5 Things I Would Change About Mafia Wars

5 Things I Would Change About Mafia Wars

By Misty Dady

I posted this yesterday as a guest on the Mafia Spirit blog.  Be sure to check out their blog! We would love to hear your ideas and feedback.

Have you ever thought “I’d love to change ___ about Mafia Wars”? I know, I know, silly question. Of course you have! Today I saw the DAU (daily active users) has fallen below half a million players, according to App Data. I’ve never seen it that low. Players continue to get bored or sick of what some now call “Mafia Chores”.

Hi, I’m Misty, an author of the Mistyfied Mafia Wars blog and fan page. We’ve been around for 2 years this April. I’ve been playing Mafia Wars for 3 years this May.

On the Mistyfied blog, some of our admins have posted a series of articles regarding items they would personally like to see changed about Mafia Wars. I give you my personal list of things I would change, for all you Mafia Spirit fans. These are my ideas of how Zynga should handle Mafia Wars and certain game features. Somewhere along the line, Zynga took the wrong garden path and followed number spikes instead of loyal players, and now here we are.

1. Firstly, I would reinstitute some form of means by which Zynga and Mafia Wars programmers, designers, and community managers have an open forum with the players. The forums don’t work. PAC didn’t work, although not for lack of trying on our parts. After the exit of 2 community managers who worked with us, we slid off of Zynga’s priority list. Get Satisfaction didn’t work, either. Believe it or not, many Zyngons who work with Mafia Wars and other games want to hear player feedback, but Zynga's business model of the Almighty Dollar doesn't give heed.
   
   
2. Cut the event fatigue! There's just too much going on in the game at one time. Zynga is too focused on their “metrics”, which unfortunately mean nothing in terms of player enjoyment—that silly little thing that keeps us coming back for more. They like their number spikes, and don’t concern themselves with the following valleys. It makes no sense, in terms of business or gaming, but Zynga refuses to listen.
   
   We need a game that isn’t so frenetic that, if we’re forced to be away for a few days, we don't run away screaming when we log in and see everything we're behind on. I faced this situation personally just two weeks ago, after the death of a family member. I had to be away for several days, and on top of all that I’m a college student with a sizable class load. Mafia Wars has now fallen by the wayside, sad to say, because I couldn’t keep up, lost interest, and honestly? I started dreading logging in.
   
   
   
3. So let’s talk game. One of the first things that comes to mind is those help limits. “You have already helped 5 people today.” How many times have you cussed at your computer monitor over that? I could start counting…but I’d fall asleep! I understand why limits are in place, truly I do, but 5 or even 10 helps per feed is just too low. I thought this was a social game! Something more realistic that would keep us online and playing longer would be 25 or so, similar to job helps. Or make it 5-10 helps per 4 hours.
   
   
   
4. Mission events shouldn’t detract so much from our regular game play. Some of the requirements involve multiple thousands’ worth of energy! For a balanced player like myself, that can slow me down for days, and cause me to make no progress in other areas--which is frustrating. Then again, many players have the energy and time, and will be proclaiming their boredom within minutes of an event’s release, so maybe another approach would be to scale the energy cost of a mission-required job to a player’s overall ability. I would like that much more.
   
   
   
5. Lastly—let’s get rid of that ZMC pop-up every single time we enter the game! Is that really necessary? It slows the overall loading of the game, and for those of us who jump between the game and our news feed regularly, it’s a pain. Especially when the ZMC is empty! Ever miss out on a good Daily Take post because the ZMC loads over the Daily Take pop-up? I know I have!

I know we all have our own ideas about how to better the Mafia Wars experience for everyone. These are just some of my thoughts that come to mind. We at Mafia Spirit and Mistyfied Mafia Wars would love to hear YOUR ideas. If you liked these ideas, please share this article with your Facebook friends, we would appreciate it!

Get Satisfaction to Sleep With the Fishes

 HAHAHA! Wait... HAHAHAHA! No, I'm not done: HAHAHA! Get Satisfaction is getting the axe. 

That's a little sad in a way, but entirely laughable in another way (see: Get Satisfaction=No Satisfaction). It's sad because, like many people, I gave up attempting to interact on the Zynga forums because it is populated by trolls. And when you aren't dealing with trolls, you're dealing with heavy-handed "moderators". I will continue avoiding the forums; I never accomplished anything there anyway. Get Satisfaction, I liked. I liked the format better. I liked that you knew (somewhat) who you were dealing with, since it was linked to Facebook accounts. I liked the 'likability' and share-ability. Although even that was taken away from me in my last Get Satisfaction experience.

Zynga says this: 

The "Feedback" link in the Account menu that drops down from the upper right corner of the Mafia Wars game window will no longer trigger the Get Satisfaction feedback tool, but we still want to receive your feedback! The in-game "Feedback" link will now take you to the Mafia Wars forum, where we invite you to post all the questions, bug reports, ideas, praise, and add mafia requests you may have been posting to Get Satisfaction. As part of retiring the Mafia Wars Get Satisfaction page, we also removed the Get Satisfaction tab from our Facebook fan page and will soon have the Mafia Wars Get Satisfaction page forward visitors to the Mafia Wars forum. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your continued feedback.


~The Mafia Wars Team

Zynga inquires about Family Progression issues

Ten days ago, I made a post wanting to know how many of you have had or are having issues with your Family Progression timers or objectives getting "stuck". After pressing the issue repeatedly with Customer Support, finally one of the Zyngons wrote back saying that my account had been reviewed for the problem. Since then, the only issue that I've had is the timer and objectives not resetting on nights that I don't complete all of the objectives.

I no longer bother with the forums or Get Satisfaction, as they generally offer nothing but canned answers, no resolutions, and infractions which you may or may not be told about, but I did happen to notice that Super Moderator Rinzler recently made a post about the Family Progression issues.

Hi Players,
Are you still experiencing family progression issues? If so, please reply below with the following information: 

1) Please describe your issue and anything else out of the ordinary you have witnessed. 

2) Please post your Facebook User ID Number, or profile link:
This is almost as important as the issue itself. 

3) Post Browser/Operating System/Flash Version: This helps us find patterns with particular issues. 

The more information and detail that you supply, the faster we can get this resolved. 

All posts will initially be hidden from public view, but will be moved to another location and made public if they contain no personal or other confidential information. 

Thanks!
-Rinzler

I can't imagine that many people would want to post their info on the forums, given the kind of behavior that moderators allow to go on there, so I made a test response to the thread to verify that posts are indeed private.

If you are having issues with Family Progression, please go to this forum thread and make your report.

Get Satisfaction = No Satisfaction

If you don't like the forums, you now have one more reason not to bother with Get Satisfaction also, aside from the fact that trying to get anything done there is futile. Read the fine print: Get Satisfaction recently began to be governed by the same Rules Of Conduct as the forums.

I got a warning last week--on the forum. Well, I started raising hel1 because I didn't post anything on the forum that should have been subject to moderation of any sort. Only to find out finally a few days later that the warning was for something I had posted on Get Satisfaction. What the fk?! And no one bothered explaining this to me until I pressed the issue.

I hardly go to the forum because of the trolls that crawl around there, how in the he1l was I supposed to know what the warning was for or that I had even received a warning?! It was only luck that I happened to go to the forum for another reason and found the warning. I call bullsh*t. And that's a pretty crappy way to announce sneaking in that little change about forum rules of conduct - by warning me.

So what's the point? Zynga doesn't listen to anyone on the forum, and Zynga doesn't listen to anyone on Get Satisfaction either. They keep urging and pushing us to use Get Satisfaction, but seriously, it's a waste of time.

Look at this thread for example. My thread about Power Packs has gotten way more likes and comments and +1s than many threads that they have implemented. I slaved over that thread, and you're damn right I'm pissed that nothing was done about it. All this proves to me is that Zynga doesn't give a crap about what we think, unless it happens to jive with their questionable business plan.

Get Satisfaction is as useless as the forums. If you want to make a change in the game, quit. Quit the game. They aren't going to listen. But don't go to Get Satisfaction to tell Zynga you quit, or you'll get a warning on the forum.

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.

How to use Get Satisfaction

Get Satisfaction is a very easy site to use, and it's where Zynga looks for numbers when it comes to player feedback and complaints. I think many players are put off by the notion of having to log in or register, but it's actually very simple to sign up and log in, and one easy step will ensure you don't receive annoying emails.

When you first click on someone's Get Satisfaction thread link, you'll see a screen similar to the one above.To get started, you click the little Facebook "Like" button, which is at the upper right corner of the Get Satisfaction post. Next, click the +1 button underneath the post.

When you click the +1, you'll get a pop-up prompting you to connect to Facebook - do that by clicking the blue Connect With Facebook button.

Another window will pop-up when you click the Connect With Facebook button. Let it do its thing, it may take a few moments. The window will close on its own after completing the login process.

Once the pop-up window closes and you're viewing the Get Satisfaction question again, you'll notice that it now says "including you" in the number of people who liked the idea.

That's all you have to do to show support for the idea - you're done. To show additional support, leave a comment on the question or idea on Get Satisfaction. Share it with the rest of your Facebook friends. That's what it takes!

There is, however, one more step you can take in order to make Get Satisfaction as painless as possible. Up at the top of the Get Satisfaction page, now that you've signed in via Facebook Connect you've got some user options on Get Satisfaction. Click the drop-down menu and click on Email & Notifications.

Clicking Email & Notifications from that drop-down menu will bring you to this screen.
Two easy steps to complete:

• UNcheck the box that says Send Me Email
• Click the green Save Emails & Notifications button

All done! Now you can use Get Satisfaction easily to interact on other questions, complaints, and ideas, or share some of your own.

special parts as a loot drop?

Another jaunt through Get Satisfaction, and another great idea...some days are like a treasure trove! And other days are just depressing... but I digress - check out this idea:

Michael, the OP, suggests making Special Parts either lootable or else a fight loot item. It would certainly ease some complaints about constantly having to collect crap in the game. I like the idea about special parts being a fight loot item. I can think of some friends *coughLisa* who are always in need of more special parts.

If you agree or have a similar idea. be sure to "like" Michael's thread, and click "Me Too". Those are the numbers Zynga needs to see.

Revenge Achievement

I was roaming through Get Satisfaction this evening, and ran across what I thought was a really good idea. You be the judge.

The OP actually has a few ideas, but I really liked this one:

"Every time somebody steals an ice we have our chance at revenge, so I'm thinking that . . . could be an achievement"

Check out Paul Scioli's ideas HERE.

What do you think about the Revenge Achievement idea? I really liked it. Stolen ices are the usually unintentional result of more than one attacker trying to ice the same target. This happens a lot when players show up on the fight list - it makes sense, if you think about it.

The term "stolen ice" has been around for awhile - long before the advent of the new fighting system. It happened when you're attacking a target, and suddenly the Attack Again option disappeared. In the new fighting system, we now know WHO got the ice - and the opportunity to attack  live, fighting target for a chance to ice them :0)

Family Filter removed from Free Gifts screen

On July 12th, we noticed that a Family filter had been added to the screen from which we send Free Gifts. I thought it was "nifty", and have occasionally made use of that filter when sending free gifts.

Cruising around over at Get Satisfaction this afternoon, I ran across a post questioning why the Family filter was removed. I checked my account, and I don't see it anymore either.

This is what it used to look like. I think Zynga should add that back :-/

Family Timer Searching for Satisfaction

Good morning... it's a beautiful summer day here... but all is rather cloudy on the family front.

The timer has not been fixed:

So I started a thread over on Get Satisfactions:

Simple idea... bag the timer... let us play! Please head over here if you agree... or if you just need a place to vent while you wait for the reset.

switch from Manhattan to New York for missions

I didn't realize this, but those few players who have Manhattan instead of New York didn't have access to missions. The problem is several months old, actually. I haven't seen Manhattan, so I'm not sure why it's such a problem for Zynga to give those players a mission bar.

Players who have Manhattan, but wish to be switched to New York to access missions need to request it to Zynga in this Get Satisfaction thread.

Mafia Wars: War loot ROLL BACK screw up

Since the first whispers of war loot roll backs, many players have been worried about getting caught in Zynga's sweep even if they didn't deserve to be. I really thought that, with the time Zynga was taking, they would be thorough and take pains to NOT roll back innocent players.

As soon as the roll backs started happening last night, it was immediately apparent that lots of people had been unfairly caught up in the sweep. At first I reserved judgement, wondering how many people were complaining who really deserved it.  But when the second round of rollbacks started, and I started looking at the stats of some of those affected, the problem was glaring.

 

My friend Gloria Carroll posted this picture on her profile to express how she feels about this situation, and she's definitely not in exclusive company. Lots of people are PISSED.

And lots of people got Mo' Pissed when Zynga put out their "customer support" document about the rollbacks. It has the usual blah-blah-blah to say, but the last paragraph contains the slap in the face to those unfairly rolled back.

"Because this issue was caused by abnormal behavior we will not be able to restore those stats or offer compensation for the issue."

While there's no question that some individuals deserved the rollback, it seems that Zynga missed the boat in this situation. In their effort to be stern and firm on the subject, they've basically said they aren't going to sh*t for the players who didn't deserve to be rolled back.

I call bullshit. And so do a lot of others.

Check out these Get Satisfaction threads that have sprung up overnight on the subject. Look at all the likes and comments on all of them. Zynga won't listen? I think they have to.

http://getsatisfaction.com/mafia_wars/topics/who_is_to_be_blamed_for_the_excess_war_loots

http://getsatisfaction.com/mafia_wars/topics/zynga_mis_handling_roll_back

http://getsatisfaction.com/mafia_wars/topics/war_loot_decreased_is_a_bad_judgement

 http://getsatisfaction.com/mafia_wars/topics/zynga_bs

http://getsatisfaction.com/mafia_wars/topics/answer_us_zynga

 If you were rolled back and do not believe you should have been, contact Zynga's customer support.

Mafia Wars: new city parodies

David Reedy started a lighthearted thread over at Get Satisfaction that caught my eye and inspired me. David "leaked" information about a new city in Mafia Wars: Thompson Falls, MT. He included some "facts" about the new city:

Exciting new crimes to commit in the upcoming episodes of "Mafia Wars: Thompson Falls, MT" include:

Skip church because you are hung-over;
Tip a cow;
Do 90 in a 75 speed zone;

...to name a few.

David was just joking, of course, but it made me laugh, and gave me a few ideas of my own. Here is my homage to my little city of Gallatin, Tennessee.

Nearby Hopkinsville, Kentucky has a notable Amish population. That's very near to Fort Campbell, a large United States Army base. Shout-out to Chris Barber!

I'm probably pushing the envelope a bit with this one, but I had fun with it :0)

Putting these graphics together gave me some ideas for this week's loot design contest.

The Inconvenient Raven on Get Satisfaction

The Raven is nothing but a headache! As I first wrote a few days ago, the stupid Raven keeps showing for a boss fight when I'm getting ready to go to bed :-/ It seemed to me that we should be able to start the Raven when we're good and darn ready!

I'm very happy to find out that I'm not the only person with the same thoughts.

Leo wrote me earlier today about a Get Satisfaction thread about exactly that, and it already had over 80 "likes" by the time I checked it again! Zynga has been looking increasingly for feedback from Get Satisfaction, so the more "likes" and "Me Toos" a thread has, the more likely it is to get Zynga's attention.

80 likes is a good start, but it will take a lot more people taking the time to show that they agree before Zynga will take notice. Please go to the Get Satisfaction thread and click "like" and "Me Too" - I already did :0)

Zynga's Q&A: #8 Turn Boosts On or Off

#8 on the list:

8. Why can’t I save my boosts for when I really want to use them?

The new fighting system introduced the ability to enable and disable the use of boosts in each fight. While this does not let you pick and choose specifically which boosts you use and when, we did want to get the basic functionality out, and we will be making improvements in the future.
Please share your feedback regarding Boosts.

This has been partially addressed already in both the old and new fight systems with the introduction of the on/off option for fight boosts.  Although from what I understand, there have been issues with the boosts.

In the Getsatisfaction.com thread about the issue, the suggestion is made to add this functionality to robbing, as well. For that matter, why to energy and cash boosts when doing jobs? Visit the thread and say what you think.

Zynga's Q&A: #1 Pop-ups during fighting

A few days back, the Mafia Wars blog posted a list of 22 popular player issues, concerns, and questions, which they have derived from communicating with the Player Advisory Committee. The past few days have been very busy, but now that I have a moment and some motivation, I wanted to take a closer look at this list to see how well I'm represented. Zynga says:

. . . we recently asked the Mafia Wars PAC (Player Advisory Committee) to compile a list of issues currently frustrating our player community.

To be clear, we've talked about a LOT of issues over the past few months since the formation of the PAC. This is just a list of 22 top issues that have repeatedly come up, based on what each of us have seen in our respective personal networks.

Over the coming several days, the Mistyfied team will be taking a look at this list item by item, and sharing our own perspectives on each issue.

Not everyone will agree on every point, and not every point represents every player or even every member of PAC. The PAC represents a wide variety of values, opinions, and approaches to the game. The majority of players probably don't even know the PAC exists, yet among those who do, some seem to feel that members of the PAC should have some accountability to represent all players. As a member of the committee, I can only say that I am a player too. My opinions are only my own, and I can only represent my own little niche in the Mafia Wars community. Most certainly I do not represent the PAC as a whole, I only represent one member: myself.

This was the first item on the list.

1. Popups during fighting (except for ice/kill popups) are making me miss out on icing other players! Grrrr!

We totally agree that popups disrupt the fighting experience, so we’ve removed unnecessary popups to allow you to ice and kill uninterrupted. There may be a rare instance when a popup occurs, but, for the most part, you should notice that this issue has been greatly improved.

Please share your feedback regarding Popups During Fighting.

 

This is true, some of us complained about this a lot. When the PAC first met at the end of February this year, we had all just suffered through the Valentine's Day event of 2011. Those damned broken hearts, omg.

But hey, they did finally quit with those types of events, and pop-ups during fighting are usually just normal fighting pop-ups like ices.

Zynga wants to know what you think about getting pop-ups when you're fighting. Visit this Getsatisfaction.com thread to voice your own opinion about it. I made sure to voice my own opinion there, and I encourage and ask you to do the same.

One issue that was brought up in this thread is about Iced posts in particular. I support the reduction (not removal) of Iced posts. What do you think?