Those days have long passed. RPGs have grown up. Pots of gold at the end of the rainbow and mythical dragons terrorizing the land are now side quests. There's a deeper meaning to playing an RPG, and that's why Square Soft has had such phenomenal success with their latest Final Fantasy and other adventure games. Sometimes you don't even know that the world needs saving until you're skin-deep in the thick of saving it.
Noble blood means nothing when the society is capitalist, aristocratic, or militaristic.
Dragon Warrior is a relic from the primal days of RPG design. Those were times when more gameplay time was spent leveling up and wandering than actually venturing forward. Visuals were all but ignored. Plots began with a credit crawl and didn't resume again until the protagonist had enough Experience Points to venture more than a few paces from the home castle. It was a simple time, and games like Everquest have recently returned to those simple days of just ambling through the countryside, itching for a fight.