Virtual Magic Kingdom (VMK)

VMK is Back...well sort of!

A brand New website called VMK Revisited has been added to the Net and it's a Must See for all VMK Players. It brings back great memories as you can take a tour of the Entire VMK site including Regular, Halloween, and Christmas Decorated VMK and also the private rooms. You may not be able to play but it's the next best thing. We don't know if it's up for the long haul or just temporary so hurry up and check it out at this LINK

VMK HAS CLOSED IT'S VIRTUAL GATES FOREVER

As you know by now, the numerous campaigns to save VMK were unsuccessful. The Walt Disney Company with all it's wisdom Closed VMK's Virtual Gates forever on May 21st at 10PM PST.

We would like to Thank all of our Friends that made the community and Games so Special and hope that we can continue to keep in touch. In the next few days we expect to post our own screen Pics of our favorite sections and rooms of VMK in order to keep it in our Minds and Hearts.

One last point that we would like to make about Virtual Magic Kingdom: The Disney Company just doesn't get it. Disney is pushing all the other Games they offer on us, but they just don't understand, the reason VMK was so superior to the others was that you were able to roam freely around and do what you wanted to, speak to whoever you wanted to, play games when you felt like it. Because you just don't want to play constant games. You were able to dress up and become who you wanted to be for a day. You could get together with your friends and Celebrate different occasions and Holidays. You could have your own place in the World, your own room decorated your own way. Disney needs to realize that it's not just kids that enjoyed this so much, but adults as well. We we would get together and discuss and plan our upcoming Disney Trips, that's all lost now.  

SAVE VMK

SCROLL DOWN FOR THE LATEST IN VMK NEWS AND ALL E-MAIL AND ADDRESSES AND PHONE NUMBERS FOR THOSE WHO NEED TO BE CONTACTED TO SAVE VMK

On this Second Year of a Million Dreams, I know I share the same opinion with thousands of Disney Guests...Walt Disney Company keep your Dream pins, Dream ears and Dream fastpasses...Give us our Dream Save VMK!

Disney has decided to close down it's Virtual Magic Kingdom (VMK) on May 21st 2008.
Please Help Save VMK. Below are numerous Email, Mail addresses and Phone numbers of who to contact to express your sadness, concern, and anger.

The Walt Disney Company must realize that VMK has become a tool to keep their loyal guests enthusiastic and hyped up for an upcoming trip to a Disney Resort. Throughout the Years VMK has become a place for friends to meet up and keep the Disney Magic Alive until there first or next trip to the various Disney Resorts.

Touching Story about a VMK Player

Hi! My name is Madison Rose Reed. I was born on February
4th, 1997. I am 11 years old now. I have Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) type 1. I could have died at 2 years old but I didn't.
My muscles don't work right but i'm just like other kids. I like to sing and my favorite singers are Hilary Duff , Miley Cyrus, Raven and Ally and AJ. I like to do the computer especially virtual web sites like VMK, webkinz, dizzywood and club penguin. I like to watch Hannah Montana, American Idol, America's Next Top Model, Dancing With The Stars, Top Chef, and lots of other shows on BRAVO, DISNEY, HGTV, and Nickelodeon. I will write about all of this stuff here on my own blog. I decided to create my own web site now so you can see that i'm just like you. If you would like to visit the site click this LINK

"Disney has shunned families and children worldwide with this news," exclaimed Sandra Garcia, a Disney parent from New York City. This mother of two active VMK players goes on to reveal "it's a shame, a real shame that Disney is calling VMK nothing but a promotion. These are real children, they are not promotions but real human beings. My daughters are devastated. I am outraged with Disney over this."

Immediately after the announcement, several petitions sprung up, including one at the SaveVMKToday.com campaign web site. This particular petition has garnered over 7,500 signatures, of which 4,000 of them attained within 48 hours of the news and over 160,000 page views.

"Every VMK player is stunned by this sudden announcement," explains Josh Goldstein, a long-term VMK player. "We were even more shocked that VMK is being referred to as nothing more than a promotion," a strong sentiment that is felt among the entire VMK gaming community worldwide. "Where are we suppose to go? How do we keep in touch with our friends? There is nothing like VMK anywhere else!" exclaims Josh. The decision to close VMK effectively leaves behind over a quarter of a million players with no alternative online platform available.

ABOUT SAVE VMK TODAY CAMPAIGN: SaveVMKToday.com is a volunteer fan based campaign, created to provide Disney guests worldwide with an information portal regarding Virtual Magic Kingdom. The site offers a wealth of information and tools on contacting The Walt Disney Internet Group, including several petitions and resources, to help try and save this online gaming community from closing.

ABOUT VIRTUAL MAGIC KINGDOM: VMK is a unique online gaming destination developed by Disney Online and Sulake Corporation Oy, designed for kids between the ages of 8-14, however is open to all Disney fans worldwide. VMK launched in June 2005 to coincide with the marketing and promotional celebration of Disneyland's 50th Anniversary. Just seven months after launch, Disney announced the game surpassed one million players and over 1.3 million personalized in-game rooms.

The year is 1959. Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom of Disneyland is just about to enter its third year of operations. Disneyland has been very successful not just in attendance, but in creating a new type of community; a remaking of Main Street America in Walt’s image. Walt calls Disneyland his great experiment. He uses it to cross-promote his movies, television shows, and his growing interest in urban planning.

However, something is not quite right. The surrounding area has penned his magical kingdom in with cheap looking motels and tourist traps. Disneyland really needs to grow, add new attractions, even remake whole parts of the theme park that just aren’t working. Walt has got grand ideas, add a steel roller coaster hidden inside the Matterhorn, bring online a monorail system (even extending to Downtown Los Angeles), remake parts of Fantasyland, Frontierland, Tomorrowland and even Main Street. Perhaps to open even a whole new city where urban blight will be a thing of the past.

All that will cost money, take time, and talent. Those are resources Walt could use elsewhere in his growing company. So he decides that his ‘experiment’ in 360 degree themed entertainment has been a success. But he wants those customers go enjoy one of his other projects where there is a higher margin so he can afford his future plans.

So, shocking everyone who has come to love and enjoy Disneyland, worked there, made friends there, even come to regard its wide avenues and wondrous attractions as part of Americana itself, Walt Disney decides to end his experiment and set up shop elsewhere (perhaps Florida, where he’ll have more room).

In retrospect, we know that Walt Disney would have been crazy to make that move. Spending the money in the years between 1959 and 1967 was a great investment in Disneyland and in the Disney company brand. But at the time, it probably seemed like a reasonable option when faced with plenty of other opportunities to spend that cash.

Plus, by 1959, just a scant four years after opening, Disneyland really did belong to America. Walt’s tie-ins with his other properties (Mickey Mouse Club, True Life Adventures, the animated films) and his great sense of knowing what Americans wanted in their entertainment diet, even if they didn’t, made sure that Disneyland and America were inextricably tied.

Now, I’m not trying to equate the Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom (VMK) with present day Disneyland. But isn’t it a lot like Disneyland was in 1959?

Ironically, Disneyland plays a part in the killing of VMK, or rather, the way the Walt Disney Company does its internal accounting played a role. You see while you and I may see The Walt Disney Company as one behemoth organization with just a few brands — Disney, ESPN, Pixar (?) — that’s even how it presents itself in the annual report, the company sees itself as hundreds of little businesses (or divisions) each operating on two levels of sales.

The first level is with the general public. Each division is required to maximize its sales to the public. Eisner and crew saw this as a short term thing with 20% profits required from nearly every business unit (down to each individual churro cart at the theme parks) in order to justify its continued existence. Was that magic margin not reached, then cuts were required. Luckily it seems as if the current management team is a little more broad and long-term in its thinking. But they still want to maximize profit.

The second level is internal sales. As it turns out when Disneyland wants something built by Imagineering, they have to “pay” WDI to do it for them. Yes, it’s still the same company, but internal accounting rules require it. Those Pirates Of The Caribbean premieres at Disneyland the last five years? All paid for by Walt Disney Pictures, even the extra cast member hours required to staff the event.

When Disney Parks (I still hate that name for the division — could it be any less magical) wanted an online promotion as part of the world wide celebration of Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary, they paid Disney Online to set it up for them. Disney Online then went and licensed the software from Sulake Corporation to build the Virtual Magic Kingdom. I understand that Disney Online also did some additional programming work on top of what Sulake provided.

There have been some discussions recently that VMK is closing due to the original licensing agreement with Sulake coming to an end. Sulake did just sign an ‘exclusive’ agreement with Paramount Studios to provide virtual worlds for their film properties. That may have had something to do with it, but I haven’t been able to confirm that one way or another.

What I am hearing is that Disney Parks considers the 50th Anniversary promotion all wrapped up. They cut off funding for the project to Disney Online many months ago and that Disney Online has been looking at ways to continue VMK since then despite the loss of internal funding.

To switch to a pay-for-play system would require re-coding the entire game nearly from the ground up. It’s not even clear that Sulake would license them to do so. VMK has not attracted the kinds of numbers that would sustain an advertising supported system, and it’s not clear that Disney would want to do that anyway. Plus Disney does have other virtual worlds that these players can migrate too, so it’s not as if they’re totally cut off. Without any funds coming from the promotional budget of another department, it was time to turn out the virtual lights at the Virtual Magic Kingdom.

So, I guess the real villain of this story is Disney Parks who paid for the creation of such a wonderful place like VMK; fostered an online community of die-hard brand loyalists; and then cut off funding for the project without a care for the world they created and the people that inhabit it.

Of course, none of this internal accounting matters to fans of Disney’s VMK. They just know that their virtual Disneyland is going away.

Many of them are fighting mad. They’re doing what they can with websites, letters, petitions, comments to this blog and every other story they can find, in order to saveVMK.

The effort is getting some play in industry websites and in the news media as well. The WKMG story was picked up by briefly by CNN.com.

As of this writing savevmk.com has over 11,000 signatures on its petition and www.savevmktoday.com has over 7800. While there is probably some overlap there, that’s fairly large numbers. But in Disney’s world of accounting, it’s probably not enough to save VMK.

If you read between the lines you see the fingerprints of internal accounting everywhere in there statement. You also see a decision to abandon the game. I’m sure it was not made lightly. But it was made nonetheless and they don’t appear likely to reverse it.

So what can Disney do to relieve some of the pain being felt by their players?

Having been actively involved in various internet communities since the early 90s, I’ve gone through a few of these situations myself. Of the two that stand out, one was a Listserv (automated email list) and the other a MUD (a text based virtual world). In both cases they were shuttered by the owner, but rescued by a sympathetic system admin who had access to a recent subscriber list. Listservs and MUDs are fairly easy to set up assuming you have access to server resources required to run them. Both communities survive to this day, different from the original, but close enough that friends were able to stay in contact, etc.

The situation with Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom is a bit different. First, its not a bunch of college students playing hookie from class to complete that last quest before they level. Second, VMK has a lot of children. There are restrictions on chatting and what-not that restrict the dynamic of the game, but also made it a relatively safe place to play online. Along the same lines privacy is taken seriously, Disney isn’t just going to hand over the subscriber list to anyone. Third, Disney has internal goals. Those include directing existing players to other products.

That does not excuse Disney from setting up some sort of safe place where the community can still function while it transitions. This not only provides a win for the community, but a channel to direct these players to other properties, perhaps even as focus group members or other special status. It could be a discussion group (similar to Google groups) or a special sub-area of one of the new games where VMK handles and logins will still work. There are no doubt a few technical and privacy challenges to overcome here, but certainly fewer than recreating VMK from the ground up.

One of the lessons of Web 2.0, Social Media, whatever you want to call, it is that there is a responsibility to the community you foster. The information superhighway is now a two way street with content being created by brands and by consumers of those brands. There is co-ownership of that content. You have to respect the bonds that creates.

The decision to terminate VMK would be different if it was a buy-out or the Walt Disney Company was in financial trouble of some sort. Fans and players expect some change in those instances. However, neither are the case here. Instead this is abandonment of loyal brand loving consumers, pure and simple.

The game itself may die, but Disney’s responsibility to the community does not. I’m hoping that Disney will make some sort of effort to do the right thing and create a transitional space for VMK’s community until it is able to find a home in one of the other nooks and crannies of the net. It may not be the easiest thing to do, but it’s the right thing to do. Your fans will thank you for it instead of hate you as is happening now.

Local6 - More than 11,000 people have signed a petition to save Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) after an announcement was made that the site will be closing.

The free Disney VMK gaming site debuted in 2005 as part of an online promotion for the company's 50th anniversary. The game has continued to grow in popularity.

Currently, there are more than 15,000 players who chat and game every day, Local 6 reported.

Disney will formally conclude its 50th promotional online game as of May 21, 2008, the savevmktoday.com site reported.

Fans protest end of Disney online game

United Press International - Thousands of fans are protesting the decision to yank the online game "Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom," a game industry watcher says.

Disney recently announced plans to close down the free gaming site, which debuted in 2005 as part of an online promotion for the company's 50th anniversary.

Since the announcement was made, 11,000 people have signed a petition to keep the game going, WKMG-TV in Orlando, Fla. reported Tuesday.

"VMK was created as an online promotion," Katie Gerber of the Walt Disney Internet Group told WKMG. "It exceeded our expectations ... to the point that we left it open much longer than originally anticipated. All good promotions must come to an end."

"Needless to say, this is causing an uproar among the games fans who have invested time and effort in building their characters, rooms and friends in VMK," John Frost of The Disney Blog wrote this month.

The game is expected to be shut down May 21.

Fans rally to save Disney MMO

Eurogamer - Over 11,000 people have petitioned Disney in an effort to stop Virtual Magic Kingdom from being closed, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

Disney also currently runs Pirates of the Caribbean Online, which is both free to download and play, although for full access you will need to shell out USD 9.95 a month.

Disney Trashes Its Kingdom

The Motley Fool - The clock is ticking on Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Virtual Magic Kingdom. The online experience -- think family-friendly Second Life for the mouse-eared set -- will be shutting down next month.

The free site was launched three years ago in conjunction with Disneyland's 50th birthday. I was one of the early beta testers. It was a hoot to create an avatar and stroll through a virtual recreation of Disney's flagship theme park. Members would play games, text chat, unlock secret spells, and earn credits that could be used to deck out their online digs.

Things got even better that summer when Disney began to incorporate the experience into its theme parks. In-park kiosks would present scavenger hunts, giving players incentives to visit the parks. The game also served as a platform to promote new attractions, like the opening of Animal Kingdom's popular Expedition Everest coaster.

Even though the family entertainment giant ran a paid membership community in Disney's Toontown for years before VMK's arrival, the success of the new experience proved addictive to Disney. It went on to acquire Club Penguin last year, with new online communities in various stages of deployment centering around its Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney Fairies, and Cars franchises.

The new ventures make sense. They can be tied to merchandising efforts where related playthings can come with in-game codes for virtual trinkets. Toymakers like Mattel (NYSE: MAT) and Build-A-Bear Workshop (NYSE: BBW) are making inroads here, so Disney might as well be a part of it with its rich catalog of characters. It certainly has advantages here that more conventional amusement operators like Six Flags (NYSE: SIX), Cedar Fair (NYSE: FUN), and Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) lack.

So why kill VMK, especially when it would have been the ideal gateway drug for families to get hooked on the new line of premium membership communities?

That's what I don't get. The site's public rationale is that the community was never supposed to last forever. It was just a Disneyland milestone promotion. That's hogwash. You don't spend years shoving codes in cereal boxes and selling cards and pins in the actual parks for virtual goodies that will be deemed worthless in a few weeks. More importantly, if you want consumers to devote time to the new communities, you're setting a terrible loyalty precedent by dismantling the one that started it all. Do you think any of the ex-VMK users will trust the new vibrant worlds Disney creates if they know they can all vanish under the guise of an anniversary promotion?

Disney has beefed up its gaming efforts since VMK's launch. It struck a deal with Shanda Interactive (Nasdaq: SNDA) to put out Disney online games in China. It has beefed up its software development team to create in-house titles.

So why throw in the flag, Disney, when the flagpole was just starting to be raised?

Disney pulls plug on virtual world

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - How does the world end? Simple. Someone flips a switch.

At least that's the way it will go on May 21 when Disney shuts down its Virtual Magic Kingdom, a game that lets players interact with one another in an online theme park.

Disney's decision to end the game set off a flurry of criticism from parents and players who say the entertainment giant is turning its back on thousands of fans.

The company wouldn't discuss the matter but issued a statement saying the free game was intended to be a 50th anniversary promotion and it has gone on longer than planned.

"All good promotions must come to an end, so we have decided the time is right to close VMK," the company said.

The fast-approaching doomsday raises an interesting question at a time when many popular games are essentially online communities, known as massive multiplayer online role-playing games. In them, large numbers of players — the current king is World of Warcraft, with more than 10 million subscribers — gather in virtual worlds to adventure and socialize.

But what happens when one of those worlds is shut down?

It's not something that happens very often, largely because it doesn't cost a lot to run a game, once the programming and development costs are recouped through game purchases and monthly subscription fees.

Certainly Disney won't be the first to make such a move.

Mike Allen of Maryland Heights was playing Earth and Beyond when Electronic Arts decided to cancel it in late 2004.

"It's one of those things that every gamer knows," Allen said. "At some point, the game could go. It's in the back of your mind."

And if the worst does happen, Allen said he usually knows how to get into contact, generally through e-mail, with friends he met in the game.

But that won't be the case for rule-abiding residents of Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom. More than a million players have signed up since its debut in 2005, though the game has a relatively small player base, with only a few thousand players on at any time.

The game targets players ages 8 to 14 years old and features security measures to keep users safe from predators. For example, players are limited to a Disney-approved dictionary of words, which keeps them from typing numbers, e-mail addresses and the names of cities or states. Players who work around the filters can be banned.

The downside of that protection is that players will have no way to get in touch with their in-game friends once the game closes, said Nicholas Bourne, a Los Angeles player and spokesman for fan site www.savevmktoday.com.

"Most people will permanently lose contact with other players," Bourne said. "You'll lose your friends."

The website is one piece of a multimedia campaign to save the game. Fans are reaching out in a range of ways, including letters, e-mails and YouTube videos.

James Smith of Utah joined the effort shortly after hearing the news from his 12-year-old daughter. "I've never seen her so upset," said Smith, who started www.savevmk.com.

The site has collected more than 12,500 signatures. He is hopeful Disney will rethink its position, even if it means a monthly subscription fee.

The situation represents one of the disconnects between the designers of virtual games and players who use them.

Dean Terry, director of emerging media at the University of Texas at Dallas, said creators tend to think they are building games, but players, the serious ones at least, tend to be more interested in the social aspect.

"People who design games should take that seriously, but it's not their primary mission or concern," Terry said.

When those virtual worlds are threatened, there's often very little the players can do.

In some cases, there are opportunities for another company, or even a collection of fans, to take over the game and keep it running, said Rusel DeMaria, the author of dozens of game-related books, including "Reset: Changing the Way We Look at Video Games."

The chances of that happening in this case are slim at best, considering that Disney is a company known for keeping tight control of its brand.

When the end does come, some say it may not be as painful as players think.

"These virtual places are easily replaced. There are lots of options out there," said Michael Stefanone, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Buffalo who studies social media and its cultural impacts.

And the loss of a virtual friend is really not too different than the loss of one in real-life.

"When a close friend moves away, it's painful," he said. "But in the end, those lessons are a good thing."

            Main Page                                                                      Play VMK              

Above is a screen shot of your starting point for VMK

And it doesn't stop there. Visit a Disney Theme Park for your chance to earn cool gear, magic spells and fun surprises to enhance your VMK gameplay. Play in-park Quests at Disneyland park at Disneyland Resort in California or the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida to help you rule the virtual Kingdom!

Be whoever you want in VMK. Choose from loads of hairstyles and clothing. Remix Disney costumes to create your own unique look. Change your appearance instantly and as often as you like. And there's even more fun if you earn one of the magic special effects!

Create your very own room in the Kingdom when you join the game. The more you hang out and play, the more credits you get to spend on furnishings. There's a huge selection of stuff to collect and trade — from pirate thrones to futuristic teleporters to hippo carpets and many other surprises.

Battle it out with your friends in the Pirates of the Caribbean Game. Prove that you're the best fireworks designer by creating your own explosive pyrotechnics show in the Castle Fireworks Game. The fun of VMK is multiplied by thousands of Players from around the world who are experiencing the magic along with you.

Look closely as you walk around the Virtual Magic Kingdom. It's not your imagination — that is Mickey Mouse you're seeing! Discover Hidden Mickeys (silhouettes of Mickey Mouse's head) in the Hidden Mickey Quest and take a snap with your in-game camera to earn exclusive VMK loot.

Mix and play your own music and create a rockin' music jam just off Main Street, U.S.A in the Street Party Music Game. Open the easy-to-use mixer to make your own tracks. Play your music for the crowd jammin' in the alley. It's the biggest street party in the Kingdom!

Brave the untamed rapids of the Jungle Cruise on your Quest for wild animals in the Jungle Cruise Photo Safari Game. Capture them with your VMK camera and earn points for every animal you photograph. It's an adventurous photo safari that gets you closer to cool stuff for your room.

Above are some of the Quest cards available at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, the Insider Tour Quest of the Haunted Mansion, Tour name badge, and your prize for completing one quest , the VMK wrist band. Below that are some VMK cards with awards, one side features the item and the other side features the code needed to obtain the item. Some cards are given after a purchase at the park such as a hat, T-shirt, or candy as seen at the lower left. The other cards can be obtained by taking the quests and the insider VMK tour.

Does your computer meet our minimum requirements? To play VMK we recommend that you have:

For PCs:

For Macs:

Below are some of the Quests available at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom

Click Thumbnail To Read Questions

Click Thumbnail To Read Questions

What Do Kids Do in VMK?

Who's it for?

Is It Safe?

VMK Insiders Tour
~ This Tour has been discontinued ~

Above are photo's of the meet place for the VMK Tour (The Main Street Cinema) which serves as VMK Central and photo's of the actual Tour around Magic Kingdom. The Tour includes visuals of some upcoming rooms and games for VMK and rear entrance (skip the line) to rides like Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise and Big Thunder Mountain R.R. 

FAQ's

Are My Child's Personal Details Safe with VMK?

Why Do You Ask for My E-Mail Address?

Does It Cost Anything to Play VMK?

Can My Child's Credits or In-Game Belongings (e.g. Furniture and Pins) Be Stolen?

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