Don(n)ing Italian American Ethnicity: Digital Space, Ethnic Performance, and Textual Evolution in The Godfather Video Game

Abstract

Abstract Electronic Arts’ The Godfather: The Game uses Mario Puzo's novel and Francis Ford Coppola's films as the raw material for new representations of Italian American ethnicity. In the game, viewers design their avatar. Unusual in the world of game design, this interface, dubbed “Mob Face,” limits players’ choices to narrow, stereotypically Italian American male physiognomy. After choosing everything from physical features to clothing, the player enters the game space as an in-group member of the Corleone Italian American crime family. The game's rules further complicate this construction of ethnicity by requiring players to engage in acts of violence and extortion in order for the narrative to progress. Despite reminders that players are not really Italian American gangsters, the game's design romanticizes regressive masculine norms and offers a fantasy of an all-powerful, exclusively White ethnic, male group creating troubling notions of ethnic, racial, and gender identities. Ultimately, The Godfather: The Game reframes not only the original text(s) on which it is based but also the meaning of Italian American ethnicity (and, by extension, other identity categories) in a digital space.