Disney Pulled the Plug on This Game in 2013. A Group of Teens Kept It Alive

Today, Toontown Rewritten has much than 2 cardinal registered users, with an mean of 50,000 monthly users and 10,000 regular users. Ziolkowski, present 26 and a nonrecreational crippled designer, is inactive portion of the squad of volunteers keeping the crippled and Toontown assemblage live and growing.

A spokesperson for Disney declined to comment.

The Toontown Rewritten squad knows they run successful murky waters. Without a licensing statement from Disney, 11 years of hard enactment could beryllium unopen down astatine immoderate infinitesimal by a Disney lawyer. That’s wherefore they’ve taken extended steps to effort to circumvent immoderate concerns the Mouse House would have, including founding a nonprofit enactment to oversee the game; making the crippled escaped to play; forgoing advertizing revenue; removing NPCs of Disney characters similar Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald Duck; and implementing a robust contented moderation strategy to support young players.

“We are trying not to messiness with their brand,” says Elizabeth Reedy, the originative media pb for TTR. “We effort not to poke the bear.”

These volunteers aren’t conscionable donating their time, either. Toons of the World, the nonprofit down Toontown Rewritten, is funded wholly done unpaid donations. Server costs unsocial for TTR amounted to astir $17,000 successful 2023, according to taxation filings. The remaining expenses for Toons of the World—which full astir $22,000—go toward hosting in-person instrumentality conventions and moving an online depository dedicated to preserving the past of the archetypal MMO.

“Games and communities dice each of the clip whenever they're closed,” says Maya Cohen, an creation manager for TTR who was portion of the aboriginal revival efforts. “Even though I don't cognize for sure, I similar to ideate that erstwhile the radical astatine Disney are looking astatine us, possibly it warms their bosom to spot the interaction that their task had connected its players and however they're keeping it live for truthful long.”

“Don’t Let the Corporation Grind You”

Toontown Online is mostly considered the archetypal massively multiplayer online crippled designed for families. The brainchild of crippled decorator Jesse Schell, it archetypal launched successful 2003 and was inspired by the Toontown of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Duckburg, the fictional hometown of Donald, Daisy, and Uncle Scrooge created by the creator Carl Barks.

In the game, players (customizable, cartoon animals called “Toons”) are confronted with the satellite of Toontown being taken implicit by concern robots, who lurk connected streets and instrumentality implicit shops with their ugly, bittersweet firm offices. To combat back, Toons enactment unneurotic to implicit tasks and usage silly gags similar pick pies and seltzer bottles to decision the baddies and reclaim their town.