OK, UNICO complained about "The Sopranos" as well, so at least, they act consequent...

I thought people like UNICO only could be found in Sopranos.

On your bike UNICO

I get my gas at UNICO stations, they have slurpees.

There is a wrong and right way to go about portraying a race in a violent game. Rockstar has constantly shown reasonable portrayals of ethnic groups without being completely Bias (as in everyone is equally a back stabbing dirt bag). Organizations like this should be targeting the games that REALLY go out of their way to be racist. Here's a great example by Liquid Generation

http://www.liquidgeneration.com/Potty-Mouth-Ninja-Enter-the-Pirate

their whole business model IS to discriminate people.

I'm pretty sure one episode of Jersey Shore does more to "defame" Italian-Americans than Mafia II, III, IV and V combined would ever likely be able to do.

As I read the quoted text from UNICO, I imagined it being delivered by Fat Tony from the Simpsons, which may very well confirm the groups fears. Denouncing such portrayals is exactly what they are supposed to do.

In any case, I don't think that anyone going into this game with a realistic view of Italians is going to come out of it with a shattered world view and a new conviction that all of them serve some shadowy God-father.

Just another organization running it's mouth about a game they've never even played. Move along.

I love the part about the "targeted audience of young people". When you're complaining about false steroetypes, nothing sells your cause better than engaging in one yourself.
Seriously, if this wasn't targeted at people old enough to already recognise the other fictional properties it resembles, then what purpose would it serve making the game this way? Unless they're actually accusing the devs of thinking every criminal in that time and place was Italian....

To be fair they should include some of the Irish and Russian Mafia's as well. :D

That was a well worded response from Zelnick. You haven't even seen the game, it's not for kids, and get off our backs about the mafia sh*t, everyone does it.

@sean

your summary sounds like a defense for snorting cocaine...

In all seriousness, shouldn't we as an industry be having a solid, thoughtful conversation about appropriate portrayals of minorities in our medium? Or do we go the route of take 2 and stick to status quo. Yay for the degeneration of the human species!

I thought being in the mob is cool?

In America you have the right to dislike their content and their message. You have the right to complain; the right to organize a protest of their message. However, the same thing that protects your right is the same that provides them the right to create this content.

Allowing you freedoms implies others enjoy the same freedoms, regardless of minority, majority, size, representation, gender, race, etc. You cannot have your cake and eat it too.

You are not forced to like it, but you cannot suppress their freedom to create it.

I've always wondered about that, the absolutist language of the constitution has certainly allowed culture creating media to enforce status quo. As much as we like to hide behind the constitution we have to acknowledge that this does have real effects on the youth of the world (for more info read up on the effects of institutional racism).

Well i think everyone should just play it safe and use lego model's for every game. Or would that be discriminating against lego.. people...

Take Two sleeps with the fishes while wearing cement slippers.....

couldn't agree with you more jason. maybe snooky could be the godmother.

@ Andre

I think, we should be able to have a serious discussion about the portrayal of minorities in games, but there are a few things, that make it difficult for me to have this discussion on Mafia II. First of all, the game is set in the 1940s, from what I have seen in the demo, it tries to put things into it's historic context quite well. The Members of the Mafia gang, you team up with, have a lengthy talk about the reasons to leave italy, one of them is the son of a man, who was killed by the fascists. A rather unusual portrayal of a Mafia thug in games, gamer usually only like talk about politics in their games, when it comes from a superior informing them, why it is necessary for them to kill many people to save the world from russian/chinese/iranian domination.
The whole game seems more inspired by the movie Goodfellas, maybe UNICO sees this movie as discrimintating as well, I don't know, but in the Mafia movie genre, it's considered as a classic and I don't think, that you can say Martin Scorsese wants to discriminate italian americans.
Further on, the game was developed by Illusion Softworks, who come from Czech. Here in europe, the portrayal of the american Mafia is part of our popcultural image about america. It is like the Western film genre. Many Western were made by directors who immigrated from europe, they shaped the picture of the Wild West in movies, it had nothing to do with the reality, but a lot to do with the image of the 19th century USA, that stuck in the minds of european at this time.
Like this, the portrayal of the italians in Mafia II is for a big part, the image, european developers have of the 1940s in the USA.

In the end, I think Mafia is different from GTA, which is always set in present day US (or in the not so far past of the 1980s).

Why doesn't Take-Two just announce a game where the main character is a stereotypical white/caucasian American...with no heritage background(because most of us either don't know or don't care) and have them included in a game where they are a backstabbing dirtbag...if they create a game for all races depicted as dirbags...then no one complain---see comedy from Chris Rock or David Chappelle....its bad if you target one or two..but if you target everyone then everyone laughs...

@Eric

You are right when you say that no one would complain about a "white male with no heritage background" (and here I would add "not fat" and without any kind of negative social characteristics) being a "dirtbag", but that's just because, like YOU, they consider this guy being "everyone", and not representative of anything.

It's racism, just rotated 180 degrees.

I just have to throw some serious thought here. I'm also going to get historic which UNICO must forget. The mafia actually emerged in the 19th century in Sicily. Other groups formed their own mafia's here in the states towards the end of the 19th Century when there were plenty of Italian emigrants that were coming from overseas. So please tell me what is wrong with throwing some liberties on a past that is factual. Did any Greek orginazations say anything about Sony taking liberties on their mythology with God of War? Did the NAACP throw up their arms when GTA San Andreas came out? Did you hear any Russian/Ukranian groups get angry with GTA4 or Mercenaries in which they were doing nothing more in the game but profiting off of the war in South Korea?

It is so troubling to see that movies like Departed, which was No. 1 in the box office for weeks, didn't offend anyone. Or that any of the Godfather movies, or Goodfellas, or Casino didn't bother anyone. I know that they tried to shut down Soprano's but seriously, that is what is wrong today with people's perceptions of games.

And if everyone took note of the way that he made gaming seem so negative. As if the point of the game is to just go around killing people. Get a grip.

'The Most Dangerous Mobster in the World.

Village Voice (NY), May 20-26, 1998

"The enigmatic leader of the Russian Red Mafia is a 52-year-old Ukrainian-born Jew named Semion Mogilevich.

The FBI and Israeli intelligence assert that he traffics in nuclear materials, drugs, prostitutes, precious gems, and stolen art. His contract hit squads operate in the U.S. and Europe'.

For these types of protest, in this day and age, I wonder if the only groups that have any leverage for change are Muslim, Hispanic and African-American.

@ Andre Gagne

The fact of the matter is that the Italian Mafia has enjoyed prolific success in this country and remains one of the largest criminal organizations on earth. There’s nothing “status quo” about exploiting that in entertainment when said entertainment is a reflection of reality. From what I’ve played of the game, the characters don’t seem any more offensive than what is found in an episode of the Sopranos or even The Godfather so why should Take Two be expected to saturate themselves and their product in political correctness to satiate a verbose organization that seems hell bent on obfuscating a very real past?

What you are advocating isn’t intelligent dialogue and discussion; it’s overtly sensitive PC nonsense that goes further towards making every person on earth feel as if they must entrench themselves into a certain category or ethnicity and then take offense at anything that casts their category in an unfavorable light. It’s pseudo-enlightenment and it severely retards the creative process.

Only 2 types of people in this world

1. Italians
2. Those who wish they were Italains

:)

As a Zombie American, I find the portrayal of my people in games like Left 4 Dead and Plants versus Zombies just reinforces the stereotypes that all shambling undead are only interested in brains. Many of us, myself included, actually prefer other organs such as the liver and spleen.
Also, I personally have NEVER worn a bucket on my head as a helmet. I don't care what Popcap says.

@Bill: Clearly the most dangerous mafia man is Keyser Soze.

I honestly must say, if we're talking about racially tied crime families, then having a game about them is fine, but it wouldn't hurt the story/setting/theme to show several sides to the issues/races/characters. I haven't played it but if Mafia 2 is anything like the first one, then the allies of the protagonist are cold-blooded killers, and there are no 'good-guys' shown at all except as enemies. It's hollywood-esqe and that makes the story feel less deep and interesting. Showing that other racial groups can be just as corrupt, or just as innocent, could be delivered through an article one character reads in the paper. Something like a racist opinion piece, or use of racial slurs towards the protagonist.

If the goal is to portray what it really was like, this is very appropriate. If the goal is to show how the world should be, then all stereotypes should be taken out. Focusing only one on stereotype without context though is inappropriate.