it’s more common to play OCs from the setting than the protagonist role the game puts the player in. it avoids the whole spider-man pointing at spider-man meme, and because of that it was considered gauche to play a actual warrior of light.

as a aside, i don’t think it’s a problem playing a wol in dwrp - it’s a lot easier if you’re playing with someone who’s canon blind or just somewhat familiar if you kind of have a storyline and history on hand. it’s very different in ffxiv because if someone is playing the game then they’re already invested in the world and probably are very familiar with the setting, so they’re able to create more elaborate backgrounds like Upchuck McGee from the street corner who is actually a secret lab test experiment that escaped, a surly magician that performs unauthorized autopsies in the name of research and disguises their activities with a taxidermy shop, and so on. or it could be just as something as simple as “stupid man who is loud and likes to punch things” and participate in fight tournaments.