Newsletter 4/7 Bye Bye VMK

[mickeytinkerbellprincess]

Well a bunch of us signed up for the free version of Club Penguin last night. And we love it. We can talk, we can dance, we can emote, we can play games. We even got Genie in there dancing.

Don't forget throwing snowballs at each other! Muahaha True, it's not an exact replacement for VMK, but we can still hang out together, and hopefully Club Penguin won't close down anytime soon; it's been there for a long time.

[WDWfanatic742]

When you don't find any of your friends and your not with friends on the game, it's not very fun. However after 30 days you can start doing the missions which look to be like mini-quests. I signed up for a month but unless everyone switches from VMK over to Club Penguin, I don't think I will pay over a month subscription.

[jjramsey]

Club Penguin does not have a 'family plan.' At best, it would cost us around $240/year to play......even if we were inclined to go there!

[Patricia]

Ouch to 249 a year!

We have only ever had the free memberships at Club Penguin.

[Chescat]

I think we should all meet Doll at the Fort one night and that way we can throw snow balls at her. Genie was pretty good the other night throwing snowballs at everybody.

[Patricia]

ok.. the snowballs are fun.

[Bugdozer]

Dear Mr. Iger,

I am writing to tell you about a magical place. A place where young and old can gather to play, learn and enjoy the Disney Magic. A place envisioned by an amazing man who dreamed of places where families could gather and have fun leaving behind the real world when they entered. A place that only the magic and creativity of Disney could build.

Where is this place you may ask? It sounds magical and fun. The first thought you may have of course is that it is Disneyland- but this is not the place I speak of. It is a form of Disneyland in a different technological age. The place I speak of is Virtual Magic Kingdom.

VMK started out as what Disney thought would be a promotion for the 50th anniversary of Disneyland. So they built this amazing virtual world to replicate Walt’s amazing Disneyland.

They threw open the gates and invited us in. We came slowly at first but once word spread we grew. VMK did not become an online park where we entered for a while then left. It became a community built by its players. A community of young and old, sick and well, and people of all races from near to far off distant countries. Here we found a place that evoked the Disney spirit in all of us. We played, danced, built rooms and formed friendships in the spirit of the man himself Walt Disney.

VMK was growing and becoming more popular so that when the promotion ended the gates were left open and our community flourished. There is no place like it on the Web where children and adults can play in a safe controlled atmosphere. I personally found a place where I and my 13 year old son could be together. We shared in this wonderful kingdom built only as Disney can do-amazing graphics, fun games, a sense of being part of the parks and much pixie dust.

They created our characters to look lifelike, like little people. We named them, dressed them, and formed their personalities. They became part of us. We look forward and enjoy seeing our little people everyday.

Suddenly on April 7th we were hit with an unbelievable devastating blow. On May 21, 2008 our kingdom, our community will cease to exist. The shock that took over was beyond belief. I felt numb, weak, and sick to my stomach, like I had been hit by a bat. How can this happen? How can a company as compassionate as Disney allow the doors of our Kingdom to close?

The news crushed my 15 year old son (slinkyman). VMK has become part of his life, part of his daily routine. A day is not complete without seeing his little person who he created to look like himself. After a few moments the shock and reality sank in and the tears started to flow. WE hugged and just cried asking how, why, how can they?

You see VMK is not just a mere game to us. Six months after slinkyman started playing VMK he was diagnosed with cancer. A shocking blow to any family made worst it being a child. I found my strength to get him through this, and then an amazing thing happened. Thanks to the spirit of Disney he took refuge in his Kingdom. In VMK he was not sick. He was a normal kid that still had hair and he had many friends. He had a support team in this community that was not available elsewhere. Cancer scares many people and our family pulled back-offering no support or visits. Here in VMK slinkyman and I have a community of amazing friends. They talked, listened, comforted us, prayed for us and sent mountains of pixie dust our way.

Through out his treatment whenever we were at the hospital slinkyman would take along the laptop with him. During these painful and scary days of treatment he would play VMK as the poisons to kill the cancer were pumped into his body. Doctors and nurses would ask him what he was playing and he would passionately tell them of a place only envisioned in dreams. VMK became an instrumental tool in his recovery. We have made life long friends and have wonderful support thanks to the magic of Disney. So to us it is so much more then a mere game. It is in our soul.
I had a friend tell me the other day the VMK is in slinkyman’s DNA- they could not be more right. I was able to save my son from cancer but I fear I will not be able to save little “slinkyman” from the darkness that is about to be bestowed upon us.

Please I beg you to reconsider this decision. Please hear the cries of young and old and let our little people live. I can not imagine a day without seeing the face of my little person. I like may others are then willing to pay to keep this community of ours alive. Please consider this option. Please show compassion and Disney spirit and show the children you care. After all in VMK the minds of our young a being filled with Disney and they will grow into adults that spend much money on anything and everything Disney.

In this Year of a Million Dreams I ask you to please dry a Million tears and let our dreams come true.

Sincerely,

Bugdozer

[jjramsey]

...touching...to say the least!
8..-)

Hope whoever reads it has a heart (at least not like the tinman in Wizard of Oz)!

[Patricia]

Wow.

I have never met Slinkyman.. but I know who he is, I knew he had cancer and I held on to hope that he would recover.

Because of VMK, he was a part of my day.

[Chescat]

Thank you Bugdozer. I've followed your stories of VMK and your park travels for a long time (which included your trip last year). We are glad to have your letter here to Mr. Iger. I would suggest (if you haven't already) send your story into the media to show this isn't just a video game. But something that has helped all sort of people from terminal ill, sick, handicapped, and just regular people.

The sad part is when Yavn and his team left last summer, the replacement people (not VMK staff or Hosts) had no understanding of what type of place we have and never adapted to us. They just feel, ah this is too much work, lets just close it. We will never know what the real reason for closing the game like this is.

We are going to continue to fight for VMK whether it be letters, media attention or protests at the park. We will keep fighting.

[mickeytinkerbellprincess]

I think we should all meet Doll at the Fort one night and that way we can throw snow balls at her. Genie was pretty good the other night throwing snowballs at everybody.

Oh, of course, first thing you think about when someone says snowballs is Doll. :P All I have to say is Genie you are going DOWN!

[IamBelle]

My Sister Banned My Computer, I Hope They Will Allow Banned Ppl On For 1 Last Time!! I Really Have Missed It!!!

[JPL]

Just a thought Is this cause for a class action suit since VMK promoted trips to the parks and purchasing of items to get rewards?

[Patricia]

I don't know.. but I do have several unused card codes from the parks.

[jjramsey]

Just a thought Is this cause for a class action suit since VMK promoted trips to the parks and purchasing of items to get rewards?

It probably does, but even though I agree, I would have a hard time joining. As much as we do not like it, any company has a right to do whatever they want with their programs. There are probably clauses in the agreements we signed way back when we first joined VMK.

...besides as hard headed as they are being over this, maybe there is some compelling reason to shut down that they are not in the mood to share? What is to say, they were threatened with a major suit if they did not shut down...and don't want to spread the word...or idea to anybody else? (just playing advocate) ...slap myself...slap myself... wow, glad I came out of that role...would hate to get stuck there

[Brenda Archer]

Sorry to butt in as a newbie but I heard about the closure and saw Bugdozer's post and was saddened. I saw the post at Raph Koster's blog about the closure.

I'm in a different virtual world, for adults and teens only, but we also have a lot of people who have developed a virtual family and I can really relate myself. I became really isolated after getting cancer, my family also couldn't cope, and I lost them. In the virtual space I developed ties with friends that I could never bear to lose.

Is there *any* way Disney could migrate the userlist to another world or at least to a board or MUD so these kids could stay in touch with each other. Even being reduced to IM is going to be far better than simply losing each other, and throwing up a pure text-based solution is low overhead. I don’t have the resources to do this, but if anyone does, might Disney consider it?

Another option might be to allow parents to stand in for the kids and contact other parents. This gets you around the child safety issue. Parents could network on behalf of their kids by exchanging emails and could set themselves up as a parents’ community, say for example in Second Life. At least this way the kids could stay in touch with each other through a secure channel - the parents.

I certainly hope Disney will consider these or other suggestions to allow the community to persist even if the world is shut down.

I can be reached at brenda_archer_1 at yah oo com or in Second Life as Brenda Archer (IM may be capped, if I don’t reply, try again).

[Patricia]

There is a lot of buzz out there about Disney's responsibility to VMK players. I'm hearing many people suggesting Disney should have a place to move all the members (boards or MUD.) Sadly, they are dealing with kids and once it moves outside of VMK's well moderated, dictionary protected environment there is no protection in place for these kids.

I think leaving it to parents to moderate their children would be too risky for Disney to even consider leaving their name attached. As with all things INTERNET related, there is no sure way to know who is at the other end of an email address. As a parent, it would be irresponsible of me to set my child up to email freely with other game players I don't know, even if it's from a Disney site.

[WDWfanatic742]

We will be offering our Guests an opportunity to explore Disney’s other online virtual worlds, such as Pirates of the Caribbean Online and Toontown Online. If you are a VMK member in good standing you will receive information about this offer via email.

Part of the response being e-mailed from VMK. Sounds like you should be able to get probably 10 days for free. Too bad I already paid for Pirates Online with a year. Whoppie-do...

[Brenda Archer]

There is a lot of buzz out there about Disney's responsibility to VMK players. I'm hearing many people suggesting Disney should have a place to move all the members (boards or MUD.) Sadly, they are dealing with kids and once it moves outside of VMK's well moderated, dictionary protected environment there is no protection in place for these kids.

I think leaving it to parents to moderate their children would be too risky for Disney to even consider leaving their name attached. As with all things INTERNET related, there is no sure way to know who is at the other end of an email address. As a parent, it would be irresponsible of me to set my child up to email freely with other game players I don't know, even if it's from a Disney site.

I agree with the safety part. I was thinking more in terms of a note passing situation where the parent reviews everything before handing it to the child. Or, a setup where the parent and child were logged in at the same time and place.