The hot topic is adaptations, as I wrote about the adaptation of Hellboy from page to screen and the folklore and mythology behind it, as well as how these various tales were adapted to suit the narrative of the graphic novels.
So it is widely accepted that there are three types of adaptation, as put forth by Wagner: Transposition, a literal translation of a text or a novel "given directly on screen", Commentary - "where an original is taken and either purposely or inadvertently altered in some respect" and Analogy - where the core of the text is intact but the setting, costume, time period etc of the text can be changed and adapted to suit a new purpose.
Now what interests me in particular about the academic side of adaptation is that video games have not been studied in depth. For such a largely circulated form of new media, no prominent text immediately springs to mind as research into the adaption of game to film or vice versa, or subsequent video game adaptations of written media, such as Dante's Inferno from EA or the upcoming Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, based loosely on a Chinese fable. So, undertaking the layouts set forth by Wagner, we can see that these two particular examples (although I must make it clear I have yet to play Enslaved) are pure analogy.
Dante's Inferno takes the basic premise of the poem, the nine circles of hell and Lucifer frozen in the very centre, and changes the story from a journey through hell and a subsequent escape into an epic love story centred on Dante committing adultery whilst off on a Crusade in the Holy Land, losing his life and then fighting Death himself to claim his scythe and stave off his own demise. On returning home he discovers Beatrice, his love, murdered and her soul taken by Lucifer himself. Death's scythe allows Dante to enter Hell, the Inferno and chase after Beatrice in order to reclaim and liberate her from Lucifer's clutches.
Now to remain spoiler free, and as I haven't finished the game myself yet... I shall speak strictly of the way Dante's Inferno functions as an adaptation. The poem itself, Inferno, is the first of a trilogy of poems written by Dante Aligheri. In the source text, Aligheri finds himself lost in a forest and set upon by three beasts: a lion, a leopard and a she-wolf. As he realises the deeper into the forest he flees that he cannot escape, the Roman poet Virgil rescues him and takes him into the underworld, containing the nine circles of hell and the poetically just punishments for the sins and sinners contained within. After passing through an area known as the vestibule, containing those in life who did naught strictly good nor evil, suffering the constant sting of wasps and bees as maggots and other insects drink their blood and tears, to eternally remind them of the sting of sin at their backs (among them Pontius Pilate, the man who condemned Jesus to the cross).
As the two arrive at the edge of the vestibule they see Charon, the boatman from Greek Mythology awaiting recently demised souls to ferry them across Acheron into Hell itself. Reluctant to take Aligheri as a living soul, Charon is eventually swayed by Virgil, who deems Dante's journey of higher importance. It is here the game initially differs from the text, as this is an action game, Dante must fight Charon to gain entrance to the underworld, when he arrives at purgatory to witness a deformed King Minos judging the recently departed and condemning them to the circle attuned to the sin they were most guilty of in life. Throughout the game, several other prominent historical figures are present in the various circles as twisted shadows of their living selves. The game also provides a number of figures outside of the boss encounters the player has the chance to punish or redeem through cleansing of their sins, allowing them to enter the kingdom of heaven (performed in game through a button pressing minigame). Each of these appear in the circle they were condemned to, for example Cleopatra and Marc Antony in Lust, Pontius Pilate in Limbo, Orpheus in Blasphemy and Electra in wrath. Through alleviating or punishing these souls, the game's upgrade system, aligned with Holy or Unholy powers and magicks becomes a prominent tool for survival in the underworld, yet seemingly opposes the game's strong Christian ideology and chooses to ignore the original text's ideas that those who performed alchemy or magic were condemned to the eighth circle of Hell, Fraud, for demonstrating skills they did not actually possess. However this could be seen to keep in touch with the text as Dante's personal sins and quest for redemption is a thematically sound plot device in accordance with the game's achievements and endings.
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