Mafia Wars Tips and Strategy Blog » Mafia Wars General

What Features Would You Like To Have Added To Mafia Wars?

Phillip Scott — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:26:21 +0000

I know that many of you are like me in that you love playing Mafia Wars and have ideas that you think might improve the game. Today I am going to share some of the ideas that I think would enhance game play and I hope that you will leave comments sharing some of your ideas as well. Once we have put together a list of ideas I will be sending them to Zynga and posting them on the Mafia Wars Forums.

Here are some of the things that I personally thing could be added to the game to make it more fun and less frustrating at times.

Energy Roll Over

I think that if you reach the end of a level and do not use all of your energy it should roll over and be added to the new amount of energy you receive upon leveling up. If telephone companies can roll over minutes surely it would not be a big problem to do so in Mafia Wars.

12-Hour Stamina Packs

Stamina packs available every 12 hours would be great both for Mafia Wars players and Zynga as well. Think about this. If your business model is based on players buying Reward Points to monetize your game would it not make sense to bring them back every 12 hours instead of once per day?

Mafia Auction House

A feature that would allow players to place items up for sale not for real money but in game cash would be a wonderful addition. Nearly all MMO games have this feature and it develops a thriving player driven economy. If you want 1,000 Satellite Phones just buy them on the auction house. This feature would give players a way to equip their mafia and something to do with the billions of dollars that go to waste when an expansion is completed.

Foreign Exchange Center

When we travel to foreign lands in the real world we can simply visit an exchange center at our destination to exchange our currency for native currency. When we do this we pay a fee but have access to the common currency of the area. Why can we not do this in Mafia Wars?

Weekly Jobs

After a player has competed all of the expansions there is really nothing to do and many players become frustrated and either leave the game permanently or go into hiatus until a new expansion arrives. If Zynga wants to keep these players active and thus be able to earn income from them they need to come up with something for them to do. All they need to do is set up a special tier of missions that offer advanced rewards for loyal players. This tier or “hidden expansion” could offer special loot that does not upset the game balance but gives veteran players recognition for their loyalty.

These features would enhance the game for all. Tomorrow I will continue the list and at the end of the week I will condense all of our ideas and send them off to Zynga. If you have an idea please leave a comment or send me an email so I can get your ideas integrated into the message. Perhaps between us we can make Mafia Wars even more enjoyable.

Mafia Wars Improvements For Players

Phillip Scott — Tue, 04 May 2010 17:00:53 +0000

Mafia Wars is one of the most addictive social networking games out today, but like many others some aspects of the game were very “clunky” to say the least. Zynga, the developer of Mafia Wars and Facebook have been working hand in hand to make the game easier to use for players.

Being able to accept in invitations to join other players mafia from within the game itself was a big help but for the longest time it seemed that even though I accepted them they were still on my Facebook page. Everyday I had to log into Facebook, head over to Mafia Wars and accept any invitations and before logging out for awhile I had to go to Facebook and eliminate the invitations there as well.

Another feature that has improved the game tremendously is accepting gifts. Now when you start up Mafia Wars the first thing you are greeted with is a popup with all of the gifts that have arrived while you were not logged in. All you need do is click accept for the gifts and its done. You are even given the option of gifting back as soon as you accept the gift. The interface is quick and clean and makes life so much easier for the player.

What new features might we be treated to in the future? Well honestly that is something that I do not know. The best way to keep abreast of coming changes and ideas is to frequent the Mafia Wars forums. You can find developer posts that give us a peek into upcoming events, when you are having a problem in game that you believe to be a glitch or bug you can easily find reference material as well. Best of all if you have questions there are some really friendly and helpful people that have no problem steering you in the right direction.

Thank goodness Mafia Wars and Facebook have worked together to eliminate the headache. While this adaptation of the service and game is not new, I thought that I would let the newer players know how the game used to work so they could appreciate how far it has come. To keep up on what is happening or about to happen in Mafia Wars visit the forums regularly.

10 Million Fans and Counting

Phillip Scott — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:13:03 +0000

Zynga undoubtedly has one of the most popular games in the Social Networking world in their hit Mafia Wars. The company has won the loyalty of millions of players by providing a stable fun gaming environment and through timely expansions and many fan related events.

The milestone of 10 Million Fans is evidence that Mafia Wars has taken its place at the top of the social network gaming food chain. To become a fan one must complete a series of steps that give them fan status but with many game players not completing the process it is quite possible that the actual number of players may exceed 15 million or more.

In appreciation of the 10 Million-Fan milestone Zynga is showing their gratitude by offering a two-day fan appreciation holiday. On March 30 and 31 all players will enjoy the following benefits.

Double Mastery In All Cities
If you have been slacking in finishing up New York now is the time to get it done. Double Mastery will cut your completion time in half.
Higher Payout on Fights
All fights are giving 25% more experience. Stamina based characters should love this one.
FREE Limited Edition Loot
All players who participate in the appreciation event receive the “Heavy Hand.” This limited loot item is a 43 attack, 23 defense weapon.

Zynga has always made gaming fun for social network gamers and it looks like the trend is not going to come to an end anytime soon.

Mobile Phone Mafia Wars

Phillip Scott — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:29:14 +0000

The folks over at Zynga are always coming up with fun new features for Mafia Wars and now they have added the ability to play the game from any mobile phone. Yes you read that correctly brand new 2-way SMS has arrived for Mafia Wars

When you sign up for mobile Mafia Wars access you can

Fight other players
Do jobs anywhere any time
Get instant alerts when you are attacked
Hand out gifts
Help out your mafia
Receive exclusive promotions, benefits, and content
Linked to your Facebook account

All you have to do is enter your cell phone number and you will receive a Limited Edition item that is given to cell phone players only. The “Dead Ringer” is a 45 attack, 36 defense and is a Pistol (weapon).

If you have signed up for SMS already don’t worry you can still get the Dead Ringer and begin playing Mafia Wars by sending text messages to MAFIA (62342).

Alerts that you receive can be configured in your profile. While Zynga does not charge for the service you may want to check your text or messaging and data plan with your carrier. If you are having problems you can text HELP to 62342 or you can send email to support@zynga.com

As a final note on the service, it is only available within the United States.

Zynga Crack Down On Bots, Scripts And Third Party Programs

Phillip Scott — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:54:48 +0000

Yesterday I posted about a letter I got over the weekend that I feel is a scam. But what if that letter had been real? What if Zynga started cracking down on all of the scripts, bots, hacks and third party programs? What if my readers were suspended or even banned based on a program that I reviewed on my blog?

I have been a Mafia Wars player for a very long time and I have been bringing you various tips and tricks for nearly as long. My posts have presented you with my experience and insight into the game and given you some solid advice on how you can speed leveling, build a huge mafia and much more.

While I may have reported from time to time on what Zynga might consider a script or third party program I have always included a disclaimer that says in effect “use at your own risk.” I have also stated time and time again that Zynga can and will shut down your account for using scripts, programs, or anything that they consider cheats. Believe me they can and have done it.

I will be completely honest with you. I do use some of these programs or scripts on test accounts, this allows me to learn and test and pass on information, methods and techniques on to you. In fact I HAVE had accounts shut down on occasion.

Like I said, one of my accounts got caught. I won’t tell you what script I was using because I do not want you to be caught as well. Like I said above, I DO run scripts, programs, etc. on test accounts. I run many test accounts to provide you with information but only on test accounts that really do not matter. I NEVER and I repeat NEVER run any type of script, program or 3rd party applications on my play accounts …and neither should you.

Mafia Wars Embraces The Haitian Relief Effort

Phillip Scott — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:20:47 +0000

Zynga has been a staunch supporter of helping Haiti which is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere and with the recent earthquake they have ramped up their efforts raising more than $1.5 million by allowing the players of their popular social networking games to donate safely.

I am an avid Mafia Wars player and even though I whack a few of my peers on a regular basis I am not cold hearted when it comes to helping a country that cannot help itself. Today I wanted to give you some information that may both save you some headache and provide some needed support to Haitians who desperately need it.

When there is a disaster somewhere in the world most countries rush to aid the stricken area as quickly as possible. There are also many charities which go into high gear to get some relief on the ground as soon as possible. However the misery suffered by the victims is a smorgasbord for scammers. It has been reported that there are over 400 websites, email campaigns and other scams working right now to take advantage of the plight of the Haitian people.

If want to give but are afraid of being scammed here is an excerpt from the FBI website regarding a Haitian Fraud Alert and how you can protect yourself.

HAITIAN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF FRAUD ALERT

01/13/10—The FBI today reminds Internet users who receive appeals to donate money in the aftermath of Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti to apply a critical eye and do their due diligence before responding to those requests. Past tragedies and natural disasters have prompted individuals with criminal intent to solicit contributions purportedly for a charitable organization and/or a good cause.

Therefore, before making a donation of any kind, consumers should adhere to certain guidelines, to include the following:

Do not respond to any unsolicited (spam) incoming e-mails, including clicking links contained within those messages.
Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as surviving victims or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social networking sites.
Verify the legitimacy of nonprofit organizations by utilizing various Internet-based resources that may assist in confirming the group’s existence and its nonprofit status rather than following a purported link to the site.
Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files because the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders.
Make contributions directly to known organizations rather than relying on others to make the donation on your behalf to ensure contributions are received and used for intended purposes.
Do not give your personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions: Providing such information may compromise your identity and make you vulnerable to identity theft.

Anyone who has received an e-mail referencing the above information or anyone who may have been a victim of this or a similar incident should notify the IC3 via www.ic3.gov.

If you have the means please help the people of Haiti but protect yourself in the process.

Mafia Wars Rollbacks?

Phillip Scott — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:48:47 +0000

Lately it seems that Mafia Wars and Zynga have been having problems with many of their accounts. This morning I logged in and found that even though I completely finished Moscow weeks ago I am somehow back to chapter 1 in episode 3 Brigadir. I find it odd that every other episode is completely done except this one. Has this been happening to any of you as well?

Recently Zynga released the following on their Feature Updates/Release Notes page.

“User Account Issues: Some players may have been affected by a technical issue that happened at about 2 am PT on January 5th. We are extremely sorry for the difficulty caused by this issue. We’ve identified the affected users and are working to appropriately compensate everyone touched by the January 5th rollback, and we hope to resolve this issue within 48 hours. We will update you on after we’ve resolved the issue. Please don’t hesitate to contact Customer Support about the issue at http://zynga.com/support. Customer Support will have the list of users we have identified that have been affected by this issue. Thanks for your patience, and we apologize for the inconvenience.”

In this release they are speaking about a problem on January 5th. Evidentially the problem is not fixed since it is now January 11th.

On the release page they further stated the following.

“Bangkok Beta Coming Soon: We are happy to announce Bangkok will be going into beta very shortly. We will be asking some of our players to provide important feedback and make improvements for the final release. Please stay tuned.”

While that is all fine and nice it would seem to me that Zynga should be concentrating on getting the problems fixed in the current version of the game before shoving out another expansion. This has been a problem with many of the major online game developers over the years and many have suffered because of it.

Completing an expansion and then discovering that the developer has rolled back the game is a very frustrating experience. Zynga in my opinion needs to get the obvious problem fixed and restore all affected accounts to their previous state before they shove out the next expansion.

I urge anyone who has suffered a roll back to start a thread on the official Mafia Wars forums demanding that their account be restored before Zynga releases the Bangkok expansion.

Is Your Mafia Wars Account In Danger Of Being Suspended Or Even Banned?

Phillip Scott — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:11:48 +0000

Mafia Wars is arguably the most popular of the myriad of social networking games that are available today and it was only a matter of time until Zynga took a harder line when it comes to suspending or even banning accounts.

The buying and selling of intellectual property is one of the biggest concerns for internet gaming companies. While the practice has been around for years many companies turned a blind eye to it because of the expense in prosecuting those who traffic in currency, accounts, and items.

In the last year or so many of the bigger gaming companies have done one of two things. First they have cracked down not on the sellers of such items but those who purchase them. Second, many have opened up their games for free play while requiring players to purchase the top items or even the all but bare necessities with micro-transactions using real cash. Some have done both.

Zynga has not missed what is going on in the industry and has started to follow suit by targeting those players who participate in the buying and selling of intellectual property. Presently they are suspending or banning accounts quite regularly. If you are a player who has purchased items or entire accounts do not be surprised if you try to log in one day and discover that your accounts is no longer accessible.

Leveling and acquiring the best items in Mafia Wars is too easy to put your account at risk. With a proper plan you can level to level 200+ in mere days and will be rolling in cash along the way so there is no reason to participate in such shenanigans.

Recently I have come across a few Mafia Wars “information” sites that are blatantly trying to sell items and accounts right on their front page. While I will not name these sites for obvious reasons I find the practice to be unethical. It is one thing to write a guide or sell a report detailing how to master the game but selling items and accounts crosses the line.

All of the site that I have visited which are doing this are also making use of graphics and logos from Mafia Wars and other Zynga games. I predict that somewhere in the near future the publishers of these sites will receive a nice letter from Zynga which will in essence order them to cease and desist in using the intellectual property of the company.

I will make one promise to all of my readers right now. You will never see accounts, items or currency from any game for sale on my sites. The only disclaimer I will make to that statement are those sites that earn revenue from Google AdSense since the end user has no control over which ads are displayed.

In conclusion, if you are buying or selling the intellectual property of any company and get your account closed, you have nothing to whine about …you brought it upon yourself.

The Mafia Wars Ghosts of Christmas Past and Future

Phillip Scott — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:00:58 +0000

The year of 2009 is about to come to an end and I for one must say that it has been quite a good year.

Even though Mafia Wars experienced some glitches and hiccups in the later part of the year the folks over at Zynga have done a great job of fixing most of the problems that we have encountered.

The New Year looks like it is going to be a good one as well as far as Mafia Wars goes.

New Years Job

Expect a brand new featured job starting December 28th and continuing through January 4th. According to Zynga “This job will give you even more options than before including choosing different missions with different payouts.”

Bangkok Expansion

Originally the Bangkok Expansion was slated for release during the Christmas holidays but has been pushed back to a January 2010 release. Personally I am happy to see a game provider that is willing to make sure that an expansion is ready instead of pushing it out before it is ready. Bravo Zynga!

Other 2010 Features

Multi-Item Gifting – Zynga will be making it much easier to strengthen your Mafia Wars mafia. This feature will most likely migrate into other games which bear the Zynga brand as well.

Translations – Mafia Wars will become available to many more players throughout the world by offering it in many more languages. Once again I foresee this opening up other games as well.

Robbing – Zynga has heard the voice of its players and will be reintroducing robbing in 2010 with and new format.

Developers Days – This is in my opinion one of the best ways to improve any game. Zynga plans to hold meetings between the development team and player base in order to come up with new ideas.

Beta Testing – It seems that Zynga has decided that do more in the way of beta testing. You can never test enough when putting out a quality product. Everyone needs to keep in mind that even though a product goes through an extensive beta process there will always be the inevitable problems once the product goes live.

Free Stuff – It looks like we will be getting more free stuff in the way of weekly giveaways, rewards, contests, and more. Hey, free stuff is always good.

With 2009 coming to an end very soon I took some time to reflect back upon the year and realized that in the Mafia Wars world 2009 was a good year. We saw many new features and even though some were very good and others not so good, all in all we had fun and it was great. 2010 is almost upon us and I think that it is going to be another great year.