(05-28-2015, 04:08 PM)Graeham Ridgefield Wrote: The Warrior of Light is just an awkward stand in for our characters, though that doesn't matter since it wouldn't make sense for anybody's character to be the Warrior of Light in the first place. It's silly that a lot of the lore revolves around the actions of a single character despite it being an MMO but...that's no different to WoW, GW2 and the various other MMO's that embraced such a path.
Putting that aside, however, the lore is rich and interesting enough for role-players to have plenty of stuff to do. What the Warrior of Light does or doesn't do is largely irrelevant - at least in my eyes. Then again, I'm not interested in interacting with anybody who is brushing shoulders with the Warrior or Light or claiming to be him so...each to their own, I guess!
Believe it or not, I agree with you 100%, every point.
Since we're bringing up other MMO's, I offer LOTRO's story in comparison.
LOTRO puts us in a hero's skin, true, but it reminds us constantly that we are not the BIG hero, despite everything we do and accomplish while the story of the Lord Of The Rings keeps happening just a little bit ahead of the player. The player in LOTRO is, in effect, the clean-up crew - the players are there to keep every OTHER problem in Middle-Earth at bay, and we're constantly reminded of that fact, that Frodo's ahead of us, and we've got to keep him safe, just like every other major player in Middle Earth. We aren't the Big hero, but we have the relative joy of knowing that...
1) We aren't stuck in the "Little Guy Vs. The World" role. We are there to make sure the humble hobbit can get his job done, and so there is no contradiction with the "Everyman" role.
2) We actually kind of ARE the heroes. What the players do in LOTRO's story is make sure that the world stays in shape and that evil doesn't get a foothold, and that the Fellowship can go about its business.
3) We have to work as a team. We know that people more powerful than us are in the world, and we don't have to resent them, because they're busy, too - they're fighting the tough stuff at the same time as we're handling our own business. In FFXIV, this would amount to the Scions actually fighting a primal WITHOUT the help of the WoL, and Minfilia actually doing things like finding her way into Moria or facing down Balrogs instead of lingering in her office waiting to be kidnapped. Again.
4) I don't recall any time in the LOTRO story where my character just decided to let the villains escape. Sure, some of the enemies did, but they didn't just get to waltz on away with the player's good graces.
5) The player could pretty much take a full tour of the whole game and do any dungeon without "unlocking" it. Sure, the story took you to these dungeons, but I recall that I didn't have to wait until the game gave me its leave before I could try 'em.
Now, a lot of this went kinda screwy when Moria came out, and demanded that players do some very challenging 8-player dungeons to be able to advance in the now-gated story mode. It was the first time I can recall the game thus restricting the story... and it's one of the factors (though not the only one) that led to me getting tired of the game.
FFXIV has some WONDERFUL lore! I find it to be a very rich and rewarding game world... that deserves a better main story, is all.
EDIT: Ok, Zarek. I'm letting the thread go on without me, now. You may applaud
"But in the laugh there was another voice. A clearer laugh, an ironic laugh. A laugh which laughs because it chooses not to weep."
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