Avatar Shmavatar - No Really Does Mean No, Zynga

So I get home from work today and I see some stories on the blogs about Mafia Wars incorporating an avatar into the game. An avatar. Seriously. I went to the official Mafia Wars facebook page to confirm my fear, and yes it is true. And, there is an "official" survey we can take here: http://zynga.tm/2On . I selected no.

If you ask me, this is an unnecessary and unwanted change to the game that is ultimately about making players buy more reward points (I am not alone, or even original, in having this sentiment). It also seems this avatar feature will factor in to fighting, somehow. That really turns my stomach since fighting is my favorite feature in the game (and I really don't want Zynga to screw with it). And didn't they already try this avatar crap with the epic failure that was Mafia Wars 2?

This is what Zynga has to say about the whole Avatar Shmavatar nonsense:

Heya Mobsters,

The Mafia Wars team loves to delight our badass community with innovative features that will help improve the game and make the experience more fascinating.

One such feature we have planned is the Avatar. Avatar will be your visual representation in the game. You will be able to dress up in different costumes. These items/costume parts can also have some stats. Avatars could be integrated with our fight system so that it affects the fight outcome for you. You could see your and other players Avatar on profile pages and during fights.

Help us make better this feature better by completing this very quick survey to let us know what you think of this one.

-

The Mafia Wars Team

Don't be fooled. When they say the feature is "planned", it most certainly means that it is already packaged, sealed, and ready for delivery, regardless of what we say in any survey. You see, Zynga fails to appreciate that No really does mean No. BUT, I still suggest filling the survey out and voicing your opinion in any medium possible. Send them e-mails, flood the forums, post on the blogs, post on their Facebook page. That way, when it all blows up in their faces, at least we as players can shrug and say: "we tried to tell you".

Zynga has made it clear they have no long term loyalty or commitment to any one brand of game, and I think ultimately this approach will fail them. Whether Zynga realizes it or not, people pay attention. We notice things. We remember things, too. They won't always have us by the balls with this game called Mafia Wars. And believe me, when Mafia Wars collapses, I have no plans to play any other Zynga games, and I am not alone. As a matter of fact, because of how Zynga treats us, I will actively avoid ANYTHING to do with Zynga. I will actively discourage anyone else from even playing a Words with Friends game on their iPhone.

Usually, when we as players ask Zynga to stop doing something, they keep doing it, and even do it more. So I guess we will be seeing the Avatar bullcrap at some point. But they are for sure gonna know that I think they (Zynga) suck. And you can't see it, but I am giving them the bird right now!!!! Enjoi - {ℳ} ßrµ†µ§

Mafia Wars 2 gone from travel bar....again

This seems like a bit of a theme now, with Mafia Wars 2 being located--or not--on the Mafia Wars travel bar. Now you see it, now you don't. Just kidding, it's back again! Oh wait, gone again.

Is Zynga smoking the funny stuff, or did they actually pay attention to our complaints? It was super annoying having Mafia Wars 2 located on the travel bar, because it was easy to click on when you meant to click on the Secret District, Leticia Colombia.

Get your Mafia Wars 2 Pole Dancer!

Finally, days after many others saw this Mafia Wars 2 cross promotion, I got the pop-up in my own game. You can earn the Pole Dancer by reaching level 5 in Mafia Wars 2.

Pole Dancer 125 101
 

Quality: Rare

Type: Henchmen

Sub-Types:

Location: Special Event

Personally,the Pole Dancer is hot, with stats of 125 attack and 101 defense, but this is not the kind of cross promotion I would be looking to do if I were Zynga and I wanted more Mafia Wars players to play Mafia Wars 2. I guess I'll suffer a bit more clicking for this, but then I'm blocking it.

It's also damn annoying that you can't even click out of or get around the stupid pop-up for the cross promotion. Zynga needs to learn that beating us over the head will not make us like something.

Hey Zynga, how's about a stamina refill cross-promotion? That might would get me to play Mafia Wars 2 a bit more.

Mafia Wars 2 on Travel Bar?

I haven't been much into the game the past several days, as my school work has been heavier with approaching midterms. I did notice the Mafia Wars 2 banner a couple days ago, and this morning when I went to New York to build some property items, I noticed that Mafia Wars 2 has also been added to the travel bar. Really, Zynga?

I could be wrong, but I think they want us to play Mafia Wars 2 :D

Have you tried it?

I better run, before my Family realizes that I'm blogging instead of doing schoolwork....I'm going, I'm going!

Zynga: More Social. More, more, more.

Lots of new crap on the Zynga blog. More Villes, more games, more more more. They can't be bothered to fix what they have, of course. I don't know why Zynga feels that they must continually inflate profits with more garbage in the form of broken games. I thought the sustainability of a company depended on the quality of their products. There IS no concept of a "quality product" at Zynga. And since they cannot be bothered to fix and improve what they have, I'm not sure why I should be remotely interested in putting up with the same continued spewing of pointless, annoying games. Read with me: 

Submitted by Zynga on Tue, 10/11/2011 - 11:14

We just wrapped up Zynga Unleashed, a news event where we announced brand spankin’ new play – including a gaggle of new social games including our next “Ville”, and our very own new play service, code named, “Project Z.”

Consider this blog post your one-stop-shop for all things Unleashed. We’re talking games, platforms, and a whole new way to play.

“Project Z” 
We’re lucky to have fantastic social platforms as partners and we continue to focus on bringing more games to mobile devices and to players all over the world. What we’ve found from talking to our players is that they want to play online with friends who love the same games, and they want to connect with others who are playing at that very moment. We call that the promise of instant social, and today we’re taking a big step towards it with the announcement of “Project Z,” a new social games service from Zynga, enabled by Facebook Connect.


There will be a lot more information to come as we work towards the launch of Project Z, but beginning today, players can reserve their gamer identity tags, called zTags, by visiting http://www.Zynga.com. You’ll own your zTag and it will travel with you between games on the Project Z service. Project Z is coming to a browser near you very soon. Get ready.

Games for Everyone, Everywhere 
That’s our goal, and today we announced new games across a number of platforms. You want details? We’ve got details.

CastleVille
Built by one of our talented studios in the Lone Star State, Zynga Dallas, CastleVille is our latest addition to the “Ville” franchise. Enter a rich medieval world with an engaging storyline, just a touch of fantasy and memorable and playful characters. CastleVille is the most beautiful game we’ve ever made, and that’s evident in the scenery, the animation, and the playful and lively characters that make this game sing.
The characters you meet and the decisions you make in CastleVille affect the mysterious locations you discover, and the rare items you reveal. Like a beautiful snow flake or an artisanal brick oven pizza, no two games are the same.

And one last thing that makes CastleVille special—the music. We’re bringing players an original orchestral soundtrack, recorded in Seattle with a 75-piece orchestra and full choir. It’s the first time this has ever been done in a social game, and not to get all sappy on you, but the music gives us chills.

We can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on, but you’ll have to wait to play. Check out the game’s Facebook page for updates on when you can build the castle and kingdom of your dreams.
CastleVille – Get Your Happy Ending J
Facebook: www.facebook.com/castleville
Twitter: @zCastleville 

Zynga Casino’s Zynga Bingo
Z-Y-N-G-A, Z-Y-N-G-A, Z-Y-N-G-A, and social was its name-O. Yeah… thanks for humoring us there. But we’re not messing around with Zynga Bingo, which along with Zynga Poker, the largest social poker game in the world, will now makeup the newly created Zynga Casino franchise. You’ve played bingo before right? This was a social game before people actually used the word social. We’re talking friends, fun, and the indescribable but oh so awesome feeling you get when you hit it, before anyone else, and you’re the winner. BINGO!!! So break out your digital daubers, choose from one of many themed bingo rooms (Pirates Paradise! Vegas Lights!), and grab your friends. You’re going to have some serious fun with Zynga Bingo.

And because they’ll both be part of Zynga Casino, your chips will move with you from Zynga Poker to Zynga Bingo. We’re also going to make it easy for you to find your friends while they’re playing, no matter which “table” they’re sitting at in either one of the games. Zynga Poker is available on Zynga Casino today, and keep your eyes peeled for Zynga Bingo. Coming soon!
Facebook: www.facebook.com/zyngabingo
Twitter: @ZyngaCasino and @ZyngaBingo

Hidden Chronicles 
This is a new genre for us, but one that’s grounded in the very essence of game play. Did you read Highlights growing up? Remember Memory? Concentration? Consider this the grown up but still fun, digital version. Hidden Chronicles combines memory and skill and wraps it in a beautiful and fun social game. Seriously – you could just load up a game screen and stare at it. We have.

Hidden Chronicles is about mystery, discovery, and a little friendly competition. Like snowboarding or making scrambled eggs, it’s easy to learn but hard to master. As you move through boards discovering thousands of hidden items, you’ll also unlock the story of Ramsey Manor, your home base in Hidden Chronicles. You’ll meet and interact with unique caretakers there, and have the ability to build, decorate and customize the Manor.

And what, you ask, makes this game social? Well, you can play with your friends of course. Challenge them to particular scenes and compare scores, cooperate to build out your personal estates, and if you’re feeling generous, hide gifts on your friends’ game boards. Be on the lookout for Hidden Chronicles.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/hiddenchronicles
Twitter: @HiddenChronicle

DreamZoo 
Have you ever held a rainbow-colored giraffe in the palm of your hand? Yes? Was this while you were at Burning Man? Well, for those who haven’t, rejoice! Dream Zoo is here. Coming soon to the Apple App Store in multiple languages, Dream Zoo is our first zoo themed game that lets players collect some of the world’s most exotic animals.

Players can connect with friends around the world and help one another care and feed for their digital wild kingdoms. To be clear, we’re serious about mobile, and zoos. Stay tuned, we’re releasing Dream Zoo into the wild soon.
Twitter: @DreamZooGame

Mafia Wars 2
Maybe you saw the news yesterday on our first true sequel from the wrong side of the tracks? This is a game that kicks ass and takes names and a single platform is just not enough turf for this big gun. So today, we announced that Mafia Wars 2 is now available on both Facebook and Google+ games. Play Mafia Wars today!
Twitter:@MafiaWars2

Facebook Mobile
Facebook announced the launch of its mobile apps and mobile site, and today we’re announcing three HTML5 games will be coming to Facebook’s mobile apps site soon: Zynga Poker Mobile Web, Words With Friends HTML5 and Farmville Express.

Developed using HTML5 technology, these games slice, they dice, they even julienne! Sorry, got a little carried away there. But they will deliver faster load times, smoother game-play, and near-immediate responses to player actions all within the comfort of your own mobile browser. Zynga Poker Mobile Web, Words With Friends HTML5 and Farmville Express are the first large-scale games to be built using HTML5.

So that’s it, your full Zynga Unleashed rundown. Thanks for playing with us, today and always. We hope you love playing these new games as much as we enjoyed making them. As Mark Pincus would say: Let’s Play!

Mafia Wars 2 goes Live

I woke up today to an influx of Mafia Wars 2 invites, signaling the public release of Mafia Wars 2.

Now that it's been released, Closed Beta testers are able to talk about their experience. So I'll tell you this: if you were hoping for something to hang on to, with the decline of Mafia Wars, Mafia Wars 2 is not going to be the ticket. In fact, at first I had a hard time getting into the proper "testing" frame of mind because it was so different from the original game of Mafia Wars. I was able to get more into it after I accepted that it was Just Another Game.

Once you get over that fact, it's kind of a cute game. The main character has cute sideboob, anyway! And the Peeing in a Fountain objective was amusing. As I said, it resembles Mafia Wars not at all, and bears a striking resemblance to all the other boingy, blingy Zynga games. If you remember the game Crime City, that's what it reminds me of.

You would think Zynga would consider doing another game like Mafia Wars, considering it had over 20 million daily players at one time, before they started trying to kill it. I don't think Mafia Wars 2 is going to appeal to the original players.

Henchmen Are Here

All of the people items previously categorized as Armor have been converted to Henchmen. Stock up to stay competitive and be sure to arm every member of your Mafia for maximum benefit. 

As was announced last week, the new Henchman category will be introduced to the inventory system very soon. Some players may notice that their total Armor stats will decrease when this happens. This is because many of the items previously listed in your Armor category will have been moved into the Henchmen group. Although this will primarily affect your Armor, there may be a few items from other categories that will be moved into the Henchmen group as well. If you notice a decrease in any of your original item categories, you should note an increase in your new Henchmen one, and your total combined score should actually be larger than when people items were categorized as Armor.

If it appears that your stats have not adjusted correctly, try purchasing an item from a city store using city cash and then visiting your fight page. Doing so will trigger your inventory to update, at which point it should reflect your most recent totals for each category.

Zynga Goes on Buying Spree

Zynga Goes on Defensive Domain Buying Spree

While Zynga was announcing Mafia Wars 2, they were going to great lengths to protect that new IP.  Zynga purchased over 75 web addresses on September 20th, according to information uncovered by Fusible. The addresses cover almost every possible iteration of the Mafia Wars name, from insulting – mafiawars2sucks.com, to fawning – ilovemafiawars2.com, to purposely mistyped – wwwmafiawars2.com. While none of the domains seem to go anywhere yet, the complete list can be found here.

This I found over at Mafia Wars Maniac, posted by Hayden.

My husband's comment to this was:
They forgot "www.mafiawarsstolemywife.com"

Mafia Wars 2

The rumors are true, and coming to fruition very soon: Mafia Wars 2

Check out the fan page HERE and stay tuned for news!