Oh Great.. Yavn's got an update to the recent announcement about the future of VMK.

[JulyGirl]

Well, it looks like our emails, letters, and phone calls ARE making a difference. I can see the Big Wigs are telling "Yavn" to try to calm the fires, as the response is so overwhelming. Remember, they can't change their minds immediately. Even if they go through with the closing, our protests may make them announce a new VMK like game before the closing.

Keep going guys!!

 

[KrazyPete]

I have nothing against the guy, but Yavn has absolutely no credibility when he says that something is "coming soon." If all this great stuff is in the works to replace VMK then leave VMK open until those new things are available. If they are so terrific then I'm sure many of us would happily migrate to those games.

I'm sure they did look into a pay-to-play model for VMK. However, if they did their market research this week I'm sure they would find a completely different result than they did a week ago. What's the harm in trying it? If it doesn't work then the game's player community will gradually die out. Again, we'd be going away on our own instead of them slamming the door on us.

Keep hitting them hard people. We have their attention!

 

[Dreamytime]

I have nothing against the guy, but Yavn has absolutely no credibility when he says that something is "coming soon."

What about the new and improved Community Leader program that is 'coming soon'?
What about the card game that is 'coming soon'?
What about flying carpet magic that is 'coming soon'?
Sorry...I could write more, but Yavn's cred plummets each second like I am hoping Disney's stock does as a result of the magic being removed.

Keep plugging away! They have noticed, now lets get passed the little first line pawns and checkmate the King himself, Iger.

 

[icy_waterprincess]

Hello VMK Lovers,

Here is what i got back from the disney website last night, i sent an email to them the day they delivered the bad news that they were closing the site down....

Hey VMKers,

Thank you for contacting The Walt Disney Company and VMK.

We have received an outpouring of feedback regarding our decision to close VMK. We are overwhelmed by the responses and enthusiasm of our guests, but unfortunately our decision to eventually close VMK is set. We have explored many different options, including a pay to play model but have decided to focus more of our time on our new virtual worlds coming soon, which we are sure that you will love as much as VMK.

Deciding to close VMK was a very difficult decision for us because we loved creating VMK just as much as you loved playing it. But in a company that encourages innovation and creativity we have decided to “keep moving forward” and exploring where the future takes as, because in the words of Walt Disney, “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Thank you for being part of this journey with us, and we hope we continue to see you at Disney.com enjoying what we imagine next!

Sincerely,

Your friends at VMK

What a generic response, I say we keep up what we are doing, and maybe, just maybe they will reconsider. They extended the year of a millions dreams again, why not VMK!!!

 

[JimbobJimbo]

I was looking back at some old yavn speaks and I found some pretty interesting quotes. (not sure if this has been posted anywhere else or not. there are so many threads to read through )

-When VMK Central at DLR closed:

5/21/07
I'm sure you have questions, that's why I've prepared this handy Q&A:

Why is this happening?

VMK was launched for the 50th Anniversary of Disneyland. The game has been enormously successful but the in-Park Quest and Rewards were only meant to be temporary – we've gone well beyond the original time we planned to run the Quest and Rewards in-Park at Disneyland.

Notice that he says VMK was launced for the 50th Anniversary, and that the in-Park stuff was only temporary. No where does it say the game itself is only temporary.

Does this mean VMK is going to end?

No. The game continues going strong – and we've got some exciting additions coming in the next few months – so stay tuned! Plus, you can still go Questing in-Park at Walt Disney World.

-About VMK's 2nd Birthday

7/20/07
And One to Grow on...

I know a lot of you have asked why we don't make a bigger deal about our birthday and that's simple: we're always looking forward and focusing on what's on the way, for instance, for VMK's 3rd year we have some huge things in store.

Huge things in store? Like closing the game??

-When VMK Central at WDW closed:

8/06/07
Your Attention Please…

First up, I have an important announcement I need to get out of the way… there's really no easy way to say this, so here goes – on September 30th we're closing VMK Central at Walt Disney World. Now hold on, before you get upset and start sending hate mail, let me explain why this is happening…

As time has gone by, we've changed the way Quest, rewards and other parts of VMK work. The game, very much like our theme parks, is always changing. We've always tried to experiment with unique ways of doing things, like in-Park Questing, and we'll continue to do that (for example, we'll still be doing cool stuff in the Parks, like the merchandise cards and the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage Quest) - but those things won't revolve just around VMK Central.

Just because VMK Central is closing doesn't mean the game is going away.

VMK is going stronger than ever and we've got some very cool announcements (including one I'm making today) about how VMK will get even better. Yes, I know you'll miss Questing in the real Magic Kingdom, but like I said, this is part of a much larger plan for cooler VMK stuff.

I think that closing the game was a sudden move, and not something that has been planned for a while. It doesn't seem to me that the ppl at VMK intended for the game to end anytime soon. Just look at the stuff they had planned, that has been mentioned in the posts above. Sure they've talked about some of it for a while, but I feel it was all eventually going to show up in the game. Like has been said this was a decision made by the higher ups at Disney not by anyone at VMK. And now all we get from yavn and Disney is nothing but spin control.

 

[BriarRosie]

While I'm just as upset as everyone else here, the tiny pragmatist in the back of my mind is thinking:

Disney is a company that has to answer to its shareholders. Period.

The tricky part is that the company also wants to balance that with the ideals and emotions brought by the company's founders.

VMK probably is losing Disney some revenue, so they probably do have to shut it down, along with anything else that doesn't generate enough sustainable revenue. That's just good business.

The bad side effect is that by doing so, it generates bad PR in the hearts of thousands of people. And I know that NOBODY at Disney, at the Internet Group or otherwise, feels good about THAT.

I signed the online petition, but I am not a letter writer. I won't be pouring my heart out as to why I want VMK to stay open (as a pay to play or otherwise). I'll leave that to those of you who wish to do so, and I wish you all luck.

I did write a journal on another site, but that was mostly just to express my own sadness at this tough time.

 

[team disney]

I was looking back at some old yavn speaks and I found some pretty interesting quotes. (not sure if this has been posted anywhere else or not. there are so many threads to read through )

-When VMK Central at DLR closed:


Notice that he says VMK was launced for the 50th Anniversary, and that the in-Park stuff was only temporary. No where does it say the game itself is only temporary.



-About VMK's 2nd Birthday


Huge things in store? Like closing the game??

-When VMK Central at WDW closed:



I think that closing the game was a sudden move, and not something that has been planned for a while. It doesn't seem to me that the ppl at VMK intended for the game to end anytime soon. Just look at the stuff they had planned, that has been mentioned in the posts above. Sure they've talked about some of it for a while, but I feel it was all eventually going to show up in the game. Like has been said this was a decision made by the higher ups at Disney not by anyone at VMK. And now all we get from yavn and Disney is nothing but spin control.

JimbobJimbo- Excellent work. I think we should make copies of the old yavn speaks (like those posted here) and mail them to disney along with our avatar's.

StephenTXT99- Your translation of Yavn's message had me Right on point!

Max-power- Hey! Thanks for looking on the upside... lol 3 posts in one weeK

I agree with the fact that we are making an impact. Keep up the good work people!

 

[cteddiesgirl]

What has happened to Disney now is that it is a business. The big heart is gone. Decisions are not made on people being happy. In a business today,it is the all mighty dollar.
Now more than ever we need a place where a family can have fun together. My family has three generations playing VMK. What a nice way to keep in touch with your family and friends. I think Walt would have loved it.

What happened? Walt died and the business went on into hands of businessmen rather than the family.

 

[disvaclub92]

As we know from the beginning, the platform that VMK was on had its issues. Still to this day, has it issues. I am guessing they did not plan for the volumes that actually play in addition to the mules that were added. Therefore, causing a strain to the system. We know that Flying Carpet was developed a long time ago, but probably not released do to system concerns.

It shows that the original intention was more of a promotional idea, get people to travel.

And Briar, I disagree with the fact that VMK was losing Disney some revenue. I honestly feel that the accounting for the money made as a result of VMK may not have been appropriately designated as a result of VMK.

There were many marketing opportunities could have been there to point to revenue that was generated from VMK. I remember one of the early VMK contests people were awarded VMK Tshirts. Then Disney actually created VMK Tshirts you could buy, unfortunately not posted on VMK anymore and kind of outdated but still cute shirts. Wonder if they monitor the profits from that? I am sure right now it may be stagnent, but back in 2006 a different story. Also, the Movies bought and then DMR reward points used to purchase virtual items. I am sure once inferno surfaced as an award, the point redemption and movie purchased skyrocketed. The Pirate pins, a portion of revenue proceeds can clearly be determined as a VMK generated. I know I was waiting for the evolution of the Mansion set to be created into a pin. Pin traders, vmk players or not, love pins. We also see on Ebay, the Pirate Pins that TikiT created. Only sold to Cast Members it seems, but profits could have been made from his awesome creations. So many opportunities, maybe they just did not realize what it could evolve to be. Maybe seriously it is more that the platform is not suitable for this game. That is why, VMK has to close.

What saddens me is that this virtual kingdom, my daily trip to a Disney Park, cannot be replaced by another game. What brought us here is our love of Disney and it made it more about the friends we created who share that same love. All different individuals who have created such a great community, I hope they witness that from our petitions and letters. Then attempt to make a newer stronger version of VMK for us. I know a girl can only dream. I think of Walt's Quote "If you can dream, you can do it." The dream of this was a promotional idea, never realizing what all they could and can do with it.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

As we know from the beginning, the platform that VMK was on had its issues. Still to this day, has it issues. I am guessing they did not plan for the volumes that actually play in addition to the mules that were added. Therefore, causing a strain to the system. We know that Flying Carpet was developed a long time ago, but probably not released do to system concerns.

It shows that the original intention was more of a promotional idea, get people to travel.

And Briar, I disagree with the fact that VMK was losing Disney some revenue. I honestly feel that the accounting for the money made as a result of VMK may not have been appropriately designated as a result of VMK.

There were many marketing opportunities could have been there to point to revenue that was generated from VMK. I remember one of the early VMK contests people were awarded VMK Tshirts. Then Disney actually created VMK Tshirts you could buy, unfortunately not posted on VMK anymore and kind of outdated but still cute shirts. Wonder if they monitor the profits from that? I am sure right now it may be stagnent, but back in 2006 a different story. Also, the Movies bought and then DMR reward points used to purchase virtual items. I am sure once inferno surfaced as an award, the point redemption and movie purchased skyrocketed. The Pirate pins, a portion of revenue proceeds can clearly be determined as a VMK generated. I know I was waiting for the evolution of the Mansion set to be created into a pin. Pin traders, vmk players or not, love pins. We also see on Ebay, the Pirate Pins that TikiT created. Only sold to Cast Members it seems, but profits could have been made from his awesome creations. So many opportunities, maybe they just did not realize what it could evolve to be. Maybe seriously it is more that the platform is not suitable for this game. That is why, VMK has to close.

What saddens me is that this virtual kingdom, my daily trip to a Disney Park, cannot be replaced by another game. What brought us here is our love of Disney and it made it more about the friends we created who share that same love. All different individuals who have created such a great community, I hope they witness that from our petitions and letters. Then attempt to make a newer stronger version of VMK for us. I know a girl can only dream. I think of Walt's Quote "If you can dream, you can do it." The dream of this was a promotional idea, never realizing what all they could and can do with it.

ITA.
There was and is so much that can be done in the way of cross promoting that was never really done. And I've always believed that most of the profits made as a direct result of VMK was never attributed to it.

I partly blame the marketing department for some of the failures of VMK as a promotional tool.
If the marketing and internet departments would work together, then the promotional end of VMK could be just awesome. And the profits that it generates for other parts of Disney could keep VMK free. Meaning that more and more people could join and play to see those promotions.
Also, I think some of the decline in players was due mostly to the substandard customer service. It is not up to Disney standards.

If the problem is ultimately the game engine and Sulake, I truly hope that they can do whatever they can to get this back out soon but recreated on their own products. If Disney could assure us that this would happen, then I wouldn't be fighting so hard to keep VMK alive.

 

[mtblujeans]

Actually it's amen sister for me, but ya know...

 

[cyre]

Something that keeps creeping into my mind is Neopets. That site was created by two bored college students. Fast forward 10 years and look what it's become! What happened? They chose to go commercial. They started selling plushies, toys, school accessories, TRADING CARDS (with item codes), and made the site HUGELY successful.

The difference. Neopets chose to be successful. Someone realized it would be and ran with it. Now those founders are crazy rich!

This story is proof if given a chance, anything can be successful! Disney just failed to see that in VMK. Which is a shame.

 

[qruthie]

here is my translation of the new yavn speaks:...

I'm quite surprised whoever writes the yavn news didn't blame this all on the Yeti like he or she usually does. Maybe that's the next update.

 

[Scodaddy]

I completely agree with 'all of the above' -

In large corporations it's not unusual for one department or business unit to 'pay' for the services of another - it may be 'funny money' that never really changes hands, but in most businesses, you have to justify your existence. So (for example) the copy center had to show how much they save the company in estimated money 'what do we change the company internally vs. the cost at Kinkos?' and productivity (again, it's a guess) 'how much time did it save running down the hall instead of a 45 minute trip to bind the presentation?'

For a lot of these kind of things, the best answer you ever get is a wild guess.

So for VMK, does ToonTown pay funny-money to VMK for ad space on the home page?

I don't know, but they must believe there is a benefit to placing it there. Same for Pirates.

Marketing could do a lot more to justify the existence of VMK. Tens of thousands of us see the home page each week, and the themed months take the advertising a step further.
Did anyone NOT see the POTC movies when pirate month came up?

The reality that they seem to be missing, is that we all have different reasons for loving VMK.
Those reasons will not translate to Pirates or Cars or Fairies on-line. I'm sure my kids may have fun on those sights from time to time, but they will never replace VMK, and to the marketing folks, they will never build the same branding and mind share with my family that VMK does.

My kids will not tell me they miss Disneyland (and they do, several times a month) because of Pirates or ToonTown. I guess that could save me a ton of cash, having purchased five sets of annual passes for a growing family (head count is up to seven) in the last eight years.

My sons will not play Fairies. My girls are not likely to race their brothers on Cars on-line or help re-take the Pearl on pirates. Mom and I will not have time to help them on several different services.

VMK has been a place where my entire family plays together (we take turns on 4 PCs, connected to DSL through a wireless hub). That won't happen on the new offerings. The new offerings would take us on 'new paths' that reduce the amount of time we spend doing things as a family.
Because of that, I cannot see myself ever paying for an account on any of them.

If the Disney on-line folks are planning on a strategy of having us 'move on' to the new offerings, they need to do more thinking.

Closing VMK will be remembered by my kids as one of the biggest disappointments of their youth, and it will be at the hands of Disney. If we have to find new things to do as a family, the 'moving on' will be to playing board games or going on bike rides, and vacations will lean toward the beach and Six Flags theme parks, because Disney will have lost its Magic.

I guess I need to write to them to make sure they know this.

 

[KrazyPete]

I'm quite surprised whoever writes the yavn news didn't blame this all on the Yeti like he or she usually does. Maybe that's the next update.

Now THAT is funny!

 

[qruthie]

Something that keeps creeping into my mind is Neopets. That site was created by two bored college students. Fast forward 10 years and look what it's become! What happened? They chose to go commercial. They started selling plushies, toys, school accessories, TRADING CARDS (with item codes), and made the site HUGELY successful.

The difference. Neopets chose to be successful. Someone realized it would be and ran with it. Now those founders are crazy rich!

This story is proof if given a chance, anything can be successful! Disney just failed to see that in VMK. Which is a shame.

Speaking of Neopets, a FREE game paid for by advertisements with a pay to play option... I have a premium account there meaning I pay to play just so I don't have to have the sponsor links at the bottom of each page. I got tired of accidentally clicking on links to send flowers to my friends in India. But that's not my real point.

The really sick, probably ironic thing is Disney is a Neopets sponsor. If you go to the Neopets games section, they have a Sponsor Games category. I "watch" the ads in the Adver-Video game for the easy points. I can't tell you how many times I've seen ads for Fairies, the new POTC game and some other thing having to do with characters like Stitch and Simba on some hand held gaming thing. Obviously I don't watch the ads very carefully. There also is a "Which character are you most like?" quiz game for the Prince Caspian movie that is another source of easy points. That's Disney too, right?

It's kind of sick that Disney pays to keep Neopets a free game, yet can't be bothered to continue to support VMK.

Perhaps someone who is more eloquent than I am could point this out to Disney.

 

[TLinden16]

I have kept quiet in these discussions because I know that most of people here don’t share the same point of view as me on this. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sad that VMK is closing, and I’m going to miss it as much as anyone else. It has become a huge part of my every day life, just like it has for everyone else here on this forum.

For those of you who are fighting for VMK, I do think that’s admirable, and great that you are doing that. Anytime you are fighting for something that matters to you, that has meaning. I respect all of you for what you are doing. Change is never easy, and it’s usually not popular. Losing something that has been a part of your every day life is not easy. The first thing I said to Disvaclub when I saw the news that VMK was closing was, “What am I going to do with all my free time now?”


That being said, I have chosen not to participate in the efforts to keep VMK open. We all have different things going on in our lives, and we all have different things that we think are worth fighting for. While VMK closing is sad, in my life, it’s not important enough to spend time and energy fighting for. I can look at the big picture and understand why Disney has chosen to close VMK.

Disney is a corporation that has been very successful at what it does for a very long time. Disney knows it’s audience. They know what works, and what doesn’t work. They know what is profitable, and what isn’t. They know when something is a viable asset and when it’s time to cut ties and let something lose.

Disney has proven that they can successfully run pay to play games. Look at Toontown and Club Penguin. I honestly think that if Disney thought VMK would be a viable money maker for them as a pay to play game, then they would have done that. But in reality, the number of people who play VMK on a day to day basis is small compared to the numbers that play the other games. We are enthusiastic about our community, and we love it, and we may seem like we have huge numbers, but in the big picture we are a small community. The number of players who play VMK is miniscule when you think about how many people visit the parks, or go to a Disney movie, or buy a Disney DVD.

I have to respectfully disagree with my bff (Hi Dis) that Disney wasn’t losing money on VMK. While it would be difficult to know for certain if a guest is visiting the parks because of VMK, I’m sure that they can tell how much revenue they generate in pin movie sales. Disney knows exactly how many VMK pins were created. Even the movie rewards are a bit more tricky. While some of us say that we bought movies to put the codes in and get virtual stuff, it would be impossible for Disney to know whether or not those movies were purchased because of the rewards, or because people really wanted the movies. I personally did not buy any movies just to get more movie reward codes--any movie I purchased was one that I truly wanted to know. My point is that Disney can tell how much of these items they are selling, and even if every player bought all of the pins, and enough movies to get a couple of items, I still don’t think it would generate enough income to justify the cost of keeping VMK running. Even those t-shirts you mentioned (I forgot about those). Disney knows exactly how many of them were sold, and maybe there just wasn’t enough interest them for Disney to spend time and money to promote them.

And Disney knows a lot about their park guests. Sometimes I think Disney knows more about me than I know about myself. When they were running the in park quests, they scanned our park tickets when we were getting our items. They know exactly how many people got those cards, and how many people were repeat visitors.

As Briar said, Disney does have to answer to their shareholders. I am a Disney share holder--I own over 120 shares of Disney stock (a lot to me, but small to Disney). Disney has a responsibility to their shareholders to be fiscally sound. Major shareholders in any corporation would question any expenditure by a company that costs money that has no visible return. While many of us may have taken trips, bought pins, or bought movies to get VMK rewards, I do not think that those profits could be more than the cost it takes to run VMK.

I myself have taken 9 trips to Disney World, and 2 trips to Disneyland since VMK open. I can’t say that I took any of those trips were taken because of VMK. I would have taken each of those trips anyways. The VMK stuff was just a bonus for me. I did buy some candy to get reward cards. I have bought no more than $200 worth of VMK pins. I bought some ears and got the cards (although I would have gotten those anyways, as they were gifts for children). At most VMK has gotten me to spend a few hundred dollars over three years.

VMK has had several million characters created over the years, yet as Lily said there are about a quarter million active characters left. Because so many people have multiple characters, I would have to get that the actual number of regular players is somewhere between 25000 and 50000. There were VMK centrals in the parks for 2 years. So many characters were created, but why are there so few still in use? Those are the kinds of numbers that Disney looked at to come to the decisions.

So that, in part, is why I haven't made any efforts to try to keep VMK open. I can understand why it is time for VMK to close.

I could go on but I feel like I have rambled on long enough. Thanks for listening if you made it this far. Maybe Jellyrolls will be eating her bird hat in five weeks if the efforts of this group is successful.

 

[aengus]

Disney is a corporation that has been very successful at what it does for a very long time. Disney knows it’s audience. They know what works, and what doesn’t work.

* cough * figment * cough *

 

[redshoe]

* cough * figment * cough *

*coughtikiroomundernewmanagementdie,iago,diecoughcough*

 

[Max_Power]

* cough * Captain EO * cough *