Mafia Wars!

What a coincidence that I'm blogging on Mafia Wars! I actually think the game is pretty addictive and it appeals to me as a user despite its rather ugly design and meaningless clicking just to increase the amount of Cash that you have, fight, buy properties or increase inventory. As Ji Wei puts it during the presentation, this is a really simple application with not much animation, graphics and is relatively simple to program, but still, more than 6.3 million people play it everyday!

To summarize, what made Mafia Wars so popular?

if you've read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" before, you realize that Robert Kiyosaki always has his mantra of "best-selling author" vs. "best-writing author". A well-written book may not sell as well as a book that was well-marketed (or rather, a book that appeals to readers, a book that people will need and want to read). I think this is true for FB apps (and for that matter, other web developments) as well. What will get FB users addicted to a game is not a darn difficult to program app full of graphics/animations/functions. What's needed to make an app sell and reach out to tons of people is a basic/easy interface that people can understand within 2 mins.

Another point that I felt was noteworthy for Facebook application developers was how optimization plays a big role in getting tons of people to use the app in the shortest possible time. For instance, players have to invite a certain number of friends to join their Mafia before they can unlock a higher level. This is a fantastic marketing strategy and is akin to online word-of-mouth, just that it is way more effective. A user who desperately wants to unlock that higher level will try to invite all his friends to join Mafia Wars, and may even do so repetitively.

And lastly, what makes Mafia Wars so addictive?
1. buy more weapons, inventory, armour, loot other players, chance to fight with other players/friends
2. buy more properties to increase cashflow, increase payout and current take
3. reach higher Levels in Mafia Wars - unlock different property, inventory, weapons - maybe want to see what's in store for me?
4. Earn Godfather points to get exotic weapons, inventory

the most important point out of the four is the chance to reach higher and higher levels of gameplay. I think this introduces a competitive element in Mafia Wars, and people are naturally keen to keep going back to the game as long as they think there's more they can do in Mafia Wars.

Hmm, food for thought regarding gaming apps:
1. keep the concept simple and straightforward. know who your users are. People probably aren't very interested in reading a tutorial on how to play your game. they just want to figure it out by themselves and if they manage to, they'll keep playing. if they don't, you just lost a customer and all his friends.
2. Spam. i hate to write this, but this works!
3. give people a reason to re-use the app over and over again.