Dear VMK... - I've waited a year to say this, so here it is...

[Disney Dreams]

Dear VMK,

First I would like to thank you for all of the very very cool, creative, clever, and fun new items that we are seeing. They are great fun and although the sticker shock is killing many of us, we are having lots of fun. Your team has the job of thinking up items and themes, as well as creating them which I know from being a producer of creative products myself, is not easy. Well done!

When I started VMK in 2006 I did not understand why there were no items to allow me to create a room that expressed my celebration of the Jewish holiday, Channukah, aside from the ever-so-rare Star of Mickey pin which was very generously gifted to my by a (also Jewish) friend that I made early on. Then Holiday '06 rolled around and WOW!

Dreidle chairs, a new Channukah pin, and a cute little stack of presents with a menorah - wait.... How many candles? 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 Oops! Uh, VMK, that's not a menorah. Thank you for the very cool thought, but - that's a basic candelabra.

How fun for those who celebrate Channukah to see holiday goodies representing Channukah along side a Mickey Tree, a wreath, and an assortment of pins that all show Christmas items! However, the key to most things in life is in the details. When the Channukah presents were created, did ANYONE take 2 minutes to research (or ask ANY Jewish person), "How many candles should this item have?" The answer is not a nit-picky detail that should just be pushed aside. The answer is 9 and it is 9 because of the entire reason for Channukah itself.

I have held off from publicly sharing my disappointment about this for a year now because there really was nothing much that could be done, mistakes happen, and it IS just a game.

I spoke in game last year with several VMK staff about the fact that many of us who observe Channukah and play VMK were thrilled to see Channukah items, but were truly disappointed that the menorah wasn't a menorah. I was thanked for mentioning it and was even told that it would be passed on to the design team (which I will be honest, happily surprised me given what I can only imagine must be a small team given VMK is a free game). I DO know of Jewish kids that play VMK that expressed disappointment in the error. I understand how "things work" and understood that it was probably not feasible for the staff of a free game to remove the item, re-create it, and put it back out again in the span of a few weeks. Fair enough. Live and learn.

Flash forward 1 year. The DAY the Channukah gifts hit the VMK shops I had friends sending me notes. "Yay! Channukah items!" The ONE thing I thought: Please VMK, have added two candles. Sigh, a year later, still 7 candles. The difference this time around? We know that you know it's wrong. We know that you have had a year to fix it. We know that it's still wrong. With all of these wonderful, cute, beautiful new items, would it be too much to ask to fix the menorah?

If you are going to create an item you are not familiar with, PLEASE take the time to get it right. However, mistakes happen and we are all human. My issue is NOT about the mistake. However, if you get it wrong, and decide re-release the same item a YEAR later, don't you think it should be right?

Thank you,
Dreams (aka Jegrezo)
- Dreaming of Menorah, not a Candelabra in VMK -

 

[Cardinal]

While I wholeheartedly agree with what you are saying, there is a possible reason why the menorah is a simple candelabra. Perhaps VMK doesn't want any strong religious themes in the game? There are wreaths, Christmas trees, and presents in the game, but those three things don't have a widely recognized (if any) religious meaning. While I do wish that the Jewish holidays finally got some respectable representation, I wouldn't keep my fingers crossed. This is the Disney company, after all

 

[Disney Dreams]

Thanks Card. Just 2 small notes on your comments:

While I wholeheartedly agree with what you are saying, there is a possible reason why the menorah is a simple candelabra.

If this is so, then it should not be called "Hannukah Presents."

There are wreaths, Christmas trees, and presents in the game, but those three things don't have a widely recognized (if any) religious meaning.

As an individual who has been Jewish my entire life, I can assure you that the items you listed above have representation of Christmas (a religious holiday) to those who doesn't celebrate it.

It was an error that should have been fixed the 2nd time around.

ETA: There was also a Channukah pin last year which pictured a menorah on it. This was a nice inclusion in the Holiday 2006 pin set and I believe VMK deserves it to be noted that there are 9 candles on that menorah.

 

[Cardinal]

As an individual who has been Jewish my entire life, I can assure you that the items you listed above have representation of Christmas (a religious holiday) to those who doesn't celebrate it.

I see where you are coming from, but trees, circular plants, and boxes have nothing to do with religion. The three items represent a superficial understanding of a religious holiday.

 

[Spongeblair]

I am not disagreeing with your point but there are many items out there which need fixed. The amount of new items that have been on sale or put out in another way and all the new updates take a lot of time maybe adding 2 candles were not just high up on their list.
~Spongeblair

 

[Jasonbobdude]

I see where you are coming from, but trees, circular plants, and boxes have nothing to do with religion. The three items represent a superficial understanding of a religious holiday.

Wouldn't nine candles be the same thing? It isn't really explaining what they mean, but people still know what it is. It's not even a huge change from seven candles, and it makes it accurate.

 

[BriarRosie]

I see where you are coming from, but trees, circular plants, and boxes have nothing to do with religion. The three items represent a superficial understanding of a religious holiday.

I know you realize that Santa Claus never visits the houses of non-Christian children. That being said, it's obvious to everyone what the Christmas decorations represent. There's no reason to dismiss the validity of Jegrezo's complaint.

And I have to agree with Jegrezo that it can offend people when symbols of a holiday are misrepresented. Personally, as someone else who is Jewish, I don't take offense over the mistake, but I will put fault to the group of people who designed AND approved the design. Heck, I'll even give them the same nickname I jokingly gave Aengus:

Knuckleheads.

I am surprised that the mistake not only wasn't caught, but the item wasn't fixed a year later. It surprised me because the different crates had a design change about what, a year after they were in the game? Doesn't anyone remember they had to re-design rooms because the crates were suddenly formatted differently?

I thought VMK could possibly fix this, and I would be really appreciative if they do. I use the "fake" menorah gifts as lights in my VMK menorah for my Hanukkah room, so I overlook the flaw because I found a way to represent the menorah accurately.

 

[Mnementh]

I'm not Jewish, but I still absolutely agree with what Jegrezo has said.

Granted, the vast majority of us have no idea how long it takes to design items. It could be more difficult than we had ever imagined. Add to that the fact that there are quiet a few things that need to be fixed on the game, as Spongeblair mentioned. However, regardless of those things, I would think that if VMK were going to fix ANYTHING, they would make something that is upsetting (and in many cases, offending) players of the game, they would make fixing that their top priority, rather than things that are just minor annoyances. Regardless of how long designing takes, re-designing couldn't possibly take longer and it certainly couldn't possibly take more than a year. How could something like that be so blatantly overlooked?

At the very least, why re-release these presents knowing that it contained an incorrect Menorah rather than creating some new Hannukah-themed item? It's just upsetting people farther to see that nothing has been done when you re-release an item containing a major mistake.

As Jegrezo said, the items everyone has come up with and released this year are wonderful, and I don't discount all of them, but fixing the Menorah problem should have been a higher priority.

 

[SorcererDonald16]

Although I think this is really a side issue, Santa does indeed visit many children who are not Christians. Much like the Easter bunny visits kids who come from non-Christian families. Many people celebrate Christmas but celebrate it as a commercial holiday without the religious aspect. I have had and still have many friends growing up, in college, and so on who had Christmas trees, wreaths, etc. in their homes but weren't Christians and were actually atheists. So, no, the Christmas tree, wreath, and so on has nothing to do with the actual religious Christmas holiday. Some of us who celebrate Christmas as part of our religion do in fact use the trees, wreaths, and so on, but they are not a symbol of our faith. They represent the commercial holiday. In contrast, nativity scenes and other such things do represent the religion. But I digress as this isn't the point of this thread, obviously.

I would like to think VMK did some research before they released the Channukah presents. Maybe it was a mistake or maybe they had design problems getting 9 candles to work correctly, I don't know. But I do know that even though I'm not Jewish, I have many Jewish friends and I would like to think if their religion is portrayed in game it should be portrayed accurately. I think all of us, no matter what we believe, should expect to have our faiths portrayed accurately if they are portrayed in game. If VMK is going to release something with a clear religious theme and background, it should be done correctly. If not, don't release it. It's just a shame for people who take their faith seriously have to see something important to them represented incorrectly. I don't think it's too much to ask for VMK to fix it, or better yet, get it right the first time. Hope it gets fixed soon. Happy Channukah, friends.

 

[Goofy_Bob]

...but trees, circular plants, and boxes have nothing to do with religion. The three items represent a superficial understanding of a religious holiday.

Actually they are quite religious... just not Christian. Pagan would be closer... but I don't think the folks who celebrate their winter holy days ("holidays") would have referred to themselves as Pagans. I could go on, but it's too off topic.

...If VMK is going to release something with a clear religious theme and background, it should be done correctly.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

I can't get into VMK to check, but didn't they change the spelling of Channukah in the presents' title this year? I don't mean to comment on the spelling per se (the word doesn't translate well to English anyway, so spelling preference is more subjective than usual), I only mention it to point out that they are aware the item exists... it's not like they've totally forgot about it.

I myself am not Jewish. I was raised Christian, though as an adult, I don't "practice" (my personal belief is that religion does to spirituality what politics does to government). However I do respect peoples' Faiths. And futzing around with those, putting out token/poorly planned artifacts to represent the brilliance of that Faith is very poor form.

Good luck DD. I hope VMK gives you and your religion/holiday the respect that is deserved.

 

[EyoreFANS12]

While I wholeheartedly agree with what you are saying, there is a possible reason why the menorah is a simple candelabra. Perhaps VMK doesn't want any strong religious themes in the game? There are wreaths, Christmas trees, and presents in the game, but those three things don't have a widely recognized (if any) religious meaning. While I do wish that the Jewish holidays finally got some respectable representation, I wouldn't keep my fingers crossed. This is the Disney company, after all

I am not disagreeing with you dreams but you dont see a jesus with a cross on sale,, but if you put chanuka as the item "name" i think it should have the appropriate amount of candles.

 

[Blooch]

Yeah, i brought up this point to myself as well, but then, what about kwanza, and all the other end of the year holidays, so we should be glad Chanuka even got a mention.(Im jewish myself aswell)

 

[queenj]

i an not a religious person and believe holidays for what they appeat xmas os for santa easter for the bunny ect but i think that most ppl would be offended if the there were no trees or if they were a diffrent color. i was raised in a cult and have walked away from ppl throwing religion down my throat but i RESPECT ppl and thier beliefs. if the menorah is wrong they should fix it. they also need to fix the banquet hall where they use the word courtesans which means hooker or a sex slave. i respect that dreams spoke out and she SHOULD stand her ground. it is wrong. they need to fix it. NOW i teach my children to be respectful and i think it neds to get fixed, but of course that is only my opinion

 

[Disney Dreams]

Everyone's comments are appreciated and interesting to hear. I would just like to clarify that my entire point is this: There was a SIGNIFICANT error on a very specific item that was created in game.

Having knowledge of this significant error, VMK could have either fixed it at some point in the last 12 months or simply not re-released it. However, the choice was made to re-release it without fixing it. Given the item, I feel this was a poor choice.

As a side note: Whether or not a menorah belongs in the game is a completely different discussion. Historically speaking, a wreath is a Christian symbol. DIS Boards probably isn't the place for the "religious lesson" AND it's WAY off topic, but if you're interested, a Google search will lead you to answers I am sure.

 

[AmberDaze]

We discussed this when they first came out with their "menorah." I totally agree.

 

[KrazyPete]

Personally, I don't see the big deal. But then again, I'm not Jewish.

However, as a group of people that makes up something like 2% of the American population I think I would be quite pleased to have the Star of David on a pin, another Channukah pin, a Dreidle and something that is widely recognized as a Menorah in the game. While the holiday of Christmas is obviously recognized in the game, Christians get no religious iconography at all.

7 candles is referred to as a Menorah according to Wikipedia. In fact, it refers to 9 candle variety as The Hanukiah. So while the 9 candle version may be specifically associated with the holiday the 7 candle version seems to be a more common as a symbol of the Jewish faith in general.

Wikipedia: Menora - Hanukiah

It probably sounds like I'm being argumentative but I'm really trying to understand why this is so important that it requires a public campaign to fix. I still "glove" you Dreams. I don't mean any disrespect and I sincerely hope this works out for you. I also hope it doesn't create a controversy that causes the game designers to enforce an even more strict policy in regards to religious expression in general.

 

[Cardinal]

There's no reason to dismiss the validity of Jegrezo's complaint.

Wow Briar, that's really hateful. I know that you don't particularly like me, but why would I ever dismiss anyone's opinion, let alone their faith? I think that I made it perfectly clear in my first post that

I wholeheartedly agree with what you are saying

 

[oogabooha1]

i am christian, so therefore i do not know the holiday of hanukah well (sorry if i spelled wrong)
but i do think that vmk should treat ALL of the holidays equally
i mean, 50% of holiday items is christmas, opposed to the 25% jewish
and by the way, have you checked the hanukah pin from last year for accuracy?

 

[WWEDUDE]

have you checked the hanukah pin from last year for accuracy?

This pin does have 9 candles, so as far as I know this is accurate.

 

[EyoreFANS12]

Dreams,
I have full respect on why you are upset. If I was jewish, sure i'd want all 9 candles of the menorah there. if you are going even have chanukah decorations why not make it with th correct amount of decorations. That might even be offensive to some people. VMK should really change hte candles if some people are jewish and want chanukah stuff to have on there then VMK should go right ahead and sell more stuff. To me being a Christain selling christmas trees is not much because that is not what christmas is about,, AND 7 candles on a menorah isn't hanukah it is far from it because it isn't the excat amount to some people it might just seem like a candle because it has a lack of 2 candles. I really do hope VMK changes this I know it would be greatly appriciated.


P.S. We can say clay on VMK know.

Good luck with the problem,
~Eyore