Wish that you could monitor your Mafia Wars mafia all day without ditching work or school? Well the makers of the game have just introduced a new toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox that lets players check out their Health Energy, Stamina and the time remaining until they can use an Energy Pack. It's pretty simple but installers of the beta version of the toolbar will receive an in-game advantage, a Limited Edition Utility Belt that comes with 30 Attack/30 Defense.
While the Mafia Wars Toolbar adds yet another search field to the growing list of search options along with links back to Cafe World, FishVille and Roller Coaster Kingdom, it does add another level of scrutiny. Created with tools from Conduit.com, players can add apps to their toolbar that look a lot like the deals that Zynga has been getting a lot of flak for lately.
Moscow and Cuba might sound more interesting but the push to finish all the jobs in Mafia Wars' first stomping grounds, New York went into high gear this week for Big Apple Week. Offering double the loot and double the mastery, there's little reason not to play. Yet the event's biggest action is with the Raid the Docks job - a special job that gives players double the experience for the energy they'd put into it. The first day of the event, Sunday, allowed players to master a portion of the job every 24 hours.
Yesterday, the Mafia Wars team shortened that span of time to a mere 8-hours. Yes, you'll still need lots of energy to complete the event in a day or two but it can be done. We'll speculate that the reason for the change of frequency might also indicate that players are using their energy points to complete tiered jobs before special job and given that the event ends on November 22, Zynga's making it easier for dedicated players to complete both.
The next episode of Mafia Wars takes place in Bangkok and while the game's creators aren't snicking, they're not floating with the fishes yet either. Instead of dishing the details, the team is doing something better - they're letting fans of the social networking game come up with a boss that they'd like to see in the game.
Announced through The Official Mafia Wars Blog, players have until November 23 at 5pm PT to add a two minutes or less video to YouTube that will pitch the team on a boss they think should be part of Mafia Wars: Bangkok. If chosen, one first place winner will enjoy 1,000 Godfather points as second place scores 500 Godfather points and third gets 250. All entries must adhere to PG-13 rules where "nudity, profanity, racial slurs, illegal activity, etc." should be avoided.
If you've got a great idea for the best Mafia Wars boss ever, grab a camera and take a chance. So far, no one's posted a video on the Mafia Wars page on YouTube.
Players who haven't mastered all the jobs in Mafia Wars: New York got a new incentive to finish. Big Apple Week, which started on Sunday, November 15, gives out double the mastery points and double the loot for jobs in New York City. The perk is a nice one as Mafia Wars players will complete jobs faster, get more loot and beef up their mafia before taking on Zynga's next big chapter, Mafia Wars: Bangkok (which arrives during Holiday 2009).
Big Apple Week also comes with a new bonus job where you're gain double the mastery points for raiding the docks. If you finish it, you'll also gain the biggest loot ever -- a cargo ship. Last night, we gained a pack of 30 Untraceable Cell Phones (perfect for finishing the Capo jobs) and 200 XP when we did the bonus job.
So make sure you schedule plenty of bonus packs from friends this week. The Big Apple Week in Mafia Wars event runs until Sunday, November 22.
The firestorm around scam deals in social networking games continues after TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington exposed the shady side of the industry two weeks ago during the Virtual Goods Conference in San Francisco.
Today, the legal firm of Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff, LLP announced that it is investigating several complaints from users of social networking games. Those complaints run from offers that tie game players to deals or contracts with other companies in exchange for in-game virtual cash to hidden charges made on credit and debit accounts.
While the release from the legal firm doesn't say class action lawsuit, the companies that it is investigating include social networks Facebook and MySpace, game and application makers Zynga, RockYou along with virtual cash companies Offerpal and Double Ding. The firm, based in Scramento, California, specializes in class action lawsuits that include "false advertising" and "consumer fraud."
Every wonder if your neighbor down the street is playing the same Facebook games you are? Are you more likely to encounter a Mafia Wars mafia in Memphis or Macon?
Through the power of Google Trends we've tracked down the top states for some of Facebook most popular games.
We found it fascinating to find out that Hawaii ranked the highest for both Cafe World and Mafia Wars with Utah, of all places, being the top spot for Restaurant City. Anything surprise you? Please let us know what you think of our Facebook game interest heat map in the comments.
In addition to the R$10,000,000 lottery that's being given to Mafia Wars Moscow players, the Godfather also added a new Experimental Crate. The rare items that come with a 10% chance of showing up include several wacky items including "Balloon Boy," "Chevelier Exoskeleton," "EMP Grenade," "Executioner Drone" "Gene Splicer," "Gravity Gun," "Ocular Implants" and "Vortex Ring Gun."
While Zynga released the new rare items along with the crates, the company did not list the attack or defense values for each item. But we may end up dropping some real money just to see what a Balloon Boy actually does.
The past few days for Mafia Wars players has felt "experimental." As the game's makers attempted to release a performance patch over the weekend that would alleviate the connection issues that have increased over the past few weeks (a patch that caused so many errors, it was removed two days later). Then this week, the team removed one of Mafia Wars' greatest barriers to success - the bribe penalty.
Today alone, the game has received two updates with a "Raining Rubles" link on the Mafia Wars Facebook page that gives Moscow players a massive R$10,000,000 for free. Apparently our predictions about Zynga preforming a massive correction with the economy in Moscow may be true.
No one likes taxes but when Mafia Wars players got to Moscow, they got something even worse -- bribe penalties. Basically, the local officials are willing to look the other way after you've completed a job... as long as you give them a cut of the goods. While the money-rich streets of Mafia Wars' New York are flush with cash, Moscow's always had a cashflow problem. There's less money moving around and items, armor and businesses often take days to purchase due to their high prices. Adding on an bribe penalty just made matters worse (although bribes are still a part of Mafia Wars Cuba).
On Wednesday, the Mafia Wars team announced that it removed the bribe penalty from Mafia Wars Moscow and tweaked the values of Moscow businesses. What changes were made to businesses? Zynga and the Mafia Wars team didn't list them but as of this morning, Mafia Wars Facebook Guide reports a cash increase of over three times the normal daily rate. A welcome change for those struggling to get through Moscow.
The changes, says Zynga, were based on the suggestions of Mafia Wars players. While that may be true, we wonder if the changes are also based on getting players leveled up ready for what comes after Moscow. Mafia Wars Bangkok arrives during Holiday 2009. Play Mafia Wars on Facebook >>
Hitting the big time in Mafia War usually means that players have amassed a sizable and well-equipped mafia of 500. Last week, the game celebrated a new big time by getting called out in a piece on Time.com.
While the piece probably made the writer's in-game persona, Don Grossman, a hit with hitlists, it may have also helped elevate Mafia Wars to the third highest gainer (adding 1,064,231 players) in AppData's tracking data, which tracks the amount of monthly, daily and weekly players each of the top Facebook games.
Recent players of Zynga's Mafia Wars were getting a whole lot less done last week as the game was plagued by several connection issues that left them with buttons that wouldn't work (not good when you're trying to deposit money) and error message that seemed to defy logic.
In order to alleviate the issues, Zynga released a "Performance Upgrade" on Friday night that the company hoped would get mafia bosses back to faster play. But after the upgrade, players (via the Mafia Wars message boards) reported issues with clicking on tabs, bank deposits and missing loot, purchased items and godfather points.
So the company removed the upgrade on Sunday in order to re-evaluate the upgrade. Of course, many of the connectivity errors that we experienced with Mafia Wars last week seem to be oddly gone as of Monday morning.
Play Mafia Wars on Facebook >>
Early on, new players of Mafia Wars discover the true value of experience. While the first few levels are easy to pass through, jumping up in later levels means that players have to wait a day or sometimes several times before they get enough experience. With a complex game like Mafia Wars, there are several strategies and places where you may have not considered looking for additional experience points.
1) Do Jobs
The most obvious way to earn experience points in Mafia War is by using up your energy to do jobs. The obvious strategy here is that if your goal is to level up, using the lowest amount of energy to gain the most experience points is what you should do. Of course, use the remaining energy points for other jobs that you haven't mastered yet.
2) Help Friends with Jobs
As your mafia list grows, friends and contacts will often send updates to your Facebook wall in order to ask for help with their jobs. While you only have a short time before others help (only 25 friends can accept the offer), helping will give you several experience points for little effort.
In what seems like the never ending Halloween Loot Event for Mafia Wars on Facebook, the team issued a final loot deal that may, finally, end Halloween.
Zynga's now made Halloween crates available through the Godfather for 20 rewards points each or 55 reward points for three. As it goes with crates, you have a 10% shot at getting a rare item, 30% chance at getting an uncommon item and a 60% chance of getting a common item. Don't have enough reward points? Then you'll have to talk to the Godfather about buying more.
Facebook players logging into Mafia Wars this morning might be shocked to see that the Rob a Candy Truck job is still available on their Home Page. That's because the Halloween Loot event is still going on until just before midnight (PT).
That means you still have time to rob Halloween Candy Trucks or acquire the other cross-promotional loot like Frankenstein Poker Chips, Treat Bags, Fake Vampire Teeth, Zombie Cow, YoZombie, Ghost Thug or Monkey Brain Stew.
Now I just need another 10 hours before that next energy pack.
And the winner for most popular game on Facebook in October is ... (drumroll, please!) ... FarmVille. The farm-simulation is still attracting players in droves, bringing in 11 million people in the past month for a whopping total of 63 million users. Zynga's restaurant simulation game, Cafe World, went from zero users to 27 million in a single month and Happy Aquarium went from zero to 22.5 million users in a month.
The other games that made the top five include Mafia Wars, and Pet Society. Even though these games have the most users, it's also important to mention that Zynga's Roller Coaster Kingdom gained 14 million users last month, Pet Society gained 3 million users, Restaurant City gained 2.3 million users and the newly redesigned Bejeweled Blitz gained 2.6 million users.
Needless to say, Facebook game are continuing to attract players in droves; we're already placing bets as to how soon Cafe World will overtake FarmVille as the top dog on the charts. Care to wager?
Subscribe with Email
...with MyAOL
...with Feedburner
...with RSS
Become a Facebook Fan
Follow Us on Twitter
The firestorm around scam deals in social networking games continues after 
Recent players of Zynga's Mafia Wars were getting a whole lot less done last week as the game was plagued by several connection issues that left them with buttons that wouldn't work (not good when you're trying to deposit money) and error message that seemed to defy logic. 
Facebook players logging into Mafia Wars this morning might be shocked to see that the Rob a Candy Truck job is still available on their Home Page. That's because the Halloween Loot event is still going on until just before midnight (PT). 
Are we missing big news on your favorite game? Help us out! Email us at