NEW YORK — A few years ago, an employee at video game developer/publisher Acclaim approached crime writer David Fisher with a proposition: to create the most realistic mafia game of all time. Sure, Fisher replied — before pointing out one problem with bringing authentic mob action into a memorable game: "There's not enough shooting in that world."

Fisher found quite a few things about the real lives of dons and hit men that didn't conform to the normal shape of video games. But what exactly does? The James Bond of games is less the debonair spy he is in the hit films and more of a trigger-happy mass murderer. Superman, a comic book and movie icon, has proved to be the butt of the joke after a string of critically panned games.

So if real mob life isn't violent enough for the average video game, how can it be turned into one? Fisher was approached because he has the expertise. He has written books about mobsters and written some with them. He remains close enough to them that he even revealed to GameFile what kind of games mobsters play, as told to him by one of his co-authors, former mob higher-up Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno. (Fisher's answer: "He said they love to go the movies and see themselves or versions of themselves in the movies. And he suspects the younger generation — the expression he uses is 'Mob guys aren't any different than straight guys' — they play the same games their contemporaries play.")

"Clearly you can't be realistic," Fisher said, explaining the compromise the "Made Man" development team he advised had to make. "We started from the beginning and said, 'OK, how do you become a made man?' And there are a whole bunch of steps you do need to take and every one of these steps is a level [in the game]."

The first level of getting made has the main character, Joey Verola, driving a truck full of cigarettes. "On each level, we figured out a way to make it true to the game experience," Fisher said. As a result, the truck gets hijacked and there's a fight. Verola's next step brings him into a robbery during a rock concert at Madison Square Garden.

The process of turning something real and adding a few extra boxes full of bullets could have made Fisher cynical about games, but he actually likes them. He even goes so far as to defend them, taking issue with how "Sopranos" creator David Chase described games to MTV News in October (see " 'Sopranos' Creator: Video Game Has Nothing To Do With Show").

Back then, Chase said, "It does not pique my interest to work on them ... the act of watching a movie or a TV show or reading a book, God forbid, is you're seeing someone else's story and you can go through their story and learn from it or feel with it or laugh at it without having to go through any of the pain or the adventures. The game is different: There is no identification, really, any emotional identification."

Fisher thinks better of games. "I disagree with David Chase, because I do think there is a way to make an emotional connection, and if you do it successfully, that will enhance the gameplay." The problem, he said, is that gamemakers have focused more on improving hardware and graphics than they have in telling a tale. "The technology is way ahead of the storytelling aspect of it." He learned this when he watched his sons playing a violent shooting game a few years ago. "It could have been a shooting gallery for all the emotional impact."

Fisher tried to think of ways to make "Made Man" impact players emotionally while staying true to the experiences wiseguys had shared with him through his career. First, he pushed for noninteractive cut scenes to get more story in there. He got some push-back on that from his 16- and 17-year-old sons, whom he paid to give advice as he crafted the game.

"I watched my kids," he said. "They're not interested in that. They want to play the game." (Other things his sons were paid to give feedback on: "I said I need a list of the coolest weapons. And I need a list of what you really like to do [in a game].") Then he tried pushing for voiceover narration that would play during game moments. "The idea was to get as much information in without interfering with the essence of what a game really is," he said. That, he thinks, worked.

"The hope is when Joey Verola reaches the top, you care," Fisher continued. "You now know some of his back story. You know who he is. You know what he's trying to accomplish. You know that he didn't set out to be a mob killer. It happened to him."

Unlike Chase, Fisher said he'd like to be involved in more games in the future. "Made Man," he hopes, will only be his first. It went on sale last week for PS2 and is rated M. The mob may not be violent enough for games, but the game is certainly violent enough for them.

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