‘The Traitors’ Called Out For Ripping Off Popular Game Without Credit or Compensation

The creator of the game that inspired NBC/Peacock’s megahit series The Traitors is unhappy that the show’s producers never contacted him, according to a new Vulture interview.

While plenty of other games, shows, and movies have used ideas from his game, a great number of those paid him for his ideas. The Traitors did not, he says.

Dimma Davidoff created the popular party game Mafia in the mid-1980s while teaching psychology to high-school students, as a way to get them to engage with the material. He lived in a Moscow University dorm at the time and taught the game to his friends, where it quickly caught fire across the entire campus and, soon, across the world. (He later copyrighted Mafia.)

Mafia has been adapted in several ways across the years: Werewolf, Secret Hitler, Among Us, even a 2015 film just called Mafia. Most adaptations have paid or at least credited Davidoff in some way… except, again, The Traitors. Davidoff became aware of the series after his daughter-in-law told him about it, and found its existence “disappointing.” He pointed out that the series doesn’t even attempt to put a spin on his game, it only “just changes the name of roles — Mafia now are “Traitors” and Honest are “Faithful.”

He tried to contact the producers “some time ago,” but never heard back.

“Of course, they know about the Mafia game. How can they not? If you do any kind of due diligence, you see that Mafia is my game, under copyright. My email is right there,” Davidoff said. “Of course, games are a complicated part of intellectual property, but it does not mean they do not have value. Game designers’ work deserves recognition and reward.”

He then shifted the conversation to the value of art and the role of its creators.

“I don’t just say this for myself. It’s a problem because not respecting other creators is bad for everyone. It does not help game designers to create better games,” he said. “If even a well-known game such as Mafia could be pirated by big organizations, and a young game designer sees this, they think, ‘What chance do I have?’ It sends a message that all of their work is up for grabs.”

However, Davidoff did note that he still enjoyed the last season of The Traitors—particularly one contestant’s arc.

“Watching Boston Rob being sniffed out while being so good reminded me of my own Mafia games for many years. Since I was the one usually bringing the Mafia game to the party, everybody assumed I was very good and always killed me first. So the lesson of this season is: If you are too good, it’s a disadvantage. But this makes it more interesting,” he said.