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Mafia III's lead writer on a tale of race, revenge and retribution
In our new 'Writers' Room' interview series, we're taking a look at the writers behind incredible video games. First up: William Harms, the lead writer of Mafia III.
In 2016, 2K Games released Mafia III. Developed by Hangar 13 and set in New Orleans in the 1960s, the game put you in the shoes of Lincoln Clay, an African-American war veteran, who’s taking revenge against the Mafia that killed his family and nearly killed him.
The gameplay encompassed a systematic dismantling of the Mafia's hierarchy. You slowly took over the local rackets, which caught the attention of the neighborhood's caporegimes. Defeat them, and you'd face off against the district's underboss. And eventually, by the end of the game, you turned your attention to the most feared organised crime boss in New Orleans, Sal Marcano.
Along the way, you enlisted help from three associates of your own, who wished to expand their sphere of influence in New Orleans. There was Cassandra, the leader of the Haitian Mob. There was Burke, the leader of the Irish mob. And lastly, there was Vito, the protagonist of Mafia II, who was trying to re-establish his power base in the Big Easy. You also divided the spoils of war amongst the four of you. And depending on how you played the game, there were multiple endings awaiting both you and your associates.
We spoke to Mafia III's lead writer William Harms on the challenge of writing such a sprawling epic and in the voices and mannerisms of so many different, divergent characters. He published a novel, Son of Perdition, in 2018. And please beware: spoilers ahead.
Every district and neighbourhood was bursting with personality
© 2K Games
Are there other writers credited on Mafia III besides you?
William Harms: I was the lead writer, but we had two full-time staff writers who were both senior writers at the time. One was Ed Fowler and the other was Charles Webb. And then we had two contracted writers as well: Haris Orkin and Evan Skolnick.
They helped us write a variety of things. For example, Haris' family background is advertising, so he wrote all of the radio commercials that appear in the game. Charles and Ed split up [the dialogue of] the game's missions.
What was your role specifically?
WH: I wrote almost all of the cinematics in the game, and most of the game's first two hours. And I also oversaw rewrites and edits – things like that.
I started out as a contracted game writer for Mafia III, where I was also doing stuff like writing missions and figuring out who the characters were. But generally the people who hired you are already like, "We know what the missions are, we just need you to do some writing."
On staff, I had more of a creative opportunity to be involved in the creation and gestation of the missions. It's important that if a studio values narrative, they value their writers as storytellers, and lean into that.
How much of the narrative was there at the time you signed on?
WH: It was a completely different story. I don't think the Lincoln Clay stuff became a part of it until after I already signed on. But soon after I came on board, we started settling on central ideas like the game being set in New Orleans. There used to be a strong connection with Cuba and the Communist revolution [that was removed].
But that's all part and parcel of game development and story development. You have to generate a lot of ideas very quickly and then cycle through them until you find something that strikes a chord.
The writers and developers strove for historical accuracy whenever possible
© 2K Games
Why did you decide to set the game in the late '60s?
WH: The first two Mafia games were set in consequential times in American history. Mafia took place during the Great Depression, and Mafia II took place in the post-World War II era.
The year 1968 was very consequential in American history. So you start drilling down and asking yourself, "Who would be the best protagonist for that time period?" And that person was Lincoln Clay.
Were there any questions about Lincoln's race that occurred during pre-production?
WH: I don't know if there was a specific moment articulated that way. But it took place over several meetings and conversations. For us, it really came down to the three pillars of the Mafia franchise: the character, the city and year. They all equally inform each other.
We knew we wanted to move away from the East Coast. And we started getting interested in Carlos Marcello, who was the Italian Mafia boss in New Orleans in the 1960s. And then we started digging, and we learned that one of the first mob families was in New Orleans. So it's grounded in real history.
So it's a matter of finding a character who would have the most conflict in this setting?
WH: Broadly speaking, yes. We had already told the traditional mob story of rags to riches, and we wanted to take the franchise in a different direction.
When writing dialogue in the local dialect of the people of New Orleans, did you have any nervousness or concerns about authenticity and accuracy?
WH: I think you're always intimidated when you start something. It was very important for us to have these characters be authentic and accurate, but also to treat these characters with empathy. That opens you up to characters that aren't you.
As a white man, I have not experienced racism in any way, shape or form. So I can't speak to that. My relation to Lincoln comes from a more personal place. I lost my dad when I was young, and so that's a connection point.
Charles Webb is an African-American person of colour, so he was able to bring those perspectives to it. And also, by having a largely African-American cast, several of whom had very prominent roles in the game, those actors helped inform their roles. We would be at a table read, and ask, "Did this feel real to you or true to you?" And they were able to bring their personal experiences to the character.
What about outside research?
WH: We did a lot of research; we read a lot of books and watched a lot of documentaries. James Baldwin's documentary "Take This Hammer" was a big one for me. I probably watched it ten times.
Doing research is great. But to undertake a game or story like this, you have to rely on first-hand accounts or experiences, of everything from institutional racism to the racism you might encounter on the street.
William Harms enjoyed writing dialogue for Father James in particular.
© 2K Games
Can you give me an example of a line that got improvised or changed, via your conversations with the actors?
WH: One of the big ones that I remember was with the character Father James, and the actor who played him, Gordon Greene. He had a line where he said that Lincoln's mother is Dominican and his father is Italian, but it doesn't matter, because if you look black, you're black.
The germ of that idea was there, but the articulation of it really came from Gordon.
There are several different endings to Mafia III. How did you develop each one?
WH: It started with: Who are they as characters? What would they do? What would happen if you handed the city to Cassandra? I wouldn't say she's an anarchist. But she established early on in the game that she's willing to use violence to get what she wants.
And the second part is figuring out how the world will react to the character. In her case, both the criminals and the government reacted to her as an African-American woman, in a very specific way.
I think I liked Cassandra's ending of taking over the city best, because it was the most challenging for the player, in terms of what it meant for the time period. Casandra's ending was complicated, and it exposes some darker truths about who we are as a country.
Compare that with Vito. He's had a long history with the franchise, and he was able to realise the dream he's had since Mafia II. He wasn't about to go out and get in a giant shootout. He was perfectly content to just run his organisation and let that be that. Vito was the easiest [to write], because he was so established.
Do you have an official "canon" ending for Lincoln Clay in your head, out of the multiple endings?
WH: I think it's the ending where Lincoln left [the city]. That was the most true to him as a character. As a writer, I loved Lincoln, and I wanted to give him a happy ending. But the game didn't allow for it. I think the farthest afield ending was the one where he ruled the city.
But I say that as the writer. I don't say that as a negative to anyone who chose a different ending. Because as a writer, you give up the character to the player. And it's no longer your character at all. Another player's "definitive" Lincoln ending is totally valid.
