I have kept quiet in these discussions because I know that most of people here don’t share the same point of view as me on this. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sad that VMK is closing, and I’m going to miss it as much as anyone else. It has become a huge part of my every day life, just like it has for everyone else here on this forum.
For those of you who are fighting for VMK, I do think that’s admirable, and great that you are doing that. Anytime you are fighting for something that matters to you, that has meaning. I respect all of you for what you are doing. Change is never easy, and it’s usually not popular. Losing something that has been a part of your every day life is not easy. The first thing I said to Disvaclub when I saw the news that VMK was closing was, “What am I going to do with all my free time now?”
That being said, I have chosen not to participate in the efforts to keep VMK open. We all have different things going on in our lives, and we all have different things that we think are worth fighting for. While VMK closing is sad, in my life, it’s not important enough to spend time and energy fighting for. I can look at the big picture and understand why Disney has chosen to close VMK.
Disney is a corporation that has been very successful at what it does for a very long time. Disney knows it’s audience. They know what works, and what doesn’t work. They know what is profitable, and what isn’t. They know when something is a viable asset and when it’s time to cut ties and let something lose.
Disney has proven that they can successfully run pay to play games. Look at Toontown and Club Penguin. I honestly think that if Disney thought VMK would be a viable money maker for them as a pay to play game, then they would have done that. But in reality, the number of people who play VMK on a day to day basis is small compared to the numbers that play the other games. We are enthusiastic about our community, and we love it, and we may seem like we have huge numbers, but in the big picture we are a small community. The number of players who play VMK is miniscule when you think about how many people visit the parks, or go to a Disney movie, or buy a Disney DVD.
I have to respectfully disagree with my bff (Hi Dis) that Disney wasn’t losing money on VMK. While it would be difficult to know for certain if a guest is visiting the parks because of VMK, I’m sure that they can tell how much revenue they generate in pin movie sales. Disney knows exactly how many VMK pins were created. Even the movie rewards are a bit more tricky. While some of us say that we bought movies to put the codes in and get virtual stuff, it would be impossible for Disney to know whether or not those movies were purchased because of the rewards, or because people really wanted the movies. I personally did not buy any movies just to get more movie reward codes--any movie I purchased was one that I truly wanted to know. My point is that Disney can tell how much of these items they are selling, and even if every player bought all of the pins, and enough movies to get a couple of items, I still don’t think it would generate enough income to justify the cost of keeping VMK running. Even those t-shirts you mentioned (I forgot about those). Disney knows exactly how many of them were sold, and maybe there just wasn’t enough interest them for Disney to spend time and money to promote them.
And Disney knows a lot about their park guests. Sometimes I think Disney knows more about me than I know about myself. When they were running the in park quests, they scanned our park tickets when we were getting our items. They know exactly how many people got those cards, and how many people were repeat visitors.
As Briar said, Disney does have to answer to their shareholders. I am a Disney share holder--I own over 120 shares of Disney stock (a lot to me, but small to Disney). Disney has a responsibility to their shareholders to be fiscally sound. Major shareholders in any corporation would question any expenditure by a company that costs money that has no visible return. While many of us may have taken trips, bought pins, or bought movies to get VMK rewards, I do not think that those profits could be more than the cost it takes to run VMK.
I myself have taken 9 trips to Disney World, and 2 trips to
Disneyland since VMK open. I can’t say that I took any of those trips were taken because of VMK. I would have taken each of those trips anyways. The VMK stuff was just a bonus for me. I did buy some candy to get reward cards. I have bought no more than $200 worth of VMK pins. I bought some ears and got the cards (although I would have gotten those anyways, as they were gifts for children). At most VMK has gotten me to spend a few hundred dollars over three years.
VMK has had several million characters created over the years, yet as Lily said there are about a quarter million active characters left. Because so many people have multiple characters, I would have to get that the actual number of regular players is somewhere between 25000 and 50000. There were VMK centrals in the parks for 2 years. So many characters were created, but why are there so few still in use? Those are the kinds of numbers that Disney looked at to come to the decisions.
So that, in part, is why I haven't made any efforts to try to keep VMK open. I can understand why it is time for VMK to close.
I could go on but I feel like I have rambled on long enough. Thanks for listening if you made it this far. Maybe Jellyrolls will be eating her bird hat in five weeks if the efforts of this group is successful.
Remember, they can't change their minds immediately. Even if they go through with the closing, our protests may make them announce a new VMK like game before the closing.
They have noticed, now lets get passed the little first line pawns and checkmate the King himself, Iger.
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Right on point!
