an odd question

reverendK

My question is twofold, and regarding item flavor text and dota lore.

1: has anybody seen a noticeable difference in ratings/comments on items with lore related flavor text vs. more technical/matter of fact descriptions? (or none at all) - specifically something that tells a story about the item vs. one that just states what it is.

2: is there a go-to place for (official) lore pertaining to the dota universe. I've searched through some dota forum posts and found a couple of lengthy threads, but these are mostly encyclopedic "lore dumps" containing lists of people, places and things with brief descriptions (usually collated from dialogue and the paragraph length character descriptions).

I know Valve is working on a map, and I've read the secret shop comic (which was both enlightening and awesome in every way), but i'm a sucker for this stuff and i was hoping there was something more substantial from valve that I might use to glean some more info on the world (or pre-valve texts even).

I consider myself a decent writer - at the very least it's something I enjoy doing. Of my grand total of 3 items i've submitted I've gotten higher ratings on the one I wrote a paragraph length back story on (it's also a better piece in general :P). I intend to do this on all of my items in general from now on regardless of the popularity results, as I feel it adds life to the artwork, but I'd hate to step on anybody's creative toes writing stories in a universe i've only just begun to explore.

Additionally, if anybody is interested, I'd love to offer my services in helping anybody submitting with item/set descriptions in this capacity. Not for a royalty percentage or anything, just because i like doing it. Even if it's just to help with language barriers, send me a PM.

Drywall

As far as your first question, we use movie quotes for item descriptions. For example, our Crystal Maiden set used all Mr. Freeze quotes from the movie "Batman and Robin," and our Warlock set used dialog from the movie "Event Horizon." Both were pretty popular sets at the time. Nobody on the workshop cares how you made it or understands how it was made, so there's really no point.

Trow

I think it's cool when items are tied in to the lore.

I also agree with you about a good narrative adding worth to artwork. It can be hard to tell much of a story with an isolated object, or even a set.
Writing a paragraph for a piece is a good way to do that.

I like to think that the audience would appreciate the extra effort too.

Robbiek1000

Personally I also enjoy writing back stories for my items. Strangely though, I pretty much never read description for other items on the workshop. I never receive comments about my stories, good or bad, so I'm wondering how important they are to the general masses. However, I do believe Valve enjoys the lore for the items. At the very least, it means they don't have to write the lore for the items. If you notice there is always some sort of flavor text for the items in the store.

Chemical Alia

Robbiek1000 wrote: »

At the very least, it means they don't have to write the lore for the items. If you notice there is always some sort of flavor text for the items in the store.

Well, the descriptions I've seen Valve write up for items are usually far more entertaining than anything I've seen someone put up on the workshop. A lot of the more long-winded contributor descriptions are overly serious and kind of corny. Personally, I'd rather see that effort going into the presentation of the work itself, but I'm sure some people can pull it off.

reverendK

I'll be going through the store items to get a better feel for the narrative style before i write my next bit. Good point though, Alia.

AndrewHelenek

Your one stop spot for all your DOTA 2 Lore needs.

abg123rocks

I just wanna do my first post, hope you dont mind

Coyo.Te

If you read through the brief storys next to the character icons you notice that all of the heros have been in dota land for a very long time. am i the only one who thinks thats a bit cheap? if you cant come up with a plausible story just say they have been here for a long time and no one really knows much about them, its all very very mysterious xD :P cheap but funny

Uff

You can head over to Dota 2 Lore Forums and ask locals for help. They will be glad to do so.