And in the world of football, it is all the more visible in the ongoing FIFA world cup 2010.
These are the four key changes that I have observed in the run up so far (just for the records, I am writing this on the third day of the knock-outs, in other words, round of 16). So ring out the old, ring in the new in the following:
1> Formation:
4-4-2 is a thing of the past. England, with their "traditional" 4-4-2 formation being criticised by none other than their own players, were ousted by the attacking Germany very early in the tournament. So did the US. They couldn't find innovation with their traditional formation against a resolute Ghana.
When you see the pre match show of any match you are likely to see a attacking 4-3-3 (with central mid in a defensive role and the striker ahead of the two support strikers, and the full backs providing extra support down the wings) more than any other formation. Other popular and successful formations in this world cup have been the diamond shaped midfield 4-1-2-1-2 (e.g. what Brazil deployed today against Chile, with Kaka in the CAM - in the hole behind the two strikers role) and the 4-5-1 (what Spain had used in Euro 2008, and no wonder they won Euro 2008 with this formation, they have the best midfield in the world!)
2> Mentality:
Countries known for their attacking prowess have taken the center stage. Earlier all hell had broken loose for the worshipers of the beautiful game in 2002 World cup & 2004 Euro (and also during Mourinho's Chelsea in club football) when Korea and then Greece showed that one can reach a long way in the competition by scoring one goal and then defending the slender lead with their lives. No longer the case in this competition. We have seen all the underdogs like Korea, US, Ghana or teams that couldn't supposedly score against their bigger opposition go ahead and equalise if not win after going 1 down.
France lost out when they tried a defensive 4-2-3-1 (two holding midfielders with only one striker up front).
On the other hand, offensive Argentina (Gabriel Heinze is a defender! yet he scored a header and makes defense splitting runs) and Germany registered handsome 4-1 and 4-0 wins even in their group stages.
3> Age:
Young Germany, Brazil and other teams with young players took the competition by storm. Compare and contrast it to the earlier year successes of France and Italy with their "experienced players". Argentina with veterans Martin Palermo (36) and Diego Milito (31) in their squad is no longer afraid to give Gonzalo Higuain (22) a start over the two. Make no mistakes, Milito was pivotal in getting Inter Milan the treble this year including the Champion's League for the first time in 45 years, scoring both the goals in their final against Bayern Munich among his 22 in all. Germany's leading stars are Thomas Mueller (20) and Mesut Oezil (21). And boy have the youngsters delivered! Higuain is currently tied for top scorer with 4 already in his kitty, having bagged the only hat trick of this world cup so far.
4> A new world order:
Both the finalists of 2006 world cup France and Italy were knocked out from their group in the very first round. Underdogs Russia and Turkey reached as long as semi finals of 2008 Euro. As football becomes more and more global, and top leagues hire more and more players from around the globe, the teams representing nations become more and more equal. Now when a Ghana faces a US in the round of 16 or when a Serbia faces Germany in the group stages, there is no fear in the supposedly smaller country's players' heads. Watch any two teams facing each other and chances are that you'll find at least a couple of opposing countries' players in the same club, let alone in the same league.
As Ghana becomes only the 3rd African nation in the quarter finals of a world cup, it will be for the first time in the history for the winner of Japan vs Paraguay to reach the quarter final stage.
Waiting for more drama and more history in the biggest event on earth!
Hoping that with these positive changes, FIFA also considers introducing technology soon.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Public Service message
1> A "commoner" patient is shifted out of a hospital's ICU to a barely livable room to accomodate a "referred" patient by a high post official.
2> All, I repeat, ALL tourists of Panchmarhi in MP are ordered to stay inside their rooms and absolutely no vehicles are allowed for 2 days because Mr. Advani is visiting.
3> No civilian is allowed to use the "Civilian Aviation transport" or the helicopter service from Tawang to Guwahati on 3rd June 2010 in spite of applying to the Deputy Commissioner and getting the list approved by him 5 days prior to the journey. Because on the morning of 3rd suddenly 12 relatives of the Chief Justice, the Chief Minister and an MLA decide to use the service.
What is the common irony behind the three incidences? All of the "VIPs" were elected by "commoners" to serve the "civilians"
2> All, I repeat, ALL tourists of Panchmarhi in MP are ordered to stay inside their rooms and absolutely no vehicles are allowed for 2 days because Mr. Advani is visiting.
3> No civilian is allowed to use the "Civilian Aviation transport" or the helicopter service from Tawang to Guwahati on 3rd June 2010 in spite of applying to the Deputy Commissioner and getting the list approved by him 5 days prior to the journey. Because on the morning of 3rd suddenly 12 relatives of the Chief Justice, the Chief Minister and an MLA decide to use the service.
What is the common irony behind the three incidences? All of the "VIPs" were elected by "commoners" to serve the "civilians"
Saturday, February 27, 2010
For Ramsey..and Arsenal
I have never felt so emotionally charged up after watching a match. That too i couldn't watch on tv thanks yet again to my cablewala who out of a sudden decides to show vancouver instead of Arsenal (and previous cricket matches highlights on other channel). Could only watch last 30 minutes on a low quality stream on the net with a dozen interruptions and reconnections.
Aaron Ramsey, a 19 year old bright midfielder of Arsenal, who has proved himself so many times this season and was all poised to be a shining star, suffered a career threatening injury to his leg in the match. The captain of Stoke, whether intentionally or not, BROKE his right foot. It was sickening to watch his broken foot hanging while he was writhing in pain. Sky decided not to show the replay as it was "disturbing". The offender was given a straight red card, and he left the field crying. Even he couldn't meet the eyes of Ramsey. The play was stopped for a good length as both teams' players were trying to help by calling medical attention and trying to soothe Ramsey. Arsenal's captain Fabregas and our best buy this year, the defender who is called "the verminator", Vermaelen, were both in tears. This happened after 60 minutes of the game.
Arsenal have always lost playing away to Stoke. Stoke have always scored against Arsenal by someone heading a long throw of Delap. They did it again in the early minutes of the game. But Arsenal today showed class and fought back into the game and ended up equalising before half time.
After the horrific injury, all the players on the field had their "shoulders down". No one seemed motivated to play. Still after about 5-10 minutes Arsenal gained composure. Our substitute striker Eduardo got a chance to finish the game but he missed it. Finally Fabregas got a penalty off a clear handball in the 89th minute. Referee must have felt bad for not allowing Ramsey a clear cut penalty in the first half. Fabregas had earlier got a penalty against the same keeper but the keeper had saved. This time also he guessed the correct direction but Fabregas scored. This charged up Arsenal again. The verminator scored with a simple tap in again from a Fabregas cross. Arsenal won 3-1.
It was such a crucial win. For the most important reason that just 2 years ago at the same point (February 21 or so) our striker Eduardo had suffered a similar horrific ankle break. In that match also Arsenal players had lost the will to play and ended up conceding a late penalty and drawing the match 2-2. Arsenal had been league leaders so far in that season but the season just dropped after that, and Arsenal drew 5 successive games, ending the season in the 2nd place.
But tonight Arsenal showed character. Fabregas motivated the players after the incidence. They even huddled together after the win in a repeat fashion of the "invincible" era (2004 season where Arsenal went on the entire season unbeaten, which was for the first time in 110+ years in the league, by any team). This team has grown up.
With League leaders Chelsea losing in a very negative game tonight, Arsenal are just 3 points away from them now.
After the match both the manager and Fabregas reacted very strongly against the teams who always play "physical" against Arsenal. This is the THIRD time in 5 years that an Arsenal player has suffered a 1-2 year losing injury. This is definitely not a coincidence as the lower teams employ such physical tactics because that is the only way they can stop the free flow passing football of Arsenal. But I wonder is this the price Arsenal pays for playing so well AND fairly? This year, out of all the 20 teams in the league, only Arsenal has not got any red card (remember that Chelsea got 2 red cards just today). That means Arsenal plays to win beautifully without getting into such malicious play. And in the process players like Diaby, Eduardo and Ramsey suffer such horrendous injuries?
The only positive out of tonight is that the entire team is now determined to (even Wenger said it in his post match interview) "win it for Ramsey".
With easy fixtures now for Arsenal and tough fixtures for their competitors (No 1 Chelsea and No 2 Manchester United have yet to play against each other), there is all the chance to win it now.
Hope that Ramsey recovers soon. And like Diaby and Eduardo, come back to play an awesome game for Arsenal again.
Aaron Ramsey, a 19 year old bright midfielder of Arsenal, who has proved himself so many times this season and was all poised to be a shining star, suffered a career threatening injury to his leg in the match. The captain of Stoke, whether intentionally or not, BROKE his right foot. It was sickening to watch his broken foot hanging while he was writhing in pain. Sky decided not to show the replay as it was "disturbing". The offender was given a straight red card, and he left the field crying. Even he couldn't meet the eyes of Ramsey. The play was stopped for a good length as both teams' players were trying to help by calling medical attention and trying to soothe Ramsey. Arsenal's captain Fabregas and our best buy this year, the defender who is called "the verminator", Vermaelen, were both in tears. This happened after 60 minutes of the game.
Arsenal have always lost playing away to Stoke. Stoke have always scored against Arsenal by someone heading a long throw of Delap. They did it again in the early minutes of the game. But Arsenal today showed class and fought back into the game and ended up equalising before half time.
After the horrific injury, all the players on the field had their "shoulders down". No one seemed motivated to play. Still after about 5-10 minutes Arsenal gained composure. Our substitute striker Eduardo got a chance to finish the game but he missed it. Finally Fabregas got a penalty off a clear handball in the 89th minute. Referee must have felt bad for not allowing Ramsey a clear cut penalty in the first half. Fabregas had earlier got a penalty against the same keeper but the keeper had saved. This time also he guessed the correct direction but Fabregas scored. This charged up Arsenal again. The verminator scored with a simple tap in again from a Fabregas cross. Arsenal won 3-1.
It was such a crucial win. For the most important reason that just 2 years ago at the same point (February 21 or so) our striker Eduardo had suffered a similar horrific ankle break. In that match also Arsenal players had lost the will to play and ended up conceding a late penalty and drawing the match 2-2. Arsenal had been league leaders so far in that season but the season just dropped after that, and Arsenal drew 5 successive games, ending the season in the 2nd place.
But tonight Arsenal showed character. Fabregas motivated the players after the incidence. They even huddled together after the win in a repeat fashion of the "invincible" era (2004 season where Arsenal went on the entire season unbeaten, which was for the first time in 110+ years in the league, by any team). This team has grown up.
With League leaders Chelsea losing in a very negative game tonight, Arsenal are just 3 points away from them now.
After the match both the manager and Fabregas reacted very strongly against the teams who always play "physical" against Arsenal. This is the THIRD time in 5 years that an Arsenal player has suffered a 1-2 year losing injury. This is definitely not a coincidence as the lower teams employ such physical tactics because that is the only way they can stop the free flow passing football of Arsenal. But I wonder is this the price Arsenal pays for playing so well AND fairly? This year, out of all the 20 teams in the league, only Arsenal has not got any red card (remember that Chelsea got 2 red cards just today). That means Arsenal plays to win beautifully without getting into such malicious play. And in the process players like Diaby, Eduardo and Ramsey suffer such horrendous injuries?
The only positive out of tonight is that the entire team is now determined to (even Wenger said it in his post match interview) "win it for Ramsey".
With easy fixtures now for Arsenal and tough fixtures for their competitors (No 1 Chelsea and No 2 Manchester United have yet to play against each other), there is all the chance to win it now.
Hope that Ramsey recovers soon. And like Diaby and Eduardo, come back to play an awesome game for Arsenal again.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
dying wishes
I want to do white water rafting on Brahmaptura much before it enters the plateau of Arunachal
I want to fly the druk air leg of Kathmandu to Paro....with Himalaya on both sides
I want to trek for 2 days in Peru to reach the hidden city of Machu Picchu
I want to fly the druk air leg of Kathmandu to Paro....with Himalaya on both sides
I want to trek for 2 days in Peru to reach the hidden city of Machu Picchu
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The eyes of truth
Being Religious is good! No, I am still an Atheist. The reason why I am saying this is because of a couple of phenomenon that I have observed over the years.
In India, whenever there is a religious festival around the corner, suddenly the followers of that sect become saints. They become vegetarian, they don't drink, heck they don't even abuse. And not just on the day of the main festival, it goes for anywhere around a week before and after. Some people go to the extreme and do a fast, in effect giving their digestive systems and their bile juices a biologically much needed break from constant work.
In the western world, religion has more of a "mainstay" effect. It becomes the raison d'etre for acting good. Non-vegetarianism is not a sin there, so only the other forms of "bad" are abolished, like intoxication and indulgence of the adult kind.
There was a study done which proved that Religious people are healthier and live longer than the non believers.
Religions provide a huge employment base. It has propelled small time people into the handful owners of Ferrarris in India (the surviving family of the late Gulshan Kumar). I don't have the latest data but the last I heard, 11% of all the music sold in India was Devotional music. I am sure it still holds a huge share.
Why just the music industry? Imagine the total number of SMEs it supports. Have you ever visited a large Hindu temple? Flocks of stalls surround it; of flowers, sweets, other offerings; sometimes for kilometers. Imagine the number of publishing houses and workers it feeds. The most published book in the world is the bible. I just cannot begin to fathom the number of copies of the Quran, Geeta and Ramcharitmanas that must have been published and being continued.
Apart from the tangible benefits it offers to the society, there is another important function that Religion serves. It gives strength and support. The strength of mind and the will that drives many people to live, achieve and survive through tough times.
So all you religious people out there, keep up the good work. Just don't get too cocky over your individual beliefs. I believe that any Religion will serve its fundamental purpose only if it is not imposed on anyone. And if you are not in the category, don't fret, just do good for the sake of doing good.
In India, whenever there is a religious festival around the corner, suddenly the followers of that sect become saints. They become vegetarian, they don't drink, heck they don't even abuse. And not just on the day of the main festival, it goes for anywhere around a week before and after. Some people go to the extreme and do a fast, in effect giving their digestive systems and their bile juices a biologically much needed break from constant work.
In the western world, religion has more of a "mainstay" effect. It becomes the raison d'etre for acting good. Non-vegetarianism is not a sin there, so only the other forms of "bad" are abolished, like intoxication and indulgence of the adult kind.
There was a study done which proved that Religious people are healthier and live longer than the non believers.
Religions provide a huge employment base. It has propelled small time people into the handful owners of Ferrarris in India (the surviving family of the late Gulshan Kumar). I don't have the latest data but the last I heard, 11% of all the music sold in India was Devotional music. I am sure it still holds a huge share.
Why just the music industry? Imagine the total number of SMEs it supports. Have you ever visited a large Hindu temple? Flocks of stalls surround it; of flowers, sweets, other offerings; sometimes for kilometers. Imagine the number of publishing houses and workers it feeds. The most published book in the world is the bible. I just cannot begin to fathom the number of copies of the Quran, Geeta and Ramcharitmanas that must have been published and being continued.
Apart from the tangible benefits it offers to the society, there is another important function that Religion serves. It gives strength and support. The strength of mind and the will that drives many people to live, achieve and survive through tough times.
So all you religious people out there, keep up the good work. Just don't get too cocky over your individual beliefs. I believe that any Religion will serve its fundamental purpose only if it is not imposed on anyone. And if you are not in the category, don't fret, just do good for the sake of doing good.
Friday, December 18, 2009
The world
At the risk of sparking an outburst from the feminists and the opinionated section of the society, I am making a statement. It is a woman's world.
Before the boos and the hisses are thrown at the statement, hear this part out.
We are all encased in an all encompassing society that is pro-female. The laws that apply to everyone are somehow either biased towards the fairer gender or are somehow female in origin.
Gillete came up with a campaign recently; indeed to boost their sales. It utilised a powerful tool of women asking their men to shave regularly "or else". Why?
Where did the concept of shaving originate from? What is a beard? It is technically nothing but the side-effect of the male hormone. The same testosterone that is responsible for the elongation of the vocal chords and subsequently the deeper voice. So by removing the signs of testosterone, the society is trying to bring men to the proximity of women, who don't have such side-effects.
How many men will, if left to themselves, in the company of only men, shave? Or apply deodorant? Market Research also categorises the two products in the "Social needs" driven basket.
Another controversial topic that finds a place here is "Monogamy". A man, if left to live on his own terms, would like to be around a dozen supermodels if not a couple of them. Those with the means and the motivation do try to exercise them. Not everyone but quite a few uber rich men do flaunt their "capabillity" this way. Doesn't multiple partners concept apply to the majority of animal species?
Hence the law making polygamy illegal. One of the ways of defining laws is something that regulates the external human behaviour. And of course, monogamy being 'feminine', makes the society more female. Indeed, for the society to work for the benefit of everyone, it should allow a woman the full commitment of one man to raise her child. Let alone the right to live.
Violence is in the genes of men. Men (and males in other species) were born to fight. Fight for food, for territory and for mate. But it leads to problems for others. Hence the need to remove violence to lead to "civilisation". So is it really, on the whole, a man's world?
Before the boos and the hisses are thrown at the statement, hear this part out.
We are all encased in an all encompassing society that is pro-female. The laws that apply to everyone are somehow either biased towards the fairer gender or are somehow female in origin.
Gillete came up with a campaign recently; indeed to boost their sales. It utilised a powerful tool of women asking their men to shave regularly "or else". Why?
Where did the concept of shaving originate from? What is a beard? It is technically nothing but the side-effect of the male hormone. The same testosterone that is responsible for the elongation of the vocal chords and subsequently the deeper voice. So by removing the signs of testosterone, the society is trying to bring men to the proximity of women, who don't have such side-effects.
How many men will, if left to themselves, in the company of only men, shave? Or apply deodorant? Market Research also categorises the two products in the "Social needs" driven basket.
Another controversial topic that finds a place here is "Monogamy". A man, if left to live on his own terms, would like to be around a dozen supermodels if not a couple of them. Those with the means and the motivation do try to exercise them. Not everyone but quite a few uber rich men do flaunt their "capabillity" this way. Doesn't multiple partners concept apply to the majority of animal species?
Hence the law making polygamy illegal. One of the ways of defining laws is something that regulates the external human behaviour. And of course, monogamy being 'feminine', makes the society more female. Indeed, for the society to work for the benefit of everyone, it should allow a woman the full commitment of one man to raise her child. Let alone the right to live.
Violence is in the genes of men. Men (and males in other species) were born to fight. Fight for food, for territory and for mate. But it leads to problems for others. Hence the need to remove violence to lead to "civilisation". So is it really, on the whole, a man's world?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Fight!
I have been hooked on to this game for the last 4 months or so. No wonder it has more than 7 million players playing it online, and growing. What a journey it has been beginning as a street thug and making my way up. Which still continues. So it is only obvious that I do some justice to a thing that takes up a lot of my daily time, the thing that is the most important reason I log on to facebook.
Mafia Wars Guide by Abhishek Pandey :D
So you have entered the big bad world of virtual mafiosi and are now beginning to make some strides. Wondering how to optimise your game play so that you enjoy the max while moving through the ranks the fastest? Read on....
First things first, I have made a lot of mistakes, hence my guide is all the more "authentic".
The best character is "Maniac". If you have chosen "Mogul" because you had no idea that making money fast has no value in this game and it actually is the weakest character, well, welcome to the boat. A lot of people including me have made that mistake. But you can't change your character mid way. You can't even remove that application and start all over again because Zynga does not delete your character for 90 days after you have removed the application! But Mogul is not all that bad, after me and my friends have achieved a lot in the game with the "weakest" character. It just requires more patience than Maniac.
Right, so what is the game all about?
Doing Jobs. Leveling up. Fighting. Leveling up gives you refills of your health, energy and stamina, which you can use to do even more jobs and achieve greatness.
How to develop your character?
* Start by adding mafia. Tons of them. More mafia means:
1> More attack and defence strength used to win fights.
2> More people to give you gifts, energy packs, help during fights (rallying troops for more experience, taking bullets for less loss, finding loot), boosts and helps for jobs, laundering money (experience and money), chance to benefit while doing jobs/fights if someone adds you to their top mafia, fighting a guy on whom you set a booty (supari in bhaigiri language), even winning wars against your friends.
In short, the chance to get experience and money without spending energy or stamina. Also helps in many achievements.
The gifts and loots that you receive help you complete vault collections as well as increase your attack/defence strength. There is no limit to the number of mafia you can add. The game anyways picks up your top 500 mafia for fights, so you need not worry about stopping there. How to add other people in your mafia? Go to http://forums.zynga.com/forumdisplay.php?f=36 and to the thread "Add me Facebook *one post per thread*". It has hundreds of posts per day by actual players wanting to increase their mafia. You have to add people in your facebook friends list before you can add them to your mafia. And if you add starting from the last page, they will accept your request and add you to your mafia in minutes if not seconds. There is a limit to how many people you can add per day on mafia wars (I think it is 24), but there is no limit on how many you can add on facebook. So add as many as you can, and wait for a couple of days for them to add you. Now whether to keep those friends in your facebook after they are a part of your mafia or not list is your wish, but keeping them in your list has certain advantages. E.g., you can get experience on doing jobs that they post on their walls only if they are in your list, otherwise you just get a token amount in $ (if you help them via your live feed on mafia wars home page). The only bad thing about adding random people is that they clutter your facebook feed with posts. There are people who play 24/7, and their "xyz had just iced abc and is offering you a bonus" message can get irritating after a limit. Alternatively, you can keep them in your friend list and remove such posts using scripts like greasemonkey.
Within a week you can make your mafia grow by 250! So start right NOW.
The benefit you get to attack/defence, war participation and even gifting is available even if you remove them from your facebook friend list.
* Spend skill points wisely:
You have a choice between three types of characters:
1> The energy junkie.
You only spend your skill points to your energy and level up fastest focusing on jobs with highest exp ratio. You don't mind losing all the fights when someone attacks you
2> The fight junkie
You spend your skill points on stamina, Attack and Defence and very few on energy. You fight your way to glory and are more content by pounding people rather than watching the blue exp bar move towards right.
3> The middle man
You wisely balance between energy and Attack/Defence. You do jobs as much as you fight. You don't particularly level up fast like the energy junkie but you don't lose many fights like him.
I chose 3rd for a large portion of my time, but later found that my friend who had a modified version of 2 was much better off. Reason? The experience you get with fights is close to 3 per stamina spent, (averages out with 1,2,3,4, and 6 exp per fight won) while the best exp paying jobs won't give you more than 1.7 exp ratio per energy spent.
My friend had not put any points in attack/defence as well, and still he was winning fights! I discovered that stat points (Attack/Defence) has little bearing on winning fights, (zynga never declares the formula they use to determine who will win the fights, and is subject to a debate involving millions of people), but the size of the mafia matters the most. So if you are level 250 with only 20 attack, but 501 mafia size, you will cream (even) a level 280 guy if his mafia size is 50 or 100 and defence is 200. And there are many such jokers to be found on the fight list whether it is cuba, new york or moscow.
To illustrate, just today I finished 50 stamina on fights and got 150 experience in spite of losing 3-4 fights on the way!
One important thing to be noted is that your mafia attack/defence strength for fights is calculated on your loot items (not on your bought weapons/armor/vehicles except body armor and town cars). Also, gifting your mafia loot items with attack/defence will decrease your strength. So when you read about "equipping your mafia", it is NOT the same as "gifting weapons/armor/vehicles to your mafia", it just means having more loot items or buying items to compensate for not having enough loot.
So NEVER EVER put any points on health. Put it only on energy and stamina. Don't put points in your attack/defence after a certain point. You anyways get a lot of free stat points on vaulting collections (attack/defence/energy/health).
When to use energy packs?
You need to use energy packs wisely, as you can use them only once every 23 hours, and they can make 0 energy to 1.25 of your max energy. The best point to use energy pack sent by someone is when you just finish your entire energy that you get after you have just refilled it by leveling up. That means, you should wait before using energy pack if you are just a few exp away from leveling up. Once you level up, finish the energy, and then click on use energy pack.
With tweaking around, you can develop strategies on leveling up. E.g. I used to do max exp ratio jobs before leveling up. As soon as I leveled up, I used to do least exp ratio jobs, then use energy pack, then again do least exp jobs. By the time I finished that energy, I was already at next level. Then I switched again to max exp ratio jobs. I used to level up twice a day with that strategy. I have modified that strategy to level up thrice a day after getting "Golden Throne" by finishing New York. It involves fighting to get the remaining experience after spending energy. With 100 stamina, you can level up even 7 times a day if you play like a maniac.
Boss Fights:
Do not enter boss fights until you have put your money in the bank. Also, do not enter into boss fights until you have enough shivs/stun guns (there is no need of a getaway driver, I never used one). Don't do boss fights more than once, since their exp payout is pathetic despite their claims.
How to make good money?
New York:
During our times we had properties, and we had to buy more properties for more cashflow. You will most probably have "rackets". I am not aware of how these work, but have heard that they can be more lethal than properties if used correctly. Hunt for guides on rackets on zynga forum. I am sure you will find more than one.
Just keep on building cash flow. Keep banking money. People who win fights against you won't win your money if it is in bank. Once you hit a cash flow of say 1 million $ an hour, you can stop going to bank forever. Since banking will cost you 10% of money, and it becomes much more of a loss losing 1 million dollars on banking 10 million than losing 5-6 fights and 5-600,000 $ before you get iced. Once you are iced (under 20 health), no one can loot money from you until your health recovers over 20.
Cuba/Moscow:
Here, you need to keep selling your stuff to make money. Here, you need to keep all your money in the bank at all times, because here there is no assured cashflow per hour. Instead, how much you make depends on whether you can sell your goods before they hit the maximum capacity.
One important thing I learnt is that while upgrading your businesses, upgrade only on QUALITY and OUTPUT (Quantity). Upgrade capacity only in the end. Since you can log on once every 9/12 hours to sell your crates anyways. And investing in quality and output gives maximum gains.
There are achievements related to trillion dollars and above for New York. It is impossible to get those with properties. There are guides on zynga forum on how to make trillion dollars, but it involves doing absolutely nothing else for months. So don't bother about them now. But do increase your cash flow as much as possible.
Gifting:
Gifting, as I mentioned before, has many benefits. Now when we start, we all make the mistake of gifting precious collection items (cards, rings etc), consumables (read more about them below), even items with good defence/attack like canonazo/tnt etc. While it is your wish what to gift, you will find that in the long run, you will regret sending an item if you can't vault a collection just because one item is missing, or if you are stuck in a new york job just because you have run out of consumables.
So while gifting, DO NOT give away any consumable, which are:
In New York:
Concealable Camera
Computer Setup
Untraceable cell phone
Blackmail Photos
Illegal Transaction Records
In Cuba:
Politico Corrupto
Untraceable cell phones
In Moscow:
photos of leaders
Concealable Cameras/Untraceable cell phones (based on your choice of vory/mafiya)
Consumables are the most irritating part of New York. I know of many people who have not completed New York just because they ran out of consumables. To put things to perspective:
You will require 368 Blackmail Photos just for Boss tier. And you need to spend energy on first getting concealable cameras, then spend energy AND concealable cameras on getting Blackmail photos. Plus, it is not guaranteed that if you do the specific job to get these drops, that you will get those items. That means, if you do the "obtain compromising photos" job in New York 10 times, you spend 10 concealable cameras, and for all you know, you might get only 3 or 4 blackmail photos!
So NEVER EVER give away consumables.
While gifting, a higher level person might not appreciate all your gifts. So gift prudently. I mean, when some low level guy gifts me brass knuckles or butterfly knife or lucky shamrock medallion, I get irritated a lot. They don't add anything to my attack/defence strength. I have much stronger items. So it is better to give a person what he or she has on his wishlist, as long as it is not a consumable or an item that you haven't vaulted yet. So do not give away any collection item until you have vaulted them at least once!
Also, you can trade gifts. I have used trading to complete a lot of my collections. Exchange with people willing to exchange.
Godfather points:
This is probably the only "revenue center" for Zynga. You can buy them with actual money. Hence it is understandable that these are the hardest to obtain. You get only one for leveling up twice. Sometimes there are promotions where you get free godfather points, like there was one during thanksgiving week (again, clicking on friends' post was required), plus you get 2-3 points if you become a "fan" of the application on facebook.
Where to spend Godfather points?
ONLY and ONLY one of the two:
a) Stat points (4 for 14)
b) Complete energy refill (1 for 10)
DO NOT spend it on anything else. I have wasted points on money before, many of my friends have wasted them on crates/buying consumables (20 points for 10 New York Consumables, 55 points for 3 mysterious crates etc), hence warning you.
General tips:
* Do not do Cuba and Moscow until you finish New York. Big Apple is frustrating but the payouts (especially Private island, Golden Throne) are worth it. My character was generating one energy every 5 minutes when I started out. It is now 2 every 4minutes & 30 seconds. I have used that to finish 5 tiers of Cuba (14 masteries) in 17 days flat.
* Look out for promotional events. There was a Big Apple week which helped many players to complete New York. I am hoping for a moscow week soon. It is tough!
* In case of any problems, do write to Zynga. They do respond, albeit after a long time.
* If you have some close friends playing MW, then ask them to promote you to Either their Mastermind or their Wheelman (only possible if your character is Fearless). The idea is to get maximum experience with least energy spent possible.
I guess this is a very exhaustive guide. But I have still left certain things for you to discover on your own. E.g. Whether to heal yourself at Cuban hospital if you fight in Cuba, is a decision you have to take. Also, I haven't mentioned on how to go about achieving achievements. Those are fun if you discover the best ways to finish them.
Have fun playing! And do forward it to other noobies.
Mafia Wars Guide by Abhishek Pandey :D
So you have entered the big bad world of virtual mafiosi and are now beginning to make some strides. Wondering how to optimise your game play so that you enjoy the max while moving through the ranks the fastest? Read on....
First things first, I have made a lot of mistakes, hence my guide is all the more "authentic".
The best character is "Maniac". If you have chosen "Mogul" because you had no idea that making money fast has no value in this game and it actually is the weakest character, well, welcome to the boat. A lot of people including me have made that mistake. But you can't change your character mid way. You can't even remove that application and start all over again because Zynga does not delete your character for 90 days after you have removed the application! But Mogul is not all that bad, after me and my friends have achieved a lot in the game with the "weakest" character. It just requires more patience than Maniac.
Right, so what is the game all about?
Doing Jobs. Leveling up. Fighting. Leveling up gives you refills of your health, energy and stamina, which you can use to do even more jobs and achieve greatness.
How to develop your character?
* Start by adding mafia. Tons of them. More mafia means:
1> More attack and defence strength used to win fights.
2> More people to give you gifts, energy packs, help during fights (rallying troops for more experience, taking bullets for less loss, finding loot), boosts and helps for jobs, laundering money (experience and money), chance to benefit while doing jobs/fights if someone adds you to their top mafia, fighting a guy on whom you set a booty (supari in bhaigiri language), even winning wars against your friends.
In short, the chance to get experience and money without spending energy or stamina. Also helps in many achievements.
The gifts and loots that you receive help you complete vault collections as well as increase your attack/defence strength. There is no limit to the number of mafia you can add. The game anyways picks up your top 500 mafia for fights, so you need not worry about stopping there. How to add other people in your mafia? Go to http://forums.zynga.com/forumdisplay.php?f=36 and to the thread "Add me Facebook *one post per thread*". It has hundreds of posts per day by actual players wanting to increase their mafia. You have to add people in your facebook friends list before you can add them to your mafia. And if you add starting from the last page, they will accept your request and add you to your mafia in minutes if not seconds. There is a limit to how many people you can add per day on mafia wars (I think it is 24), but there is no limit on how many you can add on facebook. So add as many as you can, and wait for a couple of days for them to add you. Now whether to keep those friends in your facebook after they are a part of your mafia or not list is your wish, but keeping them in your list has certain advantages. E.g., you can get experience on doing jobs that they post on their walls only if they are in your list, otherwise you just get a token amount in $ (if you help them via your live feed on mafia wars home page). The only bad thing about adding random people is that they clutter your facebook feed with posts. There are people who play 24/7, and their "xyz had just iced abc and is offering you a bonus" message can get irritating after a limit. Alternatively, you can keep them in your friend list and remove such posts using scripts like greasemonkey.
Within a week you can make your mafia grow by 250! So start right NOW.
The benefit you get to attack/defence, war participation and even gifting is available even if you remove them from your facebook friend list.
* Spend skill points wisely:
You have a choice between three types of characters:
1> The energy junkie.
You only spend your skill points to your energy and level up fastest focusing on jobs with highest exp ratio. You don't mind losing all the fights when someone attacks you
2> The fight junkie
You spend your skill points on stamina, Attack and Defence and very few on energy. You fight your way to glory and are more content by pounding people rather than watching the blue exp bar move towards right.
3> The middle man
You wisely balance between energy and Attack/Defence. You do jobs as much as you fight. You don't particularly level up fast like the energy junkie but you don't lose many fights like him.
I chose 3rd for a large portion of my time, but later found that my friend who had a modified version of 2 was much better off. Reason? The experience you get with fights is close to 3 per stamina spent, (averages out with 1,2,3,4, and 6 exp per fight won) while the best exp paying jobs won't give you more than 1.7 exp ratio per energy spent.
My friend had not put any points in attack/defence as well, and still he was winning fights! I discovered that stat points (Attack/Defence) has little bearing on winning fights, (zynga never declares the formula they use to determine who will win the fights, and is subject to a debate involving millions of people), but the size of the mafia matters the most. So if you are level 250 with only 20 attack, but 501 mafia size, you will cream (even) a level 280 guy if his mafia size is 50 or 100 and defence is 200. And there are many such jokers to be found on the fight list whether it is cuba, new york or moscow.
To illustrate, just today I finished 50 stamina on fights and got 150 experience in spite of losing 3-4 fights on the way!
One important thing to be noted is that your mafia attack/defence strength for fights is calculated on your loot items (not on your bought weapons/armor/vehicles except body armor and town cars). Also, gifting your mafia loot items with attack/defence will decrease your strength. So when you read about "equipping your mafia", it is NOT the same as "gifting weapons/armor/vehicles to your mafia", it just means having more loot items or buying items to compensate for not having enough loot.
So NEVER EVER put any points on health. Put it only on energy and stamina. Don't put points in your attack/defence after a certain point. You anyways get a lot of free stat points on vaulting collections (attack/defence/energy/health).
When to use energy packs?
You need to use energy packs wisely, as you can use them only once every 23 hours, and they can make 0 energy to 1.25 of your max energy. The best point to use energy pack sent by someone is when you just finish your entire energy that you get after you have just refilled it by leveling up. That means, you should wait before using energy pack if you are just a few exp away from leveling up. Once you level up, finish the energy, and then click on use energy pack.
With tweaking around, you can develop strategies on leveling up. E.g. I used to do max exp ratio jobs before leveling up. As soon as I leveled up, I used to do least exp ratio jobs, then use energy pack, then again do least exp jobs. By the time I finished that energy, I was already at next level. Then I switched again to max exp ratio jobs. I used to level up twice a day with that strategy. I have modified that strategy to level up thrice a day after getting "Golden Throne" by finishing New York. It involves fighting to get the remaining experience after spending energy. With 100 stamina, you can level up even 7 times a day if you play like a maniac.
Boss Fights:
Do not enter boss fights until you have put your money in the bank. Also, do not enter into boss fights until you have enough shivs/stun guns (there is no need of a getaway driver, I never used one). Don't do boss fights more than once, since their exp payout is pathetic despite their claims.
How to make good money?
New York:
During our times we had properties, and we had to buy more properties for more cashflow. You will most probably have "rackets". I am not aware of how these work, but have heard that they can be more lethal than properties if used correctly. Hunt for guides on rackets on zynga forum. I am sure you will find more than one.
Just keep on building cash flow. Keep banking money. People who win fights against you won't win your money if it is in bank. Once you hit a cash flow of say 1 million $ an hour, you can stop going to bank forever. Since banking will cost you 10% of money, and it becomes much more of a loss losing 1 million dollars on banking 10 million than losing 5-6 fights and 5-600,000 $ before you get iced. Once you are iced (under 20 health), no one can loot money from you until your health recovers over 20.
Cuba/Moscow:
Here, you need to keep selling your stuff to make money. Here, you need to keep all your money in the bank at all times, because here there is no assured cashflow per hour. Instead, how much you make depends on whether you can sell your goods before they hit the maximum capacity.
One important thing I learnt is that while upgrading your businesses, upgrade only on QUALITY and OUTPUT (Quantity). Upgrade capacity only in the end. Since you can log on once every 9/12 hours to sell your crates anyways. And investing in quality and output gives maximum gains.
There are achievements related to trillion dollars and above for New York. It is impossible to get those with properties. There are guides on zynga forum on how to make trillion dollars, but it involves doing absolutely nothing else for months. So don't bother about them now. But do increase your cash flow as much as possible.
Gifting:
Gifting, as I mentioned before, has many benefits. Now when we start, we all make the mistake of gifting precious collection items (cards, rings etc), consumables (read more about them below), even items with good defence/attack like canonazo/tnt etc. While it is your wish what to gift, you will find that in the long run, you will regret sending an item if you can't vault a collection just because one item is missing, or if you are stuck in a new york job just because you have run out of consumables.
So while gifting, DO NOT give away any consumable, which are:
In New York:
Concealable Camera
Computer Setup
Untraceable cell phone
Blackmail Photos
Illegal Transaction Records
In Cuba:
Politico Corrupto
Untraceable cell phones
In Moscow:
photos of leaders
Concealable Cameras/Untraceable cell phones (based on your choice of vory/mafiya)
Consumables are the most irritating part of New York. I know of many people who have not completed New York just because they ran out of consumables. To put things to perspective:
You will require 368 Blackmail Photos just for Boss tier. And you need to spend energy on first getting concealable cameras, then spend energy AND concealable cameras on getting Blackmail photos. Plus, it is not guaranteed that if you do the specific job to get these drops, that you will get those items. That means, if you do the "obtain compromising photos" job in New York 10 times, you spend 10 concealable cameras, and for all you know, you might get only 3 or 4 blackmail photos!
So NEVER EVER give away consumables.
While gifting, a higher level person might not appreciate all your gifts. So gift prudently. I mean, when some low level guy gifts me brass knuckles or butterfly knife or lucky shamrock medallion, I get irritated a lot. They don't add anything to my attack/defence strength. I have much stronger items. So it is better to give a person what he or she has on his wishlist, as long as it is not a consumable or an item that you haven't vaulted yet. So do not give away any collection item until you have vaulted them at least once!
Also, you can trade gifts. I have used trading to complete a lot of my collections. Exchange with people willing to exchange.
Godfather points:
This is probably the only "revenue center" for Zynga. You can buy them with actual money. Hence it is understandable that these are the hardest to obtain. You get only one for leveling up twice. Sometimes there are promotions where you get free godfather points, like there was one during thanksgiving week (again, clicking on friends' post was required), plus you get 2-3 points if you become a "fan" of the application on facebook.
Where to spend Godfather points?
ONLY and ONLY one of the two:
a) Stat points (4 for 14)
b) Complete energy refill (1 for 10)
DO NOT spend it on anything else. I have wasted points on money before, many of my friends have wasted them on crates/buying consumables (20 points for 10 New York Consumables, 55 points for 3 mysterious crates etc), hence warning you.
General tips:
* Do not do Cuba and Moscow until you finish New York. Big Apple is frustrating but the payouts (especially Private island, Golden Throne) are worth it. My character was generating one energy every 5 minutes when I started out. It is now 2 every 4minutes & 30 seconds. I have used that to finish 5 tiers of Cuba (14 masteries) in 17 days flat.
* Look out for promotional events. There was a Big Apple week which helped many players to complete New York. I am hoping for a moscow week soon. It is tough!
* In case of any problems, do write to Zynga. They do respond, albeit after a long time.
* If you have some close friends playing MW, then ask them to promote you to Either their Mastermind or their Wheelman (only possible if your character is Fearless). The idea is to get maximum experience with least energy spent possible.
I guess this is a very exhaustive guide. But I have still left certain things for you to discover on your own. E.g. Whether to heal yourself at Cuban hospital if you fight in Cuba, is a decision you have to take. Also, I haven't mentioned on how to go about achieving achievements. Those are fun if you discover the best ways to finish them.
Have fun playing! And do forward it to other noobies.
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