Another significant issue which has gone woefully under-addressed is that of the corporate faculties, how games are much more of an industry than early authorship. Early authorship was a business to be sure, Nathaniel Hawthorne pumped out 3 novels in as many years because the income helped sustain his family. But triple-A (games with incredibly large development resources) video games are made by massive teams of people funded by huge corporations, and this can lead to a sort of wash for interesting and diverse elements. Hawthorne is solely responsible for his work, even considering the considerable notes given to him by his wife Sophia, the authorial voice is entirely Nathaniel. As we consider the content decisions made in each type of work this becomes important for how we set, shape, and respond to our expectations and how they are met.

What is the value of this, and why does it feel so incredibly different from text to game? The length and “bloat” are serviceable in some contexts, but not others. Form factor, relevance, and craftsmanship all play a role in the value of the piece. Let’s examine The Scarlet Letter again for a second. In its day, the elements of the story were incredibly controversial. The idea of defending someone who committed adultery in any context would have been at the least taboo, and the idea of printed literature doing so would have been out of the question. The novel does nothing in the way of providing a defense or praise of the main character’s actions, and while Hawthorne’s representation of her is by no means progressive, it is more open and considerate than any of its contemporaries. The “bloat” was interesting at the time, all the extra details were appreciated. On top of that novels were all the rage, they were hot, and long-form prose found its footing for centuries with writers like Hawthorne. Now let us consider Red Dead, a game that discusses class and race in terms that are (while in no means edgy or consequential) contemporary, appealing to modern conversations and dialogues. Then pair the most interesting new form of media, video games, and the pattern of success between the two works rings familiar.

Are all these marginal elements ultimately bad or good? The contextualized value of each piece is independent of the question; we aren’t wondering if either work is important, but if the considerable extra elements in both contribute something foundational. I believe we can lean in the direction of no, an answer I think Hawthorne’s writing especially demonstrates. While we do still read his fiction, in the modern retrospective of early literature the effect the novel has had is not due to its deluge of text but for how that text is formed and reflective of the world around it. So as we look to games like Red Dead, Assassins Creed, or Skyrim, we ought to find ourselves mindful of the same question; What is this side material actually contributing to the experience?

For fans of Gables, that plant is named Phoebe.

This is a place where modern game developers might actually take a page or two from traditional literature. Even for its excessive wordplay, every bit of wordplay in Hawthorne is built around hammering home an overall theme, message and aesthetic, a technique that is largely absent in large games. In The House of the Seven Gables Hawthorne goes on a 1000 word aside, by the narrator, to examine a family of chickens who live in the house’s garden. At first, the scene is bizarre, but then it becomes ever more apparent that the family of chickens resembles the patriarchal lineage living in the house. The strange “bloat” reflected back, added texture, humor, and variety of tone.

Video games have become excellent at the latter two, humor and variety abound inside content, but it also feels dissonant from the thrust of the main game more often than not. Maybe a good example of this is found in Bioshock: Infinite. The game features musical callbacks that are completely additional to the main game and can be completely bypassed, but their inclusion contributes directly to the aesthetic and the song choices compliment the theme. The hard reality with games, however, is that any additional work or material can fall on a spectrum between narratively focused to mechanically focused, and it is hard to marry them completely for a 30-hour experience. Even Bioshock had code puzzles… maybe Hawthorne had an edge here.