Here we are just a few days before Christmas. In no time jolly ole Saint Nick will be making his yearly rounds and the snow is falling in the United States. With the spirit of Christmas in the air many of us think of our loved ones and look forward to spending time around the Christmas tree.

Zynga has been busy this year as well. When we had scheduled maintenance on Friday, December 12th, I thought that they may implement the Bangkok expansion but I was mistaken. Instead they were setting up a blowout sale, setting up Holiday Event, and presenting us with a charity to which we can contribute. Read the rest of this entry

Mafioso might all seem to be big tough shoot first ask questions later type of people but they do celebrate Christmas. Sometimes I imagine what a mafia member might get their family. I picture t-shirts with catchy sayings. Some of these might fit the bill.

• Mafioso Morgue – We Stab em Then We Slab em
• Carmine’s BBQ – Grill em Then Kill em
• Anthony’s Cleaning Service – Let Us Handle Your Dirty Work
• Mikie’s Dry Cleaning – We Launder Anything
• Who’s Yer Godfadda?

Zynga is in on the Yuletide season as usual and is holding a holiday event through January, 3rd, 2010. During this time they have made special Christmas gifts available for you to put under your mafia’s tree.

The Safe House

The Safe House is another Christmas feature but it should not be confused with the free gifts listed above. In order to get gifts from the Safe House you need to click on the “ask for more gifts” button and select as many of your mafia as possible each day.

In order to ensure that you get as many gifts as possible you should select members of your mafia that you know are active players. Daily players are your best of course. Make sure that you return the favor when your mafia members request gifts from you too.

The gifts that you receive are completely random but I am told that the items are some of the best yet in Mafia Wars. You can open your gifts early but it will cost you Godfather Points. Best wait until Christmas Day.

Limited Time Job

You will also have access to a holiday limited time job called “Bring the Family Together.” Completing this job results in special holiday gifts and is a multi step process once again giving you the chance to get you hands on some hard to get loot.

The holiday celebration gives Mafia Wars players the chance to grab some of the more rare in game items as well as the chance to win a real Xbox 360 or a Mafia Wars Jacket. If you have not started sending and asking for gifts do it now and your Christmas Day might include a game console or a jacket from our friends at Zynga.

All around the world the Christmas season has traditionally a time of giving. Some give to “Da Family” and others give to friends and acquaintances, but there are some who choose to give to charities to help those who are not as privileged as they are.

This Yuletide Season Zynga has chosen a charity and asked that the members of Mafia Wars help. The charity that they have chosen is called FATEM and is based in Mirebalais, Haiti. The group is dedicated to bringing information technology to the people of Haiti which will help with economic advancement in the area. The group also supports the general education of Haitian children and ensures that these children receive meals that will help them grow and learn.

For you contribution Zynga has chosen to offer a special Limited Edition item that you can use in Mafia Wars at the cost of 25 Godfather Points.

Haitian Drum – 44 Attack – 46 Defense

As Mafia Wars players I can guarantee that none of us know what it is like to go without a meal or live in live in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Haiti is the 7th poorest nation in the world and we have the chance to help Zynga bring needed food and technology to the country.

The cost of the item is 25 Reward Points. Many of us have that many saved up from leveling but using these points will not help the people of Haiti. You can purchase 42 reward points for a measly $7.00, less than most of us pay for a fast food meal. If you can afford it please invest in the future of another country.

Help Zynga change the lives of the children of Haiti if you can.

The year of 2009 is about to come to an end and I for one must say that it has been quite a good year.

Even though Mafia Wars experienced some glitches and hiccups in the later part of the year the folks over at Zynga have done a great job of fixing most of the problems that we have encountered.

The New Year looks like it is going to be a good one as well as far as Mafia Wars goes.

New Years Job

Expect a brand new featured job starting December 28th and continuing through January 4th. According to Zynga “This job will give you even more options than before including choosing different missions with different payouts.”

Bangkok Expansion

Originally the Bangkok Expansion was slated for release during the Christmas holidays but has been pushed back to a January 2010 release. Personally I am happy to see a game provider that is willing to make sure that an expansion is ready instead of pushing it out before it is ready. Bravo Zynga!

Other 2010 Features

Multi-Item Gifting – Zynga will be making it much easier to strengthen your Mafia Wars mafia. This feature will most likely migrate into other games which bear the Zynga brand as well.

Translations – Mafia Wars will become available to many more players throughout the world by offering it in many more languages. Once again I foresee this opening up other games as well.

Robbing – Zynga has heard the voice of its players and will be reintroducing robbing in 2010 with and new format.

Developers Days – This is in my opinion one of the best ways to improve any game. Zynga plans to hold meetings between the development team and player base in order to come up with new ideas.

Beta Testing – It seems that Zynga has decided that do more in the way of beta testing. You can never test enough when putting out a quality product. Everyone needs to keep in mind that even though a product goes through an extensive beta process there will always be the inevitable problems once the product goes live.

Free Stuff – It looks like we will be getting more free stuff in the way of weekly giveaways, rewards, contests, and more. Hey, free stuff is always good.

With 2009 coming to an end very soon I took some time to reflect back upon the year and realized that in the Mafia Wars world 2009 was a good year. We saw many new features and even though some were very good and others not so good, all in all we had fun and it was great. 2010 is almost upon us and I think that it is going to be another great year.