Christian Feminist Podcast – Episode 163 on Mythic Quest
Reading
Season 1 and 2 summary – Mythic Quest is a work place drama that combines The Office with Silicon Valley. The show follows a gaming company that operates the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) that is clearly based on the real world game World of Warcraft. The show starts Ian Grimm as creative director and Poppy Li lead engineer as well as other upper management, assistants, testers, and story writers. The first season begins with the launch of a new expansion. Season 2 sees Poppy and Ian as co-creative directors who argue and spar until they eventually realize it is time for them to move on to a new project. The show deals with the ugly aspects of gamer culture such as sexism, trolling, and streaming culture. Mythic Quest depicts the struggle between art and commerce and how both are needed to sustain any piece of art meant for mass consumption. There are multiple episodes that provide either time jumps or focus on character backstories which help keep the characters feeling incredibly human. One episode in particular we all loved was the pandemic episode which actually came out while everyone was still in the good feelings of lockdown and addressed the isolations of working from home and had all the characters appearing via some form of Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
There is much we could discuss for this series, but I really wanted to focus first on the dynamic and interesting female characters and how they interact with each other.
Poppy – Lead engineer and co-creative director. Has no imposter syndrome on her technical skills. Poppy’s most vulnerable moment is during the pandemic episode. Cares much more for the technical over the story side of the game.
Testers – Dana and Rachel
Jo
Carol and Sue
Knowing
Why does the show’s depiction of gamer and nerd culture feel real?
- Streamers
- Online haters
Who in the show is an “artist” Ian? Poppy?
Can video games be art? If so, what kind, impressionistic, story-telling, interactive?
What does the show tell us about the nature of storytelling and the importance of heroes, villains, and “Backstory!”
- Is any of this applicable to real life?
What does the show tell us about the intersection of art and commerce?
Passing On
Christina “The Morning Show” on Apple tv+
Laurie – “Anita Sarkeesian on GamerGate” Rolling Stone interview
Sara – Arcane – League of Legends