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Pouring one out for a dream too big to survive. RIP, PDP. I loved you very much.

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.

The most gutting loss for me (naturally, as a founding phone case kitbasher) is the Datapad experience hosted within the PDP app. A wealth of original, land-specific, epistolary Star Wars fiction rendered inaccessible to new visitors to Batuu. A tremendous shame.