I've written about a few Marketplace sales this past week. One is going on now for some accounts and all Loot, Crates, Consumables, and Boosts are on sale for 20% off.
The next sale being promoted in our game is set to start this Friday. I wonder what the point of the 20% off sale is? Just wait a few days and you will most likely get the same items for 50% off. The big MOST is the question. We all know Zynga's quantitative definitions have issues so there will be a lot more answers on Friday.
It all begins when you log into your account. 9 times out of 10 you are greeted with the same pop-up letting you know that for a limited time, they are offering you a special deal on Reward Points. It can't be that special if I get it 10 times a day!
If you're ever not sure how many Reward Points you have, there are always reminders. When you are running low, the number you have will be in red.
When you go to the Marketplace, you will get a pop-up notifying you that you are getting low and offering you an option to buy more.
If you miss the pop-up, it will be very clear that you need more on the Marketplace page which gives you another opportunity to buy more.
If you don't feel like going to the Marketplace, just look for the Reward Point icon at the top of your game header. In addition to the Marketplace, there are all kinds of places in the game to buy stuff with Reward Points. Remember if you use these options and something is on sale in the Marketplace, you may not get the sale price offered to you. Always be aware of how much things cost when they are on sale and buy them from the Marketplace if the sale price isn't reflected in the game. I'm sure you all have seen these options below many times, but I thought it would be fun to put them all together.
If you are in a groove while doing jobs and don't want to wait for your energy or stamina to regenerate, there is an easy option. Be careful that you aren't so close to leveling up that you waste most of what you just purchased. I think these buy buttons appear for the impulsive non-calculating players.
If you run out of a consumable item while doing a job and don't want to break your job mojo? Not a problem, you can just click and get 10 consumable items for 15 Reward Points.
This would be a bad decision, even if you could get them for 50% off. I did a little experiment and found that I could spend 10 Reward Points for one energy refill and make a lot of consumables. I have 2,860 Energy points and was able to make 91 Severed Pinkys. Notice I'm on the Gold Level of mastery. If I had stayed on Bronze. I could have made even more.
In the example below, I was able to level up and made 123 Rail Tickets!
Got all your consumables and enough energy to continue? Opps, you don't have enough money to buy the required inventory items for a job. No worries, you can just buy currency for 10 Reward Points! In the consumable item examples above, you can see that I made about the same amount of Lira that I could have purchased with Reward Points.
When you run out of stamina while fighting or robbing the message here reminds you that you can go play Treasure Isle for a stamina refill. That doesn't sound like much fun when you are in the middle of stealing and kicking ass!
How many times does this one come up? Nothing is worse than being in the middle of a good fighting or robbing spree and then realizing you need to go travel and heal. It's also annoying when you are just getting ready to do a Boss Fight. I admit, once or twice I was too lazy and used Reward Points to heal myself. This is a terrible way to waste Reward Points and I should be ashamed of myself!
In the middle of a Boss Fight and can't be bothered to go accept your Boss Fight consumable free gifts? You better stay and use Reward Points to get more consumable items. It would take you all of 5 minutes to accept your free gifts and Boss Fights last anywhere from 24 to 4 hours.
Can't wait 4 hours to get your ass kicked in another Las Vegas Tournament? Use 8 Reward Points and you can experience all the joys right away.
If you hate to lose when robbing, Zynga has a solution for you. Just buy an attack bundle. They fail to mention the luck factor in the robbing equation so chances are you will still lose when robbing.
If the lose from above caused to you to have a 8-1 board clear, don't worry because you can just buy a burner and turn it into a win. Who has time to request and search for free burners in the news feeds?
Do you get a warm fuzzy feeling when you win a robbery? Well you can get this feeling more often when you buy a bundle. They encourage you to buy a Defense Bundle but that won't help me win robberies that I initiate. I'd rather be able to see my wins happens in real time.
The only time we can see that someone has robbed us is when we go to our property page. It's annoying to see a smoking property. This is when I would be more likely to buy a defense bundle.
If you're mad enough, you can rob back or ask you mafia to do it by clicking on the yellow link that says "You have been robbed". You will see who the culprit is and can act accordingly. Zynga might be missing out on some bundle sales because of all the "little grammas" out there who are stealing from our properties!
Once you run out of energy and stamina and move on to other game functions, the buy options keep coming. Want to upgrade your properties and not go through all the hassle of asking for and accepting free gifts? Each item cost 1 Reward Point or you can do it all in one click and take a guess at how many Reward Points it will cost. I think Zynga doesn't want you to know the answer. In the example below, it would cost 72 Reward Points if I didn't have any Building Parts. That's a lot of Reward Points considering it will only increase my property by 1 Level.
The same rules apply to upgrading your Chop Shop, Weapons Depot and Armory. They are more straight forward in New York and tell you how many Reward Points one complete upgrade will cost.
Did u love watching your characters statistics raise when you crafted items from your properties? Don't want to wait 24 or 23 hours to see it happen again? Simply use Reward Points and reset your timers.
There are even 2 special items in the Port that can be crafted for Lira and Reward Points.
Tired of waiting more than 5 minutes for your mafia members to complete missions? No need to wait anymore, now you can "instantly master" each slot if you want to spend some Reward Points.
Don't like the items you receive from Mystery Bags, Mystery Shipments, Mystery Animals and Secret Drops? Get new ones for just one Reward Point.
If you like gifting events but can't stand to open gifts, don't think about it twice. You can buy the gifts for 3 Reward Points each. In the example below it would only cost you 252 Reward Points to completely master the Serial Assassins event without ever having to open up a gift. Keep in mind, it takes the same amount of effort to accept a gift as it does to click on the "Buy" button.
If one Daily Chance ticket isn't enough to you, buy as many as you want for 2 Reward Points each. You're sure to get a lot of useless upgrade parts going this route.
Love to play on your Lucky Stash slot machine but ran out of free spins? Why stop when you can use Reward Points and spend 1-3 per spin!
If you like to open Treasure Chests, fear not, just use 9 or 5 Reward Points and you can open them all day long!
Love those crappy Crime Spree gifts and wish you could have more. You can always ask your mafia for more, but why go through all that trouble when you can use Reward Points?
In addition to all the game play Reward Point spending options, you will find a even more in The Marketplace. A lot of the options mentioned above are also available in The Marketplace. The Marketplace is the home of the Loyalty Program that nobody can seem to figure out. We get Loyalty Points for playing but most players don't move up in status until they actually purchase Reward Points.
If you don't like your name or class type, simply change either one for 15 Reward Points.
Need more mafia and don't have time to search for them? Get 10 members for 9 Reward Points.
If 5 skill points a level are not enough, get 4 more more for 14 Reward Points. These are the most valuable thing in the game and it would be nice if they would reduce the price. Most players use their Reward Points crafting items in their properties because you get more skill points added to your character than you do this option.
I won't even get into the fact that buying Limited Edition Loot items, Crates and boosts is not the best way to spend your Reward Points. One loot item or a hand full of boosts will do nothing for your game. If you want to spend the 17,500 Reward Points per 500 items to really make a difference, go right ahead. You will be very sorry down the road when better loot is introduced to the game and your items are obsolete. The only items that are an exception are those that benefit a charity.
The Fight Club has the best thing to offer for your Reward Points. The Fighters Energy Refills for 0, 2 or 7 Reward Points are a great value.
There are also some loot items that will cost Victory Coins AND Reward Points but none of them have very good stats. They are decent combined scoring items but it would be best to use in game currency instead of Reward Points.
These were all the things I could think of on how to spend your Reward Points. I probably forgot a few but lets just say that if you play Mafia Wars, you should know what Reward Points are and when you can use them!
I just wanted to point out that Reward Points are worth about $0.25 each.
ReplyDeleteEven if you buy the largest package of 1,000 RPs for $200, that still only drops the price to $0.20 each.
So unless you have money to burn, you should be very stingy with you RPs.
And there are some very bad buys, i.e., 14 RPs for 4 Skill Points. More than likely, you can spend 10 RPs to refill your Energy or Stamina in order to level up. Leveling up will then give you 5 Skill Points (plus also allowing you to do jobs or fight in the process and possible loot gained too, while you level up).
And unless you've really screwed up New York, you should have plenty of cash there, like an extra Trillion or so. So spending 2 RPs to refill you health is a complete waste of RPs, IMO.
Obviously everyone's situation is different. And depending on your situation, spending 14 RPs for 4 Skill Points may be the right thing to do at that time (but that would be a rare occasion). Granted, if ya just won 1,000 RPs or such, have some fun.
But, IMO, I have never found it worth $2 to buy a key to open a Gold Treasure Chest.
Just something to keep in mind.
And if someone has some influence at Zynga, an option to buy a 1/2 Energy or Stamina refill for the 1/2 the price would be awesome. I would definitely spend more RPs on refills, since they don't rollover once you level. Which is where I sit right now... about 2,000 XP to level and I have 3,000 Energy (used up). Buying a full Energy refill would waste 1/2 of what I paid for, basically $1.25 worth, because I would level up and have it reset.
If the points rolled over (at the very least, the bought ones) or if I could by a 1/2 refill, I wouldn't be typing this right now. I'd be playing MW. :)
well, for us it's a game, but for Zynga and their employees it's a business and jobs...it's capitalism people, so naturally they try to make cash off everything even though at times its for quite stupid things...wouldn't be surprised if you were required to pay 5 RP each day for just allowing you to play that day if you are above let's say level 100 (lower leves wouldn't need to pay it, since Zynga always wants a large market share, more players)...
ReplyDeleteAs this game has evolved the importance of spending real money to buy reward points has become more and more important if you plan on staying competitive. I feel bad for new players who believe their good decision making, effective strategy and persistence will make them a strong player without having to spend their hard earned money.
ReplyDelete@Fred, thanks for the time you spend writing your comment. This is one of the hardest concepts for players to grasp because we all want instant satisfaction. Yes buying an energy refill that will level you up will get you +5 skill points. You are just spending 10 RP to get those 5 skill points faster than you normally would. You're going to get them anyways. Buying skill points by crafting items or +4 from the Marketplace will benefit your character much more in the long run. It makes more sense and is much easier to do once your level is high enough that an energy or stamina refill won't be enough to level you up. Half an energy or stamina pack would be nice but the same concept would apply.
ReplyDeleteWhat the loot lady says: if you level up with energy/stamina refills, you need to invest some of your gained skill points in Energy/Stamina to keep levelling, since you will need more and more XP. If you buy skill points, you can do with them, whatever you like - if you buy enough, you can even level up as often as you want.
ReplyDeleteI think, the "poor choices" to spend RP are in the game so that you feel clever about making the "right choices".
I don't think they fool too much people into buying that stuff. But ofc one here and there adds up. I also bought a burner once, when I was after the achievement for 50 full robbing clearings in Vegas, had 49 of them, a 7-1 board and no burner request. Can happen - not too often, though. ;)
With a good strategy, you can beat anyone who has a worse ond and also anyone who plays less than you. I have "overtaken" 10000s of players since I started and know that from fighting. My win rate constantly goes up. I will never be "the top player" (I doubt my CC limit is high enough for that), but who cares...
@MW LootLady, I did point out that everyone's situation is different. And if you are the levels we are at, you probably know most of this info already. So what I had to say was geared more towards the newer players.
ReplyDeleteYes, if a Stamina or Energy refill won't help you level up then it may not be beneficial as spending 14 RPs for 4 Skill Points. Also, if you made some poor choices for a while, like only upping your Attack stats to the point that it now takes you several days to level, it may be the only way to get out of that situation.
But then again, depending on your situation, a 10 RP Energy refill may allow you to complete 4 jobs (I still have about 1/2 of Italy to do), and also leave you with enough Energy left over to fight the Boss in NY, so you can launch yourself into the next level with 800+ XP (840 XP for 600 Energy is what I gain right now at level 1027). Also, leveling gives you 1/2 a reward point.
Again, everyone's situation is different, but in the scenario I just described. Spending 10 RPs on an Energy refill would result in me really only spending 9.5 RPs (because I would level), end result would be 9 Skill points gained, 4 jobs completed, and I would already be about 800 XP closer to leveling again. Not to mention the possible loot I might have gained during this.
This is a strategy I actually work at using whenever possible. And as soon as I finish typing this, will work out almost exactly as I described above, except I will be using a daily Energy Pack, and I think I'll probably only finish 3 jobs in Italy.
But overall, the game is highly flawed. So flawed that a book could be written about it.
The biggest flaw is that Zynga is the only company I know of that makes XP leveling based games that doesn't increase the amount of XP gained by fighting people of higher levels. So, other than just being nice, there is no reason to ever fight someone of a higher level. Just pick on the low level players (refreshing the list if necessary). Granted, once you get over 1,000 Stamina, bookmarklets like Brawler, are the only way to fight if you don't want to get bored out of your mind. :) But even then, when you lose a fight or two, Zynga refreshes the fight list with weaker players. So you pretty much are always fighting weaker players unless you go out of your way to find the stronger players. So being "nice" isn't really an option.
@MW LootLady, as I said, it really depends on your situation. At our levels (I assume yours is high, at least your knowledge is), we know most of these things already. So my comments was really geared towards newer players.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, if someone made poor choices for a quite a while, like putting all Skill points towards Attack, to the point that it now takes them several days to level up, spending RPs on Skill points would be the only way to fix this imbalance.
But in certain situations, the situation I actually plan my strategy around, is to put myself so that a 10 RP Energy or Stamina refill will allow me to level up. In the process of using an Energy refill(especially since I only have about 1/2 of Italy done) I can complete about 4 jobs, leaving me with enough Energy to take on the Boss in NY, 600 Energy at level 1027, so I can then leap into the next level with almost 840 XP closer to leveling again.
So, in this scenario, for 10 RPs, really only 9.5, because you gain 1 every 2 levels, I would receive 9 Skill points, finished 4 jobs, hopefully gained some loot, and be over 800 XP closer to leveling again.
IMO, this pretty much makes spending 14 RPs on 4 Skill points worthless. But not everyone has devised this strategy I use. And they may have to buy Skill points to be able to get the point to be able to use it.
And as someone else mentioned... Yes, Zynga has definitely gone out of their way to make spending RPs almost mandatory these days, for all their games. But a 1/2 cost 1/2 Energy or Stamina refill would cause me to spend more RPs. So I think they are missing out making more money by not having this option.
If energy/stamina refills were cheaper, they had to put more content out. :)
ReplyDelete