention span people, or simply poeple who don't want anything else apart from wasting their time would definitely do that. (though I bet they would have no problems watching a TikTok...)

I remember that in Wo... another game I saw a guy who, after having logged in, said "I've just logged - I'm bored". The... WHAT?

When I log in, I usually have AT LEAST several things to do, dailly quests or otherwise.

Larcomar · January 2022

I rarely do - it's not really what I play games for - but when I do, I'm usuall impressed. Maybe some nice achievements and a title or something though?

Aardappelboom · January 2022

I love games where written text and logs are read out loud, you can press a button and the text gets read.

It's harder to get away with in ESO, while in sci-fi games you always have a device or AI that can read out loud.

I'd do the trick for me though, I'd listen to everything, it would give dungeons an extra dimension since a lot of texts are diaries or logs of quest NPCs.

Drammanoth · January 2022

cyberjanet wrote: »

(...)I am so pro story mode dungeons, because it is hard to read when people are running through a dungeon like the world's about to end and they have to get through it NOW.

I doubt we can call these people casuals, for they simply RUSH HEADLONG, as they cannot be bothered to make this titanic effort to get to the final boss, skipping all the trash mobs. Even better, they should be given the loot after entering the dungeon, eh?

cyberjanet wrote: »

Now there's an idea, perhaps the story mode dungeons can have extra lore books .... or (...)leads to special lore books that you can read and place in your home as furniture.

Further reasons for story mode I love. Daedric Princes' banners, or some other stuff. And for the final reward... Hermaeus Mora's statue!

cyberjanet wrote: »

You'd probably need an achievement or lorebook line as well, and it would be fun if visitors to your home "discovered" the lorebook when they read it.

"Lore Hunter", "Lore Seeker", "Lore Keeper", "Lore Warden". Also, some books could be recorded - some, but I'd love to hear sir Cadwell (John Cleese) or Ayrenn (Kate Beckinsale) or our beloved Molly Bally (Malcolm McDowell)

Spiral__Architect · January 2022

When you discover a book, it gets collected into the toons Lore Library. They do make good reading when you have collect an entire series and have the time to read by the warm fire of your favorite tavern. Or, I suppose that hard earned abode.

KhajiitLivesMatter · January 2022

Tendrielle wrote: »

There's such great content in all these scrolls and books, but tbh, I (and many many others) almost always just click them for the XP or companion's favor. Why not incentivize actual reading, @ZOS_Kevin ? Just reward it when leaving the book dialog 20 sec open or such, with double XP and companion favor. For me, it would do the trick.

read a book? fine
read no book? fine to

giving one of both an advantage is not fine
cause some people dont like either and get forced to it

or do something more fun and say if u read the book for 2min u get 5k xp
and if u instantly close it u get 2min 5% xp buff

Troodon80 · January 2022

I don't need incentive to read the books. It's something I have enjoyed doing in every Elder Scrolls game to date.

Double experience for the book would be seen as pitiful and not worth the "effort" for most of those people who don't care anyway. If you don't like the time or effort it takes to read something, double experience won't impact that. If you do like reading, then you'll read for the sake of it without incentive.

If you're in the middle of a random dungeon and people are rushing ahead, there's always Eidetic Memory/Shalidor's Library. You also have the ability to join guilds who specifically do dungeons to help people experience the story at their own pace, so no need for a story mode.

_Zathras_ · January 2022

Tendrielle wrote: »

There's such great content in all these scrolls and books, but tbh, I (and many many others) almost always just click them for the XP or companion's favor. Why not incentivize actual reading, @ZOS_Kevin ? Just reward it when leaving the book dialog 20 sec open or such, with double XP and companion favor. For me, it would do the trick.

My incentive is to get more than 50% of a zone's backstory and relevancy when I am clearing it.

For instance, Vvardenfell, which I think does an outstanding job of organically laying out lore as you quest. As you travel to each pocketed area to help the various peoples and cultures, you'll stumble across lorebooks and discarded notes. Each of those gives so much local history, along with character details of the NPCs you interact with.

Even those little notes that can be seen throughout delves and dungeons are relevant, either explaining the antagonist's position, or helping you to understand more about the quest you are on, revealing details the NPC didn't share with you. Sometimes they help with making a moral decision at the end of a quest.

I get the clickclickclick reasons. But for the people that do read, they are already rewarded.

Adremal · January 2022

This would be hard to implement and people shouldn't need incentives to read (how sad is that) in the first place. Far as I'm concerned I only skip something when when rushing through a dungeon (I can always read it afterwards).
It's a pity, because there's plenty of good material, mostly Kirkbride's works, but it'd be unrealistic to expect the overwhelming majority of people to understand most of those - the fact that they appear in games doesn't make them any less esoteric in nature than they are. Take the 36 Lessons of Vivec: a profane or a 0°=0□ could and in the latter case most likely will be extremely interested in them, but nobody below 5°=6□ would have the keys necessary to begin to understand them.

Danikat · January 2022

I'm another one who doesn't need an incentive to read books, the only reason I don't is because I've already read that book. I think for people who like them the story itself is the reward for actually reading and not just skipping it.

colossalvoids · January 2022

That's pretty horrible idea tbh. People who read already doing so, not sure I need an exp gain for that on top of the scattered lore and people who can't care less shouldn't be forced to have another fishing minigame of waiting for a miracle to happen.

Gaebriel0410 · January 2022

Wait wait, isn't the incentive for finding a lorebook.. the book itself?

Danikat · January 2022

cyberjanet wrote: »

Now there's an idea, perhaps the story mode dungeons can have extra lore books .... or ( and I am thinking of my husband here, because he has stopped playing due to finding it impossible to get antiquarian leads) ... leads to special lore books that you can read and place in your home as furniture. You'd probably need an achievement or lorebook line as well, and it would be fun if visitors to your home "discovered" the lorebook when they read it.

You can already get readable books as furnishings. The Mages Guild sells them in sets once you've found all the books in that set.

The downside is each book counts as 1 item so a decent library takes up a lot of your furnishing slots, and thry can be frustrating to place (surprisingly few shelves are big enough for books).

But it is nice having interactive books in your home to read whenever.

SammyKhajit · January 2022

This one likes to sit in a tavern (in-game) and browse through the Eidetic memory. Very soothing.

Maybe an achievement for reading x number of books whilst sitting down somewhere?

SilverBride · January 2022

There will always be some players who read every book and all the quest dialogs and others who rush through them. That is their choice. Why try to force one playstyle on others?

ixthUA · January 2022

I completed entire game up to date (all quests except some DLC dungeons and majority of books) without reading them at all, which means that reading them is totally optional. If they contained useful or important information - it would be a different matter for me. Forcing people to read something they are not interested in is a bad idea.

Tenthirty2 · January 2022

Reading a book is it's own reward!

(Someone had to say it

)

Kwoung · January 2022

I would find this idea painful to be quite honest. While yes there are times I take the time to read some of the books that sound interesting, there are many times I just want to go about my business and clicking a bookshelf as I pass by doesn't slow me down much at all.

If however, I felt like I was passing up XP because I was focused on something else, my group was bolting ahead, or I was holding up the trial, that would detract from the game more than enhance it, for me. I am also pretty sure I would be booted from a trial if I held them up for 2 full minutes while I read the 6 books we were walking past.

Tendrielle · January 2022

Well, the idea would be just to incentivize reading a little, not too much. As always, its an issue of balancing I believe.
2 companion points instead of one, double xp sound reasonable for me. You will get more xp through ignoring the book I guess. Shouldn't get that much that people actually write addons to get rid of reading. :-)

ZOS_Kevin · January 2022

Thanks for raising the topic, @Tendrielle. It's an interesting one. Let's expand it a bit. Would players like to be incentivized for lore reading?

If yes, what would that look like for you? For reference, Tendrielle used the example of "Just reward it when leaving the book dialog 20 sec open or such, with double XP and companion favor."
If no, let us know why.

Feedback like this is helpful and can be passed along to the dev team. Just remember that these are player opinions. Community Rules still apply. Now let's hear some thoughts!

Also may the Divines bless you, @Tenthirty2 and @Gaebriel0410.

SilverBride · January 2022

I wouldn't mind seeing some achievements with titles, even though I may never complete them myself.

Although special bookcase furnishings in different styles from the achievement vendors may pique my interest.

Fennwitty · January 2022

I don't think '20 seconds' is really much of a guide, unless we're really getting specific about certain books.

Many 'lorebooks' are 1 to 3 sentences max.

Tendrielle · January 2022

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Thanks for raising the topic, @Tendrielle. It's an interesting one. Let's expand it a bit. Would players like to be incentivized for lore reading?
If yes, what would that look like for you? For reference, Tendrielle used the example of "Just reward it when leaving the book dialog 20 sec open or such, with double XP and companion favor."

If no, let us know why.

Feedback like this is helpful and can be passed along to the dev team. Just remember that these are player opinions. Community Rules still apply. Now let's hear some thoughts!

Also may the Divines bless you, @Tenthirty2 and @Gaebriel0410.

Awesome that ZOS takes interest, Kevin! Thanks a lot!

Oh... and I think it is a good idea if you can also first just collect the book (as usual), if you want, and then getting the bonus later, when actually reading.

Sylvermynx · January 2022

I pop open every book I run across on every character I have (over 60 at this point in time). I read them in the evening when I'm done with gameplay for the day, browsing through the list until a title catches my eye.

I'd feel like cheating to get XP for reading though - I read for the sake of reading, getting to know a bit more of the lore. I also read really fast (1k wpm, unless it's a really dry non-fiction book or a textbook) so I could go through a LOT of books in a short period of time - and again that would make me feel I was cheating.

Of course, you can see that I personally don't need incentive - I'm a voracious reader for about 70 years now....

FeedbackOnly · January 2022

Tendrielle wrote: »

There's such great content in all these scrolls and books, but tbh, I (and many many others) almost always just click them for the XP or companion's favor. Why not incentivize actual reading, @ZOS_Kevin ? Just reward it when leaving the book dialog 20 sec open or such, with double XP and companion favor. For me, it would do the trick.

I like the Shadowfen quests. I skipped quests info and walked into a trap

NeeScrolls · January 2022

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

. Would players like to be incentivized for lore reading?
If no, let us know why.

Feedback like this is helpful and can be passed along to the dev team. Just remember that these are player opinions. .

No @ZOS_Kevin , because: a) we already get "rewarded" with existing 3000/3000 lorebooks read achivement, plus gaining certain skill line bonuses up to '50' per skill upon 1st read. And.... b) how the heck is the server gonna know whether or not leaving a book open for X amount of seconds actually equates to a human player legit "reading" it?!* ....and finally, c) the real reward is simply absorbing/gaining the knowledge & stories within each book, is it not?

*Unless perhaps, like we had in SWG with Theed 'Librarian' NPC , u guys implement some type of new 'reading comprehension TEST' quest for each of the many lorebook subjects?