I've Been Thunderstruck

Last week I wrote this post about my son’s experience in Disney Games’ Toontown online game. I got this reponse from Disney today:

Dear Mark,

Thank you for your interest in Disney’s Toontown Online.

We apologize for any confusion and hurt feelings your son experienced.
Much like any other game, Toontown requires constant care and
maintenance to ensure our residents are provided with a smooth, safe and
fun experience.

In order to maintain a great game like Toontown, we employ a
highly-skilled team of full-time programmers and staff who are
constantly working to support thousands of players and make sure the
game is fun. While we offer a limited free account, we have to charge
for the extended access to the game in order to maintain the level of
service and quality our users expect.

Toontown now offers two types of accounts, free accounts and paid
memberships. Free accounts replace Trial accounts, and can play whenever
with no time limit; however the available content is limited. Paid
Membership accounts remain the same, with unlimited access to Toontown
Online. Free accounts may upgrade to a paid Membership at any time.

A Free account to Toontown Online includes the following benefits:

- Create and personalize one Toon character
- Enjoy Toontown Central and Toontastic tasks
- Battle robot Cogs with an assortment of cartoon gags
- Explore six themed neighborhoods and see Cog HQs
- Hang out at your Toon’s house
- Race karts, adopt pet Doodles, and enjoy fishing
- Play whenever you want for as long as you want — all for free!

While we offer a limited access free version of the game, we do have to
charge for Unlimited Access in order to maintain the level of service
and quality our users expect. If you would like to progress further in
the game and access more advanced content and features, we highly
encourage purchasing an Unlimited Access subscription. For a full list
of benefits with a paid Membership, please use the link below:

http://play.toontown.com/benefits

If you are interested in purchasing a subscription, you can log on to
http://play.toontown.com/faq/overview_cost.php for current pricing
options and answers to other frequently asked questions. You must be 18
years or older with a valid credit card to purchase.

We hope this helps clarify your questions regarding the Free accounts,
and look forward to seeing you in Disney’s Toontown Online soon!

Thank You,

Roberta
Disney’s Toontown Online Member Services

I sent this this reply:

Hi Roberta,

Thank you for taking the time to reply…I honestly didn’t think anybody would!

I have absolutely no problems with portions of Toontown being restricted to paid subscriptions. That’s an established business model and, as you point out, a way to “maintain the level of
service and quality our users expect.” I’m all for that, and expect it anywhere there is a free trial offered.

What I do very much object to is allowing somebody to start a task, from within the free, trial account, and not informing them the task could not be completed without obtaining a paid subscription, until they get near the end. That is clearly a “bait-and-switch” tactic, and is a terrible business practice (and probably illegal). My son embarked on that task in good faith, assuming it was part of the free, trial membership, and spent a considerable amount of time working through it. I’m sure you can imagine his, and our, utter disappointment to be one “frame” away from completion, and being told he has to cough up $4.95!

My son did end up taking five of his hard earned dollars and getting a subscription. He completed the task, and moved forward into more paid areas of the site. He came across some sort of “cog headquarters,” which has utterly freaked him out, and he now wants us to erase his account, and he plans on taking a year off from the game. This is the same boy who can handle the weirdness of games like “Lego Batman” on the Xbox 360, which is certainly more hard core than Toontown. In any event, it appears you’ve lost a customer!

Thanks,

Mark

I’m interested to see what happens next!

This the the story of my son, an online computer game, and a quest that ended in tears and disappointment.

My son has recnetly been spending a lot of time playing an online game called Toontown. The basic premise of this game by Disney Games, from what I can tell, is that you are a character in an animated world, and your job is to use “gags” to destroy various characters that inhabit Toontown. I think these characters are called “cogs.” The gags you use are things like throwing pieces of pie, using a selzer bottle, and other cheesy things like that. The cogs, in turn, use their gags on you as well. I’ll be honest and say that this is about the extent of my understanding of the game, mostly because my son navigates so quickly around the screen that I don’t have time to read what’s going on. As an aside…my wife has spent considerable time with him on this game, so I trust that it’s appropriate for him.

I should mention, before I continue, that my son signed up for the free account on Toontown. That becomes important later on.

One of the things you also do in Toontown is go on various missions to gain things you can use on future missions…to gain weapons, of sorts. This story is about a particular mission my son was on, and the tragic ending to it.

My son spent about three days trying to complete a mission in which he collected frames for a sound gag. I’m not quite sure what that means, but I know that the process was long and complex. His task was to collect 15 frames, each one awarded at the end of a cog killing mission (various numbers of cogs each time). It also necessitated going back to Toontown HQ, checking in, and seeing if the ability to continue the mission was available. Sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn’t. On Wednesday night, my son only needed three more frames when he went to bed. He was so excited about returning to the game on Thursday after school, that he literally could not sleep. When he awoke in the morning, he was extremely excited about the day, and the prospects of getting the last three frames of his quest.

After school and other stuff, he was finally able to resume his game. He got his first and second remaining frames after some work…it gets harder the further you go into the quest. Finally, he was ready to go after his last frame. He headed to Toontown HQ, checked for his missions, and that’s when the bombshell dropped.

Only paid subscriptions could go after the last frame.

My wife and I stared in disbelief at the screen. We explained the situation to my son, and he literally burst out in tears. This was easily one of the worst moments of his life…all that hard work wasted because nobody bothered to let us know you couldn’t complete this rather extensive mission without paying for the game.

I have no problems with content in a game being restricted to paying users. If you sign up for a free game, where subscriptions are also available, you get what you pay for. What I have a very big problem with is making it look like you get certain content for free, only to find out at the end, after considerable effort, that the final prize will cost you some money. In my opinion, Disney should not let free account holders even start this particular mission unless they are subscribers. The results of their current practice is some of the worst disappointment a six year old kid can face.

Games are about revenue. Even free games online often generate revenue through tie-ins or brand awareness. A child playing the free version of Toontown might someday persuade his parents to buy a related product in a store. There is nothing wrong with this. What Disney has done in this case, I believe, amounts to a bait-and-switch scheme. Hold a carrot out for a user, let them go after it for some time, and pull it away at the last moment. What a terrible impression to leave on a user.

How does this end? Being the trooper my son is, he realized he recently got $5 from one of his relatives, which he has not yet spent. A one month subscription to Toontown conveniently comes in at $4.95. He’s excited to come home from school today, pony up his money, and continue his adventure, finally getting the prize he’s worked so hard for. Score one for American capitalism and the Disney empire.