Space and Celebration winners announced!

[JoNo]

These are the people who also run Habbo Hotel, so they may be busy doing both things, so I can imagine it could get hectic.

 

[JeanJoe]

It's interesting to me that you find what's disturbing is the poor judging attendance / event running.

That certainly gets to me, but what bothers me more is the longstanding and ongoing issue of VMK:
- favoritism / nepotism
- inaccessibility to giving feedback / getting a response
- lack of common sense / planning / learning from mistakes (which is what you got at)

I think part of the problem is that VMK is not, I think, being run directly by Disney, but by the company Sulake (which has done these shockwave multiplayer things before). I'm not sure how aware Disney itself is aware of the repeated fiascos.

All these seem to be generating quite a negative backlash, which I am astounded Disney has not done anything about.

And the posts suggesting that Disney management be contacted got to me -- I suspect that someone higher up than the person on the other end of the "Contact us" VMK black hole is going to hear from people soon. I was brooding a little this morning about what would happen to Bezoar and/or JeanJoe here if a public letter was posted on multiple boards, and mailed to Disney public / guest relations. Probably a rather foolish move. But I'm not known for being particularly wise.

Just some random thoughts, that I believe are making me sound decidedly unmagical.

I have some mixed thoughts on this. I can see where they are trying BUT sometimes there seems to be a lack of common sense. I would have thought they would have learned from the parade fiasco but apperantly not.

The weird thing to me is that Disney would never allow an event to go off unless every t was crossed and every i dotted. I understand what they are trying to do but I think what they really need to do is just stop doing these special events untill they can work out the mechanisms to handle them!

 

[TwirlerGirl]

Bezoar,

That's a great idea, enter only 1 contest, 2 days of judging, Time slots by username. Gee now this sounds like how they do real contests - I'm thinking they didn't have enough staff to cover the number of rooms entered. Even limiting things to first 100 rooms on signup sheet, or even a sign up sheet with an assigned # -- you are entrant # 254 ....This ramdom selection is more like a lottory so call it a that.

 

[TwirlerGirl]

I'm going to add another layer to this . I personally know several people who design games for a living, started right out of high school and are now in early 20's. I love their creativity, they are fun to be around but lack responibility that grows with years of living. Some of this may be part of the problem but they should learn from their mistakes. Not giving up yet, I'm hoping a little more time will do wonders.

 

[WDWTigger72]

Wanted to reply to Belle1997 regarding her response on how did I receive an honorable mention if my room was not judged. You may want to reread my post earlier which stated "VMK staff came into my room during the "Theme: Space" competition and only spent about 15-30 seconds within room, enough time to explain my theme around space and have them say good job (No special treatment here I want to point out). The VMK staff then immediately moved onto the next room to judge.".

There have been some great suggestions here regarding these competitions, and once again I recommend they be communicated to vmk staff effectively. I have sent emails numerous times and have never heard from that black hole, but I still went through the appropriate process. There have also been some posts regarding Disney always crosses their T's and dots their I's (Totally, Untrue). There have been some events I have attended at Walt Disney World that were a total fiasco. The September 2002 Pin Celebration (Imagination Theme With Figment) was complete chaos, and hopefully some of you attended so you will totally understand what I am saying. People preordered pins, statues, paintings, etc that were never received because of ordering problems. I personally never received my figment pewter statue and called Disney's Events Department, and they actually sent me their own statue which was the only one left (which was very nice of them). This event went a few days and I remember the first day waiting outside the park for opening. All pin event customers then went into the park and waited in another line...This started around 8:00AM/9:00AM and we were in line until roughly 12:30PM (3 1/2 to 4 1/2 Hour Wait). To say the least my family and I were not happy because we were taking a vacation and spending that much time in one line is no fun. This whole experience definitely turned me away from pin collecting, but from other posts I have read Disney has definitely learned from these experiences and made better preparations around their events. You can pretty much plan as much as you wamt, but when it comes down to the actual situation your plans may actually go a different direction. Event staff usually learn from the experience and make better improvements so lets hope their are improvements for the next competition.

There have been great ideas proposed and I wanted to comment on some of them:

(1) There should be dedicated times regarding judging your rooms. This is a great idea which I totally agree with and hope they implement. Ok, Here comes the opposite side of me (my black sheep side). What happens if there are emergencies and vmk staff are pulled away, or if vmk staff lose their connection like we all do at home and have to sign back on. Your dedicated time slot could easily slip 2 or 3 hours with 1000 rooms to be judged...You then have many complaining because they had to wait so long within their rooms to be judged. There is always a catch 22, but there definitely is a better way.

(2) There was another suggestion regarding filling out a registration form for the room competition. This is another great idea and suggestion which I think should be implemented. Once again let me put on my black sheep cap here. What if vmk staff stated only 250 rooms would be judged so first come first seve basis? There maybe vmk members on vacation returning day before, or people working who cannot take time to sign on, kids in school during school year, etc. Since there were over 1000 rooms (roughly 300+ not judged) you would now have people saying they never ever pick my registration form. Here comes the favoritism suggestion...

(3) Divide competition into adult group and children group (i.e. or even age groups). There was a 10 year old suggesting this on the vmk fan site, and I totally agree with this as many adults have complained about the children restrictions within game. This was a fabulous idea coming from a ten year old, and I suggested they communicate this with their parents help. Ok, Black Sheep again. There are unfortunately some greedy people out there and I can see this happening. What happens if a 20 something signs up and selects his birth date as being a 12 year old, or what happens if a 12 year old signs up giving birth date as 30 something old? Everybody knows here this situation will happen and is very unfortuante.

I guess what I am really attempting to communicate here is there is always catch 22 situation to everything, and you can never be 100% certain that you will satisfy every consumer/customer. You all have provided some great ideas, you really have and I do not think we disagree with each other, but these things definitely just need enhancments and improvements...It does not happen over night. For example, Look how slowly some improvements to vmk game have rolled out....Also, This celebration was much better than that parade during beta which was really a stress test.

P.S. Someone discussed knowing developers in high school that are now in their early 20's. I actually found that post really funny because I have worked within computer field as senior systems engineer for roughly 8 years. I have definitely done some development work myself (Visual Basic, Scripting, ASP, Etc) and worked with many developers. There definitely seems to be some customer service lacking, or some common sense lacking sometimes depending on who you meet I am very glad to say I definitely do not fit into these categories and definitely have common sense and street sense I just thought it was really really really funny that post because I know exactly what your saying...

 

[Tinkerbelle739]

VMK is just an infant just out of Beta! They are certainly working out the kinks and the site will only get better.

I too was disappointed in not being judged on Saturday but no one twisted my arm to be there. I was lucky that so many disers came to keep me company. So many that I actually had to boot many guests to keep room for the judges! I have not gotten my pin yet. If I dont get one, maybe I wont join any more contests or maybe I will, but not expect anything if I do. It is a free game that I think most of us enjoy.

VMK staff if you read this: The girls need hula skirts!!!

 

[pumpkinfish]

VMK staff if you read this: The girls need hula skirts!!!

Hear hear!!

 

[taximomfor4]

Yes you are right I am mad about the events that transpired not that I did not win. That is why I said I probably have said too much because people are going to think I am bitter when I am not.

I am mad more at the lack of DISNEYNESS that VMK producers are showing in this what is supposed to be a game for kids.

And I hope that my friends know that is where I am coming from and not from bitterness of not winning or from not getting a silly magic pin.


Mal

Mal, since I was on msn messenger with you, occupying ourseves for those 3 hours waiting to be judged, as the messages kept coming in to "stay in your room , the judges are coming"...I know where your frustration really was coming from!

So, yes, your friends DO understand! I was never judged either, after working hard to get my themed room in order. It was upsetting for sure.

Just wanted to say, "I get it!"

Beth

 

[shiregirl]

yes and she is one of VMK inner circle.

I am so incensed at the moment. I had better cool off before I say something I will regret later, not like I have not done that before.

Mal

Am I? I never knew.

 

[JeanJoe]

yes and she is one of VMK inner circle.

I am so incensed at the moment. I had better cool off before I say something I will regret later, not like I have not done that before.

Mal

Am I? I never knew.

Actually, I'll have to sort of disagree on this a little bit. Shiregirl has been the recipient, like me, of post deletion / thread removal by the moderators at that other site. We talked about it weeks ago, and both just dealt with it.

Unlike me, she was able to put it behind her and is still able to interact with them.

Welcome Shiregirl

 

[ScroogesNephew]

That's the beauty of burying ouselves layers deep in aliases and "screen names". We can say and do anything! Hey, I know who YOU are! . . . I think . . .