Rags to Riches in Video Games

     After reading the instructor's notes in the module 4 learning guide, the first connection I drew to the "rags to riches" theme comes from one of my all time favorite games, No Man's Sky. No Man's Sky is a video game that takes place in a randomly generated universe consisting of 18 quintillion planets and moons you can land on and explore, all of which feature their own plants, animals and climate unique to only them. As you explore, you will find 3 alien races, the Gek, Korvax, and Vykeen, all of which are very different, and have long histories of how they previously got along (or failed to). As the story progresses, you get contacted by "Artemis", a being who says he is lost and in grave danger. You must find a way to get to him and save him, but later find out that he had been killed a long time ago, and has been dead the whole time. While doing this, you also learn about "The Atlas" at the center of the galaxy, which is credited with creating it. The Atlas is in trouble, and it is up to you to get to the center of the galaxy and reset the simulation, which is the only way to keep the Atlas alive. When the simulation is reset, there is a new version of you and the old one is gone, which you then take control of in a totally different universe.
     Named the "Traveler", you start the game with nothing but a broken spaceship on a hostile planet, no money, no contacts, just you with no memory of what happened. As you start to explore, you can mine resources, find valuable goods (dinosaur bones, valuable cargo) and complete missions for all 3 races, building your standing and eventually requiring millions of dollars, advanced spaceships, and various other technologies you can use on your base to create your own valuable goods to sell, becoming a very rich businessman. Your main goal is to save the Atlas (basically deciding the fate of the 18 quintillion planets and every living thing in the universe), but in the process, you can sell valuable items, make your own valuable items, and even add several fighters to your fleet, becoming abundantly wealthy. In my opinion that is a very clear "rags to riches" tale, and one that is fun to explore.
     Another thing I noticed that fits the "rags to riches" theme was the relation between the Gek and Korvax long before you came around. The very first Geks wanted to take over Korvax Prime, a planet that the Korvax considered home, because it was abundant in resources. The Korvax refused, so the Geks enslaved the entire Korvax race, something early Geks considered "merciful". Korvax slaves later sacrificed themselves by jumping into the Gek spawning pool, altering the Gek DNA and eventually getting their freedom. Much later, when you are playing through, the Korvax own many of their own galaxies and are quite well off. It may be a different "rags to riches" theme than the one you go through yourself in the game, but it definitely taps into the "going from nothing to something" theme that we see in this weeks module.