I've said it before: if you want to understand the future, go talk to some kids. Watch what they do. Watch their habits. Chances are these won't change much as they go through life. The emerging generation seems to me best described as the Online Generation. They hang out online in spaces that are virtual. There they form relationships that are very real.
Kids today are joining online social networks at increasingly early ages. At Club Penguin, acquired by Disney last year, they are joining at pre-school age. Disney Interactive hopes to attract kids, then with a series of other online virtual world-based communities continue to engage them. Their portfolio now includes Toontown and the highly engaging and interactive Pirates of the Caribbean, which mostly attracts boys. Soon Pixie Hollow will come out for teenage girls who can assume a fantastic little avatar.
Last year Disney bought Club Penguin, which has members as young as age 4. Under heavy security, Penguin members can meet and talk with other children. They can learn commerce by selling goods and services in exchange for virtual money. And as the kids grow older they can transition from one Virtual World designed for them to another, each providing the quality charm of Disney that is part of Disney's occasionally controversial trademark.
So what happens when this Online Generation grows up and enters the market and takes seats in the cubicles of your business? How will this Online Generation emerge? Will they be the same or different from their own parents in the market and as professionals?
I took those questions with me to Disney Internet Group in Burbank recently, where I interviewed a few members of the senior team including President Steve Wadsworth. In their vision, the next generation will be more social, more collaborative and perhaps more globally conscious.
All things considered, I tend to agree.
Disney's recent decision to close an MMO launched in 2005 as part of Disneyland's 50th Anniversary has led to a petition from users seeking to keep the virtual world open. According to WKMG in Orlando, Florida, more than 11,000 people have signed an online petition to stop the closure of Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom MMO. A statement on the site said that VMK will be shut down on May 21. " It exceeded our expectations in terms of performance to the point that we left it open much longer than originally anticipated. " Disney told the Orange County Register. " All good promotions must come to an end, so we have decided the time is right to close VMK. We plan to offer free online promotions that will continue to engage our parks and resorts guests in new and entertaining ways on the web. " VMK included representations of the five lands of Disneyland, with online games, avatars and rooms that could be customized, and moderated chats with other players. For a time, Disney ran a trivia game inside Disneyland park and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World that rewarded people with codes to unlock outfits and furniture online. " There is a reality of running an online community that at some point it grows beyond the owner's control and becomes their responsibility, " wrote John Frost of the Disney blog - although he admitted to never playing the game. Sulake, the developer of Habbo, is credited with developing VMK. Disney currently offers other online MMOs and community sites such as Pirates of the Caribbean Online, ToonTown Online, and Club Penguin.
Disney is on the market for selling VMK to Saluke, and Saluke taking advantage of the game; however, this is just a rumor. No positive scams nor reports have been made. Saluke created multiple other online MMOs and is said to have set back memory on VMK, causing it to crash. There are no blogs to create this as a true thing, but there are possibilities. Many rumors have been going around that VMK will be re-opening only to Saluke's advantage. Some say that Saluke is planning to revamp it into a Habbo Hotel clone; just with Disney's works of the characters. However, rumors that happen usually aren't true. Saluke has not reported anything to confirm and openings or closures of any games they have created; so nothing has been for sure.
Contact the media and let them know about Disney's intention to close out Virtual Magic Kingdom. We can't possibly create a comprehensive list of every single media outlet and newspaper, so be creative and even contact your local news networks, and newspapers. It doesn't matter how small, because some very small networks have been the ones to break news to the country or worldwide. Also try to reach out to the departments/teams that handle video games, entertainment, technology. This includes bloggers with large audiences. Send them a copy of our press release to make it even easier for you and them!
Contact: press@savevmktoday.comFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DISNEY POISED TO SHUT DOWN KIDS ONLINE GAMING COMMUNITY: VMK
Disney Fans & Parents Worldwide Weigh In: Disney is Abandoning Long-Term Gaming Community; Disney Parents Upset that Disney Plans to End Safe Online Game for Children
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. April 14, 2008 - Disney Fans and parents worldwide are upset that The Walt Disney Internet Group, a division of The Walt Disney Company has announced plans to close down Virtual Magic Kingdom (VMK), a safe online gaming community created for kids which launched in 2005. Several fan petitions have been created in response to Disney’s decision, hundreds are creating original YouTube content and thousands are rallying together to try and save VMK from closing next month.
"Disney has shunned families and children worldwide with this news," exclaimed Sandra Garcia, a Disney parent from New York City. This mother of two active VMK players goes on to reveal "it's a shame, a real shame that Disney is calling VMK nothing but a promotion. These are real children, they are not promotions but real human beings. My daughters are devastated. I am outraged with Disney over this."
Immediately after the announcement, several petitions sprung up, including one at the SaveVMKToday.com campaign web site. This particular petition has garnered over 7,500 signatures, of which 4,000 of them attained within 48 hours of the news and over 160,000 page views.
"Every VMK player is stunned by this sudden announcement," explains Josh Goldstein, a long-term VMK player. "We were even more shocked that VMK is being referred to as nothing more than a promotion," a strong sentiment that is felt among the entire VMK gaming community worldwide. "Where are we suppose to go? How do we keep in touch with our friends? There is nothing like VMK anywhere else!" exclaims Josh. The decision to close VMK effectively leaves behind over a quarter of a million players with no alternative online platform available.
ABOUT SAVE VMK TODAY CAMPAIGN: SaveVMKToday.com is a volunteer fan based campaign, created to provide Disney guests worldwide with an information portal regarding Virtual Magic Kingdom. The site offers a wealth of information and tools on contacting The Walt Disney Internet Group, including several petitions and resources, to help try and save this online gaming community from closing.
ABOUT VIRTUAL MAGIC KINGDOM: VMK is a unique online gaming destination developed by Disney Online and Sulake Corporation Oy, designed for kids between the ages of 8-14, however is open to all Disney fans worldwide. VMK launched in June 2005 to coincide with the marketing and promotional celebration of Disneyland's 50th Anniversary. Just seven months after launch, Disney announced the game surpassed one million players and over 1.3 million personalized in-game rooms.
# # #
If you would like further information about VMK or the campaign efforts, please contact Nicholas at press@savevmktoday.com.
You can download our press release:press_release.pdf (222kb)
Saluke nor Disney has said anything about VMK since the closure besides interviews. Getting over 10,000,000 calls and e-mails, not all concerns can be handled.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Save VMK!
Saving VMK: One signature at a time. There's so much to do in only so little time. Please go to your IP Address; and type in: http://www.savevmk.com/ . Click on Sign The Petition. You will be taken to a verifying page. Please read the steps before moving on to anything further. Sign your first name, last name, or VMK Name. You will also be asked for an email. It has to be valid. You cannot give a fake e-mail, because you have to check it and click on a code to take you to vertify your signature. Thank you for helping to Save VMK. Any signatures are appreciated. Please sign fairly. Any disruptions will cause a fine of 250,000 credits. We are trying to Save VMK one step at a time; we do not want to cause anything to ruin our help. Thanks.
VMK Member
VMK Member
VMK
Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom, also known simply as VMK, was a free massively multiplayer online game run by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online. It was a virtual representation of the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom theme parks, containing areas and minigames which were based on real park scenery and attractions. It was launched as part of the Happiest Celebration on Earth promotional campaign to commemorate fifty years of Disney theme parks.
The beta version opened publicly on May 23, 2005 with three virtual lands to explore: Main Street USA, Fantasyland, and Adventureland. This "beta" designation was removed on June 27. The Tomorrowland game area was made available on October 5, and Frontierland opened on December 12. The rest of Tomorrowland opened on April 4, 2006 with the final land to be added on January 8, 2007, which was New Orleans Square. The game closed on May 21, 2008.VMK initially launched as a part of the Disneyland 50th Celebration with no intentions of the type of longevity or popularity that it ended up having. The target audience of the game was for children between the ages of 8 and 14, although VMK was designed to be enjoyed by Guests of all ages. It is due to this that the game had to be patrolled by paid staff, watching out for inappropriate behaviour and language, keeping the virtual world safe. Because of this opening times had to be limited, it was open to the public daily between 7:00am-10:00pm PST (10:00am and 1:00am EST, 3:00pm-6:00am UTC). On May 21'st 2008 VMK was shut down permanently.
The VMK game engine used Adobe Shockwave, and was created by The Sulake Corporation, who also created the online multiplayer game Habbo Hotel. The two games developed by The Sulake Corporation bear a few similarities, although VMK was more limited.
Contents[hide]
1 Gameplay
2 Guest rooms and awards
3 Mini-games
4 Events
5 Quests
5.1 In-game
5.2 In-park
5.3 Hidden Mickeys
6 Character profiles
7 Items
7.1 Badges
7.2 Pins
7.3 Clothing
8 Credits
9 Trading
10 Safety
11 Closure
12 External links
//
[edit] Gameplay
The Virtual Magic Kingdom consists of "Disney Lands", each depicted in isometric projection, and each with a distinct theme.
No more than 15 characters can occupy a room at any one time. If a player tries to enter someone's guest room which already contains fifteen characters, he will be put into a queue to wait to enter. (A player could request a free "VMK pass" if there are more than five people in the queue; this allows him or her to walk around freely in other rooms until it is their turn to enter.) The public rooms all have multiple "instances", named after compass directions (such as the "North-East-East" instance), and each instance can have up to fifteen characters in it. When moving around the public rooms, a character will be randomly placed in an instance of a room unless the player checks the "Advanced Mode" box, in which they can select an instance for his or her character to enter. During October, all the rooms along Main Street are decorated for Halloween. In 2005, the decorations were left up until December; in 2006 and 2007, Christmas décor appeared immediately after Halloween.
Players whose characters meet in the same room at the same time can become "friends": one issues an invitation to the other, and if the other accepts, then each player will always be able to see if the other is online and in what game location, and will be able to jump instantly to the other character's location (unless blocked by a 'friends only' flag on the room or if the friend's character is within a game, or if it is a 'special entrance' room such as the exit from the Typhoon Lagoon to Waterpark Pool). Either player can remove someone from his friends list at any time
[edit] Guest rooms and awards
When a player first creates their character in the game, they are given one free "guest room", which they can name and decorate with items. If the player is creating their character in a park, then they are given another room (one of each available choice), as a bonus. Several other kinds of rooms are also available; a player can purchase/get them in the game.
The shops sell a wide variety of items, such as posters, couches, water fountains, and rugs, which can be used to decorate guest rooms. Some of these items are only sold for a limited time, and some can only be obtained as quest prizes. Pictures taken with the in-game camera can be hung on guest room walls, or put into a photo book for public view.
Players can also create games in their rooms (making sure to follow VMK guidelines of appropriateness), and award some of their own items to players. Among the most popular of these are, "Cute or Boot", best described as a beauty pageant/fashion contest, "Falling Chairs", a game where the owner of the room drops chairs while the players race to them, and the last one standing loses, and "Don't Hit the Floor!" in which a maximum of 6 contestants stand on boxes, a roulette displays a number, "Dress Like Me!", a game where you dress like the owner, "Wear that hat!", where you wear the same hat as the owner, and "Design a Room!", where the owner has a couple of rooms that are filled with items that you can move and the object is to design the best room.
Guest room owners have the ability to boot players from their room, if they are causing problems. This is done by opening the players' profile, and then selecting the red "boot" button. Players that are booted must wait a while before they can return to the room.
If a character is in his own room, then he can be found by the Guest Rooms "search" button (because it searches on the names of room owners as well as the names of rooms). Other than this, there is no way within the game to find out whether a particular other character not on a players friends list is online or the place they are located.
VMK Staff have also announced that along with the new New Orleans Square land, there is an exclusive room based on the VIP Exclusive Disney Club, located in the real New Orleans Square, "Club 33". This room is used for some staff events and for some guests who have earned the privilege. The only way someone can rent a Club 33 room, is if they win the best guest room award.
Every week VMK staff award a Best Guest Room Award, Best Game Room Award, and a Best Quest Award pin to the owner of a guest room chosen to be superlative in originality and creativity. Winners of Best Guest Room not only get the Best Guest Room Award, but they also get to "rent" Club 33 for a party, which a VMK host will help the winner organize. Recently, several players have earned the Best Guest Room, Best Game Room, or Best Quest award more than once; the VMK staff now awards the VIP pin to these outstanding players.
A player can set his/her guest rooms so that only people on his or her friends list may enter. On January 8, 2007, "tickets" were added; a room owner is now able to sell (for 10 credits), or trade tickets to allow entry to his rooms. The tickets appear as single-use pins.
As of April 3, 2007 players could set some of their items to be movable by their guests by clicking on an item, followed by clicking "Item Info", and checking "Let Guests Move this Item". At the same time as above, players could also clear their room of items completely, by hitting the "i" button on the tool bar, and then selecting "Clear Room".
As of March 2007, VMK Staff have begun "Room Makeovers", where VMK staff will randomly go into guest rooms, or ones submitted for one when the VMK player is online and in the room, and give their room a makeover if in need of one. Before and after pictures of the players' room are then posted each week on the VMK Newsletter. This concept is similar to Extreme Makeover Home Edition. If a player would like to have a room makeover, they are discouraged to make a room named anything along the lines of "I need a room makeover."
During the Month of April, VMK Staff Awarded a 'Best Pirate Room' award because April was 'Pirate Month.' The Prizes were Seagull Nest Hat, Crow Barstool and the seat that goes with it. A Flaming Ransacked Window and other items were also prizes.
Some rooms are available in the Virtual Magic Kingdom from the shop button, others are available from quests, and some are no longer available at all. Players are encouraged to get guest rooms when quests come out, because that could be the only time they will ever be available. For example, the Tron Guest Room was from a quest that is no longer available, so players who did not finish the quest by a certain date, never received the Tron Guest Room. There are also codes for certain guest rooms.
As of June 2007, "pay-to-play" guest/game rooms are not allowed because it is considered scamming, though games like "Pirates of the Caribbean" are still allowed to ask for the minimum 21 credits.
In January 2008, three new guest rooms were added to Main Street: Main Street Magic Shop in Central Plaza, Main Street Magic Shop Checkers (a new game at the Magic Shop), and the Penny Arcade on Main Street.
[edit] Mini-games
The following minigames are available to play throughout the lands in the Virtual Magic Kingdom:
Magic Checkers: As of January 2008 a new game was revealed to the VMK public. This game is basically the same thing as checkers and is only playable by two players at a time per room. This game like most other games in VMK offers a reward of credits and items. The amount of credits received by this game increases depending on the amounts won.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Two to four player on two teams, must be equal on both teams, either play a game of "Ship Battle" where one team must sink the other or a game of "Capture the Flag" where one team must bring the opposing team's flag to their base before the other team. Once the game is over, both teams get rewards in credits for their efforts. After every three wins on one level, a player receive a treasure chest magic key that will open a chest corresponding to the level of which the player won the key for. The prizes the player are awarded are from a list randomly chosen pirate related prizes that correspond to the level the key was awarded in.
Castle Fireworks Remixed: Fireworks are launched into the sky and the player must click on each one with the correct symbol to detonate it. Pins and credits are awarded based on a player's performance.
Jungle Cruise Photo Safari: The player pilots a safari boat and takes photos of animals while avoiding obstacles. 20 credits are awarded per game, not depending on score.
Street Party Music Game/Monorail Music Game: A player can sequence music loops into a song for characters to dance to. Credits are awarded for editing songs and for playing them.
The Haunted Mansion Game: The Purple team and the Green team, with up to four players each, compete to capture ghosts in the Haunted Mansion. Best two out of three wins.
The VMK Trading Card Game: The basic version of the VMK Trading Card Game TCG was released August 17, 2007. In this version, the player begins with a random deck of cards and play a computer opponent in a sort of Rock, Paper, Scissors type of game. Later versions including Power Play and an online versus mode were to be released later on in the year, along with customizable decks and winable rewards. But the idea was abandoned due to the closure of VMK.
There are also several places in Tomorrowland where credits can be earned. In Natilus Grotto and Shipwreck Graveyard, a player can collect shells that randomly pop up under water and receive one credit for every pearl they find. This game requires the Diving Suit magic pin, which can be obtained from an in-game quest. Another place to earn credits is the Autopia Space Race and the Mars race tracks. In this game, a player will drive over trophies to collect them, while also driving over gas cans to keep from running out of gas. For every trophy collected, each player will receive one credit. This game requires one of the four available Autopia car magic pins, which can be obtained from an in-game quest. It also requires an Autopia Driver's License.
The following minigames were available to play in the Tomorrowland Arcade until waterpark overlay:
Airlock Escape: A puzzle game with some similarity to ChuChu Rocket!; successful completion of all fifteen levels will award the player with Deep Sea Diving Boots, Deep Sea Diving Jacket, and Deep Sea Diving Trousers (Deep Sea Diving Helmet may be purchased in the Inner-Space store).
Blast in Space: An action game similar to Asteroids; the player pilots a spaceship to shoot rocks, and then receives awards for passing all sixteen levels.
Hyperspace Mountain: An action game where the player collects six "modules" throughout nine sectors. Obtaining all six modules wins rewards.
[edit] Events
The Virtual Magic Kingdom occasionally holds special events at which prizes are given out, this includes:
Parade and Scavenger Hunt (beta period): Players were told to gather on Main Street and "parade" along its length. Some parade "leaders" were awarded the Dancing Inferno Magic pin, now considered rare to other players. Then a few staff members "hid" themselves in some rooms in the game, and the first people to find each of them were awarded prizes.
Room Decorating Event: Players were told to decorate their rooms to be judged for prizes. For a Celebration theme, players commemorated Disneyland's 50th anniversary. For a Space theme, players offered an interpretation of what "space" meant to them. Prizes were also given for answering trivia questions.
Dreams Month (September 2007): Hosts would be randomly walking around the parks including guest room and handing out prizes. Some of these prizes included the Dreams room, which looks like Sleeping Beauty's castle, dream ears, dream pin, and many other items. Hosts would randomly walk around and players waiting in one room all day had difficulty finding, therefore, players were encouraged to play vmk as they would normally to possibly win a prize.
Haunted Maze Event (October 2005): An easy maze, a medium maze, and a difficult maze were available for players to find their way through. Successfully completing the maze would award a prize. However, the event was plagued by server problems, resulting in queues of half an hour or more to get into the mazes, and some players were not able to enter the mazes at all or were bumped offline in the middle of them.
Gift-Giving Event (December 2005): A player could spend 500 credits to purchase a mystery gift which was given (in the game) to someone of his or her choosing on December 24. The gift turned out to be a green holiday wreath.
Yeti Quest (February 2006): Players could visit designated rooms to find photos; by stringing together the first letter of each pictured item, a player could spell the location where the Yeti was hiding, and submit his answer for prizes. The answer was "Injun Joe's Cave", and everyone who sent in a correct answer won a snow carpet.
Ride-A-Thons: VMK staff occasionally host "Ride-A-Thons", in which they prepare rides for players to enjoy. When a player reaches the end of a ride, he is given a ride piece with which to create his own ride. Several rides are usually running at the same time to handle capacity. The more a player rides the more of a single prize a player will receive, depending on the event.
Make-A-Room: VMK staff occasionally host "Make A Ride Rooms", which allow players to go into a certain teleporter and design a room. The player with the best design will get a prize, and soon many other players started the same game. Note: this happened on April 2007, when the players were now allowed to move furniture if the person goes to the "Item Info" button in the furniture toolbar and if he goes to item info, he must check the option that says let guests move this item.
Gingerbread Room Competition (December 2007): Players constructed a room using furniture items released during the month of December. The rooms were judged and the winners were handed out prizes that include a new shirt and hat that are different on boys than on girls.
Captain Blackheart's Treasure Hunt Quest (March 29 - April 1, 2008): The biggest VMK quest ever. The quest consisted of 67 different tasks, and required the player to navigate VMK, answer Disney Pirate's of the Caribbean-related questions, and play games. The prize awarded was 75,000 credits and some items that are not yet obtainable. Their was also a smaller version of the quest, called Captain Blackheart's Mini Treasure Hunt Quest. The smaller quest awarded 1000 credits. Captain Blackheart, as he is called, also hosted a small quest, but still quite large with the prize of 56,000 credits and many valuable items.
[edit] Quests
[edit] In-game
In-game quests involve a series of tasks for a player, such as finding a specific room or an item in the room, changing one's outfit, saying a specific word, or winning a certain number of points in a minigame. There are two types of in-game quests. 'Q Button' quests, which players can start from anywhere in the game by pressing a button marked 'Q' on the game's taskbar, and kiosk quests, which are linked to a 'quest kiosk' item owned by a particular player or staff member. Successful completion of a quest will usually award a prize. Each character can only complete each quest once.
[edit] In-park
For the first two years of the game, there was an in-park quest program which permitted players to earn special in-game prizes at Disneyland and Walt Disney World resorts. These quests were mostly eliminated in mid-2007, with the exception of an activity sheet and quest which is handed out to guests waiting in line at the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage attraction at Disneyland. As of January 2008 the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage Quest is not being handed out any longer, making the In-Park Quest a thing of the past.
[edit] Hidden Mickeys
There are fifty Hidden Mickeys in the game, appearing as mouse-eared logos embossed onto scenery in rooms. Hunting for Hidden Mickeys can be a difficult task, as they are faint and rather difficult to see, and it can take time to earn enough credits to buy film. Almost every room has at least one, and some contain two.
Credits and pins are awarded after finding certain numbers of Hidden Mickeys (a Bronze Mickey pin for finding ten, a Silver Mortimer pin for finding thirty, and a Gold Oswald pin and 500 credits for finding all fifty). Completing this hunt used to award a printable PDF coupon with a code for the Gold Design set of items, which could be obtained by redeeming the coupon at Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom.
The locations of the Hidden Mickeys were changed on December 12, 2005. The new hunt is called "Hidden Mickey Quest Part II", and the new prize pins have "Part II" appended to their names.
[edit] Character profiles
A new player begins by registering an account at "http://www.vmk.com". The player then sets up a character (an avatar) and selects the character's gender and appearance (shirt, shoes, pants, hair, hat, face, and colors for skin and hair). The player will type in a name, but until the VMK staff approve the name they requested, their name will be Guest, followed by the number of player that they are (E.x. Guest7402548). If the name is not approved the VMK staff would let them create another name. The player also selects a "guest room", his or her own themed area which can be decorated with furniture, posters, a boat canal, train tracks, game items, or other material. One room is provided for free, and additional rooms can be purchased later with in-game credits. The player can enter a few lines of text, known as a "(signature)", which will be displayed in the character's publicly-visible profile. The character is then given a few tradeable items (mostly T-shirts), and is placed in the game.
A player can also choose from a list of randomly-selected adjective-adjective-noun names presented to him or her; if he chooses one of these names, it does not need to be approved.
VMK no longer accepts new players as of April 7, 2008.
[edit] Items
[edit] Badges
Badges are icons that appear at the top of a player's information window visible to other players. Badges cannot be traded.
Born In Park: given to a character created at Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom.
VIP: given via a prize card's code; the card is given after completing the in-park quests to become eligible for the special park tour. This badge is sometimes received by winning a mini-game or Host event. (Note that this is different from the VIP pin, which is given the second time a player wins a Best Guest Room or Best Game Room award.)
Here from Day 1: given to a character created during the "beta" stage (prior to June 27, 2005).
VMK Staff: paid employees who help safeguard players and/or host VMK games and events; see Staff above.
Testers: VMK staff that test out items, and seen around with their name "QA_". Testers also hold the VMK Staff badge.
Producers: These players hold the VMK Staff badge but they have no special prefix before their in game "title". For example, Yavn, one of the most common producers is not known as QA_Yavn nor VMK_Yavn.
Community Leader: volunteers who help with the game; their names begin with "CL_" (Discontinued on October 24, 2007). After it was discontinued, former community leaders did not have the badge or the CL_ at the beginning of their title.
[edit] Pins
A character can "wear" up to fifteen pins so that other players can see them in his or her profile. Some pins can be purchased from shops in the game; others can only be obtained by completing in-park or in-game quests, by winning host games, a player may also get them from a Non-Playable Character (NPC) such as Esmeralda which is one of the many Non-Playable Characters found in the game.
Usually a new pin is released on weekends of a certain month in the Emporium for a limited time. These pins usually cost 500 credits and are often a part of a set, for example, during October 2006 a set of Halloween themed pins came out, and a new pin was released every weekend. However, by Monday the pin will no longer be available making it high in value. The next weekend however, a new pin will be released and it starts all over again.
"Magic pins" can also be worn. When activated (from the magic wand icon at the bottom of the screen, or by typing the pin's magic word), they display a visual effect, such as the character driving a car or turning into a snowman. Each effect has a duration of only a few seconds and must be allowed to "recharge" for a minute or so before another use. If a player has two or more of the same kind of magic pin, they can be combined for a longer effect and shorter delay between uses. There are also single-use magic pins which will disappear after being used once (or after a specific "expiration date"). Some magic pins are very expensive and only available for a short period of time; for example, the "Turn Into Bat Magic Pin" (only available in October) was priced at 10,000 credits. As of January 2008, several "magic tricks" have been moved to be sold in the Main Street Magic Shop along with some clothing and furniture items.
Some pins are not tradeable and can only be obtained by quests or host events these pins include all single use magic pins and all Tomorrowland quest pins. Any award pin such as the best guest room award and the VIP pin are also not tradeable. A player can check if a pin is not tradeable or tradeable by clicking the pin on a players profile which not only reveals whether a certain pin is available for trade or not, but also reveals what effects (if any) the pin may have and the player who owns it.
The costume items can be mixed-and-matched. This character is wearing the Mission Space vest, pants, and shoes with the Native American headdress.
[edit] Clothing
When a player joins the kingdom, he or she receives a pack of clothing along with a room and some furniture. Players that sign up at a Disney park may receive extra rewards.
Occasionally, the VMK shops sell special clothing items (or entire costumes). Some of these are seasonal, and some can only be purchased during a specific weekend. These items are usually expensive; due to this and their limited availability, they soon become valuable items in trading.
Some clothing items are only available to one gender. For example, boys cannot have princess outfits (excluding the Princess Minnie hat), and girls cannot have the Wildcats outfit.
Full costumes have included spacesuits, princess outfits, Haunted Mansion dress clothes, an Expedition Everest hiking outfit, baseball uniforms, and football uniforms.
Costume items have included Mickey ears, and a variety of caps including baseball caps and a Sorcerer Mickey hat.
[edit] Credits
A player can earn credits by visiting the Disney Characters (see Disney Characters above), by playing the Castle Fireworks Remixed, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Haunted Mansion games, and by remixing and playing songs in the Street Party Music Game, or in the newer Monorail Mix Game.
Another popular way to amass credits is called "Nedding". It consists of playing the Shrunken Ned's Jungle Cruise game but trying to end the game as quickly as possible by crashing repeatedly and running out of fuel. Each time the game is played it awards 20 credits, so the credits that can be gotten from this game are limited only by the length of time someone wants to put into it.
There are also several places in Tomorrowland where credits can be earned. In Nautilus Grotto and Shipwreck Graveyard, players can collect shells that randomly pop up under water and receive one credit for every pearl they find. This game also requires the Diving Suit magic pin, which can be obtained from an in-game quest. Another place to earn credits, is the Autopia Space Race and the Mars race tracks. In this game, each player will drive over trophies and collect them for one credit a piece, while also driving over gas cans to keep from running out of it. This game requires one of the four available Autopia car magic pins, which can be obtained from an in-game quest and may also require an Autopia driver's license.
Accounts used specifically for getting credits and items, known in other games as multis, are called "mules". Since the game lets a player create new accounts freely, players create mules (named after the beast of burden) to enter multi-use codes and collect credits by visiting Disney Characters. Players can buy items with a mule's credits, and then trade these items from the mules to their main characters. Players who use mules are said to be "muling", and in the game mules are called "done keys" (donkeys) due to the limited vocabulary. On the VMK web site, Yavn has expressed his dislike of mules and his intention to ban accounts of people with an "unbelievable" number of accounts (such as fifty for a single household) which could be mistaken as being mules. Some players use mules to take control of easy tasks, as finishing a quest and getting a Magic Pin, then trading it via another computer, to get an advantage in the game. Unfortunately, players use other quests like the Pirate Quests, where players can win a Treasure Detector Magic Pin, in which players walk around a certain area, and win some type of prize. The rarest prize of this event is the Dancing Inferno Pin.
Purchased items can be "sold back" for 20% of their purchase price, but some items are not able to be sold. For example, a quest kiosk cannot be sold back or traded.
[edit] Trading
Players can trade various items. Each player can put a maximum of fifteen items into a trade.
Clothing items that are only available for boys or girls cannot be traded to the other gender. For example, a girl can not trade her princess outfit to a boy.
Some players try to take advantage of the trading window to scam other players. Most of the trading window scams no longer work since the trading window now has several confirmation notices. VMK has stated that if a person agrees to all of these notices, any issues a player may have with the trade are due to their own fault.
A player can report a scammer with the "Report" button in the game, or by using the "Contact Us" link on the web site.
[edit] Safety
The game's rules are posted on the VMK web site as "VMK Values" which are intended to help the game to become "a safe, non-threatening environment" because many players are between the ages of eight and fourteen. The rules prohibit sexual or racist language, harassment, divulging personal information, and attempts to hack the system. Violations can result in a permanent ban, which prevent users from using VMK in the computer the violation occurred in. Despite this, attempted violations are quite common, and people attempt to get around the edited speech by formulating single words out of multiple words (ie: saying "I'm Tree Ears Old"). Disney prohibits sharing personal information in the game (and its limited dictionary also adds a technical obstacle to this). Disney's stated intent is to protect the safety and privacy of its members, but this also prevents members from having a legitimate way of reaching each other outside the game. Members of some Disney internet discussion forums get around this by putting certain phrases in their public signatures, a short bit of text which is visible to any other player who clicks on the character, to indicate a discussion board through which they can be reached.
[edit] Closure
On April 7, 2008, it was announced that VMK would close on May 21, 2008, at 10:00pm PST.[citation needed] Immediately after the press release, changes were made to prevent the creation of any new accounts.
Thousands of players signed online petitions which were later brought to Disney's attention. The petitions were ultimately ignored by Disney which led some players to protest outside of the entrance to Disneyland.[1] The protest had no effect on Disney's decision, and much to the dismay of the estimated 9,000 players (9,000 accounts created. Not all remained active in the game) VMK was shut down. On its site, it now offers links to other Disney Virtual Games, such as Toontown, a Disney arcade, and an upcoming VMK-like game centered on the Fairies from Pixie Hollow, coming in late 2008. Later on, after more than two months, people believed VMK would re-open in October 2008, 2009 , or in 2010. VMK updated their site to say those rumors were lies.
The beta version opened publicly on May 23, 2005 with three virtual lands to explore: Main Street USA, Fantasyland, and Adventureland. This "beta" designation was removed on June 27. The Tomorrowland game area was made available on October 5, and Frontierland opened on December 12. The rest of Tomorrowland opened on April 4, 2006 with the final land to be added on January 8, 2007, which was New Orleans Square. The game closed on May 21, 2008.VMK initially launched as a part of the Disneyland 50th Celebration with no intentions of the type of longevity or popularity that it ended up having. The target audience of the game was for children between the ages of 8 and 14, although VMK was designed to be enjoyed by Guests of all ages. It is due to this that the game had to be patrolled by paid staff, watching out for inappropriate behaviour and language, keeping the virtual world safe. Because of this opening times had to be limited, it was open to the public daily between 7:00am-10:00pm PST (10:00am and 1:00am EST, 3:00pm-6:00am UTC). On May 21'st 2008 VMK was shut down permanently.
The VMK game engine used Adobe Shockwave, and was created by The Sulake Corporation, who also created the online multiplayer game Habbo Hotel. The two games developed by The Sulake Corporation bear a few similarities, although VMK was more limited.
Contents[hide]
1 Gameplay
2 Guest rooms and awards
3 Mini-games
4 Events
5 Quests
5.1 In-game
5.2 In-park
5.3 Hidden Mickeys
6 Character profiles
7 Items
7.1 Badges
7.2 Pins
7.3 Clothing
8 Credits
9 Trading
10 Safety
11 Closure
12 External links
//
[edit] Gameplay
The Virtual Magic Kingdom consists of "Disney Lands", each depicted in isometric projection, and each with a distinct theme.
No more than 15 characters can occupy a room at any one time. If a player tries to enter someone's guest room which already contains fifteen characters, he will be put into a queue to wait to enter. (A player could request a free "VMK pass" if there are more than five people in the queue; this allows him or her to walk around freely in other rooms until it is their turn to enter.) The public rooms all have multiple "instances", named after compass directions (such as the "North-East-East" instance), and each instance can have up to fifteen characters in it. When moving around the public rooms, a character will be randomly placed in an instance of a room unless the player checks the "Advanced Mode" box, in which they can select an instance for his or her character to enter. During October, all the rooms along Main Street are decorated for Halloween. In 2005, the decorations were left up until December; in 2006 and 2007, Christmas décor appeared immediately after Halloween.
Players whose characters meet in the same room at the same time can become "friends": one issues an invitation to the other, and if the other accepts, then each player will always be able to see if the other is online and in what game location, and will be able to jump instantly to the other character's location (unless blocked by a 'friends only' flag on the room or if the friend's character is within a game, or if it is a 'special entrance' room such as the exit from the Typhoon Lagoon to Waterpark Pool). Either player can remove someone from his friends list at any time
[edit] Guest rooms and awards
When a player first creates their character in the game, they are given one free "guest room", which they can name and decorate with items. If the player is creating their character in a park, then they are given another room (one of each available choice), as a bonus. Several other kinds of rooms are also available; a player can purchase/get them in the game.
The shops sell a wide variety of items, such as posters, couches, water fountains, and rugs, which can be used to decorate guest rooms. Some of these items are only sold for a limited time, and some can only be obtained as quest prizes. Pictures taken with the in-game camera can be hung on guest room walls, or put into a photo book for public view.
Players can also create games in their rooms (making sure to follow VMK guidelines of appropriateness), and award some of their own items to players. Among the most popular of these are, "Cute or Boot", best described as a beauty pageant/fashion contest, "Falling Chairs", a game where the owner of the room drops chairs while the players race to them, and the last one standing loses, and "Don't Hit the Floor!" in which a maximum of 6 contestants stand on boxes, a roulette displays a number, "Dress Like Me!", a game where you dress like the owner, "Wear that hat!", where you wear the same hat as the owner, and "Design a Room!", where the owner has a couple of rooms that are filled with items that you can move and the object is to design the best room.
Guest room owners have the ability to boot players from their room, if they are causing problems. This is done by opening the players' profile, and then selecting the red "boot" button. Players that are booted must wait a while before they can return to the room.
If a character is in his own room, then he can be found by the Guest Rooms "search" button (because it searches on the names of room owners as well as the names of rooms). Other than this, there is no way within the game to find out whether a particular other character not on a players friends list is online or the place they are located.
VMK Staff have also announced that along with the new New Orleans Square land, there is an exclusive room based on the VIP Exclusive Disney Club, located in the real New Orleans Square, "Club 33". This room is used for some staff events and for some guests who have earned the privilege. The only way someone can rent a Club 33 room, is if they win the best guest room award.
Every week VMK staff award a Best Guest Room Award, Best Game Room Award, and a Best Quest Award pin to the owner of a guest room chosen to be superlative in originality and creativity. Winners of Best Guest Room not only get the Best Guest Room Award, but they also get to "rent" Club 33 for a party, which a VMK host will help the winner organize. Recently, several players have earned the Best Guest Room, Best Game Room, or Best Quest award more than once; the VMK staff now awards the VIP pin to these outstanding players.
A player can set his/her guest rooms so that only people on his or her friends list may enter. On January 8, 2007, "tickets" were added; a room owner is now able to sell (for 10 credits), or trade tickets to allow entry to his rooms. The tickets appear as single-use pins.
As of April 3, 2007 players could set some of their items to be movable by their guests by clicking on an item, followed by clicking "Item Info", and checking "Let Guests Move this Item". At the same time as above, players could also clear their room of items completely, by hitting the "i" button on the tool bar, and then selecting "Clear Room".
As of March 2007, VMK Staff have begun "Room Makeovers", where VMK staff will randomly go into guest rooms, or ones submitted for one when the VMK player is online and in the room, and give their room a makeover if in need of one. Before and after pictures of the players' room are then posted each week on the VMK Newsletter. This concept is similar to Extreme Makeover Home Edition. If a player would like to have a room makeover, they are discouraged to make a room named anything along the lines of "I need a room makeover."
During the Month of April, VMK Staff Awarded a 'Best Pirate Room' award because April was 'Pirate Month.' The Prizes were Seagull Nest Hat, Crow Barstool and the seat that goes with it. A Flaming Ransacked Window and other items were also prizes.
Some rooms are available in the Virtual Magic Kingdom from the shop button, others are available from quests, and some are no longer available at all. Players are encouraged to get guest rooms when quests come out, because that could be the only time they will ever be available. For example, the Tron Guest Room was from a quest that is no longer available, so players who did not finish the quest by a certain date, never received the Tron Guest Room. There are also codes for certain guest rooms.
As of June 2007, "pay-to-play" guest/game rooms are not allowed because it is considered scamming, though games like "Pirates of the Caribbean" are still allowed to ask for the minimum 21 credits.
In January 2008, three new guest rooms were added to Main Street: Main Street Magic Shop in Central Plaza, Main Street Magic Shop Checkers (a new game at the Magic Shop), and the Penny Arcade on Main Street.
[edit] Mini-games
The following minigames are available to play throughout the lands in the Virtual Magic Kingdom:
Magic Checkers: As of January 2008 a new game was revealed to the VMK public. This game is basically the same thing as checkers and is only playable by two players at a time per room. This game like most other games in VMK offers a reward of credits and items. The amount of credits received by this game increases depending on the amounts won.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Two to four player on two teams, must be equal on both teams, either play a game of "Ship Battle" where one team must sink the other or a game of "Capture the Flag" where one team must bring the opposing team's flag to their base before the other team. Once the game is over, both teams get rewards in credits for their efforts. After every three wins on one level, a player receive a treasure chest magic key that will open a chest corresponding to the level of which the player won the key for. The prizes the player are awarded are from a list randomly chosen pirate related prizes that correspond to the level the key was awarded in.
Castle Fireworks Remixed: Fireworks are launched into the sky and the player must click on each one with the correct symbol to detonate it. Pins and credits are awarded based on a player's performance.
Jungle Cruise Photo Safari: The player pilots a safari boat and takes photos of animals while avoiding obstacles. 20 credits are awarded per game, not depending on score.
Street Party Music Game/Monorail Music Game: A player can sequence music loops into a song for characters to dance to. Credits are awarded for editing songs and for playing them.
The Haunted Mansion Game: The Purple team and the Green team, with up to four players each, compete to capture ghosts in the Haunted Mansion. Best two out of three wins.
The VMK Trading Card Game: The basic version of the VMK Trading Card Game TCG was released August 17, 2007. In this version, the player begins with a random deck of cards and play a computer opponent in a sort of Rock, Paper, Scissors type of game. Later versions including Power Play and an online versus mode were to be released later on in the year, along with customizable decks and winable rewards. But the idea was abandoned due to the closure of VMK.
There are also several places in Tomorrowland where credits can be earned. In Natilus Grotto and Shipwreck Graveyard, a player can collect shells that randomly pop up under water and receive one credit for every pearl they find. This game requires the Diving Suit magic pin, which can be obtained from an in-game quest. Another place to earn credits is the Autopia Space Race and the Mars race tracks. In this game, a player will drive over trophies to collect them, while also driving over gas cans to keep from running out of gas. For every trophy collected, each player will receive one credit. This game requires one of the four available Autopia car magic pins, which can be obtained from an in-game quest. It also requires an Autopia Driver's License.
The following minigames were available to play in the Tomorrowland Arcade until waterpark overlay:
Airlock Escape: A puzzle game with some similarity to ChuChu Rocket!; successful completion of all fifteen levels will award the player with Deep Sea Diving Boots, Deep Sea Diving Jacket, and Deep Sea Diving Trousers (Deep Sea Diving Helmet may be purchased in the Inner-Space store).
Blast in Space: An action game similar to Asteroids; the player pilots a spaceship to shoot rocks, and then receives awards for passing all sixteen levels.
Hyperspace Mountain: An action game where the player collects six "modules" throughout nine sectors. Obtaining all six modules wins rewards.
[edit] Events
The Virtual Magic Kingdom occasionally holds special events at which prizes are given out, this includes:
Parade and Scavenger Hunt (beta period): Players were told to gather on Main Street and "parade" along its length. Some parade "leaders" were awarded the Dancing Inferno Magic pin, now considered rare to other players. Then a few staff members "hid" themselves in some rooms in the game, and the first people to find each of them were awarded prizes.
Room Decorating Event: Players were told to decorate their rooms to be judged for prizes. For a Celebration theme, players commemorated Disneyland's 50th anniversary. For a Space theme, players offered an interpretation of what "space" meant to them. Prizes were also given for answering trivia questions.
Dreams Month (September 2007): Hosts would be randomly walking around the parks including guest room and handing out prizes. Some of these prizes included the Dreams room, which looks like Sleeping Beauty's castle, dream ears, dream pin, and many other items. Hosts would randomly walk around and players waiting in one room all day had difficulty finding, therefore, players were encouraged to play vmk as they would normally to possibly win a prize.
Haunted Maze Event (October 2005): An easy maze, a medium maze, and a difficult maze were available for players to find their way through. Successfully completing the maze would award a prize. However, the event was plagued by server problems, resulting in queues of half an hour or more to get into the mazes, and some players were not able to enter the mazes at all or were bumped offline in the middle of them.
Gift-Giving Event (December 2005): A player could spend 500 credits to purchase a mystery gift which was given (in the game) to someone of his or her choosing on December 24. The gift turned out to be a green holiday wreath.
Yeti Quest (February 2006): Players could visit designated rooms to find photos; by stringing together the first letter of each pictured item, a player could spell the location where the Yeti was hiding, and submit his answer for prizes. The answer was "Injun Joe's Cave", and everyone who sent in a correct answer won a snow carpet.
Ride-A-Thons: VMK staff occasionally host "Ride-A-Thons", in which they prepare rides for players to enjoy. When a player reaches the end of a ride, he is given a ride piece with which to create his own ride. Several rides are usually running at the same time to handle capacity. The more a player rides the more of a single prize a player will receive, depending on the event.
Make-A-Room: VMK staff occasionally host "Make A Ride Rooms", which allow players to go into a certain teleporter and design a room. The player with the best design will get a prize, and soon many other players started the same game. Note: this happened on April 2007, when the players were now allowed to move furniture if the person goes to the "Item Info" button in the furniture toolbar and if he goes to item info, he must check the option that says let guests move this item.
Gingerbread Room Competition (December 2007): Players constructed a room using furniture items released during the month of December. The rooms were judged and the winners were handed out prizes that include a new shirt and hat that are different on boys than on girls.
Captain Blackheart's Treasure Hunt Quest (March 29 - April 1, 2008): The biggest VMK quest ever. The quest consisted of 67 different tasks, and required the player to navigate VMK, answer Disney Pirate's of the Caribbean-related questions, and play games. The prize awarded was 75,000 credits and some items that are not yet obtainable. Their was also a smaller version of the quest, called Captain Blackheart's Mini Treasure Hunt Quest. The smaller quest awarded 1000 credits. Captain Blackheart, as he is called, also hosted a small quest, but still quite large with the prize of 56,000 credits and many valuable items.
[edit] Quests
[edit] In-game
In-game quests involve a series of tasks for a player, such as finding a specific room or an item in the room, changing one's outfit, saying a specific word, or winning a certain number of points in a minigame. There are two types of in-game quests. 'Q Button' quests, which players can start from anywhere in the game by pressing a button marked 'Q' on the game's taskbar, and kiosk quests, which are linked to a 'quest kiosk' item owned by a particular player or staff member. Successful completion of a quest will usually award a prize. Each character can only complete each quest once.
[edit] In-park
For the first two years of the game, there was an in-park quest program which permitted players to earn special in-game prizes at Disneyland and Walt Disney World resorts. These quests were mostly eliminated in mid-2007, with the exception of an activity sheet and quest which is handed out to guests waiting in line at the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage attraction at Disneyland. As of January 2008 the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage Quest is not being handed out any longer, making the In-Park Quest a thing of the past.
[edit] Hidden Mickeys
There are fifty Hidden Mickeys in the game, appearing as mouse-eared logos embossed onto scenery in rooms. Hunting for Hidden Mickeys can be a difficult task, as they are faint and rather difficult to see, and it can take time to earn enough credits to buy film. Almost every room has at least one, and some contain two.
Credits and pins are awarded after finding certain numbers of Hidden Mickeys (a Bronze Mickey pin for finding ten, a Silver Mortimer pin for finding thirty, and a Gold Oswald pin and 500 credits for finding all fifty). Completing this hunt used to award a printable PDF coupon with a code for the Gold Design set of items, which could be obtained by redeeming the coupon at Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom.
The locations of the Hidden Mickeys were changed on December 12, 2005. The new hunt is called "Hidden Mickey Quest Part II", and the new prize pins have "Part II" appended to their names.
[edit] Character profiles
A new player begins by registering an account at "http://www.vmk.com". The player then sets up a character (an avatar) and selects the character's gender and appearance (shirt, shoes, pants, hair, hat, face, and colors for skin and hair). The player will type in a name, but until the VMK staff approve the name they requested, their name will be Guest, followed by the number of player that they are (E.x. Guest7402548). If the name is not approved the VMK staff would let them create another name. The player also selects a "guest room", his or her own themed area which can be decorated with furniture, posters, a boat canal, train tracks, game items, or other material. One room is provided for free, and additional rooms can be purchased later with in-game credits. The player can enter a few lines of text, known as a "(signature)", which will be displayed in the character's publicly-visible profile. The character is then given a few tradeable items (mostly T-shirts), and is placed in the game.
A player can also choose from a list of randomly-selected adjective-adjective-noun names presented to him or her; if he chooses one of these names, it does not need to be approved.
VMK no longer accepts new players as of April 7, 2008.
[edit] Items
[edit] Badges
Badges are icons that appear at the top of a player's information window visible to other players. Badges cannot be traded.
Born In Park: given to a character created at Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom.
VIP: given via a prize card's code; the card is given after completing the in-park quests to become eligible for the special park tour. This badge is sometimes received by winning a mini-game or Host event. (Note that this is different from the VIP pin, which is given the second time a player wins a Best Guest Room or Best Game Room award.)
Here from Day 1: given to a character created during the "beta" stage (prior to June 27, 2005).
VMK Staff: paid employees who help safeguard players and/or host VMK games and events; see Staff above.
Testers: VMK staff that test out items, and seen around with their name "QA_". Testers also hold the VMK Staff badge.
Producers: These players hold the VMK Staff badge but they have no special prefix before their in game "title". For example, Yavn, one of the most common producers is not known as QA_Yavn nor VMK_Yavn.
Community Leader: volunteers who help with the game; their names begin with "CL_" (Discontinued on October 24, 2007). After it was discontinued, former community leaders did not have the badge or the CL_ at the beginning of their title.
[edit] Pins
A character can "wear" up to fifteen pins so that other players can see them in his or her profile. Some pins can be purchased from shops in the game; others can only be obtained by completing in-park or in-game quests, by winning host games, a player may also get them from a Non-Playable Character (NPC) such as Esmeralda which is one of the many Non-Playable Characters found in the game.
Usually a new pin is released on weekends of a certain month in the Emporium for a limited time. These pins usually cost 500 credits and are often a part of a set, for example, during October 2006 a set of Halloween themed pins came out, and a new pin was released every weekend. However, by Monday the pin will no longer be available making it high in value. The next weekend however, a new pin will be released and it starts all over again.
"Magic pins" can also be worn. When activated (from the magic wand icon at the bottom of the screen, or by typing the pin's magic word), they display a visual effect, such as the character driving a car or turning into a snowman. Each effect has a duration of only a few seconds and must be allowed to "recharge" for a minute or so before another use. If a player has two or more of the same kind of magic pin, they can be combined for a longer effect and shorter delay between uses. There are also single-use magic pins which will disappear after being used once (or after a specific "expiration date"). Some magic pins are very expensive and only available for a short period of time; for example, the "Turn Into Bat Magic Pin" (only available in October) was priced at 10,000 credits. As of January 2008, several "magic tricks" have been moved to be sold in the Main Street Magic Shop along with some clothing and furniture items.
Some pins are not tradeable and can only be obtained by quests or host events these pins include all single use magic pins and all Tomorrowland quest pins. Any award pin such as the best guest room award and the VIP pin are also not tradeable. A player can check if a pin is not tradeable or tradeable by clicking the pin on a players profile which not only reveals whether a certain pin is available for trade or not, but also reveals what effects (if any) the pin may have and the player who owns it.
The costume items can be mixed-and-matched. This character is wearing the Mission Space vest, pants, and shoes with the Native American headdress.
[edit] Clothing
When a player joins the kingdom, he or she receives a pack of clothing along with a room and some furniture. Players that sign up at a Disney park may receive extra rewards.
Occasionally, the VMK shops sell special clothing items (or entire costumes). Some of these are seasonal, and some can only be purchased during a specific weekend. These items are usually expensive; due to this and their limited availability, they soon become valuable items in trading.
Some clothing items are only available to one gender. For example, boys cannot have princess outfits (excluding the Princess Minnie hat), and girls cannot have the Wildcats outfit.
Full costumes have included spacesuits, princess outfits, Haunted Mansion dress clothes, an Expedition Everest hiking outfit, baseball uniforms, and football uniforms.
Costume items have included Mickey ears, and a variety of caps including baseball caps and a Sorcerer Mickey hat.
[edit] Credits
A player can earn credits by visiting the Disney Characters (see Disney Characters above), by playing the Castle Fireworks Remixed, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Haunted Mansion games, and by remixing and playing songs in the Street Party Music Game, or in the newer Monorail Mix Game.
Another popular way to amass credits is called "Nedding". It consists of playing the Shrunken Ned's Jungle Cruise game but trying to end the game as quickly as possible by crashing repeatedly and running out of fuel. Each time the game is played it awards 20 credits, so the credits that can be gotten from this game are limited only by the length of time someone wants to put into it.
There are also several places in Tomorrowland where credits can be earned. In Nautilus Grotto and Shipwreck Graveyard, players can collect shells that randomly pop up under water and receive one credit for every pearl they find. This game also requires the Diving Suit magic pin, which can be obtained from an in-game quest. Another place to earn credits, is the Autopia Space Race and the Mars race tracks. In this game, each player will drive over trophies and collect them for one credit a piece, while also driving over gas cans to keep from running out of it. This game requires one of the four available Autopia car magic pins, which can be obtained from an in-game quest and may also require an Autopia driver's license.
Accounts used specifically for getting credits and items, known in other games as multis, are called "mules". Since the game lets a player create new accounts freely, players create mules (named after the beast of burden) to enter multi-use codes and collect credits by visiting Disney Characters. Players can buy items with a mule's credits, and then trade these items from the mules to their main characters. Players who use mules are said to be "muling", and in the game mules are called "done keys" (donkeys) due to the limited vocabulary. On the VMK web site, Yavn has expressed his dislike of mules and his intention to ban accounts of people with an "unbelievable" number of accounts (such as fifty for a single household) which could be mistaken as being mules. Some players use mules to take control of easy tasks, as finishing a quest and getting a Magic Pin, then trading it via another computer, to get an advantage in the game. Unfortunately, players use other quests like the Pirate Quests, where players can win a Treasure Detector Magic Pin, in which players walk around a certain area, and win some type of prize. The rarest prize of this event is the Dancing Inferno Pin.
Purchased items can be "sold back" for 20% of their purchase price, but some items are not able to be sold. For example, a quest kiosk cannot be sold back or traded.
[edit] Trading
Players can trade various items. Each player can put a maximum of fifteen items into a trade.
Clothing items that are only available for boys or girls cannot be traded to the other gender. For example, a girl can not trade her princess outfit to a boy.
Some players try to take advantage of the trading window to scam other players. Most of the trading window scams no longer work since the trading window now has several confirmation notices. VMK has stated that if a person agrees to all of these notices, any issues a player may have with the trade are due to their own fault.
A player can report a scammer with the "Report" button in the game, or by using the "Contact Us" link on the web site.
[edit] Safety
The game's rules are posted on the VMK web site as "VMK Values" which are intended to help the game to become "a safe, non-threatening environment" because many players are between the ages of eight and fourteen. The rules prohibit sexual or racist language, harassment, divulging personal information, and attempts to hack the system. Violations can result in a permanent ban, which prevent users from using VMK in the computer the violation occurred in. Despite this, attempted violations are quite common, and people attempt to get around the edited speech by formulating single words out of multiple words (ie: saying "I'm Tree Ears Old"). Disney prohibits sharing personal information in the game (and its limited dictionary also adds a technical obstacle to this). Disney's stated intent is to protect the safety and privacy of its members, but this also prevents members from having a legitimate way of reaching each other outside the game. Members of some Disney internet discussion forums get around this by putting certain phrases in their public signatures, a short bit of text which is visible to any other player who clicks on the character, to indicate a discussion board through which they can be reached.
[edit] Closure
On April 7, 2008, it was announced that VMK would close on May 21, 2008, at 10:00pm PST.[citation needed] Immediately after the press release, changes were made to prevent the creation of any new accounts.
Thousands of players signed online petitions which were later brought to Disney's attention. The petitions were ultimately ignored by Disney which led some players to protest outside of the entrance to Disneyland.[1] The protest had no effect on Disney's decision, and much to the dismay of the estimated 9,000 players (9,000 accounts created. Not all remained active in the game) VMK was shut down. On its site, it now offers links to other Disney Virtual Games, such as Toontown, a Disney arcade, and an upcoming VMK-like game centered on the Fairies from Pixie Hollow, coming in late 2008. Later on, after more than two months, people believed VMK would re-open in October 2008, 2009 , or in 2010. VMK updated their site to say those rumors were lies.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
vmkfriends.com!
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These are the Terms And Conditions for http://www.vmkfriends.com/
Read these and join to protest on VMK's closure.
I Agree to these terms I do not agree to these terms
These are the Terms And Conditions for http://www.vmkfriends.com/
Read these and join to protest on VMK's closure.
My Review
My kids are so upset! Their favorite online pastime is coming to an end. We don’t allow them to spend too much time online — and we limit the places they can go when they are online. However, for the past two years VMK (Virtual Magic Kingdom) has been the place they have decided to spend their precious computer time and now it’s closing…. just like that … Disney left an announcement today for all kids to read. Here’s part of that announcement:
Eventually though, all promotions must come to an end, so I’m announcing today that on May 21, 2008, VMK will open our virtual gates for the last time. You read that right: VMK was never intended to last forever - we’ll close the game for good at the end of day on May 21st, 2008.
What is a bit upsetting about this is the way Disney has gone about this. The game will be shutting down in slightly over a month. I thought their letter to members was kinda cavalier — in their letter they said the game was never meant to last forever — and that all things come to an end — and that even in the Disney theme parks attractions come and go, yada yada yada…..
To a kid … that’s harsh! I know a lot of kids in the under 10 years old crowd that play this game all the time. It’s a cute game — and seemed to me as a Mom a safe place for kids online. Maybe they could have prepared members a bit more …. my kids (and me) had no idea this was a temporary thing just for the 50th anniversary celebration of Disneyland. Who knew?
Well … I guess the Virtual world is not much unlike the real world — my kids just got their pink slips and are headed for bigger and better things. After the shock of the closing of VMK they seemed to get really ticked about the whole thing — I have a feeling they won’t be spending much time on VMK over the next month that it remains open. For them, the closure announcement ended all the fun almost immediately — what’s the point in playing any longer? So sad! Bad Disney!
For any fans who are still interested and still care here’s a link to a petition by fans to save the game … my kids looked at it and went out to play basketball.
Eventually though, all promotions must come to an end, so I’m announcing today that on May 21, 2008, VMK will open our virtual gates for the last time. You read that right: VMK was never intended to last forever - we’ll close the game for good at the end of day on May 21st, 2008.
What is a bit upsetting about this is the way Disney has gone about this. The game will be shutting down in slightly over a month. I thought their letter to members was kinda cavalier — in their letter they said the game was never meant to last forever — and that all things come to an end — and that even in the Disney theme parks attractions come and go, yada yada yada…..
To a kid … that’s harsh! I know a lot of kids in the under 10 years old crowd that play this game all the time. It’s a cute game — and seemed to me as a Mom a safe place for kids online. Maybe they could have prepared members a bit more …. my kids (and me) had no idea this was a temporary thing just for the 50th anniversary celebration of Disneyland. Who knew?
Well … I guess the Virtual world is not much unlike the real world — my kids just got their pink slips and are headed for bigger and better things. After the shock of the closing of VMK they seemed to get really ticked about the whole thing — I have a feeling they won’t be spending much time on VMK over the next month that it remains open. For them, the closure announcement ended all the fun almost immediately — what’s the point in playing any longer? So sad! Bad Disney!
For any fans who are still interested and still care here’s a link to a petition by fans to save the game … my kids looked at it and went out to play basketball.
A while back
It’s been a few months since the closing of VMK was announced. I wrote a post about that here. As far as I know there hasn’t been any change of plans on Disney’s part. VMK is still closing as planned later on in May — in spite of the many petitions floating around the internet by avid VMK fans.
However, it seems I hit a nerve among some VMK fans — which was totally unintentional.
I truly am disappointed (and angry) that VMK’s closing was so unexpected and disappointing for my children. Really, I am! However, by the comments I received on my other posts you would think people think I am not at all sympathetic.
I do think Disney has handled this all wrong. However, they are a business and businesses do this type of thing all the time. It doesn’t make it right – I’m not all that surprised by it — but that doesn’t mean I’m not angry about it. No, I’m not canceling my upcoming vacation — that would be silly.
My kids are angry. The day they found out about the closure they were angry, frustrated and sad. They took their frustration outside to play basketball. That comment was not meant to mean they weren’t affected by Disney’s decision to close VMK.
In a way, I’m glad they are able to take this upsetting situation and deal with it in a constructive way. As a parent, I have been worried that they were spending too much time online with VMK. It’s hard to know what the correct balance is for kids. They have signed several of the petitions in protest of the closing and I’m fine with that. They have shown me several videos of newscast broadcasting the news across the nations and beyond. They truly hope that their ‘vote’ counts. They know that their actions ‘may’ or ‘may not’ have an affect on Disney’s decision. And that’s a good thing for them to learn at this age.
As much as I would like to see VMK remain open I don’t think it’s going to happen. Some people think it’s a financial issue. But I don’t think so. I believe many loyal VMK fans would pay for the service. It is worth a price, I believe — and I would be willing to pay a subscription price in line with other online games like Toon Town or Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Somehow, I think the decision comes for a deeper reason that the public may never know.
However, it seems I hit a nerve among some VMK fans — which was totally unintentional.
I truly am disappointed (and angry) that VMK’s closing was so unexpected and disappointing for my children. Really, I am! However, by the comments I received on my other posts you would think people think I am not at all sympathetic.
I do think Disney has handled this all wrong. However, they are a business and businesses do this type of thing all the time. It doesn’t make it right – I’m not all that surprised by it — but that doesn’t mean I’m not angry about it. No, I’m not canceling my upcoming vacation — that would be silly.
My kids are angry. The day they found out about the closure they were angry, frustrated and sad. They took their frustration outside to play basketball. That comment was not meant to mean they weren’t affected by Disney’s decision to close VMK.
In a way, I’m glad they are able to take this upsetting situation and deal with it in a constructive way. As a parent, I have been worried that they were spending too much time online with VMK. It’s hard to know what the correct balance is for kids. They have signed several of the petitions in protest of the closing and I’m fine with that. They have shown me several videos of newscast broadcasting the news across the nations and beyond. They truly hope that their ‘vote’ counts. They know that their actions ‘may’ or ‘may not’ have an affect on Disney’s decision. And that’s a good thing for them to learn at this age.
As much as I would like to see VMK remain open I don’t think it’s going to happen. Some people think it’s a financial issue. But I don’t think so. I believe many loyal VMK fans would pay for the service. It is worth a price, I believe — and I would be willing to pay a subscription price in line with other online games like Toon Town or Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Somehow, I think the decision comes for a deeper reason that the public may never know.
VMK
This blog got deleted earlier. The blog was made in March 2008. We are re-building it.
Here, you will be informed on anything coming or related to/from Disney. VMK was a promotion for Disney's annual 50th Celebration. VMK was honored by many kids, and was enjoyed by parents as well. A few magazines recently had interviews with the Disney Coorporation. Here are the results of the contacts.
TigerBeat Magazine:
TB: We have heard some recent calls and e-mails about you closing a computer site, vmk.com. Could you tell us a little bit about this?
Disney: Sure. We have received over 1,000,000 e-mails and 5,000 calls a day about vmk.com's closure. VMK was a promotion celebrating Disney's Annual 50th Celebration. Yes, we have made some thoughts about re-opening the site permanently, but finally it resulted as a no. We are really sorry to the kids who loved the game, but we stayed open longer than intended. We could afford to keep going, but there were not enough staff members to complete the game's details. With the company we worked with going offline, and quitting, we had little support besides the kids. Disney also needed more memory for the game. Only holding so little as close to 100,000 items, we finally decided that there was too much going on, and that VMK needed to close.
TB: Some people think that you were trying to hurt them in a way. Is that true?
Disney: No, that is not true. We had to do what was best. What happens in life benefits us all, and I think this was a good decision to make. We were not trying to hurt anyone. We are happy there is a new 'VMK' that has been revamped. It has made many people a lot happier; even though there are still some unanswered questions.
TB: Are you planning to open VMK up again in the near future?
Disney: We have discussed this and all agreed to what we have already decided on. We have no plans to re-open VMK in any way, but we hope that we can make something better that will help the kids feel better about the closure. We have had tons of inquiries about that, so that kind of clears it up to anyone who thinks about it. We had to make a good decision; and with all of the problems that happened, this was best.
TB: Thank you for clearing things up. Would Radio Disney know anything about this?
Disney: A few people at the company have asked us about it, and we informed them on any information. However, some of them were freaking out with all the phone calls not having anything to do with their station, and they finally decided to tell everyone we were opening again. That definitely ruined our reputation a little bit, but they have apologized and we still get along great.
TB: Many parents are upset about the closure. Do you have any comments on it?
Disney: Yes. VMK was a really safe game, so it was amazing to get to be able to interact with other people. We are really sorry to the parents, but they know what it is like to not be able to do something. It just comes along surprisingly. VMK has nothing to do with products around the World, or anything like that. We are blessed to have been able to keep it going for that long. It was an absoloutely amazing experience.
--
J-14 Magazine:
J-14: We have heard about a site called VMK that was made by Disney. We are more of a gossip magazine, but we still hear quite a few rumors flying around about this. Could you explain what VMK was?
Disney: Yes. VMK was short for Virtual Magic Kingdom. For part of Disney's Annual 50th Celebration, we used a few dollars we had and started downloading different things like animations, design sites, etc. We used them to create The Kingdom, and we had over 1,000 members join in one day. It was amazing. Towards the beginning of March, we had a lot of problems. We had to make an announcement to close the site down, and everyone got angry. Now, we get upwards of 1,000,000 e-mails and phone calls per day. It's really crazy, but we still think we all made the right choice.
J-14: Do you have any plans to open similar to VMK or open the game itself, permanently?
Disney: No, we do not. We have already made our final choice. In twenty years, VMK still will not be open. But I can assure you that something better WILL.
--
People Magazine:
People: We are not a Disney magazine, but it seems that everyone all around the World are getting calls from Disney fans about a site called vmk.com, that you recently closed. Tell us about it.
Disney: VMK was a promotion. Promotions all have to end. That is all of our comments on telling about it. Too many questions have been asked regarding the situation.
People: How many calls do you get a day?
Disney: Upwards of 1,000,000. Including over 2,000,000 missed calls while on the line with other fans.
People: Do you get any e-mails?
Disney: Yes, more than calls and missed ones put together, actually. We get more than 10,000,000 e-mails a day, not including the ones we don't have time to read.
People: Were you trying to hurt someone by closing this?
Disney: No. We simply had to.
People: Is there a bigger explanation for closing the site?
Disney: Memory problems, companies quitting, and so much more. There is NO page long explanation, though.
People: When did you finally decide to close The Kingdom?
Disney: Early March.
People: What is the most heartfelt letter you have received from a fan about VMK?
Disney: Most of them are rude. There is no heartfelt letter, except from ONE person, and I have memorized it and will forever from the bottom of my heart.
Dear Disney,
I accept your closing VMK. I understand minor problems were happening and there needed to be a closure; however, some people thought of VMK as more than a game itself. There were many things to do to rise up your day and have full potential in your soul. I really can understand the situation you are in. I am praying for all of the troubles Disney must be going through to get everyone rising and feeling better about the occasion. You are in my prayers. You shouldn't feel bad about closing it. People have to do what they have to do, and you made the best decision possible by preventing a problem before one started. Thank you for all the effort and time you put towards VMK. I really appreciate it.
--
leslie
--
That e-mail really touched me. The Disney Crew and I all read it over and over until we started crying. I wish everyone felt what this little girl does. It would make time go by a lot faster without the guilt left in our hearts.
People: Do you answer the phone calls, or do excecutives do that for you?
Disney: Both. We will tell people what to say in a note if the question relates to VMK. Everyone has the same note, so they know exactly what to say, or they learn similar from us. We answer truthfully, though. There is always going to be something coming at you from around the corner, so who knows?
There were also interviews with U.S.A, Disney International, Gossip Geek, etc.
This should clear up the questions we have all wanted answered for ages.
If you have any other concerns, go to http://www.youtube.com/ , http://Disney.com , http://vmk.com/ or http://vmkmagic.com/vbulletin for more information. Thank you.
Here, you will be informed on anything coming or related to/from Disney. VMK was a promotion for Disney's annual 50th Celebration. VMK was honored by many kids, and was enjoyed by parents as well. A few magazines recently had interviews with the Disney Coorporation. Here are the results of the contacts.
TigerBeat Magazine:
TB: We have heard some recent calls and e-mails about you closing a computer site, vmk.com. Could you tell us a little bit about this?
Disney: Sure. We have received over 1,000,000 e-mails and 5,000 calls a day about vmk.com's closure. VMK was a promotion celebrating Disney's Annual 50th Celebration. Yes, we have made some thoughts about re-opening the site permanently, but finally it resulted as a no. We are really sorry to the kids who loved the game, but we stayed open longer than intended. We could afford to keep going, but there were not enough staff members to complete the game's details. With the company we worked with going offline, and quitting, we had little support besides the kids. Disney also needed more memory for the game. Only holding so little as close to 100,000 items, we finally decided that there was too much going on, and that VMK needed to close.
TB: Some people think that you were trying to hurt them in a way. Is that true?
Disney: No, that is not true. We had to do what was best. What happens in life benefits us all, and I think this was a good decision to make. We were not trying to hurt anyone. We are happy there is a new 'VMK' that has been revamped. It has made many people a lot happier; even though there are still some unanswered questions.
TB: Are you planning to open VMK up again in the near future?
Disney: We have discussed this and all agreed to what we have already decided on. We have no plans to re-open VMK in any way, but we hope that we can make something better that will help the kids feel better about the closure. We have had tons of inquiries about that, so that kind of clears it up to anyone who thinks about it. We had to make a good decision; and with all of the problems that happened, this was best.
TB: Thank you for clearing things up. Would Radio Disney know anything about this?
Disney: A few people at the company have asked us about it, and we informed them on any information. However, some of them were freaking out with all the phone calls not having anything to do with their station, and they finally decided to tell everyone we were opening again. That definitely ruined our reputation a little bit, but they have apologized and we still get along great.
TB: Many parents are upset about the closure. Do you have any comments on it?
Disney: Yes. VMK was a really safe game, so it was amazing to get to be able to interact with other people. We are really sorry to the parents, but they know what it is like to not be able to do something. It just comes along surprisingly. VMK has nothing to do with products around the World, or anything like that. We are blessed to have been able to keep it going for that long. It was an absoloutely amazing experience.
--
J-14 Magazine:
J-14: We have heard about a site called VMK that was made by Disney. We are more of a gossip magazine, but we still hear quite a few rumors flying around about this. Could you explain what VMK was?
Disney: Yes. VMK was short for Virtual Magic Kingdom. For part of Disney's Annual 50th Celebration, we used a few dollars we had and started downloading different things like animations, design sites, etc. We used them to create The Kingdom, and we had over 1,000 members join in one day. It was amazing. Towards the beginning of March, we had a lot of problems. We had to make an announcement to close the site down, and everyone got angry. Now, we get upwards of 1,000,000 e-mails and phone calls per day. It's really crazy, but we still think we all made the right choice.
J-14: Do you have any plans to open similar to VMK or open the game itself, permanently?
Disney: No, we do not. We have already made our final choice. In twenty years, VMK still will not be open. But I can assure you that something better WILL.
--
People Magazine:
People: We are not a Disney magazine, but it seems that everyone all around the World are getting calls from Disney fans about a site called vmk.com, that you recently closed. Tell us about it.
Disney: VMK was a promotion. Promotions all have to end. That is all of our comments on telling about it. Too many questions have been asked regarding the situation.
People: How many calls do you get a day?
Disney: Upwards of 1,000,000. Including over 2,000,000 missed calls while on the line with other fans.
People: Do you get any e-mails?
Disney: Yes, more than calls and missed ones put together, actually. We get more than 10,000,000 e-mails a day, not including the ones we don't have time to read.
People: Were you trying to hurt someone by closing this?
Disney: No. We simply had to.
People: Is there a bigger explanation for closing the site?
Disney: Memory problems, companies quitting, and so much more. There is NO page long explanation, though.
People: When did you finally decide to close The Kingdom?
Disney: Early March.
People: What is the most heartfelt letter you have received from a fan about VMK?
Disney: Most of them are rude. There is no heartfelt letter, except from ONE person, and I have memorized it and will forever from the bottom of my heart.
Dear Disney,
I accept your closing VMK. I understand minor problems were happening and there needed to be a closure; however, some people thought of VMK as more than a game itself. There were many things to do to rise up your day and have full potential in your soul. I really can understand the situation you are in. I am praying for all of the troubles Disney must be going through to get everyone rising and feeling better about the occasion. You are in my prayers. You shouldn't feel bad about closing it. People have to do what they have to do, and you made the best decision possible by preventing a problem before one started. Thank you for all the effort and time you put towards VMK. I really appreciate it.
--
leslie
--
That e-mail really touched me. The Disney Crew and I all read it over and over until we started crying. I wish everyone felt what this little girl does. It would make time go by a lot faster without the guilt left in our hearts.
People: Do you answer the phone calls, or do excecutives do that for you?
Disney: Both. We will tell people what to say in a note if the question relates to VMK. Everyone has the same note, so they know exactly what to say, or they learn similar from us. We answer truthfully, though. There is always going to be something coming at you from around the corner, so who knows?
There were also interviews with U.S.A, Disney International, Gossip Geek, etc.
This should clear up the questions we have all wanted answered for ages.
If you have any other concerns, go to http://www.youtube.com/ , http://Disney.com , http://vmk.com/ or http://vmkmagic.com/vbulletin for more information. Thank you.
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