Coming Next Week

Not much on the plate for next week--which is fine by me! 

Coming Next Week*
*As far as currently scheduled, but things can change.

Save Don's Dinner
The Don has invited you to Thanksgiving dinner, but he needs more birds. Collect 25 turkeys and he’ll reward you with a powerful item: his right-hand man, The Butler (155/95 at Ruby level).

New Limited-Time-To-Request-Upgrade Parts NYC Property: Botanical Garden

Castleville Cross Promotion / Ruby Rage loot item

I've seen a few players wondering when there would be a CastleVille cross-promotion with Mafia Wars, and it has arrived!

Play CastleVille and get to Level 5 by 11/28 to receive this exclusive item* in Mafia Wars.

The reward item may take up to 24 hours to show up in your inventory.

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit (since this is a Mafia Wars blog, after all) that I've dabbled at CastleVille. So sue me, I'm a sucker for pretty castles and fairy tale crap! So, I already earned my Ruby Rage...

The Ruby Rage has 130 attack and 105 defense. I did not have to wait 24 hours for the item to appear in my inventory, it's already there.

Skill Point Reallocation!!!

Skill Point Reallocation is on now in the marketplace. Log in to Mafia Wars and click on the Marketplace tab, then look under Stat Items > Skill points.

11/19 FAN BLAST - SKILL

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Harvest Bags, aka, Gold Mystery Bags

Harvest Bags are here, and so far, they seem to be exactly the same as Gold Mystery Bags...they didn't even change the caption: "Only available one day because it's worth it's weight in gold". As we know, Gold Mystery Bags usually appear after zynga has screwed up big. I'm thinking it has to do with the gifting issues. Oh well. Get'em while you can. I like getting the +5 attack's and energy's.

Family Battle Rewards

Family battle rewards are back "For a limited time"

Whether you consider this an incentive to issue or accept more challenges depends on your family.  For some, it is more than worth it.  For others, it is not worth it at all.  Up to you, but if you were thinking about sending battle challenges or accepting them, at least there is an added bonus "For a limited time".  I personally do not find the bonuses an adequate consolation prize for all the gifting, fighting and other issues.  ~ Anisty

gift links are broken again

Suddenly, I find that NO gift links are working. Not Linkanator's, not FBMWAddon's. This is getting ridiculous. Zynga, if you think breaking gift links is "fixing" the problem about only getting blue mystery bags in return, think again. Can't you just fix the problem without breaking everything else?

Fix the problem with gift links. Fix ALL the damn problems with gifting. This is just getting stoopid.

11/18 FAN BLAST - STAMINA POINT

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Zynga - Give Us The Docked Fight Module Back!

I know I'm not the only manual fighter out there who is about ready to pull their hair out at the roots today. Some time late yesterday fighters across Mafia Wars started having issues with the fight list and in the last 24 hours things have gone from bad to worse.

Complaints manual fighters are reporting include:

• The non-docked module appears unpredictably on the page and you must scroll around to find it.
• Once you scroll around to find the non-docked module you are unlikely to get the ice because by the time you find the module your target is already on ice.
• You have to click the X to close the fight module and return to the fight list.
• The fight list refreshes every single time you click the X to close the module.
• You can't rapidly go from one target to another due to having to click the X to return to the fight list.

So what does this all add up to? The manual fighter is essentially crippled in the middle of Ice Season 11. I contacted Customer Service today to complain about the mess the non-docking fight module was making of my game and while apologetic all the CS rep could tell me was:

"Sadly we are not able to put back the previous fighting screen to our games."
and:
"At the moment your studio is trying to improve the fight page and this is not the definitive module."

Well Zynga, I sincerely hope this is not the 'definitive module' and that you come to your senses very soon and revert the fight module back to its previous dockable state! Not everyone wants to use a bookmarklet to do their fighting but with the way it is now it is nearly impossible to get an ice without using one!

~Wella...who might go bald if the fight module doesn't get fixed really, REALLY soon!

Zynga: FIX THE GIFT RETURN ISSUE

At least one person has told me that the issue with blue mystery bags being the only item returned was "fixed", and this was also reported by another site. This is most definitely not the case for me, as tested on two accounts. Well, that makes me mad.Why can't Zynga ever finish a job once started??

I posted on the forums, although I don't really expect any worthwhile response, although I'm sure one of trolls will provide some sound advice. I did, however, reach a chat customer support agent who told me that this issue would be fixed "before the weekend". So, fingers crossed. 

Mitzi S.: The Studio Team is aware of this , and it's working to get this solved as soonest as possible most of the players are experiencing this, but don't worry, we hope this will be fix before the weekend.

I then gave her a piece of my mind about how this was apparently fixed for some, but not the rest of us. ...but I was sorta nice about it. It's rare enough that you get a direct answer from customer support. But dammit, this crap better be fixed. "Before the weekend" only leaves tomorrow. 

reBidwell's Suit?

Besides the Cane Sword, which is from the Fight For Hope fundraiser, Inventory History told me another item was also added to inventory, Bidwell's Suit...but I already had one? It actually looks like they may have accidentally removed the item and then added back. Who knows. I'm not that curious.

Bidwell's Suit 130 151

This item is obtained by beating the boss Roger Bidwell, Chief of Security at the end of the Shogun Casino district in Las Vegas.

Quality: Ultimate

Type: Armor

Sub-Types: Body

Location: Las Vegas

Fight For Hope fundraider item: Cane Sword

The fundraiser item that was alluded to in the last This and Next Week has arrived. The Cane Sword, with stats of 148 attack and 90 defense, can be purchases for $3, or 6 for $15. I guess it was too complicated for Zynga to let players donate using reward points, which will be a disappointment to those of us on a budget.

Huntington's Disease Society of America (HDSA) provides support and services to persons with Huntington's Disease (HD) and their families around the world. Buy a Limited Edition Cane Sword for $3.00 USD in the Marketplace to help support HDSA. Zynga will contribute 100% of the proceeds from every Cane Sword to support HDSA's efforts in strides towards potential therapies to treat HD symptoms and, eventually, the disease itself.

Zynga forgot about the Raven/Assassin

Where the heck is the Raven at, anyway?

A lot of players, myself included, still have an achievement or two outstanding related to this character, but we haven't seen him in months. Zynga's asleep at the wheel...again.

Vegas Slots: let us close them! and don't thank me!

I have to be honest, I find it a little amusing how some people seem to regard the Vegas Slot machines in our Las Vegas casinos. Frankly, they're pointless, beyond that Hot Slots achievement for having people play your slot machine 1000 times.

A former friend of mine once suggested to Zynga, on their pointless and now defunct Get Satisfaction platform, that we should actually be able to CLOSE our slot machines if we chose. I thought it was a great idea, but of course Zynga ignored it completely. But really, why CAN'T we close our slots? I already have my Hot Slots achievement, so there's no reason for people to waste their spins at my slot machine when there are plenty of others who still need the achievement.

Then there's the wall garbage you gotta deal with. Some people really don't like it, and the only purpose these posts serve is to "let someone know" that you played their slots. Whoopty-do. I can see that information in my player updates, if I care enough. People have offered various "reasons" for posting these, but they're all pretty insignificant.

If you already have the achievement, don't think you're doing anyone a favor by posting your slots to be played. Nor is there a point to "thanking" anyone when you "win". Take a look at the pay table. Outdated loot. Yay. Vegas chips--kinda pointless since the Vault has a limit and hasn't been expanded since Vegas was released. The only boosts here worth anything are the Inside Tips...but those are kinda paltry in light of the huge energy costs of cities like Brazil and Chicago.

Yes, I'm aware that spinning slots goes towards the Helper part of Family Progression. So? I meet the Helper in full every day simply by playing normally. There are many other ways to earn Helper. 

So don't thank me! And hopefully one day we can shut the dang things down when we're done with them.

Mafia Wars Family Gathering mission: How Are Things?

See Mission #1: Dropping In 

The second mission in the Family Gathering mission event is "How Are Things?" The objectives are fairly straightforward here, although I must say I think it's kinda crappy of Zynga to require so much robbing while there's an icing event going on. Most of the items were reasonably easy to obtain, but it took nearly 2 full stamina 'refills' to get the necessary Rail Tickets (no, I didn't buy refills, I just waited to level up or replenish. I don't believe in buying anything at all for these missions.)

• COLLECT 6 SEVERED PINKIES.

  Collect this item by robbing in Italy.
  

  
  

• 0/6 COLLECT 6 RAIL TICKETS.

  Collect this item by robbing in Italy.
  

  
  

• 0/6 COLLECT 6 SETS OF HIDDEN CHARGES.

  Collect this item by fighting in Italy.
  

  
  

• 0/6 COLLECT 6 SMART PHONES.

  Collect this item by doing jobs in Italy.
  
  

See Mission #3: You Don't Say?

Another ZMC update

There has been another update to how the ZMC accepts gifts. Formerly, due to the lack of testing and foresight on Zynga's part, we had no idea what was in our Mystery Bags, because as soon as we clicked on "Accept Gift and Thank", it disappeared with no notice of what was IN the Mystery Bag.

Now, you will see a message and graphic of what the Mystery Bag contained, which will disappear after several seconds.

Ok Zynga, that's good. Now fix this issue of ONLY returning Mystery Bags. Mystery Bags are mostly useless and I do NOT want them returned to me when what I actually posted a gift link for was Carpenter Nails or Special Parts, etc.

11/17 FAN BLAST - ENERGY POINT

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