I'm modifying my answer: Adding the file to /etc/ld.so.conf.d causes conflicts with libgiomm-2.4.so.1
I have an alternate solution:
modify the file /usr/bin/vmware (or /usr/bin/vmplayer) and add the line
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libglibmm-2.4.so.1/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
I placed this immediately after the line starting "export PRODUCT_NAME..."