Lore, and its correlation to Half-Life

[registry: brush him]

Easily one of the most important aspects of any roleplay server, easily one of the most important aspects of any fictional work, easily one of the most important aspects of any story, lore is the fundamental exposition and foreword on which a basis is formed for storytelling, basic and advanced. Even the most simple stories have lore, which makes lore an incontestably vital part of creativity through words.

Lore is important to roleplay servers in particular because when you host a roleplay server you're inviting people to get invested in a world they're not really a part of. It's not easy to intrigue by something that doesn't even exist, and that's why lore needs to be good. However, lore doesn't need to just be good, it also needs to be faithful - grounded in reality, and if it comes from a source, grounded in that source.

In the terms of fanfiction, lore is as important as ever, except now the lore comes from a specific source - something already existent. The fiction is all the same, but now there's a foundation. And when your lore is fanfiction, it has to uphold several parts of the original story. Chief among them - theme, and chronology.

Of course, neither needs to be specifically grounded by the original work. Otherwise, fanfiction would be much more limited, especially in a circumstance where the original story is enslavement, one of the most boring things for some people to roleplay.

So, the equation is simple - will we sacrifice the theme and chronology of the original timeline for the sake of storytelling and creativity, or will we sacrifice the latter for the former? It's a difficult choice.

And it seems, much to my disappointment, we've chosen to sacrifice the latter.

A few hours ago, someone in Discord pointed out an inconsistency between our lore and that of Half-Life. He explained the following.

And the response a member of the lore team gave was simply



If our intent was to be true to the foundations on which we're BUILDING this server, we'd have failed. Not only does this have ramifications for our truth to chronology, it means we've fucked up on preserving Half-Life's theme too. This isn't the only case.

If you take a look at the World Map, you'll find UNGODLY amounts of lovely tidbits, lore dumps, and interesting facts about our world building. Race X infestations, the Malignance Zone, the status of continents and states and countries and acres of land across the world, the impact the War has had on Earth...

But... that's only a little bit of it. For the most part, you'll receive information about groups such as ESIC, the CCCP, other groups such as the Four Lions, the Seals of El Hierro(?), and oh-so-rarely, groups and locations actually addressed in foundational lore, such as Aperture Fucking Science.

And that's where the problem with our lore comes in. Not enough of it is actually grounded in HL. There are too many new groups, too many places, too many different ideas, too many different cascades of events,

and weirdly enough, too much SPECIFICNESS - rather than measuring the timeline in years after the Seven Hour War or before the arrival of Gordon Freeman, as literally every other game or comic or book in the Half-Life universe does, we use exact, precise AD dates. This completely eliminates vagueness, which allows interpretation even beyond the SERVER'S timeline, and also seems to desecrate the intent of the original game's discretion.

Rather than investing you in the world you're taking part in, it's trying to invest you in a world around you that will not truly matter, not until way further down the line, and in many cases, to many players, in many ways, simply won't MATTER. I have never once thought, in my time as a Long Hauler, about how the actions of ESIC, or Summit 24, or the Malignance Zone, or the Seals of El Hierro(?), or that weird fucking transmission station, or City 31, or City 45, or the war between C34 and C25, or the Mariana Harvester, or the lore MEGATHREAD which I, like many other members of Willard Networks, have not dared to read, lest I become lost in the boundless lore that I don't necessarily care about,

nor do I... necessarily want to care about.

Why am I getting invested in lore that almost COMPLETELY breaks the original themes of Half-Life - its characters' helpless, but still somewhat empowered struggle for freedom, its antagonist's omnipotent, yet vulnerable carapace, the mysteries of the world we live in as it's changed by the Combine, and the timeline? As I fight through hordes of Race X invaders battling me on a ship sailing through the Void, I find myself enraptured. But as I sit on the world map, reading every tidbit, absorbing every piece of information, and having not even technically finished the megathread yet, I find myself... bored.

The same feeling has overwhelmed me as I've stepped out of that fantastic dream, that kind dream of City One and the polite battles in the Void, and in the Borderworld - and into our REAL lore, the stuff I cannot help but fucking SCOFF at. Why, oh, why, am I being forced to care about this nonsensical struggle between the CCCP, a group of harebrained communists, against one of the three hundred and four fingertips of an all-touching alien empire?

As the complainer from above stated, not long after his oh-so excused and "debunked" complaints,


And it doesn't. It's NOT Half-Life anymore. It's something else.

This server's lore is no longer Half-Life. It's the story of the remnants of Earth still continuing the good fight, the real fight, against an supergalactic empire... alone, for their allies have surrendered, their friends are all dying.

It's a good story... subjectively. But it's not the story I came to care about. It's not the story I've grown to care about. It's not the story I'm even motivated to come onto the server for. And I will say what has been said before, unofficially, not in a thread, not JUST by me - it's getting stale, and it's not working as well as your hours of slaving away at a keyboard has justified.



So, the solution?
The solution is not a COMPLETE overhaul of the lore, per se, although that would be preferable I am certain the Lore Team are not adamant to put that kind of effort in. Instead, carry out tasks with the timeline and the events surrounding the Long Haul, City 24, and other relevant topics. "Vaguify" the timeline - measure time not in years passed since the death of Jesus Christ, but rather, in years passed since the Combine War, like the rest of Half-Life has been doing. Leave specific timeline to the interpretation of the reader - allowing leeway in the development of characters chronologically.

Once that's carried out, adjust details on the lore to be more friendly. I am not suggesting adhering STRICTLY to the lore of Half-Life as described by Valve and, specifically, the statements of Marc Laidlaw, although these things should be taken account of. I simply want to see a relative sensibility in the timeline relative to the games it's based on. Could these events happen in the same timeline as the Battle of City 17? At the moment, the answer is "Holy SHIT, no". Upgrading that to a "If you suspend some doubt, hell yeah!" will make the lore much more approachable to long-time fans and admirers of the Half-Life lore,

and more importantly, seeing that the Lore Team is capable of making such big, bold changes to their own hard work would not only be an incredible display of resolve and passion for work, it would also be a practical leap forward in the development of lore in the future, and even lore in the PAST, where changes must be made as circumstances change and become more or, perhaps, less demanding.

If our lore cannot change dramatically to suit its intent to be a HALF-LIFE 2 ROLEPLAY, then it should at least change enough that its relevance to Half-Life 2 cannot be disputed, its allure to players of the game, lovers of the lore, and longtime roleplayers alike can remain relatable.

 

[registry: brush him]

I would've made this longer, but one huge point of this thread is that there's too much lore that not enough people care about, so I won't go refuting my own points

 

[Equinox]

Before I even begin, I'll state that my own philosophy towards our lore is that it's meant to be large in nature. These goals were trying to be met:

1. Establish a very small "frame" (our core lore, that of Half Life 2, to which all other lore surrounds) to the server's lore so that others could build on top of it without having to worry too much about conflicting with other lore, at least not to the point where they just have to scrap an entire concept and move on.
2. Have a vast amount of detailed, but optional lore for characters and others to expand upon and into. This is essentially world building. Yes, we are aware that a lot of the lore isn't really important to the actual server. This was intentional.
3. Remain in touch not so much with the canon of Half Life, but more of the theme of Half Life, that being a cold, mysterious, science fiction world with plenty of dangers, but also plenty of wonders, with a touch of mysticality.

If I were to review those goals, I would say they have been met. We do have a very small amount of core lore. We do have a vast amount of detailed, but optional lore. And while this is more subject, I do believe that most of our lore is still in theme, at least in the writing itself.

Yes, we do have a lot of lore, and I understand that sometimes less is more and that being vague can be helpful to portraying a world. However, this is not a single person, or specific group effort. We wanted to set it up to where anyone can contribute lore, and put to use their writing capability in a manner that at least has a POSSIBILITY of effecting the server. To that end, we've succeeded. People can contribute lore, and even if it may (not all the time) need to undergo some minor changes, we are always wanting to keep the original concept there, because what good is accepting someones contribution if they have to change every bit of it to make it work.

Anyways, now onto the main bulk of this thread.

I understand that the timeline changes we have made can be an issue for some. We know that we've essentially "elongated" the turning of events. I also understand that even the mentioning of this timeline in a chronology can be iffy. However, it's a matter of necessity and balance. I mentioned earlier how our core lore is meant to be small. This does not mean it is minor. We understand that leaving dates vague can lead to a good narrative, but what is more important is that we have a proper foundation for world building. In essence, there are only four dates which are concrete and foundational in our lore:

1. 2001: The Resonance Cascade occurs.
2. 2007: The Combine invade.
3. 2016: Half Life: Alyx takes place.
4. 2021: Half Life 2 takes place.

That's it. That's the center of our lore and what all events and things happen around. Yes, there are branches of "core" lore that go into factions, such as the official divisions of the Combine, and the location of importance, but that's really the center of our lore.

From what I can understand, part of your thread brings up the point that there is "a lot of meaningless lore" that may or may not "feel like Half Life". To this, all I can say is "Oh well." Not because I don't care about the lore, but because this was partially intentional. Most of our lore is meant to be optional. If you want to take that as "meaningless", then go right ahead. What we're doing is giving ourselves and other members resources to use in their own writing, as well as the possible creation of events.

As for it not "feeling" like Half Life, well, there's only so much we can do. For one, Half Life in general is already very vague, but we can't just take "vague" as a reason to not world build. As you said yourself, world building and lore is essential to roleplay and any media, and while Half Life as a series is only so long, Half Life Roleplay is open ended and goes as long as people carry it, which is a loooong way. Half Life was good with its world building because, as you said, it was left mysterious and vague. But we simply don't have that option here unless we want to just throw things in the air at random points.

The other part of your thread, from my understanding, was that the timeline itself isn't "vague" enough. To which I have to partially go back to what I said just now. This isn't something we are allowed to be vague about. Chronology and the happening of events is absolutely vital to establishing our lore, our actual server and what systems we use, and the characters that members make. We can't just say "Oh well the Combine invasion happens, ehhh, at some point in these five years." The ramifications from that would outright ruin RP. People's backstories would constantly conflict, and narratives would clash. What we've also comes to consider is how these dates have to work together, and how we have to structure them so that character development can happen. The biggest date for most people is when the Combine invaded in relation to the resonance cascade. Some would argue that it'd be better if we stuck to the canon, where the Combine invaded RIGHT after (though no date was actually given) the Resonance Cascade. But the reality is that with the extra time given, we allow for more character development to occur in a Half Life themed world. There are plenty of other reasons why we stretched out this timeline that others such as @TheDeNuke and @Imperator RAD-X could give, but Half Life 1 still set the presedence for a world that is far more alien and mysterious, and we wanted to capitalize on that by allowing characters to develop themselves through a timeline where such alien mysteries existed, giving them six years to do so.

All I can conclude with, is that we are building our lore around two things: A roleplay server, and collaborative player creativity. That doesn't mean we want to completely disregard other similarly important things, but we have to work for what we are trying to achieve first and foremost. I understand that our lore will not be liked by everyone, but this is why we have allowed others to contribute in the first place. Do you think the world needs to be more mysterious? Cool, so do we! If 100 lore submissions appeared on our forums right now, I would be delighted to go through all of them. We aren't reviewing to get rid of submissions, we are reviewing so that we can adapt their contribution while maintaining their original concept as best we can. It's a collaborative world building project. The best part is that our lore allows for most things to be adapted. It's why our framework is so small, because we want you to tell your story, to build your own narrative.

Yes, our lore is a hodge podge of different themes and ideas, perhaps, but it is as such because we are allowing our players to create lore as they please. While most of it may not be important to you in your story, it is there as a resource, and something that you need not worry about if you don't want too.