Secret Stash Event Delayed

Info from The Official Mafia Wars blog:

The Secret Stash event we mentioned a few blogs ago has been delayed!

We spent a while looking into this event and trying to figure out exactly how we should approach it, and finally decided that the way things stood, the event just wasn't fun enough. As a result, we're going to go back and take another look at the way it's going to work.

Have no fear! We hope to have a revamped approach that we think you'll enjoy very soon.

Fight List Update

Head's up, Mafia Wars fans - We're updating our fight lists! What this means for you is that you’ll now be put into fight groups with players who are at a closer level with you, so you can be more competitive in fighting. This revamp of the fight lists will mostly affect higher level players. Take a look at the sample of the updated fight groups and see who you’ll be up against:

 

In addition to this update, we've also added a new achievement. You'll be able to earn the Shark Tank achievement and a skill point once you win 10 fights after you reach level 1000 in your game. For those of you who are already above level 1000 and have won 10 fights, the Shark Tank achievement and skill point will be granted retroactively.
There’s never been more incentive to keep leveling up and winning your fights. Remember, there’s strength in numbers, so be sure to keep growing your mafia family as well and you’ll get the achievement in no time. Head to Mafia Wars today and take on some new opponents!
http://blog.mafiawars.com/2011/01/fight-list-update.html

Revamping your Inventory

If you've been playing Mafia Wars for a while (and that can be anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 years) you probably have collected a ton of different weapons, armor, vehicles and animals. We understand that trying to keep track of everything you have can be a chore when your inventory looks like this image:

It is hard to know what you have, what you are using to outfit your 501 and what you need to get. That's what we hope to improve by doing an Inventory Revamp. Currently we are in our labs working on a solution to better organize your inventory... AND WE WANT YOUR INPUT!
Visit the forum thread for a glimpse of the mock-up screen shots and let us know what you think. What improvements would you add?
http://blog.mafiawars.com/2010/11/revamping-your-inventory.html
From Forum:
Greetings Mafia Fans,

As part of greater initiatives that are coming to Mafia Wars in the future we are working on an inventory revamp. This would change the current layout and design of how you see and interact with your inventory. To help us create the best design and system for you please see the images below and answer our feedback questions or input your own feedback about what you see.

1. How/Why do you use your inventory right now?
2. How and what would you like to use it for?
3. Do the proposed changes fulfill your desires for accessing and using your inventory?
4. Do you understand every component of the shown images? If not, which aspects are confusing
5. Would this lead to you valuing your items more or help you to outfit your 501 mafia?

Below are image mock ups (a work in progress) that we have created to assist us in gathering feedback, these images will change based on feedback we receive. We are working to get this delivered to game before the end of this calendar year.


Image 1: Search for Items
Find items quickly by using filtered searches. Let us know how much this would help you and what you would change about this current design.

Image 2: Quality/Rarity Key
Instantly know the value of a loot item by color coded quality guide. Do these colors work for you? Can you see a clear distinction in the color coding?

Image 3: Wishlist & Inventory Management Tools
Add and remove items from your wishlist, as well as see at a glance what your best and worst active items are so you know where to build to get stronger.

Image 4: Sorting Items
Sort your items by a variety of settings to determine best and worst items as well as a suggestion tool to help you know what items will help you gain advantage. What choices would you want on your sorting menu?

Images 5 & 6: Item Description and Purchase/Drop Info
Find out everything you need to know and more about your items, including how to purchase, add to wishlist, or gift to your mafia. What information is helpful to you and are we missing anything?

Image 7: Average Per Level
At a glance know how strong you are compared against other players your same level. Is there other information you look at when comparing your strength against another player?

If you have feedback about any of these Images, please list the Image number when making reference to the feedback, this will help us know what aspect of the Inventory Revamp you are discussing in your post.

Your feedback helps us to improve the game, please assist us in delivering the highest quality experience to you by giving us your feedback about these suggested design changes and the functionality features.

Thank you,

The Mafia Wars Team http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?p=7338306#post7338306

Carlito's Way Limited Edition!

You try to get out, you want to go straight, but just when you thought you were done… you get pulled right back in!

“The dream don't come no closer by itself. We gotta run after it now.” ~ Carlito Brigante, Carlito’s Way

Well, to help you stay on top of your game, we’re offering limited edition “Carlito’s Way” items. Arm yourself and your mafia before time runs out and these items are gone for good.

A life of crime is a hard life to give up, “It's who I am… it's what I am. Right or wrong, I can't change that.” ~ Carlito Brigante
http://blog.mafiawars.com/2010/11/carlitos-way-limited-edition.html

FarmVille and FrontierVille Cross Promos!

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We’ve lined up some cool cross promotions coming your way soon. Mafia Wars has teamed up with FarmVille and FrontierVille for our latest release, Italy! When players play FarmVille during the cross promo, they can receive a special notification directing them to Mafia Wars. From there, they’ll have a chance to earn an Italian-themed Limited Edition item after leveling up 3 times and reaching level 8.

For the FrontierVille cross promo, players playing FrontierVille will be able to enter Mafia Wars through a notification where they will work on mastering the job “Find an Old Family Friend” in the Palermo region (District 2). Once they complete their task, they’ll be handsomely rewarded with another great Limited Edition item.

Get ready for the cross promotions and play Zynga’s FarmVille and FrontierVille! More details to follow…

http://blog.mafiawars.com/2010/10/farmville-and-frontierville-cross-promos.html

New 3x Mastery

You asked and we listened! Players have been expressing interest in working through the cities faster in order to keep up with new city releases like Las Vegas, and the upcoming Italy, so we wanted to lend a hand. We’re changing our mastery stats where you’ll now permanently be awarded 3x mastery when you do jobs in ALL cities except for the recently released Las Vegas, and the planned release Italy. Now’s your perfect time to work toward finishing any loose ends you may have in the earlier city releases!

If you haven’t had the opportunity to work on our newer cities like Las Vegas because you’re still trying to finish off Bangkok or Moscow, you now have the chance to work on catching up! If you’re already an aggressive player who’s been sweeping through jobs, don’t worry – we’re staying mindful of this and will continue releasing exciting and challenging content for you to master. We hope this new change will make for a more active game play for all of our dedicated players. Check out the new system when you play Mafia Wars: http://zyn.ga/1JJ

http://blog.mafiawars.com/2010/10/new-3x-mastery.html

Buy a War Wagon to help annihilate Huntington’s Disease

Starting Friday at 12:01 AM PST, Mafia Wars will team up with the Huntington's Disease Society of America (HDSA) to raise funds to support research for the neurological disorder. We will run a one-week campaign to purchase a limited edition War Wagon (77 attack, 43 defense) for 35 Reward Points through Oct. 21.

One hundred percent of net proceeds will go towards the HDSA's Coalition for a Cure, a research program made of scientists from around the world who have made key discoveries surrounding Huntington’s Disease and who are developing therapy treatments. The neurological disorder, which leads to a loss of muscle coordination and dementia, affects 1 in every 10,000 people and strikes both men and women equally.

Mafia Wars teamed up with the HDSA six months ago. We ran a five-day campaign in which more than 24,000 users raised over $100,000 by purchasing an exploding teddy bear. Currently there is no cure for the debilitating disease. Help support research to find a cure with a purchase of the War Wagon. Visit the Marketplace!

http://blog.mafiawars.com/2010/10/buy-a-war-wagon-to-help-annihilate-huntingtons-disease.html

We hear you! Vegas will be later!

Due to an overwhelming response to allow more time for people to make arrangements, we are post-poning our Mafia Wars: MADE Las Vegas convention until early 2011!

We’ll be making an announcement in the next week about the new dates and potentially new location.  The great part about this date change is it will allow for longer planning and actually lower the ticket pricing, a savings which will be reflected in our next ticket sales.

This is going to be one amazing event done up as only Mafia Wars can do it! In the mean time...

http://blog.mafiawars.com/2010/09/we-hear-you-vegas-will-be-later.html

Mafia Wars Launches the Loyalty Program

Don Corleone: Do I have your loyalty?

Peter Clemenza: Yes, always Godfather.

- The Godfather, 1972

We may shoot, fight, and rob people, but if there's one thing we pride ourselves on in the mafia it's loyalty. Today Mafia Wars launched the Loyalty Program for our users to receive special perks like discounts, exclusive items, front-of-the-line access to customer support, and invitations.

The new program has several tiers: Emerald, Gold, and Platinum. You will earn loyalty points (LP) as you play more or spend more. You earn LP when you purchase reward points, play Mafia Wars, or click on Mafia Wars feeds and requests that your friends post to offer you bonuses.

You start as an Emerald Player or with a more elite status depending on your loyalty to Mafia Wars. You can achieve a higher status and earn better privileges the more you spend or the more you play.

We currently released the Loyalty Program to a small percentage of our users. Later this week we will roll out this feature to everyone when we can ensure a smooth transition. We value your loyalty as a Mafia Wars fan and are thrilled to provide you with the privileges and rewards you deserve.
http://blog.mafiawars.com/2010/09/mafia-wars-launches-the-loyalty-program.html

An Even Better User Experience

First and foremost, players expect and deserve a reliable game performance. We are always open to your feedback, and the top priority for us is to fix the bugs in our game. This is why we’ve dedicated this week to have our entire team work on these issues.

On Thursday, we cleaned up a lot of bugs to improve the quality of the game. Some of these issues include cracking down on cheaters who exploited a loophole to level up infinitely in Las Vegas. We have zero tolerance for users who abuse the system to give themselves an unfair advantage. We also fixed an issue that didn’t allow some users to send or accept free gifts. Now you can send building materials to friends to upgrade casino properties and chop shops and help them finish their Challenge Mission in Mumbai.

Developers are also fixing issues with It’s On in San Juan, a new limited-time boss fight. We released It’s On In San Juan on Thursday evening. The overwhelming popularity of the event forced us to make adjustments to improve the game performance. We’ve made this our priority to ensure that the feature is reliable and ready for a full release. We will be extending the boss fight event to make sure everyone gets a chance to take down the San Juan bosses.

We have a lot of work to do and a ways to go to improve the game for our users. And we’ll continue to work towards that goal. Have a great weekend playing Mafia Wars.

http://blog.mafiawars.com/2010/09/an-even-better-user-experience.html

New Release Notes

Our top priority at Mafia Wars is to listen to our users. And what you have been telling us is to fix stuff that’s broken in the game. This week’s dedicated to improving the game.

Our team has fixed a whole lot of bugs over the past 2 days. Some of these issues include fixing cross-promotional items that players weren’t receiving, replacing wonky error messages and stopping players from awarding themselves extra skill points when they complete jobs.

More than 20 million users play Mafia Wars each month. Our goal is to provide a better user experience for all our users. That’s a big task, and that’s why our entire team is working together to make it happen. Like you, we want to spend less time staring at a blinking revolver and more time playing the game.

Our work is far from over. And we will continue to spend the rest of the week to fix issues and update you on our progress. It’s time for us to get back to work. In the meantime, go play Mafia Wars!
We have just discussed about the Game News including the Release Notes.. and suddenly now we have it on our game..

Release Notes

Bug Fixes (7):

• Fixed “Show Items” error display when robbing.
• Fixed featured items display on the inventory page.
• Fixed secret stash for jobs in Vegas.
• Fixed erroneous “gift expired” messages when accepting from the Facebook requests page.
• Fixed a bug that was blocking multiple purchases of job gate loot.
• Fixed several display and text errors across the game.
• Fixed an issue that was granting the incorrect item for completing the Frontierville cross promo.

http://blog.mafiawars.com/2010/09/a-better-user-experience.html

Meet the Mafia Wars family - The Bagman

For Curtis, it’s all about the benjamins. And the baht. And the pesos. And pretty much any form of currency that helps him generate money. The Mafia Wars bagman spends his days creating a robust Marketplace filled with enough weapons, crates, loot and other goodies to satisfy the most earnest Reward Points shoppers.

Curtis joined Mafia Wars a year ago to help transform the game into a richer and more social experience. The money man created the addictive Lucky Stash slots minigame and promotes new items in the Marketplace. Curtis sticks to a couple simple strategies to level up quickly within the game. “From gifting to fighting, having more real friends helps you advance much faster,” he says. “And don’t be shy about using Reward Points to your advantage. Purchasing equals faster progression and greater power.”

When he’s not busy spending all his RPs on the Slots, he’s dropping nuggets like, “Green is for the money. The gold is for the honeys.” He’s also kicking it with Snoop Dogg in the desert. Last week the rapper came out to Vegas to help the Mafia Wars team blow up a 4½-ton armored truck. After the explosion, Snoop cracked jokes, signed autographs and took pictures with the team. “He’s a really nice guy. He kept us laughing the whole time,” says Curtis, who took a picture with Snoop in matching black shades and black tshirts.

Go to the Mafia Wars Marketplace to find the best item to strengthen your mafia.

Meet the Mafia Wars Family - The Button Man

Every major criminal empire has a cool and cold-hearted soldier to handle the dirty work. The Mafia Wars family relies on Nick, our loyal button man who spends his days bringing a sophisticated world of modern crime to life, including big-time heists, espionage and drug cartels in places like Bangkok, Moscow and Las Vegas.

When Nick isn’t working on creative concepts to whack someone (Nick’s preferred method is with white tigers), he’s busy working on ways to take out heavy hitters in the game. When he joined Mafia Wars a year ago, Nick spent most of his time as an energy player. He poured all his skill points into energy to master job tiers and become a level 700+ player. “I’m trying to become a better fighter because I keep getting iced by other players who are around the same level but who have put all their skill points in attack and defense,” Nick says. “I’m working on getting more mafia and getting my friends to level up to boost my fighting.”

The best thing about Mafia Wars is the depth of the game. I get to choose what kind of criminal I want to be and which bad things I want to do. I started off acquiring loot, money and properties, and now I focus on building my power and influence.”
http://blog.mafiawars.com/2010/08/meet-the-mafia-wars-family-the-button-man.html