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[aeiowu]

So... you may have already heard of this, but EA is dragging Dante's classic through the muck with this: http://www.dantesinferno.com/home.action

It's basically a complete bastardization of his entire body of work. It was brought up by Glaiel here: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=6082.0 along with some talk of making a game that is actually based on the Divine Comedy. I thought that was a cool idea then, and I was reminded today from Darius Kazemi (tinysubversions/the dude who made the LED roguelike badassery among other cool stuff) from his twitter:

RT @leighalexander: indie devs, please read clint's comment on http://bit.ly/3LLvGm and accept the challenge!

That link is basically the comments section of some ubisoft groaning similar to the groaning that went on in the thread on TigForums. Here's the original article from Sexy Videogame Land: http://sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com/2009/06/welcome-to-hell.html

Anyway, here's Darius's nod to Clint's comment parsed here:

Yeah, I think the whole thing is kind of mildly depressing. Just right on the edge of being so mildly depressing to not even bother commenting.

I first heard about this several months ago... maybe even a year and I think a bit of cola came out my nose when I laughed. We all joked about how it would be a generic beat-em-up GoW clone, ha-ha-ha. We even joked about just MAKING another, different Dante's Inferno game, since they actually couldn't stop you. Oh the laughs we had.

But now I just find it kind of yucky and I feel morose when I think about it. Why not 'Demon Hunter'? Why not 'To Hell and Back'? Why not 'Love be Damned'? how about just 'Infernal'? (probably taken)... but anyway - reiterating the point that a generic demon killing game would be better marketted to a generic audience of demon killing game fans by losing the pretentious title and just calling it what it is.

Is it an *active attempt* by EA to undermine the credibility of people who actually might one day aspire to make a real game adaptation of Dante's Inferno or any other serious work? hrrmm...

When does it ship? Someone should build an indie dev team and release a real Dante's Inferno game for PC and broswers and iPhone and facebook and launch it day-and-date with this one just to confuse EA's communications and cash in on the hype with a game that people might actually find beautiful. That would be divine comedy.

So yea, that last paragraph is basically the compo. We all work on Dante's Inferno games (maybe a larger collab to make a larger game?) with the deadline being EA's release date.

What do you guys think? I think it could turn out some really interesting stuff.

[Melly]

I would be up to it, if I was a fan of the original. While I don't condone EA doing a Will-Smith-shoots-robots stunt, not only am I not religious, but the original Divine Comedy is damn boring to me.

[Kaelan]

Seems ill-advised, albeit potentially entertaining.

A few notes (I am not a lawyer, etc):

1) The release date is, depending on who you ask, January 2010, Q1 2010, 'TBA 2010' and December 2010. All of these dates are really far off. Compos any longer than a month rarely end with any completed games - people simply don't have that kind of attention span for compos. A short compo on the topic in the here and now could produce some entertaining games, but wouldn't capitalize on that 'muck up EA's PR' angle.

2) Do you really anticipate EA's legal and marketing departments looking fondly upon what would basically be a bunch of indies acting out their (well-deserved or not) hatred for EA? Comedy/parody is one thing, but just because Inferno is public domain doesn't mean they don't have other options for legal recourse if they decide you've become annoying. Spending any amount of time in court isn't my idea of a good time.

3) I don't know about you, but I'm not particularly interested in a bunch of video game adaptations of Dante's Inferno. I'd rather see the people who'd participate in such a compo go come up with ideas that they're really enthusiastic about, build those games, and release *those* games on (or before) EA's release date. If your goal is to STICK IT TO THE MAN, why not do it by proving that you're a superior game designer, instead of by mocking them?

[aeiowu]

@Kaelan

1) that's cool, maybe we'll start it a month or two before the announced release date. Or maybe not, i dunno...

2) fear is the mindkiller. besides it's public domain, we won't be infringing on any Langdellian issues (trademark) or copyright so what's really to fear? Sure, anyone can sue anyone for just about anything but if you really are afraid of that then I'm not sure what to tell you.

3) Isn't that what a compo is? Also: "[it should be about] proving you're a superior game designer." That's the whole point of the compo, isn't it? Well that and having a structure for making some sweet games based on an interesting piece of work. The compo wouldn't be about mockery/parody of EA's Inferno, it'd be about games based on the Divine Comedy. The release date is the sticking-it-to-the-man part. I guess I'm not following you here.

[Inane]

I would be up to it, if I was a fan of the original. While I don't condone EA doing a Will-Smith-shoots-robots stunt, not only am I not religious, but the original Divine Comedy is damn boring to me.

Epic poem about hell does not have much to do with religiousosity, Melly.

[nihilocrat]

EA would have no legal ground to harass people making a Dante's Inferno game, particularly because it would almost certainly resemble the Divine Comedy a whole hell of a lot more than EA's game.

I'd like to see some kind of AGS adventure game involving Vergil and Dante touring the circles of hell, solving puzzles, making silly puns, and tongue-in-cheek observations.

[Inanimate]

That's a great idea! Add some politics, and you got the actual novel! (minus puzzles.)

[Radix]

Other shit aside it's a cool theme. I'm interested.

[agj]

I don't think this is worth the effort, to be honest. For starters, everyone will forget all about this within a week, and the game is being released sometime next year.

[PaleFox]

EA would have no legal ground to harass people making a Dante's Inferno game, particularly because it would almost certainly resemble the Divine Comedy a whole hell of a lot more than EA's game.

I'd like to see some kind of AGS adventure game involving Vergil and Dante touring the circles of hell, solving puzzles, making silly puns, and tongue-in-cheek observations.

Dante and Virgil hit the Malebolgia.

"O frati, che per cento milia
perigli siete giunti a l'occidente,
a questa tanto picciola vigiliz
de nostri sensi ch'è del rimanente,
non vogliate negar l'esperienza,
di retro al sol, del mondo sanza gente.
Considerate la vostra semenza:
fatti non foste a viver come bruti,
ma per seguir virtute e conoscenza."

"Lei mi crack, piccolo amico!"