I'm very interested in the lore/story when I play a game. It is a dealbreaker for me when playing a single player game. That's why I like The Elder Scrolls series. I was reading about The college of Winterhold online and I got to thinking. Wouldn't it be great to have an ingame-lore link? Like in Assassin's Creed, when you come across a place or person/name of interest you could just hit the select button and you will be directed to a page containing the lore about that place or person. This would would work best with people online since it would save space for the actual game. What do you guys think?

I think an in-game source like that would feel odd to me, although I certainly enjoy all of the in-game books. Generally if I want to look up more information on something later I just stop by the Imperial Library.

Well, you could always have the option to turn it off. And also, I think alot of people don't know about the Imperial Library and/or the other wiki sites. Which is why this function would be a plus for the game IMO.

I could see the benafit to it

It would be a bit immersion breaking, but then again it would be optional, so I don't see why not.

Too sum up the following post=Emmurshun.

An encyclopedia or codex of some sort you could browse through or something like that would be nice.

It'd be nice if I wanted to remind myself of the lore of a few places, or the background of some people. (I'm forgetful)
But I quite like the standard method of talking to people for information about themselves, other people, places, events and anything else I need to know about the Elder Scrolls.

if there is an organic way to do it (like the in-game books) then I'm all for it. But if it's just a bunch of hyperlinks in my game then no thanks. I love reading the lore but I hate hot links, unless I'm actually on the internet. In-game it needs to be organic. Rather than hyperlinks to stuff you could make picking up a book the link and turning the page would be the proceed function of selecting the hyperlink. But in that case i would rather the wiki be more like a book's index and the info be formatted like a book. It sounds like a lot of work.

OMG no. It would be like in Dragon Age when I talked to a trader I met on the road and one of the dialogue options was . Total immersion breaker.

We already have a ton of in-game books, enough to learn the history of Skyrim. As for people we meet, I think it would be better if we had an option to ask them about their story - it's certainly more believable than a virtual encyclopedia. It MIGHT work in a form of an in-game book, a Who's Who of Tamriel to buy in a store. It's not that odd, we have all sorts of Guides to Skyrim after all...

But in the end nothing beats Imperial Library

Yes, but why the Imperial Library? Maybe a standard book lying at the end of a cave telling the story of the place? I love to read the lore but I want to learn it in the game, not on the www.

Well,If its optional.
Sure.

Whoever would say that would be a liar, we know that even solitare probably has a wiki page, let alone every single bigger game out there.

Well, it should be optional of course.

Haha, you're right, but still there are some people refusing to jump on the technology wagon.

THIS, basically.

In Morrowind, I simply read every book in-game during play.

When something didn't make sense -- Imperial Library

Whenever I wanted opinions or insight -- Here (Lore Forum)

Well, it's pretty immersion breaking to me to go to the Imperial Library to get the lore. It should be in-game. And the books don't cover it.

Bethesda isn't going to put books about every single piece of lore all over the world describing races, history, magic, locations, etc that 99% of the people playing aren't going to read anyways.

I'm not sure I understand how visiting the Imperial Library after a game session is immersion breaking.

To me, simply reading the books and discovering the lore in-game is one of the most immersive qualities of TES.

If I come across some weird or obscure gobbledygook that I don't quite understand, I come here to the Lore Forum or the I.L.

I simply don't see how that breaks immersion.

Well the information should be in Skyrim. Not on some webpage. It should be in-game. Going on a webpage afterwards is very immersion breaking for me.

It's a pretty extensive lore. It really can't be covered in one game, not unless there are more books in caves than cliffracers in Morrowind (before Jiub's intervention ). And let's face it, 99% of people won't read it.

Lore should be in-game, sure, but it already is and covers the most important events, places and people.

I'm kinda curious what exactly it is that you think books don't cover. Obviously, there are references to the events of past games, but they can't be explained in one book. There are parts of history that happened in the novels or in the spin-off games. TES universe is large... There are terms not easily understood by someone new to TES - these are usually the terms that people on the Lore forum can discuss ad infinitum. Again, no easy explanation. And then there are caves and ruins that don't have any history, or their history is long forgotten.

I usually visit the Imperial Library for an in-depth study of a given subject, for things I wouldn't be able to find by myself. That's basically what libraries are for, isn't it? But most of the lore I know I learned from in-game books. Of course, there are always issues not entirely clear to me; no number of books will help me understand, I need to actually talk to people who know more than me and hear what they think. That's what the Lore forums are for. It doesn't break my immersion because it's something that I do, not what my character does.

The bottom line is, I believe the in-game books already have all the players need to know. It's impossible to put the whole Imperial Library into Skyrim.

Which is why they should have a codex like the Mass Effect series, like I posted above.

Having all that information scattered around the world just isn't practical.

Yes. This.

All the important stuff/need to know stuff is already explained in game in various ways.

The game isn't close to cover 50% of the places. I want to know the story of the cave I'm going into. Or at least a vage story with some truth behind it. There should be some books about it hidden in Skyrim. Or at least an official library. Going on the www to learn a story is immersion breaking to me. IMO.

Important stuff? In my book every piece of Skyrim-lore is important.
And it doesn't even cover half of it.