Facebook Activity Ticker & Incorrect Mafia Wars Achievements

Most of you hopefully already figured out that the number of achievements you've earned is showing incorrectly on Facebook's "exciting new features" (Zynga's words, not mine). Zynga goes on to say this:

Mafia Wars began to utilize this area of the Live Ticker Box on 09/01/11, and at this time the amount of Achievements that players have earned is not being displayed correctly. This information will take several days in order to populate with the correct numbers, so don't be alarmed if the number of Achievements that you see is incorrect.  During the update process the team will also be increasing the number of achievements that can be earned through game-play in the future.

Not sure what new achievements have to do with the annoying Facebook ticker, but there you have it.

Don't like the Facebook activity ticker? Lots of people don't, and it's easy to remove. READ HOW HERE.

03 September - FAN BLAST : Health Point

Boost your health for those long fights with a FREE HEALTH point!

http://zyn.ga/9n5 -- Claim your FREE HEALTH point!

Mafia Wars Union Hall partial roll out

According to Super Moderator Cerulean Master, Union Hall was pushed out to '95%'. I assume this means 95% of the rest of who didn't already have it. They are hoping everyone will have it by the end of next week.

Naturally, I still do not have it.

ETA...it was also mentioned that there is no ETA for a further roll out of Power Packs, they're still being "tested". It'd be nice if they could test them on my server. More on that later. 

Why Are We Still Playing?

Why are we still playing Mafia Wars when Zynga clearly doesn't give a rat's a$s about listening to a thing we say? That is a question that I've been asking myself more and more lately, and I have to admit, I'm almost at my breaking point for Mafia Wars.

Zynga is not interested in feedback, they don't care about fixing things, they nerf features continually, and we're supposed to just take it, because it's their game? Sorry, that does not compute. It might be their game, but we give the game viability.

 Zynga can feed me their bullsh*t about metrics all day long, they say it's about the numbers, but the numbers they care about are obviously NOT the players, and what they don't realize is, they can't continue to wring money out of us the way they are. They're chasing us off!! Natural game attrition can be attributed to some of the losses, but the simple fact is, the numbers wouldn't look like that if Zynga would stop spinning and lying. They must have an entire department devoted to spinning new bullsh*t and economy-sized reels of red tape.


And now they're also ignoring the Get Satisfaction thread that over 560 people had "liked" as of yesterday. 208 people have clicked +1, and I keep telling people that's the number we need, but the number of Facebook likes should have been a very good indication of how many people supported the thread. 

If Zynga irritates you, go to this Get Satisfaction thread and +1 it. Your "likes" no longer count in Zynga's eyes, they want to make people to go out of their way for the +1.

If you are pissed that they took away Stamina Packs, even after telling us that stamina packs were here to stay, go and +1 the Get Satisfaction thread.

If you never even had Power Packs and are mad about that - GO  AND +1 THE THREAD.

If you had Power Packs, and now you don't - GO AND +1 THE THREAD. 

If you have nerfed Power Packs, and thought they were better before the nerf - GO AND +1 THE THREAD.

Additionally, leave a comment on the thread. Comments are what keep the thread visible in the front page of Get Satisfaction.

Even if you've already left a comment, please go leave another comment. Tell Zynga what you think about them ignoring nearly 600 players who think Power Packs Should Be Put Back!

Otherwise? I might just throw my hands up and walk away from the game entirely. Zynga's game is no longer fun because they keep trashing it.

More Zyngon Horse Manure: Jeff The Knife TIMER

WTF is Zynga doing lately? I swear to God they are driving the game into the ground with whatever means possible. So here's another nerf. There's now a cool down timer of 23 hours between boss fights.

Of course, there's an option to reset the boss fight timer, but what did you really think was going to happen when you clicked on that button? You will have to pay 25 reward points to reset the boss, and I say that's bullshite. You will not catch me spending reward points on something that Zynga nerfed.

In fact, I've decided I'm not going to touch these family boss fights any more (sorry Family). I'm so sick of Zynga's garbage lately, and I am not playing along.

Tread Crusher available

Hmm. SUPPOSEDLY we were going to get a schedule for these BEFORE today. At any rate, the collector's edition item Tread Crusher is available in the marketplace for 46 reward points. Unless I'm missing something, I don't see any skill points attached to, but we were told that Friday collector's edition items would contain skill points, and this Tread Crusher seems to be priced that way.

02 September - FAN BLAST : Defense

Get extra protection on your side with a Free DEFENSE point!

http://zyn.ga/9n4 -- Claim your Free DEFENSE point!

Jeff The Knife Boss Fight Survey

Zynga has really been pushing their surveys lately. Like the one about Union Hall that's been out for weeks and I still don't have the stupid feature? Orrrr the feedback we gave about Stamina Packs? Because we all know how that went. Now they are pretending they want to know what you think of Jeff The Knife, the Epic Family Boss Fight for Mafia Wars.

Telling Zynga what you think is a waste of breath, but if you want to provide feedback anyway, click HERE to take the survey.

Cuba revisited..."Bay of Pigs Part Deux?"

Returning to Cuba!!
With anticipation to revisit it....

 YAY!...finally back to Cuba after being locked out.  I looked forward to this since I've been around long enough to remember anxiously waiting for Cuba to open the first time!  The achievement for completing the ruby level sat there teasing for a week...the new loot and consumables in inventory greyed out...we knew it was coming.

Then the return in true Bay of Pigs fashion for those that were the first in!
Robbing at first in Cuba left a bit to be desired (ok, more than a bit!)




Gets kind of hard to rob in Cuba when everything is locked up...wonder if it's a form of crime prevention?

Solved easy enough as I found out after..rob anywhere and still counts to the mission objectives...one hurdle down!  ON TO PART 2!  :)  (hmm..looks like it seams easy enough)

Pretty standard looking..get support as usual, no biggee!
Fight and get loot..very easy!






Getting support actually went smoother than the fighting! (huh?)  Mashing the power attack in fights yielded no results, so....doing what any of many seasoned fighters do....I mashed the power attack even faster!  Another oops!!...when the results finally would catch up...would have the ice in record time...

There is nothing like watching your stamina burn off on an iced target, and getting to watch it while you reload the fight list, scroll down to select a target, choose the next target...and still have to wait for all the attacks to finish from the last target! (wonder if I managed to ice people a second time when I was waiting)

Nice numbers! ..worth the extra stamina..








Now to check how many actually dropped for me!  :)

HUH????...WT#%@&%....(NOT GOOD!!)

Many people ran into this issue for some mysterious reason.  When contacting CS, they referred me to a link so they can count how many people were having troubles with Cuba....THE PART I DON'T GET IS WHY DO WE NEED TO VOTE TO HAVE SOMETHING FIXED!!!  If there is a problem we fix it! If they were using it to track the number of people to see how widespread the problem was...a better explanation of it is in order.

For those still with problems that they can work around and still wish to report problems, click the vote to fix button.  Think it was the fastest thing they could set up to get a count.

"As a newly released part of the game, there might be some parts that still need some tweaking. So here, the following article will fill you in with the information you need to know: "

http://support.zynga.com/cp_articleview?gameId=43&Id=kA160000000Gpb4CAC&lang=en_US&loc=en_US

No information or help there!..just a counter! Calling it help is cr#p!!!

 So far all the shots for the Trigger Happy items from the mission look like this..a decent return!

THIS IS WHAT I'LL BE LOOKING FOR!!..From everyone I've talked to this is not out of line.

On the plus side (I hope!!)

the word from our Headquarters is that the system will automatically grant the item that it retrieved, but if after 48 hours, you do not receive the items, contact me immediately for further assistance. 

Regards,
Mxxxxxxx Xxxxxx
Zynga Player Advocate 

On the plus side, looks like they are trying to fix things.

Something tells me this could be long and drawn out. :( 

sigh...I gave up on my walk thru

{K}

01 Sept - Fan Blast : Attack

Become more powerful with a Free ATTACK point!

http://zyn.ga/9kr -- Claim your Free ATTACK point!

Photo Comparison of Cuba

I was looking through some photos posted online, and found this photograph of a building in Havana. It looks very similar to the Mafia Wars Cuba background. So similar, in fact, that I even thought it might be the same building. 

Nope, not the same building, but they definitely echo the same style. This is the background from Cuba at a slightly higher exposure.

I never noticed this before because the image is so dark, but the sidewalk and walls in the Cuba background are splattered with blood!

Return To Cuba timer clarification

The Mafia Wars blog released a blurb about the Return To Cuba mission event. It doesn't contain a whole lot of new information, mostly just reemphasizing that Cuba is open for two weeks. I did notice this clarification though:

Note: Mission Event: Return To Cuba ends at 4:00pm PDT on 9/5, while Cuba will remain open until 4:00pm PDT on 9/12.

So while the Return To Cuba mission event itself will be ending in several days, but Cuba will remain open for another week after that. Good to know. I hadn't even noticed they had different timers, because I'm observant like that :0)