Crossovers in Oblivion (and Other Games)

[NeverwinterPinata]

I created this thread/topic as a result of a resent argument I had over at the World of Warcraft World's End Tavern (role-playing) forums. The topic was about meeting players who openly role-play as a race that does not exist in the Warcraft universe, particularly the drow from the Forgotten Realms universe. The topic quickly changed to how to role-play in World of Warcraft and how crossovers are a big, big no-no. I, personally, see crossovers as very interesting and I believe that, as long as there is a reason why a person of a race that does not exist in a particular universe is in it and that there is a story behind how he or she got there, it is okay. The people over at the World of Warcraft forums think other wise. I would post a link to the argument here but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to. If you are interested in reading the argument you can go to the World of Warcraft official website and search for "Drow in Azeroth?" which is the thread/topic title.

 

So what do you think of crossovers in Oblivion and/or other games? Do you see them as possible or impossible?

 

Thank you for reading and good luck to you in your current and future endeavors.

[NeverwinterPinata]

One more thing, I placed this topic in Oblivion Mod Talk because mods that add new races, either from another game, a movie, a book, or entirely made up is very common in the Oblivion nexus site.

[yoyohobo665]

The majority of my modding is spent on zelda mods, so I don't have a problem with cross-overs. Of course, it depends on the games; it needs to be a "realistic" crossover. A backstory is a MUST. I'm not too sure how much I'd like for the official lore of a game to include a crossover however. Such as, Bethesda having the rights to content from another franchise and including it in the Elder Scrolls' lore. Again, that situation depends on the games being merged. I LOVED the fact that SSBrawl included Sonic and Snake, and I probably will like that Kratos from God of War will be included in the next installment of Mortal Kombat. Just my two cents, I guess.

[David Brasher]

There are an awful lot of crossover mods. I think people like them. I myself have worked on a couple of them.

 

Blood Raven (Diablo 2)

 

Super Marioblivion Levels by David (Super Mario World)

 

I think crossovers in Oblivion are good, because people can either choose to use them or not use them depending on what they feel like. That is the beauty of a single-player game. In a MMORPG, it is a bit different, because the community might have formed a consensus on what should be allowed in the gameworld. But even there, if there is a substantial minority that wants to play a certain way, and it doesn't really harm the majority, they should have the right to play it that way.

[Ayatolah]

My best bet come for a Crossover of TES and Forgotten Realms.... each world seems like the other one (not totally of course) and, with a bit of imagination, can make a crossover in a "beliable" way.... i thought of few possibilities, but i keep for myself (for the day i learn to make goood mods), anyway.... i have seen minor crossovers on the game.... fon an example, the addition of Anduril as a weapon...(awesome! i love it) or the Berzerker stuff ( i love that manga... still awaiting XDDD) it adds few things without breaking the lore.... Crossovers can be always made.... the real matter is the implication in the plot...

[ub3rman123]

I made some crossovers just because they'd be cool to build. If you ignore the lore, some crossovers do make sense, as in 'this kind of a construct could be found in Tamriel'.

[The_Vyper]

I think crossovers are cool as long as there is a reasonable explanation. In a fantasy setting, it's easier to come up with a "reasonable" explanation due to the presence of magic. I made a Drow race for myself and made a story for it:

 

Lolth became aware Mundus (the plane in which Tamriel resides) shortly after the Time of Troubles. Desiring to see more chaos there, she opened a portal and sent a number of Drow through. Once in Tamriel, some of the innate powers of the Drow (i.e. Darkness Globes & Levitation) were lost while others (i.e. Faerie Fire, Dark Vision & Magical Resistance) remained in a slightly changed form.

 

There are certainly people who would balk at this, saying things like "You can't do this, it's completely against Lore!" but I don't listen to them. It's my game and I'll play it the way I want to. I don't need somebody else to approve of it. :thumbsup:

[chaospearl]

Personally I love crossover mods when they're well-done, but I don't bother trying to incorporate them into the Elder Scrolls lore. I play them for fun, separately from my "lore-correct" game. My "main" games don't have anything that isn't from the lore, or at least that can't be integrated into the lore with minimum rolling of eyes. That doesn't mean I haven't spent many enjoyable hours playing (cursing at, mostly) Marioblivion.

 

Okay, okay, I admit that my main game does have one oddity... whenever my character dies, it plays the original Mario "splat" death sound. You know which one I mean if you were born prior to 1985. I could swear I found that mod here but of course now I can't find it when I want to link to it. All it does is replace the death sound file, though, which you could easily do yourself.

 

Edit: Found it. Classic Death

[Lanceor]

IMHO, "suspension of disbelief" is usually what makes crossover mods work, just like with movies.

 

Crossovers have the advantage that they can tap into an existing fanbase and that players already have a good idea what to expect when they download it. The modmaker can spend less time introducing concepts and explanations helping quests to "flow" better.

 

Because of differing lore though, it needs to be plausibly explained "why" something is the way it is for the game to remain immersive - and immersion has a huge impact on "enjoyability". The more dissimilar the two universes, and the more material that is imported, the harder it is to create a plausible explanation.

 

For example, since Tamriel already has several varieties of elves, it's easy to believe that Drow exist. Vyper's backstory further reinforces their reason for being and the player can easily forget that Drow were technically imported from another mythos.

 

Anduril Reforged implies that Middle Earth is some far-away place (plausible) and that the events in the Lord of the Rings happened a long time ago (explains why Aragorn doesn't want the sword back). The odds of the sword ending up in Tamriel of all places is not high, but at least it's plausible enough to suspend disbelief.

 

Had Vyper created an Imperial Stormtrooper race or had I made the Shire a part of Tamriel, we'd probably have to explain it with some flimsy dimensional rift story. Players would have a hard time believing this, immersion would be completely broken and gameplay experience will suffer as a result.

 

Mods like the Super Mario Bros mod can be fun if it's made clear that it isn't supposed to be believable at all. This sets the player's expectations accordingly and they'll focus on the gameplay instead of how it relates to his/her character. Had the author attempted a pseudoscience explanation as to why Mario's world co-exisits with Tamriel, the mod would probably have been a dud.

 

So executed deftly, crossover mods can work well. Executed poorly, players will buy into it even less than poorly made non-crossover mod.