MW LOOTLADY

A Place For Mafia Wars Feedback

2012-02-01T15:39:00.001-08:00

Many assume that the big time fighters in Mafia Wars don’t care about much outside of the Fight Module. While it may be true for some, there are many serious fighters who are active in voicing their observations and opinions with everything related to the game. One player who comes to mind is [RYfG] PЯINCΞ. He played an important role when Zynga was serious about improving the state of fighting. In addition to being a member of the PAC, he was also invited to Zynga Headquarters so the developers could observe him playing the game.

At the time, Zynga seemed to care about the player base and most of us felt our feedback was important. One of the lectures presented to the PAC in San Francisco was called Feedback That Gets Results (1). The employees at Zynga stressed the importance of the Feedback Loop and encouraged us to explain it to other players. We did just that and things seemed to be moving in the right direction. Eventually Zynga killed this loop by blocking Community Management. What used to be a big part of the Feedback Loop has faded into the background.

Many of us utilized Get Satisfaction and we often saw results. In October of last year, the site was pulled (1). It was another sign that Zynga wasn’t going much with our feedback.

[RYfG] PЯINCΞ was really annoyed by this move and decided to start his own page as a place players can go to provide feedback. To check it out, go here.

Don’t be thrown off by the first image. Although many of us are frustrated with Zynga, positive feedback is also encouraged. Many post interesting articles that they have found online and I learn new things from this page everyday. I’m sure it’s hard for the powers that be at Mafia Wars to provide the players with what they want when their Chief Executive publically proclaims that the existing player bases aren’t important and it doesn’t matter if they quit. The MO is create new games and get new players (1).

Watching our game fail gives many the opportunity to provide a satisfactory “I told you so”. This two second rush is not worth the hardship all the dedicated players will experience if Mafia Wars dies. Hopefully we will see improvements and Zynga will visit sites that unlike their own forums actually have traffic and offer feedback from real players at all levels.

(image from AppData)

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Mafia Wars Skill Point Cost Comparisons

2012-02-01T02:14:00.001-08:00

Many players falsely believe that because leveling gives you +5 skill points you are better off spending reward points on energy or stamina refills. Doing so will put you behind the power curve because all you are doing is wasting reward points to get those skill points at a faster rate than your competitors. Your strategic competitors will eventually get those same skill points but will have built better characters and eventually they will pass you! There are several ways to go about purchasing skill points.You can buy them outright in under the Stats Tab in the Marketplace at a cost of +4 for 14 reward points.

Skill Point Reallocations are very popular because it’s one of the best deals you can get. Many will argue that shifting skill points around is not a value but if you review your stats chances are some of your skill points would do more good in other categories. If you consistently waste energy or stamina upon leveling than these points will serve you better in attack or defense. Health is the most popular stat to move around because it is so easy to get.

The most popular and readily available method to purchase skill points is to speed up the crafting timers in the New York Properties. Depending on what stat you are interested in building for your character, there are a wide variety of items. It will cost you 12 reward points to reset a newly activated timer and less as the hours go down (assuming the property is one of the 5 which are active).

With 16 properties available, it can be hard to decide which 5 to craft from every 8 hours or which ones to use for speed builds.

Mark Allan one of the admins on the Mafia Wars Loot Lady Fan Page, put together the chart below which lists the top 5 properties from most to least in which you can craft items to earn skill points which are automatically applied to your attack, defense, energy, stamina and health. There are only 4 properties list for health because none of the Limited Time Upgrade Properties offer health.

Stat Skill	Locations
Attack	Weapons Depot Assassin's Academy Armory Chop Shop Private Zoo
Defense	Weapons Depot Biker Clubhouse Botanical Garden School of Choice Hangar
Energy	Chop Shop Assassin's Academy Toy Store Biker Clubhouse Cemetery
Stamina	Weapons Depot Chop Shop Hangar Cemetery Toy Store
Health	Private Zoo Armory Weapons Depot Chop Shop

For those who can’t get enough health, purchasing a Tiger Claw from the Italy Port is the cheapest way to go. You can get +30 health points for 15 reward points. You can do this once every 23 hours. Speeding up the crafting timer in Italy is not a good deal because it costs 16 reward points and the items don’t have as many skill points as the ones in New York. If you purchase a Tiger Claw, you need to have an expired timer to make it a good deal.

Zynga likes to throw in gimmicks and hope that players fall for them. The worst deal in the game is to buy Collectable Stat Cards for the purpose of gaining skill points.

Each card offers 3-7 skill points but you have no control over what cards you get. The majority of the cards you purchase will be common and offer the lowest number of skill points. You can buy 1 card for 15 reward points or 3 for 42. In a perfect world, you would get 3 rare cards and gain 21 skill points all for 42 reward points but that will never happen. In this best case scenario, each skill point would cost 2 reward points which is not the best deal around.

The Pick Your Bundle is a new promotion and just a fancy way of getting 20% off a purchase of 24 skill points. For the second day in a row, the Pick Your Bundle was made available for a limited time and I learned that you can add three of the same item. This now makes it worth analyzing. You can buy 24 skill points for 66 reward points. Each skill point will cost 2.75 reward points which is not a good deal.

Once and a while when you purchase reward points you will be rewarded with skill points or offered a special deal. If the skill point are free for what you would purchase anyway, obviously it’s a good deal.

Sometimes the offers are just plain stupid and only the suckers will fall for them. A temporary 4 hour increase of your stats is not something of long term value.

Let look at this deal on skill points a little closer. I’m told that in the popup above that I’m getting a deal. The family experience is no kind of deal. If I really wanted to help my family, I would need to spend 175,000 reward points to gain enough experience to increase from Level 9 to Level 10 (1). I hope there isn’t anybody out there who would fall for this. The loot and skill point “deal” is just as laughable because they are offered for the same price as they are in the Marketplace when not on sale. No matter which option I choose, I would still pay 14 reward points for 4 skill points. What kind of deal is that!?

Below is a chart which lists the options for acquiring skill points. They are listed in the order from the worst deal to the best. I didn’t include leveling because those skill points are free and every player will get them. Don’t waste your valuable reward points on refills thinking you will get ahead. You may get to Level 1,000 faster than your strategic buddy but once he makes it, he will be able to play circles around you!

	Skill Points	Reward Points	Cost/Skill Point
Collectable Stat Cards	3 - 7 9 - 21	15 42	5.0-2.1 4.7-2.0
Marketplace Stats	4	14	3.5
Pick Your Bundle	24	66	2.75
Crafting Timer att/def/ene/stam	6	12	2.0
Skill Point Reallocation	10 50	10 50	1.0
Crafting Timer Health	20	12	0.6
Italy Port Health	30	15	0.5

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Mafia Wars Daily Bonus Links

2012-02-01T00:14:00.001-08:00

The free links for the day are below. Use the Checklist by Team Spockholm to get your 8 hour toolbar bonuses and keep track of other daily tasks. Go here if your 8 hour toolbar bonus isn't working. It’s a new month and the stat point was not posted on the Mafia Wars Fan Page. This either means they haven’t gotten around, they are taking a break or they won’t be offering it anymore

Bonus	Link
Stat Point	Check Here For Updates http://www.facebook.com/MafiaWarsFans
E-Mail Bonus	http://spockon.me/MWLLEmailBonusFeb1
Lucky Stash	http://spockon.me/MWLL3SpinsLuckyStash

Thanks to Mike Nestor for putting these links together everyday so we don't have to search for them.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Mafia Wars Ice Season 16 Reward Collection

2012-01-31T13:41:00.001-08:00

Ice Season 16 is officially over and a new season hasn’t been added. To get your badge and loot reward, just visit the Fight Page and you will get a popup. If history repeats itself, we should get a break from icing until next Tuesday.

Always verify that the item made it into your inventory. If you don’t get the popup or your Ribbed Ankle Boots aren’t there, e-mail Customer Support.

The next 6 Ice Season rewards were added to the inventory last week (1).

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

The Mafia Wars Dragon Does Visit Twice!

2012-01-31T12:51:00.001-08:00

Contrary to what the banner says, Dragon Mystery Bags are on the Free Gift Page for a second day in a row. The Dragon has visited twice and hopefully he will visit again tomorrow! The only thing bad anyone can say about these bags is the extra ones don’t count towards Family Progression.

This was actually expected because Gold and Harvest Mystery Bags said the same thing but we found them to stick around for 2-3 days. At least they came up with a entertaining reason why these bags are only available for one day (even though they aren’t ). Players who received Thai Baht were not amused to read they were “Worth It’s Weight In Gold”. We still love them and hope they stick around.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Skill Point Reallocation: 1/31

2012-01-31T08:27:00.001-08:00

Skill Point Reallocation is active. We will probably see it a few times throughout the day so check the Mafia Wars Loot Lady Fan Page frequently for updates. Find the Skill Point Reallocation in the Marketplace under the Stat Items tab For more information on how Skill Point Reallocation works, go here. You can purchase one of each item every 4 hours. Each reallocation offering is only available for a limited time so if you are reading this late, it's probably gone.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Property Part Help Limit Increase

2012-01-31T08:19:00.001-08:00

Zynga decided to throw their players a small bone. They increased the number of times you can click on a property part request and send a part. The cap was increased from 5 to 10. You can now productively click on 10 any part requests and 10 individual requests. It is up for debate on when the reset happens. Most find they are able to help again after 8 hours but some claim they can’t. This update just happened so we will need to reexamine the limits as more time elapses. It also looks like you can send 11 parts instead of 10 as advertised. We used to be able to send 6 so this is no surprise. Don't forget to accept your 4 free parts a day. It says 3 but you actually get 4. Zynga is one off on all of the property cap notifications. Overall this is a good but I don’t think it will be enough. It will help players who use alternate accounts to get their properties upgraded rather than players who play it the way Zynga intends. There are currently many problems with requests not working and most likely it is due to the this update.

Before

After

Thanks to Mark for posting on the fan page!

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Mafia Wars Property Lies!

2012-01-31T05:15:00.001-08:00

UPDATE: Several hours after this post was published, Zynga increased the number of parts we can send to our mafia. Instead of 5 parts, it's now 10. I guess they weren't lying to us after all. They just failed to mention why it would be easier.
----------------------

Mafia Wars Live may be gone but I’ve just found a use the logo. Zynga loves to spread the bullshit and this one is a doozey! We were told that due to player feedback that the Hanger would be easier to upgrade (1). Here is a screen shot of those endearing words.

The last Limited Time Property was the Assassin’s Academy and a total of 823 parts were needed to upgrade to Level 15 (1). The timer was initially 14 days but due to a Facebook news feed issue, we were given an extra 24 hours. Thanks to members in the community, we now know how many parts are needed to upgrade the Hanger (1). A total of 623 parts will be needed to upgrade your Hanger to Level 15. On the surface this appears easier than the 823 parts needed for the Assassin’s Academy but Zynga must have forgotten that 208 of these parts were giftable. We have to beg for an additional 8 parts so the Hanger is NOT “a bit easier to complete in the time given”.

	Assassin’s Academy	Hanger	Difference
Total Parts Needed	823	623	-200
Giftable Parts Needed	208	0	+208
Begging Parts Needed	615	623	+8

Many players like Eike are electing not to upgrade this Limited Time Property.

Some have taken it one step further and started an organized boycott. The Stop The Begging Fan Page already 1,669 likes which is pretty impressive for a new page. Players are tired of these Limited Time Properties and want to be heard.

For the complete-ist types, not upgrading something is unheard of. I wish I had the will power to say screw it. If you are unable to not do this event, a funny thing may happen when you generate your requests. Players who are actively boycotting the event are also refusing to help. They will let you know about it on your begging posts. The more players who boycott this event, the more difficult it will be for those who aren’t.

Zynga is NOT listening to their players as they claim. It’s obvious they got the message but they didn’t deliver what the players wanted. Lying to us makes it worse. With the exception of eliminating Limited Time Properties, they could make it easier by not putting a cap on how many players we can help. This would benefit Zynga as well as us. What good is all this spam if you can’t click on it and make something happen!?

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Mafia Wars Collector’s Edition: Holey Carnage

2012-01-31T02:30:00.001-08:00

The next Collector’s Edition Item is the Holey Carnage. When Robin saw the price he said “Holey Carnage Batman, this thing costs 46 reward points”. Batman explained that the item comes with +4 attack points and Robin still didn’t buy it.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

The Hanger Updates

2012-01-31T01:40:00.001-08:00

There are two posts on the Official Mafia Wars Blog that deal with the new Limited Time Upgrade Property, The Hanger.

The first is their standard introductory post that lets us know the new property is here (1). These posts are usually a waste of their blog space because EVERYBODY knows when a new property hits. You can’t miss the buttloads of spam these things generate. This time it’s a little different because there is a special note. We are told that the Hanger is going to be easier to upgrade than previous properties and player feedback is the reason. As mentioned in my initial post, it does appear there are less parts needed to upgrade (1).

The second post addresses a bug that many players pointed out on the Mafia Wars Loot Lady Fan Page when the property was first out (1). The Known Issues thread on the forums can be found here if you want to check for updates.

Many players found early on that if you clicked on the “View to Build” button, you would be directed to the Chop Shop or other property thus making it impossible to build or view the items that you can build in the Hanger.

The workaround is pretty simple but could cause you extra clicking when it’s time to craft your 5 items for the day. Not many will choose to craft from a property that isn’t fully upgraded but if you have the bug in question and you want to view your items, you need to add the Hanger to your New York property menu. To do this, scroll to the bottom of the New York Property Page. Uncheck one of your properties, check the Hanger and then click the “Save Changes” button.

Your Hanger will now be present and you can view and/or craft items.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Mafia Wars Daily Bonus Links

2012-01-31T00:01:00.001-08:00

The free links for the day are below. Use the Checklist by Team Spockholm to get your 8 hour toolbar bonuses and keep track of other daily tasks. Go here if your 8 hour toolbar bonus isn't working. If you see links in your news feeds that aren't zyn.ga or spockon.me, verify that they go to Mafia Wars before clicking. If you have issues with the zynga links, use the spockon.me.

Bonus	Link
Defense Point	http://fun.zynga.com/19o or http://spockon.me/MWLLZyngaSPJan31
E-Mail Bonus	http://spockon.me/MWLLEmailBonusJan31
Lucky Stash 3 Free Spins	http://spockon.me/MWLL3SpinsLuckyStash

Thanks to Mike Nestor for putting these links together everyday so we don't have to search for them.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Pick Your Own Bundle!

2012-01-30T23:01:00.001-08:00

There is a new gimmick on the Home Page. They are calling it “Pick Your Own Bundle!”. You can find it in the Marketplace or on the Home Page.

The concept is you can pick 3 items from a selection of stuff and then convert it into a bundle. The benefit if you fall for it is you get 20% off the purchase of whatever the three items you choose.

The 12 items available are shown below. I was unable to add the same item 3 times but many commented that they could. I'll try on a different account. Once you choose, you can’t go back.

Once you choose your items, the adjusted price will show up on your purchase button. I wasn’t about to purchase this so I don’t know if you are able to do it more than once. Maybe if we could choose the skill points 3 times I would have been tempted but buying loot with reward points is not a good investment.
As far as I can tell, this is just another gimmick created by Zynga to get you to spend your hard earned reward points. Mike Nester had a different type of discount on his Home Page banner. You would think Zynga could get it right when a feature involves spending reward points!

You can pick your friends and you can pick your bundle but you can’t pick your friends bundle! Don’t be fooled by Zynga, things aren’t always as good as they make them out to be.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

The Hangar

2012-01-30T17:45:00.001-08:00

To the dislike of us all, the next Limited Time New York Upgraded Property is now available. We knew it was coming so I guess we should be grateful that there was a small break. This property is called the Hangar. It’s like the Assassin’s Academy because it has 15 Levels. We have 14 days to get it done!

This works like all the other Limited Time Properties. Get enough parts to upgrade to Level 1 and your platform transforms into a beautiful (cough, cough) property.

The building parts which we have to beg for are the Hammer Drill, Plaster and the Cordless Drill. How many types of drills do you need? I don’t see any of them on the Free Gift Page. Hopefully one will be added at a later time or the number of parts needed will be decreased.

The chart below lists how many of each part is needed to advance to the next level. We still have to beg for 623 parts so it's not going to be easier than the Assassin's Academy.

Level	Hammer Drill	Plaster	Cordless Drill	Total
1	1	1	1	3
2	1	2	1	4
3	2	3	2	7
4	3	4	3	10
5	4	6	4	14
6	5	8	5	18
7	10	11	10	31
8	12	15	12	39
9	14	19	14	47
10	16	23	16	55
11	18	27	18	63
12	20	31	20	71
13	22	35	22	79
14	24	39	24	87
15	26	43	26	95
Grand Total	178	267	178	623

The items you can build as each level unlocks are shown below. The Candy Dandy offers no additional skill points, the Prune Juice offers +3 attack, the Sky Hopper offers +4 defense and the the Hop Chopper offers +5 stamina. This will appeal to the players who use their reward points to speed build because you get a decent amount of points and there are no parts to acquire in order to craft.

Thanks to Mark, Robert, Maxine, Fione and Chakk and all others who helped updating the parts needed chart.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Skill Point Reallocation Nerf

2012-01-30T16:43:00.001-08:00

The last time we saw a Skill Point Reallocation was on Jan 18th Shortly after, I posted about an extra benefit of purchasing Skill Point Reallocations (1). When you moved skill points from health, energy or stamina, you got a refill. It wasn’t that big of a deal and I thought it was a part of the feature.

Apparently it was a glitch and not something Zynga intended. Skill Point Reallocation has been offered a few times today and many players noticed that this benefit was no longer present. In the example below, I moved energy points and did not get a refill.

Some are blaming those of us who posted about the “feature” as the reason for it’s demise. This outlook is ridiculous. The purpose of Mafia Wars related sites is to share information that will benefit players. How was anyone suppose to know that this was a glitch. What was never posted or attempted by me was glitch involving Skill Point Reallocation and health. During 4 Skill Point Reallocations, it was possible to double your health statistic permanently. All a player had to do was purchase a Boost Your Health before a Skill Point Reallocation and then move points from health. If you wonder why you can’t ice some players, this is probably why. Zynga has yet to roll back anyone who participated in this exploit but they did fix it. This should be proof enough that they don’t rely on me to fix their glitches. I think they are a little bit smarter than players give them credit for.

Thanks to Dave McLaren for pointing the refill nerf out on the fan page.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Mafia Wars Skill Point Reallocation-1/30

2012-01-30T05:19:00.001-08:00

It’s been a few weeks and finally Skill Point Reallocation is active. We will probably see it a few times throughout the day so check the Mafia Wars Loot Lady Fan Page frequently for updates. Find the Skill Point Reallocation in the Marketplace under the Stat Items tab For more information on how Skill Point Reallocation works, go here. You can purchase one of each item every 4 hours. Each reallocation offering is only available for a limited time so if you are reading this late, it's probably gone.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Collectable Stat Cards 20% Off

2012-01-30T03:33:00.001-08:00

There is great news for players who accidentally click on the Collectable Stat Card purchase buttons. Zynga will now steal 20% less of your reward points because Collectable Stat Cards are 20% off the original price!You will be notified by a “Collect And Destroy” popup.

There is truth to the title of this sale. When you accidentally collect, your reward point balance is destroyed! I hear Customer Support is no longer crediting players with reward points and it’s ridiculous that Zynga hasn’t added a confirmation method to these purchases. I posted about this problem over 3 weeks ago and players continue to click on them by accident.

It’s easy to do because the Home Page Current Events Module is not static. It switches modules and if your mouse is in the wrong spot at the wrong time, you will be “rewarded” with your very own Collectable Stat Card. I verified that a confirmation was not in place and received a useless Collectable Stat Card for 12 reward points.

It’s quite sad that the good news about these cards going on sale is that players will save reward points for accidental clicks and not that it’s a good value. Collectable Stat Cards, even at 20% off, are not a good deal (1). Many Players who paid full price like I did are still trying to get their loot items. It’s more frustration than it’s worth (1). You’re still better off spending your reward points on crafting timer speed builds. In the example above, I got +2 energy and +2 health. I can spend the same amount of reward points and get +6 energy or +20 health. Until these cards offer something better than overpriced skill points and virtually unattainable loot items, they won’t be popular.

I don’t know how long Collectable Stat Cards will be on sale or if every player will receive the offer. Two of my accounts don’t have it.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Dragon Mystery Bags For Mafia Wars

2012-01-30T01:54:00.001-08:00

We knew they were coming and Dragon Mystery Bags are finally here (1). Dragon Mystery Bags replaced Harvest Mystery Bags which replaced Gold Mystery Bags.They are the same things with the exception of the special loot item inside select bags. The Home Page banner claims that they will be available for one day but we saw the other bags hang around for sometimes up to 72 hours.

If you missed the banner, there is also a half ad on the Ad Module.

It looks like Zynga made a mistake and place Gold Mystery Bags on the flash header for Free Gifts. At the time of this post, only Dragon and Gold Mystery Bags were showing.

You can find Dragon Mystery Bags on the Free Gift Page.

Use the link below to go directly to the send page. The more you send, the more you will get back. You can only accept 20 per day but you will want as many as possible in your ZMC to increase the odds that you will have 20 tomorrow or the day after Zynga turns them off.

http://spockon.me/MWLLDragonMysteryBag

I had a ZMC full of these things. It may be difficult for players who get a lot of gifts to store 20 in their ZMC as old gifts get bumped when new ones come in. To help, stay on top of your ZMC and clear it out regularly. It will also be a good idea not to gift blast other gifts until the Dragon Mystery Bags are removed from the game. If you want to use the Gift Blaster, make sure you only blast Dragon Mystery Bags.

The contents of Dragon Mystery Bags proved to be the same as Harvest and Gold Mystery Bags. These special bags offer the same items as Blue Mystery Bags but the good items are better. You will get +5 energy, +5 attack, +1 skill and +1 reward points, a stamina boost and an item on your wishlist. You will still be able to get the good items from Blue Mystery Bags as well so make sure you have utilized all your stamina before opening.

Dragon Mystery Bags contain loot items as well. Any loot that you get from Blue Mystery Bags will also appear in Dragon Mystery Bags. The difference is you will get 2 items instead of 1.

You can also get one of the first 3 items from the Disco Collection.

The best loot item which replaced the Canister Rifle from Gold Mystery Bags and the Mayflower Compact from Harvest Mystery Bags is the Chinese Dragon.

Not everything is great. I haven’t seen anyone report Thai Bhat, but that is still contained in Blue Mystery Bags. I got “some Fear and Loathing”. It sounds cool but this item has stats of 24/17!

Once you open 20 Dragon Mystery Bags, you will be told that you hit your limit for the day. Your Dragon Mystery Bag will be converted into a Blue Mystery Bag and the fun it over.

If Zynga imposes a limit on a gift, they should offer us a way to track how many we have opened. As demonstrated by the images above, that is not preset with Dragon Mystery Bags. If they can do it with Artillery Shells they should be able to provide us with the same for Dragon Mystery Bags.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Daily Mafia Wars Bonus Links

2012-01-30T00:12:00.001-08:00

The free links for the day are below. Use the Checklist by Team Spockholm to get your 8 hour toolbar bonuses and keep track of other daily tasks. Go here if your 8 hour toolbar bonus isn't working. If you see links in your news feeds that aren't zyn.ga or spockon.me, verify that they go to Mafia Wars before clicking. Many are having issues with the zyn.ga links so we are providing a spockon.me link as well.

Bonus	Link
Attack Point	http://fun.zynga.com/19n or http://spockon.me/MWLLZyngaSPJan30
E-Mail Bonus	http://spockon.me/MWLLEmailBonusJan30
Lucky Stash 3 Free Spins	http://spockon.me/MWLL3SpinsLuckyStash

Thanks to Mike Nestor for putting these links together everyday so we don't have to search for them.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Episode 134: The Redneck Russian, Dasvidaniya Y’all

2012-01-29T15:41:00.001-08:00

The Crew gathers is a weird mood. Pistol Pete is clearly nuts. He covers a few spocklets but Jen takes over and talks about the 501 spocklet. She then continues covering all the changing facets of the game and the horrible Nerf that occurred in the secret district. We are not sure how Jana does it but she manages to keep us on task (Although the Brazil Build and Angry Birds, seemed a bit random).

Article written by Mike Nestor, Admin of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Crew Member of The Informant Podcast.

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The Known Issue Fix/Nerf

2012-01-29T05:57:00.000-08:00

Recently Zynga boasted that they resolved some “known issues” in the game (1). One resolved issue was a bug related to Secret Districts.What Zynga missed in this case is the bug in question is not specific to Secret Districts or to the Ruby Level. I encountered this known issue and posted about it here. Later, learned that this bug happened only when you completely mastered a job by asking your mafia to help. The workaround was simple, all you had to do was click on the job you asked for help with and you would instantly get your mastery popup and loot reward. The game was not registering completion unless you were the one to complete the job.

----------------------------------Resolved Issues-------------------------------

Secret Districts - Not Receiving Ruby Mastery Popup or Rewards
Issue: Some players reported that they were not receiving the Ruby Mastery popup or rewards upon completing Secret Districts.
Status: Resolved on 1/22/2012 so that the issues would not be present in the next Secret District, The Slammer, which started at 5pm (Pacific Time) on 1/23/2012. If you experience any issues with Secret District: The Slammer, please let us know by reporting them in the Report A Bug forum.

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I don’t think Zynga actually fixed this bug. It looks like they made it impossible to master a job by generating help requests. Before the “fix” you could request help and 10 players were able to add mastery to your job. The mastery each player added was one half the mastery percentage per click of the job in which help was requested. In the example below, I asked for help with a job that gives 6% mastery per click. After 10 players helped, the job was 30% mastered. These same rules have applied to Secret Districts.

While attempting to verify that the mastery bug was indeed fixed, I ran into other bugs which would prevent the original bug from ever happening. I was on the Silver Level of The Slammer and asked my mafia for help. In the example below, my mastery only increased by 3%. This job offers 7% mastery so if 10 players were able to help then it should have increased by 35%. I only needed 9% to master the job and the whole idea was to see if the bug was fixed.

The next day I tried again but was on the Gold Level. My mastery didn’t increase at all and everyone who clicked on my request were told they were too late.

After 24 hours had elapsed, I tried again. I don’t know if they changed the formula but I got an increase of 45% mastery when I should have gotten 35%. The difference from the example above was I asked for help on a job that was no where near 100% mastery.

I then went to a different account and tried once again from a job that was close to mastery. After asking for help, I ensured that enough players had actually helped me by using other accounts.

I got the same results as I did on the first attempt. My mastery was only increased by 3% even though 10 players helped me with the job.

It appears that Zynga “fixed” this issue by ensuring that we can’t master a job when asking out mafia members for help. I don’t know what the thresholds are but if you want to maximize the amount help you can receive, it’s best to ask on jobs that aren’t close to 100% mastery. This type of “fix” is very similar to how Zynga handled the Daily Take Stamina bug. Rather than actually fix the problem of the extra 20% stamina disappearing, the nerfed it so players wouldn’t get extra stamina (1). In the case of this mastery bug which isn’t specific to Secret Districts, they did the same thing!

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Nimblebit’s Letter To Zynga

2012-01-29T04:04:00.001-08:00

It’s not a surprise to anyone when Zynga launches a new game and there is familiarity to it. Zynga’s upcoming mobile game is called Dream Heights and the development team called Nimblebit found it was very similar to their popular game Tiny Tower. Nimblebit consists of 3 developers and these guys aren’t flattered by the imitation. Rather than sue for copyright infringement, they decided to write an open letter to all 2,789 Zynga employees. For more details, go to the Yahoo! Games post by Chris Morris (1).

This isn’t the first time Zynga copied another game and probably won’t be the last. It seems to work for them. Joe Osborn of games.com put together a comparison of games released by other developers that “inspired” the creations of Mafia Wars, FarmVille, PetVille, Café World, CityVille, Pioneer Trail, Hidden Chronicles (1) This wouldn’t be as big of a deal if Zynga hadn’t just sued (and received a settlement) the Brazilian gaming company Vostu for doing the same thing! (1),(2)

(images from http://blog.games.com)

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

The Stranger’s Swag:Gift #5- Tarot Reader

2012-01-29T01:33:00.001-08:00

The 5th and only gift worth getting in The Stranger’s Swag Event is now available. The Tarot Reader is a attack henchman with stats of 104/66.

Generate a post to get 3 and click on posts to get 2.

It wasn’t cool of Zynga to offer the best item over the weekend when many players are offline. The item is only available for 24 hours. At least those who can’t take a break will have another advantage in the game.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

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Daily Mafia Wars Bonus Links

2012-01-29T00:03:00.001-08:00

The free links for the day are below. Use the Checklist by Team Spockholm to get your 8 hour toolbar bonuses and keep track of other daily tasks. Go here if your 8 hour toolbar bonus isn't working. If you see links in your news feeds that aren't zyn.ga or spockon.me, verify that they go to Mafia Wars before clicking. Many are having issues with the zyn.ga links so we are providing a spockon.me link as well.

Bonus	Link
Skill Point	http://fun.zynga.com/19D or http://spockon.me/MWLLZyngaSPJan29
E-Mail Bonus	http://spockon.me/MWLLEmailBonusJan29
Lucky Stash 3 Free Spins	http://spockon.me/MWLL3SpinsLuckyStash

Thanks to Mike Nestor for putting these links together everyday so we don't have to search for them.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

The Undertaker

2012-01-28T06:35:00.001-08:00

Last years Black Friday Marketplace was active from November 25th through the 27th (1). The Assassin made a surprise appearance and the Death Stalker had exceptionally high stats.

One of the featured loot items was the Undertaker. At the time, stats of 150/91 were tempting. We all know using reward points to purchase loot is a bad investment but many do it anyway.

For reasons unknown, the image for the Undertaker was updated. If you check your inventory, you will find a much different Undertaker. It is true you don’t always get what you paid for! If you purchased this item because you thought it looked cool, you might want to ask Customer Support for a refund.

Before

After

What kind of Undertaker is the new guy? He looks more like the professional wrestler who has the ring name of The Undertaker.

I went searching for a similar image of the original and all I could find was a 17 year old Funeral Director (1) . Who knows why Zynga spends time changing things that have no impact on the game?

Thanks to Aston Martin for posting on the fan page. I would have never noticed.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

All material is protected by copyright law

Recent Bug Fixes (1/27/2012)

2012-01-28T02:27:00.001-08:00

The Official Mafia Wars Blog provided a detailed breakdown of recent bug fixes (1). A few of them I noticed while working on the Secret District and Mission walkthroughs. Hopefully they will keep this kind of communication going and not let us be the ones to figure out they fixed their bugs. It is very nice that they thank the community for helping.

Mobsters,
Remember that blog post we published a little over a week ago asking, "What's Missing From Our Known Issues Lists?" Firstly, we want to thank everyone who answered that question by reporting additional bugs via that week's "Report A Bug" forum thread. Secondly, we want to keep hearing about the issues you encounter in the game so we can better prioritize their fixes, so please help us help you by continuing to report any bugs you encounter in our "Report A Bug" forum. Lastly, here's a list of issues we were recently able to identify, verify (thanks to the detailed reproduction steps you included in your bug reports), and fix for you!
Thanks again to everyone who submitted the bug reports that helped us close these issues!
- The Mafia Wars Team

Secret Districts - Not Receiving Ruby Mastery Popup or Rewards
Issue: Some players reported that they were not receiving the Ruby Mastery popup or rewards upon completing Secret Districts.
Status: Resolved on 1/22/2012 so that the issues would not be present in the next Secret District, The Slammer, which started at 5pm (Pacific Time) on 1/23/2012. If you experience any issues with Secret District: The Slammer, please let us know by reporting them in our "Report A Bug" forum.

Secret Districts - Loot Drops Don't Display After Ruby Mastery
Issue: Some players reported that, after mastering the Ruby tier of a Secret District, the job module wouldn't expand even though loot items dropped.
Status: Resolved on 1/22/2012 so that the issues would not be present in the next Secret District, The Slammer, which started at 5pm (Pacific Time) on 1/23/2012. If you experience any issues with Secret District: The Slammer, please let us know by reporting them in our "Report A Bug" forum.

Mission Events - Task Progress Not Counting Correctly
Issue: Some players reported that progress toward completing various tasks in Mission Events was not being counted correctly.
Status: Resolved around 7am (Pacific Time) on 1/24/2012 so that the issues would not be present in the next limited-time mission, Mission Event: Dasvidaniya, which started at 9am (Pacific Time) on 1/26/2012. If you experience any issues with Mission Event: Dasvidaniya, please let us know by reporting them in our "Report A Bug" forum.

Mission Events - Having Enough Items to Auto-Complete A Task Resulted in All But The Required # Being Consumed
Issue: Some players reported that, if they possessed enough of an item required by a Mission Event task before they had reached that task, all but the required number of the item would be consumed when the task showed up as auto-completed.
Status: Resolved around 7am (Pacific Time) on 1/24/2012 so that the issues would not be present in the next limited-time mission, Mission Event: Dasvidaniya, which started at 9am (Pacific Time) on 1/26/2012. If you experience any issues with Mission Event: Dasvidaniya, please let us know by reporting them in our "Report A Bug" forum.

Family Battles - Battle Score Not Updating With Each Safehouse Attack
Issue: Some players reported that their battle score was not updating with each Safehouse attack.
Status: Resolved around 7am (Pacific Time) on 1/24/2012. If you are still experiencing this issue, please reply to this forum thread with your answers to the questions found there.

Can't Purchase Via Inventory If City Money is Banked/Vaulted
Issue: Some players reported being unable to buy items from item card/page with banked NY Cash or Italian Lira or vaulted Las Vegas chips.
Status: Resolved around 7am (Pacific Time) on 1/24/2012. If you are still experiencing this issue, please reply to this forum thread with your answers to the questions found there.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.