Why not have the fans write a book or two?

[D_Lay]

I mean, I think we can all agree, Oblivion was a bit lacking in literature. Not only in lore books, but also in simple books telling a story. A lot of the books were also carried down from Morrowind. I wouldn't be suprised if you could count the amount of new books written for Oblivion on one hand. Most would agree that literature isn't that important, but still, it's disappointing.

I figure it'd be a relatively easy way for the designers of Skyrim to use some fan-made literature. To make it even easier, so that they would not have to sift through 1000 stories, they could have mods of the major fan sites (this one, the official wiki, any others) pick their favorites (just a handful) and they could sift through those, which would take well under a day. So as to make it even easier, if desired, the books could all simply be stories and not have any lore... perhaps

I think that it would make the game a tad bit better, and we all know that hardcore fans (especially some of the RP'ers here) would gladly whip up some amazing stories, or even lore. I mean, why not, right?

[Vendetta]

I bet they will steal this idea and call it their own.

[D_Lay]

I bet they will steal this idea and call it their own.

Heh heh heh they have to give credit or i will sue

[Rhcpftw]

Oh D_Lay, that's what I said, but they never gave me credit for my awesome 'Alduin has set the moon on fire' idea...

Also, I'd be reluctant to let the fans come anywhere near that level of responsibility. If you ask me, I'd do what Blizzard does, and have competitions for awesome (yet non-canon) short stories.

[OblivionDuruza]

There were talks on the Official Forums of a Mod that would incorporate Fan Literature.

[Symmachus]

I have high hopes for the lore in Skyrim. Deeper things about the Monomyth and the Arcane University were hinted at in Oblivion and from what tiny shreds of 'the book' I read on the wiki, and I have made a whole pseudo mythology out of it incorporating Ayleid lore with a Lovecraftian mindset, for the purposes of a fan fiction story I have never written much of (alas.) I just did it for fun, really. And I loved the books in Oblivion by the way, and think they add an important dimension to the game. I think many genuinely wanted to finish the longer series of books especially, and some of the stand-alones were quite entertaining.

More factual information about laws and magick, not just history and religion would be awesome (I have written a story about Necromancers with an intention to flesh out their ideas (pun not intended XD), practices and motivations-my favourite on-going story at the moment.), as well as more letters and notes, and conversational information, perhaps with wise mages and scholars?

Certainly I have a few fan fiction authors bookmarked whom I follow closely and whose work I love. The trouble is that crossovers or stories based on original characters may be hard to place inside the game. Not to mention that too much of it often centres the dear old player character -.- I make it a point never to do that, though I have seen it done very well many times in fan fiction. I think maybe fans could author things and send it to the devs for approval? A competition maybe? It would be so cool to see your own name in the credits as a lore developer! XD

[D_Lay]

Someone should get the ball rolling

[Tesknowitall]

I bet they will steal this idea and call it their own.

Heh heh heh they have to give credit or i will sue

I was the one who told them to make The Elder Scrolls muahahaha!!! Jk... I wish...
But I'm all in for that idea. Making a book for this game isn't hard, oblivion books were like 10 pages long! The game will be out soon so we better start going...