Don’s Favorite – 7 DAYS OF FREE SKILL POINTS

If you aren’t the Don’s Favorite it is because you do not have the Mafia Wars Facebook App grouped among you favorites list on your Facebook wall.

To add Mafia Wars to your favorites you need to hover your cursor just to the left of the Mafia Wars App and click to open a drop down box (as shown in the 2 images above). Click the Add to favorites link and the Mafia Wars App will now appear in your Facebook favorites list.

To participate in the Don’s Favorite Feature you now need to access Mafia Wars from the recently moved App link. If successful you should receive 10 free skill points for your first day of accessing Mafia Wars in this manner.

If it didn’t work for you then we recommend closing Mafia Wars and waiting a few minutes and try again.

Once collected your Don’s Favorite banners should now indicate that you have acquired your 10 free skill points (as shown in the following 2 images).

I knew I was the Don’s Favorite. Now everyone knows. The question is, are you?

This Is How Zynga Do’s It

Are you ready for a Fairy Tale Twist? Players of the game ‘Fairy Tale Twist’ tried to log in to their games on January 26 only to find that they couldn’t. That was because Zynga was making a few changes to that game. Zynga subsequently made the following announcement;

Introducing Puzzle Charms!

Mon Jan 27 09:26:28 EST 2014

Hello Fellow Twisters!

The twists and turns of the game we all loved can only get better and charm-ier!

We're glad to announce to everyone that Fairy Tale Twist is now called Puzzle Charms! Feed the Rabbits and pass  through Puzzles with never-ending Charms as you go along and finish all the fun-tastic levels!

Don't forget to bookmark the new game link: https://apps.facebook.com/puzzlecharms/

And now, let's all continue to play and be charmed, by Puzzle charms!

source: Puzzle Charms Player Suport 

With the name change from ‘Fairy Tale Twist’ to ‘Puzzle Charms’ the DAU of the game now surpasses that of Mafia Wars.  

Fairy Tale Twist Game Name Change Increases DAU

Mafia Wars’ DAU Still Hovering Below 200,00

Although Mafia Wars may appear to have a little momentum in improving it’s Daily Users over the course of the past 2 weeks the game is far from where it once was. The next 2 graphics show how much Daily activity Mafia Wars has lost within the last year and 2 years (respectively).

DAU Change in last year:  -31%

Change in DAU between 2012 Q2 and 2014 Q1: -52%

We have expressed time and again how we believe Zynga is its own worst enemy with its business model. Others are now expressing similar thoughts. The following is a quote from Robert Weinstein who wrote an article on thestreet.com that questioned Zynga’s Customer Service.

“According to Zynga's filings, few users break out the credit card to spend real money. OK, that's not a surprise, but maybe the exact model it's using isn't the correct one.”

The problem with Zynga (within nearly ALL it's games) is that they have forgotten that their games are ‘supposed’ to be ‘freemium’ games. Mafia Wars is among several of Zynga’s games that have become money grubbing games that are nearly impossible to play (or to at least have the ability to complete many of the ‘in-game’ tasks and features) without the need of spending lots of cash.

Zynga made its billions 4 (+/-) years ago when its games were playable by everyone. Players used to spend $5 or $10 on a game card or other in-game purchase when they didn’t feel over-pressured by Zynga to do so. This is back when the in-game purchases either sped you through something or gave you a small perk over others (albeit only temporary).

The over-priced and high-pressure tactics of Microsoft WILL NOT work in a ‘Freemium’ atmosphere! Period. Those tactics will only chase players away from your services Zynga! Facebook is not like the X-Box.

Coming Soon To A Mafia-Wars Game Near You

D’ya wanna have some fun.

Let’s say that Mafia Wars made the following announcement of changes to Mafia Wars;

Coming soon to a Mafia-Wars game near you....... In the coming weeks there will be some changes made to the attack system. The most visible change will be the implementation of ammunition for guns. If you run out of ammunition, you will switch to a backup melee weapon, and NOT another gun. This means if you do not maintain your ammo stockpiles, you could be left bringing a knife (or other melee weapon) to a gun fight. This will potentially enable weaker players to beat stronger players that run out of ammo.

In the next couple of days you will see ammo appearing in the shops available for purchase. You will also find that the inventory page now indicates the type of ammo a given weapon uses. It is your responsibility to buy the proper ammo for your weapons, and there are going to be some similar ammo names. Don't buy .50 Caliber BMG ammo thinking it will work in your Desert Eagle, it won't work.

Another change that you will see is when mugging another player, you will now gain certain items on top of money. You will not be able to steal Support Packs, but other items may be available for theft. The exact items that will be available are still yet to be determined. Items preceded by an asterisk (*) in the inventory can be stolen when you are mugged, so you will have an idea of what you may lose if you get mugged.

Finally, when this change goes live, everyone will be credited with a certain amount of ammo for each type of gun in their inventory, so any inactive/infrequent players aren't at a disadvantage right away. But then again, if a player is inactive or does not come on very much, chances are they aren't going to be reading this before the change goes live, so we're not sure why we are announcing this.

If there are any questions, please direct them to a member of staff. Stay tuned for more updates. Same Bat time, same Bat channel. ~MW Staff

I would think that the announcement above, if true, would make Mafia Wars more like Mafia Wars 2.

 

What do you think? Would you like these changes to Mafia Wars?

Iceboard Top 25 – Must Be A Corliss Thing

On The Official Mafia Wars Blog Zynga has posted the Top 25 finishers in the Global Iceboard Clash (reprinted below);

Hi Mobsters,

Many of you suggested we mention the top 25 ranking players in the Global Iceboard going forward. We thought it was a great idea!

So on popular demand, here's the list of the top 25 players in the Global Leaderboard!

Sl. No.	Name	No. of Ices
1	Fiona Clark	684481
2	Aby Corliss	620763
3	Elina Khetagurova	542304
4	Asha MW Corliss	501825
5	Yuki Day	479780
6	Stewart Bridgman	468615
7	George War	452825
8	Zilli Max	451342
9	Kevin Portman	450016
10	Xena Harley	444307
11	Alice MW Corliss	441495
12	Mervyn Rutherford	432529
13	Kizza Kizzic	420551
14	Amber Corliss	418804
15	Zander Corliss	418683
16	Aaron Porritt	418606
17	Jan de Souter	405109
18	Steve A Smith Sr.	402804
19	Robert Reuser	382476
20	Fred Palmer	377481
21	Joseph Corliss	372526
22	Karen Malone	371770
23	Tom Porritt	370217
24	Ian Wilson	367998
25	Abuzuttin Muttalip	362492

Please note that ONLY the top three ranks globally and the top three ranks in your Mafia will receive the following prizes.

These rewards are applicable for the Iceboard season that ended on Jan 22, 2014. All winners need to log in to the game and redeem their reward by on Jan 26, 2014.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Keep playing Mafia Wars!

-The Mafia Wars Team

As we highlighted in the Top 25 list you will notice 6 players with the last name ‘Corliss’. That equates to 24% of the Top 25. With so many players with the same last name who finished among the top 25 it doesn’t bode well in considering these events legitimate. One must question as to whether all 6 of these Corliss’s are different players or are they all the same player?

Obviously scripts were used by ALL those who finished in the Top 25. These types of events have succeeded at nothing more than promoting the use of scripts and cheating. The players who do finish at the top of these types of events are rewarded for their cheating efforts and do NOT even deserve bragging rights.

Many players don’t even bother trying in these types of events because we know we can’t compete and Zynga continues to widen the gap in the playing field by rewarding these players more and more.

The DAU has not seen 200,000 since November 15, 2013. That’s more than 2 months ago. Need we ask why? These types of events and the use of scripts along with Zynga’s relentless pushes for purchases of RP are culminating the demise of this once reward winning game. Zynga needs to give ALL players a reason to continue playing Mafia Wars. They might find that if they did Zynga might actually generate a positive in revenue and NOT another decline. JMO.