Mafia Wars Update According to Zynga

4
May/10
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Honestly I must applaud Zynga in their diligence in giving players a glimpse into what is coming down the road in Mafia Wars, too many games developers have left their player base in the dark in the past. In today’s post I will be presenting you with information regarding changes that may appear in the future.

For those of you who have not had the time to inclination to visit the Mafia Wars Forums I have liberally cut and pasted the recent post from TeeBS who is a member of the Mafia Wars Game Design Team.

The Game Design Perspective – Challenge Missions and Vegas



Hey Mafia Wars players!

I’m here again to give you a little inside knowledge about what you have we have in store in the game. We do understand that many of you are very dedicated to Mafia Wars, and we always strive to make sure that this game is one of the best social gaming experiences out there. Keep the comments coming, we will try to put as much of your constructive criticism to good use!

If you have played recently, you probably have seen our brand new feature – “Challenge Missions”! I’m here to answer some of your questions of this new part of Mafia Wars.

1. Are you ceasing to create new big cities like Moscow and Bangkok? What is happening to the Las Vegas city expansion?

The answer to this is a definite no. In fact, I’m sure that the new Vegas content is going to blow you away. With awesome improvements to jobs, fighting and some brand new ways to play the game, Vegas will take Mafia Wars to the next level. You’ll be able to run your own casino in the Las Vegas expansion, as well as bring your fighting skills to assist in completing jobs. Challenge Missions allow fresh content on a more regular basis, but “Big” cities such as Cuba, Moscow and Bangkok are here to stay, and they are going to be bigger and better than ever before.

We understand that many players love the old style of Mafia Wars, and they shouldn’t worry – the core experience of doing jobs and fighting will remain unchanged.

2. Why did you choose Paris for the first Challenge Mission?

When choosing the storylines for the Challenge Mission, we wanted to go back to the core of the Mafia Wars experience, that of high stakes crime. Our team brainstormed quite a few ideas about what kind of heist would be considered the ultimate score. We came to the conclusion that the Mona Lisa had the immediate name recognition across the many different countries in which Mafia Wars players live. Paris was a simple decision after that, since the Louvre houses Da Vinci’s masterpiece.

One of the exciting things that Challenge Missions allows us to do is to visit even more exotic locales in the Mafia Wars world. So who knows, we might be heading to your home city next!

3. I don’t have enough maps! Aren’t you making maps hard to get so you can sell them?

We made sure that diligent players would have more than enough maps just through collecting them each day via the button on the main Challenge Mission: Paris page, and making sure that you don’t play while the heat meter is too high. So don’t fret if you aren’t getting too many from fights, jobs and robbing, as you’ll have enough purely from the collection button. The Challenge Mission was named to be just that, but we wanted to make sure that the rewards were worth it. The French Kiss and DaVinci Q415 items are amongst the best items in the game. On the other hand, we were careful to make sure that no player was forced to buy maps if they were dedicated players.

4. How often will Challenge Missions occur?

Challenge Missions are going to be an ongoing feature of Mafia Wars, to allow us to add depth to the game experience. It is also there to present a good experience for both new and old players. Each Challenge Mission will have a unique location and storyline, and even the requirements and gameplay will change from time to time. Challenge Mission: Paris is just the start of something big for Mafia Wars – it certainly won’t be the same thing twice!

That’s enough from me, but I’ll be back soon to give you more inside looks into Mafia Wars!

- TeeBS “

This kind of communication is a breath of fresh air in the online gaming market. Keeping an eye on the Mafia Wars Forums is a great way to get some insight on what the future might bring for us.

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New Class of Loot in Mafia Wars

21
Apr/10
1

Zynga announced yesterday that animals will become a combat item class of their own yesterday. Here is the official announcement.

“The animals are coming! Mafia Wars is pleased to announce that animals will have a new importance in the game. Starting next week, animals will become a fully-fledged combat item class that you can use. In fights and robbing, you’ll bring one Weapon, Armor, Vehicle, AND Animal for each Mafia member you use in the fight! All existing animals in the game will be converted to this new “Animal” item type.

In preparation for this change, we’re kicking this off by having “Animals Gone Wild!” week. During this week, animals will be dropping from jobs, fighting and robbing. If you want a head start in assembling your private zoo, you can go to the Marketplace to get your hands on our new Vicious Crates. These crates will contain exclusive LE animals that can’t be found anywhere else. We’ll also be featuring various LE animals in our hourly sales slots, so keep an eye out for those great deals!

We are also releasing two Limited Edition animals on the Marketplace: an African Lion and Pit Bull. These will only be available this week – so make sure you grab them before it’s too late!”

With this announcement Zynga ensures that players will be clamoring for animals now. Are they yet another thing to blow Reward Points on? To some spending reward points for limited items and animals is how they play. This type of player must have at least one of every limited item, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. Others spend Reward Points on nothing but skill points…that’s me.

Here are the stats for the two limited edition animals mentioned in the official announcement.

African Lion – 58 attack, 36 defense

Pit Bull – 35 attack, 57 defense

If you want these animals you need to act quickly since they will only be available this week.

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