Holy crap is this addicting!
I am at level 8 after about 2 hours and just starting to figure it all out. I’ve iced two opponents and have a few properties already.
I need hints to help me in my quest for total domination!
You need lots of friends! You can own the world if you have enough friends in Mafia. PM me and I’ll friend you if you like 
(Facebook? That’s the MW that I’m playing)
I need more Mafia capos too. PMs away!
I am a level 9 maniac right now.
Yesterday, that sentance would have confused me.
You will excuse me, I have to go collect on a loan right now.
Don’t waste points on health or a lot of Stamina, you’ll get far more bang for your buck with Attack and Defense. Attacking jokers is a lot of fun right now but as you go up in levels you meet more and more people with silly amounts of Mafia members. A great attack level and the best weapons money can buy is no match for a dude with 300 members and the more you play the more of those you’ll find until thats all there is.
Don’t heal yourself in Cuba, it’s expensive it’s hard to make money there at first and going back to New York is free.
Use money early on to generate income, after level 40 or so sell everything cause you’ll have more money than you need and you’ll get sick of it getting jacked.
Get as many friends to join as you can they’re by far your best weapon.
Trade away any loot you have more than one of, one set of each thing is all you can turn in and perhaps someone else has something you need.
I got a lot more advice if you care.
Thank you.
My regular FB friends are all into Farmville and I am not happy. At all.
Farmville takes more thought, planning, and activity than Mafia Wars. MW is just a click-fest; I could probably write a very tiny Perl script to play MW for me.
Shirley, would you like another Farmville neighbor?
Can Mafia Wars reek havov on Farmville?
Holy crap this is addicting.
I’m at level 12 after one day of this.
Is that good or what?
My username on FB is drainbead too. Feel free to add me.
OK, I’m in.
For awhile, there was a page where you could click on links that people added, and they were added to your Mafia without having to add them as a FB friend. I’d spend ten minutes at a time click-click-clicking on the links, and after probably an hour or so of doing it, I had my 500 friends.
I think that technique is disabled now (the page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Top-Mafia-Adds-Invites-Tips-Tricks-etc/99274538125?ref=mf ), but there are still groups you can join to find people to become friends with. Getting tons of friends is pretty important for winning fights.
I quit playing when my income reached $100,000,000 an hour. Comparing it to my real-life income was just getting too depressing.