Lousy VMK Weekend

[qruthie]

No offense taken. The issue here is that VMK is very aggravating and I'm questioning the sanity of continuing to play. Part of this is because my lousy weekend has continued into this week:

Yesterday, my DH logged in because I told him he needed to try to get the pin, and with only a two hour window of opportunity, time was precious. He logged on, got in the queue after 20 minutes of clicking. Made it through queue (22 mins), into room, on carpet, and one click from winning (he blew everyone else away getting up the sea of seats to the crow's nest), and dc'd. Then, he logged back in, got in the queue after 10 minutes, spent another 20 mins in queue, got in the room, Hula dc'd, Zoo came in and told everyone she dc'd, the rest of them started dc'ing one by one, and he dc'd before Hula even came back. Did it again, about 7:20, was in the room on the river ride, Hula went blank (she was still physically there but not responding), we figured she dc'd 7:30 came and went, 7:31, 7:32, 7:33, 7:34, and you guessed it, dc.

So, out of four opportunities to get the pin or chair, he was able to complete nada. I don't mean win one, I mean even complete game for a shot of winning one. He told me, "No wonder you get so aggravated."

Thank you for your kind words, and I knew you were tongue in cheek. My response was also tongue in cheek.

But, what about the kids who don't know from tongue in cheek? What are they doing about not getting or staying frustrated? Why is VMK being this way? Is it a ploy by Disney to justify starting to charge for it?

As I said, I've been thinking a lot about it, and that's usually not a good thing for me to do!

I'm glad you realize I was trying to be funny. I feel much better, thank you so much for responding.

I agree that VMK can be very frustrating. Most times I just keep plugging along but try to find something productive to do while I'm waiting in line and getting disconnected. That way I at least avoid feeling like I have completely wasted my time. If things are too frustrating I try to take a break. I avoid host game rooms and host trade rooms like the plague. I haven't had much luck getting into those rooms. The few times I have gotten in to those kinds of rooms I have actually won prizes so I do take a chance at the rooms once in a while.

My advice is to figure out just how much frustration and aggravation you are willing to put up with and when you reach your limit take a break. I can tell you are a strong person who has a lot of resolve so you should be able to do this. I know we all want to win that pirate pin or costume piece but maybe it's just not worth battling for. Maybe it's best to work out a trade with somebody. Some people don't have as much frustration as others with this game and are able to get the items much easier. For example, I was helping someone try to get the "red" baseball hat. They tried over and over again and weren't succeeding. I was having no trouble getting the hat so it dawned on me to offer to run one of my mules through the quest and just give him the hat. And that's what we decided to do.

My advice regarding kids is pretty much the same. I think it is important for the parents to step in and help them cope with the frustration and help them decide whether or not they should continue with the game. My kids have played video games for years and often were very frustrated with a particular level. They would be sobbing and screaming at the game yet they would not want to give up trying. My approach was to try to get them to willingly take a break from the game. The sneaky way of doing this is to ask them what they are having a problem with. With my kids, after taking the time to describe the problem and then show me what was happening, they almost always managed to get past the problem area. If they didn't and they wouldn't willingly take a break then I forced them to stop playing for a while. Yes, I mean forced them. If they wouldn't quit after I told them to do so, I shut off the game and/or pulled the plug.

So, I wouldn't necessarily quit the game due to the frustration but I would definitely consider taking a break from playing. That break could range from a few minutes to maybe a month depending on what other things I'd rather be doing.

qruthie (the 'q' is silent)