Mafia Wars Changes By Zynga

I have been around and playing Mafia Wars since the day it hit Facebook and I am sure that there are others who have been playing for quite some time as well. As a long time player I have seen changes to the game come and go, some good, some not so good.

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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