Newsletter 4/1

Live and direct from VMK Central, it's the man with the VMK plan – ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, here's Yavn!

What in the Disney World?

Hey there! Yavn here. Ok, so we're getting reports that odd things are happening in the Kingdom. Esmeralda has sensed a portal opening in VMK that leads to another world and Shrunken Ned tells me that some odd looking Toons have also been spotted in our Virtual Magic Kingdom. Now I've got PirateVinnie and the rest of the VMK Staff looking into this and as soon as we can figure out what's going on, we'll let you know.

Anyway, I'm sure you want to know the theme for this month? Well, we've got, I mean had, some great plans, but somebody (cough, Yeti) lost them!
(Just between you and me, we're partnering with our pals at Toontown for a Topsy Turvy Toon month!)

What does this mean? Well, don't expect a new ToonTown land to show up in VMK, but it does mean a whole bunch of cool items and events. Stay "tooned" for more details – sorry I couldn't resist!

A Pirate's Quest for Me

Now about that Quest, first off, on behalf of myself and rest of the VMK staff, our hats are off to those of you who completed it. Yes, it was a hard Quest, but then again, I've never known a treasure hunt that offered such amazing treasure to be easy.

We were especially pleased to see VMK'ers working together in the Pirates and other games to complete the Quest. What we didn't appreciate were those of you that asked for answers (not doing the work while other players worked for hours), players who posted spoilers and the players who were just downright rude to other players in the game lobbies. There were other issues too which I'll get to in just a second...

Why did Captain Blackheart make the challenges in the Quest so difficult? Well, pirates are a crafty bunch, Blackheart is no different. Like all pirates, he wanted to make his treasure really hard to find.

I know that frustrated alot of you. We were frustrated too – we worked very hard to put this Quest together for you and thought you wanted (and deserved) amazing rewards – several players however, didn't think they should have to work to get them.

We all face many challenges in life and they aren't always easy to figure out – take it from me, anything worth doing takes time and determination. The old saying really does apply, cheaters don't prosper – and in the end, they just make it harder for the rest of us.

While we're on the topic of cheaters, one last comment about the Quest – I'll remind you again, using any program that modifies VMK or plays VMK for you is not only wrong, but against VMK Values and will get you banned. In short, if you didn't download it from VMK.com, don't use it with VMK! (And trust me, we know when you do...) Technical problems (as well as closing the Quest when we did) were a direct result of players that didn't follow these simple rules.

Rest assured, we learned quite a few things from this Quest that will greatly affect future events.

Finally, yes, it was a challenge, but we sincerely hope you enjoyed Captain Blackheart's Quest and even if you didn't complete the big one you got to play the mini-Quest and get some cool treasure. It's just a shame that some players had to spoil it for others and that's all I'll say about that.

Topsy Turvy beats Scurvy!

On a lighter note, we've ransacked those plundering pirates and are now working with wacky Toons! So what can you look forward to this month in VMK? How about some never-before-released Magic? We've got it! How about a new room? You want a sneak peak? Sure:

Now this looks like a nice place for some cool refreshment.

All this, plus other amazing stuff I can only hint to because I'm still looking for our Event Plan! Yeti! Walk with me to the Churro Cart... do you have any idea where you put those plans? What do you mean a Toon took them? What? Ok, show me which way he went... Yes, of course I'll buy you a churro...

Stay here guys, I'll be right back.
-Yavn

Okay I can't say much about this newsletter other then what a sad excuse is being used. Honestly I did like this quest it was very difficult but it rewarded you greatly also.

However they go and decided to and close the quest early then they use the excuse its because of the people that cheated and used programs to finish the quest. However they also stated they knew who used those programs. So basically VMK knows who cheated yet they are still going to punish the hundreds that were going to try and finish the quest tonight that had never cheated. What a sad excuse and a terrible decision by them. I honestly can't say more then that.

Other things it sounds like they are finally going to add some VMK machines in Disney World somewhere like they have in Disneyland my guess is in the Tomorrowland Arcade like where the rumors were before.

Also what is up first we have Pirates Online Month now ToonTown Month is Club Penguin Month next?

We had at least 3 people after a full weekend of trying get through their pirates. They were going to finish the quest tonight and now this. I mean word of month from Phinny in Host Room last night said that the quest would conclude at noon today. It wasn't posted on VMK Front Page until this morning. And most of us didn't hear the word of mouth until after closing.

Why is it that when they want to punish the few that cheat, the cheaters never get punished (Narnia teleporters, everest, Jack Sparrow costume). They go on to sell the rare stuff and get more. And most of us even know who they are. And the rest of the community suffers the consequences. This is so wrong. This is another reason I've been fed up with VMK and been mostly playing on pirates. We spent a weekend on this and all a lot of people got was nothing. How fair was that?

There were a lot of people that also helped people through pirates and then turned around and got left at the dock when the people left. This was poorly thought out since only one person out of a team could win that amount they had. Add to that 45 to 1 hour waits in the Pirate lobby.

After 3 years, they haven't figured out what can be hacked and what can be. Dah! If its something so hard most people can't do it, the hackers will.

I guess that's why I'm so happy that I got to look forward to a new cutlass, pistol, staff, doll, and getting Level 40 on rat cat in pirates online. Tired of putting up with this ridulousness!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Chescat

I guess that's why I'm so happy that I got to look forward to a new cutlass, pistol, staff, doll, and getting Level 40 on rat cat in pirates online. Tired of putting up with this ridulousness!

---

Sounds like fun, but please don't get lost in that other virtual world...there are still friends here that would miss you :mickey:

More I've been reading other boards the madder I'm getting. I agree with a lot of people. So the "Yavn" replacement is blaming all of us for being cheaters. Even if you had the answers, how many people finished it. Making a quest so hard most people can't even play it. Is it cheating that we had 6-8 people playing pirates for 2 1/2 solid days and only getting 9-10 people through cheating. Sitting waiting for lobbys for up to an hour and waiting another 20 mins for your team to get in. Lag was so bad some people crashed. Why don't they just admit they messed up. But blame their "customers" as somebody put it. The announcement for the shorten time should have been made yesterday. Not making poor Phinny be the one to mention it to somebody in host room last night and then it shows up today. Anybody in school or working got messed over after all their hard work.

I agree with others, isn't the target audience here kids. And as adults we barely could do it. I went to sleep 3 night in a row with a bad headache. Lots of people missed out on pirate items since this last month was ride a thons or quest stuff.

And finally the bottom line. Isn't this just virtual stuff? Am I missing something here? You'd think somebody had stolen pins or figurines from the store. This is "Un-Disney" like with this attitude.

Okay, I'm done ranting. Off to Pirates to go hacking and slashing at something. :mad:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Chescat

We spent a weekend on this and all a lot of people got was nothing. How fair was that?

---

Well... to be fair, they did say that many would begin the quest but few would finish.

That being said, it was highly inappropriate and unfair to end the quest the way they did. How easy would it have been to send one of those scary blue box announcements out during the day?

I did think it was morbidly humorous that moments after the quest was so abruptly curtailed and hundreds of sad souls were flying into a rage that we received a scary blue box inviting us to a Host event. Oh joy, oh rapture. How about an apology instead?

This clearly was an event with promise that again... was poorly planned and executed.

I am reminded of the first two dictums in RicksCafe's Tao of VMK:

1. Expect the unexpected: bend with the wind.

2. Assume nothing: flow like a brook.

Ricks (who cheats like the cheetah)

There has never been a quest that didn't have answers posted somewhere on the web. We didn't start allowing answers to be posted here till Yavn was fully supporting a site (he was actively posting there) that did allow it, leading us to believe it was ok. Yavn never told them to stop. So John, rather then have all our members (including his own kids) have to go elsewhere, decided we should post them here. If they ever asked us to stop posting them, we would. This is the first we've heard of it. So, I'm not buying that 'posting answers' excuse all of a sudden. Even with the answers many people can't finish quests due to game scores. Also, I don't believe anyone would have had trouble with the answer parts of this quest anyway.

Programs to cheat I can see, but what is the percentage of players doing this? If they have people using programs, ban their Ip's. If they were already cheating all weekend anyway.. why stop, hours short, of the finish and hurt the people that worked so hard?

I think they were frustrated by the posting of spoilers, but the cheaters they were referring to are those using programs to run the game. I've seen it was happening forever now though, why didn't they see how ridiculously fast people were finishing the staff quests? I know the ability to do this is out there, I've seen it in use. A player had a room set up like a clock, he stayed in there afk all day and the program moved the clock hands. It was so cool, but I had no thought that it would later be used like this (and i'm not saying it was that player who did it, he is well known and respected). What should have happened is a ban for those cheaters or at the very least they should have lost their prizes. Stopping the quest early for everybody because of them was just plain wrong. What I think they should do now is offer some of the prizes for sale. I know there would be yelling about that, but the credits alone were worth doing the quest and being able to buy some of the other prizes would make a lot of people feel better.
I know it's not much, but I've been giving away the prizes I get from the TD magic to people who didn't pass the quest. It's small but it's something.
:) Laura

I am not buying the cheating/hacking excuse. They blundered their own cover up.

Quote:

---

We were especially pleased to see VMK'ers working together in the Pirates and other games to complete the Quest...

...The old saying really does apply, cheaters don't prosper – and in the end, they just make it harder for the rest of us.

---

The only way to obtain that pirates score for 99.5% of the VMK population was to work with other players...in other words, organized cheating. Because we definitely were not playing by the rules. I seriously doubt the programmers had the idea that players could get high scores by shooting each other, retrieving health, shooting each other, retrieving health, etc. etc. then deciding on one person to have the victory.

If you look at the mini game requirements, Pirates was the only "impossible" task. Mansion is not a problem if you're a decent player in even a 1-on-1 game. Jungle Cruise can be done by 75% of the people on VMK. So if they really wanted to make it difficult they would've upped those requirements as well.

I believe they figured the POTC score was enough of a deterrent for most. They had in mind a target number of people that would finish ahead of time. Bella said "over a grand" won. Average numbers of players online is about 6000. Over 3 days about 18000 players. Hmm...5%? Sounds like a number they would pick as a target. Guess they hit that number and decided that was enough, knowing that many of us had POTC down to a science and would've run a lot more people through that night.

Quote:

---

What we didn't appreciate were those of you that asked for answers (not doing the work while other players worked for hours)

---

Last comment...I know of several players who spent all day Sunday and Monday in the POTC lobby helping other players pass that 575 task. (Side note: Nominate them for a Gold Star reward pin if you know of any, they definitely deserve it.) So are those they helped lumped in with the cheaters too?


Overall, I enjoyed this quest. It's been a while since we've had a challenge. Difficult questions, yes, but with a little research in the game as well as Vinnie's post about Blackheart, even some younger kids could do it. The problem was the time constraint. A weekend. Why do we have lame quests like Hannah Montana and Twitches Too up for months, and then a great quest like this, that I'm sure many would do on their own without help guides, only up for 3 days? With that kind of pressure, how do they expect us not to go looking for outside help?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LittleDragonErin

The only way to obtain that pirates score for 99.5% of the VMK population was to work with other players...in other words, organized cheating. Because we definitely were not playing by the rules. I seriously doubt the programmers had the idea that players could get high scores by shooting each other, retrieving health, shooting each other, retrieving health, etc. etc. then deciding on one person to have the victory.

---

In the original pirates, that's exactly how we got the top scores of the day and always the first place spots. Taken further, does that mean we are cheating doing no shoot pirates? Again its people working together.

I also found it odd that VMK was up and down so much last night (closing twice, freezing for 10 minutes). What's really going on with the Disney servers. Pirates online went down around 11:00 last night too for a sudden 2 hour maintenance. We were given 15 minutes notice which is unusual. We do know that there are QA/Testers working on another server some place to test our new weapons. Is this what's causing the problems with both games.

There is also a big push for Disney XD in the games. Its in Toontown and also Pirates online. Supposedly it was going to be used in VMK also. Problem in pirates is we get a maintenance and the XD list is up for about 3-4 hours and then goes down again. So that could be another issue going on here. Makes us wonder? :confused:

BTW, Disney XD is accessed through disney.com. What you do is you give your friends a code in XD, and then that person becomes your friend in all the Disney online games. You can also chat with them anytime on the Disney XD site. Its been handy in pirates, because we are limited to 50 friends. So our XD friends, we have all their characters on your friends list at all time. Downside, we originally deleted our friends figuring this was going to work. Wrong! Hopefully they get this working.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LittleDragonErin

The only way to obtain that pirates score for 99.5% of the VMK population was to work with other players...in other words, organized cheating. Because we definitely were not playing by the rules. I seriously doubt the programmers had the idea that players could get high scores by shooting each other, retrieving health, shooting each other, retrieving health, etc. etc. then deciding on one person to have the victory.

If you look at the mini game requirements, Pirates was the only "impossible" task. Mansion is not a problem if you're a decent player in even a 1-on-1 game. Jungle Cruise can be done by 75% of the people on VMK. So if they really wanted to make it difficult they would've upped those requirements as well.

---

This is what annoyed me a bit about the quest was i would have rather had mansion or Jungle Cruise higher since those are easier.

I'm also wondering what they want first they say we are happy you worked together then contradict themselves by saying helping others is wrong.

I think they need to make it clear what they mean.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LittleDragonErin

Overall, I enjoyed this quest. It's been a while since we've had a challenge. Difficult questions, yes, but with a little research in the game as well as Vinnie's post about Blackheart, even some younger kids could do it. The problem was the time constraint. A weekend. Why do we have lame quests like Hannah Montana and Twitches Too up for months, and then a great quest like this, that I'm sure many would do on their own without help guides, only up for 3 days? With that kind of pressure, how do they expect us not to go looking for outside help?

---

I am also somebody who enjoyed the quest. I thought it was cool that we got a quest that was challenging. Since most of the quests VMK makes are mindless. I think my biggest issue with the quest wasn't the high score in pirates but the lines to get in the pirate lobby. I mean it took us 1/2 hour to get into the room most of the time. If we were able to just make it into each lobby right after we ended a game it would have been much less stress on everybody.

As far as the answers go I don't see their issue with it. I look at it like this if people don't want to try the quest and want all the answers that is their choice. I'm sure there are a lot of people that do the quest for fun themselves and don't look at the answers. I mean I'm usually the person that does that. I'll read the questions first and try the quest then if I can't figure something out I'll look. However with this quest I wasn't going to risk it. I knew there was a limited amount of time to do it and the fact that we had been playing pirates all day by the time it was my turn to pass I wasn't going to risk clicking next only to have the next question be something I didn't know and get it wrong and have to do pirates all over again.