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Quiara Vasquez's avatar

In my mind "lore" is a video game thing, in particular associated with "sandbox" games, where players are trained to infer story details from the game environment rather than being told explicitly what's going on - people will jokingly ask "is this lore?" about seemingly (or obviously) irrelevant details in a game like Elden Ring. There's been a broader shift in media towards "universes" of content rather than self-contained narratives, and a certain level of "lore-crafting" is necessary if you're using the Marvel model.

But I wonder if the use of -lore as a suffix starts in the '70s, with "faxlore" ?

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W. Michael Johnson's avatar

First, I must praise you for resisting the urge to talk about the many volumes I have of *forgotten* lore. If you're curious, I think you'll find many of them quaint. But more specifically, let's talk about Laphroaig. You can call it "Lore" if you want, but it tastes very much like the bottom of a week-old ashtray. You want to turn pre-teens solidly against alcohol? Give 'em a big ol' shot of Laphroaig. And that's lore.

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