Often the normal "society" frowns upon people who play actively games online.
Take World of Warcraft for example, if you play it you must have no life.
(As a lvl 80 paladin with full epics I like to disagree on that statement though ;) ).

Anyways, it got me thinking.. what has MR done for/to me. And it makes me wonder what has it done for you?

In my case there's a long long loooong list of things how MR has affected my life, good and bad.
But in all honesty... a lot more good than bad.

Just to get rid of the bad things first;
* Phone calls at crazy hours, about wars and what not. My boyfriend does NOT appriciate it at all that I jumped out of bed because one of my, at the time, dons had wackbacked. Twice. (Damn you Paul Vidi :p)
* Staying up way way way too late, to get those 100 JB's done, because all CL's from a specific city are online, because Tyler Durden has just shown up... because well... there's always a reason to hang around. Damn those addictive personalities.
* Watching people you like being " bullied " on for example facebook, private groups. Being angered by their attitudes yet powerless.


The good stuff:
* Meeting so many great people, in the 8 years I play this game I've met so many MR players from all different countries it's been great. Ireland, UK, The Netherlands, Australia, USA! I consider myself very lucky to have met so many great people and actually have been able to travel to some of these countries to meet up with them!
For example meeting Shifty_Bastard, the first person I met from playing MR, he came to The Netherlands and we had an awesome time, few years later I went to look him up in Ireland! Or right now, being at Izzycreamcheese's house, enjoying my stay in the USA for 3 weeks. It's fucking awesome things like this can start from a game. Meeting the two awesome Godmothers Marietta and Aurora... (Some people are saying pictures soon to come). Kittie, Declan, Odd, Hoagie, Sly, Colin, Caius, FullMetal and erm whats his name.. oh right... ThomasRourke... and 5 years before that UncleNicky, Brandi, Lara, RTL, TeQ, Kes. And ofcourse last but defo not least Jono!
So many great people ;)

This community is awesome, MR is not just a game because of you guys :)

I'm curious what other good and bad experiences people have because of the game!

I agree with you, the stigma attached to people who play online games is now rather ridiculous. It tends to come from people who have never played games and they probably sit at home watching shite reality TV and think they are cool.

I have throughly enjoyed my time playing MR, met a lad who plays this for a beer and a football game. Laughed when he couldnt find his way back to his car and talked to him on his mobile as I tried to navigate him there. The biggest thing that amuses me is the reaction of some people when they die, I understand the level of time and dedication they have put into a character and when I say amuse I dont mean ridicule or take the piss out of, more a wry chuckle than anything else. I honestly can't remember getting into such a rage at a death, it is normally a case of time out or start back up and join the treadmill of ranking and building a gun. Somewhere along the way people probably think Nino was a good egg, where is he I need a right hand man to keep my family in check. Before I know it I am pulled back in but then I am fortunate that I have a variety of ways to log in.

Bad things:

Having to go mid war because my daughter was quite seriously ill one evening. I ended up dying from it...

Staying up way way way too late chasing IAs or just generally chatting on IRC to people.


My days of spending a chunk of time away from the family have gone, if there was ever a UK meet I would probably try and get down for a weekend of fun but then I have done this before with other online games I have played and we tended to have a blast.

Next UK meet i shall look after ya with for you nino while you go... nfp.

WIFE... 

:( My friends think I'm a nerd now, I'm getting wrinkles at my youth. I've gotten smarter :(

I'm able to read and enjoy such quality street publications as "Mob News".

Damn, Mike?

Crazy fool.

My fiancee',  soon to be wife..  :D

Oh god... Good things? Hm... Well I guess the first would definitely be the trip to the meet. Though that's a bad thing too seeing as my first car broke down on the Jersey Turnpike :P Second I'd have to say would be all the people I talk to via text message when I'm not even on the game (kizzy, izzy, kendra, kj, shaggs, tiggy.) It makes life interesting to talk to people from all over the world.

Alright... Onto the bad? heh... Spending wayyy too much time on here my first year, averaged 10 hours a day. Uhh... I guess getting most of NY banned from IRC was shitty too, though that ended up great for me  because I ended up good friends with tiggybitch. <3 Hmm... Well I guess I've pissed a few people off on here but meh, that's life. Overall, much love for MR

Good things: MR makes for a good distraction when your embalmed in morphine.

                 :Prem makes me laugh

                 :Teaching Izzy to slaughter mice in his garage

                 :Seeing Althalus' cat beat his ass while he was drunk on webcam

                 :IRC moments

                 :Wigglybums

Bad Things: Finding out about JJ and his dog fetish

                : Schwarz

                :Meeting fellow players and speaking in public about Wacking! someone. It turns heads alright.

                : Spending way too much time online.

                :Reading IRC moments when your NO LONGER ON MORPHINE!

One piece of wisdom I've picked up from this game is that there's not a bigger turnoff to a woman than when she is trying to tell you about some dumb conversation she had with one of the slobs she works with while you sit there staring at a black and grey screen trying to strengthen an imaginary online mafia character.

Yes, my girlfriend definitely does not appreciate the amount of play time that I put in.  Pretty much all of my friends think I'm crazy.  Although I can't understand WHY they don't all get addicted to it the way that I did.  I guess I just have an addictive video game personality.

But the reason that people stick around is no big secret.  The relationships and friendships formed during the course of this game are incredible.  "Family" takes on a half-real meaning.  I've made many great friends on here, and I'm sure that many other great ones are on their way.  The one aspect of this game that my girlfriend does approve of is the international aspect.  I've had everything a boss from Norway and a RHM from Denmark to a boss who lives just a few miles away.  It's amazing.

Well I play mafia around a bunch of cops and they just 'dont understand' lol

I still get shit for picking you up Nino. I still tell them to go fuck themselves.

Who knows. We might pass each other in the next 50 years. Possibly. Probably not.

meeting clause and ross89.........bad times

Hmmm...well, I'm not sure if this counts as good or bad. I would say good but I'm sure the woman I was dating at the time would disagree. Although she was totally crazy so what does she know?

I found out that if you spend a lot of your free time playing MafiaReturns then when you're having a conversation with someone IRL what else to talk about but MR? :D So on one of our last dates; probably half of what I said that night was all about MR. Don't remember exactly what I said but when I look back I think she thought it was odd that I was talking about this game and people like it was real life. Then of course when she spent the night I had to tell her to hold on cause I needed to check my mobmail and stuff...

I've been playing for about 18 months now and I've been addicted from the day one. There is nothing new I can add to what all of you have said about staying up too late or talking about MR on a date....I've done that as well. When I didn't have access to a computer, my RHM would contact me through email (since my cell won't let me play) and I'd check my phone constantly, which got in the way in many ways.

I've had many good things happen though. It might sound weird to some of you but having my biggest account die was one of them. It made me step back and put things back into perspective again, getting my priorities straight so to speak. Now I've got my time management down pat, met The Bin Dippers and finally got that stick out of my ass. I'm having fun and letting my character develop in ways I never allowed my ancestors do so in the past.

Dipper hugs <3

aids and meeting naztyn8 hes probably the only person i trust in this whole game.

allive done for the past three weeks straight is play this game wayyy too much

I've been playing this game since 01 (the old .org version) off and on.

Bad: 1) Lost one girlfriend a few years back because she thought I was crazy.

        2) Missed out on a few parties back in college.

        3) Missed an exam in college because a war was going on and I had to be their.  (I'm sure I'm not the only one who has felt like this)

        4) Spent 5 years in college instead of 4.

Good: 1) Helped me choose my career in college because Journalism studies took way too much time and majoring in Health Science/Sport Management allowed     

             extensive amounts of mafia play time. (hence I love what I do now)

          2) I've meet many cool friends and formed good relationships.

          3) Keeps me sane after a long day with a bunch of hard-headed teenager who think they know everything.

          4) Grammer skills (because I remember a time when people would embarrass you on the streets for poorly wrote speeches)