‘Casual Gamers’ Not So Relaxed If You Mess With Their Games (DIS)

Vasanth Sridharan | May 20, 2008 11:36 AM

Virtual Magic KingdomWay back in 2005, Disney (DIS) opened a free online game/virtual world called Virtual Magic Kingdom. The site, released primarily to celebrate Disneyland's 50th anniversary, took off, and within a year Disney announced that users had created 1 million avatars for the virtual playland.

Success story? No longer. Disney is shutting down the game tomorrow, and its users are not happy. And said users -- primarily parents and their kids -- are griping about it like a rabid Digg army. WSJ:

“This has unleashed a loud outcry from VMK patrons, and some of them are throwing themselves in front of Disney's virtual wrecking ball. One slick Web site created to help save VMK has gathered nearly 20,000 signatures on its online petition, while blogs maintained by the Disney faithful continue to decry the company's move.”

Disney says it’s shutting down the site because it had always planned to, and there’s not a whole lot of traffic. Not a coincidence: Disney has spent a lot of time and money creating or buying other virtual worlds and wants to point users to those other worlds -- which aren't free.

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24 Comments

Chris said:
Is the cost to maintain a virtual world that significant? I'd thought more of the cost was in building it?

I wonder why Disney wouldn't try to expand on this connection between their real and virtual theme park and discover more ways to make money through it rather than shut it down?
DJ said:
This is the problem with offering products/ services before figuring out a way to monetize them.

Imagine if TV's had been given away for three years before someone decided to make money off of them.

It's going to take a long time to get consumers to cotton to the idea that paying for on-line products is not only acceptable, but vital to the long term success of any number of industries.
Alan said:
Disney was even marketing this through Disney Movie Rewards less then a month ago with some of their virtual stuff costing an average of $50 (2-3 movies). I think you are right they just did not have a solid marketing plan in place before creating this game.

Disney could of just made the game a pay to play and made some money on the game. Now they have to deal with all the upset fans.

The idea of using a game to push products/entertainment just did not work for them.
Lily (Bright) said:
To all ya'll, i say: They Have not given us reasons for closing vmk, but excuses. One day, maybe not today, maybe not in 4 years - They will shut the free version of POTC online down. And then the free side to all those other games. But to the company who is holding vmk 4 ransome i say: GO DIE IN THE FREAKEN STREET!!!!!!! :) and as a good friend taught me "Its never a goodbye, its a cya later" and we WILL be seeing vmk again, bc i dont go down without a FIGHT!!! - this all comes from playing too much soccer -
Lily -again- said:
Sorry all :) im just ticked at disney... but what i said earlier is completely true: Disney HAS NOT give us REASONS but instead a very carefully worded line of excuses... yes: vmk was a promotional thingamagier but we the consumes spent time, money (real and credits), and countless hours anticapatiing our turn to go into the host room, for the new hat to comne out, for your bestest virtual friend to get on - cough Brave, skater, Kat, gracie, meg etc. cough - many have sat counting down the minutes till it opens... i for one sat through History and Language Arts whispering to my friend as we counted down the final hours of vmk's existance... I bonded with several ppl over crazy stuff: being in the room @ the same time, a word, or a sport. Yes, Disney is a company, and YES companies need to make money but please; Would Walt have done this? They DID try to use his heavily quoted "Keep Moving Forward" speech against us. But hours later took it off... Coincedince; I THINK NOT! You can search: Save Vmk on google, or anywhere else for that matter. We VMK'rs do NOt and Did NOT go down without a fight. :) <3 Lily: AKA BrightThunderLime, Bright, Thunder, Snow, cyan lady, Lily, soda, orange, and most commonly known as Kenai :) "Do us all a favor ninja boy, and go jump in a LAKE!!!!"
Morgan ( chatty_chic ) said:
Hey this is chatty_chic from Disney's virtual magic kingdom. I saw what Lily ( bright ) said and all of it really speaks out!
I am actually going to try not to put my money towards Disney because of how they broke our hearts. That shows you they really dont care about us, they just care about the money. And that is a bad example to show to us kids. My signature said, "hearts broken, tears flowing, where is the magic now?" I thought Disney's motto was " we make the magic come alive " Well if thats true, make the magic " come alive "
Also I wanna say hi to bright and see if we can keep n touch, Ace ( AceDylanthebest ) was like the best guy friend ever, and zilial was a really sweet boy friend :)
Morgan ( chatty_chic ) said:
And if you go to vmk.com they are saying " wait until you see what were imagining next "
So alot of people are thinking they are gonna improve it and open it back up, maybe if even do pay to play.
So there is still hope!
Brightthunderlime said:
YAY! hi chat, im keeping in touch w/ DJ (The.only.skater/ millionaire-skater) and Scar/ Alice, and MAYBE brave. i miss brave alot. and im keeping in touch w/ IchigoKid. IDK why ichigokid tho, he still manages to bug me. Lol, id luv 2 keep in touch w/ you, and i totally miss vmk!!! Luv,
The one and only BrightThunderLime (the name that caused a revolution!)
Bright -yet again- said:
OH! and btw, thx chat. im a very annoyed person. My stepmom offered to take me to see the Disney Internet ppl if she came 2 seattle w/ us, but i as like "You REALLY wouldn't want me with the disney internet people right now. BAD IDEA!!!" and hid behind my JBros ppl magazine. I guess its too late 2 tell u chat, but the JBros dont bug me anymore.Joe is hot. -i nearly typed 'hat' LOL- Luv luv LUV you all,
Bright, thunder Kenai, and most normally "Girl" DANGIT!
Cheyenne said:
I don't see why if they open it again they would make people pay a fee. Nothing in life is free right now. VMK was like the only website where you didn't have to pay real money to get stuff for your avatar.I liked that. && most parents WOULD NOT pay for their kid to play a webgame. Unless they were like rich && most parents aren't so rich && wouldn't pay for it.If anyone has to pay to play AVMK you won't be seeing me on it.
END OF STORY!
--Cheyenne
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