The way Square Enix depicts our characters...are we helpless, or are we heroes?

[snowstriker]

The only cutscene I remember in FFXI that made me feel like a hero involved ToAU and the little princess lady. Might've been the last few cutscenes, don't remember, but I recall something evil about to hurt the little lady and then I heard some attack sounds and it showed my character run in front of her and protect her.

That's like the only time I went like "wow if I wasn't there she was dead!" in any FFXI cutscene

[Nuru]

The only cutscene I remember in FFXI that made me feel like a hero involved ToAU and the little princess lady. Might've been the last few cutscenes, don't remember, but I recall something evil about to hurt the little lady and then I heard some attack sounds and it showed my character run in front of her and protect her.

That's like the only time I went like "wow if I wasn't there she was dead!" in any FFXI cutscene

Yeah, but even something like that just seems a bit cliche. We want something like for example.

At first when you start in LL, you see the huge Serpent and you are shocked and amazed.

Later on through the quests, you should see it again and bring out your weapon like you're ready to kill it on the spot. Thats how much your character should grow. Maybe not now, but later on through the story, perhaps above rank 50.

[Abriael]

I completely agree on the fact that the story, at the moment, makes the player feel too uninvolved, and the player's role is excessively secondary. I actually posted a suggestion myself here:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...scenario-quest
I think it pretty much involves te same points (besides the sillyness of someone arguing for several pages that making the player feel like a powerless bystander gawking at the events like a goon is actually a good thing lol).

Most people play videogames to be "the hero", or at least one of the heroes, and personally that's the main thing that I think is blatantly insufficent in the storyline quests.

[Betelgeuzah]

"Lol, someone actually dares to disagrees with Me. Who would've thought haha"

[Abriael]

This.

We are ordinary adventurers that find themselves in the turmoil of the world-changing events. We can not be the "heroes" because that would be ridiculous. We are in a world inhabited by tens of thousands of people, and they are all "the chosen ones"? We fight against fearsome bosses with our friends (at least in the future, I hope) and in the end "I" am the hero that saves the day?

If there are true "heroes" or "legends" or whatever, those are chosen by the community. Making us all "heroes" is just part of the Western unique individualized snowflake mindset that does not translate to an MMO at all. Me and my 20 000 friends are all heroes, because there can't be any losers!

It does have great potential for a comedy however.

Too bad that you blatantly ignore the undeniable fact that the main storyline is *already* seen from a purely single player point of view.
The "tens of thousands of people" already talk with exactly the same NPCs, the react exactly in the same way, and do exactly the same thinsg, thousands of times. Unless there is some dimensional displacement, that's obviously a single player point of view.

And that's not only for the main storyline quest, but for *ALL* quests in this and every other MMORPG.

Thus, there's absolutely no incompatibility with the current *single player driven* storyline and the player being portrayed as the hero. That's all there's to it.

We fight against fearsome bosses with our friends (at least in the future, I hope) and in the end "I" am the hero that saves the day?

You are. Or at least you should be, on your screen only. What happens on other people's *single player-driven* storyline doesn't concern you and your view of the story. It's that simple.

This even besides the fact that it's absolutely silly to present ANY character as a completely flat and depthless gawking goon in ANY game, let alone the player character.

But ultimately, again, you may have not noticed, but in *every* mmorpg, traditional quests are *all* a matter of single player storytelling.

[Captaindownsyndrome]

I do need to agree since I feel like my companion is the main hero and I'm the sidekick.

I'm pretty much the Vaan of FF14...

yeah i hate that we seem to have more of a part in 11 then we do in xiv ( but they both kinda left you on side lines) they really need fix this in the later story arcs

[Randis]

They don't exist in the same world as you.
Care to explain how you can be the hero if you're not the center of the story? It's like saying Johnny from FFVII was the hero of the game.

Very simple.
The story as you see it in the cut-scenes in FFXIV does not fit with the MMO part. There are literally thousands of adventurers but in your story quests you only see a bunch of characters and you know that everyone on the server are doing exactly the same quests.
That being the case you might as well make a story that is more centered around your own character.
Also the story part could simply incorporate the fact that this is a world full of adventurers, it is not the case because as i mentioned, every cutscene shows only you and a bunch of NPC.
It would be different if you would see masses of npc adventurers in your cut scenes.

Being a hero does not have to mean being the only hero but as it is now we are no heroes at all, not even close, we in fact don't even see the NPC heroes. We are asked to do stupid things all the time, talk to beastmen, kill a wolf, protect a salad head.
You get to hear about the evim empire all the time, about violence about people are dying, and when they finish telling you the stories they will send you to kill a ... dodo

[Coombah]

maybe it is a matter of taste but i am not particularity interested in being some support for a NPC Hero.
It is a MMO and not a single player RPG, true that but playing a single player RPG you also know that there are million others playing the same game, the same character even, it does not bother you.

If i watch a movie i also want the main character to be the hero of the story, i want to see what is going on, i want to be placed at the center of action. This is just another entertainment medium after all.

The argument that being the center of the story does not work because this is a MMO and not a single player game is lazy one at best. Just because there are thousands others it does not mean that the story has to be generic and that you can not be part of the action. Thats BS imo.

This, Even in the Main Quest R46 *Spolier*






You just stand their when your companion gets blasted and the other NPC's fight? BS! I wanna be in the fight destroying any Garlean in my path.

[Abriael]

Very simple.
The story as you see it in the cut-scenes in FFXIV does not fit with the MMO part. There are literally thousands of adventurers but in your story quests you only see a bunch of characters and you know that everyone on the server are doing exactly the same quests.
That being the case you might as well make a story that is more centered around your own character.
Also the story part could simply incorporate the fact that this is a world full of adventurers, it is not the case because as i mentioned, every cutscene shows only you and a bunch of NPC.
It would be different if you would see masses of npc adventurers in your cut scenes.

Being a hero does not have to mean being the only hero but as it is now we are no heroes at all, not even close, we in fact don't even see the NPC heroes. We are asked to do stupid things all the time, talk to beastmen, kill a wolf, protect a salad head.
You get to hear about the evim empire all the time, about violence about people are dying, and when they finish telling you the stories they will send you to kill a ... dodo

Exactly. And this doesn't happen only in the storyline of FFXIV. It happens in every single traditional quest in every single MMORPG out there.
Quests that have any kind of story depict that story under an exclusively single-player point of view. They exist only in each player's personal "world", and show no prejudice with him being portrayed as an hero.

And i don't even mean complex stories, unless you think it's logical that wounded hunter in the forests asks *every single* adventurer passing by for ten bear pelts, using exactly the same words, and opening a fur factory in the process.
It simply doesn't work like that.

[Betelgeuzah]

Too bad that you blatantly ignore the undeniable fact that the main storyline is *already* seen from a purely single player point of view.

There is only select few "heroes" in the storyline. Not you and 20 000 people like you. The storyline being portrayed from a "single player game's" PoV is not the potential issue here. The heroes are the same for everyone, thus there are no tens of thousands of heroes, because that is silly. The people you play with and see every day can not all be the heroes. The heroes must be something special and unique, otherwise they cease to be heroes. In single player games this is true. In the storytelling method XI and XIV uses, this is true. In other MMO's, there are tens of thousands of heroes. If you can't see the difference, I feel sad for you, mr. Hero #12548.

This even besides the fact that it's absolutely silly to present ANY character as a completely flat and depthless gawking goon in ANY game, let alone the player character.

nope
just
you.

But ultimately, again, you may have not noticed, but in *every* mmorpg, traditional quests are *all* a matter of single player storytelling.

Single player storytelling in an MMO environment. How hard is it to understand the difference?