Some NY tiers have bonus fights called Boss Fights, which the player can choose to fight, but those fights are not required for mastering. The tiers and jobs in New York are unlocked gradually as the player gains levels in the game. The job tiers in New York have titles which are the ranks in the Italian-American mafia (like Capo, Hitman or Consiglere). In Mafia Wars, the jobs in each location are divided in tiers.
Mafia Wars was released to the public in April 2008 with the first playable in-game city called New York. As they level up, more jobs and features become available, such as the ability to visit Las Vegas to expand their criminal empire.
Players who manage to complete special tasks (for example, winning fights against bigger mafias or winning fifteen fights in a row) are labeled as having accomplished an "achievement", resulting in a bonus for the player. The player earns experience points by completing jobs and fighting. The items can be bought in different locations, achieved as rewards for doing jobs or fighting, built in special properties, or gifted between players. Strength of the player and their mafia is calculated with the number and quality of 5 kinds of fighting items: Weapons, Armory, Vehicles, Animals and Henchmen. When 2 players fight, the stronger one wins and does damage to the weaker one's health meter. Fighting is based on the strength of each player and their mafia. With the help of other mafia members that have been recruited, players can fight other players, which may or may not result in the theft of cash, "icing", or "death" of the other player. Gameplay is limited by 3 timers: players have limited energy (for doing jobs), and health and stamina meters (for fighting other players), which slowly recharge over time. Players can also improve their stats by visiting the Marketplace (i.e., making a micropayment). In-game generated mafia members can be added to the player's mafia by Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster allow players to recruit from friends to build their mafia and fight against other players. Players create mafias by recruiting other players. The game revolves around fighting other players and doing jobs to earn cash, items and experience, with the goal of establishing and advancing one's criminal empire. Mafia Wars is set in New York City with the option for players to travel between New York (or Manhattan), Las Vegas (level 18+), and Italy (level 6+). GameplayĪ screenshot of the first New York job tier on an older version of Mafia Wars running on Facebook By February 2012, daily users were down to 540,000 and Mafia Wars had sunk to the 15th most popular Zynga game, only slightly lower than its sequel Mafia wars 2 which placed 13th. Daily active users was at 1.2 million by Augdropping to 1 million by September 2, 2011. According to this same source, monthly active accounts dropped to 6.7 million by Augand to 5.7 million by September 2, 2011. As of April, 2011, reports that Mafia Wars players have shrunk down to 10.7 million monthly active accounts, with approximately 1.7 million daily active users. On Facebook, as of August 2010, Mafia Wars had up to 45.5 million monthly accounts created. Mafia Wars 2 was available on Facebook and Google+. Mafia Wars is available on Facebook, as an iPhone App and as a Google Chrome app.