Increase Family Size From 100 To 200?

On the Mafia Wars Facebook Fanpage Zynga is asking players if they would want to increase the size of a family from 100 to 200 players.

From my perspective the Family Module has been overwhelmingly harmful to Mafia Wars so why would/should we want to increase the maximum number of members from 100 to 200? I do not see how this would be beneficial to the game.

What I do see happening is

1. Less players than there are now.
2. Less Families since some families will merge together.
3. Increase in requirements for boss fights, gifting events and missions and possibly even Limited Time Properties.
4. More bickering among family members than there already is.
5. Less reasons to do family battles.
6. More high pressure, almost dictatorship like, family leaders pressuring more players to get their ices and family bonus’s, etc.
7. The game will essentially become impossible to play if you are a free player. If you can not accomplish events and tasks then what reason is there to play?

That is just a short list off the top of my head. Given time I could come up with many more reasons why this IS NOT A GOOD IDEA!!

I just don’t understand why the ‘yes’s (1,114)’ are outnumbering the ‘no’s (429)’ by almost a 3-1 margin currently. Do those who want this not see what will happen to Mafia Wars if this is implemented? Do they care? Or do they just want what they want without even considering the negative repercussions?

Speeding Towards Hunger’s Finish Line

Gentlemen, Start Your Tractors.

Today, Zynga announced that the company is partnering with Nascar and AARP in a charity to help curb hunger. This campaign is called the Drive to End Hunger. And Jeff Gordon, famous Nascar race driver, will be driving his number 24 Chevrolet in tomorrow’s IRWIN Tools Night Race at the Bristol, TN Motor Speedway.

The only bad thing about this is that we Mafia Wars players won’t get a cool race car for any contributions we may want to donate.

We can, at least, get to see what Zynga posted (I edited in some vital info to help) and what the FarmVille players will get in their game. Here is the post from the Zynga Company Blog;

• Back to Blog

Submitted by Zynga on Fri, 08/24/2012 - 09:19

In FarmVille, our players build their farms their way. Veritable groves of fruit trees, lush rows of crops, happy roaming animals. The best part of FarmVille - you can share and enjoy it with your friends and family.

If the more than 300 million FarmVille farms were real, we’d have a farm for nearly each person in the United States. In spite of this “virtual” bounty, hunger is still a real issue for millions of Americans, including nearly 9 million older Americans.

We’re proud to announce that Zynga has teamed up with the Drive to End Hunger campaign in their efforts to reduce hunger among older adults. Together with Drive to End Hunger supporter Jeff Gordon, four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, Zynga, NASCAR and the AARP have announced two exciting initiatives to help address this issue.

Starting today, FarmVille players can support the campaign through the purchase of two in-game virtual goods: the Drive to End Hunger No. 24 Tractor and the Drive to End Hunger Grocery Tree – 100% of the proceeds will go directly to AARP Foundation’s Drive to End Hunger.

Since the launch of Drive to End Hunger, the initiative has donated more than 12.9 million meals, and Zynga is honored to be joining the cause. Since 2009, hundreds of thousands of Zynga players have made charitable contributions through Zynga games for those in need around the world and through Zynga.org, Zynga players have raised $13 million for world social causes.

Additionally, Jeff Gordon will be driving the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet tomorrow at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in Bristol, TN.

 

August 25
Bristol
IRWIN Tools Night Race
7 p.m. 

 

 

Cheer on Jeff and keep an eye out for your favorite FarmVille characters on No. 24 as it speeds by.

Jeff Gordon will be starting the race in the 11th position.

Start your (tractor) engines, and let’s leave senior hunger in the dust! Play FarmVille at http://apps.facebook.com/farmville/.

For more information, please visit www.drivetoendhunger.org and www.zynga.org.

 

I don’t know who you’ll be rooting for but I will still be cheering on the number 88 car (Dale Earnhardt, Jr).

More Executives Gamble And Leave Zynga

Several Zynga developers are rolling the dice and taking a gamble on new careers. Some are taking positions at rival gaming companies.

Erik Bethke, a general manager who oversaw “Mafia Wars 2,” Ya- Bing Chu, a vice president in Zynga’s mobile division, and Jeremy Strauser, a general manager resigned from Zynga this month.

In addition, Alan Patmore, Zynga’s general manager of CityVille, believes he has Balls Of Steel and is leaving Zynga to join Kixeye. I guess he liked the recruiting video by Kixeye. Patmore will be responsible for product strategy and development at Kixeye.

 

The Poker hand that these former executives are drawing new cards in may have the highest of stakes that they are risking losing. Companies, like Zynga, which are seeking to get online poker legalized in the U.S got dealt a queen this week when a federal judge in New York concluded that skill plays the bigger role in determining who wins a poker game. This could strengthen the hand that these companies are pushing to get gambling legalized.  

Luck or Skill

Courtesy; WSJ Online

A comparison of games—and comments from Judge Weinstein:

• Pure Skill: Chess 'Chess, a game in which all possible moves are known in advance, can be characterized as a pure game of skill.'
• More Skill than Chance: Bridge, Golf, Poker 'In poker…players cannot know what cards the 'luck of the draw' will deal them. The same can be said of bridge…'Chance also influences many sports, such as golf…Yet no one would dispute that bridge and golf are games of skill.'
• More Chance than Skill: Sports Betting, Blackjack, Craps 'While a gambler with an encyclopedic knowledge of sports may perform better than others when wagering on the outcome of sporting events, unlike in poker, his skill does not influence game play.'
• Pure or Nearly Pure Chance: Slot Machines, Roulette, Baccarat, Lotteries

Only time will tell if these executives placed the right bets. Or Zynga may become the Pit Boss and have a stacked deck If gambling eventually does become legalized.