Feb 28, 2011

Images From The PAC

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I'm back home from The Player Advisory Committee and now it's time to get back to work. I thank my guest bloggers for giving you something to read this weekend and I'll do my best to capture what exactly happened while I was away. The number one question I've been asked is what was the purpose of this event. I believe this answer still needs to be defined.  I do know that Zynga took this event very seriously and a lot of organization and time was put into it. The players who attended also took it seriously and we worked for over 10 hours on Saturday. We listened to what Zynga wanted to tell us and they listened to us. I was amazed at how well the players all worked together and got along.  Every single person who was there was special and brought something unique to the table. The weekend also had a social aspect to it which I feel was important to the main goal of the PAC. We plan to work as a team while representing the Mafia Wars community as we walk through the door that Zynga has opened to us. Here are some images from this weekend and look for a series of posts during the next few days that will be more in-depth of what was addressed this past weekend.
The first player that I got to meet was Jana Gucci, one of my co-hosts on the Informant Podcast.  We met early at the airport and had time to do a little sight seeing.
Some players weren't so lucky and had horrible airport problems due to weather and "broken" planes. Bill was one of the last to arrive but made the best of his situation.
Once more players started arriving at the hotel we partied like rock stars in the hotel lobby which became the hot spot of the weekend.  Really, what did you expect?
Nate from Zynga greeted us in the lobby and we went to dinner at a restaurant called Gulliver's.
Some don't like to have their picture taken while they are eating!
After dinner, the partying continued into the wee hours of the morning.
Saturday was the big day and there was much anticipation and excitement on the bus ride over to Zynga Headquarters. Pistol Pete could not wipe the smile off his face and professed he hadn't been this excited since he was a kid during Christmas Eve.
Once the troops were off the bus, it was time to see Zyngaland.
We filled out our name tags and waited the grand tour.  Most were class clowns and couldn't resist an opportunity to have some fun with the name tags.
For security purposes, we were not allowed to enter any of the Studios within the Headquarters building. Nate did the best he could to show us around anyways.
From the Headquarters building, we walked over to the building that is across the street and it was a cool break/lunch/conference area. This would be our home for the next 8 hours.  We had a very structured day of classes and workshops and learned a lot about Zynga. I liked the lecture room because it had couches and bean bag chairs and was really comfortable. There was also all the food and drinks we could ever want. I found out that this is where all the Zynga employees eat lunch everyday and nobody goes hungry.  We had classes in the areas of feedback, security, communication, upcoming features, game additions and a workshop called design a feature where 7 groups were formed and each one got to create a feature and present it to Zynga. I'll address all of these issues in future posts.
When the formal part was finished, we had dinner and posed for a group photo. It wasn't as easy as you would think. After 15 minutes of getting it just right, 3 stragglers emerged from outside and we had to start all over!
It was back to the hotel and the real partying started! Of course this entailed everyone hanging out in the lobby with their electronic devices. We even taped the next episode of the Informant Podcast and a good time was had by all.
Here is a picture we never thought would be possible.  All 5 of us were in the same room instead of 5 different states like we usually are.
The next day we all flew home with the memories and hopes of what will come for our game and the player/Zynga relationship.

Thanks to all the PAC members who took lots of pictures. There are many more.  If you want to see more, please comment and I'll make more posts like this one. I also ask that you provide constructive input rather than criticism if you are one of those who like to comment under anonymous profiles and say bad things about me, the other PAC members and Zynga.

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.
All material is protected by copyright law

26 comments:

  1. Great intro now lets get the good stuff: MAFIA WARS!
    Please post info info info...whats coming, what will be fixed in the near future?

    regards


    THE WHALE

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  2. Bjorn Conjaerts aka Rigor MortisFebruary 28, 2011 at 4:50 AM

    Sweet. we want to know more info about the game Jen. What's comming up etc,... thx for the intel

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  3. Thank you for sharing your great and funny story; enjoyed the pictures. Nice to see real faces too!

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  4. Thank you for all the information you bring us. Very appreciated.

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  5. That's a awesome job and thanks to Zynga for making it possible to unite all the beloved members under 1 roof. Looking forward to see such type of conferences in the near future. Heeds-up to our team, starting from Jen to Pistol Pete, who represented ourself in the meeting. It's really great ~Arvind

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  6. This was a highly anticipated event and everyone is eager to hear what took place! Thanks to the PAC for representing us players - At least they could have shown you the executive bathrooms besides the hallways! LOL Look forward to hearing you break down what took place!

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  7. Great stuff! Thanks for all you do!
    Looking forward to much more info, and hopefully more pictures from the event?

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  8. Nice pictures. Lol @ Nate and hallways.

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  9. I had such a fabulous time and meeting everyone. Really felt our input was heard and great to see how things work behind the scenes :)
    Thanks for everyone's hard work and all the time they put into it on a daily basis just because of our love for the game.

    Add me daily player!! Just kidding..

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  10. It was such a great experience. Not only did we get to meet each member personally, but also many of us were able to sit down with individuals from the Mafia Wars team to have one on one conversations, ask questions and gather some fantastic information.

    I can't speak for everyone but I believe it's safe to say that we all gained a lot from this past weekend. But mostly being able to put faces to the names, interact with those that we've been communicating with via internet and getting to know so much more about each other on a personal level.

    The experience much more than what I had imagined it to be.

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  11. Great information and pictures, I'm looking forward for more!

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  12. I thought there are 6 people who make up The Podcast, who was left out of the group?

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  13. Thanks for the posts keep them coming and some more of those cool photos it looked like it was a blast

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  14. It was wonderful to finally meet Jenn! What a great experience this past weekend has been for us all! Love the pics Jennifer...~ Jana

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  15. So thats what you guys look like?? I'm jealous....sounds like you all had a blast.

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  16. Awesome Job on The Blog Jen We all Had a Great week end in San Francisco And Now Starting to get all the accumulated information Out to the Players Keep up the Great Job As we all Know you always do

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  17. TY for the cool pix and post about this Jen, this looks interesting and I hope we get some fixes for things out of the deal :-).

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  18. Is it me or is having Pistol Pete inside Zynga HQ not just one of the funniest things. A bookmarklet writer...one of the people Z technically should hate based on their TOS being welcomed with open arms.

    Guess it proves the old adage - "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer"

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  19. Yes but the real question is will he cross to the dark side :-)

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  20. I see someone wearing the MWAP logo (7th pic from the bottom).

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  21. Yep thats Alex one of the PS MWAP Devs.

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  22. so where's bossy ?

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  23. Looks like a good time was had by all...... In a nutshell, what is likely to come out of Zynga HQ with respect to MW? Personally, I think they've run out of ideas and what better place to increase RP buying than to get suggestions from hardcore players. So long as what happens is good for the game, I'm happy.

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  24. This is all great, but where is the info for the other millions of us who didn't get lavished for the weekend?

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  25. Lovely........
    But Fix the Fighting loot problem first

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  26. hi Jennifer im andy fairclough i also should have went to the event ,however the time schedule did not fit in with the flight times and i would not have got much sleep .I live in liverpool england so as u can imagine it was a lot of travel for one day but was very close to going .Been accepted on to the PAC team as ambassador for infinity clan so please look me up and add me thanx

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