This game exists solely to capitalize off of the success of Sony's God of War franchise as it is. Gamers know this. They may score a few points with belligerent Dawkins-worshiping "freethinking" atheist gamer (and, to be fair, there are quite a few in the hardcore gaming community who fit this description), but I doubt that even they will buy what looks to be a cheap imitation of another product because of a stunt like this.

Answer: No. A few of them probably flipped through the graphic novel, though.


Well said. Also, the early buzz is that Dante's Inferno is a dud, and EA is looking to do anything to manufacture some interest.

Yeah, when you have to create your own buzz, that's never a good sign. Should have known IC gamers would have already been all over this one.

Frankly, I didn't thing those ersatz slogans were too farfetched.

And thank you for not saying "begs the question."

Did I not already put "misuse of 'begs the question'" on my grammatical pet peeves list? It definitely belongs there.

I have to strongly disagree. The very presence of these "protesters" and their slogans (the website even more so) gives a terrible public image of Christians, and undermines the legitimacy of real protest. "EA = Electronic Anti-Christ"? You really don't think that's farfetched? I am surprised.

Hearing about this makes me question the couple of times I've read a news article about "Christians" protesting this, that or the other thing and thinking that the protest was just dumb. Now I wonder if they were legitimate protests at all.

If they had a bunch of Renaissance literary scholars protesting the game, I would have believed it (this game pretty much does to Dante what Neil Gaiman did to Beowulf).

Not only is this game clearly EA's attempt to get in on Sony's God of War market (and don't forget that Sony hired naked, body-painted models at a faux pagan sacrifice complete with a real gutted goat for a release party for God of War 2), other geeks have already noted that Capcom previously covered the Inferno with its Devil May Cry series, which centers on demon-human halfbred brothers named Dante and Virgil.

At the very least, I can sleep better at night knowing that my students won't be able to pass any quizzes I assign based on the plot of the video game.

A little trivia: There was a game inspired by Dante's Inferno called "The Lost" that was in development for PS2 five or six years ago by... (wait for it) the makers of Bioshock! It was cancelled.

I got a chance to play it when they were shopping for a publisher. It unfortunately probably wasn't ready for primetime in the gameplay department, but the story (as in all Irrational games) was well-done. It took some severe divergences from Dante, but it also had a totally different main character (smart move). I remember some very interesting interpretations of some of the major figures like Minos, etc.

"That aside, though, the institutional acknowledgement that these kinds of protests are the best possible publicity for their target is something Christians might want to bear in mind when the next Dan Brown film rolls around."

I'm generally skeptical of protests myself, but isn't it odd how passive we're encouraged to be in the face of corporate vandalism and cultural smog-production?

Is it really more productive to, say, complain about the cultural left than to fight the business behemoths who are ensuring their triumph? The Left was only against big business when it didn't control it, while moral conservatives' alliance with the libertarianish GOP shut up their criticism of the private malfeasance of corporate America on issues of both decency and labor.

Midway through the journey of my life I'm glad I've never bought a single game system.

I don't really think it matters how much of The Divine Comedy the people at EA read...
The word used is "Inspired". People don't seem to understand what that means.

If I were to create a game in which the goal is to play Noah and go around destroying intruding animals on the Ark with a giant wooden beam, I would likely say it was "Inspired" by the story of Noah's Ark. Sure it's relevancy to the real story is incredibly flawed, but the point is playing the real Noah wouldn't make for a very fun game, would it?

EA does only not know the story but they are insulting the second biggest Christian story after the Gospel. This work has even been endorsed by the Vatican. Dante was NOT a warrior but a poet dressed in 1300 clothing. The insult goes even beyond Christians, it is an insult to ALL Italians. Dante not only wrote the best poem ever but also invented the Italian language, literally. So, making Dante appear as a warrior and Beatrice in Hell, I mean she was the image of an angel. Geez.
Check these guys out, I really think they know what Dante was about, my friends: http://www.dantesinfernodocumented.com

Well, another example of Christian's being "priggish, thin-skinned fun-killers".

If you had done your research and looked into developer interviews and early play tests from industry insiders then you would have seen that the team at Visceral Games have not only read the first part of the divine comedy but spent weeks picking it to pieces to see not only IF it could work as a game (this being the same method used for other media, re-telling a classic story using new narrative and in this case entertaining methods) but re-working it whilst maintaining the essence of the original writing. The team has also began some early draft work to evaluate whether any other parts of the Divine Comedy can be re-told in video game format. Of course the advantage here is the developer gets the chance to create interesting video games whilst expanding many gamers knowledge of the original item.

But that's Christianity all over isn't it? Claim to be part of a community centred around a methodology of forgiveness and spit hate onto those that either oppose that opinion (SEE: SCIENCE! - xkcd.com/54) but also those that don't have an opinion. It's very hypocritical of you all.

We live in a digital age where advertising is more key to sales than the very product it promotes and you're surprised a company the size of EA (which is generating millions to the US economy right now, and let's be honest, you do need it) wants to maximise the potential scope of it's product. You fell right into their marketing teams hands, so please, next time a games industry company does something like this, remember, THIS IS THE INTERNET - THEIR IS NO EXCUSE FOR SLOPPY JOURNALISM WITH BADLY RESEARCHED CONTENT.

We live in a day and age where everyone gets upset about anything. Radio shows, movies, game companies, etc have to walk on egg shells because they are afraid they might hurt someones feelings. Get over yourselves. You're not that important.

I think the fake protests are an interesting but underwhelming tactic on the part of EA. But I also think discussing it -- bitching about it -- does a disservice to your faith and all other practitioners. Isn't forgiveness one of the major tenants of Christianity? If this game is so trivial, why does it warrant all this discussion and scorn? Shouldn't you be out helping your fellow man or is your faith only to cover your ass in case there's an afterlife?

Wow, it is great to see how much on the defense the EA hypocrites are. They came to his page in masses to defend their bad taste and insults.

Forgiveness? Yes, we forgive those that repent, not the EA for sure.

Reading? So, EA team read the DC? Wow, that's interesting, I thought it took way more than that. I hope they read the poem the way all poems should be read.

What EA has certainly done is to make a MOCK of Dante's masterpiece. SHAME ON YOU ALL, EA!!!

Was the irony of this post intended or accidental? You complain that the entertainment industry views us "on the whole as priggish, thin-skinned fun-killers." And here you are, making a post complaining about their stunt; you're reacting exactly the way a priggish, thin-skinned fun-killer would. Why should we care what they think of us? What they say or do doesn't affect our faith in any way; I know I'm not being forced to change the way I think, behave, or believe. Nor does my faith affect them. I'm content to live the way I am, and I'm content to leave them to live they way they are. I can view this stunt for what it is: silly, and perhaps even a little amusing.

I'm sure I'm not the first one to notice an irony here: you are upset about a trivial marketing ploy that you think portrayed you as people who get upset about trivial things?

If you're upset about the stereotype of religious people as being thin-skinned, then get mad at the people who ARE protesting ridiculous things, like those protesting walmart not saying "merry christmas." Protesting this game would really be far less ridiculous than some of the real protests that religious people are actually doing. Example: anything Fred Phelp's little brood protests. They're the ones giving basis for these parodies. Don't stand next to those guys. Don't reach out for the unfair stereotype and claim it. The fake signs said nothing like "Catholics against videogames." It left it non-denominational, if I had seen these guys, I would not have assumed "Catholics."

Plus EA makes games, wheras the protesters typically aren't doing anythign as constructive. For an example I'm again going to point to westboro church. Really, who are the bad guys here? They're for once not the marketers at EA, they're those facists in kansas.

... you know, that actually might be giving an unfair stereotype to facists. Then again, I'm okay with that.

Hi, Josh (et al.) -- Thanks for the response. I was a little surprised by all the feedback on what was intended to be a lighthearted post, so I think I should clarify my point a little.

The comment about "priggish, thin-skinned fun-killers" was meant to be a throwaway line about the standard caricature of the protesting Christian, but that in itself is nothing new. I think it's silly, but I certainly don't feel threatened or persecuted by the stunt.

What I found interesting, though, was EA's implicit acknowledgment here that "all publicity is good publicity," and what that says about those real protests launched by well-meaning Christians. How effective are they, really? Are the protesters making any converts to their cause, presenting their case rationally and thoughtfully, or are they just reinforcing negative stereotypes with angry sign-waving -- and bringing their target loads of free publicity to boot? (Which, by the way, I know I'm just increasing by commenting on the whole thing here. Mea culpa.)

EA's stunt here seems to attest to the latter; that might be worth bearing in mind the next time a Christian group wants to protest something a little more serious than a video game.

This is why so many people are so disenchanted with organized religion, nowadays...the most vocal of the devout show an absolute lack of sense of humor. Gone are the sentiments of guiding people towards God with a firm, yet understanding, hand and in its place is this overbearing, bible-thumping, whining mob that condemns anyone and anything that doesn't fit into their view of the way things should be...never mind the fact that not everyone sees the world the way you do and never mind the fact that Jesus didn't condemn people for not being "perfect Christians". It's that judgmental rigidity that makes it so easy for everyone else to dismiss devoted Christians.

With regards to this "controversy", the irony is downright hilarious. Calling out a company for calling you "priggish, thin-skinned fun-killers" in an article that can't be seen as anything other than priggish and thin-skinned.

Seriously, before you turn the judgmental eye on others, take a look at yourselves first and make sure you're in a position to be critical. That's probably one of the best lessons I learned in Sunday school which, based on what I've seen of the Catholic community as of late, is a lesson they stopped teaching.

For the sake of full disclosure, I used to work for EA years ago, but didn't like working there and don't plan on going back anytime soon, and I was raised a Roman Catholic, though I drifted from the church because of what I viewed were their rigid and hypocritical view on so many issues.

Did any off you read Dante's Inferno? either way, the game looks amazing. It's in no way a God of War rip-of, the story is completely different and you're just saying that becasue it's a hack-and-slash game. So that means that every hack-and-slash is automatically a rip-off of God of War? Well, newsflash, God of War is not the first of its kind.

I think those protestors are retarded for doing what they did.

-Words of a (free thinking) Christian

Thank you for clarifying that the original article was intended to be light-hearted. And in response to the consistent ideas from this websites more regular viewers that supporters of EA are here to defend their favourite mega-corporation, please, try to see it from our side as the gaming community.

We exist in a community that, apart from its own specialist media is frowned upon. We live in an era where technology leads the forefront of (practically) all human advancement and the video game industry best represents entertainment through new technology. Yet, despite this clear fact the video game industry is talked about negatively in the general public press. This is pretty demoralizing (considering I'm a University student looking for a career in game design) and as a result, true industry followers (and not those crazy fanboys you'll have no doubt heard/come across) you would have us all pegged for, feel the desire to defend our interests, much in the way this article was a way of you defending your interests.

Many of you probably didn't know this about EA, but over the last couple of years they have been making great steps towards changing their mantra. For a number of years, EA existed to bring gamers sequel after sequel (especially sports titles) and tacky movie games. Instead, EA has decided to pursue a market of developing individual games with strong characters and stories. Any of you see Army of Two, Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, Spore, Skate or Rock Band? These are all new IP's (intellectual properties) developed or published by EA in the last couple of years.

Moreover, EA itself didn't admit to this whole marketing campaign, they simply employed a local LA marketing firm to advertise the new title during the game industries biggest week. The marketing firm will have been in charge of developing the tactics used to ignite interest in the game and try to capture some general press for the game.

Think about it, the games market now makes more money than both the music and movie industries combined. In both the UK and the US, we have TV programmes and even channels dedicated to both these industries. EA just wanted two minutes of space somewhere for their potential customers to see it. And even if it wasn't a particularly great idea for some marketing, EA was trying to protect it's new baby. If this game makes a profit, that's some money they can use to develop more interesting, unique software.

Hi Simon,

Thanks much for your comments. Some of us on this group blog are actually part of the gaming community ourselves (see my own current recommendations here: http://tinyurl.com/nsmuay), so we understand what you're saying.

While I visit 1up.com regularly for gaming/tech news, they dropped the ball with this particular article. The writer made it sound as though there's this growing movement of Christians who are outraged by EA's marketing stunt... and then cited Margaret's lighthearted, throwaway blog post as the evidence. That's not much to build a story around, and gives the impression that we're a bunch of angry, anti-gaming Fundamentalists.

No-one here is complaining that Dante's Inferno is somehow evil or satanic or anti-Christian. Our issue with the game has nothing to do with religion or violence or anything like that. We complained that the game departs too much from Dante's Divine Comedy because we are fanboys (and fangirls) of the actual epic poem itself. It's not much different from a Batman purist complaining that the Arkham Asylum game changes too much from the original graphic novel.


Very true. And that's actually why we were a bit annoyed by the fake "Christian" protests.

Think of it this way: We've all heard the claim that violent videogames make people violent themselves. Even though there's no evidence for it and plenty of evidence against it, people still assume that it's true. Now imagine that Jack Thompson (a fiercely anti-video game lawyer in the U.S.) hired a bunch of teenage actors to put on GTA4 shirts and break windows in downtown Boston, just to reinforce the idea that gamers are violent and to help sell his latest anti-videogame book). I think the gaming community would be a lot more vocal about that than Christians have been about EA's fake protest.


While I wish EA had passed on this particular PR stunt, I remain a fan. And good luck to you in pursuing game design. Give us more Bioshock and Total War and less Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.

Isn't advertising in general supposed to create buzz? You guys are so hateful on here; I thought Christianity was about forgiveness. Have you guys even read through the bible? Probably not. Probably just thumbed through the graphic novel.

Thank God,

the Divine Comedy is not protected by copyright since a few centuries, so whenever someone will feel like doing another game which goes closer to its essence, there will be no problem...

Oh well, except that you couldn't use the trademark "Dante's Inferno" anymore... how about "Virgil's friend's not so pleasant place you go to once passed away if you havent loved" ?

Finally, as Virgil used to say to Dante:
Non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa

Free beer for the first one who can spot the quotation and offer a decent English translation!

Hi, Simon -- I don't have much to add that Brian didn't already cover, but I wanted to thank you for your thoughtful response. Unlike Brian, I'm not a gamer -- just a cranky lit major who likes to complain when someone messes with classic literature. I certainly have no bone to pick with the gaming community at large, though. Thanks for taking the time to leave your thoughts here, and good luck with the game design!

"...the entertainment inudstry views Christians on the whole as priggish, thin-skinned fun-killers..."

Bueno, pues no sólo la industria del entretenimiento los ve así, si no que todo el mundo. Por qué? Por que así son ustedes.

No mientn. Si su tan llamado dios fuera representadoe n un videojuego, ustedes inmediatamente protestarían contra ello (pero nunca protestan, por ejemplo, por que pongan golems en un videojuego (siendo que vienen de la mitología judía))

Se han ganado esra reputación a pulso, ahora, aguanten.

P.D.
De qué se quejan, si dios ni siquiera existe?

I certainly do not care about one single "not very smart" publicity stunt of a video game producer. And I think neither should you. But if you don't have a life and love to complain, please go ahead. I love to see people whining at trivial things like this.

EA is retarded because they take over good game studios and force them to release half finished works. As for Dante's Inferno...it really doesn't matter that much because the work was originally based on Greek and Roman poems of the Iliad and Aeneid.

The Christians that are "outraged" by this fake protest have only done what the fake protest could not: GENERATE PUBLICITY.

I never heard about this stunt until these Christian bloggers decided to feel outraged. So, in the end, EA wins.

"It's been clear for a while now that the entertainment industry views Christians on the whole as priggish, thin-skinned fun-killers."

Yeah, that's definitely not a sweeping comment about a large group of people. Do Christians all have the same views? And there certainly are no Christians in the entertainment industry... =P

Seriously, are people that upset over a video game? I mean really? It is just a video game people. Or is it the fake protest....which also who really cares it was a marketing ploy...get over it. I'm also sure most the teens/adults (I don't know what its rated) who are playing don't know the story or poem Dantes Inferno...I didn't know it was religious or christian or whatever. They are just having fun...which is why people play video games. Aren't there other things to get upset with that are more important than this trivial matter. I mean really.

I say the next time someone complains about God being on the US currency or pledge they're priggish, thin-skinned fun killers too.

Yes, people should be offended because EA is falsely slandering Christians by impersonating them. No Christian group was protesting the game itself, they're protesting the lies made against them. I bet there are some people who saw the stunt, but not the news that it was fake, and still have the image of "Christians are idiots" in their head due to the incident. If they were targeting a race or ethnic group, or atheists, or even probably another religion, everyone would be screaming "hate crime" and "intolerance", but not when it's against Christians. Also is it not intolerance when people here are suggesting video game developers should not be Christians, or that there are no Christians in the entertainment industry? I have a computer science degree and they certainly don't speak for me.

so i thought the real irony about this entire situation was that i hadn't even heard of the game yet. no title, no plot, no nothing. thanks to all the backlash it has received, i have heard about this game, and frankly, i think i'm interested enough to go buy it now. Thanks for keeping us, less-than-hardcore gamers informed.

oh, and in my opinion, the God of War series was a bit of a takeoff from the Prince of Persia games. they mixed theology with platforming and melee combat and they were the first to do it.

The work of the Dominican and Franciscan friars in the Inquisition was also endorsed by the Vatican. I just wanted to point that out because an endorsement by the Vatican is not proof of greatness.

My point on the game debate is this (and I am a Christian)...the image that many people have of Christians in general, is a product of the actions of Christians. Simply being opinionated and Christian does not make your actions, or lack thereof, acceptable (and vice versa). Islam and Judaism do not have a monopoly on zealotry. There are many examples that can be given as to why people could view Christians as overbearing, bible beating nutjobs who simply rail incoherently against anything that they do not find acceptable. Of course it is not fair to paint an entire group with a broad brush because of the actions of a few...but it is reality.

I also cannot find a real link to how a video game inspired by a fictional work is an insult to all Christians and Italians. That seems a bit of a stretch to me personally. I would also not rank Dante's work as the greatest work of poetry ever, but that is of course a subjective opinion. I recently played a wonderful strategy game called Rome: Total War which is only loosely based upon history. By your yardstick though, that game would also insult all Italians and Christians.

Also, and I mean this respectfully, the word 'Geez' would be better spelled as 'Jeez', as it is shorthand slang for the word 'Jesus'. Nothing seems more wrong in my ears than hearing Christians defend themselves with that word in an argument, because it goes directly against the commandment of not taking the name of the Lord in vain. I just wanted to point that out as food for thought.

Please don't take my opinions as being threatening, they are simply my thoughts on the matter and I wanted to express them.