I've been roleplaying for awhile not, and my first real foray into MMO RP was on DAoC. I didn't actually participate much, but it seemed okay -- then I got into WoW, and boy, was I blown over by the ridiculous characters people played. Now, granted, I know that every character is likely to fall a little into the mary sue spectrum, and everyone wants a hook to make their character interesting, but I find no matter your character's past, purpose, or what-have-you, the manner in which you play them is more important than anything else.
I've seen plenty of characters with eyerolling backstories that were played with enough nuance and subtlety to make them good characters, and I've also come across characters with aggressively boring backstories that play their characters as if they're meant to be the stars of the show.
Which brings me to another part of this whole mary sue special equation. You have your mary sues, you have your ladies who move like darkness or dudes capable of taking out 20 mooks with a toothpick, but on the flipside you have your characters who're slightly tubby and couldn't fight if their life depended on it and would rather spend their time cutting the crust off sandwiches because that's what "good" roleplay is to them.
So really, I'd advise people to strive for a happy medium. Make your characters entertaining, give them hooks, but don't make them the equivalent of a psychotic high school kid with superpowers who wants to shoot up the local school and has offensively stereotypical multiple personality disorder, and don't push your character too far into the other direction that there's nothing to them.
And realize you're sharing the stage. I mean, this is Final Fantasy -- how often is the main character really the most interesting?
I've seen plenty of characters with eyerolling backstories that were played with enough nuance and subtlety to make them good characters, and I've also come across characters with aggressively boring backstories that play their characters as if they're meant to be the stars of the show.
Which brings me to another part of this whole mary sue special equation. You have your mary sues, you have your ladies who move like darkness or dudes capable of taking out 20 mooks with a toothpick, but on the flipside you have your characters who're slightly tubby and couldn't fight if their life depended on it and would rather spend their time cutting the crust off sandwiches because that's what "good" roleplay is to them.
So really, I'd advise people to strive for a happy medium. Make your characters entertaining, give them hooks, but don't make them the equivalent of a psychotic high school kid with superpowers who wants to shoot up the local school and has offensively stereotypical multiple personality disorder, and don't push your character too far into the other direction that there's nothing to them.
And realize you're sharing the stage. I mean, this is Final Fantasy -- how often is the main character really the most interesting?
