Importance of Newness & Storytelling at TPs

[LP57]

I am currently a final year student and would appreciate any information that helps me complete my dissertation. All information provided will remain anonymous and confidential. So I am trying to find out what is it about the newness of rides that excites you and how important do you think it is for TPs to tell a story through each ride? Finally I would like to know if there are some rides that you go on that give you the same amount of enjoyment no matter how many times you go on them and why do you think that is?

[Brad2912]

No offence meant LP57 but it's a rather obvious answer/response and a fairly mediocre topic to choose.,

why does someone want to do any new activity? Watch a new tv show? Meet a new person? Ride a new rollercoaster?

for a new experience, to fulfil a need or intrigue, for a thrill/rush, because they can. 

Surely there is a more useful line of research for your dissertation 

[djmcbell]

As Brad2912 said, a lot of it can be summed up as "because it's good".

A new ride isn't automatically good, but something that we, as ride enthusiasts, will try anyway to see whether it is good or not. Going on rides is not a past-time we can consume lightly - unlike books or DVDs, we can't go on roller coasters from the comfort of our own home. On-ride videos just won't cut it as going on a ride is mostly about the physical sensation.

So, when I last went to Islands Of Adventure, I made sure to try the new (for me) Harry Potter & The Forbidden Journey, which is probably a very good example of a ride that is new yet, for me, wasn't very good.

What excites us about the newness of a ride? Well, first we need to identify what we want out of a ride. Movie World are apparently building some new stuff, including a new area, flat ride (or two, or whatever) and a roller coaster. Out of these, the roller coaster is by far and away what I'm most interested in and excited for. Flat rides - well, I don't really go on them that much anyway. If you were to think of them in terms of food, a flat ride is a small side dish or starter, compared to roller coasters which would be the main part of the meal.

Stories in rides - again, it depends on the ride. Hulk at Islands Of Adventure has a story, or at least a setup. It doesn't need one. Basically, Bruce Banner, trying to rid himself of the Hulk persona, has built a roller coaster that may do the job. Needless to say, it doesn't.

In a lot of rides nowadays, the audience is "asked" to participate in the story. Not actively participate in it, but act as if the story is "happening now" and they're observing it. So it must come as something of a shock, if we're to think in narrative terms, when we go on Hulk and the experiment doesn't work and so on, then we decide to go on it again and the experiment doesn't work and so on. And on Harry Potter & The Forbidden Journey, it's Muggle open day or something and Harry decides to interact with the audience and whisk them off on an adventure which is seemingly repeated every 30 seconds. In a movie, this mostly makes sense because movies don't interact with the audience, but on a ride, and when the ride narrative takes special care TO interact with the audience, it does come across as condescending and sometimes unnecessary.

However, an alternative is the happy-slow-dark-ride where you trundle through mostly static scenes from Cinderella or something like that. They're fine. I'm down with them. They mellow me out, send me to sleep mostly. I guess Pirates Of The Caribbean is a good version of this.

However, for more extreme rides to have a story, which "sets up" the ride only (such as Hulk) really isn't necessary. As I say, you do get rides which have a good story - Harry Potter is one, but it seems that Harry is taking everyone off on this extraordinary adventure 24/7 which kinda breaks the story a little. But it still works.

As for taking the same amount of enjoyment from a ride, well... I think you can probably answer this better than I or indeed anyone else. A ride is a ride, like a film is a film. You may watch a film numerous times and enjoy it more or less on each viewing. Same with a ride.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

<copy> <paste> - Dissertation complete.

[iwerks]

There's lots to be said for bragging rights. A lot of people want to be the first to ride the new attraction, like everyone wants to see the latest release movies. I'll be waiting for the GC parks to install some new rides before going back to Queensland.

Well themed rides that have a great story are always a pleasure to re-ride. It's always awesome to reacquaint yourself with an old favourite.