La Famiglia: The Great Mafia War

[E74]

For sure there a thousand of games, movies, books offensive for someone.
Probably because on 23/5/1992 I saw with my eyes the disaster done by Mafia to Sicily and to Italy that I found this title inappropriate.
That day Italy lost an internal war, all the honest lost a man who was fighting for legality.
A very sad page.
however it’s just my personal opinion

Enjoy it ..

[Cappa]

I agree. I’m Italian and I remember when Giovanni Falcone,Paolo Borsellino and their staff were murdered. I love board games , but this is a sad page of Italian history and I can’t imagine to assume this role in a game

World war 2 is a sad page of world history and I don't see people making a big deal about playing wargames where you can actually play with the evil axis side.

[TheLawyer]

Aren't war games in general problematic for the same reasons? I rarely play combat based games and especially deterred by those with a historical element rather than fictitious circumstance.
However, historical games can create talking points that are useful as educational tools.
What makes this game worse than other games of this genre?

I play historical wargames and I don't have any issue with them. If the mafia theme was made into a COIN, with factions also for the Italian State to fight them, and a playbook like the excellent ones made by GMT (with explanation and historical context of the cards) that would be excellent. This one...not so much.
I am not saying nobody should play it, please do it and have fun. I am just annoyed by the American double standard. See for example a thread on BGG where there was the discussion about this game, plenty of comments like "it's just a game!" that normally would have been deleted as "Dismissive/Disruptive" by Octavian if the controversy was about other topics (race/gender/slavery etc), instead stayed in place for that game thread.
I know that's a BGG problem not a BGA problem but I had to vent!

[CAlgernonT]

I disagree with the negative comments. Plenty of games about morally questionable topics. Also plenty of italians calling the new puerto rico without slavery "woke". Now suddenly there are topics that shouldn't be made a game because it touches us. Grow up.

Everyone is entitled to having opinions, but this comment is extremely offensive. First of all, the comment about 'Italians' objecting to 'wokery' in other games is not acceptable: Italians don't all have the same opinions, and you get the same kind of attitudes in all country. If some individuals have unsavory views, it doesn't mean you can ignore the sensitivity of some issues in their countries. Plenty of people rant about 'wokery' in the UK, let alone in the US - but I wouldn't expect a game about Al-Qaeda being well received in either of those countries. This kind of ideas show a lack of understanding of what Mafia has been and still is for Sicily.
Yes, a lot of tragic topics are covered in games of all kinds, but the example of Puerto Rico shows that recognising the sensitivity of some topics is possible.
I was born during that period and grew up during the terror campaign of the 1990s. I don't really fancy playing this game, but I won't tell anyone they shouldn't. I just hope it's honest about what it meant and doesn't contribute to the stereotypes we are already sick and tired of.

[Terwox]

I disagree with the negative comments. Plenty of games about morally questionable topics. Also plenty of italians calling the new puerto rico without slavery "woke". Now suddenly there are topics that shouldn't be made a game because it touches us. Grow up.

Everyone is entitled to having opinions, but this comment is extremely offensive. First of all, the comment about 'Italians' objecting to 'wokery' in other games is not acceptable: Italians don't all have the same opinions, and you get the same kind of attitudes in all country. If some individuals have unsavory views, it doesn't mean you can ignore the sensitivity of some issues in their countries. Plenty of people rant about 'wokery' in the UK, let alone in the US - but I wouldn't expect a game about Al-Qaeda being well received in either of those countries. This kind of ideas show a lack of understanding of what Mafia has been and still is for Sicily.
Yes, a lot of tragic topics are covered in games of all kinds, but the example of Puerto Rico shows that recognising the sensitivity of some topics is possible.
I was born during that period and grew up during the terror campaign of the 1990s. I don't really fancy playing this game, but I won't tell anyone they shouldn't. I just hope it's honest about what it meant and doesn't contribute to the stereotypes we are already sick and tired of.

No need to imagine, this game already exists. It's uncomfortable to play, no one is making anyone play it, and it should exist. I found it worth playing.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/622 ... error-2001

[nathandscott]

I disagree with the negative comments. Plenty of games about morally questionable topics. Also plenty of italians calling the new puerto rico without slavery "woke". Now suddenly there are topics that shouldn't be made a game because it touches us. Grow up.

I agree, many boardgames can be considered controversial if you think about thrm not just gangster ones like this or chigago based ones, or wargames. But the entire premise of all worker games - you are basically a slave owner sending workers with no consideration of your workers feeling - its a game.

[PuertoGeeko84]

It is not at all clear to me why this game should be especially offensive to anyone. Are all WW2 games "offensive" to Germany, Italy, and Japan? Should the French be offended by Waterloo? Are all Greeks in high dudgeon about any game based on the Battle of Thermopylae? Should the English refuse to play any Robin Hood themed game? As an "American" I am not even slightly offended by games based on the Vietnam War. There are more board games about U.S. based gangsters such as Al Capone than I can enumerate off the top of my head.

Why all these examples about war? Mafia is not war. It's a civil plague, a rotten spot of society killing and corrupting.

[PuertoGeeko84]

Maybe I can design a game about bombing New York on 9/11. Use cards and skill to divert the planes onto the towers. Maybe a game about the holocaust can be as good?
I noted that somebody think it's an inappropriate argument.. well, for me Mafia is as well too inappropriate

[ScoreJoe]

I disagree with the negative comments. Plenty of games about morally questionable topics. Also plenty of italians calling the new puerto rico without slavery "woke". Now suddenly there are topics that shouldn't be made a game because it touches us. Grow up.

Everyone is entitled to having opinions, but this comment is extremely offensive. First of all, the comment about 'Italians' objecting to 'wokery' in other games is not acceptable: Italians don't all have the same opinions, and you get the same kind of attitudes in all country. If some individuals have unsavory views, it doesn't mean you can ignore the sensitivity of some issues in their countries. Plenty of people rant about 'wokery' in the UK, let alone in the US - but I wouldn't expect a game about Al-Qaeda being well received in either of those countries. This kind of ideas show a lack of understanding of what Mafia has been and still is for Sicily.
Yes, a lot of tragic topics are covered in games of all kinds, but the example of Puerto Rico shows that recognising the sensitivity of some topics is possible.
I was born during that period and grew up during the terror campaign of the 1990s. I don't really fancy playing this game, but I won't tell anyone they shouldn't. I just hope it's honest about what it meant and doesn't contribute to the stereotypes we are already sick and tired of.

Of course not all italians have all the same opinion, i m living proof it. But i remember in a fb group the absolute barrage of negative comments for the removal of slavery in Puerto Rico. And that doesn't equate do label om national opinion, but it does underline the love for double standards.
As the game on al quaeda, maybe you should not talk of things you don't know of, to quote Nanni Moretti, as Labyrint - war on terror, is one of the most popular games of GMT (US based), yet notbody makes comparison with "games on holocaust about killing jews" (see compatriots' comments above)

[ScoreJoe]

Maybe I can design a game about bombing New York on 9/11. Use cards and skill to divert the planes onto the towers. Maybe a game about the holocaust can be as good?
I noted that somebody think it's an inappropriate argument.. well, for me Mafia is as well too inappropriate

You can design them if you want, games on islamic terror and american civil war already exist and nobody compares them to the holocausr