UPDATED Gifting Insanity

****UPDATE: Zynga took action, probably too much action, and made many items back to being ungiftable.  Gold Treasure Chest keys being among them, and of course the items needed for the limited time events such as mafia poker.  Some of those are good to not be giftable. UNFORTUNATELY, Special Parts and Exotic Animal Feed are also among the items that are no longer giftable.  Zynga can't get it right to save their lives.  Morons. I RECOMMEND EVERYONE CONTACT CS AND DEMAND SPECIAL PARTS AND EXOTIC FEED BE MADE GIFTABLE AGAIN!****

Well, I am stunned by this recent gifting expansion by Zynga.  It is LONG overdue.  And it's also fraught with error.  Either by oversight or apathy, Zynga has created an unfair advantage for certain players.  Gold treasure Chest Keys are giftable.  The items needed for ALL 3 current limited time events are giftable....which really leaves me scratching my head.  The knob wrenches, the parts for Ripped Rims, AND Poker Cards are giftable....this is obviously a great thing for players with multiple accounts, and an even greater thing for people who have multiple accounts that actually get played often.

I am no judge of people with minis. I have several.  I think minis are one of a few reasons the game survives - they drive the DAU number up considerably.  I'd say AT LEAST half the DAU are mini accounts, if not more than half.  My judgement, as always, is reserved for the idiots at Zynga.

I am, however, excited about the new life this has breathed into the trading community, which was all but dead.  The trading community was a special part of Mafia Wars. Maybe some people who quit playing when trading died out will come back.  I know I will be compelled to do some trading to get my hands on some of these damned treasure chest keys.  I am also pumped that special parts and exotic animal feed are now giftable.

So my final thoughts are: I am saying "Way to go, Zynga" in two very different ways at the same time. One is very sincere, one is very sarcastic.

uh,

{ℳ} Қetąmῗиe Қῗd =Ʀ²Ƒ=

Don't Build the DIY Weapons Lab!

The jack asses at Zynga have yet again defied logic and reason, and have "given" us ANOTHER limited time property.  DO NOT BUILD IT.  By building it you are voting YES to more and more of these things.

I am sick and tired of two things.

FIRST: I am sick and tired of Zynga's inability to comply with the demands of its players. I am fairly confident 90% or more of players hate the limited time properties.  They are stressful. They offer items with such impressive stats that one almost feels compelled to get to level 15, for fear of falling behind the curve.  Zynga does not listen to the complaints and continues to push out these things.

SECOND:  I am sick and tired of people whining and moaning about these properties while still caving in and filling the feeds with parts requests.  JUST SAY NO.  I realize that may be an unpopular thing to say, but somebody has to say it.  This new property disease has gone way beyond insanity.  Every time a new property comes out people actually quit playing.  The only reason there is a bump in the DAU is because people log in to their mini accounts to click part links.  Well NOT ME.  Screw'em.  I will offer Zynga zero positive reinforcement for their idiotic behavior regarding these damned properties.  In fact, I will prolly contact CS and scream at them, as I hope everyone else will do.  Hopefully PAC 2.0 is screaming their heads off.

ANYONE who hates these properties should follow 4 simple steps:

1.  DO NOT BUILD THE PROPERTY  (first and foremost)

2.  Don't quit the game  (please)

3.  Scream at Zynga  (loud)

4.  Share this article with your friends :D

Yours Truly,

A disenchanted {ℳ} ßrµ†µ§ =Ʀ²Ƒ=

How to kill a game...and other stuff :P

Many of you know that Facebook went public last week, and given how over valued the company was, it is no surprise that the stock did not do well during its first couple days on the market.  But more interesting to me, and perhaps many of you is that another company suffered a massive decline in stock value the day of Facebook's IPO:  Zynga.  Forbes has an excellent article about all this¹, and I suggest you read it (I will provide a link at the end of this blog entry).  But I do wish to quote directly the last paragraph of the Forbes article:

"As for Zynga, now that they’ve begun to shift focus toward actually original titles, maybe they’ll turn a new leaf. Maybe, as Paul Tassi writes, they’ve realized that their terrible reputation has caught up with them. If that’s the case, it’s possible that the company will continue to grow. If not, I’d be hesitant to place too many eggs in your Zynga basket, with or without the Facebook IPO shaking things up."

You know what I think?  I think Zynga will never change.  I think that their reputation will only get worse, at least within the Mafia Wars community.  At this point it will take a corporate miracle to save this game.  All Mafia Wars is now to Zynga is a dying cash cow.   They have demonstrated having little to zero interest in what we as players actually want, and they feed into the addiction of the spenders like me.  They are not going to bring trading back.  They have not made any more loot giftable.  The number of events has steadily increased, not decreased. They increase the number of marketplace promotions and crate sales, knowing that idiots like myself, who at this point can hardly help themselves/myself, will spend hundreds of dollars buying crates.  We now have this VIP Subscription, which even many of the stingier players are coughing up $24.95 a month for.   And another m***** f******* limited time property is on the way.

What used to be one of the most incredible online gaming phenomena has now become a pitiful and shameless example of corporate greed.  And it is utterly SHAMELESS.  A game that millions upon millions of people used to play now has a mere three to four hundred thousand addicts remaining² -  and they are quitting everyday by the handfuls.

A long time mafia member of mine, who often shares, and possibly exceeds,  my cynical attitude towards Zynga and Mafia Wars, recently shared with me a list of 6 easy steps to kill a game:
     1.) Spam Wars
     2.) Bloat the game and run all but [the] supercomputuer owners away
     3.) Micromanage the game playing experience
     4.) Punish players for every mistake you make
     5.) Concentrate on making money instead of fixing game problems
     ‎6.) Keep changing the goalposts

I could not have said it better myself - {ℳ} ßrµ†µ§ =Ʀ²Ƒ=

¹ Forbes article entitled "Zynga Shares Plummet As Facebook Goes Public" can be found here:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/05/18/zynga-shares-plummet-as-facebook-goes-public/ 

² Mafia Wars Metrics from AppData:
http://www.appdata.com/apps/facebook/10979261223-mafia-wars