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Reminiscing. Back in 2018, I rope-dropped with a bag of quarters to unlock all the Esmeralda cards. Pure magic to trigger a fortune telling machine without touching it, and getting an exclusive serialized story chapter each time you visit? Lovely.

Play Disney Parks, even in its compromised state, represented a lot of ambitions I'd waited my whole life to see. Exclusive merchandise unlocked though gameplay was one of those concepts, if only briefly and timidly attempted, and I still think it holds vast untapped potential.

The minigames that occasionally frustrated other guests were just an alibi, and the real secret sauce was the interactions enabled by the app's backend. It was a profound moment the first time a theme park ride remembered me.