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

[Betelgeuzah]

Those "tens of thousands of heroes" do *not* exist in each player's personal questing world

Too bad the game is *more* than the "players personal questing world" (that only exists in cutscenes). You are the one missing the point here. You can be all by yourself in that little cutscene world of yours, but once it ends you are inhabiting the vast world around us with thousands of other people. People that are all "heroes", as was said in the cutscene from a minute back. As much as you'd like for this game to be your own personal sandbox, this doesn't change the fact that you exist with thousands of other people, unlike in a single player game. And that's the reason why the story can not be told in the exact same way as in a single player story, even if it can have many similarities.

Portraying *any* character as a dullard that has absolutely no pesonality is simply bad storytelling.

Like I said,

nope
that's
just
you.

I continue to be myself in the MMO where I create my own story, but if you portrait yourself as a dullard with no personality... well, I won't argue.

mr. Passerby random dullard #12549.

Yes, that's what I am. In a world filled with tens of thousands of people like me, I can not be the hero. And even if the story tells you how unique little pretty pink snowflake you are, you are still no less of a random passeryby dullar than I am.

[Abriael]

Too bad the game is *more* than the "players personal questing world" (that only exists in cutscenes). You are the one missing the point here. You can be all by yourself in that little cutscene world of yours, but once it ends you are inhabiting the vast world around us with thousands of other people. People that are all "heroes", as was said in the cutscene from a minute back. As much as you'd like for this game to be your own personal sandbox, this doesn't change the fact that you exist with thousands of other people, unlike in a single player game. And that's the reason why the story can not be told in the exact same way as in a single player story, even if it can have many similarities.

Yes, that's what I am. In a world filled with tens of thousands of people like me, I can not be the hero. And even if the story tells you how unique little pretty pink snowflake you are, you are still no less of a random passeryby dullar than I am.

Too bad that we're talking about the story here, and the fact that the story is shown from an exclusively single player point of view means that when the story unfolds on our own screen, we can be portrayed as whatever.

Whether we are portrayed as heroes or as random dullards the *single player driven* quests will *always* be 100% incompatible with the "tens of thousands of people". There's no contact point. Single player story and massive environment are *always* completely detached.

Again, you miss the fact that it doesn't make the slightest sense to have the same wounded hunter ask for the same 10 bear pelts to every single one of the "tens of thousands".
No matter how simple the story element is. Traditional quests are always incompatible with the massively multiplayer environment, and as such happen only in each player's "personal sanbox".

The story is *already* unfolding in each player's "personal sandbox". Like every quest-driven story in every MMORPG out there. That's the simple, undeniable fact that you continue to miss, probably purposedly, since it makes your shaky card castle collapse onto itself.