A "heads up" for parents of young children who play vmk

[Lauralee]

I'm going to try to explain what happened to me in the game just now as "correctly" as I can so as not to activate the censor.

I used advanced mode and entered an empty music game lobby. Another female character had entered just before me. As I was finishing playing my mix, she proceeded to "come on" to me. She addressed me by my title and asked if she could tell me something; I said yes as long as it was nice. Then the harrassing began. My only responses to her were "?," "what?" "why tell me that." Her last comment before she left was that she wanted to go out to dinner with me. I immediately used the Call For Help button. After explaining as well as I could, I got this response from vmk:

Please do not abuse the Call For Help System. You may place the member on ignore or leave the room they are in. This is for emergencies only, otherwise you may lose play time. Thank you - VMK Staff.

Arg! I am an adult. What if this enounter had happened to a child, and that child did the right thing and called for help? I was, essentially, scolded for thinking this was an emergency. Does VMK not consider sexual harrassment an emergency? This was the first time I had used Call For Help as this character (have only used it a couple of times on my main character), so I don't think abuse of the system was the problem. I then immediately used the contact us button on the vmk home page to let them know in "regular" language what happened.

You could have knocked me over with a feather! I had expected a response saying something to the effect of - we will look into it.

Parents, please be aware.......

 

[Princess~Fun]

Wow, I would be annoyed. Really though, there's not much we can do.

 

[catycatcat4]

vmk needs more staff but knowing disney they are too cheep too do it

 

[Maleficent2]

I think you did that quiet well actually, Lauralee.


No, you are right they needed to address that situation immediately not only was that harassment what if you were a child.....

VMK reads these boards and I will be sure to forward a link to this thread on to them as well.

Mal

 

[Mckey]

Editted because I'm using my husband's computer since mine started to smoke this morning when I tried to do the quest lol- and I didn't bother to even check that it was him logged in on this computer and not me
VirtuallyMe

Wow that is disturbing...

Hopefully you will get a better response in the Contact us message- at least I hope they will look into it- did you include date/time of incident the person's title and all that -the things they say in the newsletter...

Glad it was an adult who it happened to and not one of our Dis kids but I suspect that if it happened to one it will happen again. I realize that some people probably do abuse the report button for silly reasons but this was one of the cases that report should be used. and you get a lovely response that basically says if you continue to abuse the report function you can lose play time... talk about shooting the messenger.

This is yet more reason for the in-game report function to have no dictionary limitations and to have a "pick a violation" portion... when the report is made by clicking on the person it should automatically log in date/time of occurance and who the report is on and who the report is being made by- if the limitations to the dictionary were limited then you could easily say that you were being sexually harrassed and to please check conversation logs for that room

These are the things that need to be monitored more closely- and sadly it seems that this sort of thing is what gets the ignore or leave the room advice- Yes that is great advice and I tell my daughter that all the time- but at the same time if someone started doing this and as her mom I got on the computer and reported this person I would not want to be told to "just ignore" them...

I could go into a reverse "just ignore" rant but won't do that now lol

Here is hoping that some of the improvements they implement in the future are functions that allow for more appropriate reporting of bad- ban-able behavior- sure most of these people will just create a new character- but at least it will slow them down a little.

 

[Laurabearz]

Lovely.... just lovely.... it saddens me, it really does. I was in my room and a kid asked me if I was in middle school for real. Before I had a chance to say, Hey it's against the values to ask that.......... Blam we were both booted from my room and a pop up came up saying dont share information....
A minor infraction... My DD was in a room where a one kid said they were from Can ah duh and another said I am from South Carols line ah and She left... but it had been going on for a while before she left... No pop up.

 

[cat_herder]

I immediately used the Call For Help button. After explaining as well as I could, I got this response from vmk:

Please do not abuse the Call For Help System. You may place the member on ignore or leave the room they are in. This is for emergencies only, otherwise you may lose play time. Thank you - VMK Staff.

I've had this happen too. Talk about adding insult to injury. First they say they want you to want abuses, then they don't allow you to report it properly with the limited directionary, then they don't believe you when you do report it. VMK may have some great graphics designer but I find them lacking in most other humane areas like compassion and many basic human skills.

 

[Tampa]

Yeah somebody called me a so up id dumbo he add. Watch out parents, they're everywhere... we're doomed.

 

[Nanoer]

vmk needs more staff but knowing disney they are too cheep too do it

Have more staff doesn't help much if they still don't give the proper attention they need to.

 

[shadow pirate]

That's messed up. Both what happened and VMK's response to the situation. What really bewilders me is, like others have said, VMK has this sense of hipocracy and not actually giving a hoot what's going on. Your dictionary is limited, but theirs is vast (this one kind of makes sense.) They ask you to report anything against VMK values, and when you do they ignore it/ turn their wrath towards you instead of towards the person who made the offense. Then, they tell you to stay out of conversations leading up to a VMK Value break, and waringing or reporting you instead of those who are breaking the rule. Bewildering. Very bewildering.

 

[Loves Disney]

This only makes me wonder...what do they consider emergencies? If you really think about it...in any situation on vmk, they could say use the ignore button or leave the room. I honestly think something needs to be done about this problem and when I get time, I am going to write a nice little letter to vmk explaining how if I were a parent or had younger siblings, I wouldn't want them to call for help about a serious issue such as this and get a response telling them that the situation isn't that bad. If you think about it, a lot of kids who play are rather young 4-6 grades. I have known a 9 year old to play...

...kids this young will not fully understand that it is just a game and could take these responses rather "educationally". If getting a message back basically informing him or her that the situation is not bad enough, the kid might tend to think that it is an "OK" situation. I know it is the job of the parent to raise the child into knowing what is good and what is bad and I certainly understand that the world is filled with such things...but if we can limit it as much as possible, I think that is a good thing.

It shouldn't be considered okay under any circumstances for sexual harrassment to be regarded as nothing of an issue. This is a Disney game and many kids really trust Disney as a role model almost. To be basically told on a Disney game that sexual harrassment isn't enough of an issue, isn't a very good thing.

 

[Arfy]

oh jeesh,
that is... idk even how to explain it.. I do kind of agree that if vmk wants to keep it a very safe game they do need more staff doing actual jobs. not just pressing a button once you report someone for something as wrong as this incident. I think vmk should actually write to you in responce to the report and over check everything before they give you a responce. I have had this happen plenty times before and i i just report and leave the room. I don't bother saying anything to the other player that harasses me because i don't want to have that person to try to make up a reason to report me and get me banned. Even the taken thing is gross. they day i was banned i remember VMK_Smiles flipping out on the girl because she was like "oh boys come get me" and Smiles was just like " uh vmk is not a dating service if you want a boyfriend get one outside of vmk. maybe in the real world" I actually think that is one of the times i saw someone doing taken get banned from vmk. but more on your story.... im sorry that they did this to yet another person.. but banning inisent people is quite alright while they should be looking for the actual Vmk Law breakers. Hope to hear if you get anything else from vmk

 

[JulyGirl]

I had to report someone for the first time yesterday. I was showing a guest, most likely a child, what to do in the music lobby and a boy character popped in and started talking about pulling down his pants and many other things not worth mentioning here. I got the same pop up about only using the report for emergencies! Hello? I thought that was a pretty urgent situation.

 

[Tampa]

a boy character popped in and started talking about pulling down his pants and many other things not worth mentioning here.

I've never seen such filth in the game, but if I saw that I'd be pretty sickened and would probably round up the crew and leave the room. Fast.

I know similiar phrases spawn a warning. Like if your rocket couch is not in your room and in fact, in your pocket.

This game truly is a bold step for Disney advertising and park interacting. And as much as it drives me crazy, I hope it never leaves.

 

[birdmom]

The vmk help button is a joke I used the help button once when during a game a person started to say she was going to shoot everyone! All I got is the "help is for emergencies only" response as well. I WONDER WHAT STAFF THINKS AN EMERGENCY IS?

 

[AllisonY2K]

medical emergencies?

 

[AmberDaze]

JustMonkeyMe once called me to the Esplanade lobby because a girl player was talking about making a baby. She kept going on and on about it and was saying very inappropriate things. I used the emergency help button and said that "This player is saying things she should not!" The pop up from vmk said they would look into it, and then I told JustMonkeyMe and her friends to leave the room.

 

[aliceblue]

This is exactly why I've stopped using the report button. It sounds to me as if they don't have enough staff to actually read the reports they receive; there must be an "automatic response" default much of the time. (I've had the same experience with "Contact Us", where it's been quite apparent that my email hasn't even been read. )

Not that it helps much, but don't take it personally if you get one of these "responses" back for your trouble.

Now, what I really wish we could have in the game is a "room mute" button, to protect other players when we see someone being obscene, or asking for/giving out personal information. Ideally, this would work in every room, even public ones. Too much power? Possibility of abuse? I'd take temporary disruptions of conversation any day over waiting for "help" and knowing that young players are continuing to be exposed to this stuff in the meantime.

 

[PrincessTiff]

I no longer get on VMK. Getting hit on by under-aged VMK players is disturbing.

 

[bopper]

So in real life if someone was making you uncomfortable, would you just sit their and take it or would you leave? I guess what vmk is saying is instead of listening to somebody else's nonsense, as soon as you do not like it, either leave the room or click on ignore. I agree it would be ideal if vmk could respond quickly to each and every report, but much like parents with their children, sometimes you would like the kids just to walk away from their sibling if they are getting bothered.
So I agree that the best way to deal with people is to leave, then they are not getting the attention they want.