Mass Mailings?

[Candyman9585]

oh ok ...ill check that out thanks!!

UPDATE: i just got back from my post office...they've got that 24 hour machine, and i sent out a bunch of letters including the one for the orlando sentinel, that was pricy, for the registered, certified, return receipt, but who cares!! any effort to save VMK is fine with me!!!

 

[piratesLifeYoho]

oh ok ...ill check that out thanks!!

UPDATE: i just got back from my post office...they've got that 24 hour machine, and i sent out a bunch of letters including the one for the orlando sentinel, that was pricy, for the registered, certified, return receipt, but who cares!! any effort to save VMK is fine with me!!!

you are an amazing person!!

 

[Candyman9585]

anyone else out there want to help out?? send me your e-mails!! and i'll send them in the regular mail!! i'm planning a few waves of mailings...so now's the time to send your thoughts over, even if it's short...anything helps!!

 

[LuckyDesi]

Thanks for all that you are doing for the cause. You are amazing! I am grateful to you.

 

[LuckyDesi]

Incase anyone still doens't know what to say, like me until a little while ago, her is my letter. The error free letter, unlike the one I sent to you Candyman. LOL

I wish to express my disenchantment with the Disney Company, more specifically the Disney Internet Group. On April 7, 2007 the Group stated that Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom would be closing its doors on May 21, 2007. This announcement surprised not only the players but also the independent contractors that work closely with the players. The contactors hadn’t been informed of the decision to terminate the game and in effect their jobs. However Disney does not seem to care. These contractors are "expendable" just like the players.

I am one of those players. VMK is so much more than just a game for a few hundred thousand fellow players and me. It is a true online community, a support system, where everyone feels at home. This community teaches some great values about fairness, friendship, teamwork, responsibility, etc all while having fun. The VMK Values. Disney Magic.

Those of us who least understand the decision to discontinue the online game are the children and their families. This is one of the few places that children could be safe and learn skills in a, for the most part, positive atmosphere. Many parents have expressed that VMK is the only place they could all hang out and have fun together. Isn't that part of the Disney magic?

Everyone talked about their wishes to visit the Disney parks to experience the real thing. A lot of people experienced some of the "magic" first hand at the theme parks but many more would never be closer to the Parks than this game, yet everyone felt the game was worth their precious time because of the players closeness, the inventive mini games, immersive atmosphere.

Disney advertises dreams, magic, and togetherness. Guess what is being destroyed in the hearts of all players right now? Many players have spent thousands on trips, pins, cards and other specifically dedicated VMK merchandise. Was it wasted money, time, and effort?

VMK Values is the foundation upon which the game rests and Disney Internet Group went against these values when they ambushed the players this past week with the closing announcement. Where will these exhausted people take their business now? Anywhere but Disney.

 

[Dreamytime]

I'm posting my letter. Please let me know if you need my return email address and the like
(Hugs Boy for doing this!!)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing this letter in response to the disappointing news that VMK will be closing its virtual doors on May 21, 2008. Not only has VMK been a place for many to have a good time and make lasting friendships, but it has provided a service to my family which is quite marvelous.

I began playing VMK truly by accident. My nephew and godson was undergoing therapy for muscle weakness in his hands. My sister-in-law was told one of the great ways to do therapy at home, which would not seem like therapy, was to have Reed play video games.

She was obviously concerned about what video games to which to expose him, especially on a daily basis as suggested by the doctor and therapist. She tried a couple, Club Penguin, ToonTown and VMK. He grew bored of Penguin, did not like ToonTown, but when he played VMK he was instantly enthralled because it was just like being on one of their family vacations.

She began playing with him daily, watching his little hands grow stronger, not only with the exercises and therapy offered at the clinic, but through the mouse movements and clicking of the mouse as he toured the Virtual Magic Kingdom. With each game of pirates, a game which he started slow to excel in, to each click getting his daily credits, he was strengthening his little fingers and hands. Sometimes he would spend hours playing VMK after his homework was over, something his mother could never get him to do with regular therapy prescribed by the doctor and therapists.

Well the day came where my sister-in-law couldn’t play as much as she liked. She had just given birth to her third child. She didn’t want to leave him alone on the web, my brother wasn’t available until later in the evening to play, and it looked like Reed would not be able to continue to play VMK.

This is where I came to find out about VMK. I logged into VMK from school after a phone call from my brother asking if I had time until my sister-in-law felt better to chaperon Reed around VMK. I was given a virtual tour of this Magical Kingdom by Reed. This was November of 2006. The eBay promotion was going on to advertise VMK as well. He showed me how to do his Treasure Detector Magic, killed me more than a few times in Ship Battle, and was so happy to not only be the veteran showing the newbie the ropes, but was ecstatic to be able to continue to play his favorite virtual game.

Even after my sister-in-law had time to play with Reed in VMK I was still offering to play with him! I was experiencing a daily trip to a Disney Resort. I was remembering all my previous family vacations, I was purchasing pins online to outfit my little avatar and my nephew with VMK stuff, I was planning spring break vacations with friends to complete VMK quests, and was persuading my family and friends to go to Disney Parks to make new avatars for me and my friends at school! I know that my family and friends probably paid more on VMK for Reed's therapy than our HMO did! But, it was ALL worth it.

Reed has long completed his therapy making him a normal 11 year old boy with wonderful gross and fine motor skills. He even to this day will play vmk when he has time between golf lessons, basketball practice, and other club activities. His enchantment with the magic offered at the Virtual Magic Kingdom has never grown dim. The atmosphere of fun, friendship and creativity made him want to log in every day. He was never the wiser that VMK was really ‘therapy in disguise’.

I also caught his enchantment, was enthralled with the magic of a family and kid safe space to grow in fair play, creativity, and friendship. Even when Reed wasn’t able to be online, and I was between classes, I found myself logging into VMK for a daily dose of the Disney Magic – the Disney Experience that could not and can not be replicated in another game. It is truly like a daily walk in any Disney Resort Park.

I still play VMK each day. I still log in for the wonder and experience of the Disney Magic. I play games, hang with online friends, build rooms, and all the while look around with wonder at a ‘game’ which allowed an 11 year old boy to become a more complete young man. I support the game with word of mouth and daily playing in honor of this service to my family. But mostly I play the game because it is fun! (I’m a 21 year old college student, in her last semester before graduating – not exactly your target audience!)

When I called my sister-in-law and mother, telling them of the decision to close VMK, my sister-in-law was in tears and my mother was choked up as well. Our family knows the ‘accidental service’ provided to us by this game. Who knows where Reed would be now had he not found and been attracted to the VMK experience.

I know that for my family the game is much more than ‘a game’.

Please reconsider your decision to close VMK. Even though there are other online alternatives, none of them come close to the experience that VMK provides. The "atmosphere" – the Disney “experience” – of VMK is just unique and will not and can not ever be replicated in another online game.

VMK is special, allow this online game to touch and heal other families like my own.

Sincerely,
Michelle Pennington

 

[Candyman9585]

great! thanks guys for sharing! i'm putting together another mailing later on today and i'll include these with it.



Anyone else out there willing to share for the cause??

 

[Candyman9585]

So i sent out another batch of letters. I sent certified return receipt to Bob Iger, The imagineers, and the dinsey internet group. as well as regular letters to all the other addresses. i will not back down!!!

Any one else with letters they'd like me to mail in??

 

[piratesLifeYoho]

bump this up!

 

[Disney Dreams]

There are so many threads to post what we have sent where. I have shared this on the others. I will put it here too.

My letter has been sent with the following photo to:
ABC in Los Angeles
NBC in Los Angeles
CBS in Los Angeles

and local stations:
KTLA 5
KCAL 9
KTTV 11
KZLA 13

Up next... local papers.

Here's my letter:
Dear -----,

I would like to take a moment of your day to tell you about an amazing place you may not know exists.

This incredible community is a place where children and adults anonymously socialize side-by-side everyday, sharing laughter, tears, life stories, and friendships closer than imaginable. It is a special place where people connect in incredible ways. It is a place where kids and adults alike play, relax, and visit with friends everyday.

It’s a place that children with Asperger’s have found to be pivotal in helping them build social skills. Other parents of children with various illnesses have shared that in the real world other kids treat their sons or daughters as “weird or freaks,” while on VMK they have formed amazing friendship in which they are not subjected to these labels. Adults and children alike who are fighting cancer and other ailments have found this incredible place to be their escape.

As a married, 30-something, self-employed, college graduate trying to grow my small business, I start my day several times a week in this amazing place talking with a friend who is in Chicago about his day. Being a business owner himself, our friendship has not only provided the usual joys that accompany such a connection, but he also offers business advice, making our talks near-networking sessions.

When my Chicagoan friend gets called away by customers, I often remain in this incredible place, to visit with other friends that I have known for almost 3 years. I may share laughs with a young adult in the United Kingdom that I have found a unique connection with or maybe I will hear about the happenings of the day in the world of my of my teenage friend in Canada who manages to make me smile almost everyday with her kindness and light-hearted spirit. I am lucky to know her. Inevitably, adult friends who live from Neveda to New Jersey and have become great friends that I speak with everyday step in to join us during any of these visits and share in the laugher, advice, or random fun that may evolve. They are sunshine in my every day.

Where is this amazing place? It can be found at www.VMK.com. The Virtual Magic Kingdom is an online community built by Disney, initially to promote Disneyland’s 50th birthday several years ago. While Disney relied on this little Kingdom to generate revenue from Disney fans worldwide through related-product purchases (including trips to both WDW and Disneyland), what they did not count on is the amazing, unique, seemingly boundary-less friendships that would form and become a part of REAL people’s daily lives.

They did not count on adults who are bound to wheelchairs finding a virtual freedom like never before through their little game. They did not count on children battling cancer having 1,000s of people worldwide offering support, friendship, and laughter through their marketing mechanism.
They did not count on adults dealing with the struggles life can issue connecting with each other for daily laughter and escape through their little virtual world.

And earlier this week, when they announced that they were going to close the Virtual Magic Kingdom, leaving over 250,000 characters behind in a land that can never be visited again, they did not count on the fact that the real life humans behind those avatars would fight for life for their virtual counterparts. They didn’t count on 12 year olds asking 40 year olds on game-related message boards for assistance in writing a letter so they could share with anyone who would listen to their desire to keep their favorite place on the internet alive.

They didn’t count on the fact that people will do amazing things to keep friendships that cannot exist elsewhere (due to their anonymous nature that keeps kids safe) alive by doing anything they can to try to stop the gates to the Virtual Magic Kingdom from locking at 10pm PST on May 21, 2008, including establishing an online petition at www.savevmk.com that would gather almost 4,500 signatures in less than 48 hours.

What can the consumers of a free online game do when an entertainment mogul decides to shutdown their Funville? Fight for its survival! Why did Disney not offer its players at pay-to-play option? Why do they offer this for other on-line games but not for the Virtual Magic Kingdom? Why do they not see the amazing power and almost unbelievable affects that their little virtual world has on the human spirit of people of all ages, nationalities, and genders worldwide? Why do they not understand that in the midst of their Year of a Million Dreams, incredible dreams are happening everyday by fellow human beings at vmk.com?

I ask you to help us fight for our virtual world to stay alive. Disney has reportedly turned down the offer to speak with news agencies that have attempted to ask about this. For the children that find an unheard of confidence in VMK, for the adults that find unique connections with peers that they would otherwise not know exist, for anyone that has ever shared a smile with someone on the other side of the planet through this incredible place, please, help us show this entertainment giant that their little Virtual Magic Kingdom is worth saving.

If you would like to speak with me personally, please feel welcome to contact me at --- --- ----. I would invite you to create a character to experience this amazing place for yourself, but sadly earlier this week Disney took away the ability for anyone to join their incredible virtual microcosm of WDW and Disneyland as the first step in ending the on-line daily dreams with the closure of VMK.

Thank you for your time and anything you believe your wide-reaching abilities can do to generate awareness of the 250,000 virtual avatars that are fighting for their ability to continue to bring smiles and joy to many real people worldwide. If only Disney would let them.

Sincerely,
xxx (known as Jegrezo in the Virtual Magic Kingdom)

P.S. If nothing above moves you to feel that this human interest story is anything more than the closing of yet another online game, allow me to leave you with a direct quote of an entry from the online journal of an 11 year old VMK player who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy which controls voluntary movements, such as crawling, walking, swallowing and breathing:

“My favorite web site, Virtual Magic Kingdom (VMK) is closing May 21st. I'm sad and MAD! I can't live without my friends on VMK. PLEASE sign my guestbook like a petition to SAVE VMK for me and my friends. Pass my site on to everyone you know so they can help too. I love VMK cause I can WALK, TALK, EAT, DANCE, SHOP and play checkers all by myself.

PLEASE HELP ME!

Love,
Madison
p.s. VMK is GERM FREE too!
p.s.s. and no one stares at me there.”
(source: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/madisonreed)

 

[Candyman9585]

Great! i'll add the picture in with the other letters i have. the pictures are great for adding another dimension to the battle for our VMK.

 

[Chedstro]

Dreams, your letter touched me so very much. Moved me to tears, it did.

Thanks you and huge hugs my friend!

 

[Sillyup2]

I sent you a PM for a letter. Please get back to me if you can send it or if you can not send it

 

[Candyman9585]

Dreams, your letter touched me so very much. Moved me to tears, it did.

Thanks you and huge hugs my friend!

ugh...me too. i haven't shed a tear these past 2 days...but now i can't stop crying. it's so nice hearing everyone's stories...it's just sad that we all have to come forward and bear our souls in hopes that we can keep our beloved game alive.

 

[LuckyDesi]

DisneyDreams that is an amazing letter that you so eloquently wrote. I am teary eyed.

CandyMan I'll have some flats ready in a day or two.

 

[SorcererDonald16]

I'm in graduate school and still (barely) hanging on to my early 20s, and yet there are very few hobbies in life that I enjoy more than VMK, a truly magical Virtual Magic Kingdom that replicates the real Disney theme parks and all that magic that goes with them..

Since I began playing the game in November 2005, I have become more of a Disney fan. It has helped me have fond memories of the parks during the long time periods between trips, but it has also made me miss WDW more and made me want to make more frequent trips there. I have since become a yearly visitor to WDW, when in the past I had gone 3 or even 4 years between trips. I had been eagerly hoping for more real VMK pin box sets, since I collect the VMK cards and items, and am a burgeoning real life pin collector too. There are so many financial opportunities for Disney in this game, and many of its players are happy to spend money on things related to it. Myself and my family included! If only we could be given the opportunity once more.

There were no words to describe how I felt when my little character stood next to the "Partners" statue of Walt and Mickey for the first time. I got chills, much like I did when I was able to sit under a portrait of the wonderful Mr. Disney in a Club 33 room preview. Walt Disney is one of my heroes. He was an innovator, a genius, and a true magic maker. He thought of families first. VMK is a true family game, where people of all ages can come together and learn, laugh, and have fun.

The fireworks in WDW make me cry happy tears every time, and in this game I am able to play a fireworks game and use fireworks magic. I can dress like a princess like I did on Halloweens as a child. I was so excited when I traded for a "Belle dress" (yellow princess outfit); as a lifelong bookworm, I always most identified with her character and have fond memories of seeing the movie when I was 9 years old. In VMK, I can go visit my favorite Disney character, Donald Duck, in a Central Plaza shop window. I can play Haunted Mansion and love it, even though I'm still too much of a scaredy cat to ride the ride. I can hang out in the Castle Suite room I won, taking comfort in knowing that while I'll probably never win a night's stay in the real version, at least I have my own little virtual version. More importantly, I can forget about the real world for a while and just have fun with friends and games, and have a chance to live inside the Magic of Disney. I have been playing for over two and a half years now, and it never gets old. The magic is still there, if only it would be allowed to continue. I have made so many wonderful friends in game who share my love for Disney and love for all of the things good in the world. I will not just be losing a game when this closes, but I will be losing people I consider dear, dear friends. This is true for most of us in the game.

In VMK, I can be a person with no real problems, no real worries other than how to earn the credits I need to buy the new items. It embodies the Disney magic in so many ways, especially the wonderful Hosts such as Hula, Phinny, and Lily. Most of my Host events have been with Hula and Fin, and I think so highly of both of them. Every staff member I have ever encountered, and especially these three, really seem to care about us the players. I personally feel Walt would be very proud of each of them as they truly embody the Disney magic. Many of us are heartbroken at losing them as well, people we have come to know and love over the years.

VMK is much more than a mere game. It is an experience, a community, a magical extension of Walt's Magic Kingdom. I pray that it will not go away. It will leave a huge hole in my heart that no game, Disney or not, will ever fill.

Please reconsider this decision to close the game on May 21st. Please allow the Magic to continue.

Sincerely,
Kelly (aka SorcererDonaldD in VMK)

 

[lizbeth374]

ugh...me too. i haven't shed a tear these past 2 days...but now i can't stop crying. it's so nice hearing everyone's stories...it's just sad that we all have to come forward and bear our souls in hopes that we can keep our beloved game alive.

me too!

 

[Candyman9585]

bump

 

[Candyman9585]

Update: Tonight i sent out 25 more letters for our cause!

Anyone else have letters they want to post on here or PM me? I have seen in other threads letters that people are posting, but i don't want take them to use for the mailings without their consent, so if anyone posted on another thread and wouldn't mind me using them, just let me know and i'll so looking for it!!

 

[piratesLifeYoho]

i have more notes for you to send! will forward them to you soon