With the inclusion of Mafia: Definitive Edition into the Mafia Series, we at the Mafia Wiki needed to find an approach that best suited our pages, the users, and fans of both games. As details on the remake emerged, we soon realized that reusing our original Mafia pages simply wouldn't work. While the new game does stay true to the original story, the changes were still too significant. Characters were getting more in-depth backstories, missions were expanded, new content and dialogue was added, and many other minor details have changed.
After a long discussion on the topic, it was decided that we would archive all the original Mafia pages, preserving them intact as they related to the original game and its content for future use by readers and fans. For the time being those pages have also been protected so no further edits can be made. This was done to prevent unknowing editors from adding information from the new game to them.
As for the new Mafia: Definitive Edition pages, we also need to keep in mind what's best for them, the users, and fans of the new game. With all the changes and new content added, the temptation to point out the differences will be ever-present. However, we simply cannot document all these differences on the new game pages. If we do they'll quickly become a jumbled mess of trivial details describing everything that's different between the two games.
Our focus should be on documenting the events of Mafia: Definitive Edition, not on how it's different from the original. With this in mind, we've decided that what's best for all involved is to limit these types of entries to only significant changes.
Significant changes are defined as those having a major influence or effect on the game. These changes include:
- Established names of characters, major locations, or missions.
- Changes to the location of missions or major landmarks.
- Information that directly contradicts previously established events.
Insignificant information that should not be included:
- Changes in gameplay or mission involvement.
- Changes in appearance to characters, locations, or items.
- Changes in statistics, availability, or usage of items.
- Minor changes in spelling of character, location, or item names.
- The addition of previously unknown information.
- New characters, locations, vehicles, items, and other features added to the game.
In addition, these types of entries will be limited to short bullet statements located in a footnote section using the Changes template.