This is something I am curious to know people's opinions about.
In the scope of an MMORPG's story and game world, do you prefer being "The Chosen One", being a nameless cog in the machine, or somewhere in between?
Personally, I've always found being considered the sole protagonist in the game world a little ridiculous. I'm specifically reminded of a brief moment I had in The Elder Scrolls Online where the Big Story Intro NPC gives some tirade about how my character is the sole hope to save the world, only for me to pop into a ship with about a hundred other armed and similarly dressed wahoos who were presumably chosen for the same task. Guild Wars 2 had this same problem as well, where after being told "YOU are the ONLY ONE who can STOP THEM" or some such nonsense, you pop out of cutscene land and smack dab into a crazed mob filled with other people who are also conveniently the ONLY ONES who can STOP THEM.
With that said, while I always find the trend of being the Chosen One in a game world populated by literally nothing else but other Chosen Ones and NPCs ridiculous, I will note that in no way does it significantly impede a game's ability to tell a good story. Star Wars: The Old Republic is a decent example of this, because even if there are a thousand other Grand Champions of the Great Hunt or Cipher Nines or Emperor's Wraths, I still liked the stories for the various classes and found them pretty compelling.
In FFXIV specifically, being the sole Warrior of Light in a game world populated by nothing but other Warriors of Light is a bit jarring to me and at times makes the story a tad absurd (I always think of the trials that require 8 people but the story treating you as if you defeated the big bad all by yourself and just poignantly ignoring the seven other people with you) but while it does affect my sense of self in the narrative, it doesn't really negatively impact the narrative as a whole.
Then you have games on the other end of the spectrum in MMOs like World of Warcraft, where you can be wielding weapons of legend and powerful enough to single-handedly defeat demigods in seconds and yet the player is consistently treated as less than an accessory to the various characters with little to no acknowledgement to the player character's contribution. Thrall is of course credited with the defeat of Deathwing because that rampaging horde of twenty-five loot crazed raiders were fairly non-essential, yeah? Well, probably.
In the scope of an MMORPG's story and game world, do you prefer being "The Chosen One", being a nameless cog in the machine, or somewhere in between?
Personally, I've always found being considered the sole protagonist in the game world a little ridiculous. I'm specifically reminded of a brief moment I had in The Elder Scrolls Online where the Big Story Intro NPC gives some tirade about how my character is the sole hope to save the world, only for me to pop into a ship with about a hundred other armed and similarly dressed wahoos who were presumably chosen for the same task. Guild Wars 2 had this same problem as well, where after being told "YOU are the ONLY ONE who can STOP THEM" or some such nonsense, you pop out of cutscene land and smack dab into a crazed mob filled with other people who are also conveniently the ONLY ONES who can STOP THEM.
With that said, while I always find the trend of being the Chosen One in a game world populated by literally nothing else but other Chosen Ones and NPCs ridiculous, I will note that in no way does it significantly impede a game's ability to tell a good story. Star Wars: The Old Republic is a decent example of this, because even if there are a thousand other Grand Champions of the Great Hunt or Cipher Nines or Emperor's Wraths, I still liked the stories for the various classes and found them pretty compelling.
In FFXIV specifically, being the sole Warrior of Light in a game world populated by nothing but other Warriors of Light is a bit jarring to me and at times makes the story a tad absurd (I always think of the trials that require 8 people but the story treating you as if you defeated the big bad all by yourself and just poignantly ignoring the seven other people with you) but while it does affect my sense of self in the narrative, it doesn't really negatively impact the narrative as a whole.
Then you have games on the other end of the spectrum in MMOs like World of Warcraft, where you can be wielding weapons of legend and powerful enough to single-handedly defeat demigods in seconds and yet the player is consistently treated as less than an accessory to the various characters with little to no acknowledgement to the player character's contribution. Thrall is of course credited with the defeat of Deathwing because that rampaging horde of twenty-five loot crazed raiders were fairly non-essential, yeah? Well, probably.
