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.
 |
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;
|
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.
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.
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.
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;
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.
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.
Game players all over the world and from, what appears to be, every game are noticing that their game feed posts are not appearing on the Facebook newsfeeds.
The game feed posts that do appear on the Facebook feeds have broken links.
The issue IS NOT a Zynga related issue.
It IS a Facebook issue and it has been rumored that the issue was caused by a virus that was attacking the Facebook Timeline.
According to a Zynga update that can be found on the Mafia Wars Support Page the issue was caused by Facebook updates to the Timeline.
Thu Mar 28 07:48:28 EDT 2013
Dear Mobster,
We have received reports from players who are unable to see posts on their Timeline or their own posts are not visible on the feeds.
It seems to be an issue with the new Timeline updates.
We would like to reassure that we are doing all we can to find a solution to help you out as quickly as possible!
There is no need to submit a ticket to Customer Support for this issue.Thank you very much for your understanding Mobster.
Luckily there are a few workarounds for the missing Facebook game feeds.
The easiest fix, although a little confusing (for some) and a little time-consuming, would be to create short links of your feed requests.
This is accomplished by visiting your Facebook profile page and locating any recent (unexpired) game feed post that you shared to your wall.
Next, hover your mouse (cursor) over the blue letters of the post heading.
Then right-click on your mouse to bring up a dialog box and left click where it says ‘Copy Link Address’. In different browsers (other than Chrome) this might say something like "’Copy URL’.
You then need to open a new browser window and visit Tiny URL.Com (most recommended) or another link shortening service.
Locate the section where it says ‘Enter A Long URL To Make Tiny’.
Hover your mouse (cursor) over the empty text box and right-click and click paste. This inserts the link that you copied into the text box.
Now click the button that says ‘Make Tiny URL!’.
This creates a the shortened link that can now be copied and pasted anywhere you need it posted.
To copy the link you need to drag your mouse (cursor) across the link (Shown in the above image; The link that needs to be copied is located where we have it highlighted in a red box). To copy the link you need to click and drag your mouse (cursor) across the link then release and right click.
Once you click ‘copy’ the link is in your clipboard and is now ready to pasted any where that you would like to, or need to, paste it.
When you paste your copied Tiny Url, or short link, we recommend that you add before or after it a short description of what the link is for. The following is an example of what your shortened link should look like;
Easter Eggs http://tinyurl.com/EasterEggs32813
It would be a good idea to locate and become members of help groups on Facebook that allow you to post these links. You might need to add a few friends.
If you run/operate/host or know of any of these help groups please share links to them in our comments or in the comments of this Mafia Spirit Fanpage image. The players appreciate your help.
Our friends, Mirna and Vla, of the Mafia Wars By Zynga Blog posted earlier today about how to report a problem to Facebook.
The following is a reposting from the Mafia Wars By Zynga Blog;
GAMES ARE NOT SHOWING ON FACEBOOK NEWS FEEDS!
HOW TO REPORT A PROBLEM!
CHECK IMAGES BELLOW, Please!
1.IMAGES ARE ON TIMELINES, BUT THEY ARE NOT ON FB NEWS FEEDS.
2. If you have same problem, REPORT IT TO FB
How to report? FOLLOW IMAGES!
STEP ONE!
STEP TWO!
STEP 3!
STEP FOUR!
YOU CAN ALSO REPORT IT AS BUG.
On the right side find option Games are not showing in the News Feeds
reply from Facebook Team
Originally Posted by Vladimir Vapski on Mafia Wars By Zynga Blog
At this point I don’t know if it is necessary to report an issue to Facebook as they are likely aware of the issue. On the other hand, it wouldn’t harm anyone if you decided to report an issue. It could help Facebook to determine how many players are/were affected by the issue.
