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Racism as a mechanic in Mafia 3
- Thread starter Messofanego
- Start date
UnemployedVillain
Member
You would hope, but it'll possibly be a Rust situation with people bitching about not being able to be a white guy and being treated differently lol
I really hope so too. The game sounded interesting from the offset but tackling an issue like this seems surreal. I am there day 1 and I generally don't like games like these (open world gta types).
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
Sure, at the end of the day the racism mechanic will probably be used to call in more cops for you to runaway or kill. It still hits the point while adding another gameplay quirk. The only way they can avoid gameplay intrusion is if they restrict your combat in the open world to really hit the message hard.
Fried Food
Banned
Sounds great. Looking forward to stomping a mud hole in some racist cops.
Wouldn't it be cool if a video game of all things was what made a significant social impact for the better when it comes to how we treat each other?
Wouldn't it be cool if a video game of all things was what made a significant social impact for the better when it comes to how we treat each other?
ClaptoVaughn
Member
This is something I've been asking for since Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.
I think it'd be an interesting feature.
I think it'd be an interesting feature.
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
One game isn't gonna do that.
BabyFaceKillah
Member
If only we didn't play as the angry Black man...
Would've liked to play as an organized black mafia member trynna take over and not a broken member trynna get revenge.
Would've liked to play as an organized black mafia member trynna take over and not a broken member trynna get revenge.
ShinMaruku
Member
Game seems to try to be both. Get revenge and take over.
Admiral Woofington
Member
from what I've seen of the game I thought it was getting revenge and also making things better for the black mafia. So seems a little of A and B
Can't believe this has only been pointed out once in this thread. This whole thing is dripping with irony.
Admiral Woofington
Member
You aren't the only black person in the whole city though. And there are white criminals in the city too.
Messofanego
Banned
2K? With Spec Ops The Line, Bioshock, Darkness 1 and 2, Prey, yeah they definitely let devs go pretty far in touchy subject matter.
SporeCrawler
Member
Wow this actually makes me want the game
camequipped
Member
Yes but the racial slurs are being directed at him even when he's not committing a crime fulfilling the racial stereotype. I don't think pedestrians will be calling him names when he has a shotgun in hand or drenched in blood.
Hendrick's
If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
Had no idea this game was going in this direction, but it sounds really interesting and unique. So if I understand correctly, the mafia are the antaganists in this game and you play as part of an African-American crime ring?
SwaggerMcDagger
Banned
have we ever seen this done before in a game? pretty awesome idea.
now all we have to hope for is the game not sucking.
now all we have to hope for is the game not sucking.
I Wanna Be The Guy
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
For the first time I'm interested in Mafia 3.
Frozenprince
Banned
Man Mafia 2 was such a great god damn game.
The narrative was so great, the happy go lucky montage of them selling heroine to an upbeat song in the background
was the best.
Have super high expectations for this one, though I do hope the combat is more grounded than in 2.
The narrative was so great, the happy go lucky montage of them selling heroine to an upbeat song in the background
only to end horribly though a dose of callous reality
Have super high expectations for this one, though I do hope the combat is more grounded than in 2.
Militaratus
Member
So we gonna deal with Racism AND Mechanical Apartheid this year!? Can't wait, must have both this Mafia III and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided in my veins now!
But I always wonder, how far will they push it?
But I always wonder, how far will they push it?
scoobidoo112
Member
Not a bad thing for games to delve into more mature storylines and topics, so I am curious to say the least. Same with Watch Dogs 2, I am happy to see big studio's take some risks finally.
Difference is that Deus Ex features a white dude in a narrative about oppression and apartheid.
Spring-Loaded
Member
Someone beat me to it:
Yup, this.
There's irony present the in this setup, but more because he's a soldier who fought for a country that hates him, and he's using what he learned in the military to get back what was taken from him.
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
I've only ever seen it in fantasy games. But even then it's usually just in a conversation with someone and immediately dropped. People hear have mentioned Skyrim with the one king who was racist towards anyone who isn't a true Nord.
Messofanego
Banned
CyclopsRock
Member
I can't wait to experience this 
ChawlieTheFair
pip pip cheerio you slags!
Quite possibly one of the first times race will be significantly used and explored in a AAA label. Really excited for this, hope it does well, the management/extortion mechanics look fun as fuck. Reminds me a lot of the scarface game on PS2.
Hmm, yeah I'm looking forward to this...I think. I hope they don't cave but not looking forward to the already brewing shit storm from a particular crowd.
I'm hoping for an Emmet Till scenario, this time it may be stopped. Now this particular case was a good decade prior to this but I can see it getting some space here. Or a similar instance.
I'm hoping for an Emmet Till scenario, this time it may be stopped. Now this particular case was a good decade prior to this but I can see it getting some space here. Or a similar instance.
...because Deus Ex MK isn't racist enough to presume a white person would never be the victim of oppression.
double jump
you haven't lived until a random little kid ask you "how do you make love".
Please game be good. Now that horizon has been pushed back this and tf2 are all I'm looking forward to this year.
NipplesAndToes23
Member
Well, I don't really see that as a mechanic. More of part of the setting and I assume it will be touched upon in the game's themes.
potatohead
Member
This is such a big bag of worms this post is.
Hot Coldman
Banned
I like that they're doing this. I've never wanted to pick up a Mafia game before, but I think I'l try this one out just because they're actually applying some nuance to it, and telling a story you don't really see anywhere else.
"We're pushing boundaries here."
Ubisoft Montreal's lead designer Steve Gilles is no stranger to genre defining features; he was the one that implemented Splinter Cell's shadow hiding system.
"For Assassin's Creed, we've implemented a 'Trespasser System'. It's literally criminal trespassing as a game system. You can go into cordoned off areas and it completely flips the script. All of a sudden, you're this voyeur into another person's world, another caste's lifestyle, a completely different culture. Now, everyone is on the lookout for you: the guards will chase you down, the women will clutch at their pearls and scream. It's completely systemic. The individual personalities of every person, or at least, occupation of person, will react completely differently to the player than they would just walking down the street."
It sounds revolutionary, and it is.
" See," Gilles continues, "take this scene for example. The player is walking down the street and this woman in a dress here, she doesn't even look at you. Doesn't pay you any mind. 'it's just another poor person in the street,' she's thinking. Now watch this..."
Gilles moves his assassin into a house and immediately the woman inside starts screaming. She runs out the door and the alerted guards pour in and begin attacking the assassin.
"None of this is scripted, it's just a natural extension of the personalities of the characters. Now watch this..."
Gilles kills all of the guards with a visceral moveset, blood splashes across every wall. Of course, none gets on our pristinely decked out hero. Gotta keep looking fresh!
"Now as I exit the house, look at this -- none of the villagers around scream, none of them freak out. Just look at that! It's like they think you're exiting your own house. The woman inside called me a "filthy dog"...a real classist insult, but these people say nothing. That moment, that's the flash point. The gamer is going to think: 'why aren't these people reacting like the woman inside? Ohhhhh it's because they don't think I'm trespassing. They think I'm exiting my own house.' See, the gamer is going to start questioning these concepts of ownership and class and power structures."
Gilles continues down the street, climbs up a building and continues along the roof.
"And that's really the point: to get gamers to feel outside their comfort zone. To really think about the concept of ownership and trespassing. What does ownership mean in a society that has looser authority structures? What is the entanglement of consent and personal space? Can one own a space? Why do people let authority figures in when they feel their consent has been violated, but these are the same authority figures they wouldn't let in when that consent hasn't been?"
"We're tackling the big questions here. It's time for games to grow up."
And grow up they have. The new specular shine maps on the water alone show how far we've come.
"If I can influence even one player to think about these things, I've done my job. Sometimes you have to give them a little push though. We've outlined the trespassing spaces in red on the minimap. We feel this is just enough of a clue to get gamers to think more specifically about what they are doing."
And we can't wait to be doing it. The new Assassin's Creed launches in November and we'll be first in line to give you unbiased review of this groundbreaking new title.
Ubisoft Montreal's lead designer Steve Gilles is no stranger to genre defining features; he was the one that implemented Splinter Cell's shadow hiding system.
"For Assassin's Creed, we've implemented a 'Trespasser System'. It's literally criminal trespassing as a game system. You can go into cordoned off areas and it completely flips the script. All of a sudden, you're this voyeur into another person's world, another caste's lifestyle, a completely different culture. Now, everyone is on the lookout for you: the guards will chase you down, the women will clutch at their pearls and scream. It's completely systemic. The individual personalities of every person, or at least, occupation of person, will react completely differently to the player than they would just walking down the street."
It sounds revolutionary, and it is.
" See," Gilles continues, "take this scene for example. The player is walking down the street and this woman in a dress here, she doesn't even look at you. Doesn't pay you any mind. 'it's just another poor person in the street,' she's thinking. Now watch this..."
Gilles moves his assassin into a house and immediately the woman inside starts screaming. She runs out the door and the alerted guards pour in and begin attacking the assassin.
"None of this is scripted, it's just a natural extension of the personalities of the characters. Now watch this..."
Gilles kills all of the guards with a visceral moveset, blood splashes across every wall. Of course, none gets on our pristinely decked out hero. Gotta keep looking fresh!
"Now as I exit the house, look at this -- none of the villagers around scream, none of them freak out. Just look at that! It's like they think you're exiting your own house. The woman inside called me a "filthy dog"...a real classist insult, but these people say nothing. That moment, that's the flash point. The gamer is going to think: 'why aren't these people reacting like the woman inside? Ohhhhh it's because they don't think I'm trespassing. They think I'm exiting my own house.' See, the gamer is going to start questioning these concepts of ownership and class and power structures."
Gilles continues down the street, climbs up a building and continues along the roof.
"And that's really the point: to get gamers to feel outside their comfort zone. To really think about the concept of ownership and trespassing. What does ownership mean in a society that has looser authority structures? What is the entanglement of consent and personal space? Can one own a space? Why do people let authority figures in when they feel their consent has been violated, but these are the same authority figures they wouldn't let in when that consent hasn't been?"
"We're tackling the big questions here. It's time for games to grow up."
And grow up they have. The new specular shine maps on the water alone show how far we've come.
"If I can influence even one player to think about these things, I've done my job. Sometimes you have to give them a little push though. We've outlined the trespassing spaces in red on the minimap. We feel this is just enough of a clue to get gamers to think more specifically about what they are doing."
And we can't wait to be doing it. The new Assassin's Creed launches in November and we'll be first in line to give you unbiased review of this groundbreaking new title.
Dre_G_Writer
Member
I already beat it, and is now playing the Mafia 2 DLC where you play through some story parts as JOE. So you get to see things from his side of the story.
I bought the game last week for $6 on steam. It was some sale going on, not sure if its still on sale, and all the DLC was like a dollar and some change each.
yea, that would be interesting, but.....................marketing doe.
But real talk, I watched the Dev diary about this weeks ago. As a black man, its cool to see devs take on this challenge that many of my kind have to deal with on a regular basis.
supermarioworldE
Banned
Something tells me Im gonna be doing a lot of hit and runs in this game.
Well, I don't know how the main char will be portrayed in cutscenes/conversations, but as a player you'll probably mow through hundreds of people and cause large amounts of collateral damage, especially in traffic.
Messofanego
Banned
I don't mind devs touting that they're pushing boundaries and having social commentary in their games (better than how many p's they're pushing) but it can be pretty cringe when it becomes part of their marketing like Witcher 3's EVEN RACISM which always makes me laugh XD
ChawlieTheFair
pip pip cheerio you slags!
They are saying it could elicit police responses. There are stealth options, so I assume they mean in that regard.
