The Road To South Africa

It has been too long since the newest destination opened in Mafia Wars. London opened in March of 2012.

As players begin completing the Dust To Diamonds Quest they were hoping to find that South Africa is in fact  the next destination.

The journey to South Africa began in February 2013 when Zynga (Mafia Wars devs) posted a survey that asked players to choose the next Mafia Wars City. The survey had 11 destinations to choose from. The survey also asked which of the existing (at that time) cities was your favorite. Brazil, Chicago, Las Vegas, London, or New York and why. Many players believe that if players voted for Brazil, Chicago, or London then they essentially voted for the same city since all 3 are identical to Brazil. Other than job images and job names and energy cost/ratios all 3 cities are played in the exact same manner. The only noticeable differences are the number of districts in each city. Brazil has 8 where Chicago has 6 and London has 10. Chicago tries to be rogue in the sense that players can collect Rob Squads and Health from the property bonus’s. London tries to set itself apart by adding personal skill points to players stats when players build certain Nightclub Shop loots. Neither of these features set Chicago nor London far enough apart from Brazil to make them individualized enough for players to feel like they are their own cities as New York, Cuba, Moscow, Bangkok, Las Vegas and Italy are/were. This causes players to fear that the next city (South Africa or other) will resemble Brazil too closely as Chicago and London do.

Amsterdam, Netherlands Dubai, UAE Hong Kong, China Istanbul, Turkey Johannesburg, South Africa Mexico City, Mexico Morocco, North Africa Mumbai, India Paris, France Prague, Czech Republic Shanghai, China

If the next city appears to players as if it is just a copy/paste of Brazil, Chicago, and London then it will give credence to a growing sentiment that the game Mafia Wars has grown stale. It is for this reason (not alone) that destinations like Cuba, Moscow, Bangkok, Italy, and now Las Vegas should NEVER have been closed. Not only do players want choices each city should have its own appeal. Let’s hope that South Africa will be unique and different from Brazil, Chicago, and London. Let’s hope that we will not have to wait for Mafia Wars III before we will see anything new. 

On July 9th, 2013, Zynga posted the following image and quote on the Mafia Wars Facebook Fan Page and the Mafia Wars Official Blog;

Was he at the wrong place at the wrong time? Or was it the right place? Stay tuned to know more!

Players and Bloggers got excited. Finally, there is something new to look forward to. The image, itself, was the first clue as to where the destination would take players soon. The second clue was revealed when players (or visitors to the Mafia Wars Official Blog) hovered their cursor over the image (Try it on the image above). The words - SouthAfricaSplash_LandingPage_BG1 were revealed. This led some to speculate that South Africa would be the next destination. Others questioned whether it was a trick or if it was in err.

On July 10th, 2013, a second image was posted on the Mafia Wars Facebook Fan Page and the Mafia Wars Official Blog.

He found what he was looking for, only to lose it again. Life is worth more only in death when there's a fortune to inherit!

When you hovered your cursor over this image it revealed the words – MexicoSplash_LandingPage_BG1.

With the second image’s release some questioned whether Zynga was eliminating possible destinations from the list of 11 possiblities. To many players it didn’t matter. That is as long as it’s new and is released soon.

After skipping a day, on July 12th, 2013, Zynga posted a third image on Mafia Wars Facebook Fan Page and on Mafia Wars Official Blog

When you strike gold, do you stash it or cash it?
What do you think he’s going to do next?

This image release fueled the speculation’s that Zynga might be ruling out the destinations. The clues in the words for the images were also ruling out possible destinations. While researching which destinations might something/anything to do with gold I found this website; http://www.goldfacts.org/en/economic_impact/countries/

The website lists the world’s biggest gold-mining countries. The list cut the possible destinations down to 4. Those being Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Mexico, and Shanghai. Since there was nothing within the images (nor the captions) to imply that China was a possibility I concentrated on Mexico and South Africa.

The website states this about Mexico’s and South Africa’s gold production;

Mexico

Between 2008 and 2011, gold production in Mexico increased by 55%, from 41.4 tonnes per year, to 64.2 tonnes per year. By 2014, it is estimated that Mexico will be producing some 75 tonnes per year, which would mean an 81% increase in gold production in just seven years.

Goldcorp’s Los Filos mine holds the largest reserves within Mexico (an estimated 7.7Moz), whilst the single most productive mine is the La Herradura, which in 2011 produced some 484 Koz of gold, more than double the amount it had produced in 2008. 

World production ranking
10th
2011

South Africa

South Africa dominated global gold production in the Twentieth Century and in one year – 1970 - accounted for 79% of the entire world’s production. It is estimated that South Africa has produced some 40,000 tonnes of gold since the start of recorded history – about one third of the total worldwide.

There are 35 large-scale gold mines currently operating in South Africa, including the record setting TauTona mine, which extends 3.9km (approximately 2.5 miles) underground. TauTona means ‘great lion’ in Setswanan.

Cape Town, South Africa, plays host to the annual Indaba Mining Conference, one of the largest gathering of mining stakeholders, which attracts nearly 10,000 people representing more than 1000 companies.

World production ranking
5th
2011

This left Mafia Spirit with South Africa as our number 1 suspected destination. If it were true that South Africa would be the next destination it would also mean that either someone at Zynga did label the first image in err or it was Zynga’s ploy to release the idea then attempt to downplay South Africa in a bait and switch. It didn’t work if it were a bait and switch tactic because links were discovered by Mafia Spirit sources on July 17, 2013, that led to images of South Africa’s Rand (among others). Mafia Spirit published many of the images within our Rand Rand Everywhere Rand - Travel To South Africa post on July 23, 2013. This made Mafia Spirit the first to publicly post anything that confirmed South Africa as the next destination. We were duplicated within the hour after our posting as if others made the discovery.

On July 18th, 2013 players began logging into Mafia Wars only to be greeted with a New York Chronicle newspaper pop-up. The headline read – “Lights Out Vegas”. This, as always, was not good news for many Mafia Wars players. It meant Las Vegas was being removed from the game. It meant more players who didn’t complete the, yet another, city were going to lose out.

In addition, there were 2 events that were released along with this sad news. The Road To Vegas Operations and Lights Out Vegas Mission.

Players know that when Zynga releases a new destination in Mafia Wars that another destination will close. And players despise this and it ALWAYS shows in the MAU and DAU. The Mafia Wars DAU (Daily Active Users) is  67,791 fewer today than it was on July 9th when the original clues were posted by Zynga.

Zynga, however, continues to do what Zynga does and they still don’t listen to their clientele (users of their services).

Zynga moved forward by releasing the first of 3 MW Caption Contests on July 24th, 2013. A summary of the 3 contests are shown below along with some of our favorite captions for each;

MW Caption Contest I

#13 JoGilliam  “No detail can be overlooked when the consequence for error is disaster.”

#15 JoGilliam “The result of mediocrity will be failure, and that is unacceptable.”

#24 Langaj “Driving on Hard times.”

#25 Langaj “Search for clues in the AutoPool.”

#33 gissa “Hurry and fix that flat so we can get out of here!”

To read more suggestions please visit the MW Forums @ MW Caption Contest I

MW Caption Contest II

#18 Seth Ruskin "All that glitters is not gold."

#26 mayreane “Gotta Hand It To Them”

#34 jwilliams360 “Sell the fake diamonds to the boss' competitor.” (duplicated at #67)

#65 69sscamaro “A fair trade, blood diamonds for blood money!”

#79 Cymru ezd0zit “Time to take what's mine.”

To read more suggestions please visit the MW Forums @ MW Caption Contest II

MW Caption Contest III

#11 xerona ”Yes Ma'am, we have that arrangement for you.”

#14 panos0000 “Delivering the seeds in time was essential for our cause...”

#15 jwilliams360 “Meet with your Holland contact to make arrangements for the special shipments.”

#19 gissa “We'll hide the diamonds in the national flowers so we can ship them overseas”

#20 JoGilliam “Establish contact with a shipping manager to conceal the cargo.”

To read more or to make a suggestion please visit the MW Forums @ MW Caption Contest III

The third and final Caption Contest will be accept entries till 7th August 2013, 11.59 PM PST.

The Windmill in the 3rd Caption Contest image baffled some. The windmill is located in South Africa and the following excerpt gives a little more detail

http://www.turtlesa.com/windmills.html

When the Dutch arrived in the Cape in 1652 there was very little infrastructure and it was the task of van Riebeeck to build a fort for the protection of his people as well as to plant gardens to supply Dutch ships calling at the Cape with fresh produce. The gardens were a mammoth task and soon van Riebeeck found that he needed labour to work in them. The VOC (Dutch East India Company) introduced slaves into the Cape to work in the gardens. Even with these additional people the refreshment station could not cope with the demand and so the VOC allowed staff members who had completed their contracts to stay on at the Cape and gave them farms so that they could produce food for the colony. These ex employees became known as free burghers.

Over the years the free burghers branched out and planted different crops amongst them wheat. As the supply of wheat grew so did the demand for wheat products necessitating the building of mills to crush the wheat for flour.
As Holland had all the technology and expertise to build wind driven mills it was natural for them to build them at the Cape to assist the wheat industry. A number of them were built around the Cape Colony but today only three remain.

Mosterts Mill

Nieuwe Molen Mill

Onze Molen Mill Durbanville

On August 1st, 2013 the Dust To Diamonds, which is a pre-release event for the new location, was released.

As many players have collected the 500 Randitions and the 500 Head Hunters the waiting for the release of the new destination (South Africa) continues.Is this just another ploy to generate excitement for the location? Is Zynga just not ready to release the destination yet? We’ll find out soon.

So, What can we expect in South Africa?

Lets begin with it’s regions (Provinces);

South Africa has 9 Provinces. They are Eastern Cape Free State Gauteng KwaZulu-Natal Limpopo Mpumalange Northern Cape North-West Western Cape

The National bird is the Blue Crane (Anthropoides paradisea). The Blue Crane is also known as the Stanley Crane and the Paradise Crane. It is a tall, ground-dwelling bird of the crane family which stands a little over a metre high and is pale blue-gray in colour with a white crown, a pink bill, and long, dark gray wingtip feathers which trail to the ground.

The National animal is the Springbok.The Springbok is a small brown and white gazelle that stands about 75 cm high. The males can weigh up to 50 kg and the females up to 37 kg. They are herd animals and move in small herds during winter, but often crowd together in bigger herds in summer.
                              

The King Protea in the National flower. Also known as Giant Protea, Honeypot or King Sugar Bush, the King Protea is a flowering plant. Its flower head is the largest in the genus Protea. It is widely distributed in the south-western and southern parts of South Africa of the fynbos region.                                              

The National fish is the Galjoen. It is also known as blackfish or black breamby the in KwaZulu-Natal. It is found only along the coast of South Africa. The Galjoen keeps to mostly shallow water and is often found in rough surf and sometimes near the shore. When the Galjoen is near rocks it appears almost completely black. When the Galjoen is in sandy areas the colour appears silver-bronze.

Only time will tell what exactly South Africa will entail. We could speculate, but that may get players wanting something that may not happen. Sometimes the surprise is best.

The only questions left to answer are when will South Africa unlock and will you survive?