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Community and scam
Players whose characters meet in the same room at the same time can become
"friends": one issues an invitation to the other, and if the other accepts, then
each player will always be able to see if the other is online and in what game
location, and will be able to jump instantly to the other character's location
(unless blocked by a 'friends only' flag on the room or if the friend's
character is within a game, or if it is a 'special entrance' room such as the
exit from the Typhoon Lagoon to Waterpark Pool). Either player can remove
someone from his friends list at any time. Outside of friends, there is no way
within the game to find out whether a particular other character is online or in
what room.
Disney prohibits sharing personal information in the game (and its limited
dictionary also adds a technical obstacle to this). Disney's stated intent is to
protect the safety and privacy of its members, but this also prevents members
from having a legitimate way of reaching each other outside the game. Members of
some Disney internet discussion forums get around this by putting certain
phrases in their public signatures, a short bit of text which is visible to any
other player who clicks on the character, to indicate a discussion board through
which they can be reached.
Trading and scamming
Players can trade pins and room furnishings. One player clicks on someone's
character to show an info window, then clicks 'Trade'. The other player will be
asked if he wants to trade, and if he does, both players will see a trading
window. Each player can double-click on his items to place them in the "offer"
area, and once both players are satisfied, they each click an "accept" checkbox
and that completes the trade. (Any change to either person's offer will clear
both "accept" checkboxes and require both players to accept again.)
Some clothing items are only available for boys or girls, and cannot be traded
to the other gender. For example, a girl can not trade her princess outfit to a
boy.
Some players try to take advantage of the trading window to scam other players.
What usually happens is that a scammer will offer a valuable item for trade, he
will ask someone else to put lots of good items into the offer area, and then he
will quickly withdraw his valuable item and replace it with a cheap item and
click "accept", hoping the other person won't notice the switch. A scammer can
be reported by clicking the "Help" button at the bottom of the VMK window then
clicking the "Call for Help" tab, but VMK staff does not appear to be often
successful at returning lost items. As of October 5, trading was altered
slightly so that after both users accept, they are shown an unchangeable summary
of the items to be traded and they are asked to accept again, to avoid
unpleasant surprises.
Another scam involves teleporters; a scammer will trade a pair of teleporters
which appear to be identical but are not "matched" and therefore won't work
together (using either might send a character someplace unintended, or might not
function at all). This scam has become less common since the game was changed to
highlight both teleporters in a matched set when one is selected, so that a
person can see if a pair is not matched.
Some scammers offer to provide codes in return for items. Since codes cannot be
traded or communicated in the game, these scammers will usually disappear
(without providing any codes) after being given the items for which they asked,
or else they'll communicate with their target outside the game and provide codes
which have already been used and can no longer be redeemed.
Scammers often beg players to let them "try on" rare pins or costume items; once
the items are given to them, they disappear and drop the donor from their
friends list so that the donor can no longer find the scammer.
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