I wrote about Disney's plans to close its Virtual Magic Kingdom virtual world a while back, and judging by the number of comments from fans who found that post, the decision has caused outrage among many users. Now, the LA Daily News is reporting on some users' plans to picket the real-world Disneyland in protest.
However, one of the users, Andrew Lawson, makes a good point about why people are so unhappy with the decision, pointing out that he has developed friendships with other players that can’t be replaced elsewhere - but crucially, that will be hard to port across to another virtual world, due to Disney’s policy on users not revealing their real identities, email addresses or phone numbers to each other.
Here’s the thing: Disney is encouraging VMK users to migrate to its newer virtual worlds, such as Disney Fairies or ToonTown Online. But if people can’t swap details, how can they then find each other again in those other worlds - it’s a slightly fiddly process of registering, then swapping their new details for those other worlds before VMK closes. Perhaps in this situation, companies like Disney should offer some kind of data portability, in terms of avatars and friend lists.
Another fact in the LA Daily News article that made my jaw drop is the comment by 16-year-old Andrew’s father, who says the family stayed at Disneyland three times, spending around $2,000 each time, in order to get a particular Lilo & Stitch virtual hat for Andrew’s avatar. Now that’s commitment, and shows why the unrest over VMK’s closure is so deeply felt.
0 comments