The other day I was watching a rather excellent 40-minute video of a RuneScape player who dived head-first into all of the versions of World of Warcraft for the first time. And while he had a great time with parts of it, he noted that this incessant push to make the player character a mythical hero (mainly in retail) felt false and unearned.
This touched on a topic that’s long been of interest to me – namely, I’m tired of MMO quests and NPCs pigeon-holing my character as an incredible, world-saving hero, nothing more and nothing less. It’s hard to relate to that, and it doesn’t often fit with our “head canon” of who this character is.
Do MMOs need to knock off that approach? Is it time for these games to stop making us heroes and instead give us room to become more nuanced adventurers?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
