KSE Devildriver; A Free Welcome Back Loot

Zynga has been generous as of late. Zynga is giving away a KSE Devildriver today. All the details are as follows;

​Dear Players,

To welcome you back, we are giving you a KSE Devildriver (215/152)!

If you haven't received a Game Request for this item yet, please send your UID via the form at the end of this article to our team directly.

Please note that there is no need to submit a support request for this item as Customer Service agents will not be able to make any adjustments or credits to your account for this item.

If you have not already added the KSE Devildriver to your inventory, you can locate and add it by following the instructions provided below:

1.  Click  HERE to open the Facebook Game Request Pag

2.  Scroll down and locate the announcement from Mafia Wars about the item and click 'Accept'.

3.  After you have clicked the accept button you will be taken back to the game and will receive the following pop-up:

4.  To find the item in your game, please click on the Inventory tab > Filter and type “Chest Nut” in the search box

Click on Go and you’ll be able to see the item in your inventory:

Please fill out the below form if you haven’t received the App Request for this item yet:

If you need help finding your numeric UID please follow the instructions below;

All Games: What is your social network UID and how do you find it

Thu Mar 28 17:31:17 EDT 2013

Your Social Network UID is a unique number assigned to your social network profile (Facebook, Google+, Myspace, Yahoo!, etc).

Zynga Support might ask that you provide your Social Network UID so that we can best locate your account to research and resolve your issue.

Facebook

1.  Log in to your Facebook account.

2.  At the upper left of the Facebook page, click your name.

3. At the top of your browser, you will see a URL that looks like this: 4. The number at the end of the URL (after php?id=) is your Facebook UID. Copy and paste this value into the UID field on the Email Us page. (You could also simply click the Facebook login button on "Tell us who you are" page.

Custom Facebook URLsIf you have set a custom Facebook username, or "vanity URL", your URL displays the letters and/or numbers that you chose, and not a numeric UID. To get your numeric UID, change the URL as follows:

1. Change: www.facebook.com/johndoe To: graph.facebook.com/myname and then press Enter on your keyboard.

On the resulting page, copy the numeric value in the id field.

OR;

2. Copy and paste your: www.facebook.com/johndoe

into the dialog box on http://findmyfacebookid.com/

and click ‘Lookup numeric ID’. On the resulting page, copy the numeric value in the id field.

Google+

1.  Log in to your Google+ account.

2.  Click your name. 3. At the top of your browser, you will see a URL that looks like this: 4. The number near the end of the URL (between # and /posts) is your Google+ UID. Copy and paste this value into the UID field on the Email Us page.

Myspace

1.  Log in to your Myspace account.

2.  From the Myspace navigation bar, click Profile then My Profile. 3. At the top of your browser, you will see a URL that looks like this: 4. The number at the end of the URL (after www.myspace.com/) is your Myspace UID. Copy and paste this value into the UID field on the Email Us page.

Yahoo!

1. Login to your Yahoo! account.

2. At the top of your browser, enter pulse.yahoo.com.

3. Type your Yahoo! username at the end of the URL and press Enter. 4. The characters at the end of the URL (after pulse.yahoo.com/) is your Yahoo! UID. Copy and paste this value into the UID field on the Email Us page. http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ MT35345HIKHIU4G5IYU

Zynga.com

1. Go to zynga.com and login.

2. At the top right of your browser, click the arrow below your name and then click Profile. 3. Once your profile page, look at the URL. Copy the numeric value at the end of the URL: https://zynga.com/#/profile/2098798769866832

Free Chest Nut – How To Claim (Video)

You can get yourself a Free Chest Nut from Mafia Wars today.

No, silly, it’s not roasted. You keep that up I’ll throw one atcha….It might do some damage since the attack of this item is decent.

If you don’t know how to collect yours I provided a video.

Click Here To Watch Video In Full Screen

New Welcome Back Intro Feature For New And Returning Players; And Old Ghost Accounts

Well, Hello Daniela! Is that a cigarette in your hand? Or are you just happy to see me back playing Mafia Wars?

Zynga seems to think that this will draw players either into Mafia Wars or back into Mafia Wars. And it might.

It is more likely that if the DAU rises suddenly it would be more because of current players re-opening their ghost accounts. Players will want to acquire the loots that can not acquired anywhere else than this feature that appears to only be available to new players and players accounts that have been dormant for a while.

I do not know, at this time, how long an account needed to lay in dormancy for this feature to be available on an account. The account used for this posting was my sons account and he is involved in other things now and has no desire of returning to Mafia Wars. He did permit me to use his account in for the purpose of making this post.

Upon re-launching his account I was welcomed by Daniela of Daniela’s Deal Promotions.

Ok, it looks interesting enough. But Zynga, he’s tough to find because he quit the game about a year ago, or so. He quit playing because the game is just too demanding of one’s time. He quit playing because the game has become a haven for cheats, scripts, and is nothing less than a bully-fest that resembles street gangs moreso than it resembles anything that one would expect in a Mafia (or organized crime) game.

This feature, upon first review, appears to have potential. But that concerns me since too many of the good things that players once loved about Mafia Wars have been modified or overdone and now players despise.

I’ll get this out of the way before I get into my review of this feature. What I, and my son, do like about this feature is also one thing that many existing players will soon be pissed off about. We like the idea that this feature appears that it will allow players to stay in Chicago and build their characters strengths (attack, defense, energy, stamina, and MAS and MDS) before completing the quests and the city and being thrown into the mix with all the monster accounts that are now in the game.

The downside to this feature is that the active players accounts that are not that strong and do not have this feature will soon find fighting on the fight page and getting ices even more difficult than they are now.

I do realize that this feature, or something similar, will likely soon be available for ALL players. Zynga, you will have to provide something similar or you will risk losing even more players.

I can presume this because my sons account gained nearly 25,000 loot stats points to attack and defense within just a couple of hours today alone. Therefore, this feature will ultimately place a much greater importance to a players personal attack and defense skill points.  

For the new players this feature does provide a lot of information as players enter the game. The information has a clean appearance and is logical and most should understand it.

Players are also encouraged by stash helpful rewards that are contained in The Briefcase.

Players are then taken through a short tutorial.

Included in the short tutorial is The Arena. Upon new players first look at The Arena they might be confused a bit.

They may not realize that you must be a fast clicker on your mouse in order to do well in The Arena. They, also, are likely unaware of the boosts and how to build them or use them.

I made a short video so that players can see The Arena in action before they access themselves. Check the vidoe out below;

ARENA VIDEO

Or Click Here To Watch The Video

Once you enter The Arena you are committed to joining a fight room.

Once The Arena fight has started you do have the option of quitting it. Take note that you will have to wait until that Arena is over before you can join another one.

The fight rooms in The Arena (for this feature) range from player vs player (1 on 1) up to 6 fighters (including yourself).

 

If you had the courage to stay and fight, once The Arena is over your scores will be calculated.

You will then be taken to the scoreboard where you can see your results in comparison to those you fought against.

By clicking on the ‘Your Results’ tab you will see all the loot you won during that Arena.

The Arena does have a few bugs.

1. It tends to freeze. (DO NOT EXIT THE ARENA - the workaround seems to be to refresh your browser)
2. You can’t scroll backwards on the ‘Your Results’ tab.

Also, the loots that you will need to drop for the ‘Point To Make’ Quest (scroll down to see more about this quest) appear to never drop. As you can see below, I fought in 42 Arena’s today and not a single Vampire Squid dropped.

Once you are done in an Arena you will likely want to see your stats and how well you did.

On the home page of this feature you can find 3 locations that provide your stats.

1. the top of the page shows your remaining stamina and energy and how much experience you need to level up.
2. By clicking The Arena tab in the middle of the page you will find your Arena Stats (exampled in the image above)
3. At the bottom of the page you will find 2 tabs.  One for your profile (which shows your personal Skill Point distribution) and one for your Inventory (which has your loots attack and defense strengths separated – click the attack or defense icon to view either or).

If you find yourself in need of Energy or Stamina you have a couple of options.

1. You could buy an energy or stamina refill by clicking on the numbers of your energy or stamina stats to bring up a pop-up that gives you the option to buy your energy or stamina.

2. The second option (and more favorable) is to use an Energy or Stamina Pack. Both can be accessed by using the method shown above or simply by clicking the appropriate collect button on the image below.

You can collect one of each every 8 hours.

If/when you decide that you are tired of Chicago you’ll want to finish all 6 Chicago districts to Ruby Level.

You’ll also want to complete all the Quests first. I am hearing that there are currently 6 of them. But, like I have shown above, this account is having trouble getting the Vampire Squids to drop. This account might, therefore, be stuck in Chicago. More research needs to be done to know for sure.

As you work your way through this new ‘Intro’ feature you will likely level up many times.

If you are new to Mafia Wars you might not be aware that for the long time players they can share a bonus when they level up.

It is apparently not possible to share level up bonus’s while you are working your way through this feature.

VIP Program – How Far Have We Come?

The VIP Program began on/around April 4, 2012.

Prior to the release of the VIP program Zynga posted the following VIP introduction on the Official Mafia Wars Blog;

The Mafia Wars VIP Program

Hello Mobsters,

The Mafia Wars team is constantly working on introducing new features in the game as well fixing existing performance issues that have been reported by the community to enhance the overall game-play experience. The VIP program is one such initiative that we are considering over the next few months. Some of you may have already seen the pop-up messages with the details about this program. However, at the moment, this program is not available, and you will not be charged for clicking on the confirmation messages. If & when the program is rolled out, you are not obligated to enroll in it, but you will have priority enrollment at that time.

We have also taken serious note of certain performance issues due to violation of Terms of Service, whether reported by the community or otherwise. While we work on introducing new features like the VIP program, we will always prioritize working on fixing performance issues that affect game-play. Please stay tuned for further announcements in this regard.

We would like to reiterate that we are constantly listening to you & working on improving the game.

Thank you.

The Mafia Wars Team

Since then there have been approximately 12 loot refreshes that are exclusive to VIP members with another loot refresh expected to occur within a week or so. Upon the next loot refresh those players who bought into the VIP program from the beginning should receive their Ruby Benefits.

Upon the beginning of April the VIP Program will be in its 13th month.  The VIP players will have 6 months remaining until the VIP Programs maturity which occurs at the 19 month mark.

Many things that we feared about Mafia Wars since the inception of the VIP Program have played out.

During March and early April of 2012 the DAU (Daily Active Users) ranged from 440,000 to 530,000 (give or take).

By February 20th, 2013, the DAU had dropped as low as 232,302, possibly lower.

The stats shown above are provided by AppData.com. They aren’t exactly completely trustworthy, but they are considered the standard tool in which many apps and developers compare themselves to other apps and developers.

The 261,025 Daily Users of Mafia Wars (shown in the above image) might be the highest the DAU of Mafia Wars has been in all of 2013 thus far.

In either case the Mafia Wars DAU is estimated at just over half of what it was a year ago.

With that stated, and as we’ve stated before (Potential Problems With The VIP Program), I think it’s safe to say that the VIP Program has not been the saving grace of Mafia Wars.

The proof of my comments can be found within the game itself.

There have been more and more sales events or popups asking you to buy something, like this one;

As you can see above, many of these sales have been offered at steep discounts. Typically, this could be considered a clear sign of trouble. 

The gameplay hasn’t been any better either. On the Mafia Wars Support Page Zynga acknowledged that players have been having troubles getting their ices.

UPDATE: Experiencing difficulties in getting ices?

Tue Mar 26 08:52:56 EDT 2013

Recently we received reports from some of our players about their difficulty in getting Ices while Fighting.
We have now fixed this issue and you should be able to Ice your opponents normally.
In case you are still experiencing this issue, please use the below form to submit your feedback directly to our team:

Then with today’s Facebook catastrophe (Facebook And The Missing Game Feed Posts – which appears to be fixed finally) the situation for Zynga and Mafia Wars may be aggravated further.

Too many players struggle to achieve half of what is being implemented into the game as it is now. Some other players are simply getting tired of the high pressure sales tactics of Zynga.

I worry about what the DAU will be in 6 months when the original VIP members begin their Titanium Benefits and they begin getting early access to events and features while the rest continue to struggle. Will Mafia Wars even survive that long?

Many players proclaim that Mafia Wars generates much of Zynga’s revenue and, therefore, will be around a while. I disagree. It is my belief that Mafia Wars may, at best, generate about the 8th or 9th most revenue of all Zynga’s games.

Mafia Wars is more like the ugly duckling of Zynga’s games. It has long been since shipped to India. It is rarely mentioned in any ad campaign (except charity events). It is not even hosted among all Zynga’s other games on https://zynga.com/.

It’s only a matter of time until Mafia Wars finds it’s way to Al Capone’s vault.