Folksoul said:
If good story-telling is expecting the audience to only accept what is ******DIRECTLY SAID IN OBVIOUS TEXT******* then Lord Of the Rings is the worst story ever written. 90-100% of the world building is in the appendices or other books. Why are there only 5 wizards? They're damned useful even if one went evil. Why can't we train more? etc...
I never read any of the appendices or other books from lord of the rings (aside from the hobbit). It was STILL a damn good story.
Also, your claim that we're arguing that everything needs to be explained in OBVIOUS TEST is silly.
The fact is that if the only way the player can enjoy the story is if they NEED to read all the optional codex logs, then your story is awful.
As a storyteller, you need to draw the player in and invest them in the world and heroes. Tell us where they came from, why they are the way they are. It doesn't even need to be explicit! It can be just an offhand comment that fills in some gaps! Hell, even well done environmental details can fill them in!
I didn't read much of the codex entries for Mass Effect 1-2-3 either and I STILL had a good time. But imagine if the only indication we got that the geth and the Quarians once shared a homeworld was JUST in the codexes and no one brought it up before the big showdown of ME3? That whole segment of the story would feel super out of place!
The codexes and stuff should be for stuff that's interesting, but not essential. Why are there only 5 wizards in LOTR? I don't know, and the fact that I didn't know did not impact my enjoyment of the novel at all. Now, if I had to read the optional books to understand why the Ring was so important to Sauron's plans, on the other hand, THEN the story would have been kinda bad.
