An Interview With Scrooge McDuck

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An Interview With Scrooge McDuck

Postby goofyspaceranger » Fri May 13, 2016 1:25 pm

Forget about Peter Pan for the moment and imagine the Disney Infinity rendering of Scrooge McDuck. He's only a virtual version, as Scrooge himself didn't think the production cost & shelf space was worth the risk ;). Someone made the mistake of proposing a 12" likeness instead, for which he replied, "Bah! What rubbish!" The Scrooge toy reluctantly enters the Toy Box to provide a toy executive's perspective on Disney Infinity revenue (as the real-world executives have already made their public announcements). When online petitions quickly emerged to preserve some semblance of the magical Disney Infinity experience, the Captain Barbossa toy offered his conjecture that "They are disinclined to acquiesce to your request!" Still, the fans imagined a visit from Uncle Scrooge and so there he spawned. This Toy Box is varied, a real mash-up - a single block of ground Terrain themed after A Small World, and a kaleidoscope of surrounding wall pieces from every Disney Infinity theme imaginable - from Sugar Rush, Frozen, Neverland, Wonderland, Tony Stark's Lab, World Wark Hulk, the Kyln, the Death Star, and many many more. And behind a massive holographic force field, Scrooge could see an army of toys from all of the Disney brands, with the Villains out in the front, along with their minions. All of these toys were united by the Blue Glow of Sadness, and Scrooge was suddenly thankful that the color red never became a Team Activation color. With just the slightest variation this Toy Box could acquire the feel of a Toy Box Takeover. Only one other Disney Infinity figure stands on his side of the force field - a tiny mouse named Mickey. He has no Sorcerer's hat. He doesn't even hold a wand. He is a small voice among many, to receive & answer Uncle Scrooge's questions. The old duck suddenly realizes he's been spawned as a foil. But he plays along anyway.

Q - Why would I invest even one more Infinity Coin into this product, when it has fallen well below my expectations?
A - You said it's about toy production and shelf space. We're requesting online content, which has none.

Q - Why would the PC & mobile business suddenly become so profitable?
A - Subscription based pricing is actually a bargain for PC & mobile users, to be able to instantly access all of the characters, all of the Power Discs, all of the rest of the toys. The one subscription would give them access to all devices. It's even a bargain for console gamers who haven't purchased all of the Play Sets or all of the Power Discs.

Q - Why would anyone pay for a subscription that used to be available for free?
A - You can honestly tell them it was requested by Disney Infinity Fans, it was petitioned by them. There is nothing else like the magical experience of the Toy Box, and the fans want it to stay. And if the business model fails after a year's trial, then there's very little lost. There are many more fans that don't yet realize this is happening. Your website is still selling PC licenses, which is completely dependent on server connectivity. Stores are still selling your Play Sets, which may function in local mode, but have no warning about Community Content going away. You could face much worse public opinion if you pull the servers too soon. It's the perfect time to provide this pilot.

Q - Why would the Walt Disney Company reverse a public statement on the closure of Avalanche Software?
A - It wouldn't be. They're still closing the site. And most of those jobs would still be lost. And you wouldn't leverage your business partners any longer either. You'd just hire some number back to be part of the mobile team, striking the right balance to drive profit, providing their years of experience with Infinity so that there's no transitional training cost. <and Mickey thinks to himself, "It's better to save some jobs than to save none. They are the creators. They may not be the purse strings, or the salesmen, or the various other roles still critical in distributing a product, but they are the creators, and that counts for something." >

Q - With just a fraction of those developers & animators, how could we possibly generate enough new content to maintain subscriptions?
A - Your fans continue to provide you new content for free, and have done so for years. Your Community Team also provides great games, and great examples on how to build games. Most of the Toy Box content is unnecessarily difficult to find. Players have many favorite Disney characters. Infinity supports over 90 of them. Infinity has many Toy Box Master Artists. It's not about the amount of quality content. It's about finding the content that every player wants. And for the PC & mobile players, they could now play any character. Think of the Toy Box as an online community startup, except that your product is already made & available across all platforms, you have millions who already love it, and you already have hundreds of people volunteering to provide you content for free.

Q - Won't the Toy Box Master Artists run out of ideas? Isn't there a limit to amount of Toy Box content that can be made?
A - The 3.0 Toy Box Editor has far surpassed its 1.0 launch. Updates to themes, characters, & game mechanics need only be incremental. The Disney Infinity phrase that the "possibilities are Infinite" is not an exaggeration. Community Content can grow organically, exponentially, if set up with the right subscription pricing, and better organization of its database.

Q - What about that other old duck, Ludwig, and his crazy ideas about educational benefits of the Toy Box?
A - He would still need to deal with the graphics accelerator issues, but overall, subscription based pricing would make the education benefits much better. A school or library could try Infinity out for a month with a full cast of characters. Tutorial Toy Boxes could include building elements from expansion games & Play Sets. Kickstart hackathons would have a very low startup cost and could lead to established clubs. Yearly subscriptions are more affordable, and cognizant of server dependability for that time period - less risk for them, too. Setup would be much, much easier when all of the toys are already unlocked. Institutions with a combination of PCs & tablets could interchange those account subscriptions to maximize their investment. Why not describe some of the educational benefits on your website? Why not mention a corporate brand's advocacy? What is the risk, when those schools & libraries would essentially be advertising your product during their instruction? Why would it bother you where any amount of additional revenue comes from?

Uncle Scrooge has stepped on a Trigger. He's suddenly showered with sparks. He feels more experienced. He feels his Health Meter go up. He imagines himself collecting billions of Infinity Coins from a very modest investment with very low risk. He resolves that if this goofy idea works out, he's going to talk to those Toy Box Developers on the money management intervals associated with Loot Chests & Loot Drops ;).
Use the Force in Holocron Heuristics to program with more Creativi-Toys!
 
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