Mafia Wars is NOT a 5 Star Game

A friend of mine recently gave Mafia Wars, a Zynga game most commonly played on Facebook, a five star rating. While I play the game, I think the rating should be much lower. We have to give it a few stars because it appeals to man’s base nature of conquering things, thus becoming an addictive experience, but we also have to remove stars for the many bugs in the product as well as the shifting rules.

Let’s start with the later:

Shifting Rules

When I first started playing Mafia Wars last year, you had a fairly simple method of setting up properties. First, you had to buy land and then you had to buy properties to sit on the land. As the price went up each time you purchased, it made more sense to buy in lots of 10. If you played this correctly, you quickly got up to a level where you could get to billions of dollars of daily income rather quickly. In addition, you only had to pull the money out once per day and all of the properties were pulled at one time. And, if you continued to build this way, you could achieve the money accomplishments within a few months.

Rule Change #1 was to reorganize properties like so:

This gave us a very pretty reorganization. More importantly, it gave the advantage back to the house (Zynga) in this casino we call online games. Here is how it works.

1. Reorganize properties, including getting rid of some that are very profitable for peeps – this reduced my daily take tremendously
2. Make all properties expire at different times, making them easier to rob
3. Only allow a person to buy one property at a time, so you can raise the price on each property instead of each 10

When robbing was reintroduced, you could only rob when a bar was full and you could collect. This was to illustrate you have to pay attention to avoid getting robbed, or something similar. In the past day or so another rule change has been instituted (Rule Change #2): people can rob you even when the bar is not full. What this means is even a person who stays on the game 24 hours a day can be robbed.

For evidence, the screen cap above was taken about 1 minute ago. Note that my Chop Shop and Weapons Depot, which take 24 hours to fill. This means I cleaned up my take about 4 hours ago. Below is a screen cap of my Mafia Wars home page taken right now:

This means the rule is no longer “if you don’t watch your properties, they get robbed”, but rather “to make sure people rob, you can get robbed at a point in time where you can’t collect”. If this is the way the game is changing, the fair thing should be that I can collect on my take at any moment to ensure I can’t get robbed. But, that type of change would not benefit Zynga, as their goal in rules changing is to ensure I eventually get tired enough of not making progress I will buy something from them.

I am personally hoping this second “change” is a bug, as it is really annoying enough to have to keep getting into the game to make sure a property with a full bar is not robbed. Getting robbed without having a chance to do something to prevent it lifts annoying to the level of aggravating. Making it nearly impossible to get the big money accomplishments pissed me off too.

NOTE: I am not talking about game additions here. Adding on additional features is a dynamite way to add more incentive to play the game. I have no problem with that. I am talking about core changes in the way the game works that make it harder to achieve goals. While it is their game, and they have the right to program it how they desire, I would not want to play a board game with a person who changed rules like this in mid stream. Especially if the rule changes he instituted were things like “when ever Greg passes Go, he goes to Jail and I collect $100,000”. That is how I feel about Zynga’s rule changing; they seem to only benefit the house.

Bugs

While rule changes might be okay in some people’s definition of a five star game, I have a feeling most would disagree that a buggy game should earn this designation. Here are just a few of the bugs I have encountered in the game over the past week or so:

1. Can’t receive boost from self when clicking on friend’s link. First the link:
   
   then the message
   
   I am not, and have never been, Rob. As such, I think I can safely label this one a bug.
   
2. Gifts expire shortly after someone sends them. I saw my Mafia Wars gift request change on FB and had this:
    
   click on the Claim Rewards and get this
   

   Unless near immediate gift expiration is a clever feature, I would call it a bug.
   

3. Failure to give items it says you just collected. I have had this happen on skill points, reward points, experience (harder to gauge as you do not see experience without going to profile) and money:
   
   
4. Disappearing energy, etc. When I played this morning, I left nearly 300 points so I could play England in a few hours (currently working on something that costs 48 points and I can do it 6 times in a row before the authorities get suspicious). When doing the screen caps earlier, I was down to 232 points. Now I am at 153. WFT?
    
   
5. Other strange point anomalies – This one shows points temporarily being reduced:
   
   
6. Money shown in wrong currency:
   

These are not the only bugs I have seen and I am not even certain they are the most egregious. I have actually contacted Zynga about some of the bugs I have encountered and even received correspondence back, although I have never had my game adjusted. In short, it is not worth complaining unless you are paying and I am not convinced you will get much out of Zynga no matter how much you complained.

My Thoughts

Which of these better describes you?

1. If someone produced a really good quality free game and gave me an offer to get additional features for money, I would pay it
2. I pay money for games that make things really hard to progress just so I can get it over with

The point is you can provide a carrot (more stuff in a great game for people who buy) or a stick (make it harder to progress as time goes on so you spend). Zynga seems to focus on the stick. I am not a stick kind of guy, nor are most people I have talked to, so it is not working for us (perhaps it is for others?).

More importantly, even if the game was awesome I doubt I would purchase it when it is as broken as it routinely is. As a developer, I would cringe at the high number of bugs making it to production. Perhaps their crack dealer model, “the first one is free”, is not profitable enough to put a quality assurance department in place?

Last Bits

So why do I play? Frankly, because I hate to give something up before it is “done”. As the game always adds features and special bits, I doubt I will ever truly be done. But, once the bits in front of me are completed, I will pack up and leave.

But my point here was not “this is a game nobody should play”. I was simply stating this is not a 5 star game, as it was rated. If people were paying for this game, I am sure it would be skewered by sites like IGN and GameSpot and I don’t believe that free gives someone a 5 star game that would likely only get 1 star if it were a paid game.

Peace and Grace,
Greg

Twitter: @gbworld

Webkinz Frustration

Have your children been bitten by the Webkinz "virus" yet? If not, here is the gist. You buy a stuffed animal and get to play with it online. It is a really neat concept and I love it overall. I have just found the dark side of this addiction however.

This morning, I had two different WebKinz to set up. One for Emily and one for Annabelle. I had the two tags in front of me and started signing up Emily. No problem until the tags got mixed up and I signed Emily up for the Arabian Horse rather than the Penguin. I then spent over an hour trying to straighten out the mess. I figured I had two options.

1. Adjust the user information and change the account to Annabelle. Unfortunatley, you cannot change the user name after signup. Dead end.
2. Reset the account. There is an online form to do this, but it will not accept the information I am typing in and does not inform me what might be wrong (probably for "security reasons")

Now, I do not blame WebKinz World for the tag mixup. That is 100% my fault.  What I blame them for is making it nearly impossible to contact them about problems they have not forseen. I am writing this hoping they will see it and use it constructively (as I am going to send the permalink to them). Here are my suggestions for improvement.

1. Let the use change the information. I can undestand the pet, the username, but let me adjust the actual person behind the fake identity. Yes, I realize I am a fringe case, but I am going to have to wait two or three days until you contact me to get this straightened out. If I could simply adjust the child name on the account (and then use the change accuont name feature) I would be fine.
2. Give me an ability to contact you about something other than your world. When I hit the contact us form, I have to choose something. What about people who fall outside of the normal cases? Do you really think you have figured out all of the ways someone can make a mistake.
3. Let me know why I am unable to delete an account or tell me you have forwarded my problem to someone who can help me. As it stands, I entered all of the information correctly, except perhaps email address (which you never asked for), so I am not sure if your form is not working or I typoed something initially. As such, I cannot help you troubleshoot and I cannot straighten out my problem.

In our ignorance, or perhaps arrogance, we developers often box our customers in. Rather than think like customers, we think we can figure out all ways that software can go wrong. And, inevitably, we are WRONG.

In this case, I am trying to help myself rather than engage Webkinz, but they have not left me that option. I then try to contact them to have them help me and they have both a) not left me enough spaces to give them a proper diagnosis of the problem (300 characters) and b) given me an option of reporting a fringe case.

At this point, I want to delete the account ebeamer and start over. But, I am now waiting for someone to contact me back (up to 4 days from now) so I can resolve this issue. I realize this is not an emergency, but my daughter sure thinks so.

Perhaps I should blog on how to improve UIs when things go wrong.

Now, here is my problem, in case the Webkinz guys come here (the rest of you can ignore this, except maybe to have a laugh).

1, Have treid to remove the account (Customer Support >> Account Issues >> Can I Reset My Account?): Fill in form with information for the ebeamer account and get

YOUR ACCOUNT VERIFICATION INFORMATION DOES NOT MATCH OUR RECORDS

I assume one of two things here. I typoed something in the many things you use to verify the account. Personally, I think you have asked too much here. To reset an account, why do you need more than username, password and the tag number. Why do you need animal name, child name and birthdate. If someone has the account information, along with the tag number (aka, secret code), why should they not be able to reset? As it stands, there are three pieces of information, completely useless to the transaction, that increase the likelihood of failure and a need to contact you.

Or, why can’t the child change information for the account (or a parent?). Why cement information that need not, from an application standpoint, be cemented. I feel tis way about animal name, personally, but can understand it more.

2. Attempt to change child name and birthdate: There is absolutely no option. As I am a fringe case, this is okay, although I am sure there are other parents with more than one child who may have this same issue. I can even log into webkinz world and there is no option to change my information in the world. I can understand, somewhat, not changing the animal’s name (not really, as it seems like a simple thing to do in a database, but it is your world), but not being able to correct name or birthdate is a strong oversight, IMO.

3. Tried to move the animal to a new account. Unfortunately, I cannot create an account if the child has never signed up, so I cannot move the animal to an account that does not exist and cannot create a new account. Admitedly, also a fringe case.

Here is the optimal solution: Delete the ebeamer account so I can recreate it with the correct animal and also create a new acount with this animal. When you contact me, I can give you the secret code and we can set up both accounts.

I do have two questions, however, that bugs me. Did you never forsee a case where a parent would have multiple children with WebKinz and accidentally mixing up tags? If not, I would assume you will see more of this in the future. Second, did you imagine a scenario when one child would sign up anothers Webkinz and the parent might have to try to get it on a new account? The second one is a realistic condition, considering children. And, the only solution a parent has is to buy a second Webkinz for their child so they can create an account ot switch the "stolen" Webkinz to, as there is no way to create an account without a code to switch a Webkiz to.

One more thing. As a parent, it is very easy for me to create a parent’s account over a single child. It is harder for me to create a parent account that monitors multiple children. This is a bit shortsided, IMO, as I am sure there are other parents of multiple children who love WebKinz. Do I really have to create multiple accounts? And, why, as a parent, can I not change my child’s information. The only option you give me is to block or Unblock Clubhouse chat. Are parents really this powerless in your world? Come on, guys, give me some ability to truly do something or get rid of the parent’s account altogether. This is insulting.

As one who works with Web UIs on a regular basis, I understand that this is more the norm than an anamoly. I often get paid well to make UIs more user friendly, both in flow and in offering solutions for situations like mine. As such, I do not blame you for the lack of tools to solve my problem. I am, however, very frustrated that there is no means of contacting you without adding a tag that means nothig to my communication.

Please note that I am most interested in solving my problem, but hope this feedback helps you improve. You have a great UI, from the child’s standpoint. You also have interesting games, a good social network, etc. There is room for improvement, however, in handling fringe cases. Please contact me back as I feel like a number at this point in time rather than a customer.

Peace and Grace,
Greg