Holiday Treasure Hunt: christmas stockings 'unlocked'

The last item for the Holiday Treasure Hunt, christmas stockings, started dropping now. Now we have how long to finish this and unwrap all our presents? Oh yeah, Zynga didn't say. Zynga has not been good about communication lately, and it stinks. This is now the second week that we've not had a This & Next Week post. Booo. I hope Zynga has just been more off their game because of the holidays and that this isn't a trend of things to come (or less things to come, rather).

 Ahh, I found the timer! Thanks David.

'This and Next Week' forgotten?

Usually by late Friday or early Saturday, Pacific time, we have a post from the official Mafia Wars blog. That post typically covers the past week's events, which few of us care about since we already know about it. It also covers bug fixes, which are not usually the bugs that were the highest priority for Mafia Wars players.

More importantly to many of us, though, it gives a preview of events and features in the pipeline for the coming week. Unfortunately this has never been a complete list or a foolproof way of knowing what was coming, but it was still appreciated, and covered by many sites, including this one.

This week....no 'This and Next Week'. Did Zynga forget? Hopefully we'll get the info soon.

NEW FIGHT LOOT: Coming Next Week

Notice that "the Don's Gift" seems to have gone missing? I kept watching for that yesterday, along with the Family properties. For next week, it didn't even make the list. I'm bummed that we have to wait for Family properties again...that was one I had looked forward to. Oh well, hopefully only a few more days :-/

This coming week looks to be rather busy, especially considering that Zynga rarely includes all the new updates in this "This and Next Week" posting. We have another Ice Season, another Secret District, another extra mastery event--this one for Brazil, at least, and:
::drum roll::

NEW FIGHT LOOT! I figured we were about due for new fight loot, and I've seen lots of random comments asking when the next generation would arrive. Now we know.

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

Family Properties
Ice Season: 13
Secret District: Lexington Hotel
Double Mastery: Brazil
New Fight Loot

FIGHT THE UNDEAD coming this week

For a few months now, the Mafia Wars blog has had this "This and Next Week" segment. It features what's happened during the past week--which all of us already know and probably don't care about, so I'm not sure why it's featured.

The part referring to the coming week has NEVER featured every item coming in the next week, indicating this is only a token appearance of interacting with the players.

This week, they tell us that the "Fight the Undead" feature is coming this week; many of us have been wondering about this. The Fight the Undead banner has been on our Mafia Wars home page for several days now. We still know nothing about it, but now we know it's coming this week.

This & Next Week - 10/7/2011: new Secret District to come

Coming Next Week*
*As far as currently scheduled, but things can change.
Secret District: Leticia, Colombia
Uncover the secrets of this jungle hideaway!
Mission Event: La Casa Grande
Imagine getting thrown in the big house. Now imagine getting thrown in the big house in Brazil! Escape to earn the Jaguarundi (87/159).

Another week, another Secret District, brought to you by Mafia Wars and Zynga. This Secret District will hopefully be on par with with the post-nerfed Smuggler's Haven and then El Dorado. To go along with, another mission event ::yawn::

It appears the required consumable for this Secret District will be the Casa Grande Reservation. 

Click HERE to start sending them to your friends NOW.

Click here to bookmark this page so you can send more!

This and Next Week 9/23

Who am I kidding? No one cares what happened this past week. Here's what's ahead....according to the Zyngons, which is in no way a guarantee that this is what will happen, and I guarantee this isn't all that will happen....

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

***MORE BROKE SCHITE! ***

 Henchmen ConversionHenchmen will truly become a 5th item type in Mafia Wars and will carry new weight in fighting calculations.

Daily Take Extension
You'll soon receive new rewards for playing more than 7 days in a row!

          Expansion Of Giftable Loot
          We'll be increasing the level of giftable loot!

Family Battle Tweaks
Family Battles will receive some improvements.

New NYC Property
We'll be releasing the 4th new time-limited upgradable New York property.

Last and This Week 8/29

Apparently they've decided to just start doing the This And Next Week posts on Mondays. And this week's edition got a different name: Last And This Week. More nonsense from Zynga.

As per usual, the coming this week part is the part I'm most interested in.

Mission Event: Return To Cuba
We've been given a tip that the Neo-Imperium have lowered their guard in Cuba. Now's your chance to take back what's yours!

Our mission event this week is the Return To Cuba Temporary Visa event. I expect we will see that later tonight.

I thought this was interesting:

NYC Buildable Items Upgrade
High-level items buildable in NYC properties get the Bronze Star treatment.

Notice it doesn't say the properties will get upgraded again (although I've heard a rumor that they will eventually be upgraded to level 30) but I wouldn't be surprised to see that. But upgradable items, is that what I'm understanding? Hmm.

This and Next Week "8/19"

The official Mafia Wars blog finally got around to releasing this week's update of This And Next Week. Or maybe they have changed the posting from Friday to Monday, who knows.

Anyhoo, the Released This Week portion I usually skip over. There's nothing of note there.

Bug Fixes this week does contain a noteworthy entry that I'm anxious to check out.

BUG: The Rivals list was not accurately displaying which players were iced.
FIXED: The Rivals list now more accurately displays which players are alive.

The rivals list was a great idea of Zynga's, but for the longest time we haven't been able to see which of them would be 'live targets', like we can see live or iced opponents on the fight list. You couldn't tell for sure until you actually tapped them with an attack. I haven't been making much use of my rivals list lately, but now that I've read this tidbit, I'm suddenly anxious to call on some old friends :0)

Coming Next Week*
*As far as currently scheduled, but things can change.
Epic Family Boss Fights
Some epic bosses are on their way and it's going to take the collaborative strength of your family to defeat them!
Boost Mastery Event: Arch Enemies
Draw strength from these boosts. Your will enemies quiver with fear.

So the Family boss fight is on the schedule again. Knowing that it's probably going to be just like the Raven and all the other boring boss fights of late, I can't say I'm excited about this one. Although, I guess it would be interesting to have a new set of boss fight combos to figure out.

The Boost Mastery Event, Arch Enemies, sounds like it's going to be very similar to the Freedom Fighters event we saw at the end of June. A gifting event, where the gifts are usable boosts. Fair enough, I didn't mind that one. Provided they keep spacing out the events.

Zynga's also still looking for player feed back on a couple of items. Read HERE for information on the Gold Mystery Bag survey.

It seems they're still pushing their player survey about the new property collection system "Union Hall" to be found on your Mafia Wars homepage. Why does that irk me? Because the bastages haven't bothered finishing the freaking rollout. I STILL don't have it.

This and Next Week - better late than never

Zynga has finally posted their This And Next Week bit on the official blog - 2 days late is better than never, right?

As I've become accustomed to, the "schedule" for next week really doesn't tell us much information, and like usual I'm sure we'll get hit with a dozen other new things this week that weren't on the blog.

The next mission event will be based in the new Secret District in Brazil, and it'll be called To Steal A Mockingbird. The secret district, Smuggler's Haven, unlocks for everyone tomorrow. Remember, it sounded like these secret districts will come and go, so it's only here for a limited time.

Epic Family Boss Fights
Some epic bosses are on their way and it's going to take the collaborative strength of your family to defeat them!

That sounds potentially fun, although I despise the current boss fights.

This and Next Week 8/6

This week's edition of This & Next Week feels like our busy week is finally behind us!


Properties are about to look like Atlantic City... and you can hope they don't reach around and leave you in the grip of a slow mission roll out:


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

• Union Hall

                   Collect, upgrade, and build from all of your 
                   properties in one central location.

• New Mission Event: Get A Grip

                   Your protected businesses are being 
                   targeted, your mafia members are being picked 
                   off, and your safehouse is under attack! The 
                   only way to get a grip on this situation is to 
                   set a trap with yourself as the bait!

This and Next Week 7/29

This week's edition of This & Next Week seems to contain a bit more info than they gave us last week. A new addition is coming to Missions--mission boosts...? Great, something else to collect. The new mission event will be called Wild Things and will involve...robbing from zoos? Alright then. It'll be interesting to see what the Family Level Ups will entail, and the Union Hall property collector sounds useful. 


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

• Mission Mania

A new addition is coming to Missions. Use Mission boosts to help you finish your tasks more quickly and efficiently.

• New Mission Event: Wild Things

You'll need to steal from Private Zoos to build up your illegal exotic animals business. Take care of your pet felines and you'll be rewarded with the Golden Tiger (63 attack, 153 defense).

• Level Up Your Family

Socialism is making a comeback. Do jobs, fight, and more to earn Family experience points and level up as a Family. You will all be rewarded for working together.

• Union Hall

Collect, upgrade, and build from all your Properties in one central location.

Search for the New Raven

I completed my 5th round of The Raven today... I made it a consumable run... and hunted around for a different red combo... but I couldn't see anything different...

The Official Mafia Wars Blog gave us a tease with this week's message:

I hope they heard more than the feedback to pull the 100 time achievement... my hope is that the shots start to fall from the sky or another combo becomes available to make this a fair-er-er fight.

Have you noticed anything different when The Raven comes calling? More consumables? different combos? Better dermatologist?

If it's going to take a year to win this battle that scar should heal up... no?

This and Next Week

The This & Next Week post is out from the Mafia Wars blog. As usual, I'm more interested in what's coming next week than what's already happened. After last week, I get the feeling that the list of items coming next week is rather skimpier than what's actually on their scheduled. 

• New Mission Event: Ties That Bind
You’re taking on a newly-elected state governor in Brazil. Keep your head down and power through a major smear campaign to earn a Glamour Helmet (62/150

The Ties That Bind mission event was originally listed last week, I think, but has been rescheduled for this week. Likely this is simply due to the fact that the other mission event won't end until Monday.

• Family Chat 2.0
New features are on the way, including in-chat family member player updates and popping up the chat window.

Now this is something that's long overdue, and I'm glad to finally see it's coming very soon. Several of the people who beta tested the Family module have suggested some improvements to the Family Chat. I wonder if they mean "pop out" the chat window.  

• Collector's Edition Item: Daylight Savings
Never lose another hour of your life again.

So there's "a" limited edition item coming this week, for the collectors.