Non-Disney Online Games Virtual Family Kingdom Thread

[cteddiesgirl]

Paying for the parental controls doesn't make sense to me either. However, I think it's a little premature to talk about blocking discussions of the game based on this one comment. Can I just ask where the concern for the children is at when people talk about Sims, Second Life, Gaia, Maplestory et al? It really seems like VFK is held to a different standard and I'm curious to know why.

Actually, I can kind of understand it. VFK promotes it's self as being family friendly. The other sites really don't. In fact, in many of those threads, it is explicitly stated that they are not kid friendly sites.

To me, this is the difference.


I think that many of us that has concerns about the safety of VFK should probably contact them and let them know our feelings. I would pay to loosen controls of my game play. But would much rather have those controls already in place for everyone for free.

 

[lindseysmomma]

I think we are all getting ahead of ourselves with the parental controls.

At first I read it the same way you have to pay to protect the kids but maybe it means that if you pay you will be able to unlock the parental controls and parents will be able to control what there kids can/can't see and say. If you don't pay then everything is like it was in VMK, with the built in dictionary, etc.

 

[snowgracefulstone]

Paying for the parental controls doesn't make sense to me either. However, I think it's a little premature to talk about blocking discussions of the game based on this one comment. Can I just ask where the concern for the children is at when people talk about Sims, Second Life, Gaia, Maplestory et al? It really seems like VFK is held to a different standard and I'm curious to know why.

I couldnt agree with you more, for all we know it is going to be pay to release certain features of the parental controls (maybe pay an extra fee to chat a little less limited im pms between paying members). this would keep the pay system on the adults where it should be. I would also like to know why vfk is being held to a different standard. I can speak from personal experience on both gaia and second life, that these sites should be adult only. In gaia in almost any room u walk into, you will run into ppl cybering, racial profiling and bullying on a massive scale. In second life u get all that and more (many areas of the game are nude, including many virtual strip clubs). yet gaia is openly discussed on this board, i think ppl need to take a step back and give this game a chance. There is no substitute for parental involvement in keeping our children safe and right now vfk is not an appropriate site for children, so keep them off till they get all this worked out. I will not even allow my seventeen year old on any of the aforementioned sites right now and that includes vfk ( i did allow her to register and I go on her character occasionally so she will receive all the beta items) But she needs to wait till this site is fully up and functional before she can go on and search for her friends. She will just have to get over that and if she doesnt their is always webkinz,

 

[Kelsie]

Paying for the parental controls doesn't make sense to me either. However, I think it's a little premature to talk about blocking discussions of the game based on this one comment. Can I just ask where the concern for the children is at when people talk about Sims, Second Life, Gaia, Maplestory et al? It really seems like VFK is held to a different standard and I'm curious to know why.

Oh believe me, the talk about blocking discussion of VFK is not just based on this one comment. And for the record, we've actually been fighting to allow it to be discussed at all. This is just another reason to consider IF they charge parents to protect their children.

When you promote yourself as a "Family' site then charge to protect children, it does hold you to a different standard.

We just need to keep watching and wait to see what happens.

 

[disvaclub92]

To be honest, the parental controls discussion seemed to appear last weekend when we pointed out no help button. (Which I have tested and while fuctionality was there, it did not operate so - so much for having a help button. It could work now, but who knows the game has been down.)

Paying for parental controls, obviously they have not identified their audience. The terms of service have been there for a while, we have posted them several times here. All they state is paying for "enhanced services". I really don't think they have a general idea what the enhanced services are.

REGISTRATION AND SUBSCRIPTION: Registration as a Member of the Service for free. This service includes the chat and instant messaging features in the VitualFamilyKingdom.com environment. There are enhanced Services which are available which require confirmation of age and identity and this requires that you become a subscriber and pay any related fees. This price list is part of this Agreement And We reserve the right, at any time, to change any fees or charges for using the Service. To become a Member, You must register for the Service. When and if You register to become a Member, You agree to provide accurate, current and complete information about Yourself as prompted by Our registration form ("Registration Data"), and to maintain and update Your information to keep it accurate, current and complete. You agree that We may rely on Your Registration Data as accurate, current and complete. You acknowledge that if Your Registration Data is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete in any respect, We reserve the right to terminate this Agreement and Your use of the Service and, in such event, You shall not be entitled to a refund of any unused subscription fees.

Provide the price list so people can see what the enhanced services are? You state you have one now show it.


To comment in regards to the other games and such posted on the boards, we are all trying to find a virtual home for us to play. This board serves an audience of many ages, we are doing our best to find homes for everyone. In addition, advising that some sites may not be best suited for minors. We have stated advisory's to that fact. Which is what we are doing here in this thread as well.

 

[Goofy05]

Paying for the parental controls doesn't make sense to me either. However, I think it's a little premature to talk about blocking discussions of the game based on this one comment. Can I just ask where the concern for the children is at when people talk about Sims, Second Life, Gaia, Maplestory et al? It really seems like VFK is held to a different standard and I'm curious to know why.

I think they are held to a higher standard because of how they went about gathering a flock for their community. They spammed all of the vmk fansites advertising their 'family-friendly' free game with all of the features us vmk players had come to expect. So far, I've seen little proof to back up their claims. It's those empty and broken promises that will kill their project.
As it stands now, they have huge numbers of registered players. That equates to $$$ for them to continue building this 'game'. Now that they can show their investors how 'successful' they've become in such a short time, it's going to change things considerably for those players.
As for the other games, they were existing games and never once did they send someone here to gain more members. They don't claim to be 'family-friendly' sites.

 

[Belle1997]

Just trying to think out side the box. I am not saying these are good ideas jsut trying to figure out what could be considered extra parental control.

Maybe one of the parent controls could be needing to have a parent password if a child is logging in at a time they are not allowed to. How many kids told us they were out of bed playing VMK, hoping not to get caught.

Or when they get home they are to be doing their homework. This way they can log on themselves but the parent needs to log them in at other times they are not normally allowed tot play


Or what about a more direct contact to the people running the game. The biggest problem that parents had was not being able to prove they were the parents and never getting information on the ban. I know with toontown with paid subscription you talk to an actual person. Not sure if this is the case with non-paying part.

Or a chat log to be sent to parents so they know what their kids are up to on the game. Kinda like some of the IM services.

Some sites you need a parents permission to make friends in the game. Maybe this will be another feature. Some parents only allow there kids to be friends with people they know.


If you are paying for a site you would expect to be able to discuss and issues. I think you should be able to do this event as non paying.


Those are just some of my thoughts.

 

[KrazyPete]

To comment in regards to the other games and such posted on the boards, we are all trying to find a virtual home for us to play. This board serves an audience of many ages, we are doing our best to find homes for everyone. In addition, advising that some sites may not be best suited for minors. We have stated advisory's to that fact. Which is what we are doing here in this thread as well.

For the record, I really do appreciate your advice but not censorship. I'm not going to get into a side debate about that. I just hope you give us some time to see what this game is going to become before discussion about it is blocked again.

 

[Kelsie]

I just hope you give us some time to see what this game is going to become before discussion about it is blocked again.

We are not going to pretend blocking discussion about VFK is not a possibility. I believe we ARE giving it some 'time' to see what transpires and I for one really hope they live up to what they are promoting. I too miss VMK!

 

[disvaclub92]

For the record, I really do appreciate your advice but not censorship. I'm not going to get into a side debate about that. I just hope you give us some time to see what this game is going to become before discussion about it is blocked again.

Thanks Pete, I understand your point. But let me stress that "censorship" and "violation of rules" are two different things. Violation of rules set forth by the DIS is what caused the blocking of the discussion originally.

 

[KrazyPete]

Fair enough, thank you both

 

[TikiIslander]

I know of a fabulous game that has extra parental controls among other features for the paid version. The kids are certainly safe in the free version, but parents can become more involved in the kid's experience within the game once they sign up for these additional features. I am definitely not saying that's how it is for VFK, but I think we need more information to make that judgment.

I think everyone here wants (and deserves) a free flow of information to make a proper decision. Lots of people are saying how they're so glad VFK has been keeping everyone updated with their progress on game repairs, but aside from how they have a new router, we know very little about this game. Like Aengus said, they've got a website, why not use it to tell us things we really want to know. We're getting more info out of them at 2AM in the garden than we can gather from their homepage!

I think they deserve time to get their act together before we make any judgments, but at the same time, they willingly put themselves in this position. I am far from an advocate of this game, but I *really* just want to know what's going on. I haven't believed many of their claims, and I think they need to just come clean and let us know what's up before they dig themselves in too deep.

 

[MomsGoneGoofy]

WELCOME TO OZ............the shirt actually reads: I came to Oz and all I got was this tee shirt haha hey.That is sweet and I in the front, with the pretty hair, heh, with others talking to Sara until well after 2:00 am EST. She answered some questions, like will we be getting normal size feet, and eye brows.

This looks like a virtual version of Little people Big world

 

[NedsTJ]

I think the only reason any of these "non-disney" games are allowed to be discussed on the disboards VMK forum is to allow us to continue our friendships with "old VMK" players. Otherwise, I think they'd all be moved to a community forum at the very least. VFK, on the other hand, did actively post "recruiting" new players, thus violating the rules and are now subject to more scrutiny. (at least that's how I'm understanding it). I honestly think that what they did was done with the the best interests of the kids at heart (or at least I think they believe that!) but given some 20/20 hindsight probably wasn't the best way to go about it. I think they have a good thing going, however, and I'm rooting for them. You can tell from the way the beta is going, that they did only start creating it about 6-8 weeks ago, LOL. In my book, that's not only lending some credance to their story, but also some loyalty from me as well, especially if it takes off.

The disboards are a place for discussing things Disney Related. Aside from the "former VMK players", VFK (and the other games) has nothing what-so-ever to do with Disney. FWIW, I'd like to see this forum transformed into a Disney Online Gaming forum, for discussion of all Disney games (toontown, pirates, pixies, etc), but I think that's a little ways away yet.

Now...if VFK were to create their own "Main Street"....

 

[aengus]

Trying not to dwell too much on the negative, but there is a big difference when our members are recommending a game to play, than when the owners of a game log in and tell us to play their game.

 

[BriarRosie]

Trying not to dwell too much on the negative, but there is a big difference when our members are recommending a game to play, than when the owners of a game log in and tell us to play their game.

Agreed. I have been highly skeptical of their agenda since they came on, and I have been avoiding the game until I see it start to LOOK like one.

 

[TinkPinkPoem]

Trying not to dwell too much on the negative, but there is a big difference when our members are recommending a game to play, than when the owners of a game log in and tell us to play their game.

I agree.

I also think that parentals control should be there in the first place, when the game began, since it is a family kingdom. They advertise it as such, sometimes in a not so good manner, but they don't seem to do much to prove it.

There were posts from many people on this board on the previous pages about it and we all seemed to agree that they should put the chat modification on the top of priorities list. Now they say it will be a paid option? Think of how many people and families will be turned away from a 'free family game' whose safety will be a matter of being able to pay for it or not.

There is no help button and apparently nobody to answer contact us. No secure login. No e-mail notification to current players or to those on the waiting list.

From what they state and the way they handle technical issues, I am sorry to say this but they do not look like a fully fledged bussiness/corporation.

I can't believe that a bussiness doesn't own an extra router. I can't believe that they seem not to know their target audience and haven't done their marketing research and development timetable a long time before releasing the game.

We are all here trying to find a place to keep our vmk friendships and cling to the vmk spirit in any way possible.

However, the lack of proffessionality by their part and the absence of the Disney element is not helping much...

Be positive, but don't set the bar too high.

 

[Disneychick74]

When I read the post about the pay to play and parental controlls I read it differently than all of you I think.

HOPEFULLY, what Sarah was saying is that if you PAY to play the game you have MORE control over Parental controls. Anotherwords if you are an adult playing, you can turn on and off a language filter to have a broader dictionary.
The only safe way to have this feature WOULD be a Pay to play because a Credit card varifies that the player in control of the account and parental controls is over 18.

So I think the "normal" family type controls will be in effect for everyone but the ability to "losen" the controlls will be available to paying (Adult) customers.

 

[TinkPinkPoem]

When I read the post about the pay to play and parental controlls I read it differently than all of you I think.

HOPEFULLY, what Sarah was saying is that if you PAY to play the game you have MORE control over Parental controls. Anotherwords if you are an adult playing, you can turn on and off a language filter to have a broader dictionary.
The only safe way to have this feature WOULD be a Pay to play because a Credit card varifies that the player in control of the account and parental controls is over 18.

So I think the "normal" family type controls will be in effect for everyone but the ability to "losen" the controlls will be available to paying (Adult) customers.

Supposedly it will work this way, but I can't help but to wonder: Won't kids stumble upon people with a much broader dictionary in game? They can't just stop players with the extra chat option from wandering around..

And while the kids thankfully won't be able to give out any personal information or such, imagine all the things they may witness being said by some of those with "priviliged" chat.

I don't know how this will work.

Maybe if they have servers just for kids!

 

[Disneychick74]

Supposedly it will work this way, but I can't help but to wonder: Won't kids stumble upon people with a much broader dictionary in game? They can't just stop players with the extra chat option from wandering around..

And while the kids thankfully won't be able to give out any personal information or such, imagine all the things they may witness being said by some of those with "priviliged" chat.

I don't know how this will work.

Maybe if they have servers just for kids!

Well, lets say the word "one" is in adult vocab but not childs.
So adults can say "I'll take one" and other adults will see it as just that but children will see it as "I'll take ###"
This is how it was on a game I played a while back and was nice because the adults that played could actually carry on a normal conversation. I am not saying that it is going to allow a vulgar dictionary, just a more liberal one.