Has the closing of VMK effected how you feel about Disney?

[Avalon_toon]

I know there is a huge amount of unhappiness and disappointment about the closing of VMK - I'm just wondering how this has effected everyone's overall love of Disney? Will this effect how you feel about Disney movies or going to Disney theme parks? How do you feel about Disney now that VMK is gone?

 

[aengus]

I can say at least for now, that it has. The statements I read from the journal ariticle and the LA Times article left me bitter.

I will still visit their themeparks, but I will not be participating in any game that falls under WDIG. At least not until the current management team has been removed.

 

[VirtuallyMe]

Well- I do still love Disney- I am upset with this decision- and can say that although we could scrimp and save and make the trips we planned for this year- both DH and I have said we will put them off for later. So you can say we cancelled 2 trips to Disneyworld.

My 3yo son got his first day of the closing yesterday- he went to the computer to "play his favorite game" and couldn't get on- he was agitated that the game was "broken" and when I finally told him Disney stopped the game it doesn't exist anymore it, it is all gone. He broke down and cried. He was upset that he couldn't take pictures of animals or run around tomorrowland- (he loved tomorrowland and would go from room to room and watch others for a long time for a 3 yo) He went into his room and threw Mickey Mouse out of his bed- said he could "sleep in the time out corner"
Right before he went to sleep he asked if he could still dream about the dirt space place [Mars off road]. I told him that was perfectly fine- and a good thing to do.

My older daughter 10yo- stopped playing VMK a week before it closed. She said, "it is pathetic that they are doing this- and I can't watch" So she chose not to be around much. She also has boycotted the Disney Channel and has been watching Nick and Discovery Kids and Animal Planet instead. She says, "Disney doesn't care about me. I don't think I care about it much anymore."

DH had gotten away from daily play of VMK earlier in the year. When he heard the announcement of closing- he stopped playing all together. I think he may have logged on 3 times since the announcement. He thinks he won't get involved in any other online game ever.

None of us will be visiting Toontown or Pirates. We have visited Fairies- but well after about an hour of that- what else is there to do- not much fun. Cars we have yet to see- and that may attract my son. DD plays Webkins and some other games she was told about by friends.

Overall- yes I still love Disney- the feeling and experience can't be beat- but I think I'm a little bruised from all this and not quite as eager as I was before. I tell you- I have NOT purchased any disney movies since the announcement-and I usually got 1 a month, but I have gone to see some in theaters. In talking to my son about his birthday- I steared him away from a Cars theme or Mickey Mouse theme- and suggested something outside of the Disney World Realm... And I proudly sported my Marvin the Martian Shirt last weekend- and shoved my Mickey one away

 

[VMK_Mouse]

Yup!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1812080

 

[KrazyPete]

Disney has disappointed me before and they will do it again. Disney never really offered a justification for closing VMK that made any sense to me. That makes this especially hard to swallow.

I remember when they announced that "Home on the Range" would be the last hand-drawn animated feature. I didn't hold it against the CGI people. I love Pixar's movies too. And now that Pixar's people are in control in the animation department at Disney they have the hand-drawn movie "The Princess and the Frog" in production. Disney does make mistakes and, as management shifts, sometimes they realize it and fix it. So they may come back around and give us something that is similar to VMK.

I'm playing PotCO and I like it, but it's a totally different kind of game. Disney has completely lost both of my kids to Webkins now. There's not a game that all three of us can play together anymore but I won't boycott other Disney products because of it. We can still enjoy the movies and parks together. I hate losing VMK but I'm not going to cut those things out of my life too.

 

[Kasiks]

Actually, VMK gave me a even more bad image of Disney due to the unfairness between hosts and some players so I guess that the closing of VMK for that point of view is a good thing but it still changed the view I had of Disney, so now, I am feeling like how can I get back the love of Disney I had when I was a kid, and when I thought Disney was wonderful

 

[disvaclub92]

We have always been Disney fans well before VMK. VMK was a place where the girls and I could extend our love for the parks at home. Not going to stop going to Disney.

I have been searching for a game that the girls and I can play like we did in VMK. There is none, unfortunately. The girls love to build and I have found no other game that gives them that ability. Those were awesome times, I will cherish them forever. My oldest moved on to dedicating more time to her sports, but Swim still played occasionally not much because of school.

 

[SkippyPaul]

My family has always been big disney fans. But in view of how the close of vmk was handled, so cold and calculating it sure has effected not just scooterjake and I as players but the entire house. We wont visit disney this year as usual, and want nothing to do with anything disney. Funny thing, they hurried and promoted their other "cushy tooth decay" games in hopes that we would all flock there but instead we go where the majority of the vmk community is. You cant tell me they didnt feel the effects of that. Ppl had their hearts torn out over vmk closing and you cant take that lightly.

 

[Belle1997]

My love of the Mouse has not changed. But the wonderment of Disney has. I am sure I will get it back but will take time. My love of Disney was the innocence of Childhood that even us big people could recapture. The feeling of believe in your dreams and anything is possible. Really took a bruising with this closing.

This will be the first year we will not be going to the parks after our Disney cruise. I have stopped buying DVD's. The reason we are still going on the cruise is because we found the food far above the other cruises we have done. Also the cruise line does it right we feel Like VIP's.

I will not trust Disney's on line games. But I also think Disney knows what it has lost but after the decision was made really could do nothing if it truly was a contract issue as many suspect. Disney's first and foremost goal as we have learned for on line games is product placement "marketing" which is a shame for they are reaching the 6-8 year olds who are very vulnerable to wanting the newest thing.

I just find it hard to believe Walt would have approved this strategy. Walt's dream was for family to be able to play and enjoy their time together. VMK was really Walt's 21st Century vision. Little did we know until the closing announcement how many families played this game together bridging the distance. I do understand Disney need to make a profit for all the investors. But at the extent of the major tears it caused, the broken hearts not sure this decision was worth it. I always thought Disney was magical today I am jaded.

But I hope people invested in the kleenex brand for the month of May I am sure profits were up significantly

 

[cteddiesgirl]

I can say at least for now, that it has. The statements I read from the journal ariticle and the LA Times article left me bitter.

I will still visit their themeparks, but I will not be participating in any game that falls under WDIG. At least not until the current management team has been removed.

Exactly my feelings.


VirtuallyMe: That post just broke my heart. I hate to see such young children being heart broken and disillusioned like this.
I, too have yet to buy a Disney movie since the announcement. Even from the movie club with their offer of buy 1 get everything else 60% off. I also haven't even watched any of my Disney movies.

I just haven't felt like it. Disney has shown both by their actions and their words that they just don't care about us.

 

[steamboatpete]

We used to buy every Disney movie that came out. Now, we're content to put 'em in the Netflix queue and just watch 'em once. Also, since the kids don't feel the love for Disney anymore, we're going to cancel our Disney cruise and save about $2000 by rebooking on Royal Caribbean. I'm not sure whether we'll renew our APs, but we live so close to Disneyland that we probably will. However, next time we go to Orlando (which will be trip #6), we will visit the Universal parks for the first time. Before the girls got their feelings hurt by VMK closing, going to Universal on a day when we could have gone to Disney would have been almost unthinkable to them.

 

[hogwartsdropout]

I am a Disney cast member right now and that's why I felt like I couldn't fight just as much as I would've liked. It has changed my opinion of the Disney internet team as I really cannot understand why they would get rid of a successful thing, a promotion or not. They have broken many hearts, mine included.

 

[Blooch]

DH had gotten away from daily play of VMK earlier in the year. When he heard the announcement of closing- he stopped playing all together. I think he may have logged on 3 times since the announcement. He thinks he won't get involved in any other online game ever.

i barely logged on after the announcement myself, i did one day to get myself banned for a day and that pretty much was the end for me, i did log on the last day though, waiting for a, HAHA WE GOT YOU, VMK WOULD NEVER CLOSE, but never got one.

 

[redshoe]

It's affected me in much the same way it has everyone else. I haven't wanted to watch any Disney movies or listen to park-oriented podcasts, any of the stuff I usually do. I will go see Prince Caspian this week, but that's kind of the exception...as an avid and lifelong fan of the Chronicles of Narnia books, that movie really doesn't smack of Disney to me. They just happen to have been the ones to buy the movie rights. I have to say they did a seriously decent job with the last one, and as a book lover, I'm EXTREMELY picky about movie adaptations of books.

The true Disney stuff, though? It's all falling very, very flat with me right now. It will be a long time before I bounce back, and I may never again completely reach the level of love that I had for all things Disney before this happened.

 

[MissVMK678:0)]

I cant say that i love disney now.
But I am Going to disney in 3 weeks.
I LOVE the parks but the online games maybe not.

 

[JulyGirl]

I have been a Disney fan all of my life. I am deeply saddened by the closing of VMK, but I still love Disney. If I happen to love another game designed by Disney, I will try not to get so attached to it.

 

[Narnian_Princess]

I won't stop enjoying Disney theme parks or the like, but I have been disenchanted with them. I want nothing to do with their internet group at all. If they come out with VMK2, then I will try it, if not, no more Disney internet games for me.

I won't stop going to Disney movies if they look good (I love Narnia, obviously) but I won't go just because it has a Disney label. They ruined the magic for me, and I know that next time I go to WDW all I'll be thinking of is how they smashed my dream. I'll still go, but I'll be sad.

 

[mouseman68]

I can honestly say that it has not affected me a bit.

I love going to the Disney parks and will forever go to the parks. I will buy fewer movies as I do not need the reward points. I will even buy fewer items at the park as I do not need those precious vmk pirate items from the pin purchases or whatever items that needed to be purchased to obtain items to be the envy of the Kingdom.

My main group of vmkers have moved to another place where we can hang and that is all that I would of missed from vmk.

So I guess I have moved forward and making room for newer and hopefully better things. See ya later vmk!

 

[BriarRosie]

I still love Disney, with the exception obviously of the WDIG.

I haven't joined Toontown Online or Pirates Online. I don't really intend to, either. I don't think I will join anything that WDIG puts out from now on.

But as I cut myself off from WDIG, I don't hold the rest of Disney responsible for the bad feeling I have for WDIG.

Therefore I will go to the Disney parks.
I do want to take another Disney cruise because it's a great travel product.
I will continue to see the Disney films and buy the DVDs.
I will buy the books and music.
I will continue listening to my favorite Disney podcasts.

Just don't count on me to try any of Disney's online worlds.

 

[Kasiks]

The girls love to build and I have found no other game that gives them that ability.

Did you try with Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 or 3 ? They are not mmo but good to build