I am tired of being the hero (aka the chosen one)

[AlyssaWildheart]

I agree with both points people have made, while I agree I get tired of always being "the hero" or something, as others have mentioned this is a story driven game. At least the game refers to us as adventurers sometimes, instead of it always being as a hero or the Warrior of light.

And even though the game makes it seem like you're the "hero", in your mind your character can be anything you want (I know it's not the same but it's the closest anyone can get)
I have multiple characters and none of them are "chosen ones" in my mind.

And I was going to mention Guild Wars 2 but someone beat me to it.

[Kragon]

All those struggles and villians that you mentioned... who solved and defeated them in the end? Yup the chosen one the warrior of light saviour of eorzea. Without the chosen one the npcs in this game can't even touch Nidhogg, Gaius, Zenos and various other villians let alone defeat them

[Joe777]

Its not just in FFXIV. Every other mmorpg I have played recently in the past 3-4 years the game always makes us players the chosen ones... like we are some kind of demigod or something. But older mmorpgs didn't do that. Like Vanilla WoW (in 2004) we were just simple adventurers trying to make a living.

Old school MMOs also didn't have a plot, let alone any roles. Take Runescape for example; you did some quests sure but there was no real story, just grinding and PvP.

[Kragon]

Old school MMOs also didn't have a plot, let alone any roles. Take Runescape for example; you did some quests sure but there was no real story, just grinding and PvP.

I remember Everquest having lots of quests. Those quests told us about the world, about the various factions fighting for supremacy. The most important thing is no matter how many quests we did in that game or how many dungeons or raids we cleared the npcs there never regarded us as heroes.

[KokonoeAiyoko]

Play FFXI. They legit don't give a sheep about you in that game's storyline.

[Penthea]

Its not just in FFXIV. Every other mmorpg I have played recently in the past 3-4 years the game always makes us players the chosen ones... like we are some kind of demigod or something. But older mmorpgs didn't do that. Like Vanilla WoW (in 2004) we were just simple adventurers trying to make a living.

And WoW changed their stance on it because it began to make no sense to treat player characters like no-name adventurers after they vanquished several major enemy npcs. Not because they left some golden days behind in the spirit of copying a trend.

[Powercow]

GW2 did that and the community didn't like that an NPC commander took all of your glory. I like that here we're the heroes.

WoW did that too. Every time you'd do something, some NPC would come in and take credit. This annoyed the hell out of the community up until WoD.

Then the pendulum swung too far the other way: they made us a commander/general of our faction, gave you a military base, etc. This annoyed everyone again, mostly because it made no sense that the supreme commander of our interdimensional army goes around picking up poop once a day, or has to mine his own mine, or tend to his own garden (seriously what are all you lazy slobs DOING all day!?). Also, all those neat adventures you used to do? Now you tell OTHER people to do them! With a table! I haven't felt such excitement since I last did my taxes.

Here's to hoping FFXIV can strike a balance.

[Kragon]

Play FFXI. They legit don't give a sheep about you in that game's storyline.

I never played FFXI. But if in that game we were treated as simple adventurers why in FFXIV did SE changed their direction?

[Penthea]

WoW did that too. Every time you'd do something, some NPC would come in and take credit. This annoyed the hell out of the community up until WoD.

Then the pendulum swung too far the other way: they made us a commander/general of our faction, gave you a military base, etc.

Well that was more of a mechanical error than a story error. The player character's stance in the story made sense. It just so happened the garrison was a cool idea with terrible execution.

[Powercow]

I never played FFXI. But if in that game we were treated as simple adventurers why in FFXIV did SE changed their direction?

I think a big part of it is that they weren't sure about ARR's success, and didn't want to take a risk alienating people by not making you the big hero of the story pretty much right off the bat. FFXIV 1.0 also treated you as just some dude -- some dude with the Echo, sure, but you weren't anything special.

It's really hard to do well and it can definitely turn some people off if a game doesn't revolve around them, since many people play these games for the power fantasy apsect of it. As just "some adventurer" you don't have that badass power level that "the Warrior of Light" has, you know?