Virtual Family Kingdom?

[OhGee]

Finally got to register and got online about an hour ago. I should still be OhGee hopefully after the name gets approved. The registering process earlier was not good. Kept getting that error/time out page. I had more success after I downloaded the Adobe Air.

Now I am walking around all alone (or so I think). Can't see my own chat but did get in a room where I saw a couple of people. I also got stuck up on the side of the building. Don't go into the stable area! hehe

[mickeynuts]

I did get back in for a bit and found patti, and then again tonight for a little while. Will be interesting to see what comes of it I guess.

[Blue Genie]

They look to creepy to me I don't know. Still not felling right about this. Even if some of the old VMK staff are there just don't know.

[jjramsey]

Finally got to register and got online about an hour ago. I should still be OhGee hopefully after the name gets approved. The registering process earlier was not good. Kept getting that error/time out page. I had more success after I downloaded the Adobe Air.

Now I am walking around all alone (or so I think). Can't see my own chat but did get in a room where I saw a couple of people. I also got stuck up on the side of the building. Don't go into the stable area! hehe

Yeah, I did that too! Must be the portal for the pirates area ...you know, swing 'em from the highest yardarm!!! arg...

[jjramsey]

They look to creepy to me I don't know. Still not felling right about this. Even if some of the old VMK staff are there just don't know.

Yes, I know what you mean, especially no Disney theme.

As far as the problems online...hey VMK still had lag and problems 3 years later...like last night!

[RicksCafe]

Well I tried everything.

I downloaded the new Adobe Do-Dads.™

I entered every password I could imagine ever thinking of.

I stood in front of a mirror and said "Bloody Mary" three times.

Nothing.

Then I realized that I'd been entering the wrong email address for the past 12 hours. D'oh!

I got stuck on a building and gave up.

I always thought you were a little stuck up, Tea. But seriously folks, I believe it was incredibly wise Patti who figured out that to get down from that perch, you just click "Refresh." Boo.yaw!

Now I am walking around all alone (or so I think).

I walked into every room and didn't see a soul. Didn't hear a sound. Didn't see a word I said. One big Alpha test.

But I'm in, baby! And that's all that counts.

Ricks (who rocks the Day One Biz-eta!)

[terri.m]

I always thought you were a little stuck up, Tea.
Ricks (who rocks the Day One Biz-eta!)

[KineGirl]

Do I HAVE to be a blonde and wearing these ugly ugly clothes????

[trackbarroness]

There's promise of new clothes and I hope new hair styles. And I also noticed that the hours are the same as VMK. I did get on last night took a stroll around until my computer started acting up then said forgett about it.
Will try logging on later today even while moving into a new place and we have family visiting this weekend. So was it like for the rest of y'all, did you just see your character or did you finally see others?

[JPL]

I'm sure I can get use to the weird characters once I actually see one other than myself

[Krystal_Rose]

I climbed a building too yesterday. At first I wondered how in the world that happened, and then I realized I must have used my "Spider Magic!" Woot!!

[wizardmickey]

T'was quite odd now that I realize the hours of operation...
It finally let me on - after midnight my time! I wandered all over the place totally alone and freaked byy generic appearance, and by 1 am decided it was too lonely, so I split. How odd it allowed me to stay on after hours!!!
Muahaha! I had this new realm all to myself!!!

[terri.m]

I had no problem logging in this morning. Still haven't seen anyone though. Or be able to talk. There is a new room when you walk out of the garden, it's paths that lead to the castle, a desert looking area that you can't get to and a park area you also can't get to yet.

Oh and i received the coveted beta spinning wheel today! Let the spinning begin!

[jjramsey]

OK, just got back from a complete walk through the new kingdom. A new room has been added after the yard. Very little lag. Still some seeing and talking issues, but not as bad as last night by far. some issues cleared up by walking out and back into room.

Talked to two VFK staff extensively. They are wanting all the suggestions they can get. In the process of giving some, it appears that they feel there are great opportunities to make improvements of policies in comparison to some other online places.

I mentioned that if there is a ban for any reason that there be an email notifying why and if it is given to a minor that their parents get the message, so that it is a learning experience, rather than an unkown shot out of the blue. This way, the parent can be involved in explaining to the child what happened and why. The staff said that they are very much interested in VFK being a learning experience, not just in history and geography, so they agreed.

Our neighbors daughter got a short term ban in VMK. Neither she, nor the mother knew why. Both were very frustrated and could not get an answer from VMK. Hopefully this is one area that can be improved!

Saw both VFK_Panda and VFK_Groovy. Had a good chat with both. They feel that as beta progresses, the issues of lag and bugs will slowly get resolved. As for the first day pin questions, they said to watch home page for messages and updates. Since this is beta, the staff and proggrammers have quite a deluge of info coming in, but the staff are very graciously asking for suggestions and what bugs are being found.

As for getting hung up coming out of the blacksmith shop, that is not happening today, so either it was due to lag last night or it has been fixed.

I did notice that the longer I stayed in a room the smoother things got...to a point.

-----------------------------------

Just an update, after entering the note above, I went back in and was all alone. Nobody in there. I think they have multiple servers/instances and since there is no way yet to crossover, it is possible to end up in an empty 'dimension.' Probably hitting the refresh key (F5) will drop you into another instance or logging back on (I find (F5) works faster). Also, if when logging in, the first screen sits there for more than a minute without the status bars increasing, just use the back arrow to move back to login and resubmit. It sometimes takes a few tries to register, espicially when their servers are busy.

[TinkRocks]

I would like to apologize for venting my frustrations earlier. I'm sorry.

Even though I haven't received any e-mails after using 'contact us' button, I finally was able to log in for half hour last night around 11pm EST. However, like JP, I was all alone and couldn't talk either.

I logged in today as well - still no one around, no talk, and no spinning wheel. I did see that additional land after exiting the garden area, but can still only walk to the castle.

[JPL]

I went back to Creepy Kingdom for a while and still nobody to be seen are you sure these other players aren't in your heads? Or your shadow?
Correct me if I wrong but doesn't the word community suggest other people will be present?

[chrisb26]

After finally being able to talk to people I find that the talk in this game and the talk in VMK are alike. Which is good. I think that is what we wanted this game for most is to be able to sit around and talk to each other. Which if they ever get talk and seeing people working will be a great place to do that in. The biggest issue I had with Club Penguin was that the talk was very difficult to use since you only had a little bubble over your head you had to talk fast. In VFK that isn't the case which is good.

I have also met a few staff members in the game who as said already are intrested in seeing comments and suggestions for making the game better.

After talking to some of the staff their big surprise for the game was that some of the VMK staff have found their way over to VFK. So far the staff from VMK I have seen or have heard a staff say is there are:

Phinny who is Finley in the game
HOST_Harmony is in the game
Cricket
Hurricane
Willa
Wolf
Lion
Cat
Aloha
Marsupial

I think there are more but I haven't seen them. Some of the new staff I have seen are:

Panda
Groovy

Phinny told me they will have host rooms and events just like in VMK. So that is neat as well.

So far my thoughts of the game is I do have hopes for it to get better which I'm sure it will. Right now they better put all their time into making it so we can see people and talk that is the most important thing if they can't see each other and talk people will not be staying very long.

I honestly don't know why they would let 50,000 people into a beta program I think after beta 2 they should have stoped no reason for so many because that is just going to overload things if you ask me.

I did notice that the longer I stayed in a room the smoother things got...to a point.

-----------------------------------

Just an update, after entering the note above, I went back in and was all alone. Nobody in there. I think they have multiple servers/instances and since there is no way yet to crossover, it is possible to end up in an empty 'dimension.' Probably hitting the refresh key (F5) will drop you into another instance or logging back on (I find (F5) works faster). Also, if when logging in, the first screen sits there for more than a minute without the status bars increasing, just use the back arrow to move back to login and resubmit. It sometimes takes a few tries to register, espicially when their servers are busy.

I have noticed this as well. It seems if I come in and out of rooms over and over and restart the game I will eventually find people.

I know for a fact there are different instences because I was talking to cat in the game (Nachocat) and something happened I think I crashed and when I came back where I saw people she said she hadn't moved but was no longer in the room and the people were talking about different things.

[janmathatter]

I was on for a while this morning and things were better. Talked to VFK Lion for a while (have talked to staff there more in 2 days than mostly the whole time I was on VMK). As he kept reminding everyone, it is a BETA game and there are bound to be problems and bugs. He also asked for help and suggestions to help the game. Having been in the Beta of VMK and POTCO, these things are annoying and frustrating, but are a part of the Beta experience.

[jjramsey]

Just came out of game and was in the Stonehenge room. We got up to 20 people including VFK_Smiles. The action was smooth and everybody was talking. Things still scroll up the screen, but there seem to be a few more lines on the screen, so there is a little more time to see it. Smiles said that the action (seeing & talking) and lag issues are being worked on and that she is sure they will get better and better.

The staff I have seem are fairly uniform about:
1 - Remember, this is a different kingdom, so there will be lots of differences.
2 - There will also be similarities (noncopyright ones) as in chat, friends lists, and a lot more.
3 - They have a world of time and places for themes, costumes, lands, etc. so the possibilities are endless.
4 - There will be magic (charms)
5 - There will eventually be animals
6 - There will be quests (adventures)
7 - It will be educational, while keeping a fun element
8 - The 'corporate culture' of VFK is attempting to be styled in such a way, that even though they are being overwhelmed with questions and suggestions, the programmers and staff want to listen to and be very responsive to the needs and wants of the players (apparently in regards to the 'black hole' that we have discussed in the past).


I am also hoping that with the expanded chat dictionary, that it will not be so abused, that it limits conversations! It seems easier to converse with less dancing. Words can be used/repeated more twice in the same line without being red.

Also an interesting feature that is very useful in the big rooms is that when the staff talk, their chat lines have a red border.

[mickeynuts]

Sorry to keep being so suspicious here, but does anybody else find it odd that with all the options out there so many experienced game moderators from VMK would choose to work for a brand new unproven site with no sign of any corporate support behind it? A couple, sure I'd believe that, but a list that long coupled with all the other things they have done to capitalize on VMK's success, it just looks fishy to me.