Mafia Wars is now offering a limited time social mission called “Stuff the Bird.” In this social mission four players work together to get their hands on prizes. The player that hosts the mission gets an additional reward for completing the mission. The best part is that there is no limit to the frequency that you can start and complete the mission.

When completing this social mission there are 3 positions open.

Completion of the mission results in a prize award.

Mafia Wars is a social game and working together with your mafia can be a lot of fun, especially when there are item rewards involved.

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Things I like

• The new Property format

  I like the new property format because it consolidates managing many properties into a clean easy to use interface.

• Graphics Upgrades

  For the most part I like the new graphics and page format. The new home page puts much more at the tip of your fingers than the old format did.

• New Mafia Wars Home Page

  It seems that Zynga has now taken a step toward perhaps becoming independent of the social networks. While the home page still requires that you connect using Facebook I think that there will come a time in the future that Mafia Wars will be able to be played independent of any social network and perhaps allow players to build mafia from any network. At least that is what I hope to see.

• There are more things that I like but I don’t want to rattle on.

Things that I do NOT like

• New Zynga Reward Points Marketing

  With the new sales model players are presented with sales material when they win or lose a fight. I don’t mind a company marketing their product, after all they are in business to turn a profit but I think that Zynga is going overboard with the way that almost everything that you do in Mafia Wars triggers a sales pitch.

• Bugs and Glitches

  Operating an online game is not the easiest thing in the world but it is not rocket science either. Zynga needs to take more time before making a new push to solve problems that they already have. If they want players to spend money they need a game that is relatively error free.

  Zynga is not completely at fault on this one though. Integration within the various social networking frames is difficult and many times the problems that we encounter are within these networks and not the game itself.

Here are a few suggestions that I think would improve the game.

• Collect ALL buttons

  When we collect on our properties we have to individually click each business to collect our cash. Would it not be much easier to have a “Collect All” button so we can do it all at one time?

• An Independent Game

  Currently Mafia Wars is played on a number of social networks but I think that the game would be much better if Zynga changed it to make it separate from the networks while still using them to build a customer base.

  The game could work as a central hub for all social networks. This would allow players on one network to become mafia members for those on other networks.

• If it works, don’t fix it.

  In the past Zynga has tinkered with certain aspects of the game when then promptly broke and caused players to be unable to use the feature until fixed. Why fix something if it is not broken? If you do how about doing a bit more testing before you release it to everyone? I know they beta test these things but I find it hard to believe that a complete beta test can be conducted in a week or two.

Well there you have it, my critique of Zynga and Mafia Wars. What are your pet peeves? What do you like and dislike about Mafia Wars? Leave comments and we can discuss it.

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To participate in the “Treasure Chest” event you must acquire a Treasure Chest Key. To obtain this item you simply need to complete jobs as normal and you will be presented with a popup that offers you the chance to purchase the key for 9 Godfather points.

One might wonder if purchasing the key and participating in the event is really worth it. It is not my place to tell you if it is or not but I can help you make your decision by giving you a glimpse of the items that you can get if you choose to.

The above are the items that I have seen so far but may not be a complete list.

The items are very nice and are a must for those of us who are serious collectors and want at least one of everything available in Mafia Wars. If you have the spare Godfather points and want to get some good equipment then by all means jump on the offer. On the other hand there are items in the game that are much better and are completely free. The decision is yours.

Zynga also announced this week that the Bangkok Expansion will be going into beta sometime this week. With as many accounts as I have it is likely I will be able to begin to give you some insight on the expansion early next week. Feel free to leave some comments detailing your experiences if you are part of the beta as well.

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Since Zynga is running the Public Enemies Loot Event I thought I would dig up some interesting trivia on the main character, John Dillinger.

• John Herbert Dillinger was born on June 22nd, 1903 in Indianapolis, IN to John Wayne Dillinger and his wife Mary Ellen (Mollie).

• Dillinger’s first bank robbery took place on June 10th, 1933 in New Carlisle, OH and netted him a whopping $10,000. That was quite a large amount in that time.

• On June 22nd, 1934 John was given a very special birthday present by the United States, he was named Public Enemy #1.

• Over the years Dillinger worked with a number of notable criminals including Lester Joseph Gillis (Baby Face Nelson), Homer “Wayne” Van Meter,  and Charles Arhur “Pretty Boy” Floyd.

• The United States Justice Department offered a whopping $15,000 for the capture of Dillinger or $5,000 for information leading to his arrest. In 1933 the average family income was $11,342.

• In about one year Dillinger and his associates held up dozens of banks and took c lose to half a million dollars. During that time they killed 10 and wounded 7 others.

• Dillinger was killed after being set up by the infamous “Woman in Red.” The woman was Anna Sage (real name Ana Cumpanas) who was a former brothel owner from Gary Indiana.

• Allegedly the Feds cheated Anna Sage out of the $70,000 that they promised her to fingering Dillinger.

• Dillinger was killed after watching the movie “Manhattan Melodrama” starring Clark Gable and William Powell with his girlfriend, Dolly Hamilton at the Biograph Theater located at 2433 N. Lincoln Ave.

• The Biograph Theater went out of business in July of 1974.

• Melvin H. “Little Mel” Pervis was the FBI agent who lead the manhunt for Dillinger. He committed suicide on February 29th, 1960.

• Dillinger was shot 4 times. The FBI Agents credited with shooting at Dillinger were Charles B. Winstead, Clareence O. Hurt, and Herman E. Hollis.

• Dillinger died with $7.70 in his pocket.

• Dillinger’s body was taken to Alexian Brother Hospital and was pronounced dead. The agents laid his body on the lawn in front of the hospital while waiting for the Cook County Coroner’s Office to pick it up.

• According to the Library of Congress and Bowker’s Books in Print Database 16 songs have been written about Dillinger along with 17 books.

• On July 25th, 1934 John Herbert Dillinger was laid to rest at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis Indiana.

While these facts may not be helpful when playing Mafia Wars they give you a bit of insight into the may who was Public Enemy #1 in 1934 and has been the subject of many songs, books, and motion pictures over the years.

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Have you ever wondered where a weapon came from or how you can get it? I sure did when I started out but I want to save you the trouble so over my next few posts I am going to show you.

Here is a list of Mafia Wars Weapons and where they can be found

I hope that this helps you find all of the best equipment for your Mafia Wars career.

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He was looking was looking at an item that I have called a “Stolen Mail Truck” and asked how I got it. For those of you who would like to know the stats are:

Stolen Mail Truck
10 Attack
20 Defense

Getting items like this and others is really quite easy. Here is the step by step process.

Step 1 – Log into your Social Network Account

Step 2- Log into Mafia Wars

Step 3 – Go to your Mafia Wars home page

Step 4 – Go to the bottom of the page and find “Join the Mafia Mailing List”

Step 5 – Enter your email in the text box and hit submit

Step 6 – Check your email for a message entitled “Welcome to Mafia Wars: Confirm Your Address”

Step 7 – Click where it says Click here to confirm

Step 8 – You will be taken back to your Mafia Wars page on your social network and you should see:

Congratulations! The Godfather has given you a rare Stolen Mail Truck for verifying your email address.

You now have the limited edition rare item. Now when Zynga decides to offer a limited edition item you will receive notification right in your mail box.

For the most part the items that you will get in this manner will not be spectacular with high attack and defense and are a collectable item than functional. Hey but every little bit helps in the long run.

From what I have been told by Zynga when a new item is sent to their mailing list the old one will no longer be available. Perhaps there might be some special recognition in the form of an achievement down the road for those of us who have collected all of the mailing list items so you better grab yours while they are still available.

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As you may have read in earlier articles I just cannot wait to get started in the old Soviet Republic. Unfortunately I was not on the testing team so I really cannot give you any “insider” information on this one, but to keep you as well informed as possible here is an article that was originally posted on 09-23-2009 at games.com.

—
Mafia Wars Moscow: Exclusive First Look!

Posted Sep 23rd 2009 6:00AM by Libe Goad @ games.com

Mafia Wars: Moscow, the second expansion to the mob-themed Facebook game Mafia Wars, lets players expand their criminal empire into brand new territory. Mafia Wars publisher Zynga gave us an exclusive sneak peek at the new expansion, set to hit a browser near you September 24.

The expansion’s basic game mechanics will remain unchanged. Score cash and experience points by taking on missions and fighting rival mafias; use the cash to buy weapons, power-ups and properties; and use the experience points to level up your mobster’s energy levels or fighting skills as you see fit.

The biggest difference in this expansion? Mafia Wars Senior Product Manager David Kahn says it will have, “a new look and feel,” and, “will be much harder than other expansions we released before, more geared to higher level players, level 70-plus.”
As soon as you arrive in Moscow, you’re forced to choose sides. Will you help the the Vory v Zakone, a group of old-school Russian mobsters, or the Mafiya, former KGB and military officers who have learned that organized crime pays far more rubles than a government job? The loot items for the missions will be different depending on which faction you go with, so choose wisely.

Also unlike the other Mafia Wars scenarios, missions will be broken down into chapters, and you will not be able to see the next set of missions until you complete a chapter and defeat the boss at the end. Players will also have to rely on friends more than before to defeat these high-powered crime lords.

As for achievements, Moscow will have six new achievements, five new businesses, six new collections and 50-plus Russian-themed weapons, armor and vehicles. Some of those specialty items will include an AK-47 type gun, specialty night-vision goggles, and of course, classic Russian nesting dolls.

Of course, we had to ask, “Why Moscow?” Kahn says in addition to Moscow’s mobbed up history, they chose the city because that’s what the fans wanted (via an online voting campaign).

The fans also picked the location for the next two Mafia Wars expansions — Asia and the Western US — but details are scarce since Zynga developers are busy asking players what features they want to see next. Now that’s what we call social gaming.
Mafia Wars Moscow launches Thursday, September 24. As they say in Russia, Увидем Вас там! (we’ll see you there).
—

At the time of this posting the much anticipated expansion has not yet gone live. I am saving my energy today so I can jump in as soon as it is though.
Today I borrowed and article from another writer (with full credit given of course) but rest assured I will be digging deep into the dark recesses of the Russian under world so I can get some information back to you as quick as I can.

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