So wish me luck for completion this weekend.

P.S. I’m really enjoying everyone’s blogs!

The player’s objective is to complete a set of tasks in a level named after a city; complete the task and then move to the next scenario. There are a total of thirty-five different levels, which are grouped together in eight different “neighborhoods” of between three and five levels. Each “neighborhood” has a different map character, number of lots, and a different mayor. The neighborhoods advance in terms of game complexity and new buildings/parks/shops become available at higher levels, and the goals more difficult.  There are time limits, as well, that have to be beaten as the game progresses.

Overall I have enjoyed playing this game and would recommend it.  It works on both PC’s and Mac’s and the full version is only $9.99.

The game revolves around doing jobs in order to earn cash, and eventually establishing and advancing one’s criminal empire.  It is set in New York City and Little Italy (but you can travel between New York and Cuba after you reach level 35 — supposedly you will be able to travel to Moscow after level 70 but no one in my family has gotten to that level yet). Gameplay involves timers: players have limited energy, health, and stamina meters, which are slowly increased over time.[1] To build your own family (create mafias) you recruit new players — Facebook allows you to recruit from within your friends network to build your mafia and fight against other players. By using other mafia members whom they have recruited, players can eventually fight other mafias, which usually results in the theft of cash. The game operates on a level up basis[2]. The player earns experience points by completing jobs. As they level up, more jobs become available, and extra features become available, such as robbing other mafias and visiting Cuba to expand their criminal empire.^{[1] Players can also improve their stats by visiting the Godfather or making a micropayment.[1] (When visiting the Godfather you can either use the coin rewards you’ve earned to purchase items or actually buy — with real money — coin rewards.)  You can also ask for help from your family and give gifts to your family.  Like I said it’s sort of complicated to give all of the ins and outs of the game, but it’s not difficult to catch on and play.  I think few people could resist.}

^{Here are some links:}

^{– The company that developed the game is called Zynga; they also have other social networking games but I haven’t tried them:  http://www.zynga.com/}

^{– I found a blog for the game:  http://mafia-wars-maniac.blogspot.com/2009/09/from-russia-with-love.html}

^{– If you want to join my family just drop me a note and I’ll send you an invite through Facebook.}

^{________________________________________________}

^{1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_Wars}

^{2. Yen, Tracy (2009-06-09). “Highly addictive Mafia Wars on Facebook” (in Examiner.com). Retrieved 2009-06-24.}

One that comes to mind first was a position I held with an international engineering firm here in the states.  It was a structured job — you had to clock in on time and out on time and when I say on time I mean on time — not five minutes before or five minutes after; you had your scheduled 15 minute AM break, your 30 minute lunch, and your 15 minute PM break; being sick was unacceptable; needing time off was unacceptable … you get the picture.  My job was heading up the creative department which had to be coordinated with the international portion of the company in Germany.  Thus the Internet and email were vital to our success. Our largest project was creating brochures of the oil filtration systems the company produced.  So there were these elaborate scaled renderings we had to create to go into the brochures.  There were numbers everywhere and it took a vast amount of concentration to create these drawings.  So when I needed a break I would play on-line solitaire on my computer; and when I say break I mean like 5 minutes just to free up my brain and get it thinking again.  Well, somehow the CEO was in charge of my department —  we always joked that if he could chain us to our desk and shock us every 10 minutes he would have — and he and I didn’t see eye to eye on a number of different work related topics.  He walked in to my office one day and saw solitaire on my computer screen; I thought little of it at the time because he always pulled our internet usage and web sites visited reports, and reprimanded people; so I assumed he knew of my game site visiting or I would have been written up for going to that site.  He didn’t say anything at the time, but that afternoon a memo went out stating that all computer games would be removed from our workstations that evening and that all on-line gaming sites banned.  I remember feeling so defeated because not only had I lost the ability to find a moments peace at my job, I had lost that ability for everyone else in the company.  Needless to say, I didn’t remain at that company much longer before I decided that I would be better off in grad school.

So the thought process behind my long story is just  pondering how misguided people’s views can be about gaming.  People from class have been blogging about how their principal or school board doesn’t view gaming as educational or productive.  Thus the larger issue perhaps is not only defining gaming but how do we go about changing people’s views (stereotypes) about gaming?

I just learned that you can get Bb announcements via iPhone. Here’s how:

1.  Log into your Blackboard account (online)
2.  On the left hand side in your tools list you will see BLACKBOARD SYNC
Click it
3.  Screen pops up that gives you the option of Facebook or iPhone – click iPhone
4.  This gives you a number WRITE IT DOWN (which you can have emailed to you if you click SEND)
5.  On your iPhone go to APPLICATIONS search for BLACKBOARD
6.  Click BLACKBOARD – it downloads app
7.  Click ACCEPT
8.  Enter MOREHEADSTATE.BLACKBOARD.COM
9.  Enter the NUMBER given to you earlier by your online Blackboard account
10.  Click CONTINUE
You’re all set!

PS — TAITO just released “Bust-A-Move” for the iPhone.  It’s $4.99 but worth every penny.

I suppose I just assumed that the gaming world would be compatible with multiple platforms. Especially when there are so many games for my iPhone (apps store).  So if there are any other Mac users out there here is the link to a ton of games http://www.apple.com/games/.

Here is the link to the program but it probably won’t be up to listen online until this afternoon or tomorrow. http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/08/24.php#27077

Here is the link to Scott’s blog.  http://www.wordyard.com/

Enjoy!