Lore

This article is an editorial.

Is there a lore reason why a sympathetic character like Elliot would choose to commit war crimes and then knowingly lead his subordinates to their deaths? Is he stupid?

Lore is a word that in its current popular usage by gamers on the Internet encompasses the elements of a fictional work including plot, setting, and characters. The word "lore" suggests aspects of worldbuilding that lie beneath the surface of a text's more obvious narrative, but its application has become increasingly loose, and it is now used interchangeably with "story", often but not always with a sense of irony. The overuse of the term has reached the point of parody, as modeled by the meme format "Is there a lore reason why . . . ?" followed by a question whose inanity, absurdity, or controversy is intended to provoke a response. Questions following this template are generally written as jokes, but the format may also be used to highlight narrative inconsistencies perceived as plot holes.

So badly has it been abused that the word "lore" has by now been exhausted of any meaning as a term for discussing media. But it has taken on a certain value in characterizing the interests of those who choose to embrace it. At its best, to say that one is interested in lore is to signify a desire to explore with intention the underlying details of a fictional world—the inclination to view a game with particular attention to its setting, the fictional history of its world, the motivations of its characters, the intricacies of its plot, and the structure of its narrative.

This connotation of delving into a world's fictional past has even been applied to the analysis of real-world histories—for example, the unearthing of "development lore" that comes with analyzing game prototypes, design documents, developer interviews, and prerelease press coverage. Though the terming of actual history as (implicitly fictional) lore is ludicrous, gamers understand the sentiment that the word conveys—a deep investment in the documentation, the understanding, and the synthesis of the particularities of whatever subject of study.

Though the word "lore" may not have any place in the discussion of media, the Shining Lore & Translation Wiki is so called because readers will understand the approach to describing media the name signifies.