Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
The End of VMK
As promised, I’m going to try to write a little bit about the closing of VMK.
Firstly, it came as quite a surprise. The game had been doing quite well, and was in what I’d like to characterize as the “throes of new growth”.
Actually, I’m going to suddenly diverge for a moment here to mention the unique flavor of VMK. As far as social spaces go, it was specifically unique. Canned dictionary-based chat lead to a seperate language. I glove my duh.duh as “I love my daddy.” Language is the first icon of culture, and VMK’s culture took great pains for me to originally become inducted into.
The environment of VMK was Disney, but a softly dilluted Disney with alternate non-brand characters like the Yeti and Esmeralda the fortune teller. But, despite this dillution, the environment in which the players played was kept almost diabetically sweet through persistent high quality content updates. New clothing, items, rooms, contests, events - grand things and special attentions that paying subscribers of most MMOs would give their thumbs for were commonplace and free.
The players themselves coordinated events and room hosting, playing games in the freeform social space provided them in exchange for their increased brand awareness. Tweens, mostly female, occupied the bulk of the demographic. Coupled with this, I presided as Community Manager over the most professional ace team of Moderators and event Hosts I have ever known of. With pedigrees in AOL’s Community Leader program, the mods I had the pleasure of directing I have never witnessed before in any other MMO. And to boot, the staff itself was huge!
Due to COPPA regulations regarding kids in online spaces, moderation had to remain constant, and so my staff was a sizable 30+. One of the major aspects of sadness I have about the game’s closure is that I will likely never again see assembled a team of moderators as freaking awesome as these guys were. The majority have gone on to other projects, but I aspire to hire them back again in my next mod team if I possibly can.
So, we were talking about VMK’s unique “flavor”. Ever see that movie from the 80’s, Legend with Tom Cruise, before he went all schitzo? You know the one, with Tim Curry as the big red, black horned Satan creature. In it, there’s a few scenes with a unicorn running and bucking through a forest with insistent rays of sunshine blasting down in between windswept leaves. There’s a reverb synth riff playing by Tangerine Dream in stopping, high breathless pace over piano. It’s a dirty, brilliant light filled with dust and earth and good. That’s probably the most accurate way I can describe the flavor of VMK.
Unexpected. It came out of the blue. I won’t describe the circumstances that lead up to Disney’s decision to close the game - I can’t. The description given publically that it was time to end the promotion was the one I received myself. I didn’t question it, no reason to. Decisions like that one are large and involve so many more moving parts and people and discussions and paperwork than can be imagined, and it is not Community’s job to question why, but to tow the line and state the facts.
At some point after the announcement, it became my role to gently guide a quarter-million kids into the virtual netherworld quietly, calmly and cooly. Pfft, Grey, you exaggerate, you dramatic bastage! Yeah, I do, a little, but the tears were freaking real. Here these kids, my kids were, with the rug pulled out from under them. The Destruction of a Virtual World. It hasn’t happened in recent memory. Not on this scale.
There weren’t any articles I could read, no post-mortems about what went wrong, how things progressed towards the event horizon of shutdown of another MMO or virtual world of this size. Uncharted territory in a major way, and this with a demographic statistically inclined towards self-violence. Business as usual was the byline up to the end. There are lessons, dark lessons that can be learned from watching a thing die. I watched while the pillars of community atrophied and collapsed after the announcement, and witnessed emotionally charged emergent behavior on the part of the players that stuck around to the final hour.
I was quite a bit more behind the scenes in this role that I have been before, and I was glad of it at the end. After all community initiatives were cancelled, I reset the priority for my staff and myself to be the continued survival of the VMK community in some form or another. Alliances with third party forums, transitional tokens for alternate games, a loosening of identifiable information restrictions so that players could exchange character names in other games or social spaces… for many of these players who had called VMK home for years and found in it their own support mechanism, community had to persist.
There were some battles that needed fighting right up until the very end, and I gave it my all to see that the game ended on a respectable note and gave closure to its little citizens. I have a few more gray hairs for some of those fights, but they needed to be fought and I am thankful for the outcome.
The closing itself was spun like a graduation, and I visited as many rooms as I could. The “rare” mod no one had seen before. I offered consolation, and I went personally to the pillars of community that remained - those brave souls in it until they flip the switch for the last time. (Of which I am still one in Ultima Online).
There was this little girl in VMK, posted about in a few articles about the closing. Madison Reed has Spinal Muscular Atrophy and, well, suffers from the effects of this malady in a wheelchair. She defied the odds when she did not die after turning 2 years old. She is now 11 years old and plays… played VMK as a little princess in a pink dress. She loved VMK because she could dance and have fun parties with her friends and she didn’t even have to worry about germs.
She was in-game on the final day, decorating her castle suite room in the final hours. I stopped by and introduced myself. I spoke to her and answered her questions. We posed for a picture so she could remember the day. Things were coming to a wrap and I had to get going. Without warning, she approached my avatar in-game and thanked me with a hug. And then she danced. I hit the dance emote button and joined her in her dance. And for awhile, we just danced.
I met the end dancing, on the far right of a straight line of players who gathered unbidden to the statue of Walt and his pal Mickey in the Castle Forecourt. That’s how VMK ended. That said, I’d love to go into details about the lessons learned, but after mentally rehashing the closing I’m running on empty. Perhaps another time.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:57 am
Gracie said:
Thank you so much for sharing your insight. You’ve pretty much confirmed everything I’d thought about this game.
The moderators were just amazing- they knew exactly when to intervene and how to deal with the target audience. Every time I think of one particular moderator leading a silly song and dance on main street I smile- that was one of the things so special about this game. You just don’t see that anywhere else. There was a strong community, and like you said a culture, that developed around this game. It was definitely something you had to immerse yourself in to “get,” but once you did that, you could easily see why it was so different and amazing. They really had something good going.
VMK won’t be easily recreated- by Disney or anyone who tries to sweep up the audience. I’m still amazed that it was so easily discarded by the company. I’m glad that at least your side of the game understood.
Again, thanks for sharing, and thank you for handling this situation so well.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Anya said:
Wow. Thank you for your thoughts. I am going to let them settle in and will be back later.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Aengus said:
Thank you for sharing this. I had never heard of you until that night, but after reading this I have a very good idea of who you are. I didn’t get to meet you on that night but after reading this it is obvious you cared about your moderation team and your community as well.
The game was special because the members were, and that includes very much the moderation team. They were one of us, no matter up front or behind the scenes.
Thank you
June 8th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Angelagt (from vmk) said:
Hello. Thank you for your kind, and understanding words. you pretty much said everything good that you could say about vmk. Your words are calming and bring back so many happy memories! Your very kind to do this and, to spread the word to everyone so NO ONE forgets what vmk did for us. Thank you very much and continue to “spread the magic!”
June 9th, 2008 at 2:23 am
Mystery said:
It’s nice to see the insight from your side.
Many of us have not accepted the promotion reason but realize the many factors invovled not excluding poor management and lack of marketing.
Many of us stood together,(and still do), in the face of a much larger entity.
VMK was more than just a promotion.
It was a gathering place for imagination and a community of friends.
Shame on those that pulled the virtual rug from under our feet.
This was a game that crossed over ages/families/able bodies and not/Shy/ outgoing/gamers and players.
Nothing like this will be easily replaced and should be reborn.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:58 am
taran (VMK name) said:
so sad the other comments
played vmk for a while and then i quit cause i grew away then for some reason i came back. my character was deleted so i started taran. he did not have as much stuff as my original but it felt more special when i got the stuff cause i used codes to get alot of stuff on my old character. when i heard VMK was gonna close i dismissed it cause i knew alot of people who would pay all the money they had jsut to keep it open and i thought they could change it now i know i should have done something but i didnt. now i wonder back to see if they have rebuilt but they never have. disney will feel the pain many have boycotted disney. i myself am boycotting its online games none are as good. i dont want to be a penguin or a pirate i want to be taran the dreamer of games the survival master the vampire the tron the vampire hunter.
VMK is mentioned in the KINGDOM KEEPERS where the kids meet and talk. now i bet new readers of that book will never know what vmk was exept what is mentioned in that book.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Bugdozer said:
Hi,
Thank you for such a heart warming article about a place dear to my heart. VMK was so much more then Disney gave it credit to be. For our family it was a saving grace during a crisis and it was a means for a mother and son to have a place where they could be together and enjoy the magic. You all did make differences in peoples lives and I don’t say that about much. My son introduced me to VMK about 6 months after it opened. He made an avatar he wanted me to play to earn him credits while he was in school. He made me this cute little peep named AceBugdozer. But you see my son did not plan on one thing-I fell in love with the game. So the next thing we knew here I was a mom playing a boy peep that my son made for me. I kept that peep as it had very special meaning to me-was created by my son. Who would have known that 6 month later how badly we needed VMK. You see my son Slinkyman was diagnosed with cancer that summer. A blow to any family especially when it involves a child. At this point slinkyman or “ink” as he was known by was deep into the game as was I. So when he was admitted to the hospital i am happy i had enough thought to grab my laptop. Was the best thing I did. He spent every possible minute he was in the hospital that week on VMK playing with friends. It was his escape from the real world and his pain. He had much support in the game. I will never forget the day he had his first Chemo treatment. We sat on the bed together and as they pumped those nasty chemicals into him he played VMK. Yes we had tears but we had the joy of our community. Every treatment he had we brought the laptop. I had friends dear to my heart that were there on VMK to help me get through this. Their were some amazing people behind those little pixel avatars with hearts as big as mountains. So your amazing world made a HUGE difference.
I want to take this moment to comment on the amazing team of mods and hosts that were guiding this community. They were/are such a caring community. They were not just doing their job but really cared about the players. I saw it first hand when the news broke of Ink’s cancer. their kind words to me will never be forgotten. They were the rays of sunshine on a cloudy day.
Getting past this game has not been easy for Ink and myself. I miss popping into his rooms and seeing what his creative mind had made. VMK was such a great bond between us and I will be forever happy that Ink let me share this world with him. There will never be a place as special as VMK. We are just taking things 1 day at a time.
If you are who I believe you are you popped into Ink’s room that night. That brought him great joy. He loved the VMK community and he tried to be a pillar of this wonderful world- a role model for other kids and person trying to make the right choices. Was all a learning experience. Thank you for taking the time to see him that last day. It is the caring people like you that made this world so special.
We too ended our virtual lives with Walt. Ink had planned it out before the last day. He wanted to stand next to Walt with me standing next to him. He wanted his best friend Smalld standing on the other side of Walt with our great friend Laurabearz next to smalld. Various friends joined us on that tearful night. We danced until the curtain dropped but as Ink said we are with Walt he is watching over our little avatars that had become part of our family.
So I end with a HUGE thank you. Rest in peace Slinkyman, AceBugdozer, Smalld, Larurabeaz and all of our dear friends. We were lost but will never be forgotten.
Bug
June 9th, 2008 at 10:05 am
GoofyWaterCoaster said:
Thank you for your insight from the side of a VMK Mod. Its a good thing to know that the people from Sulake (our hosts) were not trying to end the game as sometimes previously thought. I can’t imagine your sadness as this great game came to a halt.
Thank you again
June 9th, 2008 at 10:17 am
TinkerBlue said:
I was one of the old folks who was on VMK from the first week of beta. The thing that strikes me as such a waste is that so many software companies and education companies spend billions on research to find a way to make online games/communities proactive instead of just players just reacting passively to game play. VMK, with its build-element, enabled players to do just that. Hopefully, somebody will pick up on all that was creative and good, and re-awaken VMK.
My thanks for all the hours and effort by you and your superb staff. Although a community leader from early on, I was one of the quieter members that didn’t get to meet many of the staff. For those I knew, thank you. For those I didn’t, thank you too.
TinkerBlue (formerly CL_TinkerBlue)
June 9th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
BallerinaBug said:
I apologize for sending you a rude e-mail. I didn’t realize it wasn’t Sulake’s fault. I also wanted to say, how did you take part in this Virtual world? Did Sulake actually create the world? And made it with Disney’s ideas? I recently moved, and my dad had to go out to where we moved before we did, we had to wait for the house to sell. My dad called every night, but when we got on VMK and my sister joined in it was much more realistic. Well I’ve moved now. I hope you can re-new your contract with Disney. I am boycotting it, and never since May 21st have I even watched Disney. Most of my time is spent on the computer, outside, and walking to the community pool and then swimming.
Thanks for this paragraph. The staff was freaking awesome
June 9th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Ellee said:
This Post is very good. I loved vmk! Im not going to buy any disney prodects from now on.
June 9th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
slinkyman said:
Hello,
I really liked reading this article. Even though we didn’t see you often, you did a great job.
I hope this isn’t goodbye, but just a “see you later” message.
VMK closing hit me hard when that Yavn Speaks was added. When I read it, I thought it was a joke. Until I sat there… dead silence, I read on. It said that this was not a joke.
When I heard this a tear started to drop down my cheek. The past three years of joyous fun was going to stop. Something that will always be held as a “childhood memory” is now gone.
VMK brought me through the most difficult time of my life, and it just disappears? I couldn’t believe it.
Now life has moved on… I am still keeping these memories but I am also trying to keep into my intrests. (which are Graphic Design and Disney Parks)
Maybe someday I will be creating a Virtual park.
Again, thanks for this great article. I really enjoyed reading it. (you’re a great writer!)
See you later,
slinkyman
June 9th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Karen said:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us .. your understanding and respect for our VMK community is much appreciated If the DIG had shown even half the amount of sensitivity that you express in this article, it would have gone a long way towards healing our bruised hearts.
June 10th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Wolf said:
Thanks Joe. I think you accurately conveyed the feelings of the VMK staff.
We will always hold our experience at VMK near and dear to our hearts and take with us the desire to always remember the players are the ones that make any online game what it truly is.
I wish you well in your next endeavor. See you ’round the web.
June 10th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Goofer (VMK name) said:
Thank you for posting and sharing your thoughts. You touched on many of the reasons why VMK was such a special game. A game that sadly I believe can not be duplicated.
From your post I can sense your pride and pleasure to have worked with such a wonderful team of Moderators/Hosts. We got to play with and make friends with them and they were truely amazing people.
This day one player really misses our VMK community.
Good luck to you all.
June 13th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Strawberrybonbons (VMK Name) said:
Thank you for this wonderful insight. I’d just like to say that hen I was sad , feeling bad , unhappy , or if my mom was mad at me I went to VMK to have fun and forget about it. I just wish there was a game like vmk ( not vfk ) to play. It would elp me , Madison , and the rest of the kids who played vmk. If you ever see PinkPuppy on VFK thats me.But I don’t go on vfk much so don’t count on seeing me there.
- A VMK friend
Strawberrybonbons
RockingJill BlueRose and SweetSummerian you guys rocked when we hung out on vmk. Hope to see you guys in another irtual world.
June 13th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
KingGolden said:
Thanks for posting all of this… it kinda makes me feel better that a manager would feel this way… I’m sure we’re all just glad that someone agrees with us that it was an absolute extreme movement that has nearly never been pulled before. You always see Disney expanding, but never stopping in such a strong way. I mean the advertising possibilities were LIMITLESS, and Disney could have made millions off of that if they felt like it. But instead they cause hate on their company. Sure, former VMK players will go back to WDW despite what they have written online… but they will never feel the same way about it again.
-KingGolden
June 15th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Smilingalice on VMK said:
I thank you for such wonderful words! It means a lot to see such beautiful things said from someone so close to the game. The staff was the most amazing people I have had the pleasure to be around. They always did things to make the game so amazing and worth coming back to each and every day.
It’s been 25 days since VMK closed and it still hurts as much today as it did the day I heard it was closing and, worse still, seeing the final connection disconnected box on closing day. I have 2 children that I shared VMK with. We loved..no still love, VMK. It was such a special, unique place. They still ask me every day if VMK is back yet, if their and my letters and emails made them change their minds. Everyday I find myself searching the internet for any part of VMK that is still there that I can see and touch to make myself and my children feel better.
You and your staff are what helped make VMK this place so dear to our hearts.
Thank you for everything you did for our VMK community. All the best in your next adventure.
We still have not given up hope that we will see you all again dancing next to Walt & Mickey in Castle Forecourt.
June 15th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
yetirockzdude said:
I remember first going on VMK in mid November 2006. I had created my first avatar, stitchrockzdude (though I used my third all of the time, yetirockzdude). When the VMK Esplanade appeared, I was wowed by the graphic details put into the game. I saw the partially transparent Christmas tree atop the VMK logo on the floor. Everybody was talking about the holidays and welcoming the new players. To this day I will never forget what Guest number I was. I was Guest4332973 of the initial 8000000 something people. When I logged into my newest account account for the second time in March of 2007, I met somebody in the small waterpark of a hotel. His name was LittleAbney and he was wearing the Troy (High School Musical) outfit with the Stitch hat. We became best friends instantly and stayed friends ever since. When I heard of CL_slinkyman’s Lymphoma I felt instantly sad for him. Ever since, I kept on meeting him in various rooms over and over. Only three were his. Everywhere else was in someone’s popular guest room. I always checked on his condition, and every time, he said “im all better” and then I asked “do u mean the treat.mint went well?” and he didn’t respond. It semms everytime I asked, he disappeared or wasn’t on the computer, or even disconnected. I hope to one day become his friend in VFK (Narasopa’s Virtual Family Kingdom) or in VMK if, I mean WHEN it reopens, because he is really nice and makes awesome rooms, and I thought he was the best thing since chewing gum (haha). Anyhow, I hope that I’ll see both LittleAbney and slinkyman online sometime. Anyhow, as for the author of this, good job. I wish I knew your VMK name, because nobody is mentioning it. Any how, see you in MMOGs!
- Yeti
June 18th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Darksteps said:
While I only logged in twice, more or less for the novelty of it and to see what kind of community existed, I thought it was an excellent experience. Unfortunately, I lost high speed internet and it became exhaustingly annoying trying to interact with anyone via dialup, so I never logged back in. Now I’m on the verge of getting broadband again and I hear this disheartening news.
On another note, Joe, check your email and contact me…
Marcus “Darksteps” Eiland
June 18th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Superinfernoboy (in VMK) said:
Thank you for everything you did for VMK and its loyal fans. VMK will never be forgotten.
Thanks!
Inferno!
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:29 am
Alex said:
vmk rocked. Well, no it didnt. It was great, but for it to “rock”, Disney needed to be truthful with us. They should have told us that vmk was going to be shut down, and actually respond to us when we gave them reasons why it should stay open. Everyone was getting annoyed by that and, Disney, believe me, you didn’t want to annoy them. But they gave us all a feeling that kids can’t do anything. We all worked our butts off to get signatures, make videos, have protests, etc., and what do we get in return? them same thing we got before. A email with no help at all. I know that this, what i have just said, may not all be true. But this is mainly from my point of view.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Jenny said:
VMK was my life. I am a very shy person but in VMK I could be myself because no one could judge you. No one could tell you who to be or how to be it. I have friends, I have a lot. But my VMK friends were special because we just wanted to have fun and meet new kinds of people. I joined on the fourth day of the game. I made my first friend who was named MSThomas. He stayed my friend until that last day. I knew I would never speak nor listen to him again. I spent my last few minutes with him, telling him that I was going to miss him and that I thought he was the closest thing I’ve ever had to a best friend. It sounds pathetic, that I couldn’t make this sort of connection with a person in my school or in my state for that matter, but it’s true. He was there when my dog died, even though my friends all left me. He consoled me when my grandpa became ill and past away. He made a true and lasting effect on me and I will never forget it.
I look back… and I can’t help but think ‘Wow, the last couple years of my life were spent on this wonderful place, and now they’re all going away’. I feel like, as sad as it sounds, I’m never going to get over it. I’m never going to get over all of my spent weekends, all of my lost friends. I met many genuine people on there that I would gladly meet any day but I can’t. And I never will.
I think that you summed up everything that I felt and yet it doesn’t seem enough. It’s like a black void in my heart that will never cease to exist and it makes my load that much heavier. I would kill to just see MSThomas one more time, to tell him again how much he meant to me. I know that, in a few years, he’ll forget about me and move one. I know all of you will, I’ll just be another old memory. But VMK will always remain in my heart as the one place where I could truly and surely be myself.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:37 am
BootsyBoo(VMK Name) said:
I am sad it closed. Heart broken. But life is like that we have to move on. I’m not saying to give up hope, it could really come back. And yet I doubt I would play again. They just gave it to us a wonderful place and grabbed it away. And if they open it back they expect us to just smile and everything will be ok? No. it’s not ok. I remember when my friend messaged me: Have u heard the news?
No what? VMK is closing. No Way You’re Kidding! 
That was the day I let all my madness at people slip away. I didn’t care I just wanted VMK to stay. Life doesn’t take requessts though
I could cry for eternity but life’s not for crying.
Smilingalice there’s a website called gpvmk.com it’s a website to revisit VMK it has animations and music sounds etc of the wonderful world of VMK.
And I say, Goodbye VMK, So Long, You Won’t Be Easily Forgotten.
August 31st, 2008 at 7:42 pm
TylerY said:
everything u said was heartwarming i miss VMK i had a girlfriend and great friends i’ll never forget the first time i loged in
people r trying to save it i hope it works.
August 31st, 2008 at 7:50 pm
TylerY said:
Everything u said was heartwarming on VMK i had a girlfriend and great friends VMK is sadly only a memory now.
August 31st, 2008 at 9:07 pm
TylerY said:
sorry bout commenting twice
May 17th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
TheCowgirl said:
I was a Day One player.
Damn, I miss that place. It’s a shame that it’s just a has-been now, forgotten and dissolved into our childhood memories somewhere. I was looking for something that accurately described why VMK was so important to all of us.
This actually did it for me.
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Enderz said:
I to miss this place. Myself and Elara were Testers and played until the end. We even got married in 2006 and took little cut outs of our avatars to take pictures with around WDW on our Honeymoon.