Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Facebook: Mafia Wars

Sometimes I wonder if the somewhat anonymous nature of the Internet brings out the worst in people. I see this in online forums all the time where people make the rudest comments.

On Facebook, there is a game called Mafia Wars. It has a bunch of stuff you can do but one of them is to fight other people and take their money. Since much of it is based on how many people you've added to your mob, I lose a lot of fights since I only have 7 people (some have hundreds). Because of that, I never initiate any fights and I "bank" all my money in the game so it won't get stolen. It's not that much fun. Anyway, the game keeps a log of events and sometimes I would log in and see my health way down or that I've been killed. The interesting thing is that I see people attack me 6-7 times in a row even though the payoff is $0 (can't lose money in the bank). What's the point other than to inflict further health damage? I wonder if these people are anti-social psychopaths in real life. If they see an injured person lying on the ground, would they run up and kick them in the head? Probably.

Case in point. My log of lost fights is pretty long. Today, I saw some guy attack me 6 times, then return an hour later to attack me again 5-6 time with a total payoff of $0 each time. Weird. Since you can see their "real" Facebook name and his was kind of unique, I Googled it and got some interesting hits. Evidently he is a student at one of the SUNY schools (class of 2011) and he has several arrests for possession of marijuana and alcohol plus one for petty larceny. What a loser; I guess he gets his kicks by beating up weaker characters on a Facebook game.

2 comments:

Darryl said...

Well the game is called "Mafia Wars" for a reason.
Otherwise if everyone just banked their money, the game might be called "Squirrel Savers" - and probably attract a whole different demographic...

Disclaimer: I don't play "Mafia Wars"... :)

Anonymous said...

I play MW on FB and I will continue to attack someone even if there is no monetary payout. This is because I don't fight because I want the money, I want the experience points (another version of the payout that goes toward the level of your character in the game).