Most mob games do not accurately portray the meticulous planning planning required to pull off successful robberies, kidnappings and assassinations.
Videogames are fun because they let you take the part in the action. Military games don’t show the player all of the endless drilling, marching and potato peeling recruits go through in boot camp, for instance. Real life mobsters have described just how much planning and political maneuvering went into even simple mob activities, let alone complex heists. Games using the Mafia as a setting ignore most of “the boring stuff,” but as Shawn Williams tosses out in issue 228 of The Escapist, designers may be missing out on a grand opportunity.
Most games remove the political aspect of Mob life from the gameplay. This comes as no surprise – few gamers are interested in running back and forth to advance the plot without running into action of some sort. Presumably, adding that layer of authenticity to Mafia-inspired games would hinder players’ enjoyment. But could developers be missing the opportunity for new kinds of game mechanics? … While the stereotype of the “dumb thug” mob soldier certainly plays heavily into Mafia games, the role in which most games cast the player is one of the intelligent, calculating individual that is supposed to be smarter than the average soldato. So why doesn’t the gameplay ever reflect this intelligence?
The concept of an intelligent mobster is evident in movies and literature. Micheal Corleone was a brilliant strategist in addition to being badass enough to take murder into his own hands. I for one would welcome a mobster game that balanced strategy with action. Read the rest of Misinformants: How Games Get the Mob Wrong to find out why such a game would be awesome.
