I have played this and the old version of org for coming up 9 and a half years roughly.  With the move from mafia.org to here over the years we have seen more and more features added and more and more reliance on donation money to assist the rise of some.  Now i am not saying it is essential as on one character i managed to put away a small fortune in donator, my question more is; over the last few months have seen people allegedly spend or be willing to spend what may be to some a weeks wages to help buy themselves of the hitlist, bodyguard up or advance them.

As a father with five children, a lot of my money is always directed furthering them but is there a limit where you look at that death screen and think, wow thats a lot of cash i put in gone?

I'll share with you an intresting mail exchange I had with someone.

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To: TimThomas
From: XXXXXX
Subject: i bet you would join my crew

I notice that you automatically assume that I spent money on these credits. Is it that important to you?

I'll have you know that in 8 years of playing I have donated once... Many years ago, before the credits came into play.

Please sir, move on.. I do not have time for those that assume things about others.
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To: XXXXXX
From: TimThomas
Subject: i bet you would join my crew

*chuckle.
touche :)

might I ask what the hell made you spend that much cash?
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To: TimThomas
From: Jadzia
Subject: i bet you would join my crew

No, not really. I already have over 100 that I'm not using, why would I need more?
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To: XXXXXX
From: TimThomas
Subject: i bet you would join my crew

for 50 credits.

oops

censorship FALE

you kept jadzia's name in the one post old friend :D

damn types as you posted :(

slow reply fail

I've never made a donation to the game and I've always had plenty of credits for every account I've played. The admins are very generous with their contests and the rest I used in game cash I earned to buy them... So personally the limit for me to spend to advance my character in a game is $0. I'd rather pay in time than in money lol.

I've never understood using cash to advance where time will do the exact same thing. Just me though. I suppose if I had extra cash then the time wouldn't be worth the small amount of money required as 1 credit is $1.

Mafia is a little different in that most games you spend money on, you create an account and you build an account and you can die but you dont lose everything.  Soemtimes you lose what you have in your inventory, or something like that, but the stats you spent the amount of time buidling up never goes away. 

I do donate.  I have donated twice in my 8 months here, both in large chunks to amass the bonuses during a credit sales.  The way I see it is, the people that acquire these donations are the coders who spend hours of their time here trying to make things happen.  I am more than happy to give them credit for that, and it is just a bonus for helping me in the game as well. 

Some people simply dont have the cash to spare, so it's not worth it.  But I'm single, in college, with a part time job, and sometimes the satisfaction of helping the game and amassing bonuses is worth it to me.

Kriminal; I couldn't have said it any better myself. When I first started playing in Summer of '08, I was a High School kid with no job and too much time on his hands. I asked around about how the site worked, and between '08-'10; mario and Anubis took me under their wing of Web Development. Since then, I've told myself that whenever I was in a good enough financial position to donate, I would.

Fast forward a year; I've got a part time job working on my college's website with the knowledge that mario and Anubis taught me. So, when I donate there really is more behind it than just getting my money's worth in credits. I only have that job BECAUSE of this game and this community, and it has been one of the greatest experiences in my life. Not many can say that about a Mafia RPG.

That's why I purchase credits. Is it wo(r)th it? You bet.