China Bans Mafia Games

The Chinese Ministry of Culture announced today that they were banning all online mafia-related games, including ones on social websites like Facebook and Myspace. The Ministry said that mafia-related entertainment “encourage people to deceive, loot, and kill, and glorify gangster life. They are a bad influence on youngsters.”

The Ministry also said that websites who defied the decree and ran the games anyway would face “severe punishment” if they ran, linked, or published online games with a mafia theme, according to the Xinhua news service.

A few of the games that reportedly went offline after the announcement were Godfather, Jianghu (“Gangster Community”) and Guhuozai (“young and dangerous guys”).

In the West, mafia and gang-based games have become very popular, as can be seen by the success of games such as Mob Wars and Mafia Wars for social networks, and by console game successes such as Grand Theft Auto, Scarface, and The Godfather.

Many Chinese video game fans are very disappointed and have called the government’s move “irresponsible,” according to Gamasutra.