This post was more about seeing how people feel about being the hero versus a mob character. So far most answers have been that players wish to be in a supporting or NPC role. Its not a bad thing or the wrong answer. If i were trolling i would have closed responses or countered each one someone said.
At best its a chance to see if players would want more than just being the wild card or a random card in the deck that just so happens to be played more than others.
On Moon Guard there are so many guilds that it seems like everyone is eager to be a noticed hero or main character in some way. Like what i did, but only because Iâm choosing to boycott Dalarans petty destruction, many players are using guilds for self titles.
Someone even used the guild slot for self titles like âQueen of Stormwindâ, âThe Ashbringerâ or the overzealous âGod of Azerothâ.
If you think about it Warcraft its a prewritten story with all the paths chosen and we just play the events or side quests in between.
Other games, mostly offline like Skyrim or Fallout for example, are where the ending isnât told so the path is any which way.
I enjoy being the main hero. It felt good standing shoulder to shoulder with Tyranda, Jaina, and Alex confronting Farak, I like that Anduin despite everything still sees my character as a friend. Or how Legion finally put my DK on the same level as Thassrain, Kolthrira and even Darion as I always saw my character. Now My DK is co-leader with Bolvar. and finally Sylvanas telling you public opinion of YOU matters more than Saurfang.
Maybe I been playing FFXIV for too long but Iâm bored of RPing some rando nobody sitting around in cites. For the past 10+ of RP i been getting more satisfaction writing my DKs story than RPing them out.
As far as things are going so far in WAR Iâm not seeing anything that gives me the impression Iâm a sidekick to the lore characters.
Actually in some way everyones DK is a hero no matter how they try to hide. You literally are the Deathlord in charge of the Four Horsemen. Cant get any more OP or cringe than that. Bolvar would have been the only one higher up but without the helm hes just another DK.
So this touches on a very interesting conundrum that other story based MMOs have faced. How do you square the circle of one personâs main character is just another personâs sidekick? How do you rectify the dissonance if one person makes a narrative choice wherein someone dies and another makes a different one where they live?
The neat way in which I think World of Warcraft and, by and large a sadly bygone generation of MMOs, tended to approach these narratives was the approach I think a large amount of people in this thread have already thoroughly articulated. Nobody gets singled out as âThe Heroâ and nobody is the Main Character outside of pre-ordained lore figures. The players form a nameless faceless horde of adventurers, explorers, soldiers, and combatants that both get all of the credit and none of it.
You arenât wrong. According to the narrative of multiple classes, they are very much the greatest champions of Azeroth. But how do we rectify your Deathlord existing in the same world as my Deathlord, if the entire point of the game is that weâre playing in the same world, together, doing the same things at the same time?
This is what leads to my actual salient point; I do not think there is a way to have an MMORPG with the player as the âmain characterâ without either having questions devoid of satisfying answers, or having to chip away at the âMassively Multiplayerâ part of MMO.
I use Skyrim as a reference but think of it like this. In some manner we are always the Heroes of our own stories in this game. We just exist in worlds with reduced graphics to balance the frame rate or operation of multiple players.
Wow could easily install an invisible wall for each person where they never see other players unless the player wishes it. Everything is reduced to allow multiple characters in a singular space without crashing. Like when people stack casting Aoe spells like crazy in an attempt to break the game.
Thatâs why in any MMO, the graphics are so much lesser than the solo games.
Wow maintains the story that we are the heroes even in some cutscenes like for the Heart of Azeroth but also gives us some leeway when it comes to legion and one hero for each class hall. The guilds, the dungeons, the raids. they are just binding filler for party play.
But now that we have solo dungeons and delves it again is a step towards that wall where we never see others. We are alone in a world with other NPCâs that operate on script. Garrisons were the best example of a solo world.
And anything with followers gives us obedient allies that do as we do/as we say.
I apply a little suspension of disbelief when it comes to these type of topics. I RP Deathknights as simply being reborn slaves to the Lich King, whoâve been liberated, without having the 4 horseman abilities. Iâm over-simplifying it, here, but it avoids the whole âI am a hero/main characterâ trope that plagues RP, in general.
Suspension of disbelief is needed in RP, big time.
I always like these xpac discussions because I came into WoW from Everquest and I remember when they launched Kunark and half the zones were 30 levels below everyoneâs main - B/C it was an entirely new continent with a new playable race (Iksar) that could level itself inside of said-continent. So if you already existed before xpac launch, you were already dumped into high-end content but huge sections of the xpac remained unexplored.
I like to mention that in comparison to a lot of the WoW xpacs, which force you through each new location in an incredibly linear series of quest chains. By the end, you practically have every location uncovered - grats, hereâs world flying or whatever this weekâs gimmick is.
I think itâs way more heroic to struggle and fail than to just be the âchamp-yonâ just because thatâs what the quest NPC calls everyone. That narrative gear seemed to switch super hard in Legion, which despite being a fun expansion was a little annoying how I, and all of my alts, and everyone you see, is the de-facto head of their class by virtue of completing some relatively easy quests.
So Iâm glad theyâre pulling back on that a bit in War Within, I hope they continue the trend. That doesnât mean fill in the gap with the same half dozen NPCs stealing our frags (thanks THRALL) and them being ultimately the central movers of the story; I think itâs better when you see factions (not just Horde and Alliance) being the ones that get things done.