Mythic Quest: Top 10 Best References

From creators Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day, Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest provides a nice twist on the typical workplace comedy. Set at a video game company as they work on a massively popular video game, the show provides an accurate and humorous representation of the gaming industry.

McElhenney is an avid gamer, which is something that shines through in many aspects of Mythic Quest. With a deep understanding of the medium, Mythic Quest has many references to the video game industry that any gamers will recognize.

10 Montreal

Throughout the first and second seasons, many of the workers at Mythic Quest HQ make reference to their parent company, referring to them mainly as ‘Montreal’. They oversee the company to ensure that it’s performing financially as well as possible.

As a massive hub for the video game industry, Montreal is home to many of the world’s biggest video game companies including Ubisoft, which is the company that the show is referencing. While never referencing the company outright, the in-show criticisms of the company parallel many complaints lobbed at the video game publisher.

9 Pootie Shoe

A major storyline of the first season involves the team worrying about how Pootie Shoe, a popular pre-teen video game streamer whose opinion could be a financial game-changer, will react to the additions to the game.

Pootie Shoe is a reference to the growing influence of video game streamers in the game industry. Taking inspiration from many popular Twitch creators such as Ninja, Tfue, and shroud, the show acknowledges and gently pokes fun at this growing aspect of the industry.

8 The Leap Of Faith

Mythic Quest‘s scene transitions are often animated in-game references to various video games, with the Leap of Faith being the most recognizable one. Depicting the character leaping off of a tall perch into a bale of hay, this will be recognizable to any fan of Assassin’s Creed.

A mainstay in the series ever since the original debuted in 2007,  the Leap of Faith has always been an exciting way to get down from a viewpoint. Seeing as Ubisoft helped animate the in-game sequences in the show, this seems to be a nice reference to their blockbuster series.

7 World of Warcraft

Mythic Quest focuses on a video game development team as they work on a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, a genre of games that has become synonymous with the World of Warcraft series.

While the overall look of the game looks similar to that of World of Warcraft, there are also a few deeper references to the video game series. The character paintings covering Poppy and Ian’s offices look similar to promotional items for Warcraft, while the in-game Blood Ocean is a reference to the Hakkar Blood Plague.

6 Microtransactions

One of the biggest conflicts between Brad and the rest of the team comes from his insistence on adding microtransactions into the game. While Poppy and Ian resist them for fear of ruining the game, the money-focused Brad sees this as a way to make even more profit from the game.

One of the most controversial issues within the game industry, many gamers have expressed frustration with the increasing amount of microtransactions. While EA’s use of microtransactions are commonly known to be the most egregious, complaints have also been lobbed at companies such as Nintendo and Ubisoft for the number of microtransactions in their games.

5 Wyld_D

One of Mythic Quest’s in-house testers, Dana spends a good portion of the first season trying to start her own video game streaming channel. Going by the name of Wyld_D, much of her character growth comes from her learning to be natural on camera.

Wyld_D is a reference to an area in the video game Runescape often referred to as “Wildy”. Short for “The Wilderness”, the area is known for its tough and unforgiving landscape.

4 Carol From HR

The company’s perennially exhausted HR representative, Carol often finds herself being forced to listen to the complaints of the employees at Mythic Quest HQ. Even though she provides good advice for fixing these issues, much of this advice falls on deaf ears.

The character is a reference to It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, another show from creators Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney. In a memorable moment, Charlie’s search for Pepe Silva makes him lose his grasp on reality, memorably telling Mac that he went down to Carol in HR before Mac responds “There is no Carol from HR!”

3 Doc and Bean

The fifth episode of Season 1 serves as a flashback episode that depicts the relationship between two video game testers that led to the creation of the game Dark Quiet Death. As Poppy and Ian find their relationship tested, this provides a nice mirror to that storyline.

Initially connecting over a video game that they both love, the main characters are nicknamed Doc and Beans in a reference to the classic video game Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine.

2 Red Dead Redemption

Another in-game reference, a few sequences show a cowboy riding through the desert. While the character is unnamed, he looks suspiciously similar to the iconic video game character John Marston.

This is a reference to the Red Dead Redemption video game series from Rockstar Games. One of the best-selling and most critically-acclaimed gaming franchises in recent memory, this seems to be the fictional Ubisoft tipping their hat to one of their peers.

1 Crunch Time

The Season 1 finale deals with the employees at Mythic Quest HQ complaining about not being paid for their overtime work, creating a huge amount of friction between the company and Montreal. Forced into a tough spot, Ian convinces Montreal to provide overtime pay.

Another massive issue in the game industry, during “crunch time” many developers are forced to work incredibly long and stressful hours in order to get a game ready for release. Many developers have spoken out about this practice, and there have been recent movements to penalize video game companies for the inhumane treatment.

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