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

[DenverVal]

My whole family are lifelong fans of the mouse, to a degree that my extended family thinks is wierd. We are DVC members, and I have no plans to change that, no plans to bank my points, no plans to rent them out. We will go back to Disney. We have a cruise booked for 2009, and I fully intend to sail.

But right now I'm not feeling the magic.

VMK was my connection to that fantasy world I loved. I loved the music, I loved the artwork, I loved the rides I built, I loved riding other players' rides. I loved playing fireworks. I loved being able to play games with my kids - hearing the squeals and comments from another room was an extra added bonus while playing pirates or ghost or fireworks with them, feeling pride of (her) accomplishment when my 11yo beat me soundly at pirates. Running Skype and talking with my real-life friends who live in different states made building the water slide ride just a little less challenging, and was a whole lot of fun. Walking through the virtual Main Street whenever I wanted to made the time waiting between visits to the real Main Street seem less long.

There's no way to reclaim that magic. They took it away.

 

[VirtuallyMe]

Here is a link to the "Vmk Archives" page http://vmkarchives.oxyhost.com/, it is not as interactive as the real game but your son would still be able to visit his dirt space place.


Hope this helps.

Thanks so much I will share it with him and put a shortcut on the kids computer when he wakes up from his nap

 

[RichmondTiggerFan]

I still plan on going to the Disney parks & Disney Store (especially since I love WDW & they're not responsible for VMK or its demise.)

However

I will not go onto Toontown, Club Penguin, or any other paid Disney virtual community. After what they did to VMK and Richmonder (my character), I have absolutely NO desire to give my hard-earned money to WDIG. (The only exception to this would be if they brought back VMK as it was, except as a 'pay to play' site.)

 

[DisneyDaughter06]

Overall, I still love the mouse and all it stands for but I have a very bad image of the internet department.

 

[DisneyDaughter06]

Overall, I still love the mouse and all it stands for but I have a very bad image of the internet department. I will have nothing to do with any of the Disney Internet Group games.

 

[rickyratsmom]

Well I for one feel somewhat betrayed by Disney. I put a lot of time and energy into VMK and for what?? Now all that hard work is reduced to ashes. I had planned on a Disney cruise with my granddaughters, but now I am going to plan something else. Carnival offers great cruises with many activities for kids and is much cheaper than the Disney cruise. Sorry disney you just lost a customer or shall I say lost four. Well I learned my lesson. Don't trust anything, too bad, it is sad but I will go elsewhere. Perhaps a Caribbean or Hawaiin vacation ( was planning WDW ). But going to the park would remind me too much of VMK and make me sad, yet again. Sorry but for me I am at this point Disenchanted with Disney. Never thought that would ever happen, but then again never thought I would be betrayed... Sorry but my love for the ears has only brought me sadness now. Who would have known that something that I loved for most of my life would bring me so much sorrow...Bye bye Disney, you will NOT see me any time soon.

 

[lillorna11]

She says, "Disney doesn't care about me. I don't think I care about it much anymore."

"Disney doesn't care about us.", how could they? What would walt do.?

 

[Loves Disney]

At the risk of falling under the minority of people...

While I am sad that VMK is gone and while there are aspects of this closing that I question, I knew VMK wasn't going to last forever and from the day I started playing the game back in July of 2005, I was very well informed that it was a promotional game. Like all promotions, I knew it wasn't going to stay. I was, honestly, surprised to see how long it did last. The game was a lot of fun to play, I met some awesome people, made great friends, and I think it was just an all-around great game...like all changes, it's hard to accept so suddenly, but you kind of have to.

With that said, the closing of VMK did not change my opinion on the Disney parks. I was born into a Disney-loving family and from as far back as I can remember, I have always been a fan of the Mouse. What makes me love Disney is not the commercialism or the marketing aspect. I did not fall in love with the parks because of the way it was run or the people working behind the scenes. I fell in love with the Disney parks for all the memories my family and I have there. The attractions are so much fun, the restaurants are excellent, the themeing is outstanding, and the story of how Walt made his dream come true all just tug at my heartstrings. The closing of a virtual online game cannot change what 19 years of magic has given me...it just can't. Even if this game had never told us of its promotional value or even if they never announced the closing and just closed on us...it would still not change my opinion of Disney. It will take a whole lot more than VMK to take down my Disney spirits.

My opinion on VMK is another thing...for my own personal opinion, I couldn't care less that the game closed. I used to be in love with this game until life intruded and took me away from it for a year...but in that year I grew apart from it so by the time of closing, I had lost most of my interest in the game...HOWEVER, to read about how it meant so much to so many people...it just breaks my heart entirely!! While the game wasn't that much to me by the time of closing, I know it meant just SO much to other people and so in that sense, I feel the way VMK handled this closing was a bit intense...they didn't seem to close the doors lightly, it seemed like they just slammed the door shut in the faces of thousands of people - men and women - children and adults.

In short, VMK is one thing to me and Disney is another. I cannot connect them together.

 

[BriarRosie]

Well I for one feel somewhat betrayed by Disney. I put a lot of time and energy into VMK and for what?? Now all that hard work is reduced to ashes. I had planned on a Disney cruise with my granddaughters, but now I am going to plan something else. Carnival offers great cruises with many activities for kids and is much cheaper than the Disney cruise. Sorry disney you just lost a customer or shall I say lost four. Well I learned my lesson. Don't trust anything, too bad, it is sad but I will go elsewhere. Perhaps a Caribbean or Hawaiin vacation ( was planning WDW ). But going to the park would remind me too much of VMK and make me sad, yet again. Sorry but for me I am at this point Disenchanted with Disney. Never thought that would ever happen, but then again never thought I would be betrayed... Sorry but my love for the ears has only brought me sadness now. Who would have known that something that I loved for most of my life would bring me so much sorrow...Bye bye Disney, you will NOT see me any time soon.

As a veteran cruisegoer who had done both Carnival and Disney...

Disney's got a far superior cruise product, IMHO. Granted, I enjoyed my Carnival cruises, but I found myself liking the Disney cruise MUCH better in different ways.

I keep VMK locked up in the Disney Internet Group closet, not to infect the enjoyment I have from the rest of the Disney company.

You won't see me on Toontown, or Pirates Online, but you'll see me in the theme parks.

 

[NeonSunrise]

I feel betrayed by Disney Corporation and have come to realize my loyalty means nothing to them.

Taken from my letter to 15 "suits" at WDIG, including Mr Iger. This is not the letter in full, just a portion of it.

I suspect this will cause some controversy - these are my feelings which I am rightfully entitled to.


I am sure that you are being flooded with emails about the decision to close Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom. I am not writing to you with a plea that you keep it open. I love VMK and will miss the game, but I do understand Disney's decision to focus on other projects. That is business. I thank you for the time you gave us in the Virtual Kingdom and will miss it dearly. I love all things Disney and there is so much more for me to enjoy.

The purpose of my correspondence is to ask that Disney reimburse me for all of the money I recently spent on virtual codes in your parks that are now useless to me. I visited WDW in December and purchased over $450 in pirate pins simply to obtain codes. I am not a pin collector and really did not care for the design of these particular pins. I purchased them solely for obtaining codes for VMK. This is $450+ that I spent in your parks in addition to $2K+ in other souvenirs as well as the $6K vacation. I am gutted that I spent this much money on these codes and now it is like sticking $450 in a shredder. YIKES!

Disney has labeled VMK as a promotion. Though it was never stated on your website that Disney is a promotion, I respect your decision. Had Disney told me that my money was for promotional purposes only, I would have never spent it in the fashion I did. I purchased these items with longevity of VMK in mind.

Sirs and Madams, I ask you to understand that I am not looking for anything for "free". I do feel that the Disney Corporation has stolen from me by selling me items that are now being taken back. I feel that the company that receives more than 1/3 of my annual salary each year has cheated me and has taken advantage of my love for all things Disney. I am not heart-broken that VMK is closing (though I will miss it dearly), but I am heart-broken that Disney Corporation is supposed to be the place of Magic and where dreams come true and I feel cheated by something I love most on this earth.

I visit Disney yearly, every year and a half at most. I have a single room in my house that is tastefully decorated in Artwork, snow globes, sculptures, pictures, books and so much more that I have purchased from your stores, parks and merchandising group. This room has more than $25,000, yes that is right, $25,000 in Disney merchandise in it. I am currently planning a December 2009 visit to WDW for my family here in XXXXXX and XXXXXXXXX. We are also planning to take a Disney cruise in 2009. The outcome of how this is handled will strongly sway my decision for my 2009 vacation. I am asking that Disney Corporation do the right thing by me for my loyalty to your company and label.

I do not mind if you return the funds to me in a manner which ensures it is used on Disney Property/Merchandise. I will gladly send you the cards and pins back so that you do not feel I am obtaining something for free. I am not looking for anything for free, just for Disney Corporation to do what is right and return to me what you are now taking back.

I have not recieved a single response. This message has been sent to Disney Corporation 6 times over the past 2 months.

We cancelled our cruise and booked with another cruise line. We also decided that our party of 12 will not be visiting WDW in 2009, we have decided to visit another destination.

Closing VMK was a business decision and I understand that. I will miss it very much. Each day that passes I think of my VMK friends and look forward to being able to find them in VFK, but I will move on from the game closing. I do feel like Disney has misled many and that is a sore spot with me. I was raised to be honest and do what is right. If you take something from somebody or hurt somebody, even unintentionally, I was raised to give it back or make up for it, no laugh in their face. I feel like Mr Wadsworth and his teammates are laughing in our faces right now; that leaves me feeling betrayed and somewhat jaded. I have no desire to visit the unMagical Kingdom or any other park right now.