A thought occurred to me as I was driving home from work today; why isn't everyone in a constant climb for power? Then it occurred to me: not everyone wants power! I followed my string of internal questioning. What do people want? Well, it's a game, so we can presume that there's some objective to be gained (whether absolute like a high score or beating a final boss, or relative; and to each man his own goals), but how can we gauge whether or not we've attained that? And what is to be done once we've accomplished that? Do we lose when our character dies? Many people I've met would greet an honorable death in war like victory, so death cannot be the absolute loss. Many people don't want to be a crewleader or a godfather, so that can't be the absolute win.

So I direct my internal dialogue to you fine people to settle my self-dispute: What does it mean to win? What does it mean to lose? Why? What will you do once you've reached your objective?

Personally, I strive for influence. I've always wanted my voice to have effect, and in order to do so I must maintain some level of influence with my colleagues and peers. So I would "win" if my ideas could be circulated and discussed by all. I would "lose" if my thoughts were lost on all and nothing could happen when I spoke. I've also always wanted a strong sense of camaraderie with people in my crew or city, so I try to get to know these people as best I can. I'd consider myself one of those individuals who would accept death before dishonor, and count dying in battle as a victory.

I think this would be a very beneficial exercise to explore why you play this game and determine precisely what you want to achieve with your current character. Perhaps you realize that you've been playing without a cause, and now seek one. Perhaps you've reignited the reason you originally started playing this game. Perhaps you just want to hear what everyone else is playing for. Either way, let me know how you win at Mafia Returns.

If you wanna win...
Don't lose.™

Personally the biggest thing that has been a downside of this game was the lack of competition. I remember playing a game several years back where all players were trying to be the top dog, which involved a lot more shooting and wars. When one player joined, rose through the ranks, got his own crew and soon created an alliance of several crews, he was heavily criticized for doing so, the reason being that now it would be boring with no-one else having a chance to make their crew successful as this alliance was powerful enough to eliminate any threat.

I also recall an incident from the same game where one of the members cheated his crew leader into letting him be temporary leader for whatever reason only for the crew leader to be kicked out, the crew renamed and everything. When he complained, he was told how this is supposed to be Mafia and not everything can be given to you, you must take something. I can't imagine that happening here as any player who tried to get somewhere by force would not only be killed quickly but also probably condemned for his actions.

Yes but now the wars are Armageddon unlike before.

I also recall an incident from the same game where one of the members cheated his crew leader into letting him be temporary leader for whatever reason only for the crew leader to be kicked out, the crew renamed and everything. When he complained, he was told how this is supposed to be Mafia and not everything can be given to you, you must take something. I can't imagine that happening here as any player who tried to get somewhere by force would not only be killed quickly but also probably condemned for his actions.

Plenty of people have overthrown their GFs/CLs and taken over tbh. Sure, its not a common occurrence,  but then thats mostly because people only work for/with folk that they already know via IRC. So chances are, they like them and want to work with them.