I recently got into a discussion with someone who was lamenting the annual decent of Brasilian tour groups on Disney World in Orlando, wondering - and not without reason - why Disney allows that.
For anyone who hasn't crashed headlong into these (charitably) people... Well, you all have Google, I don't need to help you find the world of stories about hundreds of chanting teenagers linking elbows to line jump or in one of those funny-but-not-really moments, abducting a Mickey Mouse in the middle of a character greet. It's almost exactly like what happens to the Goldshire on any RP server either between battlegrounds or when the arena season hits a lull - a staggering number of assholes without parental supervision for the first time who've keyed to the fact that if there's enough of them, and they fake poor comprehension, they can do whatever they want and can't be touched for it.
(Those of you quicker on the uptake can see where I'm headed already. The rest of you keep your hands and arms inside the ride. We'll get there.)
To paraphrase his conclusion, "Does Disney really only care about money and not the satisfaction of their guests?"
Well, duh.
Disney cares about the satisfaction of the plurality of their guests, or to put it in simple terms, they care about satisfying the largest market segment that requires the minimum amount of effort and maintenance for maximum return. The Disney parks are a place of whimsey and fantasy...
...to you. But Disney is a business and has to turn a profit by any means necessary. Those "means" often determined by people who don't visit the parks, don't even *like* theme parks, will never meet a customer themselves, are unaffected by the conditions their policies create, and who - should the parks tank - will just get another similar job in another industry.
The result is the annual locust-like descent of the Brasilian tour groups, who get a free pass because they're low-maintenance from a customer service standpoint. And even with the deep, deep discounts they receive leave behind just a stupid amount of money.
It's the same reason you'd cover up crimes to, say, protect a football program: you've done the cost-benefit analysis, and decided your priority is to do what it takes to make sure nothing withers the money tree, even if that means some bad things go on. As long as they're not happening to anyone you know. Or you can't marginalize the "whiners".
A a Watchman, I am asked with disturbing frequency by people just picking up Warcraft as a hobby or fleeing a sinking server why Actiblizzion(tm) is so blase about or encourages certain behaviors. Usually Before, during, or after taking a face full of thrusing loincloth from a bored nuisance alt/guild recruiter/Susan Express robot.
Thank God they're nothing like Disney, huh?
