Author Topic: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online  (Read 11792 times)

Aggelakis

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #20 on: August 24, 2013, 05:09:45 AM »
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1024578?hpt=hp_bn1

CNN iReport - Disney's shutting down more than just Toontown.

(Link originally posted by FourSquare in the wrong forum.)
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Noyjitat

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #21 on: August 24, 2013, 05:48:59 AM »
I'm sorry but mobile games are never going to be as big as they think they will be. You can only do so much with a tablet or droid before it becomes tiresome to your hands. Not to mention lacking the precision and control that a keyboard and mouse has.
It's just like the craziness they have been trying to do with consoles trying to replace pcs. It will never happen as consoles and pcs are two separate forms of gaming entertainment and attract different types of customers. So if you ask me they are crazy trying to go full on mobile at the expense of existing customers.

FatherXmas

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #22 on: August 24, 2013, 03:49:25 PM »
I'm sorry but mobile games are never going to be as big as they think they will be. You can only do so much with a tablet or droid before it becomes tiresome to your hands. Not to mention lacking the precision and control that a keyboard and mouse has.
It's just like the craziness they have been trying to do with consoles trying to replace pcs. It will never happen as consoles and pcs are two separate forms of gaming entertainment and attract different types of customers. So if you ask me they are crazy trying to go full on mobile at the expense of existing customers.

Unless you are a child.  Kids take to playing on tablets and phones remarkably well.  And laying on the floor/bed/furniture with a tablet, whether engrossed in reading or a game is a real thing that needs to be embraced.  Imagine games of old like the Backyard sport series translated to tablet.  Sure it's not going to be a platform for "serious" 3D gaming but something like The Sims, racing or even turn based strategy games could work well on the tablet platform.
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Sophronisba

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #23 on: August 24, 2013, 04:52:13 PM »
Club Penguin is browser-based -- at least it was when my kids played it, which was a few years ago at this point.

Ezuka

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #24 on: August 24, 2013, 05:12:29 PM »
I have a friend who played Toontown as a kid, and he said that it actually makes him sad to have a game he grew up with going away. My response was probably a bit selfish, but I could first only think to say, "now somebody knows how I feel." I hope someone is able to save their community. At this point we need a website dedicated to housing the communities of closed MMOs.

Eoraptor

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #25 on: August 24, 2013, 05:38:49 PM »
I'm sorry but mobile games are never going to be as big as they think they will be. You can only do so much with a tablet or droid before it becomes tiresome to your hands. Not to mention lacking the precision and control that a keyboard and mouse has.
It's just like the craziness they have been trying to do with consoles trying to replace pcs. It will never happen as consoles and pcs are two separate forms of gaming entertainment and attract different types of customers. So if you ask me they are crazy trying to go full on mobile at the expense of existing customers.
this is exactly what large scale houses like Disney want. they want a game you will log into and play for five minutes. because the less thought you put into it, the less content they have to develop for it. It's all about the glorious return on investment, and the less they have to invest, the more returns they get. Also, the more you think about a game, the more apt you are to find is flaws and demand they be fixed, the more apt you are to get attached to it and be a pain when it closes, etc....

Modern gaming is not about pleasing the customer, it's about keeping them mindlessly clicking a button while the profits roll in.
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JaguarX

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #26 on: August 24, 2013, 05:48:17 PM »
this is exactly what large scale houses like Disney want. they want a game you will log into and play for five minutes. because the less thought you put into it, the less content they have to develop for it. It's all about the glorious return on investment, and the less they have to invest, the more returns they get. Also, the more you think about a game, the more apt you are to find is flaws and demand they be fixed, the more apt you are to get attached to it and be a pain when it closes, etc....

Modern gaming is not about pleasing the customer, it's about keeping them mindlessly clicking a button while the profits roll in.

yeah look how crazy popular candy crush is. It probably didn't take them $100 to make that game.

Thunder Glove

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #27 on: August 24, 2013, 06:53:44 PM »
The one that they're leaving up, Club Penguin, isn't even really a game, it's an animated chat room (with some minigames tacked on).  They barely have to create content at all, compared to MMO standards.  It's basically Second Life with penguins and lots of censorship. Plus it's browser-based, so they don't have to create or update a client.

I'm actually more saddened by TT's going down than I thought I was, and I barely played it.  I think it was seeing the reaction of all the players on the TT Central fan forum (as well as the assurance by that board owner that, even after the game goes down, the fansite would remain).  It was all hauntingly, painfully familiar.

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #28 on: August 24, 2013, 08:07:49 PM »
Club Penguin is browser-based -- at least it was when my kids played it, which was a few years ago at this point.
In which case it's already tablet/phone ready unless there's a deny mobile platform or specialized plugin needed to run beyond Flash (sorry iPhone/iPad).
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corvus1970

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #29 on: August 24, 2013, 11:56:37 PM »
yeah look how crazy popular candy crush is. It probably didn't take them $100 to make that game.
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Tubbius

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #30 on: August 25, 2013, 04:42:52 AM »
Very saddening.  Me?  I was reading through the CNN article comments and thinking, "Y'know, you could just find/replace and swap out 'Toontown' for 'City of Heroes.'"  Like others have said, this is really dishearteningly familiar.  :(

therain93

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #31 on: August 25, 2013, 02:05:56 PM »
this is exactly what large scale houses like Disney want. they want a game you will log into and play for five minutes. because the less thought you put into it, the less content they have to develop for it. It's all about the glorious return on investment, and the less they have to invest, the more returns they get. Also, the more you think about a game, the more apt you are to find is flaws and demand they be fixed, the more apt you are to get attached to it and be a pain when it closes, etc....

Modern gaming is not about pleasing the customer, it's about keeping them mindlessly clicking a button while the profits roll in.

Look at Disney Infinity for a peek at brilliance:
1. Physical toys to admire that are connected to electronic avatars
2. Plays on multiple platforms, with accounts linked so you can play on the console and on the go with other devices.
3. Limited edition purchasable add-ons (powerups)
4. Toybox game/story builder that you can share with other people.
 
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therain93

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #32 on: August 25, 2013, 02:08:17 PM »
Very saddening.  Me?  I was reading through the CNN article comments and thinking, "Y'know, you could just find/replace and swap out 'Toontown' for 'City of Heroes.'"  Like others have said, this is really dishearteningly familiar.  :(

Consider this also -- people want City of Heroes to be released to the wild, but many don't "get" the idea that there's an intellectual license and copyright that Ncsoft would want to protect.  So, would you propose releasing Toontown or Pirates of the Caribbean to the public?  Of course, Disney would want to continue to guard those brands....
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Thunder Glove

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #33 on: August 25, 2013, 03:33:54 PM »
Consider this also -- people want City of Heroes to be released to the wild, but many don't "get" the idea that there's an intellectual license and copyright that Ncsoft would want to protect.  So, would you propose releasing Toontown or Pirates of the Caribbean to the public?  Of course, Disney would want to continue to guard those brands....

That aspect is not exactly analogous.  Disney is probably planning to use characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and even Cap'n Jack Sparrow in future projects.  That's rather different from what NCSoft seems to have planned for the likes of the Freedom Phalanx and Arachnos (which is nothing at all).

But even then, if Disney hasn't done anything else with the whole "Toons vs. Cogs" concept by now, why would they wait until the game was shut down to start?

JaguarX

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #34 on: August 25, 2013, 04:53:34 PM »
That aspect is not exactly analogous.  Disney is probably planning to use characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and even Cap'n Jack Sparrow in future projects.  That's rather different from what NCSoft seems to have planned for the likes of the Freedom Phalanx and Arachnos (which is nothing at all).

But even then, if Disney hasn't done anything else with the whole "Toons vs. Cogs" concept by now, why would they wait until the game was shut down to start?
well to be fair, they didn't indicate either way what their plan was to us at least. Thus it could be either they have a plan or they don't have a plan but they haven't given any or enough information to say definitely on either one. It's only been a year. Even Disney sometimes wait a decade or two before releasing plans on using a piece of "property" they have and sometimes don't make announcements of their plans until it's time for marketing.

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #35 on: August 26, 2013, 04:37:44 AM »
Well guess there is lot of raving mad people that wont give Disney a single dime anymore for ever and ever now. :P.

But more seriously, dang that sucks but as said in the past, shutting down games is not an NCSOFT exclusive act. It can happen to anyone anytime any place any company and when the owner don't feel it's worth it.

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Good thing I didn't play any of those. Those players getting a month to tie up loose ends. Makes me think the world is going to be playing Candy Crusher.

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #36 on: August 26, 2013, 02:17:41 PM »
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Whyaylooh

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #37 on: August 26, 2013, 06:13:19 PM »
Not quite as bummed about this as I was when I was with the closing of CoH, but still not happy about this for nostalgic reasons.  Played Toontown and PotC with my girlfriend shortly after we got together -- she was working for Disney at the time, and strongly "encouraged" me to sign up, and kindly comped my accounts so that I could -- so it has some nostalgic value for me.  I haven't been on either since before CoH closed, though, and neither really grabbed me much, since they were mostly aimed at kids (Toontown) and teens (PotC).  Still, they were fun diversions, and nice places to hang out online and get to know my girlfriend and her nieces better early on.  I'll have to update the clients and pop on there once more for old time's sake.

That leaves my only active MMO accounts as GuildWars -- the first one, and, no, I haven't played it since the closing announcement -- and a reverse-engineered clone of a dead MMO. (No, not CoH-based, but it does give me hope that maybe something similar can happen for it.)  The others I've been on that are still running -- EVE Online and Everquest 1 & 2 -- the accounts have been deactivated, so they would seem to be safe.  But that doesn't bode well for GuildWars.  Auto Assault, Everquest Online Adventures, City of Heroes/Villains, and now Toontown and Pirates of the Caribbean.  One more, and I'm pretty sure that I'll have earned my "MMO Killer" badge.

FourSpeed

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #38 on: August 26, 2013, 09:00:06 PM »
(Link originally posted by FourSquare in the wrong forum.)

"FourSquare" ???  Really?   

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corvus1970

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Re: Disney is shutting down Toontown Online
« Reply #39 on: August 28, 2013, 12:36:24 PM »
Auto Assault, Everquest Online Adventures, City of Heroes/Villains, and now Toontown and Pirates of the Caribbean.  One more, and I'm pretty sure that I'll have earned my "MMO Killer" badge.
I think NCSoft has the IP rights for that badge, and they refuse to give it up.
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