Mafia Wars Italy Pre-Release Strategy

Mafia Wars is still promoting Italy as an October 2010 release so we are likely less than two weeks from the opening of a new city.

Taking a lesson from Vegas, try these three strategies when you are building your Italian empire:

[1] If you find that a level/job/district is dropping great loot, don't race through the levels. Instead, pile up the loot and improve your fighting/robbing/tournament stats. Don't you wish you were still at Bronze level in Districts 7 and 8 in Las Vegas? Energy accounts could get hundreds of top Vegas items with each refill... instead of the 2-3 I get for every 5,000 energy points...

[2] (hat tip to LP for this one): If you find a loot item in Italy that is giftable AND worth as much as/more than top Vegas items, get it in your wishlist fast.

Apparently, Diamondbacks and some other top loot were originally able to be added to your Wishlist when Vegas unveiled District 6. Soon after that, you could no longer add these items to your Wishlist. Only those MW players who already had the items on their Wishlists could receive them as trade. The rest of us waited until this week.

Use that strategy in Italy in case Zynga changes its mind and pulls a 180 in making valuable loot items "ungiftable." If you do, you won't have to wait for this "Improvement" (??) noted in Mafia Wars' release notes... as though the inability to gift high-end Vegas loot was all just one big misunderstanding.



(Faithful readers know that the Vegas loot/Wishlist switcheroo was really the work of The Wishlist Police ... click if you missed it the first time around).



[3] We know there is a new property in Italy - the Italian Villa. Perhaps it will be more like the Vegas casino than the disjointed properties from prior cities. If so, the Villa will require upgrade parts, like your casino, vault, Chop Shop, etc.
Hopefully, the items needed to build the Italian Villa will drop from jobs and be accessible through your Wishlist for gifts and trades - like the Vegas vault and casino items were, and Chop Shop and Weapons Depot upgrade parts are... and NOT like the Armory, which is pretty tedious.

Assuming Villa parts drop from jobs in Italy, here's a tip: don't trade or gift away all of your upgrade parts once you've finished building your Villa. Anyone remember the Vegas fountain? The new Chop Shop and Weapons Depot levels? Keep a few upgrade sets handy in case Mafia Wars expands the Villa after Italy debuts.

(Speaking of which... anyone concerned about what Mafia Wars might be planning to add in the very conspicuous empty space in the lower level of the Vegas Casino?)


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Final point - more of an "Easter egg" feature - perhaps unintended - and a neat walk down memory lane: Try this:
1. Click on Home.
2. Select Italy from your Travel Menu.
3. Once you see the full page Italy promo, click on the Travel Menu again.
4. Select Vegas, Bangkok, Moscow, or Cuba from the Travel menu.
5. Repeat for the other cities (not New York) if you like what you see.
It's like a Zynga time machine!




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