mafia wars

Yahoo might have scored big time with its recent deal with Zynga, the company responsible for popular Facebook games such as Farmville and Mafia Wars. The two companies have reached an agreement that will see the integration of Zynga’s social games through Yahoo’s global network.

For Zynga, this could be a viable alternative to its Facebook presence, especially since Yahoo claims of more than 600 million users worldwide across all Yahoo sites. But the question is would users be open to the idea of getting their game on via the Yahoo platform?

Most of those users who play Farmville and Mafia Wars are into these games while at the same time maintaining their social networking profiles and connections on Facebook. Most of them play these games to while away time as they wait for their friends to go online, post updates and links. In short, Zynga games on Facebook are added functionalities for a site which has social networking as the main purpose.

Comparing these to Yahoo which doesn’t have a social networking site. Users go to Yahoo to find/search for information not to socialize. So, I don’t really see these Zynga games easily fitting into the demographics of Â Yahoo users.

Still, Yahoo is pretty positive that this deal would be both beneficial to both companies. Hilary Schneider, Yahoo America’s Executive Vice President tells us:

â€œZynga will bring top notch social game experiences to Yahoo!, including through our open platforms such as Yahoo! Application Platform and Yahoo! Updates. Yahoo! will also continue to work with other partners, developers and publishers to bring compelling innovations and experiences from across the web to our users.â€

And with this deal, Yahoo have finally laid down its social strategy and adds up to its previous partnership with both Facebook and Twitter. Would this finally bring some good tidings to Yahoo as a whole? That we will have to wait and see.

Fans of Mafia Wars on Facebook would be glad to know that Zynga, the game’s developer has just enabled full mobile access features. Â Whereas previously, the game’s mobile feature only allows users to receive updates of what was happening with their games, the new mobile features now allows you to do more activities.

To register for this feature you need to register from the Mafia Wars Facebook app page. Â The SMS Mobile feature link can be found from the HELP option on the main Mafia Wars page. You need to sign up your mobile phone number. And right after registration you can start sending “MAFIA” plus action commands such as “FF” for fighting your last opponent, “J” for doing a job and other available SMS commands. Â Send your SMS to the number (623-42). To get a list of commands, simply send “? to the said number.

Now, while this might seem an honest move on Zynga to inrease the engagement level of Mafia Wars players, this may also lead these members to purchase virtual good via their mobile phones.

What I’m not really sure is how Facebook will take this mobile feature as it will certainly take away valuable site eyeballs on Facebook.com. Of course, since you will be using your mobile phones, be reminded that those SMS messages will entail charges on your end. Â But if you don’t mind spending on SMS just to play Mafia Wars via text, then check out the new Mafia Wars Mobile feature.