Kingdom Come Deliverance studio co-founder says a lot of RPGs are 'still games for teenagers,' and that he's 'tired of all the RPGs where you are this chosen one'

[u/Asianboiforwhitedad]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/kingdom-come-deliverance-studio-co-founder-says-a-lot-of-rpgs-are-still-games-for-teenagers-and-that-hes-tired-of-all-the-rpgs-where-you-are-this-chosen-one/

[u/FribonFire]

I get it, but I don't know what game ot is if it's a 60-80+ hour rpg where you level up but never become so powerful that you're a defacto chosen one or saving the day at the end. 

It's somewhat just a necessity of the genre. Disco Elyisium is a great adult, non chosen RPG, but I wouldn't want to play a three times as long version of it.

[u/HeavyMetalLenin → u/FribonFire]

I guess planescape torment is an example but its more of a narrative adventure with rpg mechanics

[u/Sterling_-_Archer → u/FribonFire]

It’s known as a genre convention. Tropes aren’t necessarily bad things, and in fact are often genre-defining. There are mandatory key themes and story beats in certain genres that readers expect, this is a key theme in RPGs - the player character eventually becoming strong and being, in some way, “chosen.”

[u/Forsaken-Cell1848 → u/FribonFire]

Mmos do it all the time, where players are helping out their faction and the leaders of said faction. This would work perfectly well in single player rpgs too. A player character can be an agent, a shaker and mover of things, but does so as part of a bigger organisation rather than being this singular, larger than life hero figure every npc dances around. It would also open up opportunities for player characters to have rivalries with other agents in their faction, or even run into their parties during adventures to either help them out or mess things up, depending on player's own agenda, with eventual story outcome being the team effort of the entire faction.

[u/ThatMerri → u/Forsaken-Cell1848]

It's a mixed bag with MMOs since the attempt can very often just fall flat on its face.

I recall the approach worked very well in The Secret World MMO where the player was informed very directly that they were not special, they were a cog in a grand machine, and if they failed they would absolutely just be replaced. It made all the player's accomplishments over the course of the story not only feel like they were actually progressing out of their own grit, but made room for the countless other players doing the same thing as being teammates. Accomplishments were small and thus noticeable to make things feel real, while the big "threats to all creation" dangers were so massive that their defeat was always either partial or so vast that the results can't be conventionally perceived.

FFXIV straddles the fence in that the player is canonically The Chosen One while all the other players running around the overworld are not - they're just "helpful adventurers". But, in their point of view, you also aren't the Chosen One because they are. It's sort of a standing kayfabe everyone who plays agrees to collectively maintain. Everyone and nobody is simultaneously the Main Character.

On the other side of things, a game like RIFTS falls flat on its face. Its narrative focuses on the idea that the player is indeed the One and Only Hyper Special Super Unique Chosen One of Legend, and that they are the single final hope for the world because your very existence is basically a one-time fluke they can't possibly recreate. Yet the actual gameplay doesn't reinforce that AT ALL and immediately drops you into a starter zone packed full of a million other Chosen Ones, the core game experience is built around mass raids, and every time you die you just get respawned even though the NPCs said that was impossible. The gameplay and narrative clash hard with each other and it totally implodes.

Then you get superhero MMOs where you get to make your own super and interact in the world with other known supers - be they from major titles like DC's roster, or self-contained settings like from City of Heroes or Champions Online. But those just feel like a treadmill where nothing ever actually happens or gets accomplished, and the sheer glut of supers running around makes it seem nonsensical that anything even can happen. Especially when the player must always not be as strong as the major title characters they're supposed to look up to as mentors.

[u/Leafy0 → u/FribonFire]

I mean you could definitely just start the game as a regular dude but by the 3rd act when the stakes actually get high you start actually getting the chosen one treatment after your power has escalated to that point.

[u/Distinct-Bathroom823 → u/FribonFire]

chosen one doesnt mean powerful.