yay I have my name!I'm not a guest anymore!
I have to say, I think people are seriously over-reacting to nothing. Reading through the last several pages of posts, one person posted a vague mention of something said in passing, and by 2 pages later people were ready to sue the VFK people for false advertising, or at least give up on VFK entirely.
Right now, we've got a small group of people taking time out of their lives to try and create something to fill the void VMK has left. They're working like crazy to get this thing running and when you consider the timeline that a typical professional game company with dozens of employees work on for a game of this level of complexity, they're doing amazingly well. Remember that these people have no corporate backing, they're doing this in their free time.
Perhaps, hindsight being 20/20, it might have been better if they asked for Beta testers to be adults. But they had no idea of the numbers they would get or the problems they would run into. And considering that the whole point was making up for how bad everyone felt about VMK leaving, I hardly think it would have made them any friends if they had so done. Instead of people complaining about how the whole game is not kid-friendly (which quite frankly I don't see) we'd have people complaining that they don't let kids play.
Most of the complaints are about things that we're guessing at. We have post after post of people complaining about paying for parental controls, without anyone knowing the first thing as to what that might mean. A passing comment like that certainly doesn't mean they're going to make it unsafe for anyone who doesn't pay! We don't even know what that might mean!
We have people complaining about the lack of response, or the less-than-secure login - while these are reasonable concerns, again, this is BETA testing - not a finished game - and if you're concerned about those things, don't be a Beta tester. Wait for the game to be completed. Beta testing used to mean exactly what this is - not Alpha testing, as some have argued. Beta testing has for decades been a process of getting outside involvement in running through the programming to find bugs that the developers don't find because they don't think of the creative things people try or they don't have the software or hardware that causes conflicts. If you look at older games, Beta Testers get credits at the end, and there's usually just a few of them, like 5-20. They're usually required to sign non-disclosure agreements and have to promise to put in a certain number of hours to test out all the glitches. To expect full service and proper security at this point would be asking a lot of a typical company, let alone a group of programmers trying to do something in their spare time.
I love the people on this board, and there are many great comments and all, but I'm getting tired of so many posters looking at all the people with VMK and/or VFK as some horrible corporate evil monster that's out to get our children molested. One big concern is that they came on and ADVERTISED their plans on the forum, a clear violation of the rules! Looked at another way, a couple of people with a plan to ease our suffering by creating a replacement for VMK, who also happened to be members of this forum, came into the forum where their friends are and told us all about their plan so that we might be slightly less sad. How evil and horrible! They should be shot!
I guess all I'm saying is, cut them a little slack! This is not some sick plan to steal your children or your identity. This is a few good people trying to help, and they're making the occasional mistake. Give them some time before you condemn them!
Why do you think Disney VMK was so tight-lipped about everything? It's because every time someone let something slip (like Sarah's comment about future pay-for-play programs) the rumour mill immediately started churning out conspiracy theories. If you appreciate how much harder Sarah and their team are working to keep us informed, please don't undermine their efforts by contributing to these outraged reactions when rumours start off supposition. At least wait until you actually hear what they're planning before you start lambasting them.
I'm sorry for those who don't agree or still suspect some ulterior motive, but all the evidence points to them being completely aboveboard volunteers out to try and make us happy. Yes, they plan to eventually make money off of it - hardly an evil motive considering they're family people just like us who are investing not only their time but their savings (or their credit) to get this off the ground. 8000 people on at once adds up to many thousands of $ in bandwidth and server expenses; one of the reasons Disney shut down VMK. I know many of you have no concept of the expense of such an undertaking, but I can guarantee that Disney was paying literally millions of dollars a year for VMK's operation. It's not as simple as some people seem to think.
I'm sorry if anyone feels like this is a flame or a rant, but I'm getting really tired of all the angry posts I've been reading when there's nothing to be angry about. I imagine some of it is just misdirected from the pain we all feel at the loss of VMK, and I know safety of kids is a pretty major hot button. But if you look at what has actually happened so far, VFK has not done anything to make kids unsafe; most of what people are upset about is entirely based on wild guesses as to what the future might hold, or assigning ulteriour motives due to lack of knowledge. Let's just bring some objectivity to the discussion, okay?
I totally agree with you here! Well said! I stopped coming over to the vmk boards of the dis because of all the negativity. I don't think I'd be here today if I weren't looking for my friends!
