Moscow news
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28-Oct-2009
Join the Moscow mafia
Andy Potts
If the bloody media splash over the demise of mafia godfather Yaponchik has got you thirsting for a bit of underworld action - without getting your hands dirty, of course - Moscow has the answer.
Not content with its notorious real-life crime barons, Moscow has also inspired a string of mafia games, from an online hit on Facebook to face-to-face sitdowns in city restaurants.
Unlike Yaponchik's last supper, at the Taisky Slon (Thai Elephant) restaurant in July, groups such as mafer.ru and the more exclusive mafclub.am allow members the chance to play at mafia intrigues with little danger from a passing sniper.
But their elaborate card games - based on a system devised by an MGU student back in 1986, before Moscow became the "Wild East" mafia capital - give a taste of the criminal life.
Devotees of the games insist that it appeals to the smarter set, with brains rather than thuggery being the key talents of successive Mafiosi.
That has given it a broader appeal to the business community - forget team-building paintball trips, the staff of companies like Troika Dialog are exercising their grey matter in these role plays instead, Kommersant's Dengi magazine reported.
For fans of mafer.ru, which runs weekly events at the Cappuccino Express restaurant on Bolshaya Ordynka, the whole set-up goes beyond the initial game - the group now runs an extensive programme of sporting and social get-togethers, where participants get to go more legit with little or no mafia theme.
But if you prefer your circle of would-be crime lords to be a bit more exclusive, mafclub.am could be the place for you.
Unlike its rival, where anyone can register online, get a game number and turn up at the appointed time, Mafclub runs on an invitation-only basis. Like a proper secret society, the only way in is to know someone on the inside.
With centres in Moscow and Yerevan devoted to the game, all details are handled by the secretive-sounding Club Council. The web site observes the principle of omerta, giving little further information.
If all that mafia-like social interaction is all a bit too much to handle, the Moscow mafia can be found online through the popular Mafia Wars game.
At the end of the September game developers Zynga developed a new Moscow location, with four missions.
Successfully completing these challenges earns you extra gadgets, which can help you take out inconvenient rivals, woo a gangster's moll or bribe stubborn officials.
David Kahn, one of the game's designers, explained that this eastern edition had a "new look and feel" from the original version and added that as well as Moscow's mobbed-up history the location had been chosen by gamers in an on-line poll.
True-to-life details include the elaborate coded tattoos worn by mafia officers of different rank, and the split between old-school crims of the vory v zakone and new-look mafiya drawn from the military and secret police.
Moscow-based American Ben Poepsel is a fan: "It's interesting to play. A bunch of my friends play and it's something to do in my spare time."
However, despite the designers' attention to detail, he's not convinced that it's all that true to life.
"I don't think it has much basis in reality," Poepsel said. "Maybe about 20 years ago, but most of it seems far-fetched today."
Mob rules
In the simplest version of the game, teams of mafia and innocents attempt to eliminate each other in turn - though the innocents are unaware who is part of the mob and who is merely struggling for survival. At "night" Mafiosi vote to assassinate an innocent, while during the day all players debate who is to be the victim of a public lynching in retaliation.
More sophisticated variants feature players with extra roles - detectives, vigilantes or confusing statuses which make the innocent appear guilty or vice versa.
Where to play
All real-life games in Moscow take place in Russian, so if your language skills are up to scratch www.mafer.ru has details of their regular Friday evening sessions.
The online Mafia Wars is most often played via social networking site Facebook, and more details are available at www.mafiawars.com.
If gaming isn't your style, but you like the idea of a ghoulish dinner where Yaponchik was shot, the TaiskySlon (Thai Elephant) is at 25 KhoroshevskoyeShosse, m. Polezhayevskaya.
The Moscow News