Despite no long-term intentions, it gained popularity and eventually became a long-term venture on its own. VMK initially launched as part of the Happiest Celebration on Earth promotional campaign, commemorating Disneyland's 50th anniversary. The beta version opened publicly on May 23, 2005, with new lands opening up through 2007. It was a virtual representation of the Disneyland-style theme parks, containing areas and minigames which were based on real park scenery and attractions. Virtual Magic Kingdom, also known as VMK, was a massively multiplayer online game developed by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and Sulake and published by The Walt Disney Company.

Disney has responded to this emotion with a short statement only saying 'we hear you,' and the game itself is still set to close down as planned on May 21st.Fiona Romeo, Seth Mendelsohn, Jeremy Malillin There is a petition online, with 11,000 signatures as of this writing, to keep VMK open.

It's an amazing story - here's an MMO that worked perfectly in terms of building community and developing social connections between players, and yet Disney chooses to close it down. This is why we play these MMO games - to connect with others online, to experience things that can't be experienced any other way, and to create connections that otherwise wouldn't be there. What's most amazing here is that, from these comments, it seems VMK was one of the strongest virtual communities out there. There are tons of eloquent, emotional comments lauding VMK for its sense of community, the friends made there, and the opportunity to connect on a virtual level with other people and Disney's attractions when, for various reasons, the same can't be done in real life. But the comments thread over on this Virtual Worlds news post about the closing has to be seen to be believed: fans of this place loved it completely and are painfully heartbroken over its closing. We reported on the closing of Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom the other day, and at the time, it seemed like business as usual - Disney had created the virtual world for an event, and the event was over, so it was time for the world to close.

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