Hi folks, long time no see.
During the Christmas break I watched "Foundation" on Apple TV+, and while I had mixed feelings about the show there were couple interesting enough threads for me to start digging about stories it was based on. Aside from learning how poor of an adaptiation the show was, I came across the concept of "Sociopolitical fiction":
Which made me think about Pillars of Eternity, which focus on politics, social structures, religion and it's impact on populace make me think that at the heart Pillars of Eternity tries to be Sociopolitical Fiction. In both games, the most player can do is tip scales in favour of one of local economical and political structures.
Personally, In PoE1&2 the ususal hero heroics always rang fales to me - gaining power and becoming legendary hero capable of slaughtering endless masses of enemies, felt like "because it is a game" feature, rather than part of the narrative and themes. Especially in PoE2, where the games tries hard to elevate the player as a dragon slayer, herald of Berath, a legendary hero everyone relies on help - it feels hollow, as in the narratively we seem powerless to do anything about the ongoing conflicts.
It seems to me that PoE1&2 are more interested in its nations and ideologies, than our adventures. They seem to me like Sociopolitical Structures, stuck using hero's journey tropes they inherited from Baldur's Gate series. Would you agree?
If so, do you see a solution? In unlikely case PoE3 were created, do you think it is possible to avoid this inherent conflict? Or would the series either need to change their narrative focus, to better support a group of adventurers gameplay, or would the gameplay need to take some drastic changes to better reflect game's narrative interests?