The Chosen One Syndrome

[UniversalWolf]

The player character or characters should not have any kind of special destiny.

-No prophecies fortelling player characters' arrival
-No "you're our last hope."
-No "you're the only one who can save the world from certain destruction."
-No "the only one who can draw the sword from the stone is the rightful king."
-No magical coincidences

[Vryheid]

Yeah that was never an issue in the original Wasteland. You were just dumped out in the middle of the desert a vaguely defined objective, and nobody knew who you were or cared about what you were looking for. You had to work your way just to build any reputation at all, and even then most NPCs had little confidence in your abilities. I don't think Wasteland 2 is going to add prophecies or the like either.

[infestor]

totally agreed, the chosen one syndrome must be avoided. it's been done to death. there can even be a reference to this cliche where you take a quest which makes you believe you're the chosen one and great frustration at the end.

[Oesophagus]

Agree completely.

Sick of games where the protagonist is a combination of Gandhi, Jesus, and Chuck Norris

[BrotherMagneto]

Agree. If that's what people want then the Baldur's Gate HD remake might be more the game for them.

[undecaf]

The player character or characters should not have any kind of special destiny.

-No prophecies fortelling player characters' arrival
-No "you're our last hope."
-No "you're the only one who can save the world from certain destruction."
-No "the only one who can draw the sword from the stone is the rightful king."
-No magical coincidences

I'd buy that for a dollar.

[MDF_MadDogFargo]

Yeah, that's just a lazy storytelling way of motivating your character. Wasteland let you create any character you wanted without much restrictions on detail. But most of that detail was supplied by you the player and you supplied your own motivation.

Side note since these origin stories are mainly meant to justify your character's appearance whereas you could imagine your own appearance Wasteland. Maybe, for character creation in WL2 we could choose a wide variety of character models and customize them and they change with use and experience. I should be able to play an athletic teenage blonde girl or a dirty old man if I want to and make up my own history. (Side side note - my history could be related to one or more NPCs in the game so my character isn't just dropping out of the sky, something like I have to go back home after ranger training. All 4 NPCS could have different similar back stories and gain experience from their initial chosen "quest" which is really part of character creation.)

[UniversalWolf]

totally agreed, the chosen one syndrome must be avoided. it's been done to death. there can even be a reference to this cliche where you take a quest which makes you believe you're the chosen one and great frustration at the end.

I always thought it would be funny if everywhere you went you kept hearing rumors about "The Chosen One" and all the quests he'd completed right before your arrival.

[Badunius]

totally agreed, the chosen one syndrome must be avoided. it's been done to death. there can even be a reference to this cliche where you take a quest which makes you believe you're the chosen one and great frustration at the end.

I always thought it would be funny if everywhere you went you kept hearing rumors about "The Chosen One" and all the quests he'd completed right before your arrival.

+1
and a quest to find and beat this bastard to death with his own hand

[Vryheid]

totally agreed, the chosen one syndrome must be avoided. it's been done to death. there can even be a reference to this cliche where you take a quest which makes you believe you're the chosen one and great frustration at the end.

I always thought it would be funny if everywhere you went you kept hearing rumors about "The Chosen One" and all the quests he'd completed right before your arrival.

Reminds me of Gary in Pokemon Red/Blue. Clawed your way to the top of Silph Co? Gary's already there, somehow having evaded the entirety of Team Rocket. Used a game exploit to skip to a gym battle early? Gary still beat the gym first. Got the only Surf HM in the entire game world? Gary still got through Cinnabar Island before you did. Beat the Elite Four, become the League Champion? Gary magically becomes the active champion again as soon as you reappear in Pallet Town. Goddamn Chosen One Gary Oak.

[homeslice82]

COMPLETELY agreed. Fallout 2 lost roughly 100k style points for incorporating this cliche.

[Smejki]

Great point!
no prophecies (crazy NPCs' visions excluded), no deus ex machina situations, no HURRR DURRR ya kill'd mah famüli motivations
please make the game adult in every aspect, no cheap storytelling tricks

[Ausir]

COMPLETELY agreed. Fallout 2 lost roughly 100k style points for incorporating this cliche.

To be fair, Fallout 2 didn't treat it too seriously either. You were a "chosen one" to your tribe, but to the rest of the world you were just a crazy tribal.

[Vryheid]

COMPLETELY agreed. Fallout 2 lost roughly 100k style points for incorporating this cliche.

I think they were trying to parody the trope by incorporating it so heavily in the game. Virtually everyone you claimed to be the "Chosen One" to from outside the village just thought you were a total crackpot.

[alexlovesinxile]

Absolutely agreed with OP...

... but to some other feelings expressed here: say what you want about Bioware, but I don't think giving player characters stories and personalities equates to chosen one syndrome. Obviously, theres a spectrum of what the game should be responsible for, and what the player's imagination should be responsible for*, but player characters with distinct personalities and stories, that the player has to work with as oppose to merely conjure in his/her mind, is something worth exploring. Consider it a level of story telling beyond what temperament you choose in dialogue and what choices your characters make, providing opportunity for a more robust implementation of both.

* As an analogy... InXile could maintain player characters that refuse the player's orders, or, the player could skip a turn and imagine the character ignored their orders.

[Gizmo]

COMPLETELY agreed. Fallout 2 lost roughly 100k style points for incorporating this cliche.

To be fair, Fallout 2 didn't treat it too seriously either. You were a "chosen one" to your tribe, but to the rest of the world you were just a crazy tribal.

Indeed... And in Klamoth, the guy John in the bar offers to teach you magic spells ~to see if you'll say Yes; and derides you to the other bar patrons if you do.

[Plasmablaster]

I'll agree with the points of this post. Let the player decide what he's going to be through what he's going to do. Please no "You are the saviour of the universe, now go and save it".

Having said that, I always liked to have some big plot that the player may decide to hop-on, and if he wants (and can) BE the saviour of the "universe".

I'll also agree that in fallout 2 you weren't anybody outside of Arroyo. In that village alone, you needed to be the "chosen one" so as to have the incentive and support of the tribe's elders to start the journey. After that, the game let you be whatever you wanted.

[Dionysus]

I was just thinking about making a topic about this issue (that's why I'm logged on)

I completly agree, please no cheesy prophecy stuff or something like that.

Same is true for factions and stuff like that ... Skyrim is actually a really bad offender on this one. No matter what guild/faction you join, you're always the chosen one, and that's ridiculous and boring. Worst of all, you never earn your rank or progress or even really work for it. All the factors that help you in Skyrim are completly outside of your control.
In Morrowind on the other hand, you had to work your behind off to get ahead in a guild.

I mean really, just to compare how you become archmage in both game:
Morrowind: You join the Mage Guild, do tons, and I mean TONS of quests, train required skills, get a magical education, travel around the world, gather experience, collect artifacts, and really work your way up the ranks to the head of the guild.
Skyrim: After your very first 5 minute lesson you make a class trip to some ancient ruin, discover an ancient artefact, get contacted by a secret society of mages, collect some stuff, stop an evil wizard and jump from initiate straight to archmage.

Now what do you think feels more rewarding in the end ?

[Kide]

^Indeed, Morrowind had a rewarding experience to go through things...

Now days for some reason everything is too easy, things are given to you, and you do not need to see any "effort". Whitch is not rewarding at all. I hated the dungeons in Skyrim too.... A pipe you go through, and always find a easy way back out, so you do not need to walk any extra ways, or really do exploring, because it was a straght pipe....

And I don't need to have a chosen one in the game. It is refreshing to actually not have one, but I do like to asign some more personality to the charachters I do have, so that it is somehow relevent to the game too, and not all in just in my head.

[astateofmind]

I loved the chosen one cliche in Fallout 2. Specially with 2 points in intellect