UNICO National, a service organisation for Italian Americans, has lashed out against upcoming video game blockbuster, Mafia II calling it, “a pile of racist nonsense that perpetuates stereotypes of Italian Americans as violent, murderous mobsters.”

The game from publishers Take Two Interactive is set to be released tomorrow in the United States and on the 27th of August for the rest of the world.

During the game players will take on the role of fictional character Vito Scaletta as he joins a prominent crime family and starts working his way up the ranks. The game will give players a chance to traverse the dangerous world of 1940’s gangster America while soaking up the rich story telling that the series is known for.

DiMino demanded that Take Two halt the release of the game and wrote to Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take Two, advising him that the game contains, “inappropriate and insulting perpetuation of the pervasive and denigrating stereotype of organised crime being the exclusive domain of Italians and Italian Americans.”

DiMino goes on to claim that the game will raise a generation of young people associating Italian Americans with violent, murderous organised crime groups.

“Take Two is directly, blatantly and unfairly discriminating and demeaning one group to the exclusion of all others. We are demanding they halt release of the game and cleanse it of all references to Italians and Italian Americans,”  he said. He reportedly requested a meeting with Zelnick to discuss the issue and their planned response.

He then went on to attack Take Two Interactive for having a history of violent, sleazy videogames citing cases of real life violence where the perpetrators were ‘allegedly’ influenced by the company’s games to commit real acts of violence.

Take Two is also the publisher of the controversial and amazingly popular Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series, something which DiMino was quick to mention.

"We don't need, nor deserve, a new generation being brainwashed into directly associating Italians and Italian Americans with the bloody, murderous thugs and criminals rampant in Mafia 2," concluded DiMino.

He failed to mention however that the game carries a ‘mature’ rating by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which means that children will not be able to purchase it. 

A number of conflicting viewpoints have recently come to play regarding content in games, with conservative minded politicians and ‘activists’ taking up the mantle in the United States especially.  What is your take on violence and the portrayal of stereotypes in games? And why is it wrong for a game to do it but not for a movie or another form of entertainment?

Feel free to share your comments and thoughts in the comment box below