Siena, Italy Protests Gran Turismo 5

Italy again? Our last story was on an Italian-American organization asking that "Mafia II" be delayed until all references to Italians be removed from the game, and now the city of Siena is asking that "Gran Turismo 5" remove material related to its Piazza del Campo level before release.

The Piazza del Campo is the site of a famous biannual horse race, the Palio di Siena. The historic course is used in "Gran Turismo 5" in its new kart racing mode, controversially using the same flags that represent each district/competitor in the horse race. Apparently the flags and symbols are the only controversial component, so hopefully they can be removed or have the issue otherwise resolved without further delaying the near-vaporware racing game's release in November.

[via Kotaku]

Italian-American Interest Group Protests Mafia II

Italian-American service organization UNICO is protesting Take Two's upcoming video game Mafia II for "directly, blatantly, and unfairly discriminating and demeaning one group to the exclusion of all others." Organization president Andre' DiMino demanded that the game's release be halted and cleansed of all references to Italians or Italian-Americans.

DiMino is currently undergoing an anti-discrimination push that fell much more toughly on MTV's Jersey Shore TV show and its portrayal of Italian-Americans as reinforcing a negative stereotype. MTV has actually responded to the complaints, to the point of making the second season contain less specific mention of Italian heritage or the word "guido."

Mafia II is set in a fictional city called Empire Bay between 1945 and 1957, based on a number of American cities but presumably most reliant upon New York. While there have been many organized crime rings that were not Italian in the United States, post-war New York was undeniably dominated by Italian-American organized crime, not Russian or Irish or anything else. Removing the Italian-American culture from a game told about post-war New York organized crime would be downright ahistorical.

Not to mention, "Mafia" is a very Italian word which has only come to describe organized crime in general since the dominance of Italian organized criminals in the early to mid-twentieth century. Famous Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi himself coined the term "mafiosi," which through a convoluted etymology later came to describe these criminals. The Yakuza series of video games obviously involves Japanese organized crime, without controversy.

Take Two responded, basically saying the game is based on a thoroughly-covered culture of movies, TV shows, and novels about Italian-American organized crime, and that Take Two balances free expression and social responsibility just fine, thank you very much.

[via Kotaku]