(10-19-2016, 08:41 AM)Valence Wrote: Yes of course. It would be boring if all stories were about a farmer boy going on an adventure.
Some powerful characters either work as you say because they started from scratch (but that's where it becomes tricky in MMOs, everyone isn't necessarily your audience and watches from the beginning, especially when realistic problems enter the equation, like a 20y old character master their art or so). Or either when they are powerful de facto, but are not the center of the spotlight (aka, mentors of sorts, see Gandalf, Auron, etc).
But more than that, it mostly boils down to believability, or suspension of disbelief.
Remember too though... this IS a Final Fantasy game. Most of the playable characters ARE in fact about that young. (We'll take Cecil there as a good example, only 20 and yet such a skilled DRK that he was made captain of the Red Wings. And while that post doesn't mention Kain, it is likely that he, a full fledged DRG, is about the same age.) So, do we apply Real World limitations to our game or keep the Fantasy going?
Full disclosure - I am personally no where near 20. lol. I know full well how annoying it is to play with folks who have characters with god-like abilities and pull a playground "Nuh Uh, you can't beat me!" whenever they are threatened by anything. But there is a middle ground between this and 'so average that they can't actually do anything that exists in the XIV world/storyline but doesn't exist in Real Life'.
I am still holding to my idea that XIV's story and lore are written as though this was a single player game (mentioned a few pages back). In order to account for the thousands that are roleplaying in this world, we're gonna have to do some handwaving here and there. Try to work with what we're given, sure, but ultimately it is still a fantasy game.