Video game franchises with the best lore?

[HanSwoloMode]

[NamerOfStars]

Off the top of my head, I'd say the Elder Scrolls- but that has the caveat that it keeps changing. Daggerfall only cleaned a little up, and I don't think that Battlespire actually altered anything (since it was originally an expansion pack, after all). Redguard and Morrowind both brought in a LOT of new stuff, but it was mostly pretty cool (if weirdly dark elf-centric in the latter's case)- making Imperials from a culture to a race (somehow) wasn't, but like I said, MOSTLY pretty cool. Oblivion was where it started to go downhill; essentially adding in superheroes and turning the titular plane from "Yuggoth" to "Swedenborg's Hell", to say nothing of turning Bretons from Celts to knockoff elves and the the "endless jungles" of the Imperial Province into rolling England-style plains. Skyrim decided that dragons had never existed in the franchise before; I guess all those knightly quests to kill these guys:

Were just figments of my imagination, and the "dragonish" language in-game was only included by mistake. They also inexplicably made a plot point of people objecting to Tiber Septim (who was suddenly a Nord for no reason; I guess the Imperials aren't a race anymo- oh wait, yes they still are) no longer being worshiped as a god, when he never was before.

I never played Elder Scrolls online because I'm not an MMO guy; seeing screenshots like this:

... and reading about the Dunmer (ruled by three physical gods at the time, and convinced that other races were just talky animals), the Nords (still bitter about their defeat at Red Mountain) and the Argonians (still being enslaved en masse by the Dunmer) allying together tells me that was the correct decision.

That all makes it sound bad, but lousy lore fidelity is only possible when there's good lore*, and the series is RIFE with that. And fan projects like Elder Kings (which brought the world to Crusader Kings) showed just how deep and wonderful it could be. As soon as Daggerfall Unity gets released, I fully intend to dive back in.

*Okay, it's also possible in the case of Ultima IX, but I was trying to be polite enough to not mention that.

[ComradeCurze]

None of them. Video games are for children and have terrible writing as a result.

[HanSwoloMode]

Nice joke.