VMK VALUES ??? why do they not enforce them?

[TinkRBel_In_Training]

Why is everyone proclaiming doomsday all of a sudden? Maybe VMK is changing sometime in the future (which is honestly to be expected), but if it were closing for good, why would they hire new moderators? Why would they put all that time and energy into creating a Castle Suite room if we can only enjoy them for a short time? I could be wrong, but I personally don't think that the Dreams promotion is any sort of distraction or a way to "cushion a blow"...I don't think that they would be that secretive with something as huge as VMK closing. Don't you think that they would be straight up with us and make an announcement a month or so in advance? Again, maybe I'm wrong here, but I just don't see them letting the game fizzle out into nothingness until they just close it. I think with them buying out the Club Penguin and what with ToonTown and POTC and whatever else they are up to at the moment, they are just incredibly busy and can't give VMK they're undivided attention anymore. And/or maybe they are hard at work on this whole "bigger and better" dealy and don't have time for piddly updates/new items anymore? Just trying to raise the morale here folks Let's not write off VMK just yet.

 

[SkippyPaul]

Don't you think that they would be straight up with us and make an announcement a month or so in advance?

In my opinion, no. They have never really communicated anything with us in the past. Technical issues especially. And they owe us no explanation really. Yes I feel very sad for those on vmk that have such close friends and have no way to contact them outside vmk. What a loss they'll feel.

But like you say, lets be optimistic for now, hope for the best.

 

[Disney Dreams]

Just my 2 cents on a few topics mentioned here:

Moderation / Purpose of VMK
I think the moderation of the game does leave something to be desired. I have received the "Falsely the report button again and you could be banned" warning after report very legit situations. I am not going to pretend for even a half a second to understand what goes into observing, moderating, and keeping "kid-safe" a game like vmk, but I DO think more attention and player communication is needed.

VMK is a marketing tool. It's really that simple. The purpose of the "game" is to bring money to Disney. Whether it is through buying DVDs, purchasing pins, going to the parks, or any other purchases that result in more money landing at Disney.

If the marketing budget does not allow for adequate staffing to provide excellent moderation (in addition to the other costs) of an increasingly popular game, perhaps a pay to play option is something that should be looked at. $5 a month per player would be cheap enough that ppl would stay, and yet help offset costs.

Yavn
Like it or not, he is an employee. He is NOT the owner of Sulake or the owner of Disney. Employees leave for a variety of reasons. They also go on vacations, sick leave, leaves of absence, etc.... He is a figurehead in game for us to receive information from, but he is not the top rung on the Disney ladder. Whether or not he is or is not still employed in connection with VMK is not an indicator as to whether VMK is or is not closing.

Dreams Month
Okay, back to the purpose of VMK: marketing tool.

The in-park real-life Dreams promotion has been extended. How does the public learn of this? Marketing and advertising. What is part of the marketing plan? VMK "Hey! Let's mimick the giveaway element at the park in the game!" And not all things translate quite as well as planned. Is it an indicator of the end? Who knows, but to me, it's an indicator that VMK is still viewed as a valuable marketing tool.

New Items
Surf table
Dreams items
Nemo pins
Seemingly coming soon card game with possible in game prizes
There are others i am forgetting and it's late so i am not going fishing, but I for one appreciate the lack of need for credits right now. Halloween anyone?

Closing Announcement
As nice as this would be, I highly doubt that when/if the day comes, any announcement would be made. Why? Well, let's go back to in-game moderation. If you KNEW vmk was ending and you had friends in vmk that you would like to remain in contact with, what keeps you from giving out your phone number in game? Moderation and bans? Nope. The game is closing. These consequences mean nothing. The only way to continue to protect the real life identity of players to the last day (whenever that may be) is to simply pull the plug with no warning - sad as this will be. I personally do not see this happening any time soon, but I dont feel an announcement will be issued when it does.

Remember, you have a choice
No one has made any of us sit for hours on end day after day hoping for a dream ear and dream room. We have each chosen how we wish to increase our chances of winning dreams items. No one has said, "Hey, sit and do nothing to win a dream!" We have chosen that on our own.

Likewise, if anyone is THAT unhappy with VMK, there are many other games that 1 can get involved in or play. No one makes us play - we love it (for the most part) and choose to do so.

At least, I know I do,
Dreams

 

[IslanderFan0194]

I will literally have no life without VMK.

Yep, me too. ( but can't get on that much since school started).

 

[Acesurfercarter]

Just my 2 cents on a few topics mentioned here:



VMK is a marketing tool. It's really that simple. The purpose of the "game" is to bring money to Disney. Whether it is through buying DVDs, purchasing pins, going to the parks, or any other purchases that result in more money landing at Disney.

If the marketing budget does not allow for adequate staffing to provide excellent moderation (in addition to the other costs) of an increasingly popular game, perhaps a pay to play option is something that should be looked at. $5 a month per player would be cheap enough that ppl would stay, and yet help offset costs.

Yavn
Like it or not, he is an employee. He is NOT the owner of Sulake or the owner of Disney. Employees leave for a variety of reasons. They also go on vacations, sick leave, leaves of absence, etc.... He is a figurehead in game for us to receive information from, but he is not the top rung on the Disney ladder. Whether or not he is or is not still employed in connection with VMK is not an indicator as to whether VMK is or is not closing.

Dreams Month
Okay, back to the purpose of VMK: marketing tool.

The in-park real-life Dreams promotion has been extended. How does the public learn of this? Marketing and advertising. What is part of the marketing plan? VMK "Hey! Let's mimick the giveaway element at the park in the game!" And not all things translate quite as well as planned. Is it an indicator of the end? Who knows, but to me, it's an indicator that VMK is still viewed as a valuable marketing tool.

New Items
Surf table
Dreams items
Nemo pins
Seemingly coming soon card game with possible in game prizes
There are others i am forgetting and it's late so i am not going fishing, but I for one appreciate the lack of need for credits right now. Halloween anyone?

I agree with you completely dream: great philosophy! vmk IS a marketing tool for disney, and hey I'm sure dreams month is just to keep our heads on top of the credits surface for the next month.

 

[BattyMcDoon]

All that I will say is that I really hope VMK doesn't close. I have not even been a member for 6 months and I have yet to be around for VMK during holiday time! I really hope they make up for the last couple months next month and during December.

 

[bytheblood]

Over the past couple of monthes I have been pondering around the same things all of you are and wondering to myself, "Is It Really Worth It? Is It Really Worth Wasting My Hours Of Life To See What New Virtual Item Comes Out?". All of the these reason that I've been reading from all of the previous threads are COMPLETELY OUT-OF-MIND TRUE and are not opinions but pure
facts.

For one thing is my superstition about the past couple of monthes and the things that have happened here. Today I signed onto vmk (after about a week of not going on just because of the question, "Why?") and when I entered I got about SEVEN NEW MESSAGES all about the same thing: Name Changes! My best friend got his name changed even though the only to words in it were his name and Duck at the end. DUCK? What does VMK has against ducks? ducks may be a dictionary dance word for a certain bad word but duck is Also a disney character!

Another fact that quite disturbed me is the ideas about yavn. Yavn may have been the leader of the VMK game, but he wasn't the creator of it. I know it's not realistic but i mean I honestly felt that he does sometimes takes a Lot of credit towards himself for certain things, saying that "he is giving it to us". Look, I don't have a problem with him but I mean lying to us (if he is) is just not right.

Some other fact that also gives me interest is the fact of moderation changes. They never said that these "New Moderations" would be good OR bad for the community of their test subjects. Band in the hot summer of 2005 when i first started playing this game, I just gave an applause to the outsanding game that just completely blew my mind out the cannon, but now I respond to vmk with a cross-armed look and shaking my head. In 2005 my brothers told me this: VMK IS A AD CAMPAIGN FOR DISNEY. After two years of disbelieving it my colors on this subject suddenly change to this idea. DREAMS MONTH??? I bet the Disney big wigs told the people at vmk that if they do not keep their head in the objective of getting kids into going to the parks, they can just kiss their game goodbye.

I'm sure there was a clear space agreement for vmk in the parks, just as long as they keep up the work of getting people to go to the parks. With the slack of quest changes less and less of their customers to the park arrived as they would try to have. I'm sure all of you are completely disagreeing with this at the moment, but think of it this way: Everest Month.

Everest Month was fun but what it did was to try to boost up the excitement of this well-worked on ride that was built to try and fix the attendence problems of Animal Kingdom. VMK was told to make new items leading up to getting people to go to this ride. Long Story short, My idea is that disney is not using vmk as a fun place for players all over to talk to others, but just simply a new way of getting people to connect to Disney better.

Before you say any rebuttals over these responses, please just think about it.

No rebuttals from me!

 

[FairlyOddGrlz]

I wish that Yavn would come back and make a newsletter. The things he used to say were very interesting, and it helped a lot of VMK players earn up credits before the new items came out to help them get like 2 or 3 of the item. But something fishy is going on. Now when i go to the newsletter page all i see is the Yeti. The yeti does not help me at all >_<. He never even answers my replies for a question .









.:Im hungry, does anyone have any reeses peanut butter cereal?:.

 

[Mr.Skaterboy]

I definitly agree they have gone a little lax with reports

yesterday i was in my room and out of the blue a guy comes in claming to have 56 full sparrow suits and that as long as i give him my rarest item right then and there he would go back to his room get a sparrowsuit from his kisok come back and give it to me, so i tested him by giving him a halloween pumpking bag he said hed brb with the sparrow... 3 hours later nothing

i got on another account and waited with my room name "Looking for Sparrow"
sure enough he came and tried to pull the same scam. told him about the other account and how i had tested him and sure enough he ran ( i had clicked report erlier so if he did run i could still report him)...

i reported the scam and scammer to vmk and even did it a second time! and the staff told me to ignore him and the second tim they basicly told me to shut up or i would get benned for a week.......
now that urks me

 

[Acesurfercarter]

I definitly agree they have gone a little lax with reports

yesterday i was in my room and out of the blue a guy comes in claming to have 56 full sparrow suits and that as long as i give him my rarest item right then and there he would go back to his room get a sparrowsuit from his kisok come back and give it to me, so i tested him by giving him a halloween pumpking bag he said hed brb with the sparrow... 3 hours later nothing

i got on another account and waited with my room name "Looking for Sparrow"
sure enough he came and tried to pull the same scam. told him about the other account and how i had tested him and sure enough he ran ( i had clicked report erlier so if he did run i could still report him)...

i reported the scam and scammer to vmk and even did it a second time! and the staff told me to ignore him and the second tim they basicly told me to shut up or i would get benned for a week.......
now that urks me

omg that's really redicalous!

 

[souper]

Mal:
Thank you for bringing the stalking forward. I am aware of more than one vmk friend that has experienced this problem. It is something we all need to be aware of in vmk. I find it a serious issue and hope because of your post vmk gives it the attention it deserves.

Happy