Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom online game closing

The game will close at 10:00PM PST, Wednesday, May 21st, 2008. Virtual Magic Kingdom was created and launched back in 2005 as part of the Disneyland 50th Anniversary Celebration.

 

When they started did VMK have a "best before" date?
Any reason why Disney is shutting it down?

 

Here is what is posted on website

 

Thanks for the info. I wonder if Disney is hope they head over to the Pirates of the Caribbean Online MMOG Massive Multiplay Online Game.

 

VMK never did have a best-before date... That was only invented later on. The first time any of us VMKers heard about this 50th anniversary business was when they shut down the in-park quests. Their excuse was that it was only supposed to be a promotion for the 50th, though anyone over the age for which the game was actually intended saw right through that rather superficial spin.

The problem is that VMK never really did perform the way it was supposed to. On the one hand, it was supposed to implant a more general desire to visit the parks by idealising them in video game/MMORPG form. On the other, it was supposed to implant a specific desire to go by offering things for inside the game that were only available from the parks. From an ethical perspective it's insidious, but what made VMK run was a status-based system in which was one was made to want all the cool rare stuff to impress their online friends. ;

Unfortunately, what they didn't contend with is that this system actually favours people who live in the Los Angeles. The ones who could visit most often and accumulate the most virtual goodies were those who could visit Disneyland most often... usually people who were already annual passholders. The worst expressions of this fovoritism expressed themselves on Ebay, where cards were sold and the rarer ones (like the sole Haunted Mansion-related items) going for a pretty penny.

I guess the principle on the first hand - building up brand identification and loyalty - wasn't high enough on the list of priorities for Disney to keep spending money on (though they're certainly happy to keep throwing good money after bad on the Year of a Million Dreams). I doubt any vacations were really decided thanks to VMK, though it did add a layer of enjoyment to being there once the plans were made. Myself and my VMK buddies (all grown men and women playing a game directed at 12-14 year olds) were all over collecting the cards that had the codes for the little virtual pins and furnishings and things.

A few of these same friends figured the writing was on the wall for the game as a whole when they took the quests out of the park. The quests formed the direct anchor of how VMK was supposed to make you want to go to Disneyland or WDW... Without those, it just floated alone in cyberspace. I had hoped against hope, but alas, I was mistaken and the other shoe has dropped.

It makes me twinge with a bit of sadness, because even though I haven't logged on as much lately, I've been on VMK since Beta testing phase... I was there on day 1 and I'll be there till day... whenever. It will actually be shutting down just before its 3rd birthday, having gone live on May 23rd, 2005. That was just after my first trip to Disneyland, which made me a little annoyed in that I just missed what I could have gotten for it from the park, but it was instrumental in filling an emotional gap until my second trip in May of '06. It was probably the most interactive medium for satisfying a Disney craving... It's one thing to look at photos or read updates or listen to Window to the Magic, but with VMK one actually felt like they were "participating" through their little cutesy avatar of themselves walking around, playing games based on the rides and fixing up user rooms with virtual furniture to make their own "contribution" to this online Disney park. Now it's back to photos and music. I am on Pirates of the Caribbean Online (on their test server, by the name of Nathaniel Stormswain), but franchise-specific games aren't quite the same.

Oh well... better enjoy it while I can...