I’m reviving this thread in commemoration of Virtual Magic Kingdom and VMKingdom’s one year closure, and so that I can reminisce and say things I desperately need to say. I’ll start at the very beginning, when I joined VMK.
I’ve basically grown-up with the computer and the first MMOG I ever played was Millsberry, a simple game run by the General Mills cereal company that I was addicted to. I had since shown the game to my siblings and cousins, and they soon fell under its “spell”. I was getting bored with the game and its tired graphics when I saw, in the middle of the original Disney.com site, an advertisement in their “Coming Soon” clip-board. I remember the ad quite clearly because it showed a picture of a VMK character in the Street Party Music Mixer room. I was very much enticed by the idea of playing a virtual game, based on the Disney Parks that I never got to go to. So, I quickly signed up for the game, registered as “ChimneyBert”, and my fun began in August 2005, three months after the official VMK opening.
My first room was either “Mad Hatter’s Tea Party”, a colorful room based off “Alice in Wonderland”, or “Nautilus Submarine”, from “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, but I know at one point I owned both.
My first friend I met in some part of “Sleeping Beauty’s Castle”, and either I or she requested the other to trade. When we were in the green “Trading Box” that would pop up, we had a little conversation, neither of us with anything to trade. She just said “Wanna be friends?”, and I accepted her request. I don’t think we ever met again, but I still remember that experience.
I also remember the first time I found out how to get my daily credits (our money), which you could obtain once a day by clicking on Non-Play Characters. Of course, I didn’t know all you had to do was click on them, so for weeks I tried to figure out how I could get these 25 credits a day from various characters. I actually spent money on a VMK camera and reels to take a picture of the NPCs, because I thought that was the way you got the credits. But I was very wrong, and when I finally figured out how, I announced it to a whole room of VMK avatars in the middle of some game.
I don’t remember having any favorite mini-games at the time. I probably enjoyed “Castle Fireworks”, but out of blissful ignorance, I was so bad I didn’t know there was more than one level. I later became better, but I’ll get to that story in a second.
I remember completely avoiding “The Pirates of the Caribbean” game, because it involved teamwork. A) I’m not a very good team member, and, B) With my limited gaming skill I was sure to lose, and I hate to disappoint others.
At the time there were only two other mini-games, the aforementioned “Street Party Music Mixers” and a game called “Jungle Cruise Photo Safari”, which, no matter how many times you played it, and how many times you lost, you always received 20 credits, which was called “Nedding”. I was certainly guilty of abusing that.
In this time I lured my friends from Millsberry over to VMK, whilst also taking the time out to research the game on various fansites. This led me to my first online message-board, VMKingdom (since it has since closed I am referring to it by name).
I was a lurker for at least three months, and I remember the night I finally decided to join the board. I wanted my mother to know I was joining this site, and so I told her while she was making these oatmeal, chocolate, and I think peanut butter blobs with my grandmother. You see, my family was moving from one house to another, not-quite finished home, and we were staying over at my grandparents for the time being. We were with them for at least a month.
I was already at my new school, and things weren’t going so easy. I had built a very good reputation for myself, and I had become very attached to the school body and faculty, plus I’d never changed schools before, so it was kind of hard on me. I fell in love with the new school, however, but at that time it was a torture place. I was already acquainted with the people on the VMKingdom forum in a way, in fact, I knew them longer than those at my school. Not to mention, we shared a common interest- Disney and VMK. So I think it kind of became a safe place for me.
My first thread, if I remember correctly, was entitled “Hiya! I’m ChimneyBert” or something like that. My first posts were riddled with chatspeak, which everyone used on VMK, but I was reprimanded for on VMKingdom. I tried my best, however, and I became a long-time member. Plus, it really improved my spelling.
My favorite thing about the website was “VMKingdom’s Unofficial Disney Movie Guide” which was a guide I compiled and regularly updated for the members of VMKingdom. Actually, I got most of the information from right here, Ultimate Disney, which I had been lurking on since, at least 2005. Don’t worry, I always credited UD with the information, and pointed people to the website.
Anyway, I felt a real sense of duty, and purpose with the guide, because many people used it, and it was one of our longest running threads (our biggest thread was hundreds of pages long, called “Useless Posts and Random Thoughts”, think “Bring Forth the Babble” but multiplied by ten). I updated the guide till the end of VMKingdom. It was sad, to update the list for the last time. No one really cared anymore, because our game and our forum were leaving us. But I was so attached to that thread, I had to say good-bye in some way.
Back to our early adventures- I was the first, and I think only person to get into a “fight” with our nicest member. Not so much a fight, but a teeny-tiny dispute, in fact it happened in the “Useless Posts and Random Thoughts” thread. I posted something like “So-and-so just got voted off of American Idol and now I’m getting ‘Bad Day’ stuck in my head”. The very next post was from that nice member, who lived in California, and I had ruined “American Idol” completely for him that night. Sorry, Fee.
One of the popular things to do on that forum was spell me “meh”. Another thing I remember is that we called VMKingdom our “Ohana”. “Lilo and Stitch” was very popular on that board. Towards the end, it stopped feeling like our Ohana. I never liked the moderator’s methods towards the end, they became far too stiff. They were great people, but it was just a little less perfect on the board.
Now, in the virtual world of VMK one of the newly popular things to do was make a museum. I wanted to make a huge one, a show. It was to be called “ChimneyBert’s Magical Museum” and I rounded up a bunch of VMKingdom members to play Disney characters. The first night was awful. No one showed up to do their job, except for a few good people, and it just didn’t work out. It was supposed to last three days, but after what felt like betrayal from my friends, it left a bad taste in my mouth of both the Ohana, and VMK, so I never attempted it again. This must have been late 2006.
Due to this, I stopped showing up on VMK, and I ended up here, on UD. It was, at least, a much better environment for me. UD was created for Disney DVDs, something I loved, and VMKingdom was made for VMK, and unfortunately there were more people who were Disney Park Fans rather than Disney Film Fans, and while that’s fine, I still felt isolated. Ultimate Disney was the perfect destination for me. And so I stayed here, only popping on VMKingdom to update my list, and rarely getting on VMK much. Sometimes I had spurts of being really active, but most of the time I was dead on the forums and game.
But in late ’07 I took a break from UD. I don’t remember why, but I’m glad I did. This gave me time to become reacquainted with VMK and VMKingdom, when the end was soon, we just didn’t know it. Sadly, most of my close friends, the second and third generations were moving off the site, like me, so I was confronted with these whole wave of new members, and this is how I sympathize with posters on UD who sometimes talk about a Newbie Invasion. It’s natural, it’s likely, and when you stay with the board you don’t notice it. You notice that you’re losing friends, of course, but someone who’s been away feels like they’ve lost an entire home.
But I adapted. I took the role of established, informed, annoyed, and butt of a member. It was a fun role to play- but it left me a little more vacant, and unwilling. Not my smartest decision. But I had changed, from my experiences on Ultimate Disney, the people here are very different than those who were on VMKingdom.
At least I made an effort to be active on their forums again, and it soon took a higher place in my heart, the spot it deserved. However, I still couldn’t stay for long. It was disrupting my happiest memories on there, so I went back to my new home here. I decided I didn’t want to make a complete disconnect from VMKingdom, and lose it again, so I still popped in, lurking. And I was playing VMK much more often, too. I excelled now in the Fireworks game, usually winning 1st place. Unfortunately, by this time they had stopped awarding Fireworks Magic to winners, and while I was going way the score beyond what I was supposed to, I still received nothing. That didn’t matter because I was addicted to the mini-game. In fact, when I closed my eyes at night, I still saw the fireworks crossing the computer screen for you to shoot them. That still happens sometimes, and now it’s not annoying. It’s a memento.
Apparently, according to Wikipedia, VMK begins to end as early as ’06, when Yavn, who was the creator of the game who was liked by almost all, announced that accounts that had not been used in six months would be deleted. This was because it was well-known that VMKers made mules, called multies on other games, to stack up extra credits to buy things. When these avatars were deleted it revealed that there were fewer players than they thought. Very few.
Then came a giant blow. Sometime at the beginning of ’08, Disney stopped allowing new accounts to be registered. It’s funny, now that I think about it. The first day that happened, my cousins came running, telling me VMK was closing. I said no, they had misread it, and they had. I told them that they were just not allowing new guests. I should have realized something was wrong, but no one did. It was too awful a fate to discuss…
Then came April 7th, the day we were told VMK was closing for good.
I remember lots of “Good-Bye VMK” threads, and the such. The worst part of all was the speculation, which the younger members completely bought. VMK, they believed, was making a return over the summer, or around Halloween, since VMK had great Halloween bashes, and it was exclusive to either past or long-time members. I didn’t buy any of it…
People tried every way possible to stop the closing. There were petitions, a strike at Disneyland, news articles, and even a few TV news network segments. But the efforts were doomed for failure from the start. I did sign a petition, but even then I recognized that it wasn’t going to work.
When VMKingdom was officially closed, people began to question the fate of the board. It was really up in the air for what would happen. Most people, myself included, recommended turning it into a site about all-things Disney, with emphasis on the Parks. But the staff said no. The domain cost too much money and it had to go. Even back then this ruling was completely understandable and forgivable. Still, part of me, and many other members of our Ohana, were upset by the news. We had until early June, and it was a terribly sad mood.
I wasn’t on VMK when it closed, for the last time. However, I was on VMKingdom when it closed. I looked at the Main Page one last time, then refreshed… And it was gone. Our Ohana was gone.
The worst affect of the close was the VMK knock-offs. First was Virtual Family Kingdom, which is a completely legitimate site, but there’s no way it can capture the magic of VMK. It opened the day after VMK’s last, May 22nd, I believe, and unfortunately it was a huge letdown. I do honor the efforts and determination of the creators of the game, but it doesn’t come close to VMK.
Here I talk about the big kahuna of VMK knock-offs and the one that’s created the saddest legacy, VMK Unleashed. I came across it only around January, but apparently the operation has been going on since VMK closed. These teenagers promised to create, what would have been a VMK-replica, down to the smallest detail. They told their followers that Disney could not sue because Disney had neglected to copyright the images in the game. As we know, Disney copyrights everything. But the kids who followed them didn’t know that. They wanted, like everyone else, their home back. But it was gone forever.
VMKU was schedule to open on May 25th, 2009, which would have been VMK’s third anniversary. I don’t know the details well, but from what I understand it closed before that, forever. The worst part is, this game had a massive forum. Yes it was built around a lie, but it was a believed lie, and the people there formed connections. I’m just horrified by what happened.
Even worse, when their ruse was discovered, they tried to hide it. They advertised a new VMKU- VMKingdom…
Needless to say, I was shocked. But they were not getting away with it this time. It’s already been closed down.
Thank goodness for that. I couldn’t imagine it, a new rip-off, a lie from the start, using my beloved forum’s namesake. I think, but I’m not sure, that one of my friends was behind VMK Unleashed. This would explain why they took VMKingdom’s name. I don’t want to think that’s possible.
I realize that the end of this memoir is sad, and rather negative. But it’s not meant to represent that. I want this to stand, in some way, as a testament to VMK and VMKingdom, and a record of my happy memories there. It really changed me. It showed me, that there’s more of a world out there, with people like me. Best of all, it led me here, and I have a feeling it’s going to lead me to other places.
And so I say for the last time, good-bye VMK.
Yours Truly,
ChimneyBert.
I think that was when Star Wars Episode III Was coming out! Could be wrong.. 
Bad enough that had to say they were closing just as everyone finishes the insanely hard quest.. 
)