MWAP - Cheats will never die!
For those who haven’t figured it out yet, cheating will never stop. Scripts will be created for just about everything there is that can be automated. It does not matter what online game it is, google around, youtube around and you will find cheating scripts to automate various game aspects for just about all online games, from World of Warcraft to Mafia Wars and Knight Hood just to name a few.
Mafia Wars Autoplayer (MWAP) is one of the most complex scripts around for these types of online games. There’s just about no way game developers can track such script usage, so how can they ever get stamped out from getting used? Or are they really hurting the games that they need to get stamped out! or are they actually helping the games grow faster in popularity!
Once the “creative cheats” die the games in question seem to die from past experience… Is that because of the cheaters or the players left behind once the cheaters are gone! If the cheating makes a player invincible then they should be dealt with with game design changes.
If the cheats just make the players game simpler to play and more enjoyable and other players can still surpass such game play without using cheats then what’s the problem! We all remember those cheat codes in the old Atari and Nintendo games from the old days.
They even sold in “cheat code catalogues” so what makes those acceptable and these not within these online gaming communities! Are they so bent out of shape into winning they forget what playing is!
MWAP Development
Mafia Wars Autoplyer MWAP has been in development for nearly two years. Over that time it has be downloaded over 4 million times. The script was originally developed from another script : Vampire Wars.
And then our main (past) developer (we will call him CodeX - as for legal constraints it would be inappropriate to name him, but he is in our thoughts and one of the reasons why we are here! ) took on the original task of coding for Mafia Wars.
CodeX had very little experience with regards to GM coding, but he went about learning a lot and then was able to bring other coders on board to make what the script is today.
Over the course of it's history, Mafia Wars Autoplyer MWAP has had 5 main developers and over 40+ contributors (graphics, suggestions, modify and indeed, web site management). All in various parts of the world.
Our present lead developer is cygnum who maintains the current code along with help from others and users of our site. However, it is fair to say that cygnum is not the owner or author of Mafia Wars Autoplyer MWAP - as stated above there have been many people involved in the development of the script, and we continue to look for and build our team.
Zynga - God bless them!
At the latter part of 2009 Zynga in it's wisdom decided to go to war with us regarding copyright infringement. (POOO).
And even though there were using copyright laws in the US (may I add if anyone knows about those US copyright laws - they were not intended for the purpose Zynga were seeking to use), CodeX had no choice but to leave the development team which also resulted in the website being closed too.
This was simply because it was based in the USA and CodeX did not have the money to defend this action. To defend such action would have cost $10,000+ just to get a pre-court hearing, not least would have ran into $100's of thousands should it have gone further.
Today the site is not based in the US and indeed there are backup copies in various countries around the world. We were all very devastated at that news - not a great xmas.
However, the team here decided that there was no REAL grounds for Zynga to use those copyright laws. As we all know, Mafia Wars Autoplayer MWAP does not hack any part of Zynga servers and does nothing more than click for you. That's it! It only clicks, nothing more.
So we decided to take on Zynga and continue to develop, cygnum (thank goodness) agreed to further develop and keep the script going - and he is not based in the US!!! And then we started a new site to give support for that script and we continue to grow our user base and develop our script for the many 1000's who download it on a daily basis.
So, who owns the Mafia Wars Autoplayer MWAP?
Well in simple terms, no-one individual owns it or has any right to state ownership.
It is owned by all the developers, past and present, it is owned by the contributors (graphic design, website management).
More importantly, it is owned by ALL the users who keep us wanting to develop the script further and give enjoyment in playing Mafia Wars.
Because we have better things to do.