Comments: 53 Comments (Go to Comments)
Categories: Books, Commentary
Tags: dante, dante alighieri, dante's inferno, ea, library
It’s hard not to be cynical about EA’s Dante’s Inferno. A game that scrambles its source material so hard conventional terms like reboot and recon fail to do it justice. A game with a marketing campaign which hit most of the Deadly Sins.
But when Tor released the Longfellow translation of Dante’s Inferno as a tie-in, complete with cover art based on the game, did anyone expect this?
From longtime Game Coucher Aramis:
Something amazing happened last Friday. I’m still not sure what to make of it.
I was at the library Reference Desk ready to answer questions and help people find stuff when a teenage boy came up to me looking for Catcher in the Rye. I checked the catalog for Salinger and didn’t see any hard cover copies available so I walked the kid over to the uncataloged Classic Paperbacks. His mom followed behind us and while I was browsing the S’s I overheard this incredible bit of dialog.
‘Hey, Mom! See this book?’ He grabbed a copy of Inferno, the first book in Dante Alighieri’s trilogy The Divine Comedy. ‘Remember that game you bought me? This is the book it was based on, but this book is even sicker the game! It was awesome!’
This blew my mind completely. It’s like something out of a marketer’s wet dream. A ridiculous video game induced a teenage boy of average coolness (he had a skateboard and was sporting a Bieber) to read not just a book, but a classic allegorical, epic poem written in the 14th century in which an Italian poet and a dead philosopher traverse the afterlife to find the poet’s deceased girlfriend and possibly meet God in terza rima (three part rhyme).
What do you guys think? Is this a thing™ or more of a fluke? Also will “literary” games become the latest trend replacing sandbox and/or post-apocalyptic casual zombie tower defense MMORPGs? What classic book would you like to see made into a game?
See also:
Score! Liz Danforth at Library Journal’s Games, Gamers, & Gaming.
Dante’s Inferno Alvin Dantes at The Catablogger.
Aramis:
Is it tacky to comment on your own post? It is, isn’t it. Damn.
Dr Marty:
No, man, it’s not a fluke. I’ve seen it before. Some games act as a springboard for continued inquiry. If a game provides a frame of reference for, or familiarity w/ a story, a person can become curious about the source. People like to think in terms of either-or on this issue. I think it is “both/and”.
kathleen duey:
I’ve overheard this kind of thing in libraries before and it just makes me *smile*. There is no expiration date on basic human grit, love, hope, and courage. The appeal is eternal.
YAY!
Amy:
A good deal of classics could potentially be made into video games. Iliad, the Odyssey, Epic of Gilgamesh, Don Quixote… Beowolf was already turned into a game, although I do not know how close to the plot the developers stayed or its quality.
Ha ha, I’d love to see someone try to create a Jane Austen novel, even the latest like Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. :P
Siobhan:
This article, however, loses a point in the literacy score due to more than one misspelling: “apocolyptic” should have been “apocalyptic” and “causual” should have been “casual”.
Oh, and Aramis, you needed to capitalize Italian.
By the way, who trademarked the word “thing” (see last paragraph)? That would be quite a feat!
Terry:
@Siobhan Thanks! The corrections have been made.
Derek:
It doesn’t surprise me, I know kids that have picked up things like Atlas Shrugged from Bioshock after hearing about it’s influence.
Kat:
It’s definetely a thing! FFVII inspired me to learn about norse mythology for example.
I’d like to see a Kafka game – you play as a giant slug struggling to support his family and come to terms with his condition.
Barry:
i love this game so much.
Matt Carter:
I just a big fan of Dante’s Inferno… i also agree with Dr Marty: that this is without doubt not a fluke..
Mind Movies 2.1:
I agree with Kat. FFVII is truly an awesome game as well.
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