Yes, some of you may have heard the rumor that vmk is doing the closing thing as a publicity stunt!
As you may have seen it made the news in the OC.
So it makes perfect sense they would know that all the VMK addicts would go insane and cause publicity!
Which would cause VMK to become more popular!
But what they do not get is that most of the players are quiting or racking their brains because of the supposed closing
what do you think?

As much as I'd like to believe the "VMK closing" is just a publicity stunt, I tend to doubt that's really the case.

One of the several reasons why I think this is just a suspicion that Disney & Sulake (developers of the game & technology behind it) can't reach agreement on licensing & fees for the latter to continue to develop & support VMK.

Also interesting is the recent news that Sulake has entered into a partnership with Paramount Pictures to promote Paramount's films thru Habbo Hotel (the virtual world game technology that VMK was originally based on) ... note that Paramount is a competitor to Disney.

"LOS ANGELES, January 29, 2008 - Habbo, the largest online virtual world for teens, today with Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment, announced a licensing agreement to create virtual goods based on titles including 'The Spiderwick Chronicles,' 'Beowulf' and 'Mean Girls.' The deal will provide Habbo merchandising rights throughout the U.S. and Canada for all three properties. The partnership marks one of the first of its kind between a major motion picture studio and a virtual world commodity."

What a novel idea, huh? Promoting real movies via virtual items in an on-line world?

habbo is by the creators of vmk...

I said no vmk was not going to be on for this long of a time like they said but who knows really.

It would make me very happy and a littleangry if it was, but I don't think so.
I think closing is the real deal

I think it might be a scam. They did the something similar with the Hannah Montana Concert stuff, they said it would only last for a certain amount of time so a lot of people would come see it and then they extended it.

I don't think it's a scam...it doesn't seem very "Disney-ish" to manipulate players like that.

I don't have an opinion on whether or not the VMK closing is publicity stunt, but I think is very "Disney-ish" for the Disney corporation to manipulate people like that.

I will keep to two examples because I can go on and on.

1. Think about all the Disney movies people suddenly felt an urge to buy since VMK items (ex: Inferno magic pin) were offered as movie rewards prizes.

2. When the Main Street Electrical Parade made its return a few years ago, it didn't it return to its rightful home, Disneyland. Instead it went to California Adventure, which coincidentally was suffering from low attendance at the time.

Yes, I see what you mean, but neither of the examples you gave were incredibly obvious to the public...if this were to be a scam, EVERYONE would realize what was going on...I dunno, it could be wrong though.

I honestly think this is like disney as well. They probably knew that one of the biggest MMPOG (or whatever) on the web would be in the news all over.

I think their closing it because their trying to drive us nuts.
Lol, well it worked.
It's no scam.
It's gonna be gone.
For.Ever.

Splunge most certainly has a point. When they "retired" the Electrical Parade, they held several "special" showings. To attend the special showing, you purchased a $25.00 ticket to get into the park - that is $25.00 above the cost of your regular day admission, or in addition to your pass.

Then they sold a full line of merchandise commemorating the end of the parade. This included selling off the lightbulbs from the parade for $10.00 each.

I went to the event, bought the shirt and 2 of the lightbulbs. Then the parade shows up again a year later, across the street...I wasn't very happy about it.

Now, they have announced the end of VMK, and many of us have been begging Disney to keep VMK, even if we have to pay to play. What better way to charge for VMK than to say "well, you asked for it."

Those are two excellent points. Softening the blow of the pay to play.

So in retrospect, we are giving VMK and Disney exactly what they want. They WANT us to say its okay to pay to play. By fighting them, we are actually losing the battle.

I think that is a great point. It is very possible that Disney and Sulake just could not come to an agreement on the details. Perhaps Disney will have to close VMK down, but maybe they will rebuild the game and release a new and improved game.

If it is a publicity stunt...

*hits yavn about 153892347329473298478329748923749 times.*

"OW."

*goes to a big 'vmk is still open' party*

"woot woot. inferno! woot woot!"


mmhmmm.

On second thought, if Disney were trying to scam people just to get more players, then chances are they would still be letting people register.

That's a great point Dobby. I considered that also, but then again, would VMK closing seem believable if you could still sign up?

EDIT: Sorry, couldn't spell believable.

I'm assuming if they're planning to go to pay-to-play, they don't see the point of having people play for free for just a month or so and then charging them. Very few of the newbies would probably be willing to pay because the game wouldn't have had the same impact on them as it has on us.

I For One Know That This Is Not A Scam.
Why In The World Would They Do That?
The Disney Company Already Has Millions So There Is No Need In Trying To Pull A Publicity Stunt.
Especially Something So Cruel Like This.

I agree. If it was a scam they would still be accepting players. Yeah, it would seem odd, but it was odd to me when I first saw the message saying that VMK wasn't accepting new people.