yavn.... Makes me want to yell....

[WDWizard]

I agree with Patti. I assume that they stopped doing quests at DLR because over at DLR you have more of a local crowd that visit the parks frequently but at WDW you have more of a tourist crowd that visit less frequently. Since DLR locals visit the parks frequently, they do more quests and get more of the cards, prizes, ect.- giving DLR locals an advantage over the average VMK player or the average WDW tourist. Another reason could be that DLR locals do the quests so much that they memorize the answers and dont do the quests for the fun of it, while at WDW, if you dont use cheat sheets like me , you actually have to find the answers.

I know a lot of you DLR locals will be disappointed, and so will I because I was looking forward to doing a few DLR quests this summer
So is everything VMK leaving Disneyland for good?

[jjramsey]

We have never been to DLR, but I can definitely say:

OUCH!!!!!


...on this one.

[LittleDragonErin]

I say we pull a Slinkyman and make flats of everybody who can't go and then march them around the kiosk in protest! Hee hee!!!

[Chescat]

I've seen arguments going back and forth about this. People say hey the DLR people get more stuff than the WDW.

Okay think about it. How many people really go to WDW more than once or twice a year. Not that many locals that I have seen at least on here. Yes us DLR people go more often. We had to wait every 90 days. But think about it, how many of you have gotten stuff from DLR people since you couldn't go to WDW. So think about it this way, all the stuff that the DLR people got it now gone. So there will probably be 1/4 of the stuff out there that was once out there. Your trading will be ridiculous and probably forget about getting most things.

So with us DLR people not in the "economy" anymore. Who actually loses.

[Chescat]

Going back to the main subject of why?

I think Disney execs probably went through the park recently and tried to decide what cast members they can divert to the new Nemo ride and the new Pirates Lair. All of this is happening in a very short period of time. Pirates Lair opens this weekend supposedly, and Nemo they are predicting a soft opening the weekend before Jun 11th. It costs money for them to have people at the VMK booth. They change shifts a lot there and there are many in Innoventions. If these cast members can now be moved over to the Nemo lines for crowd control, that makes more sense for their bottom line.

DLR does not have to bring people into the park this summer with all this new stuff coming in. VMK is an advertising tool for the parks. DLR has always been the test market since we are close to Disney On-line and studios. It costs them money to print those cards and continally ship them from Florida to Anaheim. They may have looked at the numbers and said, hmm mostly passholders are turning in these quests, not ticketed people. Time to pull the plug Yavn.

The test market recently was the VMK Pirate Pins. They have done very well with sales on that. You can also order them online which actually makes it available to all users of VMK, not just the people that go to the parks. I see more VMK Mystery Pins and VMK Card Packs coming out. They will test it here first and see if these masses buy the product before they go online with the sales. If they do, then I bet the quests in WDW go away also. I hope they do give us something for buying Disney pins, I spent way too much.

I could even see them re-doing the cave a bit and having and area in there where you could purchase VMK stuff (pins, cards, etc). Then you go over and create your character. The vmk booth outside was trying to get foot traffic. I think they found it wasn't making much of a difference.

The only positive in something like this would be, people everywhere can purchase the stuff, not just the people near the parks.

[Patricia]

Sadly the items will be fewer but I don't think this is a VMK decision based on trading and making things rare. You can bet Yavn doesn't want to lose his job, nor is he making this decision. I seriously doubt we can blame him, if anything he's probably had his plug pulled.

This looks like management at DLR saying forget us paying for advertising that isn't making a bit of difference to our bottom line. Trust me they are paying attention to how much revenue they are getting from the passes going through VMK Central. If it's mostly players using "annual passes" they are not going to keep footing the bill. The whole idea of gamevertising is to bring in new people during a promotional event. If the numbers aren't there to support it, they aren't there.

[Patricia]

Looks like I was typing while cat was posting.. sorry if it gets repetitive.

[mickeytinkerbellprincess]

And what will happen if VMK does close down for good. We will lost alot of friends from this.

I agree Genie. Not only that. I spend how many hours on VMK? (My whole life) on it, and if it closes.. all those hours where I could be breathing fresh air instead of crossing my eyes all the time :P And this VMK board is the only one I post at. If there's no VMK, there's no board, and that practically means that I can't post here anymore

[cheshirecollector]

If there's no VMK, there's no board, and that practically means that I can't post here anymore

Doll, even if something were to happen to VMK and this particular section of Intercot, Intercot isn't going anywhere. You'll still have a home board for all things Disney. It's too early to worry about VMK, though. Didn't yavn mention something about another big build soon? That may still be coming, even though there isn't anything in the actual park.

[Chescat]

I agree with Venetia. These sections won't be going away. I also don't believe that VMK is going anywhere. Servers cost money as we have seen in our Intercot Server Drive. There are programmers, testers, and VMK staff/hosts to pay. Remember previous newslettter said some staff reorganizations. Marketing budgets probably are going in different directions at the parks.

Disney has a cash cow here if they can just figure out how to make a profit with it. I think they are going that direction. The change in the start of selling virtual stuff on eBay could be interesting also. Maybe it would have to do with selling the card sets/pin sets on eBay. We are buying DVDs to get Movie Rewards.

Doll & Genie, none of us are going anywhere. We are all family here, with or without VMK. Your stuck with us for a long time.

[Jedi.Princess]

The change in the start of selling virtual stuff on eBay could be interesting also. Maybe it would have to do with selling the card sets/pin sets on eBay.

I really don't know why so many people think that they're allowing virtual items to be sold on eBay. I watch the VMK listings on eBay every day, and everytime any virtual items are listed, they are promptly pulled within 24 hours, if not sooner. The only things that are sold on eBay are the actual cards and pins, and occasionally someone will try and sell the answers to quests. So I don't really think that's a valid point. Just my two cents' worth....

[Blackwater_Pirate]

So, based on what I just read, would it even be worth it to say

'Why dont we start a petetion, have everyone who is disturbingly depressed that the VMK booth at DLR is closing sign it, write "calmly" to VMK about the situationa t hand and give them the petition and ask if we can atleast have a little more time and have them not close it June 3, 2007 but June 28, 2007 instead?'


I dont know what else to say but, Curse It!

[Chescat]

I have written to them calmly actually. I'm sure its out of their hands and in the hands of Disney Parks. They won't delayed it since Find Nemo is going to overtake everything in Tomorrowland starting around June 9th. I would just like it to be fair all around where everybody has a change to get the things whether you live by a park or not.

[jjramsey]

If they are saving money by reassigning staff, then why not set up a couple of FASTPass machines that will give out VMK codes once per pass by day, week, month or three months, per pass, without requiring turning in a quest answer card or sheet.

Machines could be in a store or a special location in the park. What is to say they could even float around every day to a ne location to make it the 'quest' for a machine. Maybe a line could be printed on the daily/weekly schedule sheet that has a riddle/clue where to find the VMK codes.

The items received from the code could be random, fixed or change at a regular interval. They could save a tremendous amount of having cast members attend the cards...then they could be a little more generous with their virtual prizes

[varcity]

If they are saving money by reassigning staff, then why not set up a couple of FASTPass machines that will give out VMK codes once per pass by day, week, month or three months, per pass, without requiring turning in a quest answer card or sheet.

Machines could be in a store or a special location in the park. What is to say they could even float around every day to a ne location to make it the 'quest' for a machine. Maybe a line could be printed on the daily/weekly schedule sheet that has a riddle/clue where to find the VMK codes.

The items received from the code could be random, fixed or change at a regular interval. They could save a tremendous amount of having cast members attend the cards...then they could be a little more generous with their virtual prizes

I'll go for just about anything right now...

As I have taken 3 days off to study for finals yesterday, I have been able to relax myself and realize that nothing is as bad as it seems right now. I think the only reason why it feels so see-rappy right now is because no one was delivered any information. So upon reading ideas for selling pins for quest cards and other marketing tools, I decided that that is the best we can hope for right about now. It does hammer the point home when he made the announcement that if you buy some candy at pooh's corner or a magic gag at the magic shop you still get cards. VMK is just a better source of income that originally intended. IDK, hopefully we get a REALLY long newsletter monday explaining.

[GiltterDisneyGirl]

Wow am I glad I didn't win the disney dream job contest, I would have be ticketed off when i got to disneyland to find VMK central GONE. But at least I am a AP for WDW.

[Chescat]

It does hammer the point home when he made the announcement that if you buy some candy at pooh's corner or a magic gag at the magic shop you still get cards.

He didn't actually say the candy store. We haven't seen the card for buying the pins for the 50th or have we seen the 50th t-shirts anymore (since as he reminds us, the 50th is over).

And last two times I've gone back there to the pooh candy shop to get a certain person his gummi characters and red licorice wheels, they never had the cards!

Varcity sounds like we got a mission next week. Check out the candy shop after Splash. Its open again!

[TinkRocks]

...None of us are going anywhere. We are all family here, with or without VMK. Your stuck with us for a long time.

What have I got myself into??

[PinkJJ]

What have I got myself into??

Aww, Rocks, you know you love us and can't live without us.

[varcity]

Anyone reminded of Hotel California right about now? I want to sing...

I wasn't thinking splash would be open till after my trip! But I guess now it's summer months so it's time to open. Now I am overly excited, as stated in my other post as well. Gives us all the only reason to truely visit criter country. Hmm, seems kinda third world, doesn't it?