Game Franchise(s) with the richest lore?

[Auberon]

Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect and Fallout come immediately to mind. Deus Ex as well (although not on the level of the previous three).

The KoToR series has a ton of lore which wasn't part of Star Ware lore previously I think.

the extended universe is not cannon :/

Sid Meier's Alpha Centuri has a decent amount of lore

Since every EU novel/game lore has to be approved by Lucas, I'm pretty sure its canonical. There's strict guidelines for writing in that universe, so I'd say its definitely canon. Although the SWOTOR lore irks me a lot since there are Chiss present in that time period yet they claim in the current timeline to have never had contact with humans until Thrawn/Car'Das met. Of course that could just be racial obfuscation...
Anyway, if it weren't canon then Lucas wouldn't care what people wrote.

Of course, movies are highest order of G-canon and LucasArts has whole division dedicated to determining what level everything is in 9-level system.

 

[Curratum]

1. Elder Scrolls
2. Thief universe

 

[Agayek]

Is is Warcraft in which Orcs somehow come from the moon?

Kinda, insofar as when you visit the Orc homeworld (which is some kind of parallel dimension thing that got exploded), you can see Azeroth (the WoW world) floating in the sky. For whatever reason, the opposite is not true though; you can't see Draenor (Orc world) from Azeroth.

That's as close as it gets to "Orcs come from the moon" at least.

 

[Agayek]

in order to renew the world tree with their blood and to keep the 3 tiers of the world from collapsing in on themselves(which is actually what is supposed to happen in 2012.)

Just gotta point out that, unless my sources are very much mistaken, that's more or less completely inaccurate.

The whole 2012 thing is just the end of the current b'ak'tun (You can read a brief but decent summary of the whole thing here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar#Long_Count]). In modern terms, it's functionally equivalent to when the year 2000 rolled around.

There is no doomsday predictions, just people being idiots and rumor mongering/sensationalizing.

 

[Varis]

Well, most of the "loreful" games have been mentioned already, but I think EverQuest 1&2 weren't among them. There's a metric crap-ton of good lore in those games!

 

[MrMixelPixel]

The Civilization series. BOOM!
The lore is the entire human history. I win.

I was almost 100% sure I wasn't gonna be ninja'd... Good thing I read all the pages.

OT: Well I'd actually like to say that League of Legends has some amazingly neat lore. Knowing about the lore isn't necessary when playing the game, but sure as hell makes it a lot more fun. The new lore info on Karthus and Mordekaiser is really awesome.

 

[GartarkMusik]

It's a tie between Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and The Elder Scrolls for me.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

Just gotta point out that, unless my sources are very much mistaken, that's more or less completely inaccurate.

The whole 2012 thing is just the end of the current b'ak'tun (You can read a brief but decent summary of the whole thing here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar#Long_Count]). In modern terms, it's functionally equivalent to when the year 2000 rolled around.

There is no doomsday predictions, just people being idiots and rumor mongering/sensationalizing.

I took a class on Mayan Civilization about two years ago. 2012 was a big topic of discussion, and where the controversy came from. And this was from a UC professor, who spent her entire life working on the subject. It is the end of a b'ak'tun but it is also the end of a more major cycle that the Mayan's believed in. The world tree will break: the 13 heavens will fall to the Earth, and the roots of the world tree will no longer hold Xibalba down and it will come up to the Earth. The holy book the Popol Vuh talks about this and details the story of raising the world tree. It's a codified copy of their religion by a Spanish Priest, but the story was told by vocal tradition so that people would not forget how to follow in the steps of Hun Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu to fix the conjunction of the spheres when the world tree collapses and the tiers of their universe become one. This isn't a super shocking revelation, the Mayan calendar is based on cycles and tied into their religion which is based on concepts like death and rebirth.

 

[eevangoh]

I don't equate rich lore with ridiculously expansive lore, so I'll go with either Fallout or Mass Effect. Very concentrated and easy to remember, yet deep and memorable.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Pokemon has like 16 or so years of games. Plus, the anime, and the manga, and all the other stuff. Obviously, there's a shit ton of Lore.

Also, Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy and all of the other long running RPG franchises.

 

[Eddie the head]

World of Warcraft has a crazy amount of lore...

/seconded

You could probably put 10 of the biggest singleplayer RPGS end to end and still not have the quests, books and history that WoW has. It it a massive game.

I don't think so. The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games have been going on for what 15 Years each? Then there is stuff that bioware puts out like Mass Effect or Dragon Age that just has so much, and I didn't even like Dragon Age but it's got a lot of Lore. Then the issue of quality comes up and Fallout NV, to bring up one game, might have a tenth the story's going on but they are all 100 times better done. Is there being more make it richer? That's up for debate, but the main point is I think games like Fallout or Elder Scrolls has them beat.

 

[Jason Rayes]

Alas. Poor ignored Mechwarrior/Mechcommander and the Battletech Universe. Someday, people will understand that you are much more than giant rockem sockem robots

I think its been so long since there was a good Battletech comp game that its almost an archeological artifact. Which is a pity, I spent hours on the board game version in my teens, then hours playing the various sims. I miss stomping around in a giant robot to be honest. Good times. We need a Battletech thread.

OT: Elder Scrolls, I actually read the in game books, and have done so since Daggerfall (I did not do so in Arena, sorry purists, but that game sucks balls) I do so less in modern ES games but only because a lot of the books are reprints from books I read earlier.