@Cubiq
I get where you're coming from with the "MMO effect", but the issue has many degrees. It's a float, not a boolean. Well, you know what I mean. It's not a cosmic manichaeistic debate between myriad meaningless characters on one side and The Immortal Savior Of The Damned on the other. If you're not content with anything less than the latter, I feel justified in saying that your opinion is extreme and would be just as damaging to the game's storytelling as making an MMO out of it.
Good stories NEED to have a beginning and an end, or else things just begin to unravel. There's a limit to how many variables a storyteller can juggle and a player can keep track of. Besides, the longer a story goes on, the greater the strain on the suspense of disbelief. Like the saying goes, nothing lasts forever.
KOTOR 1 vs 2 is a great example. In fact, KOTOR within the greater SW universe is a great example. The original SW timeline is already crowded, to the point that it was probably a mistake to try and make the 3 prequels into full movies. However, travel back in time several thousand years, and dayum, everything suddenly feels fresh and promising and meaningful.
KOTOR carved a mighty niche for itself even though "everyone knows" that Revan isn't the final word on the fate of the universe. KOTOR 2 told an incredible story that pierced the heart of the Star Wars mythos even though the Exile is "just" a sidekick to Revan. Heck, for all we know, PoE2 might go back to the early days of the empires that, as of PoE, are crumbling.
So don't come telling me that it has to be "my character does it all or bust" in order for a series to be successful.
