We Are All Mary Sues

If you ask any role-player what his/her biggest role-play pet peeve is, inevitably you'll hear the term Mary Sue (or Gary Stu in the case of males).  It's up there in my list, too.  There's nothing more eye-roll inducing than to open up an MRP profile only to read several paragraphs informing me of so-and-so's blinding beauty and/or indestructibility.  In the Mary Sue's world, only evil people hate her, and the Mary Sue never, ever fails at a task or is any possession of any real flaws.  Admittedly life would be simpler if all the good guys got along one hundred percent of the time and we never had to overcome any obstacles to achieve a goal, but it'd also make for a rather boring existence just like it makes for supremely boring and obnoxious role-play.

It's a mistake a lot of new (and sometimes old) role-players make.  You want to fit in, and you want to be liked, ergo it stands to reason you want your character to be liked, too.  You want him/her to find true love, or at least a good group of adventurers who will have his/her back in case of danger.  Furthermore, you don't want to be anyone's punching bag or let anyone think you're easy prey, so you add in warnings that amount to a simple "Don't fuck with me."  And when it comes to fitting into the setting, learning all about the lore is a daunting task, especially in a universe as large as World of Warcraft's, to say nothing of the fact that the lore contradicts itself in innumerable cases.  Ideally everyone would spend a few hours on Wowpedia, or on Blizzard's website reading up on everything available, but if your time is limited, as it is for many players, you figure the best way to learn about the setting is to play the game, which is a good way to learn quite a bit of lore, but for role-play, it can give the wrong impression of just how strong a player character (PC) can be in Azeroth.

Think about it.  Without ever entering even a single dungeon or raid, how many times do you the player save a village/group while solo questing?  How many conflicts between Horde and Alliance are altered because of your involvement?  How many times do you prevent a nefarious cult from committing one atrocity or another?  Look at Hyjal and the Molten Front, especially the Molten Front where your involvement quite literally alters the landscape.  By virtue of playing the game, we are all, in some way, Mary Sues.

My point in all this meandering is this: Most of us role-players are guilty of mocking Mary Sues, and maybe we've even told them to their (digital) faces that they suck.  But we forget that, especially for newcomers, the game itself can make us think we're more powerful than we are, or that we should be.  The game, by itself, doesn't teach us how to be good storytellers, or remind us that even some of the most beloved characters are some of the most imperfect people who are not universally loved by their peers (Tony Stark, Sherlock Holmes, Buffy Summers, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Sookie Stackhouse, Donna Noble, River Tam, etc.).

With a new expansion upon us, there's going to be newcomers to Azeroth, and many of those newcomers are going to want to role-play.  Some of them have prior experience in role-play, but most of them likely will not, and it's important that we remember that sometimes Mary Sue-ism a symptom of gameplay rather than player capability.  So, be a little gentle with those Kung Fu Pandas in three weeks.