Originally Posted by Smed
we want you to feel like you're in a war and we're the heroes of that war.
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Stop right there.
IF that is your intention, make a Singleplayer. Stop trying to do the impossible. In a MMO, it simply not possible that everyone is "The Hero". Blizzard showed that quite well, as they tried hard to make you feel like "The Hero". But they failed, because you cant be The hero if Thousands of others are "The Hero" as well.
Whats the point if I saved the Galaxy, only to learn that it doesnt actually matter, because 5000 others also saved the galaxy, and even tho if everyone would have failed, the Galaxy would still be saved? Also look at WOW here. WOTLK, Ulduar: Whole story of the instance was about Yogg-Saron. Kill it, or it will destroy the world. Kill it = you are the hero, and get a nice little ceremony in the City. Now, first time he died you had this feeling of "yehhaaa", but mostly because you beat a pretty hard boss, rather than actually archiving anything great. Days later, some other group finished Yogg-Saron, and everyone saw the cerimony again. Some weeks later, the whole thing was nothing special anymore, and the cerimony happend several times a day.
Smed, you guys had it down once. Star Wars Galaxies, remember? All i did there was flying around in space, and loads of crafting and Harvesting. I never once felt like "The Hero" in SWG. Never touched the ground based combat. Yet, It was THE MMORPG for me, because i wasnt bombarded with "You need to do this to save XYZ, or else DOOOOOOOMMMMMM", but i was actually just a guy, living in his house, crafting stuff and talking with people.
THIS is what makes a Sandbox MMO (See Eve), not "Ohh teeh great hero saved the day, lets give him our daughters!"