| Compared to the early releases, new video games | | | | brother is also driven by status anxiety, as he |
| have improved in terms of plot and character | | | | subconsciously desires to kill his brother to prove that |
| development. The psychology and personalities of the | | | | he is better than both his brother and his father. This |
| characters - hero, villain, and recurring figure alike are | | | | desire to outdo both his brother and father is a |
| now just as important as how the game plays. | | | | consistent factor in his appearances in the series. He |
| However, like in the early days of comic books before | | | | also exhibits a slight Messiah complex in his desire to |
| Stan Lee's "Spider-Man," video game characters tend | | | | fulfill his father's dream, as he expanded the plan to not |
| to be flat caricatures of real people, with flaws like | | | | only create a haven for soldiers, but also to destroy |
| social anxiety, fragile mental health, and depression | | | | the governments that would use and discard them. |
| being traits reserved for antagonists. Yet, even in such | | | | The problem of status anxiety also manifests slightly in |
| a climate, there are still maverick character designers | | | | the goals of Big Boss, Liquid and Solid Snake's "father." |
| who have made heroes that are difficult to fit into the | | | | A man deemed to be the "perfect soldier," his genetic |
| traditional definition of the "hero" role. Among the best | | | | material was used to create his "sons," even as he |
| examples of such games is Hideo Kojima's "Metal | | | | had one of them modified to be inferior to the other. |
| Gear Solid" series. | | | | As a solider, he quickly realized that the time would |
| Being a game that both embraces the psychology of | | | | come when men like him would no longer be needed |
| war and carries a strong pacifist undercurrent, there is | | | | and would be discarded by the governments they |
| a complexity in the cast of characters that is | | | | served like obsolete trash. His own status anxiety, |
| necessary. To an extent, all of the characters have | | | | combined with his disillusionment at how the US |
| some form of mental health disorder, which is | | | | government betrayed his mentor to save their |
| appropriate for a game that relies heavily on the | | | | reputation, forged the idea of a soldier's utopia in his |
| personalities of its characters. While some might initially | | | | mind. It was during his second attempt to establish |
| see them as extreme responses to their situations, | | | | such a utopia - which he termed "Outer Heaven" - that |
| Kojima has gone to great lengths to present his | | | | he was slain in battle by Solid Snake, his genetic son. |
| characters as possibilities present when war meets | | | | His adamant refusal to be referred to by his |
| psychology. The characters of the MGS series can be | | | | codename of "Big Boss" also reflects his status |
| taken to represent the various effects of war on a | | | | anxiety towards the events that earned him the name. |
| person's mental health, whether they are soldiers, | | | | He resents the fact that he was awarded that |
| commanders, or bystanders. He shows this through | | | | codename because he killed his mentor, "The Boss," |
| their personalities and the conversations that they | | | | for a government that discarded and abandoned her - |
| have with the protagonist, making them more than just | | | | despite her loyal service - simply because it was |
| an obstacle to overcome to complete the game. | | | | politically convenient to do so. The bitter irony of the |
| Among the most long-standing favorites of Kojima's | | | | name has not escaped him. |
| multitude of antagonists is the woman known only as | | | | However, perhaps the most psychologically compelling |
| Sniper Wolf. She may appear perfectly sane at first | | | | case among the MGS series cast would be the chief |
| glance, but some have analyzed her personality as a | | | | protagonist himself, Solid Snake. According to records |
| potential consequence of growing up in a war zone. | | | | spread throughout the games, Snake exhibited signs of |
| The experience of living in war-torn Iraq has left scars | | | | social anxiety at an early age. Trained to be the |
| that damaged her mental health and emotional | | | | perfect killer and the ultimate stealth soldier, he was |
| development . For children who were born and raised | | | | raised to dislike emotional attachments and view |
| in a war zone, the typical response is to find a way | | | | closeness with other people as a potential weakness. |
| out of the chaos and destruction. For Sniper Wolf, | | | | This social anxiety was reinforced by his second |
| even after her rescue, her mental health was so | | | | major mission, where he had to kill both his best friend |
| marked by her experiences that the only real way she | | | | and his father to fulfill his mission objectives. The fight |
| could overcome her prolonged trauma was to | | | | with Gray Fox, his best friend, was also an instance |
| become part of it. Yet, perhaps due to some sort of | | | | where he showed performance anxiety, being |
| anxiety disorder, she also longed to distance herself | | | | extremely unwilling to fight a man he considered his |
| from it. As a soldier, she became part of the very thing | | | | friend and combat superior. His traces of status |
| that terrorized her as a child. As a sniper, she perhaps | | | | anxiety also plays a role in his character, though not in |
| relieved her fear and anxiety as a child by distancing | | | | the way most would expect. He views himself not as |
| herself from the front lines, taking lives from behind the | | | | the hero the people around him believe he is, but simply |
| scope of her rifle. This theme of a person becoming | | | | as "an old killer, hired to do some wet work." He |
| part of what scarred them in their youth is repeated in | | | | constantly seems to wish to prove that he is more |
| the "Beauty and the Beast" military unit in the upcoming | | | | than just the soldier he believes himself to be, but |
| finale of the MGS series, albeit with a more literal | | | | inevitably cannot distance himself from the battlefield. |
| interpretation. | | | | His conflicted status anxiety sometimes plays out |
| Liquid Snake, one of the series' primary antagonists, | | | | subtly, as he no longer wishes to engage in fighting and |
| also exhibits a number of psychological disorders. His | | | | just live out his life in isolation. However, he understands |
| initial goal appeared to have been little more than the | | | | that he is a soldier and he will always be a soldier, with |
| "world conquest" standard, but as the plot progresses, | | | | his only home being the chaos of a battlefield. |
| it is revealed to be much deeper. As the | | | | A common trait among the front line soldier characters |
| genetically-altered "twin brother" to the protagonist, | | | | of the MGS series is their inability to feel grief over |
| Solid Snake, Liquid exhibits signs of sibling-caused | | | | loss. The explanation was that, as they were exposed |
| status anxiety. Altered to be the inferior of the two | | | | more and more to the horrors of war, they began to |
| brothers, Liquid pushed himself to perform in every | | | | lose the ability to grieve over lost comrades and family. |
| aspect of his military life to prove that his inferior | | | | This has been portrayed as a side effect of the |
| genetics were not going to define him. His status | | | | horrors of war upon a soldier's mental health, |
| anxiety also pushed him to lead an insurrection of | | | | particularly in the cases of Big Boss and Solid Snake, |
| soldiers in an attempt to outdo his father and form a | | | | who both had to endure the trauma of killing someone |
| utopia for soldiers. His murderous competition with his | | | | that they were emotionally attached to. |