Important advice to 2k Elizabeth and 2k Czech. Please read.

[Sensible Joe]

My fundamental concern with this game is its unoriginal story. It is obvious that the game is focused on the story, but the story in this case fails to properly work. The game tells a story that is better than other games (Most games fail to tell competent stories). The game borrows heavily from films such as Goodfellas, and the traditional conventions of the Mafia. It becomes a cliché. People are familiar with the ideas of family and the sacrifice of working for the Mafia that is present in such films as The Godfather and The Godfather II. It is expected that all art borrows from other things, however in order to make something distinctly original, it is necessary to do something different.

The Great Gatsby wouldn’t be as grand as it is without its originality and Wide Sargasso Sea, which uses the story of Wuthering Heights, uses it with a different approach. Film noir commonly exemplifies the hard boiled detective and the femme fatale. These are all common conventions, which are considered a cliché today. Art exists to evoke something, and to use something that is familiar and turn it into something different. Video Games will be regarded with greater credibility if they try to encapsulate the artistic intentions that are so prevalent throughout great films and books and other mediums.

Elizabeth, I strongly encourage you to inform Jack Scallici and Daniel Vavra about my concerns. You do not have to listen to me, however, but I’m trying to help you. You need to do this in order to improve the quality of your story. I understand that making a story about the Mafia original could be very difficult, however less focus on the traditional elements of power, corruption and loyalty and a greater focus on another idea (eg. Alienation, fragmented identity, disillusionment...) might be more effective. I still enjoyed the game, but I would have liked it to have been more original. Elizabeth, please talk to the rest of the team about this, it’s very important.

If Daniel Vavra is no longer writing your scripts, make sure the next writer makes it original. Traditional elements of the Mafia could still be used, but the writer would need to explore other things, otherwise the game will be no different from all the Mafia stories and films produced. The story was convoluted, and needed greater cohesion and the characters were not developed and I found, as I’m sure many other people did, that I did not care for the characters. Elizabeth, please do not ignore this message. Writers for film and literature borrow things from other writers, but they also change things in order to distinguish themselves from other works. Electronic media must be no different. A writer should not merely repeat the ideas of another writer, but have their own voice, their own ideas. You need to ensure this happens, if you want video games to be possibly considered as an art form in the future.

[lo6ick]

just kill the series there's is no point in even thinking about a mafia 3 as the whole series is now tainted. the lies and the overselling of the game is horrible.

MY opinion is that this could have been a minigame. somethig you pay 10-15 usd for. with the overall lack of content, as well as linear story, it's a play once and forget about game. i'm sure there would have been a bit of slack granted to you if you were a indy game developer, however as a larger company who has been working on the game 4+ years, it simply isn't acceptable. the graphics and "attention to detail" are nice but untimately this means nothing to gamers if we are forced to admire it. games are about interaction

[Relight]

Please use this thread for constructive feedback type posts, which your posting here qualifies as:

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82451

You don't need to make a new post to give this type of feedback. If everyone did this, there would be hundreds of posts on the forums and it would be even more impossible to find anything.