I like many millions of people got downright addicted to the original Mafia Wars game not long after it was released. It was far from a perfect game, but it didn't require any time commitment like a traditional game. You could play for hours on end, or if you had 30 seconds between whatever else you were doing. It many ways it was a perfect game for a the modern society of people that have issues focusing. The game continued to grow and grow, as did the number of both daily and monthly active users. I'm not going into great detail about the exact gameplay because lets face it, if you got this far, you know the game.
Then game started to expand, offering more and more items to collect, and eventually opening up new cities to explore and take your 500 best mafia buds with you to conquer. Along the way, fans discovered that Zynga either didn't care, or had a large group on vastly inferior programmers. The only thing worse than the programmers are the customer support people that obviously don't play the game and understand the issues that people have. Improvements were made, but rarely were they properly beta tested before hand. Often any improvements that were added took away or broke other aspects of the game. The diehards moved on with the game though. As I write this even they are working out the bugs in the newest city that went live last night, then was taken back down when a major glitch appeared that affected thousands of players accounts. Now it appears that Zynga is ready to screw the pooch again, as they get ready to launch Mafia Wars 2.
A preview trailer has appeared today on the Facebook page for Mafia Wars 2, but it shows absolutely no game play, and only poorly animated 'scenes' from the game. This is poorly conceived on two fronts for the fan base. First off, the company has never once shown that they are capable of coding a game properly. Now they expect us to believe that they can code and properly made a 3D fully interactive game. I'll never believe it. The other side to this coin, is that while this is a free game, there is the option to pay to improve your character ( I would say gameplay but that's just not true...) and many people have put in anywhere from $5 to several thousand dollars on their characters. Regardless of how long they hang on to the original Mafia Wars, creating an entirely new game let's players know that eventually they will phase out the original. I just don't get why they don't leave well enough alone and keep 'upgrading and improving' the product that has gotten them this far. Fix what is broken before you move on to something new that's even more broken.
There I've said my piece, though that's not what this blog posting was originally going to be about. Expect another Mafia Wars related post in the future.
Mafia Wars 2: The Reurrection Of Judgment Day (Or, It's Personal, Electric Boogaloo).
ReplyDeleteAlso, off-topic slightly, but that title image reminds me of Point Blank's for some reason. Next time I see the games I'll have to check.
Now see, that game I might actually play though.
ReplyDeleteShow of hands, who thinks they'll squeeze a zombie add-on/subplot into the game eventually?
ReplyDeleteafter 2 years over i spent my time for the game daily now they want to release MW2? what the heck is that? until now i haven't got any power pack or even can't get anymore stamina pack in original MW after sent some email to Zynga CS....ty....and (finger to Zynga)
ReplyDeleteWell said Anon.
ReplyDeleteAs for a zombie subplot, maybe not, but there are already Zombie themed items from Halloween's past.
Let's hope not. I love zombies as much as the next pop culture-obsessed person but you can't shoehorn them into everything and expect it to work
ReplyDeleteSuch as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?
ReplyDeleteSometimes it works it works, sometimes it doesn't. That was one of those times it happened to work. Work well enough to get a prequel and a film adaptation, anyway
ReplyDeleteI personally haven't gotten the chance to read that one yet, but I will sooner than later hopefully.
ReplyDeleteZynga has shown me time and time again they do not care about it customer base. They release things to a certain few, while others continually have to wait depending on what server they are on. I do realize Zynga is a company and here to make money, and to release things early to those that spend more I can understand, but although some do spend alot, new releases are not available early for all those that do, and some that never spent a dime get the new releases everytime.
ReplyDeleteNothing they do is done on a fair basis, whether money spent or not, customer service, is an absolute joke. Some in other countries do not even have the option to get live chat, and never get a response or fix to an emailed support ticket, though their money was taken from them. That should be illegal, they take real money be it US dollars or any other foreign currency should be by law forced give actual online support to all, in real time, with developers on hand to fix their issues within at least a 36 hour window.
If level of spending does not matter in regards to new cities opening or beta testing, then beta should only be available to those finished with certain cities to continue, I think thats fair to all, if you havent finished the last city, you dont move on to the next.
And for a company that wants to go public, they should be held accountable for their actions and poor customer service before the federal trade commission allows for this company to be invested in by the public, especially in this economy.
I can ramble on forever about Zynga.
I couldn't have said it better Anon. In fact I may use a portion of that for a future Zynga/MW related blog.
ReplyDelete