Mafia Wars Addiction Cheats and Bookmarklets

(Links to things mentioned below are gathered at the bottom of the page)

I'd like to stand up, raise my hand, and acknowledge... I have an addiction. Not drugs, not gambling, not smoking, not even bad language. My addiction is Mafia Wars by Zynga, a game application played through Facebook.

To start with, I'm an obsessive/compulsive person. I know this, and carefully direct myself toward productive obsessions, or at least limit my timewasters to one main thing at a time. A few months ago, a friend from work asked me to sign up to a new game he was playing. It was free, and he just wanted another 'body' in his Mafia. I thought I could just sign up, join his gang, and be done.

The next thing I knew, it was taking up all my time. It was all about finishing 'jobs', getting better gear, higher levels, bigger mafia. Since it's an open-ended game with no actual 'finish', there's a good chance I'll grow old still stuck on this game! I do have a life, and other things I want to do. This particular compulsion took over for a while.

Then one day I was searching for tips to play better, and found 'bookmarklets.' These are little buttons you drag to your (Firefox) menu bar. Once in place, each one will do one specific task. I found one called AttackX that made life a lot easier. Several others caught my attention, some useful, some not. There was an excellent tool to send gifts with, several others that helped you manage your inventory, your jobs, your mafia.

Now you're thinking... but... that's (gasp) cheating! ... Well, not yet. Each bookmarklet, as I discovered it, simply enhanced the playability of the game. They took a game that was already fun and addicting, and smoothed out the rough edges. Made it more fun. Got rid of the hugely boring repetitive clicking that's inherent in the authorized version.

So far, I was having a great time, but still hooked. By this point, I had my 'real' character, then an energy character, and finally one to just fight with. Even with the coolest of extra add-ons, I was still losing life to the game. Then I found Mafia Wars Auto Player. It was like lightning struck, blinding me with it's brilliance. MWAP is so smart, it plays me (my characters) better than I do! NOW you can say "That's cheating!" - and you're absolutely right. It's full-on, no-excuses, solid as a rock cheating. And it saved my life. I still love to sit down and play. But now, I play when I feel like playing. I don't worry about it when I'm not playing. The pressure's off, and I can play just for fun.

Is it against the rules? Yep. Matter of fact, it's all against the rules. According to Zynga (the game owners) they can shut you down in a heartbeat for using any script or aid that they themselves did not include in the game. So getting banned is a serious risk. But it's all part of my plan. You see, all I wanted was to break the addiction. If I play with all these extras, have fun, and get my life back, that's truly great. But if it gets me banned, well, that solves the problem too. I'm honestly fine with either solution. It may not work for anyone else, but for an obsessive/compulsive like me, sometimes you have to work within the problem, rather than try to beat it head-on. And the really good part is that I'm slowly feeling less and less compulsive about even running the autoplayer. When I started, it had to be on all the time. Now, I mainly like to have it running when I'm away from the computer.

Part of what I want to do with my time is experiment with writing for hubpages. Now that I have free time again, it seems fitting that the first new thing I do is turn my experience into a hubpage. Maybe it'll help you!

Time has passed, I still play Mafia Wars, but it no longer plays me.

Below are the links to the things that helped me. I was going to write more pages in detail, but there are so many out there that do a great job, I decided to just point the way and give credit where it's due. Remember, using these add-ons or cheats are considered against the rules by Zynga. In my case, if they ban me it's an acceptable alternative solution. You'll have to decide for yourself if it's a risk you want to take.

First- Regarding the video to your right... I am NOT recommending it. Use the Autoplayer at your own risk!!! I include it as an option for you to be aware of. It's your choice, and your responsibility, to use it or not!

Some MWAP links are broken, or to an old version. Here is the most current Mafia Wars Auto Player link I know of.

Spockholm, one of the best bookmarklet pages with great BMs and further links to keep you going.

Chuck A Cr_p, the greatest gifting tool in all of Mafiadom! (click the link, then click 'bookmarklets' near the top, to get to the proper page.)

Blofeld's Loot List and Combat Calculator - an absolutely cool tool showing what you've got, and how you use it. I like to use this when I determine how much of what I want to send to other people. Another similar one I like is 'What I'm Using'.

(Update note - Blofeld's page says the domain has expired, and is on hold pending renewal, so I've disconnected the link. For now, it looks like "What I'm Using" is the only option.)

Multiple characters - One last, but very useful, page for anyone running more than one character. It allows multiple instances of Firefox on the same computer, with each one running it's own Mafia Wars character! This page also includes a guide to installing MWAP.