![]() if the game can make people think a little bit about race and remind them that Lincoln's experience in 1968 is very different than the experience most of us would have had, and it's similar maybe to some of the experiences some people of color have today, then we've done our job because we've made people think about something that they're not used to thinking about certainly while playing a video game. We tried to use it in moments when it's contextually appropriate and it was either used to characterize a character in the game or occasionally remind you of when and where you are and who you are," Blackman explained. "We were trying to find the right balance of keeping it authentic and true to the time period but not just becoming a wall of noise the last thing we wanted was for it to become comical because of who's saying it and when. Portraying race and racism accurately also meant using the n-word, but writing it into the script had to be done in a way that wasn't gratuitous. On the team we agreed that a black protagonist and a member of the black mob would allow us to achieve that and also allow us to explore a different side of organized crime the series hadn't yet explored." Once we knew, look, we want to set the game in a southern city, New Orleans being our inspiration, we wanted to set it in the late '60s, then we started talking about who would make the most interesting protagonist and allow us to tell the most nuanced and most interesting story at the end of the day. "We sat down - the very first decisions we made around Mafia III were where are we setting it, when are we setting it, and who's the protagonist? Those three decisions evolved together over time. "That's one of the reasons that I love working at 2K," he said. "We felt it was important to have there in order to remind people that this was a very shameful part of our past, and in some ways our present, but we never wanted it to become gratuitous or comical or just background noise" While some publishers may have hesitated in letting one of its studios tackle a sensitive issue, Blackman was effusive in his praise of Take-Two, which supported his vision from the start. ![]() So it really was all about how do we tell the best story and who's the most interesting protagonist in the story that we want to tell?" Blackman noted. we had no idea that some of these things were going to happen, things like the Black Lives Matter movement would come to be when we made the decision. "We didn't set out initially to get on a soapbox or make a comment about. Haden Blackman, who led the development on Mafia III at new 2K studio Hangar 13, told me that everything his studio did on the project was to help craft the narrative, not to force the race issue on anybody. ![]() Movies, books and TV can fit the bill quite easily, but how many games have made you really reflect? Mafia III wasn't made specifically with the intent of commenting on race in America, but considering that its protagonist is a bi-racial man and the game is set in the South in the '60s (when the Civil Rights Movement was in full force) it's hard not to think about racial tensions, especially in light of the Black Lives Matter movement and problems with police brutality. The best art in the world, regardless of medium, often yields deep thinking, reflection on important issues and sometimes even personal introspection. ![]()
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