The illusion of control in videogames

[NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS MAINLY REFERRING TO PLATFORMERS AND RPGS]

Lately, there's been this dilemma that popped in my head a few days ago regarding videogames and the sense of control... Are you controlling the character, or is the character controlling you?

At first glance, the reason is obvious: you're in control. You're the one who forces the main character to wander around a code-filled waste land to gather resources and battle spooky monsters, you're the one who makes all the choices during a dialogue with an NPC, you're the one who essentially determines the fate of all the characters in the videogame. Considering all of the above, the answer is crystal clear that the one in control is none other than you, the player. 

However, after some deep thinking... Since when was the player the one in control? If you think about it, you're not making these options because you want to, but because you have to. You HAVE to level up the main character to beat the boss, you HAVE to buy that weapon to gain more power, you HAVE to defeat the final boss so the main character can be seen as the hero of the people. Think about the hours you had to spend on a videogame to complete it, whether you were aiming for an 100% completion or not. You didn't chain yourself on your keyboard for your own personal satisfaction, but rather for the satisfaction of the main character. The more you play a videogame, the more attached you become to its main character, or characters depending on what videogame we're talking about, resulting in their own goals becoming your own goals as well all of a sudden. It's as if, the main character, a sprite/3D model who gained consciousness thanks to numerous lines of code, has manipulated you, the player, into doing their own bidding so they can succeed in their goals and claim all the rewards that come with them, whether it's the beautiful princess, the treasure with gold or just simply the respect from the townsfolk, while in return you get a single ounce of personal satisfaction which will fade away in a day or so. 

Maybe I'm overthinking, but honestly, I would love to see a videogame that explores this idea, where the main character of a videogame tricks the player under their control so they can use them for their own personal needs. So far the closest one that fits this idea, as far as I can think of, is OFF