Any characters who are major leaders in games?

[Rxanadu]

I recently had a discussion about characters who are leaders in anime and found there to be a lot more than I remember.  The people involved listed characters from Lelouch from Code Geass to King Bradley from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood to numerous characters in Naruto.  It got me thinking about who had similar traits in video games.  I was wondering if anyone knew of any characters who were leaders in video games.  My criteria for a leader would be one who does at least one of the following:

• helps others out in times of need
• are able to command others to create a better future
• you would want to aspire to be  

I can think of Commander Shepherd from Mass Effect and (maybe) Lee Everett or Kenny from The Walking Dead but I can't think of anyone else after these games.  Sly Cooper is another leader, but again, I can't think of many.

 

I notice these may not be the best benchmarks for leaders, but I tend not to think of leaders in my life I aspire to be; I tend to look to myself to lead in my life.  So, if anyone else has a better benchmark, please contribute to the conversation.

[melmer]

Sorry i'll think of a proper answer...

Sun Bro?

Cool Spot

[elmuerte]

The Warden from Dragon Age?

[melmer]

Fox mother fuckin McCloud

[Patrick R]

Donkey Kong is the leader of the bunch. You know him well. He's finally back to kick some tail. His coconut gun fires in spurts. If he shoots ya, it's gonna hurt. He's bigger, stronger, faster too. He's the first member of the DK crew.

[Reyturner]

Leonardo leads, contrasted by Donatello who does machines.

[melmer]

(That's a fact, Jack)

[lobotomy42]

Donkey Kong is the leader of the bunch. You know him well. He's finally back to kick some tail. His coconut gun fires in spurts. If he shoots ya, it's gonna hurt. He's bigger, stronger, faster too. He's the first member of the DK crew.

 

:tup: :tup: :tup: :tup:

[tegan]

Gonna' contribute to the complete lack of serious responses in this thread.

 

 

 

 

What makes this fucker so great is that we're repeatedly told that he has a "perfect military mind" and that he's a perfect commanding officer, but only two people are confirmed to have ever survived serving under him. He's the most incompetent, weirdly misogynistic leader ever and yet he's played completely straight. It's the best.

[TychoCelchuuu]

I don't know who that is. But it reminds me that Starcraft has leaders. As does Warcraft. And Diablo. Blizzard games have leaders, I guess. Half-Life 2 has Eli Vance. And Breen I guess.

(I'd also like to note that the definition in the OP is pretty horrible - it suggests there has never been a bad leader, which I think is manifestly untrue.)

The Red Alert series has leaders. Freedom Fighters has leaders.

I think the best leader in a video game I've ever played, both in terms of who the character is and in terms of how much the character is about being a leader, is the Exile from KOTOR II.

[shammack]

Captain Olimar

[Nappi]

Assassin's Creed 3 was full of leaders. You were the worst.

[Roderick]

Skyrim had a bunch of cool leaders. Tegan, who is the dude in the picture? I assume he's from a JRPG because he has that JRPG CGI look going on.

[Sno]

It's Adam Malkovich from Metroid: Other M.

It is the poorest of the Metroid games.

[castorp]

Half-Life 2 has Eli Vance. And Breen I guess.

Doesn't Gordon Freeman fit the bill quite nicely? I seem to remember or probably imagine that he gets called 'leader of the free men' or some similarly smart play on his name. Okay, he doesn't speak, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone or distract from his leaderly qualities (in the eyes of the people swooning at his sight).

[Roderick]

I think the interesting thing here is not so much whether a game would bill any random character as a leader, but rather how they exercise/maintain power, influence their people, and how this might translate into gameplay. Just naming random people wearing ceremonial clothes and performing the narrative role as leader in a video game seems a bit pointless.

 

To drag in an old horse: one of the premium things about Morrowind is how in the main questline you have to become the Nerevarine and Hortator. Although you do this by performing rote quests, the context is one of inspiring people and proving your worth, after which the people start to admire and worship you. I thought that was very interesting. The same goes for Mass Effect 2, which had a very strong 'I am bringing together a team' theme. Leadership is a more interesting and challenging gameplay mechanic and narrative construction than hero's journey power fantasies.

[Nachimir]

Typically, leaders are used as antagonists or weak figureheads (the empress in Valkyria Chronicles springs to mind). Even the ones first presented as good tend to be inept and corrupt (The brick shithouse cliché marine in Vanquish). All of these things are nice easy tropes by which to flatter the player and increase their sense of agency.

 

Edit: I think actual good examples of leadership are hard to do in games as we know them. They centre entirely on the player, who gets to make all important decisions even if they reduce what would obviously be complex systems to dumb binary choices.

[Roderick]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlztK6yrDUg

 

Until games can properly express the above sentiment in all its subtlety, the medium is a trifle, and not art. Experiencing the intricacies of power on level 17 is the new crying, the next PS4.

[castorp]

Not to say something a bit too obvious for everyone else to point out, but that Paradox games - Europa Universalis etc. - or strategy games in general tend to have you play as the leader of your side. And the mentioned strand of games (though I have not played them judging by what I've read about them) seems to go in the direction of what the game GoT-clip talks about.

[Rxanadu]

Typically, leaders are used as antagonists or weak figureheads (the empress in Valkyria Chronicles springs to mind). Even the ones first presented as good tend to be inept and corrupt (The brick shithouse cliché marine in Vanquish). All of these things are nice easy tropes by which to flatter the player and increase their sense of agency.

 

Edit: I think actual good examples of leadership are hard to do in games as we know them. They centre entirely on the player, who gets to make all important decisions even if they reduce what would obviously be complex systems to dumb binary choices.

 

What would your idea of a "good [example] of leadership" be?  I asked around, and I gathered a lot more examples of leaders in video games, including Chris Stone from Freedom Fighters and April Ryan in Dreamfall: The Longest Journey.  

 

Much like you, I've actually noticed that most traditional examples of leaders (e.g. powerful looking characters in military garb, people leading rebellions against an oppressive government) are usually in the periphery in video games.  I think of characters such as Lars and his sister from Brutal Legend or, indeed, most princesses in games when I think of leaders based on my definition.  Meanwhile, players are mostly placed into the role of commander of soldiers; there's the rare occasions such as Fable 3, but they're few and far between.  

[Nappi]

This has been discussed in various places already, but Tropico 4 is quite an interesting leader simulator. As El Presidente you try raise the standard of living of your people from unbearable to decent by exploiting the natural resources of your island as well as its inhabitants. Mega-corporations will try to use you and superpowers will try to extort you. Even if you do a decent job, you are still totally insignificant and your people are still likely to lead shitty lives (by Western standards anyway).

[twmac]

 Even the ones first presented as good tend to be inept and corrupt (The brick shithouse cliché marine in Vanquish). All of these things are nice easy tropes by which to flatter the player and increase their sense of agency.

 

How dare you besmirch the name of most loved Scottish Poet Robert Burns.