Family Module Update

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The Family Module roll out is running smooth so far. Eike posted a complete list of the Families that have registered here. I noticed there have been a few changes since my initial post on this feature (1).  If you are the Godfather/Godmother/Leader of a Family and want to have the ability to start your own family, go here and submit your information. When the Family Module is added to your account, you will see a Families Tab on your My Mafia Page. Click on it to open the Family Module.

There are 3 things you could do from this page. You can join one of the 3 Families shown on the page by clicking the "Join" button under the profile image. When you do this, you will be taken to that Families page and a request will be sent.

You can already spot a few bugs that players are encountering. There is a fourth unknown member of Team Spockholm, which is a result of someone ending up in the wrong Family. It also lists Pistol Pete's last activity as June 08. What has he been doing all this time? How can you write scripts if you don't play the game? This is just a display error.

If you don't want to join one of the 3 Families shown on your Families Page, you can select the "Other recruiting families" button.

You will then be takes to a page that lists more Families. Only 21 Families will appear and you saw that there are a lot more than that in Eikes post mentioned earlier. Maybe they will add a feature so players can view all the available Families. If you see the Family you want to join, click on "Join". I chose the Mafia Wars Gods to see how it would work. If you want to learn more about the Family, click on the square with the yellow arrow in it located to the left of the Family name and you will be directed to that Families Page.

If you want to learn more about the Family, click on the square with the yellow arrow in it located to the left of the Family name and you will see the members and a short message about the Family.

Once you "Join", you will be directed to the Family Page and notified that your request was sent. You won't actually be in the Family until the request is approved.

If you want to learn more about Family members, click on the square with the yellow arrow in the middle of the row and you will be able to see the players stats that you would normally see on their Profile Page.

The last option you have when you click on the Families Tab is to create your own Family. I decided to do this so I could take screen shots. I don't really plan on having my own active Family.  Decline the option to join a Family and by clicking on the "Start New Family" button.

You will be directed to the setup page and you need to fill in the information. You will also need to spend 15 Reward Points. It says this is a 70% Discount so that would mean that it would normally cost 50 Reward Points (.50 x .70 = 35   so  50 - 35 = 15).  We were told that the Reward Point cost was undetermined at this time. With so many registered Families now, the Reward Point cost listed is no longer a secret as I saw it was posted on a few fan pages.

Chose a Family name, tag and description. Tags can have a maximum of 8 characters symbols count as two.

When you click on the "Create Family for 15 RP", your family is automatically created. There is no verification button and you instantly get notified that "Your family was created.".

Here is my new Family Page. You can see there are many options and things I can do.

Invite

Click on the Invite button to ask players to join your Family. You generate these requests in the same manner as all other Mafia Wars requests.

Players will see your request in their Zynga Message Center of Facebook Request Page.

If they chose to accept your invitation, they will then be part of your Family. The beta test group had initially pointed out that this request looked identical to the Brazil Crew requests that had changed but the Brazil Crew request change was not intended and has since been changed back.

Once a player has successfully joined your Family, the tag will appear to the left of their Mafia Wars profile name.

They will then see your Family Page whenever they go to the Families Tab.

Once you have members in your Family, you can promote, demote or remove them. You will initially see a green up arrow and a red X to the left of your members images.

Click the green up arrow to promote. There are currently 3 Underboss positions available for promotion. The beta test group has stated that's not enough so hopefully this will change.

The player you promote will be assigned to the next highest position and the red X will the turn into a red down arrow.

The red down arrow is used to demote a player.

If a player is assigned to a Underboss position and you chose to promote them again, they will replace you as the Godmother or Godfather. This is how you would hand over your Family to another member.

To remove a player, demote them to Soldier (if need be) and click on the red X.

Players wishing to leave a Family can click on the red X next to their own name.

Settings

The settings allow you to change your welcome message and turn your recruiting on or off. If you don't want your Family to be listed in the actively recruiting list, set it to No and it won't appear on the list.

Family Stats

Your combined Family stats will show the numbers of fights and fights won as well as the number of times your Family members were iced and killed.

Message of The Day

If you are the Godfather or Godmother of the Family, you can write a message to your Family. Although it says "Message Of The Day", you can change it as frequently as you want.

Family Link

You can easily share your Family Link by using the Copy (beta) feature I told you about a few days ago (1). Just click once to copy and paste your link anywhere you would like.

Name Change

When you join or create a new Family, you have a one time option to change your name for free. Just type in the name you want and click submit. The same rules to name changes apply. You Mafia Wars profile name can't be greater than 30 characters and symbols count as 2. Once you utilize the name change feature once, it will be removed from the page. Players that want to have dual tags will need to include one of them in their profile name and the other one will be part of the Family they join in-game.

The next phase of the Family Module will include competitive badges and  live in-game chat feature.

 

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