Mafia Wars

Mafia Wars is a multiplayer browser game created by Zynga. It was the 2009 Webby Award People's Voice Winner in the Games category. It is on several social networking sites and on the iPhone.

Platforms

Mafia Wars is available on Facebook, MySpace, Tagged, Sonico, Yahoo!.and as an iPhone App.

On Facebook, as of October 2009, Mafia Wars has 25.9 million monthly active accounts. Some players and clans create multiple accounts to utilize the benefits of the three basic character builds (Fearless, Maniac, and Mogul).

Gameplay
A screenshot of the first New York job tier on Mafia Wars on Facebook

Mafia Wars is set in New York City and Little Italy, with the option for players to travel between New York, Cuba (level 35+), Moscow (level 70+) and Bangkok (upon unlocking items from New York levels, level 18+), and in 2010, Las Vegas and Paris (which is only going to be available for a limited time). The game revolves around doing and mastering jobs to earn cash and experience, with the goal of establishing and advancing one's criminal empire. Players create mafias by recruiting players and using reward points to hire extra mafia members. Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Friendster allow players to recruit from friends to build their mafia and fight against other players. Players can also improve their stats by visiting the Godfather (ie, making a micropayment).

Gameplay revolves around timers: players have limited energy (for doing jobs), and health and stamina meters (for fighting other players), in a manner similar to an RPG game,[7] which slowly recharges over time. With the help of other mafia members that have been recruited, players can eventually fight other players, which may or may not result in the theft of cash, "icing", or "death" of the other player. The game operates on a level up basis. The player earns experience points by completing jobs. Players who manage to complete special tasks (for example, winning fights against bigger mafias or winning fifteen fights in a row) are labeled as having accomplished an "achievement", resulting in a bonus for the player. As they level up, more jobs and features become available, such as the ability to visit Cuba to expand their criminal empire.[8]

After a significant in-game marketing blitz, Zynga added a new city, Moscow, on September 24, 2009.[9] Once a player reaches level 70, they are granted access to Moscow, and they get to choose between the Thieves in Law Vory or the Russian Mafiya. On January 20, 2010, Bangkok Beta was released with some players being granted acess to it, but some not. This is to prevent too many people from going to Bangkok which may cause the system to crash. [10] In Bangkok, players will be able to choose from the Triad and the Yakuza. Two upcoming regions are Las Vegas and Paris, coming out in an unknown exact date in 2010.[8][11] The ranks and episodes are: Street Thug, Associate, Soldier, Enforcer, Hitman, Capo, Consigliere, Underboss, and Boss in New York; El Soldado, El Capitan, El Jefe, El Patron, El Padrino, and El Cacique in Cuba; Baklany, Boets, Brigadir, Avtoritet, Vor, and Pakhan in Moscow; Brawler, Criminal, Pirate, Commandant, Oyabun and Dragon Head in Bangkok.

Character Classes

There are three classes that a player has to choose from when they first start the game. Each class offers a reduced amount of recharge time to one of the three timers. The three classes are:

Maniac: This class has an energy recharge timer of three minutes, unlike the other two classes which have a timer of five minutes. Also the Buttonman position is only available for Maniacs

Mogul: This class gets 5% more money from jobs in all cities. Also, the Top Mafia Bagman position is only for Moguls.

Fearless: This class receives a stamina recharge time reduction (every 3 minutes as opposed to the usual 5). Also, only Fearless players can be a Wheelman in a person's Top Mafia

Character class can be changed by the user by buying a preferred class for 15 Godfather points.


Mafia Wars' parent company, Zynga, has worked to adapt multiple changes within the game, introducing various "beta" features into the game, such as robbing (wherein players can rob each others' property). These features are often removed without warning, and newer players have reported that the property and task interface is substantially different between that of newer players and those who have been playing for a time.

In October 2009 Rackets was added to New York and replaced the old properties method. New players had the new version while older ones retained properties. At first rackets appeared to be inferior to properties but has additional attack and defense bonuses that make it just as good, if not better.

However, in the same month, the 'robbing' feature was disabled and in December 2009, the "Mafia Mike's" property could be acquired just like any other. Unlike before, when the purchase of a Mafia Mike's was limited by the size of a player's Mafia according to Dan Hanes, coauthor of "Mafia Wars Mastery".

In February 2010 Zynga changed the way properties were handled, and a outcry from the players ensued. Over 1000 individual complaints were lodged on Zynga's Mafia Wars forum within the first 24 hours.[citation needed]

Zynga changed fundamentally one of the basic principles of the game, with no player consultation, and almost all players either lost properties or significantly lost income, although Zynga had promised this would not happen.[citation needed] Players are now required to collect their "Take" at different times, and the property that used to be the best, Mafia Mike's, needs to be collected every 2 hours, as opposed to 3 hour cycles in the prior version. The majority of complaints lodged on the Mafia Wars forum considered this to be unacceptable.[citation needed]


The makers of a similar online game, Mob Wars, sued Zynga over their launch of Mafia Wars, accusing Zynga of copyright infringement. Zynga made some changes to Mafia Wars so it did not resemble Mob Wars as closely, but Mob Wars creator David Maestri moved forward with his lawsuit.[14] In September 2009, Maestri and Zynga settled the case for about $7–$9 million, less than the $10 million Maestri had originally demanded.


Zynga filed its trademark for the stylized version of Mafia Wars with the U.S. Patent & Trademarks Office on July 1, 2009, months after it first launched the Mafia Wars game on the internet through Facebook.[16] The Zynga trademark application for Mafia Wars sought to cover games for computers and wireless devices. David L. Kelejian, however on June 15, 2009, just two weeks prior to the Zynga filing, filed an intent-to-use trademark application for a stylized version of Mafia Wars which covered clothing and apparel.[16] Zynga later began selling Mafia Wars branded clothing through Zazzle.[16] By or before late November 2009, Zynga noticed Kelejian's pending trademark application for Mafia Wars, and filed a trademark opposition proceeding against Kelejian's trademark on December 1, 2009.


On December 16, 2009, it was announced on the official blog that 50% of the sale of limited edition - Haitian Drum, will be donated to FATEM, a non-profit organization that works to provide economic advancements for the Haitian community of Mirebalais.

On January 14, 2010, it was announced that 100% of all contributions to Zynga's Haiti Relief Fund - provided by purchasing new limited edition item "Haitian Relief Drum", will be donated to help the people of Haiti who are suffering from the devastating consequences of the January 2010 earthquakes.[19][20]
On March 11, 2010, it was announced that 50% of all contributions to Huntington’s Disease Society of America’s Coalition for the Cure - provided by purchasing new limited edition item "Exploding Teddy Bear", will be donated to help annihilate Huntington’s Disease.