Obama, Bush and Mafia Wars

So I beat Mafia Wars last week.

For those of you who don’t know Mafia Wars is a Facebook game where you use your friends to build a fake Mafia network and complete mission and fight other people. They keep expanding the game so that you can’t ever really win, so that’s where I looked to our Presidents for an exit strategy.

Mafia Wars is a lot like fighting a war in Central Asia or the Middle East you can never really declare it over because there will always be people ready to fight, so I had a choice -- Bush or Obama.

With the Obama strategy I would simply pick a random date at some point in the future that would be convenient for me and quit Mafia Wars and never play it again regardless of where I was in the game’s story line. This strategy had several advantages, the most obvious being when I was done I’d be done. Also if I wanted to continue to play Mafia Wars I could alter the definition of what Mafia Wars is, and therefore not break my promise.

With the Bush Doctrine I would pick a target benchmark, not tell anyone what the benchmark was, and then end the game I reached that goal. While this left no clear end date, it would give the sense of accomplishment that would be lacking in a cold turkey stop.

So I had my decisions, either be convenient like Obama or grind it out like Bush. Like President Bush I understand that you’ll never win against an opponent that won’t acknowledge defeat, whether that’s Islamic terrorists or the programmers at Zynga. Like Obama I like the tidiness of having a date and being able to declare, “Hey, it’s over now I won,” regardless of the situation on the ground.

I decided to be like Bush. By grinding it out and continuing to play the game long after it ceased being fun I have helped bring freedom to other game apps. By completing the missions in New York, Cuba, Russia and Bangkok I have done all that was in my mission perimeters and have done what I set out to do. There is no failure in my part in not defeating Atlantic City or Vegas; they weren’t in the scope of my mission to begin with. I cannot solve all the problems in Mafia Wars, I can only do what I can and hope that freedom will spread.

Because of my actions in Mafia Wars I soon suspect that the people of YouVille will rise up against their oppressors, the Monsters of the Backyard will no longer fight and die based on the whimsy of their masters. That the Café’s in Café World will no longer be subject to external control.

I have brought freedom to Facebook apps; that is my legacy.