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45 - Why Video Games Repay Philosophical Attention · Mythic Mind Games

0:03
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Mythic Mind Games, an extension of
0:06
Speaker 1: the Mythic Mind Fellowship, which pursues wisdom on the paths
0:09
Speaker 1: between primary and secondary world. I'm doctor Andrew Snyder, and
0:12
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you're here. Oh, welcome to a special
0:19
Speaker 1: edition of Mythic Mind Games. Now, originally we were going
0:22
Speaker 1: to be discussing the Outer Wilds this time, but a
0:25
Speaker 1: few of our patrons couldn't make it or hadn't quite
0:28
Speaker 1: finished yet, and so we weren't quite ready to do
0:31
Speaker 1: that yet to have that conversation. So we're pushing that
0:34
Speaker 1: back and based off what we're what I'm hearing from
0:36
Speaker 1: some scheduling issues, probably be about a month or so
0:40
Speaker 1: before we get to it, but I'll let you know
0:42
Speaker 1: ahead of time that way you know what to expect.
0:45
Speaker 1: But today, since we didn't have a chat ready to go,
0:49
Speaker 1: I decided just to share some thoughts myself. So right
0:53
Speaker 1: now we are coming up on about of a year
0:56
Speaker 1: of Mythic Mind Games. We our first episode on this
0:59
Speaker 1: pot podcast was on May of twenty twenty five, so
1:03
Speaker 1: we're at about eleven months now, and so I thought
1:06
Speaker 1: it might be a good idea for me to take
1:09
Speaker 1: this time and to go back and share some of
1:12
Speaker 1: my reflections along the way, because, as I mentioned in
1:16
Speaker 1: some of the early episodes and off and on throughout,
1:19
Speaker 1: I have not continuously played video games for my entire life. Now.
1:24
Speaker 1: I've played a lot of games in my youth. When
1:27
Speaker 1: I was a young kid, we had the nes, we
1:32
Speaker 1: had the SNS in sixty four PS two, like we
1:35
Speaker 1: had consoles pretty much my entire childhood. I was a
1:40
Speaker 1: kid in the nineties, a young kid in the nineties,
1:44
Speaker 1: but I had three older brothers, and so I was
1:46
Speaker 1: exposed to a pretty broad range of games at an
1:50
Speaker 1: early age, as I engaged with them vicariously through them sometimes,
1:54
Speaker 1: you know, as well as obviously playing myself. And so
1:58
Speaker 1: games were an important part of my childhood, important kind
2:01
Speaker 1: of bonding experience with my brothers, with friends growing up.
2:06
Speaker 1: It played an important role in my life now as
2:09
Speaker 1: I got a bit older, especially once I got into
2:14
Speaker 1: really my twenties, I would say, especially mid to late
2:16
Speaker 1: twenties or so, I really stopped playing video games almost entirely.
2:23
Speaker 1: And that's in part because I get this growing sense
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Speaker 1: that they're well waste of time, that I had spent
2:34
Speaker 1: too much of my childhood engaged in these fantasy worlds,
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Speaker 1: and so you know, I needed to set those aside
2:41
Speaker 1: and put more time into productive things. That's my understanding
2:46
Speaker 1: at the time. Obviously, the fact that I'm doing this
2:48
Speaker 1: now in the show is that that's not exactly how
2:51
Speaker 1: I view games now, but that's how I started to
2:53
Speaker 1: view them. And then also just the practical concerns. I mean,
2:56
Speaker 1: I was in grad school full time, I got married, married,
3:01
Speaker 1: I was working full time, and then we had kids,
3:05
Speaker 1: and you know, I just this's a lot of full
3:07
Speaker 1: time stuff happening, and so they're just practically speaking, really
3:10
Speaker 1: wasn't time for that, as you know, in addition to
3:13
Speaker 1: my I said full time grad school, I mean I
3:15
Speaker 1: was working for sometimes like fifty sixty hours a week
3:19
Speaker 1: or more, and then also trying to be involved with
3:22
Speaker 1: kids when they were born, and so it's just the
3:25
Speaker 1: gaming time really just wasn't there. Well, not only had
3:29
Speaker 1: I started set aside video games, but also I really
3:33
Speaker 1: didn't engage much with fiction in general. I was always
3:38
Speaker 1: good at literature and the humanities in general. I was
3:42
Speaker 1: definitely more of an English lit history guy than I
3:46
Speaker 1: was a STEM guy growing up, and so you know,
3:49
Speaker 1: I've always gravitated towards the humanities, but I really didn't
3:51
Speaker 1: engage much with fiction intentionally outside of academic requirements. This
3:57
Speaker 1: because I felt like if I was going to put
3:59
Speaker 1: in the effort of reading a book, well, you know,
4:00
Speaker 1: I wanted to learn something, and so I really didn't
4:03
Speaker 1: engage with fiction. I engage with nonfiction now. Again. Obviously,
4:07
Speaker 1: if you are at all familiar with the kinds of
4:09
Speaker 1: things that I talk about these days, you know that's
4:11
Speaker 1: not how I frame fiction anymore, as you know, being
4:14
Speaker 1: not true or I not teaching the things I've Actually
4:17
Speaker 1: I actually learned far more from fiction these days than
4:19
Speaker 1: I do nonfiction. But nonetheless, that's where I was, and
4:22
Speaker 1: so I was very much said this kind of modern,
4:24
Speaker 1: industrially minded person for a time, even though I don't think
4:27
Speaker 1: that was ever really me. I'd at least imbibed that
4:30
Speaker 1: ideology for one reason or another, and so not really
4:35
Speaker 1: reading fiction, not playing games. But while I was working
4:38
Speaker 1: on my doctoral degree, I was. I wrote my my
4:43
Speaker 1: doctoral dissertation on soaring Kurecyguard, the Danish existentialist philosopher also
4:49
Speaker 1: who is a Christian, despite the fact that he's known
4:52
Speaker 1: as the father of existentialism, and existentialism these days tends
4:56
Speaker 1: to have some secular connotations, and that definitely is one
5:00
Speaker 1: in major way that existentialism has gone, but it's not
5:04
Speaker 1: necessarily that. As root, existentialism really just deals with a
5:10
Speaker 1: concern for the responsibility that an individual has to relate
5:14
Speaker 1: themselves to meaning, to reality, to the world around them
5:19
Speaker 1: as well as the world above them, that is the eternal.
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Speaker 1: That's something Careguard is really concerned about. Well. Carereguard really
5:25
Speaker 1: helped to break me out of this unhealthy kind of
5:30
Speaker 1: objectivism that I'd started to fall into. He helped me
5:33
Speaker 1: to recognize the importance of taking responsibility for how we're
5:39
Speaker 1: engaging with the life of meaning and for a Carikereguard
5:43
Speaker 1: the states an explicitly Christian direction, right he believes that well.
5:48
Speaker 1: In fact, one of his essays is called to Need
5:51
Speaker 1: God as a human Being's Highest Perfection, in which he
5:54
Speaker 1: argues that the best thing that we can do, the
5:56
Speaker 1: way that we can truly live as humans is to
6:01
Speaker 1: intentionally embrace the dependency that we have on our Creator.
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Speaker 1: That's what it image does, and we are image bearers
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Speaker 1: of God. An image reflects on that which it images,
6:13
Speaker 1: and so that's that's kind of where kick Guard really
6:16
Speaker 1: helped me to dive in to encounter the I try
6:21
Speaker 1: to avoid the word subjective because that tends to have
6:24
Speaker 1: very relativistic connotations, and that's not where I'm going with this.
6:27
Speaker 1: But he helped me to recognize the existential. Maybe that's
6:30
Speaker 1: just the best word for me to use right now,
6:31
Speaker 1: the existential qualities of life and of spirituality and so
6:37
Speaker 1: on one hand, I'm dealing with that on the academic side,
6:40
Speaker 1: but also in my own life. I detailed this elsewhere.
6:45
Speaker 1: I don't feel I need to get into it in
6:46
Speaker 1: this context. But I was dealing with the most difficult
6:51
Speaker 1: time of my life spiritually, emotionally, and during that time
6:57
Speaker 1: of just great and ongoing song, I really began to
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Speaker 1: recognize the need that I have to not so much
7:07
Speaker 1: learn more things on an objective or even dogmatic level,
7:11
Speaker 1: but what I needed was well, as Tolkien would say,
7:14
Speaker 1: I needed escape, constellation, and recovery, right, Tolkien says in
7:18
Speaker 1: non fairy stories, so that's what a good fairy story provides. Escape.
7:22
Speaker 1: You get to leave the facticity of your current environment,
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Speaker 1: the cold facts of your current environment. You get to
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Speaker 1: go somewhere else. Somewhere more fantastical, somewhere more metaphysically revealing,
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Speaker 1: not necessarily somewhere happier, but somewhere I don't know, just different.
7:40
Speaker 1: And sometimes that otherness is what you need to better
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Speaker 1: understand the familiar. And so we escape, We find consolation,
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Speaker 1: We find what it is that we need. We find
7:51
Speaker 1: that the medicine for our souls, the medicine for our imaginations.
7:56
Speaker 1: We find something that makes us more whole. And when
7:59
Speaker 1: we discover that reality, which actually doesn't properly belong to fairyland,
8:06
Speaker 1: see Tolkien says that when you go into fairyland, we
8:10
Speaker 1: tend to think that the fairies are more transcendent than
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Speaker 1: we are, more and more spiritual, more I don't know,
8:17
Speaker 1: on a higher plane of existence. But what Tolkien says
8:20
Speaker 1: is no, actually, fairies aren't supernatural. They're actually hypernatural. They
8:25
Speaker 1: are they are part of this natural world so much
8:31
Speaker 1: so that you know. This is why his elves are
8:34
Speaker 1: tied to arta to the created realm, whereas humans, he says,
8:39
Speaker 1: are transcendent, which is why again in his stories, the
8:42
Speaker 1: humans are ultimately destined for the halls of Aero Lubatar
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Speaker 1: to dwell with God because humans uniquely have this transcendent
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Speaker 1: soul that doesn't properly belong to the circles of this world.
8:57
Speaker 1: And here we see the mythology of his less is
9:01
Speaker 1: directly connected to his theology regarding his Christian understanding of
9:06
Speaker 1: what a human is. That we are we have a
9:11
Speaker 1: bodily nature that is real and is part of what
9:14
Speaker 1: it means to be human. But what makes us unique
9:17
Speaker 1: compared to the other creatures is that we have this
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Speaker 1: soul that is capable of communion with God in this
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Speaker 1: unique conscious sort of way, this unique rational sort of
9:29
Speaker 1: way that the beasts are not capable of. And so
9:32
Speaker 1: when we enter into the realm of fairy, it is
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Speaker 1: actually we who are transcendent relative to the hypernatural realities
9:41
Speaker 1: of fairyland. And so the value of going into the
9:45
Speaker 1: realm of fairy, of reading a good fairy story, or again,
9:48
Speaker 1: if you're literally you know, character in the fairy story,
9:51
Speaker 1: if you go into fairyland, the value there is that
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Speaker 1: your transcendent nature, your spiritual nature, your soulish nature, is
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Speaker 1: revealed in contrast to the hypernatural world around you, and
10:07
Speaker 1: so you get to become more fully yourself by looking
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Speaker 1: at that which you are not he says, and on
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Speaker 1: fairy stories that the fairyland is not the path to
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Speaker 1: heaven or hell is it's where you come to discover
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Speaker 1: that decision. More fully, it's where you recognize the path
10:30
Speaker 1: that you are walking. You take things of yourself into
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Speaker 1: the perilous realm and they become put on display. This
10:36
Speaker 1: is why in the Fellowship and the Fellowship of the Ring,
10:38
Speaker 1: when they're approaching lo Florian, Borimir expresses some hesitancy, and
10:43
Speaker 1: it says something about encountering danger in the forest. He's
10:46
Speaker 1: kind of scared of the rumors that he's heard regarding
10:49
Speaker 1: what happens in the forest of Authorian and the witch
10:53
Speaker 1: as some call her, Galadrium, and er Gorn says, there's
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Speaker 1: nothing perilous there except for what you bring with you.
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Speaker 1: And so when they enter into the domain of Galadriel,
11:02
Speaker 1: they're entering into the realm of fairy and that which
11:05
Speaker 1: is in them is brought out to the forefront. And
11:08
Speaker 1: so this is where we first get the clear indicator
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Speaker 1: that Borimir is going to betray Frodo. He's going to
11:15
Speaker 1: betray the Fellowship because he brought that with him, and
11:18
Speaker 1: when he brought that with them, it became revealed more externally.
11:24
Speaker 1: In fact, even Kirky Guard says that the value of
11:28
Speaker 1: the myth is that it allows what is internal to
11:30
Speaker 1: be portrayed externally. He says that in the concept of anxiety,
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Speaker 1: and so when we enter into fairyland, we can find consolation,
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Speaker 1: We can find that which our soul needs, as long
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Speaker 1: as we are equipped to discover it. Right. We have
11:43
Speaker 1: to go with the right intention, and if we seek,
11:45
Speaker 1: we will find. If we ask, it will be given
11:49
Speaker 1: to us. And so when we appropriate the right thing
11:53
Speaker 1: in that way, we are able to bring it back
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Speaker 1: with us. And so this is Tolkien's idea of escape.
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Speaker 1: You leave where you are in search of the other constellation,
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Speaker 1: You find that which your soul needs on its upward journey,
12:07
Speaker 1: so long as again you are looking for the right thing,
12:10
Speaker 1: even if you don't necessarily know what that is, is
12:12
Speaker 1: oriented in the right direction, and then you bring that back.
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Speaker 1: This is the recovery. You grasp onto something of your
12:21
Speaker 1: human nature that maybe you've lost, and so you discover
12:25
Speaker 1: that you bring it back. And so when you finish
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Speaker 1: a good fairy story, when you enter into fairyland and
12:31
Speaker 1: you return it back to the supposedly mundane world. You
12:35
Speaker 1: are now better equipped to live in this primary world.
12:39
Speaker 1: This is the value of good fiction, that when you
12:42
Speaker 1: read good fiction in the right way, you actually become
12:46
Speaker 1: better equipped to engage with the world around you, your
12:49
Speaker 1: primary world, your primary responsibilities, to your family, to your workplace,
12:54
Speaker 1: to your neighbors, to the world around you, even to yourself.
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Speaker 1: And what I don't mean by that is that you
13:00
Speaker 1: need to allegorize everything and treat everything as directly symbolic
13:05
Speaker 1: for your personal responsibilities, like there can be some value
13:08
Speaker 1: in that, but really the value of Fairyland it's more
13:12
Speaker 1: transformative than strictally like that sort of allegorical application. It's
13:18
Speaker 1: you become something better equipped and more responsible, rather than
13:22
Speaker 1: simply walking away with a few talking points. And that
13:26
Speaker 1: is what I needed. I needed escape, constellation, recovery. I
13:30
Speaker 1: had a philosophy. I had a theology of suffering, which
13:33
Speaker 1: I'm glad that I have. Like that kind of confessional
13:37
Speaker 1: or dogmatic belief. If it's well founded, it's a good thing.
13:42
Speaker 1: It's it's a necessary thing, but it's not always a
13:46
Speaker 1: sufficient thing. It's not always the entirety of what you need.
13:50
Speaker 1: And what I needed was that existential appropriation of the
13:54
Speaker 1: things that I already knew, and so at the same
13:57
Speaker 1: time I've got these emotion or emotional makes it sound
14:02
Speaker 1: too trite, I have these these very personal struggles with sorrow.
14:07
Speaker 1: I had this academic interest in Curkeyguard, and then out
14:13
Speaker 1: of that I started listening to some of the earlier
14:17
Speaker 1: the kind of early popular Jordan Peterson stuff on fairy tales, uh,
14:22
Speaker 1: and that that was very appealing to me, as I
14:24
Speaker 1: obviously had this interest in psychology, as I was working
14:27
Speaker 1: with Kirkeryguard psychology, and so I found that very interesting,
14:30
Speaker 1: and that helped to open up the possibility of engaging
14:34
Speaker 1: with fairy tales for the sake of of edification, right
14:39
Speaker 1: of of learning real wisdom and appropriating that wisdom and
14:44
Speaker 1: becoming a better equipped person in the primary world. And
14:48
Speaker 1: so these things are are working together, and then I
14:51
Speaker 1: start finding myself drawn to talkiing Twitter to to the
14:56
Speaker 1: people who are talking about Tolkien and people who are
15:00
Speaker 1: talking about their podcasts, and out holding these conversations. And
15:03
Speaker 1: even though at this point I had not read Lord
15:07
Speaker 1: of the Rings, I read The Hobbit in middle school.
15:09
Speaker 1: That's about where that left off. Because remember, I'm not
15:11
Speaker 1: really someone who's reading a lot of fiction at this time,
15:14
Speaker 1: but I had seen the movies. I'm a fan of
15:16
Speaker 1: the franchise, even though I hadn't get really really engaged
15:20
Speaker 1: with Tolkien a significant way yet firsthand. But I find
15:24
Speaker 1: myself drawn to these people who are posting interesting things
15:29
Speaker 1: about Lord of the Rings and beyond. And then I
15:32
Speaker 1: start listening to some of the podcasts and shout out
15:34
Speaker 1: to the Tolkien Road with the carswells. I listened to
15:37
Speaker 1: them for a while, and finally I decided, all right,
15:39
Speaker 1: I got to jump in, and so I order the books.
15:43
Speaker 1: I get The Lord of the Rings, and just from
15:46
Speaker 1: the very beginning of the prologue on Hobbits, I was
15:52
Speaker 1: just enthralled. I knew that I was reading something real,
15:57
Speaker 1: something true, even though I didn't get how the categories
15:59
Speaker 1: for understand and exactly what that is. And reading Lord
16:04
Speaker 1: of the Rings really did just revolutionize my understanding of
16:08
Speaker 1: what fiction is and what its benefits are and how
16:13
Speaker 1: it provides a way.
16:15
Speaker 2: Of I don't know, actingly, I could incarnate demonstration of
16:21
Speaker 2: these things that I know I'm not reading Tolkien and
16:24
Speaker 2: discovering on a dogmatic level things I don't already know about,
16:30
Speaker 2: say the Christian.
16:31
Speaker 1: Approach to sufferings as being potentially redemptive if it's received
16:35
Speaker 1: in faith. This is the idea that we see throughout
16:38
Speaker 1: Tolkien's Legendarium, that though all lands are now mingled with grief,
16:43
Speaker 1: perhaps love grows all the greater because of it. That
16:47
Speaker 1: if joyful is the fountain that rises in the sun,
16:50
Speaker 1: its springs are in the wells of sorrow, and fathom
16:53
Speaker 1: the foundations of the earth. These are ideas we find
16:55
Speaker 1: throughout Tolkien's writing and some Earlian Lord of the Rings
16:57
Speaker 1: and beyond. And this is something that at this time
17:00
Speaker 1: in my life really gripped onto me. It provided that
17:05
Speaker 1: constellation that I needed. It provided that recovery that I needed.
17:09
Speaker 1: We aren't required to simply manufacture joy despite our suffering,
17:14
Speaker 1: but perhaps we can actually encounter a greater joy precisely
17:18
Speaker 1: because we do suffer. Because we are suffering, we can
17:22
Speaker 1: be grateful for the things we most wish didn't happen,
17:26
Speaker 1: because they became avenues to a greater engagement with the
17:30
Speaker 1: good things of this life. That's what I needed, And
17:34
Speaker 1: so what I was encountering is not just a change
17:37
Speaker 1: in my literary critique or or my views regarding the
17:41
Speaker 1: potential of stories that was absolutely happening. But I was
17:46
Speaker 1: becoming somebody more engaged with reality, precisely because I recognized
17:53
Speaker 1: what a loose grasp of it I had, but also
17:56
Speaker 1: the fact that no matter how bad thing get, the
18:02
Speaker 1: darkness only serves to remind us of the brilliance of
18:06
Speaker 1: the light. That high above the clouds is the enduring
18:11
Speaker 1: light of high beauty that is forever beyond the reach
18:14
Speaker 1: of the fleeting shadow. These are things that I believe
18:17
Speaker 1: are not only comforting, but I think I believe that
18:20
Speaker 1: they are fundamentally true, and I've discovered them to be
18:23
Speaker 1: true in large part through my engagement with fiction. Now
18:29
Speaker 1: fast forward a little bit, this continues to develop. I'm
18:33
Speaker 1: reading more and more fiction. I read Lord of the Rings,
18:36
Speaker 1: I read the Summarillion. I took a little break from
18:39
Speaker 1: Tolkien to jump over to Dostoevski, read Notes from the Underground.
18:44
Speaker 1: Then I moved to Lewis, read the Ransom series. Read
18:48
Speaker 1: Actually I started with Till We Have Faces, and that
18:52
Speaker 1: I mean, that was an experience. From there, I decided
18:54
Speaker 1: I got to read everything Lewis writes, and so then
18:56
Speaker 1: I read the Ransom series. I read at Narnia, which
19:00
Speaker 1: I did read with my parents as a kid, but
19:03
Speaker 1: it really just hits differently as an adult. Great Divorce
19:06
Speaker 1: and whatever else I could get my hands on. And
19:09
Speaker 1: so from there, you know, I've read all sorts of
19:12
Speaker 1: other things along the way. Although I tend to gravitate
19:15
Speaker 1: around the Tolkien, Lewis and now McDonald space, I've also
19:20
Speaker 1: been hidden here and there in some other areas as well.
19:23
Speaker 2: Well.
19:23
Speaker 1: As my appreciation for fiction has continued to grow, I
19:28
Speaker 1: started to revisit my framework for video games. What if
19:35
Speaker 1: video games can serve a similar kind of role. Now,
19:38
Speaker 1: they're not ever going to be the same thing as
19:40
Speaker 1: literature because they're different mediums and they merit or they
19:44
Speaker 1: demanded a different kind of engagement. But what if video
19:47
Speaker 1: games can at least take a quasi literary role in
19:51
Speaker 1: providing these sorts of things I'm talking about, like the escape,
19:54
Speaker 1: consolation and recovery. Is there something to that? And so
19:59
Speaker 1: this theory, I mean, which not unique to me, but
20:02
Speaker 1: it was unique for me to think this. This theory
20:05
Speaker 1: started to percolate and I started to realize that even
20:10
Speaker 1: though I didn't read a lot of books, especially a
20:13
Speaker 1: lot of fiction as a kid, I did play a
20:16
Speaker 1: lot of video games that were very story driven. In fact,
20:20
Speaker 1: I attribute much of my early literacy to reading the
20:25
Speaker 1: text on the super Nindo RPGs, you know, especially to
20:30
Speaker 1: some extent I engage with myself. But I can most
20:32
Speaker 1: acutely remember watching my older brothers play, you know, games
20:35
Speaker 1: like Final Fantasy four or two as it's called for
20:39
Speaker 1: the Superintindo or you know Final Fantasy six or Chrono
20:43
Speaker 1: Trigger or earth Bound or you know all of these
20:47
Speaker 1: Superinhindo era RPGs. Like you know, I would sit there
20:50
Speaker 1: and I would just read the text, and that helped me,
20:52
Speaker 1: as a young child, to really just get used to
20:56
Speaker 1: reading and to do it well. And so I I
21:00
Speaker 1: was thinking back on this and wondering if these games
21:03
Speaker 1: that shaped so much my early imagination did they play
21:08
Speaker 1: a kind of role that books play for you some
21:11
Speaker 1: other kids who might be active readers. And I think
21:14
Speaker 1: the answer is yes. Again, I'm not arguing that video
21:17
Speaker 1: games are the same things as books, but they do
21:20
Speaker 1: do something kind of similar. And so now here I am,
21:23
Speaker 1: as an adult with a doctoral degree, and I mean
21:27
Speaker 1: not a lot of time in my hands. I am
21:29
Speaker 1: teaching a million classes at once. All the time I'm
21:31
Speaker 1: writing a book, I've got various other projects going on,
21:35
Speaker 1: running three podcasts, and so I can't say that I've
21:37
Speaker 1: got a lot of time. But with my current career,
21:40
Speaker 1: I have much more flexible time than when I'm working
21:44
Speaker 1: just whatever I have to do to pay the bills. Right, So,
21:47
Speaker 1: now that I'm a little bit more established, I have
21:49
Speaker 1: a lot more flexibility in my schedule. At least at nighttime,
21:51
Speaker 1: I can play a little bit of games here and there.
21:53
Speaker 1: And so I decided to dig back into the world
21:57
Speaker 1: of video games and again just see if there's something
22:00
Speaker 1: of artistic, real, artistic edifying value there. And so we
22:07
Speaker 1: started this back on the original Mythic Mind podcast before
22:10
Speaker 1: the Games podcast branched off, and there were a couple
22:14
Speaker 1: topical conversations we had, but immediately before the Games podcast began,
22:19
Speaker 1: we talked about Knights of the Old Republic, which is
22:22
Speaker 1: a obviously fan favorite game in Star Wars and RPGs
22:27
Speaker 1: and just gaming in general. It's an incredible game. It
22:29
Speaker 1: still is in twenty twenty six. And so that's a
22:33
Speaker 1: game that I had a lot of interested in, a
22:35
Speaker 1: lot of my patriots had interested in, and so we
22:37
Speaker 1: talked about Knights of the Old Republic, and then from
22:40
Speaker 1: there we launched off to the separate Mythic Mind Games podcast.
22:43
Speaker 1: And that's because the main Mythic Mind podcast tends to
22:46
Speaker 1: mostly focus on literature and philosophy, and so I mean,
22:50
Speaker 1: not everything is going to interest everyone, and so I
22:52
Speaker 1: decided that for more of the niche focus, so for
22:57
Speaker 1: games for movies, they should be on their own show. Now,
23:01
Speaker 1: there's probably more crossover for the people who want to
23:03
Speaker 1: become patrons, and so that's why the patron feed all
23:06
Speaker 1: those get put together, but as far as the freebe
23:08
Speaker 1: feeds go, keep their separate. And so we had the
23:11
Speaker 1: cod Tore conversation on the main Mythic Mind podcast. But
23:14
Speaker 1: then the first main episode on the Mythic Mind Games
23:18
Speaker 1: podcast was on kode War two. Now, both of these
23:21
Speaker 1: are just very well done games. And obviously they're dated
23:25
Speaker 1: in the graphics and mechanics and whatnot, and they come
23:28
Speaker 1: out I don't even remember when they came out, but
23:30
Speaker 1: they come out quite a while ago, sometimes in my youth,
23:33
Speaker 1: and so they are a little bit dated in that capacity,
23:36
Speaker 1: but as far as just the core of the game, like,
23:38
Speaker 1: they're still really strong games. Where it's I think the
23:43
Speaker 1: Old Republic is the richest era of Star Wars lore.
23:47
Speaker 1: You know, I would argue that kode War one and
23:49
Speaker 1: two any careful saying this, but I think that they
23:54
Speaker 1: may indeed rival or at least come close to rivaling
23:58
Speaker 1: the original trilogy. Now there's no replacing the original trilogy,
24:01
Speaker 1: so that's why I say that with a little bit hesitation.
24:03
Speaker 1: But nonetheless, they are at the very least I think
24:06
Speaker 1: the second best thing to come out of Star Wars.
24:10
Speaker 1: It's just great storytelling, great lore. That major twist in
24:14
Speaker 1: Kotar one where you find out that you in fact,
24:18
Speaker 1: sorry for the spoilers, by I think enough time is
24:19
Speaker 1: past where you as the main character, you are Revin,
24:23
Speaker 1: the major dark lord of the immediate history of the game.
24:28
Speaker 1: You've just had your mind wiped, and so all sorts
24:31
Speaker 1: of questions regarding what is your identity? You know, if
24:35
Speaker 1: you do have an entirely new set of memories, if
24:38
Speaker 1: your brain is wipe clean, are you the same person?
24:41
Speaker 1: Are you responsible for those things? Is it possible for
24:44
Speaker 1: you to become somebody new? And if that's the case,
24:47
Speaker 1: then what does that teach us about the relationship between
24:50
Speaker 1: nature and nurture and free will and all of these
24:53
Speaker 1: sorts of things, and so there's a lot of philosophy
24:55
Speaker 1: built into this game as well as just you know,
24:58
Speaker 1: fun gameplay. The fun decisions that you get in the
25:02
Speaker 1: BioWare dialogue tree, and so just fantastic games that I
25:07
Speaker 1: really enjoyed going back to and playing again, although I
25:11
Speaker 1: don't think this time, I don't think I made it
25:13
Speaker 1: to Kotor two again. I think I mainly played it
25:16
Speaker 1: through Kotor one and then I ran out of time.
25:18
Speaker 1: But nonetheless, these are great games that I've I really
25:21
Speaker 1: enjoyed revisiting. And then from there we went to The
25:24
Speaker 1: Old Republic the MMO, which I played a good bit
25:30
Speaker 1: back in the day. Very impressive for an MMO in
25:34
Speaker 1: that they have full class storylines for each of the
25:39
Speaker 1: eight classes for on the Republic side, for on the
25:43
Speaker 1: Empire side, full voice acted story so it's like you
25:46
Speaker 1: get eight more Kotor games cramped into this one MMO,
25:51
Speaker 1: and so just really impressive game, despite the fact that
25:53
Speaker 1: mechanically it's just a wowd skin. You know, everything is
25:57
Speaker 1: pretty much the same except for the storytelling dynamic, which
26:00
Speaker 1: is really good. Now, I will say that I recently
26:02
Speaker 1: tried returning to the older Republic for a little bit,
26:06
Speaker 1: but it's just not the same. I mean, overall, they've
26:09
Speaker 1: made changes to the point where it's so incredibly easy
26:12
Speaker 1: that you can just mash buttons and solo pretty much anything.
26:16
Speaker 1: It's just it's not really a game anymore, which is
26:18
Speaker 1: a shame, because it still has some really good stories
26:22
Speaker 1: that just unfortunately don't really have a game anymore, and
26:27
Speaker 1: and so there's just no really going back there. But nonetheless,
26:30
Speaker 1: it's some good, good memories there. There's a good concept
26:34
Speaker 1: that then unfortunately has just lost its execution. But the
26:38
Speaker 1: first new game it wasn't new to me that I
26:40
Speaker 1: played at this time was Red Dead Redemption two. I
26:44
Speaker 1: had seen a number of things. I mean, obviously it's
26:46
Speaker 1: a really popular game, and so I've seen some clips
26:48
Speaker 1: and such some things that interest me. Decided, all right,
26:51
Speaker 1: let me check it out. This is the game that
26:54
Speaker 1: really solidified my emerging idea about video games serving as
26:59
Speaker 1: a truly artistic medium. This is a it's a great story,
27:06
Speaker 1: great vibess, as the kids say. I love the the
27:11
Speaker 1: aesthetics of the game. It's just a it's a beautifully
27:13
Speaker 1: done game. I love the attention to detail. I love
27:17
Speaker 1: the fact that it's unnecessarily immersive in the fact that
27:23
Speaker 1: you know, you go pick something up, and you know, normally,
27:25
Speaker 1: in say Elders Rolls game, you know, you click on
27:27
Speaker 1: the item and it just appears in your inventory. But no,
27:29
Speaker 1: in this game, you know, your character slowly reaches down,
27:33
Speaker 1: picks up the item, reaches down, picks up the item.
27:36
Speaker 1: In the the long prologue, it's very slow, and so
27:42
Speaker 1: I actually appreciate that there are these dynamics of the
27:44
Speaker 1: game that force you to slow down. You know, you're
27:49
Speaker 1: not just going to fast travel everywhere and you know,
27:52
Speaker 1: head to the quest markers and you skip through the dialogue. No,
27:55
Speaker 1: you are going to slow down. You're going to get
27:57
Speaker 1: immersed in the story. You're going to get immersed the experience.
28:01
Speaker 1: And this is something that I really valued at this
28:04
Speaker 1: time in my life. And so play this game, and
28:08
Speaker 1: the story is so gripping, and it very much reminded
28:12
Speaker 1: me of Tolstoy's short story The Death of evon Iliatch,
28:15
Speaker 1: which at this point I taught a couple of times
28:17
Speaker 1: in one of my philosophy classes. It's a very profound
28:19
Speaker 1: story of a man living a relatively insignificant life, those
28:25
Speaker 1: striving at significance and then ultimately coming to terms with
28:28
Speaker 1: his own mortality and what that means for his life.
28:31
Speaker 1: And if you've played Red edit Dead from two, then
28:33
Speaker 1: you'll see exactly where those connections are. And so one
28:36
Speaker 1: of the early episodes in the Mythic mind Games podcast
28:39
Speaker 1: was on it was just me kind of doing a
28:43
Speaker 1: solo presentation on Arthur Morgan and the death of evon
28:47
Speaker 1: Eliot's drawing out those comparisons. If you're interested in that,
28:50
Speaker 1: look up episode four of the Mythic mind Games podcast.
28:53
Speaker 1: And then from there we had another conversation on Red
28:56
Speaker 1: Dead two with Mester, Sam Wise and Jeremy Key. From
29:00
Speaker 1: there we did a couple Zelda episodes, which I loved
29:05
Speaker 1: the INN sixty four Zelda's I played super Nictian though,
29:08
Speaker 1: but my earliest really acute memories of the Zelda games
29:12
Speaker 1: are Operating of Time and majoras masks great games. I
29:18
Speaker 1: switched over to PlayStation after n sixty four, and so
29:21
Speaker 1: I just didn't really have that connection to Zelda going forward,
29:25
Speaker 1: but obviously I appreciate the franchise, and as I said
29:28
Speaker 1: in sixty four, games are very iconic even still in
29:31
Speaker 1: my own mind. And then the next new games that
29:35
Speaker 1: I engage with for the podcast were Mass Effects. Great games.
29:40
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, if I like Kotor, probably gonna like
29:42
Speaker 1: Mass Effect. But yeah, these were just a great experience.
29:45
Speaker 1: I played through all of them, and I immediately went
29:47
Speaker 1: back and played through them again. I love the choices
29:50
Speaker 1: that you can make. I mean, there's always more to desire,
29:53
Speaker 1: but I mean, as far as what you can recentably
29:55
Speaker 1: be expected, I love the choices that you can make.
29:59
Speaker 1: I love the the world, the lore, the philosophical ramifications
30:05
Speaker 1: of not only AI, which is obviously kind of at
30:08
Speaker 1: the forefront of everyone's minds, but at the forefront of
30:11
Speaker 1: this game, but also the relationship of the individual to fate.
30:15
Speaker 1: And there's just a lot of philosophical and theological messaging
30:19
Speaker 1: embedded in the story, not so much an openly ideological way,
30:23
Speaker 1: but in a very natural way. And a good story,
30:26
Speaker 1: whether we're talking about a book, a movie, or a
30:29
Speaker 1: video game, a good story is always going to have
30:32
Speaker 1: a philosophy to it, but it's not necessarily going to
30:37
Speaker 1: tell a story in order to demonstrate that philosophy. C. S.
30:41
Speaker 1: Lewis handles this really well when he talks about what
30:44
Speaker 1: makes for a good story. He says that a bad
30:46
Speaker 1: story comes about when you ask the question what is
30:49
Speaker 1: that people need to hear? Right, then you're just going
30:51
Speaker 1: to be ideological. You're just gonna be preachy that the
30:54
Speaker 1: story is going to be secondary to the message, which
30:56
Speaker 1: means it's probably not going to be a very good story.
30:59
Speaker 1: He says, a better way to tell stories ask what
31:01
Speaker 1: do I need to hear? At least then you're being
31:04
Speaker 1: more reflective and more honest, and in telling a story
31:08
Speaker 1: that you need to hear, you'll actually probably be doing
31:10
Speaker 1: something more universally afflicable. But these says, that's still not
31:14
Speaker 1: really a good way to tell a story, because you're
31:16
Speaker 1: still letting the ideology lead the story. It's the best
31:20
Speaker 1: way to tell a story is to just tell the
31:22
Speaker 1: story that you have. And when you tell the story
31:25
Speaker 1: that you have to tell, you'll naturally be drawing out
31:29
Speaker 1: of your roots, your theological and your philosophical and your
31:33
Speaker 1: literary roots, and so that natural, organic experience will indeed
31:39
Speaker 1: make a story that has philosophical and theological ramifications, but
31:43
Speaker 1: they will be naturally part of the stories. Like when
31:46
Speaker 1: Tolkien says that he didn't set out to tell a
31:48
Speaker 1: Christian story. But then he goes back and looked at
31:51
Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings and recognized, oh, I told the
31:54
Speaker 1: Christian story. And because that's just that natural experience of storytelling,
31:58
Speaker 1: you're going to draw from the root that you have.
32:01
Speaker 1: And so there's just a lot of stuff going and
32:03
Speaker 1: I won't rehash it all. Now you can go back
32:05
Speaker 1: and listen to those episodes if that interests you. And
32:08
Speaker 1: then another thing I'm really excited about here. I played
32:12
Speaker 1: through all the Pixel remasters of Final Fantasy one through
32:15
Speaker 1: six and that it was a great experience. It's an
32:19
Speaker 1: enchanting experience, even Final Fantasy one, which has a very
32:23
Speaker 1: simple story at least other surface I guess a little
32:26
Speaker 1: bit more complicated toward the end, but overall still it's
32:28
Speaker 1: a very simple story, but it's a very enchanting experience.
32:33
Speaker 1: It's an enchanting world, and the music is just beautiful,
32:38
Speaker 1: especially in these Pixel remasters. I mean, no no shade
32:42
Speaker 1: on the originals, which also are very good, but the
32:45
Speaker 1: Pixel remasters really do a great job with the soundtracks.
32:49
Speaker 1: It's just these just beautiful songs which are just so enchanting.
32:53
Speaker 1: As it said, But anyways, so that's just great experience.
32:56
Speaker 1: And I love seeing how this franchise, the Final Fantasy
32:59
Speaker 1: of franchise developed, where you can see where they played
33:03
Speaker 1: with an idea and then decided in the next game
33:06
Speaker 1: they're going to play with different set of ideas and
33:08
Speaker 1: then you'll kind of start to merge them together or
33:10
Speaker 1: leave them behind. And so for example, Final Fantasy one, three,
33:15
Speaker 1: and five tend to focus more on game mechanics. So
33:21
Speaker 1: for example, on one, three and five, this is where
33:23
Speaker 1: we really see jobs at play, whereas the story is, well,
33:27
Speaker 1: it's more simple. In each of these games, it's a
33:29
Speaker 1: little bit more on the back burner, whereas in Final
33:33
Speaker 1: Fantasy two, four, and six they really focus on story elements.
33:38
Speaker 1: You know, in two it gets a little bit more complicated.
33:40
Speaker 1: Now you're not just bringing balance to nature and aligning
33:45
Speaker 1: the crystals or whatever, but you know, now you're fighting
33:48
Speaker 1: an evil empire and there's betrayal and forgiveness and this
33:52
Speaker 1: sort of thing. And then in four, that storytelling dynamic
33:56
Speaker 1: takes a huge jump forward. That's a very strong game
34:00
Speaker 1: that still very much holds up today. And then six,
34:04
Speaker 1: I would argue, is really where Final Fantasy started to
34:07
Speaker 1: discover itself as this unique entity as we get this
34:10
Speaker 1: interplay between nature and science and magic and how all
34:15
Speaker 1: of these things work together that very much come into
34:19
Speaker 1: play in Final Fantasy seven and beyond, and so it's
34:23
Speaker 1: just it was really cool to see how that works out,
34:25
Speaker 1: and I look forward to continuing that as very soon
34:28
Speaker 1: we'll be getting into Final Fantasy tactics. In fact, I
34:30
Speaker 1: think that's probably gonna be the next episode and then
34:33
Speaker 1: and we'll spend a few episodes on seven and related
34:36
Speaker 1: material before going on to some other things and then
34:39
Speaker 1: eventually get back to Final Fantasy. But I've really been
34:42
Speaker 1: enjoying going through this Final Fantasy series, and the goal
34:45
Speaker 1: is eventually to go through all of them, at least
34:48
Speaker 1: all the single player ones. We'll see if I make
34:50
Speaker 1: it to fourteen, but at least all the single player ones.
34:53
Speaker 1: And again, it's just really interesting to see how their
34:56
Speaker 1: themes and mechanics and story telling, see how all that
35:01
Speaker 1: evolves and interplays with each other. And so you can
35:05
Speaker 1: go back and listen to Already we have Fan Fantasy
35:06
Speaker 1: one through six available to listen to them. And then
35:09
Speaker 1: I did a course, and so I've run a number
35:12
Speaker 1: of courses now through Patreon as a way of providing
35:17
Speaker 1: some independent scholarship education, I decided to branch out, and
35:24
Speaker 1: so this had taken a literary focus up to this point,
35:27
Speaker 1: but this time we did a series on the Elder
35:29
Speaker 1: Scrolls and philosophy, and I decided to make this one
35:32
Speaker 1: publicly available, and so you can find this in the
35:34
Speaker 1: podcast as well as we looked at Morowind, Oblivion, and
35:37
Speaker 1: Skyrim as well as their expansions. These are games, especially
35:42
Speaker 1: going back to Morowind, which very much shaped the imagination
35:46
Speaker 1: of my youth. I spent a lot of time in
35:47
Speaker 1: more Wind over the years. It still is my favorite
35:50
Speaker 1: Elder Scrolls. It still is one of my all time
35:53
Speaker 1: favorite games, despite the fact that yes it's dated in
35:57
Speaker 1: various mechanics and visuals and whatnot, which I mean the
36:01
Speaker 1: visuals can be updated quite a bit on a pretty
36:04
Speaker 1: impressive level with various mods. But honestly, I just play
36:07
Speaker 1: Vanilla and that's fine enough for me, probably because you know,
36:09
Speaker 1: I was there in the Elder days and so I'm
36:12
Speaker 1: used to it, and so I still very much enjoy
36:14
Speaker 1: morow and I enjoyed returning to that as I prepared
36:18
Speaker 1: for this series. I think that the Elder Scrolls lore
36:22
Speaker 1: and mythology is it's definitely some of the most impressive
36:27
Speaker 1: stuff that you can find at video games, and it
36:29
Speaker 1: very much rivals even some good literature. And in fact,
36:34
Speaker 1: in preparation for the series, I bought the Skyrim Library,
36:36
Speaker 1: which is three physical books that it can anthology volumes
36:41
Speaker 1: that contain nearly all of the books that appear in
36:44
Speaker 1: game in Skyrim. And you know, I never read those
36:47
Speaker 1: books in game, but reading a good number of these
36:51
Speaker 1: books in print, I've actually come to find that it's
36:54
Speaker 1: it's actually really impressive what they put together. I know,
36:57
Speaker 1: the writing isn't going to be on par with say
36:59
Speaker 1: Tolkien or some thing or you know, some like great literature,
37:02
Speaker 1: but it actually a lot of it is good literature,
37:04
Speaker 1: and it's it really shows that the love for storytelling
37:08
Speaker 1: that they had as they put these games together, that
37:11
Speaker 1: so much of the world is going to be hidden
37:13
Speaker 1: from the average player, yet nonetheless it informs the general
37:17
Speaker 1: experience even for those who don't engage on that deep level.
37:21
Speaker 1: And so really interesting books, really interesting game, really interesting world.
37:25
Speaker 1: I'm very impressed by what the Elder Scrolls has to offer.
37:28
Speaker 1: You know, I wasn't doing deep dives into Elder scroll
37:32
Speaker 1: stuff when I was playing Marwin was playing Oblivion when
37:34
Speaker 1: I was playing Skyrim originally, but as I got immersed
37:40
Speaker 1: in these deeper things, well, it actually these games came
37:44
Speaker 1: alive to me even more fully than they had before,
37:46
Speaker 1: which that definitely says something because these have always been
37:49
Speaker 1: important games to me, and so there's a lot of
37:52
Speaker 1: really interesting stuff that came out of those conversations, as
37:55
Speaker 1: well as my preparation that we that I put together
37:59
Speaker 1: for that study, and you can go find those in
38:01
Speaker 1: the podcast as well. We also from there pretty naturally
38:06
Speaker 1: did a Fallout series. We did all the well not
38:09
Speaker 1: all the games, all the mainline game, and so we
38:10
Speaker 1: did fall Out one through three, we did New Vegas,
38:13
Speaker 1: and we did four as well as one episode on
38:15
Speaker 1: the first season of the Prime show, which I don't know.
38:20
Speaker 1: It's fine. I can't say I love the show, but
38:24
Speaker 1: it's fine. As much as I really enjoy Fallout, especially
38:27
Speaker 1: New Vegas, I don't know. I don't get too riled
38:31
Speaker 1: up about Fallout lore stuff, even though again I really
38:34
Speaker 1: like it, I'm interested in it, and so that's why
38:36
Speaker 1: I'm willing to say the show is fine. But you
38:38
Speaker 1: can look at You can find those on the podcast
38:41
Speaker 1: see and then Oh, another really interesting game that I
38:44
Speaker 1: played for the podcast was Claire Obscure Exhibition thirty three,
38:50
Speaker 1: not gonn rehash that. You can find my views for
38:52
Speaker 1: that in the podcast. But this is definitely another game
38:56
Speaker 1: that really works that provides evidence for the argument that
39:02
Speaker 1: video games have an artistic quality. Like, anyone who's played
39:05
Speaker 1: this game, anyone's listened to the music, seen the visuals,
39:08
Speaker 1: knows that this is a game that has a very
39:12
Speaker 1: high artistic quality. So listen to that conversation if you
39:15
Speaker 1: haven't already play that game. I have some criticisms for
39:19
Speaker 1: the way that it handles some things, but nonetheless it
39:22
Speaker 1: is still a very rich game, profound in meaning, profound
39:28
Speaker 1: in its potential for having significant conversations regarding not own
39:33
Speaker 1: the artistic value of video games, but also the kind
39:36
Speaker 1: of themes that this game deals with, things like how
39:38
Speaker 1: do we engage with sorrow and grief loss and what
39:44
Speaker 1: even is real? And what is the reality of art?
39:51
Speaker 1: And so a lot of really interesting things playing out there.
39:53
Speaker 1: I had a chat with David on The Forgotten City,
39:56
Speaker 1: which is a neat little short philosophical game, and even
40:00
Speaker 1: the philosophy of the game is pretty amateur. It really,
40:03
Speaker 1: as I talked about, that conversation helped me to even
40:07
Speaker 1: more fully recognize the value of games as a potential
40:11
Speaker 1: medium for doing philosophy, and I want to engage more
40:14
Speaker 1: with that moving forward. I would even love to put
40:16
Speaker 1: together even just like a simple game myself to engage
40:21
Speaker 1: in that. To do philosophy in game, I think is
40:25
Speaker 1: something of value in that. Then I finally played Red
40:28
Speaker 1: Dead Redemption one and so we talked about that, and
40:31
Speaker 1: then we did Chrono Trigger just recently, and the fact
40:34
Speaker 1: that was the last episode. I really like playing the
40:36
Speaker 1: super Hindo era RPGs said, the final Fantasy games of
40:40
Speaker 1: that era of Chrono Trigger. I look forward to returning
40:44
Speaker 1: to Secretive Manna at some point. There's some talk in
40:46
Speaker 1: the discord right now about Earthbound, so I really enjoy
40:50
Speaker 1: going back to those, and I love that a lot
40:52
Speaker 1: of these games are available on Steam now. And so
40:56
Speaker 1: that is where we've been so far. And as I said,
40:59
Speaker 1: next time, we'll probably be doing Final Fantasy Tactics. Might
41:02
Speaker 1: just be me, and I don't think any of the
41:04
Speaker 1: other patrons have played that. Maybe I'll round up some
41:06
Speaker 1: others maybe not. I don't know, but then I know
41:09
Speaker 1: there'll be more interest when we get to Final Fantasy,
41:11
Speaker 1: Sevin and beyond. So that is a bit about where
41:14
Speaker 1: we've been. It's a bit about where I've been in
41:16
Speaker 1: my own framework regarding what video games are with the
41:20
Speaker 1: potential value is and so obviously games are not literature,
41:25
Speaker 1: and there are certain pitfalls that can come with games.
41:30
Speaker 1: Obviously there is that potentially false sense of achievement. You know,
41:37
Speaker 1: when you've put so many hours into grinding and doing
41:40
Speaker 1: this or that challenge, you feel like you've really done something,
41:44
Speaker 1: when I mean maybe you have, maybe you haven't. But
41:48
Speaker 1: the point is we can all recognize that, yeah, you
41:49
Speaker 1: probably could have done some other things in the world.
41:51
Speaker 1: You probably could have picked up some more responsibilities in
41:54
Speaker 1: the primary world. But at the same time, well, games can.
41:58
Speaker 1: You can't go wrong with games. You can go wrong
42:00
Speaker 1: with just about anything. Right. If you spend all day
42:02
Speaker 1: reading books and that doesn't make you better equipped in
42:05
Speaker 1: the primary world, then well that's not great either. You
42:08
Speaker 1: can spend all your time binging Netflix, and that's not
42:10
Speaker 1: great either. But I do believe you can engage with
42:14
Speaker 1: video games as an artistic venture or even just as
42:18
Speaker 1: a fun venture. Right, Not everything needs to be high art.
42:21
Speaker 1: I don't mean to apply that it does in order
42:23
Speaker 1: to be a good use of time. But my point
42:25
Speaker 1: is that, yeah, we need to recognize that we need
42:28
Speaker 1: to maintain a certain hierarchy of responsibilities, and that you
42:32
Speaker 1: don't spend so much time on the less important things
42:35
Speaker 1: that you neglect the more important things. You know, I'm
42:38
Speaker 1: not going to ignore my children or my job in
42:41
Speaker 1: order to play video games. But at the same time,
42:44
Speaker 1: if I have the right things in alignment, I believe
42:47
Speaker 1: that video games can play an important role that actually
42:50
Speaker 1: make me a better person, so long as I am
42:53
Speaker 1: engaging with them in the right way and with the
42:56
Speaker 1: right degree of responsibility in relation to all the other
43:01
Speaker 1: responsibilities that I have in life. And so in summary,
43:05
Speaker 1: I've really been enjoying this venture, this avenue of mythic mind,
43:10
Speaker 1: this avenue of Andrew Snyder. I'm glad that I've recovered
43:15
Speaker 1: something that I've lost in the value of video games.
43:19
Speaker 1: But also I think I've uncovered something that I never
43:23
Speaker 1: fully had. I think that now, as an adult engaging
43:26
Speaker 1: in games intentionally, I think I might be getting something
43:30
Speaker 1: even more or maybe not more at least something on
43:32
Speaker 1: a deeper level than I got as I was a kid.
43:36
Speaker 1: And so while we should not be childish in our
43:38
Speaker 1: engagement with video games, there is a certain child likeness
43:43
Speaker 1: that we can and ought to embody as we approach
43:47
Speaker 1: things that are well good for us, even amidst our
43:52
Speaker 1: very grown up lives. So that is where I will
43:55
Speaker 1: end for now. Hope that you enjoyed this review, these
43:59
Speaker 1: kind of off the cuff reflections, and if you would
44:02
Speaker 1: like to join us on Mythic Mind games, or you
44:05
Speaker 1: want to join us more broadly in discussing books and
44:08
Speaker 1: literature and philosophy and movies and video games, then I
44:12
Speaker 1: welcome you to become a patron over at patreon dot
44:14
Speaker 1: com slash Mythic Mind. Even just five dollars a month
44:17
Speaker 1: will give you access to all three podcasts and even
44:20
Speaker 1: give you permission to join us on all three podcasts.
44:24
Speaker 1: Every week, just about every week, we have something going
44:27
Speaker 1: on one of these conversations taking place, and so I
44:29
Speaker 1: would love to have more people engage in these conversations.
44:32
Speaker 1: So if that interests you, become a patron even just
44:34
Speaker 1: five dollars a month, and then of course higher levels
44:36
Speaker 1: of support will allow you to access more things, but
44:40
Speaker 1: even that minimal level, just get you in the door,
44:42
Speaker 1: get you in the conversations, and I would love to
44:45
Speaker 1: hear from more of you as we move forward, but
44:48
Speaker 1: that is where I will leave you for now. If
44:50
Speaker 1: you are listening on the freeb feeds and these come out,
44:54
Speaker 1: then the next thing to come out from Mythic Mind
44:57
Speaker 1: will be on the main Mythic Mind podcast as we
44:59
Speaker 1: start to approach the end of the Beowulf and Bowethia study.
45:03
Speaker 1: And so if that interests you, to make sure you
45:05
Speaker 1: are subscribed to the main Mythic Mind podcast as well
45:07
Speaker 1: as my YouTube channel, and you can find that link
45:09
Speaker 1: in the show notes, and I will talk to you
45:11
Speaker 1: then