Self Made Man / Video Games

• Andrew Ryan from BioShock plays this trope straight while going as darkly as possible with it. Born Andrei Rianofski in Russia, his family fled the persecution and violence of the Russian revolution. He soon rose to power and wealth through a series of investments. As an adult, he used his personal history of having pulled himself up by his own bootstraps to argue against the idea of unions, taxes, and anything that could benefit the public welfare (if they want better working conditions, they should work to become rich like him). Eventually, he founds his own underwater city to avoid having to pay dues to an overseeing governmental body, claiming that the new city would operate as a meritocracy where anyone could acquire wealth. Needless to say, Ryan's lack of compassion for his (effectively captive) city's populace goes badly when they're deprived of basic human rights and resources...
• In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, David Sarif is the epitome of a self-made man, having fought every step of the way to turn Sarif Industries from a tiny biotech firm to a corporate empire, while still caring for every single worker under his roof with no strings attached.
• Teyrn Loghain mac Tir in Dragon Age: Origins was common-born, but won his title (approximately equivalent to the real-life title of duke), a great deal of money, power, and influence, and got his daughter to marry the King of Ferelden by his sword and his wits fighting off the Orlesian occupation.
• Grand Enchanter Fiona from Dragon Age: Inquisition began life as an alienage elf, was enslaved as the concubine to an evil Orlesian nobleman, killed him and was taken to the Circle of Magi, was freed and inducted into the Grey Wardens, underwent a unique process by which the Taint was removed from her blood, and then rejoined the Circle, became First Enchanter of Montsimmard, was elected Grand Enchanter, led the mages in rebellion, and she can become the leader of the free mages of Southern Thedas. All this, in one life.
  • In the same game is the return of Dagna, a dwarf girl first encountered in Origins whom the Warden could assist in her desire to study the principles of magic. Not the application, since dwarves can't do magic, but the bare-bones structure. As a result, she has in the ten years since turned herself into an arcanist, a position that she literally invented because she's the only one who has the requisite knowledge, and it brings her to serve the Inquisition as a Gadgeteer Genius.
  • Cullen also qualifies for this by the time of Inquisition. According to The World of Thedas, vol. 2, he first declared his intention to join the Templars at the age of eight. He left for formal training at age thirteen, and worked his way up the ranks through an awful lot of horrible situations, finally serving as Kirkwall's provisional Knight-Commander following the events of the second game. It was his heroism and commitment there which made Cassandra think him worthy of leading the Inquisition forces, bringing him to his current position.
• Dragon Quest V: Rodrigo Briscoletti is descended from a line of sages, but his wealth is all his own.

• Robert House of Fallout: New Vegas. While he was born to wealthy parents, he was cheated out of his inheritance upon their death by his half-brother. That didn't stop him from attending CIT (the setting's version of MIT), founding RobCo (the company responsible for building most of the robots of the series, including Liberty Prime) and buying out several companies within Vegas, including his brother's. Using his vast resources, he managed to mostly preserve Vegas from the nuclear war, giving the Mojave Wasteland a possible chance for restoration.
• Fatal Fury: Geese Howard is called "The Ultimate Self-made bad guy" for a reason. He began as an illegitimate child (actually, the bastard son of the Earl of Stroheim) from the lower part of South Town, worked as a policeman, became the chief of police of the city, and by the time the Fatal Fury story properly starts, he's a Corrupt Corporate Executive.
• The Player Character in Game of Thrones: Ascent, earning nobility for a heroic deed and getting more and more powerful as the story progresses.
• Hi-Fi RUSH: Roxanne Vandelay began her technology company, then known as "Vandelay Solutions," from inside her garage, where she developed chips and sold them from the back of her truck. Said chips lead to her solving a global energy crisis, propelling her business and putting her name on the map. She expanded her business to robotics, becoming "Vandelay Technologies" in the process, and used that technology to fix environmental disasters and develop Artificial Limbs for people in need.
• Luminous Plume: The knight captain, Levin, was once a street urchin from the Outer Ring of Arcana. He eventually works his way up the knight order, but he doesn't forget his humble roots, which is why he rushes to protect Southlight Village from brutes despite how slow the knights are to approve sending out help.
• The Illusive Man from the Mass Effect franchise. Started out a mercenary amongst the human armed forces during the First Contact War, after publishing his manifesto made for the defense of humanity, he builds up all his assets and winds up eventually creating and leading Cerberus, a powerful Human Alliance black-ops division funded through many front companies and sympathizers amongst the Alliance Industrial Military Complex.
• The Player Character in Neverwinter Nights and the one in the Shadows of Undrentide/Hordes of the Underdark storyline both rise from a position as an apprentice adventurer to stations of great wealth, power, and influence by undertaking a variety of mad quests to save the world.
  • Common in community modules, too. The Player Character in Tales of Arterra is an orphan raised by simple farmers, who wins a title of nobility at the end of the first module and goes on to (depending on your choices) head one of the most powerful churches in the world.
  • The Player Character in Sanctum of the Archmage was the child of poor foresters, who (as the story stands) is presently set to become a close adviser to the next King/Queen at the very least.
• Street Fighter:
  • Fei Long, according to his backstory. He began training in Kung-Fu as a 6-year-old child, as a teenager he became a stuntman for HK movies and got into informal streetfighting, and from then on he worked hard in minor roles and training to reach the top. An assistant director asked him to show his skills in a single scene take, and the rest is history.
  • All but stated in the case of Sagat, too. The humble Thai village that he visits in Street Fighter IV is strongly hinted to be the "Emperor of Muay Thai"'s hometown, and the elder of said place is one of his relatives (apparently, his eldest brother).
• Gray Mann of Team Fortress 2, as stated by his quote.
  "Unlike you two pampered imbeciles, I built my empire. I have studied. I have plotted. I have waited."
• Kazuya Mishima from Tekken started out as a kid thrown into the ravine and then had to grow up by himself with nothing but martial arts. Along the way, he also learned some cutthroat skills by himself that enabled him to run a Zaibatsu once he took it from his father. He runs it for seriously evil stuffs, but he's still a pretty competent leader that can recognize opportunities when he sees one. Technically, he also has the Devil Gene, but that doesn't help him in management or leadership skills, it only helps his fighting skills.
• This is one of the possible backgrounds for your Presidente in Tropico. It boosts the production rate of your factory workers and your relations with the capitalists and the US. It is also one of the few capitalist backgrounds that does not lower your relations with the communists.
• Exaggerated with Naoya Kawahashi, one of the Mr. Shakedown encounters in Yakuza 0. Before he left home, his father told him to make his own way without relying on anyone, which Kawahashi took far too literally, to the point that he refuses to even get a job because having a boss give you a paycheck counts as "relying on somebody else" in his mind, so he gets his money by mugging people in Sotenbori instead.

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