MouseAdventure Spring 2010

[BarTopDancer]

In case you missed the email:

MouseAdventure Anniversary

This Spring, MousePlanet celebrates the 10th Anniversary of MouseAdventure with three fun-filled events. Whether you've played every game since 2000 or are forming a team for your very first Adventure, there's a division just right for you! More information about MouseAdventure can be found at www.mouseadventure.com.

Advanced Division

MouseAdventure Anniversary: Decades
Saturday, May 22 - Sunday, May 23

Hop aboard the MouseAdventure Time Machine for a whirlwind Journey through Disneyland Resort History. Teams begin this two-day event Saturday morning with breakfast at Aladdin's Oasis inside Disneyland Park, then embark on a day (and night) of fun in Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. You never know where the Time Machine will send you next!

On Sunday, Advanced teams will resume the Adventure with an entirely new set of quests to solve, then return to the Paradise Pier Hotel for the post-event Award Ceremony. This is guaranteed to be the most challenging MouseAdventure ever! Registration is restricted to returning MouseAdventure teams, and all players must be 18 years of age or older. (MouseAdventure Masters teams are allowed to register and compete for prizes in this division).

Registration for the Advanced Division is $250 per 2-person team, plus $30 each for the 3rd or 4th player on a team. Registration includes breakfast at Aladdin's Oasis, two days of MouseAdventure fun, and admission to the post-event Award Ceremony on Sunday. Each player will need admission to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure on Saturday and Sunday. MouseAdventure registration does not include theme park admission.
Registration for the Advanced Division will open at 9am on Tuesday, March 16th online at mouseadventure.com. Registration for this division is extremely limited, and no waiting list will be formed once the division fills.

Basic Division

MouseAdventure Anniversary
Sunday, May 23

Celebrate 10 years of MouseAdventure with this "blast from the past" featuring some of your favorite quest formats.

Registration for the Basic Division is $95 per team, and includes admission to the post-event Award Ceremony on Sunday. Each player will need admission to Disneyland on Sunday. MouseAdventure registration does not include theme park admission.

Registration for the Basic Division will open at 9am on Tuesday, March 16th online at mouseadventure.com. Registration will close on May 13, or whenever the division sells out. No waiting list will be formed once the division fills. Players must be at least 6 years of age and one player on each team must be at least 18 years of age.

Day at the Park Division

MouseAdventure Anniversary
Sunday, June 6

Designed for new MouseAdventure teams as well as returning teams who play "just for fun," teams in the Day in the Park event will solve slightly modified versions of the Basic division quests in a relaxed, non-competitive setting. Teams play only for bragging rights, and there is no post-event Award Ceremony: results will be posted on the Web site about a week after the event. If you've ever wondered what a MouseAdventure event is all about, this is the perfect opportunity to find out!

The MouseAdventure Day at the Park event features an extended sign-in period with a pre-game new player orientation session. Teams can also participate in T-shirt and mascot competitions before the main event begins.

Registration for the Day at the Park Division is $55 per team. Each player will need admission to Disneyland on Sunday. MouseAdventure registration does not include theme park admission.

Registration for the Day at the Park Division will open at 9am on Tuesday, March 30th online at mouseadventure.com. Registration will close on May 27, or whenever the division sells out. No waiting list will be formed once the division fills.

[katiesue]

Have fun :)

[bewitched]

Sounds fun, I'm hoping to be at WDW.

[€uroMeinke]

Yikes, advance starts at $250? there must be some fabulous prizes - but you know, I'm still kinda glad we've retired.

[BarTopDancer]

I'm 99.5% sure we're not playing. We were iffy, and it would be our last one. Now, the only way we can play financially is as a team of 4 now and it's still $77 a person. It's less than $40 a day to play, and AVP already said there's no sweep at the end of day 1. It's still a ridiculous amount of money for what seems to be to pay for the rental of Aladdin's Oasis. I'm sure there are reasons for that rental, I'm sure it will be fun and we're still talking about it. It's just not likely.

[Disneyphile]

Ouch. I now doubt Ken and I can afford even the Basic. Will have to check, but it's not promising. :(

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I remember when it was $10 per person. :) Interesting how the economics of scale seem inverted here. I understand that use of the ballroom etc spiked pricing, but shouldn't it start to lower after some attendance threshold? Not an accusation, just curiosity.

Even if we had APs and got a babysitter we'd pass, I think.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Not if increased capacity and scope means Disney forces them into more and more expensive facilities. And not for a 2-day event which obviously requires more materials, more time from the staff, and more time in rented Disney facilities.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Good point on 2 days. They've had the same event room for years now.

[BarTopDancer]

And we're not playing. Money + team member iffy because of potential job loss + no one else we know (half our fun is running into people we know) + the desire to "go out on top (for us)" has made the decision fairly easy.

The anniversary edition does sound like a blast and I hope everyone who plays has fun!

[Stan4dSteph]

You could always try to answer the trivia question from the newsletter to win a free basic registration.

[Disneyphile]

Thanks for the reminder, Steph. I just sent my answer. I'm hoping I'm right. :)

And, if not, Ken and I will happily volunteer to help out for this one.

[Stan4dSteph]

Reminder: registration opens this morning for Basic and Advanced divisions.

Registration for Day in the Park opens a week from today.

MouseAdventure page (http://www.mouseplanet.com/mouseadventure/)

[innerSpaceman]

I've left it up to my teammates whether we'll play basic. None of us can afford the 2-day right now - - plus, I really can't devote an entire weekend to it.

[Prudence]

Isn't it a three-day weekend?

Anyhow, we registered for advanced. Because if there's a "more punishment" option I always pick that one.

[BarTopDancer]

Memorial Day is the Monday after (May 31st).

[Alex]

I remember when it was $10 per person. :) Interesting how the economics of scale seem inverted here.

First: At this point I am essentially a complete bystander. I have no involvement in any of the decisions made about the games.

But I'd point to a couple other things as well:

1. Game presentation is orders of magnitude (in my opinion, anyway) better than the early days and that isn't cheap (and some of the ways I cut corners on those costs aren't at all viable with the attendance seen now).

2. Back in the early days the game didn't pay for itself, it was heavily subsidized in various ways. If we had needed to cover the true cost of putting on the event we likely wouldn't have been able to put it on.

3. Capitalism. If space is limited and demand for that space exceeds availability then there's a basic graph seen early in every microeconomics textbook that comes into play to some degree. I can tell you that when I was running it, I kept the price suppressed more than hindsight says was correct, not so much because I was a good guy looking out for the little people as because I didn't think people would pay much more. I was thoroughly wrong. Though I was very eager to find that perfect balance point where price would reduce demand to exactly the space available if for no other reason than to not have to deal with people who thought it cosmically unfair that the event could sell out, especially if it happened in two days.

Again, I have no inside knowledge of the current financial situation around MouseAdventure, just a few more factors that may be involved.

[Stan4dSteph]

From my vantage point, not being directly involved in the financials, that seems like a fair assessment, Alex.

As a side note, there will also be a MouseAdventure at WDW again this year. October 9 is the tentative date, and it will be in Animal Kingdom. I will most likely be there; still not sure about the spring event. I had a blast at last year's WDW event.

[innerSpaceman]

I tend to think when a fun game inside Disneyland approaches the retail cost of a one-day admission to Disneyland, that's generally common sensically too expensive.

I'm not saying the fun's not worth that price or that there aren't lots of people who will pay even hundreds of dollars to play MouseAdventure. But the game is no more or less fun, on average, today than it was at any time during the last ten years. I understand how expensive it can be to put on, but a relative value established by mouseadventure is continually pushed to the point where, imo, there's not any more fun for a "product" that costs nearly 10 times as much as it used to.



Of course, I found it too expensive years and years ago - as soon as they moved to that ballroom which upped the price and removed a good portion of the enjoyment. I wouldn't have played it it weren't a well-deserved freebie - - and I don't know whether we're in or out this year in the basic version that would be free to us.

[BarTopDancer]

I blame the price increase on the security guard who shut down the last picnic area awards ceremony.

[innerSpaceman]

Yep, me too.


Well, we're out. Seems one third of our team decided I wasn't "thrilled" with the idea of playing, and made other plans. Thanks for asking me. But yeah, I'm none too disappointed ... so I guess 'not thrilled' was accurate.

[Kevy Baby]

I tend to think when a fun game inside Disneyland approaches the retail cost of a one-day admission to Disneyland, that's generally common sensically too expensive.If they sell out again (which they always seem to do), then I would say that it is not too expensive. Maybe too expensive for your preference/budget, but not too expensive overall.

[BarTopDancer]

I'm not going to say that the price had nothing to do with our decision not to play. It's been in the consideration for the past few years and this year it was the final factor. That's our choice. We do understand that the event costs x amount to run (between supplies, rentals, staffing and even a profit - after all it is put on by MP). It's not like the MA staff is sitting around twirling their mustaches and imitating Mr. Burns thinking about how much they can charge just because they can.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

It's not like the MA staff is sitting around twirling their mustaches and imitating Mr. Burns thinking about how much they can charge just because they can.Agreed - I'd never expect that, which is why I was curious as to the reasons why. Thanks to Alex for some illuminating points.

I'm sure that MA will continue to sell out, even as the price goes up and up and up...much the same way that APs continue to sell even as those prices skyrocket. Disneyland is a singular thing, as is MA, and people will pay for the experience. It may price all of us vets out of the market, but there are others with deeper pockets (or at least, deeper Disney mania and/or more willingness to take on debt) who will jump to take our places.

[Alex]

Look at this way if no other, you get to be the MA equivalent of those who talk about how much better Comic-Con was in 1984 when it was nearly free, there were no crowds, and it was more "real" because it wasn't so glossy.

As an example of subsidy in the early days, each MouseAdventure generated 10-15 hotel room nights for staff (about half used by me on trips to create the game) which were not reimbursed. At $10/head for the 175 or so players in that early game, almost all revenues would have gone to paying for accommodations. It was great for everybody to be willing to take that expense but it isn't really reasonable to do it to them twice a year for a decade.

[innerSpaceman]

Ya know, I don't really consider hotel accommodations a "legitimate" reimburseable expense for a website that is primarily about Disneyland but for reasons convenient to the staff, is located somewhere else - such that visits to Disneyland requiring hotel stays are required for them to conduct a chunk of their business.


of course, it's a free country. But that just seems silly. In any event, the market will bear what it will - and if MouseAdventure and Disneyland itself become the province of the affluent only, then that's just the way it shall be.


I won't talk about MouseAdventure being better when it was cheap. It was better because it took place ENTIRELY within Disneyland, and not too much of it in a sterile ballroom. But it was no worse when it was cheap ... which begs the question, what is the added benefit for the buyers now that it's so much more expensive?

[BarTopDancer]

Ya know, I don't really consider hotel accommodations a "legitimate" reimburseable expense for a website that is primarily about Disneyland but for reasons convenient to the staff, is located somewhere else - such that visits to Disneyland requiring hotel stays are required for them to conduct a chunk of their business.

You expect the people who volunteer their time (including taking vacation days for travel) to hold an event for the enjoyment of others to also use their own money to pay for accommodations during event prep and the event? :rolleyes: It's not like their staying concierge at the GCH.

Without the staff, regardless of where they live there would be no MA.

what is the added benefit for the buyers now that it's so much more expensive?

You do realize that once security shut it down all those years ago Disney started charging for the ability to even have the event, right? Did you expect MP to eat the cost of that?

Would you prefer that had been the end of it?

----

I think MA was better when it was smaller because it was more intimate and I knew everyone who was playing. I think I've had a blast in every event I've played regardless of the size though, because for us it's all about the fun. Yet if it was the same game and the same format for the last 10 years it would have become super boring.

Besides, now that all of us "veterans" are being priced out and/or deciding to "retire" it makes way for a whole new generation of players.

And I'll gripe that comic con is so frelling expensive and sells out super fast now. I want to go!

[Alex]

That there is a game they get to play? Because if it had stayed small and cheap it likely wouldn't exist anymore. There were options that might have kept it small but none that would have kept it cheap.

[innerSpaceman]

BTD, I'm just saying it's ironic that a bunch of people who have a website about Disneyland live so far away they must stay at hotels when they visit Disneyland.

In some nicer sideways reality, the game would have been developed by any 12 of the 60,000 rabid Disneyland fans who live in Southern California - and recoup of hotel expenses would not have been part of the actual game expenses.


Whatev. This is a tired tirade. The game is too expensive based on value, to me personally as a consumer. It's not a whit more fun than it was at $10 ... and if that was the heroin introductory gotcha price, I would pay "retail" up to $40 based on that teaser price. YMMV. If it's worth $250 to some teams, I'd say the game now caters to those with more disposable income than I personally have at this point. Good on them. Money makes the world go around.

[Kevy Baby]

It pisses me off when people forget that the world revolves around me

[Prudence]

I normally wouldn't go for an event this expensive, but I really wanted to do the anniversary event and I wanted to have breakfast in Aladdin's Oasis. We're not planning to do the fall event this year, and I don't plan to be here next spring, so this might be our last hurrah.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I'm holding out on playing again until the MouseAdventure reality TV show gets green-lit.

[BarTopDancer]

I'm holding out on playing again until the MouseAdventure reality TV show gets green-lit.

They would use you and CP on the promos and discuss the "fighting", "angry glares" and pending divorce.

[Disneyphile]

MA was wonderful!

Ken and I staffed this time, and seeing the amount of work that goes into it really increased our appreciation for the whole thing.

As for the cost to play, it's more than justified, especially with some of the components that went into this version. For example, the advanced teams were given really cool Mickey Mouse shaped MP3 players loaded with audio quests, as well as a customized Lego (not a generic brand either) kit with specially printed bricks that formed a puzzle when solved. There was even a puzzle for both divisions that had scratch-off sections, like giant lotto tickets. And, those are just a few of the little aspects that were brought into the game.

But, anyway, we really had a blast - it was the next best thing to playing. And, it certainly wasn't any less exhausting. We're both wiped. :D

[Stan4dSteph]

Was great seeing you. Thanks for helping out!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Steph - I remember you being a LOST fan. Did you have to wait until Monday or later to see the finale?

I'm glad there was no conflict for us...;)

[Stan4dSteph]

Steph - I remember you being a LOST fan. Did you have to wait until Monday or later to see the finale?

I'm glad there was no conflict for us...;)I had to wait. Thankfully I mostly avoided spoilers.

[Prudence]

We didn't finish last!!!

[katiesue]

Congrats Pru and Rat for your not last place finish :)

[Prudence]

That is all we really ask for from our performance: not last.

[Disneyphile]

We didn't finish last!!!
YAY!!! :snap:

[Prudence]

We were solidly in the top 50%. And, in fast, were more than Acceptable.





(see, we finished just ahead of The Acceptables.....oh never mind.)

[Stan4dSteph]

Part 2 of the MouseAdventure Recap has a fun slideshow that was put together to show MA through the years. Enjoy the Retrospectacular (http://www.mouseplanet.com/9285/MouseAdventure_Spring_2010_Recap_Part_2).

[BarTopDancer]

That's a neat slideshow.

[Ghoulish Delight]

That was fun!




Has it really been that long since we were any good at that? Wow.

[Not Afraid]

I referred to those old photos of us a "our Glory Years". I miss our team.

[Stan4dSteph]

Glad you enjoyed. David from the-mouse.com put that together. I liked the segment on MA babies, including the photos of expectant moms and the kids that resulted, and even got to meet two of the new arrivals at the awards ceremony.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

That was fun!




Has it really been that long since we were any good at that? Wow.This was my reaction exactly.

I referred to those old photos of us a "our Glory Years". I miss our team.Me too! It was also awesome to see the grinning Denton Affair photos.

I also checked out the T-shirts (http://picasaweb.google.com/MousePlanetPhotos/MouseAdventureSpring2010TeamTShirtsAllDivisions?au thkey=Gv1sRgCN731ry-zqys2AE&feat=embedwebsite#) - wow. The retro theme was so fun! Sigh.