Are there any games like this

[Diconica]

I've seen a lot of games were the person goes from rags to riches.
Most of them are harem type games.

I've seen games were the nasty fat fuck finds a magic book or gains some power and uses it to get women.
I've seen lots of games the MC is a total looser but some how he manages to achieve far beyond his own capability.

What I haven't seen is a game were the MC has pretty much everything. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth (Rich), Good looking, smart, skilled and athletic.
That MC then uses that wealth and power to do what he wants. He won't use blackmail it is beneath him and boring and rarely works.
He likes finding out what makes people tick. Then getting them to show their true nature.

He'll do stuff like pay the trash-men to collect trash from a house and deliver it to him. Then pay others to sort the documents out of it. To learn about the person.
He'll send over people to do provide various services free to people just to get cameras and microphones in the house or business or whatever location.
He will even use one victim of his to help target another.

If he is really interested he might arrange something like them running into a vehicle their insurance won't fully cover the cost on. That might happen on the way home right after loosing their job, which he also setup secretly. Wait a week for the insurance or so to go through the process of telling the woman they won't cover it all. His attorney's instead of acting as total asses are directed to over help her to find a job even in his firm. His reason to have greater access to her and what she is doing so he can learn more and plan.

The two emotions I would love to see toward an MC is you hate the fucker because he's a total bastard toying with people.
Secondly, you want to know what shit he cooks up next. Maybe, you are hoping also to be there when his plans backfires and he goes down.

I've seen books and movies with characters like that I haven't really seen an adult game with that type of character the one you love to hate.

 

[unocrus]

I can think of a few games with a character similar to this, but they're usually the bad guy acting as a corrupting influence on the female protagonost.

 

[Rafster]

I can't imagine myself writing someone like that, it seems an MC with the stats grinded and everything ready. Too perfect for my taste.

 

[sliveart777]

Rags to riches is a tried and true story archetype that lots of people can relate to (the rags part at least).

Doing the opposite requires the writer to find another way for the player sympathise with the main character which is doubly hard because he comes across as a psychopath. I think it would just be too hard to pull off in a meaningful way that players would actually enjoy.

 

[Diconica]

I can't imagine myself writing someone like that, it seems an MC with the stats grinded and everything ready. Too perfect for my taste.

You can occupy people with something better than grinding stats such as figuring out how to pull off what they want figuring out how to manipulate the target.

Rags to riches is a tried and true story archetype that lots of people can relate to (the rags part at least).

Doing the opposite requires the writer to find another way for the player sympathise with the main character which is doubly hard because he comes across as a psychopath. I think it would just be too hard to pull off in a meaningful way that players would actually enjoy.

It is probably one of the hardest characters to write as a main. You see lots of manipulators as villains or secondary in movies & TV not as many as the MC.
Books authors have more time to flesh out the character and get the audience in vested.
Manipulative anti-hero. The character people love to hate.

 

[woody554]

what you described sounds like a billionaire supervillain. true evil. charlie manson territory. the usual blackmailer for blowjobs sounds like a choir boy next to him.

I'm pretty sure I've seen hundreds of games where the mc is from a filthy rich family. every mobster game, every corporation game, every fantasy game. even the superman former swat-team mcs have always miraculously gathered an empire at 22 after military, with nonexistent education and zero connections. even the dead dads are invariably some kind of former kingpins in the city. or actual kings.

is the problem just that you don't want there to be open blackmailing, but that the coercive manipulation should be more devious and stealthy? subjecting a girl to a car crash to somehow get her to fall for you is pretty up there on the evil scale. full psychopath like someone mentioned.

but yeah, it definitely sounds like a full game. no room for character growth though.

no wait, you could go the 'don jon' way. make him wake up to what a monster he is and rehabiliate himself through the love of a good woman. worked great in don jon, and I definitely haven't seen that in a game. (there are games where mc used to be evil, but it always happened before game started.)

 

[Diconica]

is the problem just that you don't want there to be open blackmailing, but that the coercive manipulation should be more devious and stealthy? subjecting a girl to a car crash to somehow get her to fall for you is pretty up there on the evil scale. full psychopath like someone mentioned.

Yes, imagine he's upper society and doesn't want to earn a bad reputation. It could interfere with his business if it did.
He also considers it a challenge to manipulate people without them knowing.
Take the car wreck he helps the woman find a hire paying job in his own company no less and allows her to make low payments even to the point of no interest on it. She never realizes the accident was a setup and would feel grateful or indebted to him.

Sociopath would be more accurate.

These types people exist in RL. High function sociopaths can mimic emotions(fake) hide their antisocial tendencies. They are often successful in business and other jobs. They usually seek out jobs that have power, prestige, money ...

 

[Droid Productions]

Doing the opposite requires the writer to find another way for the player sympathise with the main character which is doubly hard because he comes across as a psychopath. I think it would just be too hard to pull off in a meaningful way that players would actually enjoy.

There's been a couple of great books written about complete assholes that still become sympathetic over time. I think my favorite is Mark Lawrence's Prince/King/Emperor of Thorns.

“When they killed him, Mother wouldn't hold her peace, so they slit her throat. I was stupid then, being only nine, and I fought to save them both. But the thorns held me tight. I've learned to appreciate thorns since. The thorns taught me the game. They let me understand what all those grim and serious men who've fought the Hundred War have yet to learn. You can only win the game when you understand that it IS a game. Let a man play chess, and tell him that every pawn is his friend. Let him think both bishops holy. Let him remember happy days in the shadows of his castles. Let him love his queen. Watch him loose them all.”

Prince Jorg is a psychopath. A murdering, raping, torturing and vicious little psychopath. That the author still manages to make you like the little bastard is a testament to his skill.

“The way to break the cycle is to kill every single one of the bastards that fucked you over. Every last one of them. Kill them all. Kill their mother, kill their brothers, kill their children, kill their dog.”

Part of what makes him work as a character is that he hates himself more than most readers will hate him. He's aware that he's a psychopath, and he fully understands what he's *supposed* to be, but the society he lives in, and the people around him won't allow him. So there is a feeling of... damnit, mate... why're you making me hurt you?

“There is no evil, Makin,” I said. “There’s the love of things, power, comfort, sex, and there’s what men are willing to do to satisfy those lusts.”

I totally recommend it if you want to see a truly evil and amoral hero written well, and with flair.

 

[Crimson Delight Games]

Part of what makes him work as a character is that he hates himself more than most readers will hate him. He's aware that he's a psychopath, and he fully understands what he's *supposed* to be, but the society he lives in, and the people around him won't allow him. So there is a feeling of... damnit, mate... why're you making me hurt you?

Not to get too pedantic, but having regret and shades of empathy automatically exempts one from being a psychopath. At least according to the clinical definitions. Psychopaths don't feel a shred of remorse, which is what makes them so frighteningly effective in navigating and dominating human society (most humans are held back by learned empathy, and the fear of reprisal from breaking laws, otherwise we'd all be living in a Mad Max scenario). Anyone incapable or unwilling to hamstring themselves like that invetably rises to the top of whatever societal hierarchy they're trying to climb (the power-hungry CEO who'll dump toxic sludge next to a village to save 0.5% on quarterly expenses is a good example).

But he sounds like an interesting character nonetheless, thanks for the book recommendation!