I like to think that I fall pretty firmly into the middle on this one. While I don't begrudge either camp - save, of course, the obviously antagonistic jerks that belong to all sides of the lore argument - I think (in my opinion) that being to the far end of the spectrum either way tends to limit the breadth and diversity of your potential RP experiences.
On one hand, I think being too strict on lore and putting your blinders on towards everything that isn't directly mentioned or represented within the game in some form cuts you off from a lot of people or experiences that may be perfectly reasonable to presume possible, yet don't fall neatly within one of the pre-determined "boxes" of provided lore. And as mentioned by a lot of people already, while this game does have a ton of lore, there are equally as many holes and/or grey areas left to interpretation. That leaves a lot of unknowns to work around. While it's certainly "safer" that way, considering how unlikely it is for established lore to be changed around in future updates, I also personally find it more limiting and frustrating in not only the types of characters and situations that you can interact with, but also the types of characters and situations you can create.
Likewise, almost completely disregarding lore seems to me to have similarly alienating effects. By more or less establishing and roleplaying out your own head-cannon, you're disregarding certain rules that a majority of players in the community choose to play by to some extent. If you're doing this in a closed group setting where all members are in agreement on that set of rules and expectations, then that's perfectly fine and you're unlikely to run into major problems. But take that character to the public and it can be uncomfortable for people outside of said groups interacting with those types. Essentially, you're forcing them to either choose to abandon their rules and conform to your own (which can often have awkward implications for that person's character) or avoid an encounter altogether. And many people choose the second because it's 100% simpler to avoid an incongruence than to jam a square lore peg into a round lore hole, so to speak.Â
Of course, these are just my personal opinions on the matter. I can totally understand arguments from both sides of the spectrum and I've always been an advocate of everyone playing and enjoying the game the way they want to. I just choose not to play that way. I prefer to characterize my views on lore as being lore-friendly, but willing to find creative (yet logical) ways to fill the gaps. I'm also willing to do a little gentle bending from time to time in the spirit of artistic license.Â
Xheja's a good example of this. There isn't a ton of highly detailed Void-related lore, especially when it comes to things like what the Void is like, summoning Voidsent, their motives, etc etc. So I creatively filled some gaps and took some liberties, trying to stick to the established lore as much as possible.Â
I know that not everyone in the "strict" camp would be willing to accept this kind of lore-bending and improvisation, and I respect that. But at the same time, if I didn't, I wouldn't have been able to create the kind of character that I envisioned and wished to play. Just the same, there are characters that I don't feel comfortable roleplaying with because of incompatibilities in lore interpretation. But I'm never going to send someone a /tell in-game and talk down to them for a half hour relentlessly because they don't fit neatly into my perfect little RP world (because that totally happened to me on n'hadiya rather recently and I really just wanted to kick the guy in the shin, not cool).
tl;dr xheja's philosophy is errbuddy just do you, and don't be a jerk to to errbuddy doin' them.
On one hand, I think being too strict on lore and putting your blinders on towards everything that isn't directly mentioned or represented within the game in some form cuts you off from a lot of people or experiences that may be perfectly reasonable to presume possible, yet don't fall neatly within one of the pre-determined "boxes" of provided lore. And as mentioned by a lot of people already, while this game does have a ton of lore, there are equally as many holes and/or grey areas left to interpretation. That leaves a lot of unknowns to work around. While it's certainly "safer" that way, considering how unlikely it is for established lore to be changed around in future updates, I also personally find it more limiting and frustrating in not only the types of characters and situations that you can interact with, but also the types of characters and situations you can create.
Likewise, almost completely disregarding lore seems to me to have similarly alienating effects. By more or less establishing and roleplaying out your own head-cannon, you're disregarding certain rules that a majority of players in the community choose to play by to some extent. If you're doing this in a closed group setting where all members are in agreement on that set of rules and expectations, then that's perfectly fine and you're unlikely to run into major problems. But take that character to the public and it can be uncomfortable for people outside of said groups interacting with those types. Essentially, you're forcing them to either choose to abandon their rules and conform to your own (which can often have awkward implications for that person's character) or avoid an encounter altogether. And many people choose the second because it's 100% simpler to avoid an incongruence than to jam a square lore peg into a round lore hole, so to speak.Â
Of course, these are just my personal opinions on the matter. I can totally understand arguments from both sides of the spectrum and I've always been an advocate of everyone playing and enjoying the game the way they want to. I just choose not to play that way. I prefer to characterize my views on lore as being lore-friendly, but willing to find creative (yet logical) ways to fill the gaps. I'm also willing to do a little gentle bending from time to time in the spirit of artistic license.Â
Xheja's a good example of this. There isn't a ton of highly detailed Void-related lore, especially when it comes to things like what the Void is like, summoning Voidsent, their motives, etc etc. So I creatively filled some gaps and took some liberties, trying to stick to the established lore as much as possible.Â
I know that not everyone in the "strict" camp would be willing to accept this kind of lore-bending and improvisation, and I respect that. But at the same time, if I didn't, I wouldn't have been able to create the kind of character that I envisioned and wished to play. Just the same, there are characters that I don't feel comfortable roleplaying with because of incompatibilities in lore interpretation. But I'm never going to send someone a /tell in-game and talk down to them for a half hour relentlessly because they don't fit neatly into my perfect little RP world (because that totally happened to me on n'hadiya rather recently and I really just wanted to kick the guy in the shin, not cool).
tl;dr xheja's philosophy is errbuddy just do you, and don't be a jerk to to errbuddy doin' them.
