Hello all,
This past week Disney opened beta’s to two online experiences. Overall I think these are great entries into a new market for Disney. The question is how will the target audience, children and tweens react, since I am in neither my opinion really does not matter in the grand scheme of things.
One note. Both experiences require a “modern” computer. My old laptop did not work with either due to its lack of processing power and ram. Also for Buzz a PC is required the MAC version is not done yet.
Virtual Magic Kingdom
http://www.vmk.com
I have been playing around with this beta for most of the week. There are several rooms and games done and so far the experience is smooth and interesting. Being a “techie” by background and education I was extremely interested in how the system works. It appears to be a shockwave/flash system with each room downloaded as needed. There also appears to be a limit to the number of people in a room at the same time. Once the limit is reached the next new person sees a new (empty) room. Seems to be about a dozen or so max.
The hidden mickey quest is a great way to explore the system. The other initial games to choose from are Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise Photo shoot, a fireworks game, and a dance game.
The system is still in a “beta” mode, so it crashes quite frequently, take for instance right now it kicked me off about a half dozen times in a row.
Buzz Lightyears Astroblasters Online
http://www.disneyland.com/buzzlightyear
The Buzzlightyear game is also in beta testing. The premise of this one is your fighing along side another online player and someone in the park. As you, your buddy, and the park guest go through the game together you can “feed” off each other. For example when someone in the park its a particular target a battery or little green man will appear on your screen. Or when you as an online player hit a target they get more points. There is also a webcam, which does not appear to be working, all the cars look empty to me.
Again note, this is a download and only works on the PC right now, the MAC version is not complete.
Both are great starts and we look forward to watching them develop these interesting systems.
Any comments?