ArmachiA Wrote:When we moved to WoW we didn't even try to be a part of the "I KILLED SOANSSO"crowd, but instead had each expansion effect our characters (I.E when The Burning Crusade came out, it was assumed that the storyline for Vanilla WoW was over and done with and we talked about it in character past tense. When Wraith came out, we had our character be part of the big ol' army that was helping defeat Illidan and his ilk, but we personally never saw the guy. As Blood Elves, before Wraith came out, those who spoke out against Prince Kael'thas were considered traitors, while after those who still supported the giant douche were considered insane.)
That is probably how we'll do things in FFXIV as well.
If you want to do the epic game storyline with your characters in the center of it all instead of being effected by it all, I would suggest doing it AU, so you don't end up pissing off the entire community by saying you killed the main badguy.
This is precisely how I have and will continue to handle the subject, although I personally take it a step further and, at least in the case of WoW, would base storylines around patches moreso than I would around full expansions. Granted, this depended upon whether a patch actually moved a storyline forward or not. For example, the Sunwell patch made it clear that Kael'thas was a traitor to Silvermoon, and so the political atmosphere changed then rather than in Wrath after he would have been considered dead. Similarly, by the time ICC was introduced, the Trials would have already determined the unnamed heroes that ultimately defeat the Lich King.
I also agree that its possible to place your character in certain events as participants, just not the central heroes. If for example there ends up being some gigantic battle between the Garlean armies and the people of the city-states, it's reasonable to say that your character might have been a participant or witness. The same applies to the parade in Ul'dah, or even as was mentioned earlier, using the Limsa Lominsa opening sequence in some fashion.
