Looks like Mafia Wars has caught on the 'Icing' trend. Now, when you kill someone during a fight in the game, you get a new notification that says "You Iced Your Opponent." You also have the option to share your victory with friends, by offering them a Liquid Courage boost, which increases their attack skill by 44 during their next fight.
Though I'm sure Zynga would deny it, this is clearly a nod at Icing -- a silly prank that started in dorm rooms and has made its way to corporate America (which means it's already waaay past the point of being cool.) The prank/game/whatever works like this: If a person is presented with a Smirnoff Ice, they must drop on one knee and chug the entire thing. That is, unless the presentee happens to 'block' the Icing, by carrying a Smirnoff Ice of their own. Then the person who initiated the Icing has to drop and chug. To refuse will bring a pox upon your house or some other kind of karmic badness.
Icings have been well documented on brosicingbros.com (which has since been shut down by party poopers at Diageo, Smirnoff's parent company) and IceYou.com. I've also had the pleasure of getting Iced, and well, let's just say I won't be drinking any of Smirnoff's alco-pop, well, ever again.
Good to see that the bros behind the scenes at Mafia Wars are keeping their fingers on the pulse of America ... or at least wrapped around a cold bottle of a malt beverage.
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn MafiaWars. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn MafiaWars. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Thứ Bảy, 11 tháng 2, 2012
Thứ Hai, 6 tháng 2, 2012
Zynga CEO to employees: "I don't f***ing want innovation"
FarmVille creator Zynga is the most popular Facebook game publisher -- that's no debating that. Out of the top 10 most popular games on Facebook, Zynga created seven of them: FarmVille, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars, FrontierVille, Cafe World, Treasure Isle and PetVille. And while these games are beloved by many, the company behind the game hasn't always garnered a 'friendly' reputation with players or the games industry as a whole.
In a new tell-all article, 'FarmVillains' in San Francisco's SF Weekly, former Zynga employees dish about what they witnessed behind the scenes, which gives credence to the company's less-than-savory reputation. Apparently, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus meant what he said in his now-famous quote, admitting that he "did every horrible thing in the book just to get revenues," and one of those things includes blatantly copying competitor's games.
The SF Weekly article is long and certainly worth reading in its entirety, but here are a few of the more memorable quotes from Zynga's exes:
"I don't fucking want innovation," the ex-employee recalls Pincus saying. "You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
One contractor says he was offered freelance work from Zynga, related to mimicking a competitor's application, with explicit instructions: "Copy that game."
"I was around meetings where things like that were being discussed, and the ramifications of things like that were being discussed - the fact that they'd probably be sued by the people who designed the game," he says. "And the thought was, 'Well, that's fine, we'll settle.' Our case wasn't really defensible." Psycho Monkey's suit was ultimately settled for an undisclosed amount.
The former senior employee who was present for Pincus' "No innovation" diatribe described Zynga's business model this way: "Steal somebody else's game, throw millions of dollars at it, and then, if it doesn't have it already, add virtual coins."
To be fair, there are hundreds of successful corporations that were built on a concept that was an iteration of an existing idea. That's what makes the business world go 'round. Facebook itself is an iteration of a dozen social networks before it -- but Mark Zuckerberg's version just happened to resonate with the general population more than, say, Orkut or Friendster did before it.
Some could argue that Zynga simply did the same, but Pincus and his company have also built up a sense of distrust over the past few years, something that needs to be changed if they want to give companies like Electronic Arts and Activision a run for their money, and more importantly, if they want to keep players from looking for new virtual fields to harvest.
In a new tell-all article, 'FarmVillains' in San Francisco's SF Weekly, former Zynga employees dish about what they witnessed behind the scenes, which gives credence to the company's less-than-savory reputation. Apparently, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus meant what he said in his now-famous quote, admitting that he "did every horrible thing in the book just to get revenues," and one of those things includes blatantly copying competitor's games.
The SF Weekly article is long and certainly worth reading in its entirety, but here are a few of the more memorable quotes from Zynga's exes:
"I don't fucking want innovation," the ex-employee recalls Pincus saying. "You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
One contractor says he was offered freelance work from Zynga, related to mimicking a competitor's application, with explicit instructions: "Copy that game."
"I was around meetings where things like that were being discussed, and the ramifications of things like that were being discussed - the fact that they'd probably be sued by the people who designed the game," he says. "And the thought was, 'Well, that's fine, we'll settle.' Our case wasn't really defensible." Psycho Monkey's suit was ultimately settled for an undisclosed amount.
The former senior employee who was present for Pincus' "No innovation" diatribe described Zynga's business model this way: "Steal somebody else's game, throw millions of dollars at it, and then, if it doesn't have it already, add virtual coins."
To be fair, there are hundreds of successful corporations that were built on a concept that was an iteration of an existing idea. That's what makes the business world go 'round. Facebook itself is an iteration of a dozen social networks before it -- but Mark Zuckerberg's version just happened to resonate with the general population more than, say, Orkut or Friendster did before it.
Some could argue that Zynga simply did the same, but Pincus and his company have also built up a sense of distrust over the past few years, something that needs to be changed if they want to give companies like Electronic Arts and Activision a run for their money, and more importantly, if they want to keep players from looking for new virtual fields to harvest.
Thứ Tư, 1 tháng 2, 2012
Mafia Wars Game Cards offer more Reward Points than ever
Maybe it's the giving spirit of the holidays (or more likely a preparation for Black Friday), but no matter what inspired it Zynga has increased the amount of Reward Points you'll find in Mafia Wars Game Cards. Unfortunately, Zynga hasn't revealed by exactly how much the cards have increased in value, though they do remain at the same price as before. So, either way this is a deal.
Included in the update are new price points for the Game Cards to coincide with the Zynga Game Cards with $10 and $15 options. Before, Mafia Wars Game Cards were only offered for $25 and $50. And if you want to avoid the ravenous crowds this Friday morning, you can gift any Zynga Game Card through e-mail using Zynga's service. Besides, everyone knows that Cyber Monday is way cooler than Black Friday.
Included in the update are new price points for the Game Cards to coincide with the Zynga Game Cards with $10 and $15 options. Before, Mafia Wars Game Cards were only offered for $25 and $50. And if you want to avoid the ravenous crowds this Friday morning, you can gift any Zynga Game Card through e-mail using Zynga's service. Besides, everyone knows that Cyber Monday is way cooler than Black Friday.
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