Water Cooler Games served as the web's primary forum for "videogames with an agenda" — coverage of the uses of video games in advertising, politics, education, and other everyday activities, outside the sphere of entertainment.
The site was maintained at watercoolergames.org from 2003-2009, where it was edited by myself and Gonzalo Frasca. It is now archived here in full.
A little more than a year ago, I mused open-mouthed at Disney's intention to create a Habbo Hotel-like virtual world. Then back in May we announced the launch of the beta of Virtual Magic Kingdom (I was so disappointed they didn't call it Marketingland).
We logged over 100 comments on that entry, some interesting but most inane -- users scrounging for cheat codes or mistaking WCG for a forum where empty chatter goes without notice. I got tired of the recent comments filling up with such things, so I turned off comments at the start of this month. Then, a week ago, I got a fascinating email from the Virtual Magic Kingdom Community Operations Manager, requesting that I "hide or otherwise remove" certain comments on the VMK entry. I refused to take any action on the comments, simply because this is a research site and some of you may want to troll for user reactions to VMK. For the same reason I post the Sulake letter here for your consideration.
I am the Community Operations Manager for Virtual Magic Kingdom(VMK). Some posts on your site were recently brought to my attention, and I would like to share my concerns with you. My hope is that you will hide or otherwise remove the offending posts, as they contain falsehoods that are derogatory to VMK and provide false information.
This post is blatantly untrue. There are no secrets to obtaining codes, and staff members will certainly never give out confidential information:
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Comment from sellina on January 01, 2006
i had millions of codes once because a vmk staff let me into secrets and guess wat now i lost the book
This person (Kaitlyn) is not a staff member. No VMK staff member will ever post on a web site with their staff name, nor will they post on a web site in another name and disclose their role with VMK:
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Comment from Kaitlyn on October 26, 2005
Hey, you know you can get vmk codes at vmkguide.com. I'm a vmk staff member on vmk, so if you have any question mail me at softballme003@yahoo.com ! I promise you should go to WDW during december when you in schoool! there is no body there.
Also you might want to go to on vmk for this week! there are having a Big beta sale! Hope you have fun bye!
While the following two posts do not impact VMK in any way, their appearance in this thread suggests that VMK permits or condones this type of behavior:
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Comment from amnah on December 18, 2005
this syte rocks and so does vmk and sex
hey sex is really great i had it at a friends house but she doesnt know i had sex with out a condom it felt sooooooo good like heaven i made sounds like ooooooohh thats nice and arrr gimme more baby harder harder and stuff like that youshould try it is so fun and i wish we could do that on vmk i so wish we could (mwah) boys email me on ammybabe@hotmail.co.uk and tell me if you want some sex fun and i will give it to you anything anywhere dont forget ! bye mwah
Comment from amnah on December 18, 2005
oh and i no i shouldnt do this but email my friends too:
j1g1@hotmail.co.uk
jaf_galz_3@hotmail.co.uk
princeton-girl4eva@hotmail.co.uk
angel_mel7@hotmail.co.uk
email them for sex fun too they enjoy the sex fun as much as me
dont forget ! bye mwah
Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter.
Regards,
--
:: Debbi Colgin
:: Community Operations Manager, VMK
:: Sulake Corporation
[contact information omitted]
A few things to note here. First, if it wasn't already clear, VMK is created and managed by Sulake, who created and manages Habbo. Second, and much more interestingly, VMK is actually requesting that I take down public comments on this site -- which has nothing whatsoever to do with VMK or Sulake -- simply because they find them derogatory. Third and even more interestingly, included among those comments Sulake wishes to censor are idiotic, sophomoric, possibly spam-generated messages about sex. Their explanation? I'll repeat it for the giggles that ensue:
While VMK has perhaps legitimate wishes to assure the public that their staff doesn't cheat or discriminate, they also want to make sure you know that they don't condone sex of any kind, in- or out-of-world we would presume. This is a sentiment that seems to be going around, what with Blizzard's recent comments about GLBT-friendly guilds.
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