Would have been nice to know before the competition

[RicksCafe]

...to a kid it has an entirely different point of view. I just think it is pretty lame that kids who take this a little more personally didn't have something to go on based on what and how things would be judged.

I hear you Zoo-dude. I am all over that like an untaken girl on a boy with spiked hair in Central Plaza.

Yet... wasn't it Thomas Hobbes who wrote, "the life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,"* thus an absolutist form of government suits the betterment of all? Better to learn this at age 9 in VMK, than at age 17, like me, when all the boys and all the pretty girls and all the teachers mocked my monstrous braces.

Ricks (who is about to curl up in a fetal position)

*Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Chap. xiii (1651)

 

[threeboysmom]

Ok, my team "Scream!!" was among the winners for Color. As team leader, I am shaking my head over that category. I really do believe they created that category for the purpose of fitting more winners into the line-up. Honestly, I thought we had a "fun" ride with a neat theme, but we did not have any more color in our ride than any other ride I visited... Nor did we go into building our rooms with "color" on our mind (though I do admit to sneaking onto my husband's account the night before the competition and adding a bunch of items to his "everest room" to liven it up - he wasn't too happy about the credit decrease when he found out! lol! And then 20 minutes before the competition was about to begin, I frantically began taking apart base camp to add some "pink touches" to the room - lol!!)

As for "theme", yes they said to build an "Everest ride", but you can take the theme of Everest and expand upon that! I never once thought that that meant to perfectly recreate the real ride of Everest - I mean, how many people have even ridden it yet since it's not even open? Magical Yeti Path was a wonderful example of a great theme - yes, they used the theme of "everest" and "yeti" , but they added three additional dimensions to that basic theme - wishes, adventure, and celebration. It all flowed together beautifully and creatively around the main theme of everest. My team decided to go with the theme of "welcoming Everest to the line-up of great thrill rides at Disney) so all of our everest ride rooms were "themed" after our favorite thrill or "scream" rides. It's still "everest themed", but expanded upon. Same with the Great Movie Ride - I thought that was very original , and enjoyed that ride very much.

And those of you who are expressing anger of the kids being disappointed and it's all about the kids, etc. Both my sons were involved in this contest. They did not win. And yes, they were disappointed. But within 2 minutes, they were back on VMK happily playing again. It seems as if it's the ADULTS who are hanging on and complaining and becoming bitter about it almost. The kids handle losses a lot better than some adults, I think.

I have not been on the grand prize winner. But I have to say, I am thoroughly confused as to why Yeti Experience did not place. Do you think there were some disqualifications taking place during judging? Maybe some room titles were not exactly as what was registered??

And yes, as a prize winner, I am insulted. An "ugly" Everest chair?? LOL! But, on a positive note, we did have fun together in base camp and I got to know some girls on my team that I didn't really know before, and I think that was the best "prize" out of this whole Everest competition.

 

[kgordonlvn]

Ok. I was not involved in the ride or contest of Everest in anyway but it seems like many people took what they were saying to create the Everest Ride as being just that. how come there couldnt be a seperate category for best recreation of the actual ride instead of some of what they chose as categories??
When i first heard of the contest i was at the understanding that it was a recreation of the ride not a bunch of tropical setting rooms and rivers. I was expecting to see ice and snow rugs and the everest rooms not the other things.
I am not saying the rooms were not nice and all but they were not everest. For example, "The Great Movie Ride" was an excellent idea for a ride but a completely different attraction at a totally different park.

 

[Adventuredaz]

Well I am sure most of the participants were adults , and we love to complain just for fun - really we just feel they could do better. It is Disney. We had two kids under twelve on the team - they did not take it great, yes they will back - no they will probably pass on these contests. I did not allow my dd6 to participate because I knew in the back of my head the impending disaster.

-On the Everest theme - true many have not ridden the ride so it is our interpretation. I know of three that did two on our team and one on another who made a special trip to scout it out for the ride. It was the only clue they gave us and we were sure it had indicated to base it on the ride as seen at the Yeti vision web site and the ride.

By the way on the DQ (I think you have to much info, our yeti is looking for you right now) I think all should have been told if there had been reason to DQ, we certainly would get no prize for participation. We did at 1 point consider capturing a staff member and keeping them till we got judged, But based on having received the prize, i would say no DQ occured, at least with us.

We want to again acknowledge, that all participants regardless of how the rides turned out put a tremendous amount of work into this contest and I am sure most came out better friends and with new friends. That is the main reason we all keep coming back.


Ok agian i have to back track a bit I thought I had my prize and the newsletter says if you were judged you will get pin....still no pin but we have proof we were judged, three staff rode ride including the judge and we had a visit from the tester Baby after the ride to see our quality rooms, So I may have spoke too soon on the prize but why would they at no point say that you were out and let you sit there waisting time the whole weekend.

 

[redbaybound]

Jellyrolls, you were a great team leader and I think you accomplished exactly what you set out to do. We had a team that was fun. There was no pressure and everyone did as much as they could for their rooms and for helping out. You were there the entire time and were really supportive to all of us. We couldn't have asked for a better captain!

Prizes, schmizes! I really enjoyed being part of your team. It was the best 'prize' I could have had. (Aengus's prize was a concussion, I think)

And I just happen to know that Jellyrolls was very aware of all the time and credits it took to put the rooms together and gifted the kids each a bat magic. WOOT! Way to go Jellyrolls! You truly are the best team leader. It is so refreshing to know she looked out for our team and hosted a good time in her base camp room! I am really glad to have made such good friends and to know all the quality people that were on our team.

Boogie On!

Sorry I used the whole quote but I couldn't have said it better! I loved my team and my team mates. There were times I laughed so hard that tears were rolling down my face. (watching Rolls hit the boys , angry ice dancing and not so angry ice dancers ) There were also times when I thought I was going to scream if I didn't get out of that room!

I am sorry that we are all so dissappointed by the consolation prize, it sort of reminds me of the Pumpkins that were handed out as prizes for the costume contest at Halloween.

I almost wish I could have used the credits I spent on my room on bat magic but then I wouldn't have met and made such wonderful new friends. I will wear my consolation pin proudly, to remind me that it wasn't about the prizes, it was about the FUN! -Boogies-

As for the kids, well, I think if we all feel so bad about their disappointment then we should find ways to make them feel a little better. Jellyrolls is on the right track by gifting "our" kids the bat magic or SecretAssociate and her very special gifts to many team members.

I learned a looooong time ago to not expect too much during the events. Complaining about it only made me feel worse.

I am in no way saying that you don't have a right to feel dissappointed. It stinks to lose and it is frustrating when you really can't understand why.

-my advice to all is to enjoy the process and not the actual ending-

Proud member of Team Boogies

 

[Irishhockey]

4. If you lost and you complain about all the time or credits you wasted, you look like one big sour grape. Get a guy in an apple costume and you could be in a Fruit of the Loom commercial. I feel your pain, my babies, but you gotta know how you look. If you won, would you see it as wasted effort? Yeah yeah, categories... rules.... themes.... See #1 above.

Ah, yup I would still be complaining...

why?

This was one of, if not, the biggest VMK event ever... with teams spending at least 75k on a set of rooms...

Your going to sit there... and tell me... that you could "happily" accept a safari room code, a chair, and a pin for all that time and effort?! Thats IF you were the top winner.. it was either/or for the First place/runners up...

Ah, nope at least not here...

The pin, yes... I would love to have the top ten pin... but a room code for someone who never goes in their room... and chair, again, for someone who never goes into there room... is not at all a prize fit for an event of such magnatude...

Lets be honest here...

That room and chair will be available to all at some point... so whats the big deal? Chair rumored to be quest, Im sure the room too... if so, thats a 0 credits value....

Im by no means a sour grape here... I LOVED the rooms that won... Heck I even road the grand prize room today...
But I believe there is some form of disapointment from everyone... not just us losers...

I choose to spend my credits i admit that... but its funny how vmk didnt mention the prize before hand...

How many of us... would have put the same amount of effort into this knowing that is what you would get out of it? I still would have participated.. but certainly not to that extent...

Bottom line in all this is...

Similar to Red I had no expectations going into this... every time I think of an event I think of vmk's first parade... boo ya baby... good times all around... hah.

I dont think its soley "us" that needs to learn from "history"... I certainly won't stop playing vmk... I certainly will glady accept my pin... and I certainly will play events in the future...

 

[Carrieberry]

Ok. I was not involved in the ride or contest of Everest in anyway but it seems like many people took what they were saying to create the Everest Ride as being just that. how come there couldnt be a seperate category for best recreation of the actual ride instead of some of what they chose as categories??
When i first heard of the contest i was at the understanding that it was a recreation of the ride not a bunch of tropical setting rooms and rivers. I was expecting to see ice and snow rugs and the everest rooms not the other things.
I am not saying the rooms were not nice and all but they were not everest. For example, "The Great Movie Ride" was an excellent idea for a ride but a completely different attraction at a totally different park.

I have to agree and then I will not say anything else in this post. Most of the winning catgories were about as un-Everest as you could get. Everest is rock and mountain not rivers and color. Nothing wrong with rides that had rivers and lots of color, but dont call it EVEREST. Call it "Create tour own ride" Dont take a theme for the month and tell people to make a ride based on that theme and then give awards for colors and themeing. It just does not make sense. I cant understand how a team that has an enitre room of river wins for most creative use of track pieces?? Also I thought the Great Movie Ride was a great ride, but what did it have to do with Everest? And as the above poster said, why was there no theme for MOST LIKE THE ACTUAL RIDE? Again so proud of all the teams that won, and I DO realize I sound like sour grapes and I can handle the flames, but the enitre thing just is still boggling my mind.

 

[Belle1997]

Well I am feeling much better after having my little rants. And my poor Dh having to listening to the whole thing. Well here is his commnets from a by stander.

First: Why would you join a competition not knowing

1) What are the categories
2) What were they looking for ( how they would judge)
3) What the prizes were

Second: How can they lay down all these rules and disqualify kids for innocent mistakes and not give any guidelines

Third: the only way VMK will change is to have no one participate in their next big event. Now that would be hard to do. Unless we see some big changes. But possible to organize a boycot because of the many VMK forum boards. But we would not want to do this because of the possible chance of Disney pulling the plug on VMK.

Forth
Never join anything unless you understand what the possible outcome would be. Like us spending many credits on nothing.


MY point this is a virtual game

How hard would it be to give a pin to the players who competed that only they could have. Kind of like the 5 of 5 pin. Then it would me something.

I really believe Irishhockey when she said this was a big server test. To me that is the only acceptable reason for this disaster.

And they do need a people person in helping these techo people with social skills and to remind them that there are real people attached to the virtual kids on VMK.

They have no skill in personal skills some one at Disney needs to give them a crash course on sensitivity training. And if they already took it; they failed.

They failed the winners, they cheapen their wins by creating categories for people to laugh at. They took for granted that we would play no matter and showed no sensitivity to the amount of time and credits and of course real life time with family. Because they did not give us an outline of judging criteria so many thought being on the popular list was important so stayed all weekend in a room.

They failed every one including the name of Disney who is a master at crowd control and organization.

So the bottom line is: this is all that needed to be done: I wil type it out in less than a minute that would have made for a fun event that we all could be proud of

Everest Compettion
Design a Ride revolving around the everest theme

Be creative as we know many of you have not seen the actual ride
Categories to be judged

Best use of Color
Best Theme
Best use of Yeti Track pieces
Best Over all

Prizes to follow
Grand prize Safari Room, .....
First Place ...
Runner ups ...

All contestants will receive a Yeti 3/5 pin.

You will be judged by the VMK staff mention on you registration Between the hours of 5-9 Friday (though each letter would have a different time slot)
You are still be required to keep your room open to the end of competition

Please note that winners will not neccessarily win because of being on the most popular or spending the most credits. (solves the spending all the weekend in your room)

This short criteria would have solved all our issues. Right.

Because whe would have built accordingly. The reason this was not done

Simple. Most people would not have particiapted and the rides would not have been very good because most would havet hought bat magic a better deal.

So my question is if I can do this outline why can't the staff at VMK?
enquiring minds what to know

Ok now I have said everything I wanted to say and I am hapy now. Thank you for your time .

 

[tolkien7]

I didn't participate in this event, simply because it didn't interest me. But after having read how disappointed you all are, I am wondering if anyone has sent a letter to the Black Hole? Now I know what you are thinking - pointless - but why not have one really articulate person write a letter and then have everyone who agrees, sign it? (virtually). Perhaps a well-written letter, politely requesting that for future events that a scoring rubric be provided, as well as a list of prizes for the winners - maybe they would appreciate it? I know that criticism is not always welcome, but it would help the event planners to make the future events better for the players. Just a suggestion...

 

[Adventuredaz]

Well sure put it better then all of us Belle. I nominate you to be the people person that write the contest descriptions for then since they apparently aren't capable.

 

[ScroogesNephew]

that's sad that this pleases you. so players who are great room designers should not win so new guests with mediocre rooms can? i disagree. the best should win afterall thats the point to find the best and reward them. not show mercy or pity on a new player.

That MAY be true as long as it is a level playing field, especially taking into consideration age and experience. Sorry, but 10 year olds competing with adults hardly seems to me like "may the best people win". But wait, I'm sure that none of you winners are actually adults competing with the little kids, now are you? Hmmm?

 

[celine12]

Very well said Belle! I couldnt agree more!!

 

[Tampa]

Well I am feeling much better after having my little rants. And my poor Dh having to listening to the whole thing. Well here is his commnets from a by stander.

First: Why would you join a competition not knowing

1) What are the categories
2) What were they looking for ( how they would judge)
3) What the prizes were

Second: How can they lay down all these rules and disqualify kids for innocent mistakes and not give any guidelines

Third: the only way VMK will change is to have no one participate in their next big event. Now that would be hard to do. Unless we see some big changes. But possible to organize a boycot because of the many VMK forum boards. But we would not want to do this because of the possible chance of Disney pulling the plug on VMK.

Forth
Never join anything unless you understand what the possible outcome would be. Like us spending many credits on nothing.


MY point this is a virtual game

How hard would it be to give a pin to the players who competed that only they could have. Kind of like the 5 of 5 pin. Then it would me something.

I really believe Irishhockey when she said this was a big server test. To me that is the only acceptable reason for this disaster.

And they do need a people person in helping these techo people with social skills and to remind them that there are real people attached to the virtual kids on VMK.

They have no skill in personal skills some one at Disney needs to give them a crash course on sensitivity training. And if they already took it; they failed.

They failed the winners, they cheapen their wins by creating categories for people to laugh at. They took for granted that we would play no matter and showed no sensitivity to the amount of time and credits and of course real life time with family. Because they did not give us an outline of judging criteria so many thought being on the popular list was important so stayed all weekend in a room.

They failed every one including the name of Disney who is a master at crowd control and organization.

So the bottom line is: this is all that needed to be done: I wil type it out in less than a minute that would have made for a fun event that we all could be proud of

Everest Compettion
Design a Ride revolving around the everest theme

Be creative as we know many of you have not seen the actual ride
Categories to be judged

Best use of Color
Best Theme
Best use of Yeti Track pieces
Best Over all

Prizes to follow
Grand prize Safari Room, .....
First Place ...
Runner ups ...

All contestants will receive a Yeti 3/5 pin.

You will be judged by the VMK staff mention on you registration Between the hours of 5-9 Friday (though each letter would have a different time slot)
You are still be required to keep your room open to the end of competition

Please note that winners will not neccessarily win because of being on the most popular or spending the most credits. (solves the spending all the weekend in your room)

This short criteria would have solved all our issues. Right.

Because whe would have built accordingly. The reason this was not done

Simple. Most people would not have particiapted and the rides would not have been very good because most would havet hought bat magic a better deal.

So my question is if I can do this outline why can't the staff at VMK?
enquiring minds what to know

Ok now I have said everything I wanted to say and I am hapy now. Thank you for your time .

I think the Disney organization should have a position for you, and if they didn't, they'd fall, along with our beloved game.

 

[Maleficent2]

Our rooms were one of the runners up and I will have to say from a winners point of view....making this a team competition helped in the aspect that each person did not have to stay ALONE in their rooms for hours on end we had to stay at base camp so we could at least keep each other company.

I think the credit estimates for what was spent on rooms is Way LOW...and what does really bother me is the Prizes for the Winners fall way short of what Prizes VMK should be giving out for an event.

I mean this is a virtual game and no real money has to be spent on Prize Packages...only salaries paid to VMK staff and from what I understand 1/2 got the week-end off,the others had to be there anyway.

Heck our prize packs here on the DIS are almost better if not better than VMKs!

If I was in charge of the Prize Packages they would have been as follows:

Each Team member would receive

Grand Prize Winners:
Safari Lodge Room room completely kitted out in all safari items
2 Everest Chairs
2 Everest Ride car chairs
All the everest Pins
A special Grand Prize winners pin
20,000 credits
inferno magic

First Place Winners
Safari Lodge Room & 2 Safari Banana Chairs
Everest Chair
Everest Ride Car chair
All Everest Pins
A special 1st place winners pin
10,000 credits
inferno magic

Runners Up
Safari Lodge Room & 2 Safari Banana Chairs
Everest Chair
Everest Ride Car chair
All Everest Pins
A special runners up pin
5,000 credits
inferno magic


Not a hard thing for VMK to do and it makes the competition so much more worth doing!

Hey but just my opinion.

Mal

 

[Roxane]

Hey Mal, I wish you had been giving out the prizes

 

[robynbird]

Interesting thread to read- I didn't really have a part in this event so I can't say much, but it does seem like VMK messed up pretty bad. I'm not disagreeing with anyone about this event, but to the people who say that every single event run by VMK has been a disaster, I'd just like to comment that in my opinion the Ride-A-Thon event went very well. Granted it's not as big or important an event as the Ride Competition, but it's an example of something that was done well, and went quite smoothly. Maybe it's a sign of better things to come, but I can understand what you're saying about giving up on these VMK events. Anyways, congrats to the winners and sorry about the bad experiences some of you have had.

 

[Wingedheart]

I must admit to being rather disappointed (okay understatement of the year) by the results of the Everest Ride event results. I also must admit to have no idea really why some teams won and others didn't because I quite honestly had VERY little time to ride any other teams rides. I was stuck in Base Camp VMK Dead 99% of the time I was able to be on VMK last weekend. We had a fabulous ride made by an amazing group of friends. The only problem was we were TOO realistic apparently. We even had an in house team member to tell us what the ride is ACTUALLY like! Imagine that! We based our ride on the, OMG, ACTUAL RIDE!

But, reading all these thoughtful posts has cheered me up. At least I'm not alone.

I must list some of the highlights for me of this thread:

Wolf - I want to hang out in your "Boycott VMK Events" room immediately after they announce the next event.

Irishhockey - I was laughing so loud when I read your Wiggles comment. I really do think some of these events are judged by that rainbow of preschool entertainers! IE My 4 year old could judge just as well.

DocHT and Mal - I vote for you two to be in charge of the next event. With your expertise (in scoring rubrics) and your generousity (with your amazing prize packages), I think you two would be the perfect team. I'm sure there are so many other Dis peeps out there that would agree with me!

Instead of a letter complaining about yet another poorly planned event, let's write VMK a letter suggesting that Doc and Mal create and judge the next event! WOOT!

-wings

 

[robynbird]

Wow, all this about the rides makes me reeeally wish I had actually ridden some. I know, bad me, but I could barely get on VMK at all this weekend. But they sounds awesome! I would love to see some of these, can I just search base camp and see if any rooms are up?

 

[Barbday62]

I vote make mal in charge of prizes lol. I want inferno so bad and I thought after winning this we would get it. oh well.Ill keep trying. FOr now I have wonderful friends who loan me their inferno. I am the lucky one.