Well yeah theres no rule to say you need to do it, but if you let players have enough freedom within the gameplay to become godlike compared to every other character, then it preserves the coherency between story and gameplay to make the character a Great Man in some way. Compared to just not doing that and making players frustrated and unimmersed, or having to scale back what the player can realistically do so the character can also be credibly limited in ability within the story(which can be better but is harder and requires good balance and time to fine tune.)
I never said it was trivial to write stories that aren't just arcade games for the MC to win, but it's by no means difficult if you have aims more interesting than shoveling power fantasy slop into the player's gullet.
You don't need to have the protagonist be a Great Man, even though most games do that.
Well yeah theres no rule to say you need to do it, but if you let players have enough freedom within the gameplay to become godlike compared to every other character, then it preserves the coherency between story and gameplay to make the character a Great Man in some way. Compared to just not doing that and making players frustrated and unimmersed, or having to scale back what the player can realistically do so the character can also be credibly limited in ability within the story(which can be better but is harder and requires good balance and time to fine tune.)
I never said it was trivial to write stories that aren't just arcade games for the MC to win, but it's by no means difficult if you have aims more interesting than shoveling power fantasy slop into the player's gullet.