Mafia Wars by Zynga (Facebook) Part - II

Get, Slate, Go - I

This is a sort of second coming that ageing film-stars and out-of-work models would long for. The tablet was an all-but-dead product category, one that never really got off the ground sales-wise, despite the big push from Microsoft way back in 2002. But with the iPad, Apple's wiped the slate clean, opening up the flood gates for a slew of contenders that promise to revitalize an almost obsolete form factor, or to say, completely change the way we interact with our computers. Here's a small peek at what on the cards in 2010.

HP Slate :

Squint a little, and you could easily confuse the HP Slate with the Apple iPad. With a similar sleek profile and a large 8.9 inch capacitive display, it almost is. But it runs on the touch-enabled Windows 7 platform. Along with the netbook specs, it supports Flash and has got multi-tasking capabilities which the iPad lacks. It also packs in 2 built-in cameras (front and back) along with video recording. Looks like HP has all he iPad's bases covered, and then some more.

Notion Ink Adam :

Here's one from my country, India. Notion Ink, a small Indian start-up is talking big with the Adam. This Android based slate not only boasts of a sleek design, but also of the 1 GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 chip that acts both as a chip and a graphics card, allowing you to playback videos at 1080p on the 10 onch display. The real genius is he Pixel Qi screen which can switch from backlit LCD mode for web browsing to a low-power electrophoretic reflective mode for power saving (16 hours) and becomes easier on the eyes.

Fusion Garage JooJoo :
This is from the Singapore-based Fusion garage. Other than iPad, JooJoo is the only other slate that is commercially available at the moment. With a 12 inch screen this Intel Atom/Nvidia ion powered tablet promises full Flash HD and a decent interface over the custom Linux platform. But it misses out in many things - No Apps, no multi-tasking, no e-books and a 5 hour battery life.

More models to come in the next post.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Mafia Wars by Zynga (Facebook) Part - II

Posted by Sourav 5:52 AM

In my last post, I had mentioned the basics of the game, how to start from the beginning and all that. In this post, I am going to go a bit deeper.

First of all, I would like to mention that Mafia wars is not a male-dominated game at all. It might seems to be like that because of its name, but it is not. Out the the 4700+ friends that I have on Facebook (all for Mafia Wars), I think almost 40% of them are females, if not more.

Coming back to the topic, I had mentioned that MW requires a bit of strategy. The strategy here is the timing strategy. There's a thing known as "Energy Pack" which boosts the energy by 25%, and is available once in 24 hours. Using this Energy Pack at the right moment is very important. Further, the timing of the job help requests from friends is also crucial in fast leveling up.

Zynga is trying to incorporate many new and interesting things in the game. They are including special edition jobs, collections and loots. Recently, there were the Easter and St. Patrick's special edition jobs and collection. These kind of inclusions increases the interest a lot more and removes any boredom that creeps in.

Apart from the official Zynga features, there are many unofficial things related to Mafia wars. Two such things are clans and trading groups. Clans are like families. Being a member of any clan has many advantages like backup and protection against bullies, help in completing collections etc. As you can see in the picture, I am a member of {A4L} clan. Trading groups are for trading loots and items with others. This can be real fun if you can get a hold of it, and understand it properly. But be aware of scammers. I was the admin of a trading page, namely MWTC, for quite a few months, but due to some unavoidable circumstances, I had to leave the group.

Nothing is perfect in this world, and one thing which I hate the most about MW are the bugs and errors. Every now and then a new bug pops up...links don't work as they should...and so on. There were many times when MW was down....maintenance problem. But if you can bear with these issues, then you would just love the game...its so addictive. But, addiction is not good for people like me, the college students. Where's the time to study???????? :-P
And by the way, don't forget to check out ZuneZach's 100th blog post celebration.

3 comments:

June Zach (Fledgling Blogger)
Said

I tell you man I was a MAFIA WARS addict! ^_^

I find the game exciting and entertaining but due to my busyness at work I could no longer keep up with it. Hope I could play again.

Thanks a lot for the shout here about my 100th Blog Post Special. You are now qualified for the two contests. Great! I appreciate it much. ^_^

April 13, 2010 at 6:22 PM
Sourav
Said

Great..and I hope to take part in the future contests too...congrats once again for the achievement.

April 13, 2010 at 6:40 PM
Steve
Said

I played for a while. Got to level 450 or so. Then I decided it was taking too much effort to play. So many things to publish, and always checking my wall for new jobs. I deleted it. It's been a week, and it's still a great choice.

April 17, 2010 at 5:21 PM