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

[CosmicKirby]

I just want to be a simple adventurer. Is that so hard to do that in mmorpgs nowadays? Why does game developers always need to stroke our egos by making us 'the chosen one' in every online rpg games. Back in the old days... during the era of Everquest, Dark age of camelot and Ultima online nobody was the chosen one. In those games each and every players were simple adventurers trying to survive in a harse and hostile world. Oh how I miss the good old days of gaming.

Sadly those golden days of gaming are never coming back. Every single mmorpg I play nowadays the game makes me the chosen one. And another worst thing is that thousands of other players around me are also the chosen ones.

WoW did it. Noone likes it and it makes no sense beyond the beginning or so of an adventure. Over time the stakes have to get raised, and once you've slain a god, you're hardly 'just an adventurer' anymore.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

I feel super awkward in this game ever since the beginning of ARR. They treat you like a celebrity. No wait. With the Echo, protection from Hydaelyn, never failing and constant recognition, I honestly feel like a small God. It's just too much.

We didn't save Edda. We couldn't save Edda.
Midgardsormr took Hydaelyn's blessing from us (or perhaps sealed it for a time).
We were helpless when Teledji tried his little assassination plot and pinned it on us.
Haurchefant.
We didn't stop Illberd. Hell, we helped him set things in motion.
Zenos stomped us out twice. We were saved once (and almost lost another friend in the process), and he spared us the second time, out of simply enjoying fighting us.

We ARE powerful, but we're far from perfect or unstoppable.

[Vorlonshadow]

MMO(RPG) thats why

[ChaoticCrimson]

One of my favorite quips though in the story was when Yda made you go fetch something and Rowena just bluntly says something along the lines of "the Scions can't make better use of your time?"

But consider this: WoL gets so much recognition and praise from people that they themselves essentially become a Primal, and the rest of the cast has to put them down in the end! But of course, let's not get too edgy here lol

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Revelations from Coil and Ysayle show that that's entirely possible. But we have yet to develop a fanatical following, nor are we trying to build up to it. If anything, we're just the one who steps forward when something needs to be done. We're regarded as the WoL (if only for a means of being named/referred to for the sake of story), but we're not Eorzea's hero they know and rely upon. Most primal incidents have been quelled before they became a well known threat that could cause panic, thus we remain fairly unknown except to those we help.

[Aana]

Theres been a bit of a shift away from 'adventures' to 'heros' over the years in the genre. But I don't think that matters much for FF. The chosen crystal warriors has literally been FF's thing since FF1. You are the warrior(s) of light. The god crystal chose you to beat back the darkness. This is really a return to FFs roots in the franchise more than anything else.

Other games that did not have these roots have, unfortunately, jumped on the 'hero' bandwagon. Hell in Diablo 1/2 you were just adventurers that stumbled upon Tristram. Diablo 3 you are these godlike nephalem. Though to be fair it is entirely explained in the lore why that's so after the worldstone's destruction that had been limiting human powers. But still. It changes the feel when everyone is calling you the Nephalem. The story in 1/2 focused on the world around you and the path of the 'wanderer' whom you were tracking. The 3rd one plays out like an MCU film saving the world.

I blame the MCU. Everyone has to be a damn superhero now.

TLDR: Yes there is a trend of making players 'chosen superheros' lately, but FF series has been doing this since FF1's chosen crystal warriors. Its not out of character for this franchise in the slightest. This is just keeping to their roots.

[BillyKaplan]

But we have yet to develop a fanatical following, nor are we trying to build up to it.

Haven't we, though? Between the Scions, a LOT of Grand Company people we run into, unrelated people in all three City States, Ishgard, now in Ala Mhigo and Doma as well, we already have that sort of fanatical following. And that's the people who know we're the WoL, not even the people we've simply came in contact with and helped whose numbers are much greater. My favorite example is Alphinaud who went from viewing you as nothing more than a tool, a weapon, to being your greatest admirer. Was there tempering involved? Arguably not, and the way our relationship with him evolves adds up with the story only too well. But you don't have to be tempered to feed your Primal's existence. And if we do want to go there, we're so powerful, who's to say we didn't temper them unknowingly somewhere along the way?

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

I shared my theory on the "WoL Concept" between you and Alphinaud once. Basically he's the diplomat/mind of the WoL, you're the fighter/hero. Where he speaks and influences, you act and get things done.

That aside, we're celebrated for doing good deeds, and we've made many friends and companions as a result, but no one is gathering crystals to summon us, no one prays to us, most people STILL treat us like the average gopher adventurer. That'd be the biggest difference there. Outside of the circle of people that know us, we have absolutely no influence of our own. We're only invited to big heads of state meetings generally to be made aware of the situation, or out of arbitrary Scion presence. As it stands, we are an average adventurer. . . we just have the Echo, and one really big success record, some of which isn't even allowed to be public knowledge.

[AlexionSkylark]

I don't know which MMOs the OP are talking about, because the ones I can think of, WoW in particular, never talk about you as you being anything special. This only started happening I think from Draenor onwards. Who in there doesn't remember seeing us doing all the work just so Green Jesus could destroy Deathwing?

[Kallera]

OP rather than the direct opposite of being unrecognized all the time, would you be interested if our actions started resulting in negative repercussions? Or are you interested in a new protagonist climbing their way up, perhaps without being destined to the task by Hydaelyn?

Is it the character, or the actions, that make it untenable for you?