45 - Why Video Games Repay Philosophical Attention

45 - Why Video Games Repay Philosophical Attention

From Mythic Mind Games by Andrew Snyder

April 24, 2026 · 45 min

About this episode

Andrew Snyder reflects on his renewed appreciation of video games and looks back at the podcast's journey as it approaches its one-year mark.

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/LaDAEZcs1AU Outer Wilds had to wait. Nearly a year into Mythic Mind Games, Dr. Andrew Snyder instead looks back: why he set video games aside, what recovered his appetite for fiction, and why games now repay philosophical attention. As Mythic Mind Games approaches its first anniversary (the show began May 2025), this solo reflection traces a personal and intellectual arc. Childhood consoles and SNES RPGs gave way, in his twenties, to the sense that games were a waste of time amid grad school, marriage, work, and kids. A utilitarian suspicion of fiction followed. Kierkegaard's emphasis on existential appropriation, a season of deep sorrow, and Tolkien's On Fairy-Stories categories of escape, consolation, and recovery reopened secondary worlds. Lord of the Rings and then Lewis, MacDonald, and Dostoyevsky reshaped what stories can do. From there he asks whether video games can take a quasi-literary role: not identical to books, but capable of artistic edification when engaged with responsibility. He then surveys the first ~11 months of the Games podcast and related conversations: Knights of the Old Republic and identity, Red Dead Redemption 2 beside…

People in this episode

Host: Andrew Snyder

Topics covered

  • video games
  • theology
  • podcast reflection
  • appreciation
  • cultural impact

Keywords

  • video games
  • theology
  • Outer Wilds
  • podcast
  • cultural impact
  • appreciation
  • reflection

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: YouTube, Patreon

Books & works: Outer Wilds

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