Mafia Wars Bangkok is the newest expansion from Zynga and is a continuation of their very popular game. This expansion takes place in the mysterious orient and is based in Thailand.

The Japanese Yakuza and Chinese Triads have battled for control of this city and country for years and you will be thrust into the middle of the conflict just as you were with the Vory and Mafiya in Moscow.

While the expansion is not live yet Zynga is giving you the ability to get your hands on the items that will be required to unlock the expansion.

Here is a quick reference for the items.

• Triad Coin – This item can be found in the New York Soldier Tier.
• Yakuza Sake – Find this item in the New York Hitman Tier.
• Thai Note – You can find this item in New York in the Enforcer Tier.
• Thai Passport – To get this item you will have to wait until the launch date.

I hope that they iron out all of the problems with the expansion before they roll it out. The Moscow expansion was released before it was ready and resulted in major changes involving earning R$ and the bribe penalties. Perhaps they have learned from their mistakes.

While the exact release date of Mafia Wars Bangkok is unknown it is probably best to get the items to unlock the expansion now and be ready. Good luck in Bangkok and look forward to up to date information as soon as it is available.

Recently Facebook announced changes being made to the privacy settings of its users. While these changes are designed to make things easier and simpler for its users is it more of a pain in the butt than helpful? You decide.

The default settings for the new privacy features will make all of your information available not only to the 350 million Facebook users as well as search engines such as Yahoo, Google and others.

Does this open up your account to even more danger in the form of hackers, scammers and other unscrupulous entities? I believe that it can, but you can do more to protect yourself by tweaking the following settings.

Search Settings

With the release of these new privacy settings all accounts were set to a default configuration. This configuration includes resetting your public search settings to the on mode. This setting means that you are allowing your information to be seen by any search engine. If you do not want your information to be available to anyone who wants to see it you need to reset the option to the off mode. Read the rest of this entry

I have been playing Mafia Wars for quite some time and have built numerous characters so I thought I would pass along four simple things that are the basis of creating a strong character.

1.) Use your Energy effectively

This is probably the most important thing in Mafia Wars. If you want to level quickly you need to make sure that you put your energy to the best use. Visit one of the bookmarklet pages and pick up a tool to help you determine how to manage your energy when completing jobs.

2.) Linear Jobs

Complete jobs in a linear manner for the best results in the long run. If you are starting a new character begin with the Street Thug tier and complete all three levels of it before moving on. Resist the urge to jump around on the tiers simply because you are high enough level for them. This holds true for expansion as well. Visit them to get your business started then forget about them except for collecting your business payouts. Read the rest of this entry

Here is a quick list of items that have been leaked for the new Bangkok expansion that should go live very soon. While the stats for the items was not part of the leak you will at least have an idea of what to expect

As soon as I have the stats for the items I will post the list so you can incorporate it into your spreadsheets.