Mob Wars is a very popular Facebook application with 2,421,346 active users as of December 31, 2008. The game was originally created by David Maestri while an employee of SGN, under the pseudonym Jason Gilbert. In the game, a would-be mafioso starts off as a petty thief and must work his way to the top of the crime chain, earning points by fighting opposing gangsters, doing jobs, robbing stores and casinos and exploiting underlings. The player can improve his character by spending these points on better guns, real estate, loyalty and more, and while he could spend an eternity building up enough points to become a serious baller, he can also spend real cash to jumpstart the process.
The game has spawned a number of clones and was the subject of litigation between SGN, Maestri and Psycho Monkey, Maestri’s company. That litigation was settled in December 2008.
