The end of an era: the rise and unexpected fall of 'Disney Infinity'

Everybody has a hobby.

When I was a kid, I loved collecting basketball cards. I was obsessed. I was heading to the store to pick up a pack of cards as often as I could. There were a few years in a row when I purchased the entire set of Upper Deck cards. I thought it was awesome. It was exciting. And, in retrospect, it was probably pretty worthless and a big waste of money. Where are my precious cards now?  I don't know. In a big, dusty box somewhere, I think. I'm over it now, but, back in the day, collecting basketball cards was my thing. A couple years ago, out of a sporadic case of nostalgia, I went out and bought a few packs of baseball cards. This reminded me of my childhood, collecting NBA cards and resulted, ultimately, in me returning to the store a couple days later and buying the entire season's set. Silly, right? But everybody has a hobby, and that was my hobby, growing up.

Fast forward to 2013, when I saw this trailer for an upcoming video game called "Disney Infinity":


At first glance, it seemed like a cute little game, but definitely too childish for the likes of me, an adult man - a big-time Disney fan and a casual gamer - but definitely an adult man and not a child. This game was not marketed toward me and I didn't plan on getting sucked into "Disney Infinity." The game came out, I didn't buy it and life went on. Life went on for a couple weeks, anyway, and then I went to Disneyland. That's some voodoo magic they've got going on over there in Anaheim... I came home and bought the starter pack the very next day. Immediately, I was hooked. Sure, it was definitely a game marketed toward a younger audience, not unlike LittleBigPlanet, but it had DISNEY CHARACTERS, dang it! It was AWESOME! "Disney Infinity 1.0" allowed me to explore the worlds of Monsters University, The Incredibles and Pirates of the Caribbean. Later would follow additional "playsets" for The Lone Ranger, Toy Story and Cars. I bought them all and it was totally amazing. Part-adventure game, part-creation suite, the game allows you to play however you want, whether that means following the mainly linear story mode presented by the playsets or creating your own world by mixing and matching characters, scenery, architecture and a wide assortment of enemies. Truly, as the game title purported, this looked like a game with infinite possibilities and unlimited potential. In 2014, Disney released a follow-up - "Disney Infinity 2.0" - featuring popular characters from the Marvel universe. Here's the trailer: And in 2015, they followed up with "Disney Infinity 3.0," a Star Wars-centric expansion. Behold: Most recently, they released an expansion in the same vein as "Super Smash Bros." They called it "Marvel Battlegrounds" and I've recently had a blast playing it as a party game. Here's that trailer: As a huge fan of Disney, Marvel and Star Wars, collecting "Disney Infinity" characters and its subsequent expansion games has become my hobby for the past several years. I wanted to collect all the characters. Heck, I even went out and to get characters that I didn't even care about, including Ferb and Agent P from "Phineas and Ferb," purely for the sake of the collection. It didn't take me long to learn that keeping up with new "Disney Infinity" releases was both incredibly exciting and terribly expensive. In "Disney Infinity," most characters are sold separately from the game software, itself. This means that, if you want to play with Jack Skellington or Rapunzel or the Hulkbuster, you have to buy them individually. Retailing at an standard price of $13.99/character, obviously, trying to collect each of the 100-plus characters can end up racking up quite the bill. On top of that, the game introduced "power discs" that would unlock special abilities, weapons, vehicles and customization tools. Initially, these discs were sold in "blind" packages of two. This meant, just like a pack of trading cards, that you'd have to buy the power discs ($4.99, retail) without knowing beforehand what you were getting. Predictably, this led to a problem - I wound up getting TONS of duplicates. There were times were I'd go get a couple power disc packages and go home with five or six discs that I already owned. Although incredibly frustrating at times, this led to one of the best parts of "Disney Infinity" - the online community. Frustrated with having collected so many duplicate discs, I combed through social media to find some way to get rid of them, just like kids do with basketball cards. I looked for a way to trade with others as a means of bolstering my supply of discs. I eventually found an awesome group on Facebook called "Disney Infinity Traders," where collectors can post lists of their duplicate discs and the ones they still need. I have been able to complete quite a few trades this way and it has saved me a lot of hassle, not to mention money. Through this group, I have also been alerted to many sales and discounts that were quite helpful, from a financial standpoint. I have saved several hundred dollars on "Disney Infinity" purchases, thanks to my inherently thrifty nature and these new online pals of mine. I have generally tried to only purchase characters and power discs when they are on sale, so that has been a nice habit, but still, I easily - easily - dropped several hundred dollars on this franchise. (Curse you, Disney!!) So here I am, a small fortune, three years and dozens our hours of gameplay later, and unexpected news broke on May 10 that "Disney Infinity" is being discontinued. This announcement came, seemingly, out of nowhere, much to the surprise of many in the franchise's online community. Word would later spread that Disney experienced foreseen losses and fell short of their Quarter 2 financial goals, leading to a shift in business philosophy. Disney is backing out of video game development, which also means the abandonment of Avalanche Studios, a software company here in Utah, that helped produce the game. "We have two final retail releases coming, including three new characters from Alice Through the Looking Glass later this month, and the Finding Dory Play Set launching in June," the surprising blog post announced. And then that will be it, apparently. Surprisingly, and somewhat to my embarrassment, I actually feel very sad that the game is being discontinued. That probably sounds dumb to a lot of you, but imagine this, if you will: what if somebody had told 10-year-old A-Town that they were no longer going to make basketball cards? That would have been devastating to my younger self! ... Some of you still don't get it. I can tell. Maybe put it this way: Why do people get sad when their favorite TV shows get cancelled? Why do people get emotional at the end of a good book series? Because we spend so much time with these hobbies that it kind of hurts, deep down inside, when something that we love gets taken away from us. With that context in place, here are a few reasons why I'll miss "Disney Infinity":

Collecting is cool.

I recently watched a documentary on Netflix about Star Wars fans. It was horrible and I wouldn't recommend it. It just talks about how crazy some fans of that series get with their lifestyle and the intensity of their fandom. There was one point in the show where it focused on people who go nuts over collecting every single piece of Star Wars merchandise ever made. (Note: I was NEVER that obsessed, like, to the point where I had to collect any coupons or advertisements and keep them in a binder simply because they said "Disney Infinity" on them.) They interviewed a psychologist (ha!) to discuss the mental state of these types of collectors, which is hilarious. The main point that she makes is that "the chase" of the collecting process is a thrill for some people - and, sadly, I've found that to be true. It was fun for me to hunt down the rare power discs and to complete my collection of figures. I liked it. My bank account didn't, but it was kind of fun. Plus, the figures were cool, just like any typical action figure, only these ones involved a different type of interaction - you got to bring your greatest fantasies to life in the game. It was a blast!

The creation tools were a fun option.

Much like "LittleBigPlanet," which offers similar level creation tools, I never really got into building my own worlds. I'm sure it would have been awesome if I was any good at it, but it was always just a little too intense for me. I'm not much into "Minecraft" or any of that stuff, but I know tons of people who love turning on their console or computer and building, building, building. So, I didn't do it very often, but I could have if I wanted to. The option was there - and now that a constant stream of official content has come to an end, I may have to get into making my own levels. However, Ill have you know that I am pretty proud of the replica of Disneyland's "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride that took me hours to complete. It's not perfect, but, considering my level of expertise (which is practically non-existent), I think it was pretty decent. Cody and I also made ourselves a space-age paintball level where we could go kill robots and aliens to our hearts' content, and that was a good time, too.

Speaking of creativity...

The sandbox-style nature of the game allowed you, essentially, free reign to do whatever the heck you wanted. If you ever wanted to make Iron Man ride on Elephant Abu and jump off a platform 2,000 feet in the air, through a ring of fire, and have him land in a kiddie pool before hopping off and destroying Wonderland's Deck of Cards with a lightsaber, this was the game for you. If you wanted to create a gigantic Spider-man-themed bachelor pad for your characters, you could do it. "Mario Kart"-style racing with Wreck-it Ralph, Elsa, Han Solo and Buzz Lightyear? You bet. You could accomplish some wild stuff in this game and it offered me a lot of laughs along the way.

It was a game I could play with others.

I'm not a huge fan of one-player games. For me, playing video games is best enjoyed as a social experience. I like sports games, I'm big into "Rock Band" and I loved "Disney Infinity." Playing through the story-based playsets by myself was lonely, so I chose not to play that way most of the time. It was more fun - and much more effective, from a gameplay standpoint - to play with two players. You could level up your players twice as fast, earn twice as much in-game currency in one shot and beat challenges much more easily by having a partner. Plus, Cody (my main "Infinity" buddy) and I were able to create some really fun memories by working together. We ascended to the top of the Monsters U paintball league as Mike and Sulley, blew up Wild West towns as the Lone Ranger and Tonto, saved New York as the Incredible Hulk and Hawkeye, explored the Jedi Temple as Anakin Skywalker and Yoda and did battle one against another as Iron Fist and Yondu. Plus, there aren't many video games these days that I'd ever invite a date to play with me. Not often, but two or maybe three times, I plopped down on the couch with a girl and played a little "Disney Infinity." I'm sure Daniella will always remember hearing "Circle of Life" play over and over and over as we built a level based on The Lion King.

Most importantly for me, this was a game I played with my young nephews.

This was, hands down, my favorite thing about "Disney Infinity." This was a game that my little nephew, Joshua, always looked forward to playing when he came over. Despite having nearly 100 characters to choose from, he always wanted to play as Captain America. Over the past three years, I have watched little Joshua go from barely being able to hold the controller on his own to actually becoming very good, where he knew how to punch the robots and run and jump and throw Cap's shield. Honestly, I used to have to give him a controller that wasn't even powered on so he'd think he was playing, while I'd secretly be controlling the character without his knowledge. Now, Josh knows what he's doing and he often calls the shots. He's gotten pretty decent at "Marvel Battlegrounds" and watching him grow up with this game has been really cute. Josh loved the game, too. In fact, he recently cried as he left Grandma and Grandpa's house because we didn't get to play video games before he had to go. It's getting to the point where Josh's little brother, James, is getting old enough to play with us, too. As an uncle (a dang good one), "Disney Infinity" has been a huge part of my relationship with them and that has been worth every penny. It's the end of an era for "Disney Infinity" and I'm sad to see it go. It has been a wild and crazy ride and I've loved every minute of it. Thankfully, it's not like they're prying my prized possessions from my hands, so I'll continue to play it occasionally and you're all invited to join me. (I'd love that, actually.) I know it's a silly hobby and that many people look down on video games as a waste of time and energy - an immature pastime for adults who don't want to grow up - but I've been taught that we should practice moderation in all things and a little "Disney Infinity" certainly never hurt anybody.

Thanks, Disney, for giving me a game that has created an infinite amount of fun and a tremendous number of memories for me and my family. I'm really going to miss it.

Do you have any "Disney Infinity" memories? Share them with us in the comments section!

The Thanksgiving of a Casual Gamer

For some reason, there is some negative stereotype attached to people who play video games by members of the Church where it's like if you like playing video games, you're a sinner. Well, guess what? Playing video games is not a sin. SHOCKER! Of course, anything in excess, be it alcohol, sugar or time spent in front of the TV could be seen as an addiction or an unhealthy habit, there is absolutely nothing wrong with playing appropriate video games from time to time. Some people like to read books, some people like to sew, some people like going on hikes and some people like gaming. It's not a big deal. Now, this post isn't about religion or addictions or anything like that, but I just thought I'd clarify that my appreciation of a good video game here and there doesn't make me an inherently bad person.

With that being said, I suppose I would call myself a "casual gamer." I would never call myself a "gamer" or an addict. I have played "Halo" twice in my life, I think, and I got destroyed by my friend's nine-year-old brother. It was humiliating. I have never faked an illness to get out of work on the day of a big game release. I once played "Grand Theft Auto" for five minutes and felt like a terrible person after stealing a car and bashing a couple fake characters with a baseball bat. I mainly like sports games, "Rock Band" and family-friendly games that I can play with my siblings and young nephews. Technically, only one of my nephews is currently old enough to play with me - and that basically consists of him holding a controller and looking at the screen. But one day! One day, he will be old enough to actually control his own characters and that will be a glorious day.

With Thanksgiving nigh upon us and in an effort to populate the barren blogspace known as "The Underground," I figured it might be fun to list a couple things that I am grateful for as a casual gamer. These are my thoughts:

With console backwards-compatibility now a thing of the past, I am thankful for backwards-compatible franchises like "Rock Band," "LittleBigPlanet" and "Disney Infinity." I've spent a lot of money on games like that, so I'm grateful that I don't have to go back and re-buy content every year and a half.

Speaking of, I am extremely thankful for the times when I find good deals on "Disney Infinity"... because that game is totally awesome, but, BOY, is it expensive?! Geez.

Remote mines FTW.

Remember the days of "Goldeneye" on Nintendo 64? That was one of the greatest multiplayer games of all time! I remember having "Goldeneye" parties with my brothers and friends and thinking that I could honestly play that game for the rest of my life. Looking back, those once revolutionary graphics now look like someone took a picture of Pierce Brosnan, ran over it with a truck and then slapped it on a couple polygons, but the gameplay was awesome and the parties were legendary. These days, most games only let you play multiplayer online - and I hate that because anytime you go online, you're pitted against some 17-year-old high school dropout who does nothing but sit on his butt and play video games all day long. It's not fair and it's not fun. I am thankful for games that offer local multiplayer on a split-screen so I can play with my family and friends who are right there in the same room with me. That's the good stuff right there.

Finally, I'm thankful that I got a dang good deal on a Playstation Plus membership on Black Friday last year. Twenty-five bucks for a year of free games? Oh heck yeah. Thank you, Playstation Plus, for letting me play cool games like "Tomb Raider," "Bioshock Infinite," "LittleBigPlanet Karting" and more for the very low price of FREE! Beautiful. So beautiful. If nothing else, all I want for Black Friday this weekend is another discounted membership.

It's ok, closet gamers. Embrace your nerdiness. What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? Let me know in the comments section.