Non-Disney Online Games Virtual Family Kingdom Thread

[swimmingneno]

I just registered a mule today and i am not being let in, so we will see how long it is to the next set!

 

[aengus]

The only downside of all these "choices" as quest prizes is that it encourages cloning.

I wonder if thats their intention, in the beginning VMK all but supported it, it helped with the appearance of it being much more popular than it really was. Remember when they hit 1,000,000 players ROFL

 

[PopStar]

Does this game let you keep your stuff after Beta? And is it true that the VMK staff are staff there?

(sorry, I'd rather not read 200 pages of posts LOL)

Sorry for all the questions lately!
Star

P.S. - Oh..that reminds me! I have to change my signature! LOL

 

[aengus]

Does this game let you keep your stuff after Beta? And is it true that the VMK staff are staff there?

(sorry, I'd rather not read 200 pages of posts LOL)

Sorry for all the questions lately!
Star

P.S. - Oh..that reminds me! I have to change my signature! LOL

yes and yes, but not all the VMK staff are there.

 

[TikiIslander]

Not only that, this was the third update today, and they left the others up. Today's quest was good, too.

My daughter joined today (she got on the waiting list yesterday) and she is guest 18186 so I would guess there are curently a little over 18,000 members so far. This sounds much more realistic to me than the previous estimate.

I think this quest was the best so far. There was valuable information, and it seemed a lot shorter than the others as well (maybe that's just because I knew the answers!). A step in the right direction, but I'd still like to see them to make their quests less google-able, or at least provide an information source within the game to eliminate the need to search.

It's pretty interesting that at the end of beta, less than half of the names registered to join the game have returned to create their avatars, yet that 50,000 is still the only number we've seen them advertise about their game. I'd really like to know how many people are actively playing VFK, and I've been trying to use the guest room list and fan forum activity as a kind of gauge. There are usually one or two rooms close to capacity, then the numbers quickly jump down to three or four people in each room. The forum endorsed by the game averages about 25 people online, with its record-setting day (105 people) the day the game opened- another fan forum had almost identical stats.

If I had to guess, I'd say there are a few hundred people playing at peak times. That's not bad for a homebrew. Anyone have a better guess (or actual numbers)?

 

[aengus]

I think this quest was the best so far. There was valuable information, and it seemed a lot shorter than the others as well (maybe that's just because I knew the answers!). A step in the right direction, but I'd still like to see them to make their quests less google-able, or at least provide an information source within the game to eliminate the need to search.

It's pretty interesting that at the end of beta, less than half of the names registered to join the game have returned to create their avatars, yet that 50,000 is still the only number we've seen them advertise about their game. I'd really like to know how many people are actively playing VFK, and I've been trying to use the guest room list and fan forum activity as a kind of gauge. There are usually one or two rooms close to capacity, then the numbers quickly jump down to three or four people in each room. The forum endorsed by the game averages about 25 people online, with its record-setting day (105 people) the day the game opened- another fan forum had almost identical stats.

If I had to guess, I'd say there are a few hundred people playing at peak times. That's not bad for a homebrew. Anyone have a better guess (or actual numbers)?

a better guess? ROFL

who's guess is any better than anyone elses @_@

I did notice when surfing the different sites that often the same people show up in many of the pictures from different posters. That leads me to believe the people in game is not a massive number at least. estimate? not a clue, I think your method of looking at the room list is a good start.

 

[Disney Dreams]

I hope everyone in the US had a safe and happy 4th of July!

Two topics to catch up on....

Map
THANK YOU!!! I do think that it is hilarious that we walk across the map. Map Races 2008: And they're off.... headed towards Stonehenge! Who will win? hehe

I know NOTHING about programming games, but it's interesting to me that we are in a room for the map, and run across the map, literally hitting the exits when we get to the words on the map.

I really don't care if I click, fly, or run across a map. Jut THRILLED to have 1.

4th of July Quest
I am not sure which surprises me more, the fact that we could win a Union Jack for a quest honoring American Independence or the fact that people don't understand how this is BEYOND offensive.

It's a quest honoring the 4th of July. That is an American holiday. Why on Earth would you offer a British flag for a prize??? That's insulting. Yes, America has its roots in Britain and the historical information in the quest should ABSOLUTELY include related facts, but to give the Union Jack as a prize on the day that signifies the Freedom of America? Why would you give out a British flag on the American Independence Day?

I understand that not everyone is American and may not want an American flag. I am not offended by that - it's not your country. However, to have a quest titled "4th of July" and give ANY other flag aside from that of the USA, is just wrong in so so SO many ways. Now, let us pick between today's US flag and the flag from 1776 - that would have been cool.

If we have a quest celebrating the victory of the Allies in WWII, should the prize choices include a Japanese or German flag, in addition to those from the Allies?

It's not about being American or not, it's about giving out the flag of the country from which independence was declared on a day that celebrates that very freedom.

ETA: Oh, and I almost forgot: Gamma testing? ok........

 

[Horse]

But on the upside people on the waiting list are being let in now so if you
were on the waiting list..

I was happy to see them add the new players before they added another minigame for those already playing. I know there were many players patiently waiting since the close of VMK and some of them expressed how disappointed they were when VFK first told them it would be another week. Good job VFK in making this the priority instead.

A Note From The Developers
July 4th, 2008

Our rain date for our fireworks game is tomorrow, July 5th. We are experiencing something of a sprinkle right now

We are still experiencing some issues when switching between levels in the fireworks game.

We don't want everyone to wait around, so we are going to postpone releasing the game until tomorrow when we feel sure we will have the switching correct.

Have a happy 4th of July!

Your Development Team
Virtual Family Kingdom

P.S.
We will have an interesting surprise tomorrow evening, to go with our rain date.

I'm impressed by an update on the homepage at that late time which kept everyone in the loop on the status of fireworks. Even though it was bad news, at least we were informed.

Everyone hold on to something!


I totally think that rocks. Not only were they just honest, but they even could laugh at themselves by making a little joke about it.

Congrats VFK, you just pleased me without any "but" to add.

I agree 100%.

...
It's pretty interesting that at the end of beta, less than half of the names registered to join the game have returned to create their avatars, yet that 50,000 is still the only number we've seen them advertise about their game. I'd really like to know how many people are actively playing VFK, and I've been trying to use the guest room list and fan forum activity as a kind of gauge. There are usually one or two rooms close to capacity, then the numbers quickly jump down to three or four people in each room. The forum endorsed by the game averages about 25 people online, with its record-setting day (105 people) the day the game opened- another fan forum had almost identical stats.

If I had to guess, I'd say there are a few hundred people playing at peak times. That's not bad for a homebrew. Anyone have a better guess (or actual numbers)?

Here are some stats for you that might help. There are three VFK dedicated forums out there that I know of. One has just over 1,600 members, another has almost 1,300, and the third has a handful. I know players often join more than one forum, so you have to allow for the overlap.

Then there are the VMK forums which are still very active. (In fact, I hope Disney is looking at this since I was amazed how many players are logged on any time I've looked) There may be some who are staying with a VMK forum and didn't join any VFK forums yet.

With that info, my best guess is around 20,000 who signed up. I'm sure some players lost registration info and maybe some never got around to joining after their initial registration. Seeing all the new guest numbers in the 18,000's surprised me since I thought we would be seeing numbers higher.

a better guess? ROFL

who's guess is any better than anyone elses @_@

I did notice when surfing the different sites that often the same people show up in many of the pictures from different posters. That leads me to believe the people in game is not a massive number at least. estimate? not a clue, I think your method of looking at the room list is a good start.

I never go by the pictures. Just like this board seemed to show pics of the same groups of players, I'm sure it will be the same on the VFK forums. Plus, you have about 30 players who are on the larger VFK forum for a good part of the day, posting often, and in the game just as much. More than half the members have zero or low post counts. So if the players who are playing for several hours are the ones posting the pics, you're going to see the same players over and over.

 

[aengus]

I never go by the pictures. Just like this board seemed to show pics of the same groups of players, I'm sure it will be the same on the VFK forums. Plus, you have about 30 players who are on the larger VFK forum for a good part of the day, posting often, and in the game just as much. More than half the members have zero or low post counts. So if the players who are playing for several hours are the ones posting the pics, you're going to see the same players over and over.

Most of the forums have the same members just like they did for VMK. Anyone who can find one board, will find the others. They most likely end up being active on one or two tops.

I guess we should have seen this number coming actually. I mean the savevmk.com site had 20,000 signatures the day vmk closed. That site had the advertisement for vfk and most boards were mentioning savevmk site on their boards.

Guess if we had thought about it before it would have been simple to find out ROFL

 

[Vary]

20,000 signatures, sure, but we have no way of telling how many of them were unique (I'd say way less than half, just based on the way these things usually go), and we can't assume that every single person who signed it also signed up for VFK, or even noticed/absorbed the advertisements. But anyway, based on the guest numbering, 20,000 is impossible, and we all know that there's no way that every one of the 18,000 accounts that have apparently been created are uniques.

Which VFK forum is it that has 16,000 members, Horse? The largest I know of has only 1,600-ish. Aengus is right on multiple forum memberships, especially for this crowd: we can assume that the people who are in the game today are the more 'connected' members of the old VMK community; forum-savy early adopters. So we can also assume that there is a higher rate of forum membership for VFK's player base than there was for VMK's - being more likely to have connections outside of the game itself, and to know the value of those connections, they're also more likely to sign up for the dedicated forums where they'll get the best information.

So, judging by the fan site numbers, I think it's a safe guess that a very high percentage of those 18,000 accounts are mules created by those 'power players', who missed out on VMK's beta (or didn't, lol) and wanted to accumulate some serious rare this time around. There are pretty clearly only a few hundred people playing at the busiest of times (sure as heck not the 8,000 that the vfk team claimed were online at once on the first Saturday). There may have been a few thousand individuals who signed up for the game. But the real question is, why did the team choose to inflate their numbers so grotesquely?

 

[Horse]

Which VFK forum is it that has 16,000 members, Horse? The largest I know of has only 1,600-ish. .

So, judging by the fan site numbers, I think it's a safe guess that a very high percentage of those 18,000 accounts are mules created by those 'power players', who missed out on VMK's beta (or didn't, lol) and wanted to accumulate some serious rare this time around. There are pretty clearly only a few hundred people playing at the busiest of times (sure as heck not the 8,000 that the vfk team claimed were online at once on the first Saturday). There may have been a few thousand individuals who signed up for the game. But the real question is, why did the team choose to inflate their numbers so grotesquely?

Vary, thanks for pointing out my error. I totally misread the number on their homepage. Just corrected it. Wow, either I better pop a new set of contacts in or get more sleep.

I agree their numbers are grotesquely inflated now seeing what you pointed out. But is that VFK or greedy players? I did see a player put up on a trade thread 100 of each of the nonbuyable magics from the quest. That means he has 200 accounts. And I've run into several players in the game with five star of each of the quest magics so they have at least 10 accounts.

I'm with you in my doubts that 8,000 players were on at one time. But with all the bugs, no well functioning friends list, and no map, who knows?

 

[GoofyWaterCoaster]

I hope everyone in the US had a safe and happy 4th of July!

Two topics to catch up on....

4th of July Quest
I am not sure which surprises me more, the fact that we could win a Union Jack for a quest honoring American Independence or the fact that people don't understand how this is BEYOND offensive.

It's a quest honoring the 4th of July. That is an American holiday. Why on Earth would you offer a British flag for a prize??? That's insulting. Yes, America has its roots in Britain and the historical information in the quest should ABSOLUTELY include related facts, but to give the Union Jack as a prize on the day that signifies the Freedom of America? Why would you give out a British flag on the American Independence Day?

I understand that not everyone is American and may not want an American flag. I am not offended by that - it's not your country. However, to have a quest titled "4th of July" and give ANY other flag aside from that of the USA, is just wrong in so so SO many ways. Now, let us pick between today's US flag and the flag from 1776 - that would have been cool.

If we have a quest celebrating the victory of the Allies in WWII, should the prize choices include a Japanese or German flag, in addition to those from the Allies?

It's not about being American or not, it's about giving out the flag of the country from which independence was declared on a day that celebrates that very freedom.

ETA: Oh, and I almost forgot: Gamma testing? ok........

Yeah, I agree completely

 

[Vary]

Vary, thanks for pointing out my error. I totally misread the number on their homepage. Just corrected it. Wow, either I better pop a new set of contacts in or get more sleep.

I agree their numbers are grotesquely inflated now seeing what you pointed out. But is that VFK or greedy players? I did see a player put up on a trade thread 100 of each of the nonbuyable magics from the quest. That means he has 200 accounts. And I've run into several players in the game with five star of each of the quest magics so they have at least 10 accounts.

I'm with you in my doubts that 8,000 players were on at one time. But with all the bugs, no well functioning friends list, and no map, who knows?

Oh, I'm not in any way faulting the VFK team for the 18,000 figure not being representative of the actual number of players. The exact player to mule ratio is bound to be inherently difficult to judge, and I wouldn't expect them to release a figure even if they had one. But there's a big difference between the 18,000 accounts we know have been registered and the 50,000 the team have said are playing. And why did they claim that there were as many people in VFK at the same time that first weekend - with absolutely nothing to do, back when even chatting was difficult - as were playing VMK at its absolute busiest times, usually weekend afternoons when there was an especially mule-worthy quest on? That's the inflation I'm talking about.

 

[threeboysmom]

4th of July Quest
I am not sure which surprises me more, the fact that we could win a Union Jack for a quest honoring American Independence or the fact that people don't understand how this is BEYOND offensive.

It's a quest honoring the 4th of July. That is an American holiday. Why on Earth would you offer a British flag for a prize??? That's insulting. Yes, America has its roots in Britain and the historical information in the quest should ABSOLUTELY include related facts, but to give the Union Jack as a prize on the day that signifies the Freedom of America? Why would you give out a British flag on the American Independence Day?

I understand that not everyone is American and may not want an American flag. I am not offended by that - it's not your country. However, to have a quest titled "4th of July" and give ANY other flag aside from that of the USA, is just wrong in so so SO many ways. Now, let us pick between today's US flag and the flag from 1776 - that would have been cool.

If we have a quest celebrating the victory of the Allies in WWII, should the prize choices include a Japanese or German flag, in addition to those from the Allies?

It's not about being American or not, it's about giving out the flag of the country from which independence was declared on a day that celebrates that very freedom.

PERFECTLY said, Dreams. I am totally BEWILDERED by the fact that VFK is offering the British flag as a choice alongside the American flag in honor of our AMERICAN holiday - a day which is set aside so we can celebrate our independence FROM England. What the heck? I don't want the British flag flying on my American holiday. I don't get this at all. Care to explain, VFK?

I understand some that play the game are not Americans, and I certainly have nothing against the British flag. BUT this is an American holiday for crying out loud. I'm getting really tired of everything nowadays having to be politcally correct so as to not offend anyone.

Enough.

(Taking a deep breath...)

 

[aengus]

20,000 signatures, sure, but we have no way of telling how many of them were unique (I'd say way less than half, just based on the way these things usually go), and we can't assume that every single person who signed it also signed up for VFK, or even noticed/absorbed the advertisements. But anyway, based on the guest numbering, 20,000 is impossible, and we all know that there's no way that every one of the 18,000 accounts that have apparently been created are uniques.

Which VFK forum is it that has 16,000 members, Horse? The largest I know of has only 1,600-ish. Aengus is right on multiple forum memberships, especially for this crowd: we can assume that the people who are in the game today are the more 'connected' members of the old VMK community; forum-savy early adopters. So we can also assume that there is a higher rate of forum membership for VFK's player base than there was for VMK's - being more likely to have connections outside of the game itself, and to know the value of those connections, they're also more likely to sign up for the dedicated forums where they'll get the best information.

So, judging by the fan site numbers, I think it's a safe guess that a very high percentage of those 18,000 accounts are mules created by those 'power players', who missed out on VMK's beta (or didn't, lol) and wanted to accumulate some serious rare this time around. There are pretty clearly only a few hundred people playing at the busiest of times (sure as heck not the 8,000 that the vfk team claimed were online at once on the first Saturday). There may have been a few thousand individuals who signed up for the game. But the real question is, why did the team choose to inflate their numbers so grotesquely?

I agree many of the signatures on that site were bogus, no way of knowing how many, but we were a passionate group no doubt, I would like to at least hope 10k were real. Alas, that would be hope, no facts, not even an educated guess.

 

[Vary]

Yeah, I think 50/50 is a fair estimate.

 

[GoofyWaterCoaster]

Oh, I'm not in any way faulting the VFK team for the 18,000 figure not being representative of the actual number of players. The exact player to mule ratio is bound to be inherently difficult to judge, and I wouldn't expect them to release a figure even if they had one. But there's a big difference between the 18,000 accounts we know have been registered and the 50,000 the team have said are playing. And why did they claim that there were as many people in VFK at the same time that first weekend - with absolutely nothing to do, back when even chatting was difficult - as were playing VMK at its absolute busiest times, usually weekend afternoons when there was an especially mule-worthy quest on? That's the inflation I'm talking about.

They wanted 50,000? Their servers can barely handle 10

 

[SharkMeal]

My take on this:
Either way there would have been people complaining. If they just offered
the two kinds of american flags then I guarantee most people would say "im not american why would i want this american flag as a prize?!?" Either way people
would be complaining and either way it's just a quest prize on a game so I
don't really care.

EDIT:
I guess maybe the best prizes would have been the fireworks pin and maybe fireworks furniture
or clothing.

 

[GoofyWaterCoaster]

My take on this:
Either way there would have been people complaining. If they just offered
the two kinds of american flags then I guarantee most people would say "im not american why would i want this american flag as a prize?!?" Either way people
would be complaining and either way it's just a quest prize on a game so I
don't really care.

EDIT:
I guess maybe the best prizes would have been the fireworks pin and maybe fireworks furniture
or clothing.

If they didn't want an AMERICAN prize, why would they complete the quest on an AMERICAN holiday?

 

[funfly]

I think this quest was the best so far. There was valuable information, and it seemed a lot shorter than the others as well (maybe that's just because I knew the answers!). A step in the right direction, but I'd still like to see them to make their quests less google-able, or at least provide an information source within the game to eliminate the need to search.

I enjoyed the quest as well. Personally, I did not google the last 2 quests. Since it's multiple choice and you only go back one step(?) if guessing wrong(not bad considering VMK was go back even more it seems, re-enter rooms, try again...) I just wing it. If I guess wrong, I'm glad I don't have to leave and re-enter rooms.

Map THANK YOU!!! I do think that it is hilarious that we walk across the map. Map Races 2008: And they're off.... headed towards Stonehenge! Who will win? hehe

I know NOTHING about programming games, but it's interesting to me that we are in a room for the map, and run across the map, literally hitting the exits when we get to the words on the map.
I really don't care if I click, fly, or run across a map. Jut THRILLED to have 1.

4th of July Quest
I am not sure which surprises me more, the fact that we could win a Union Jack for a quest honoring American Independence or the fact that people don't understand how this is BEYOND offensive.

It's a quest honoring the 4th of July. That is an American holiday. Why on Earth would you offer a British flag for a prize??? That's insulting. Yes, America has its roots in Britain and the historical information in the quest should ABSOLUTELY include related facts, but to give the Union Jack as a prize on the day that signifies the Freedom of America? Why would you give out a British flag on the American Independence Day?
I understand that not everyone is American and may not want an American flag. I am not offended by that - it's not your country. However, to have a quest titled "4th of July" and give ANY other flag aside from that of the USA, is just wrong in so so SO many ways. Now, let us pick between today's US flag and the flag from 1776 - that would have been cool.
If we have a quest celebrating the victory of the Allies in WWII, should the prize choices include a Japanese or German flag, in addition to those from the Allies?

It's not about being American or not, it's about giving out the flag of the country from which independence was declared on a day that celebrates that very freedom.

I love having a map and like how we can walk/race on it!
Flags- I and some others were not offended, it was a quest where both countries were invovled to the event. Yes, it would have been neat to offer the 1776 flag or current one. However, they gave us a choice of flags, it was up to each individual which flag they wanted. Perhaps they will allow freedom of choice for any other quests like this. (I flew my American flag this weekend and respect my country and it's rights. Thank you to all our military men/women for their work)

I was happy to see them add the new players before they added another minigame for those already playing. I know there were many players patiently waiting since the close of VMK and some of them expressed how disappointed they were when VFK first told them it would be another week. Good job VFK in making this the priority instead.

I'm impressed by an update on the homepage at that late time which kept everyone in the loop on the status of fireworks. Even though it was bad news, at least we were informed.

Everyone hold on to something!
I totally think that rocks. Not only were they just honest, but they even could laugh at themselves by making a little joke about it.

Congrats VFK, you just pleased me without any "but" to add.

Glad to see this also Horse. And keeping us informed as well. Laughter is good for the soul and being able to laugh at themselves is something everyone should do.

About the flags, I thought this quest was very good and I learned some things about US history. I play with my DD and she wanted the British flag. She said it reminded her of Epcot. I thought it was neat that there was a choice of flags. I took the US and traded it to DD. The only downside of all these "choices" as quest prizes is that it encourages cloning.

Cloning was perfected on VMK I thought.

Your daughter said British flag reminded her of Epcot, I could see why as soon as you said that. There used to be red bus with flags (double decker I believe) with Mickey and other characters for meet/greet that went to Worldshowcase Plaza at the back of Epcot. Whether your DD remembers that meet and greet; or just that Epcot ball was before entering the countries in Showcase of which the UK is one of them. (Love the phone booths btw)