Theme Park Enthusiasts of NG

[Thetageist]

Are you a theme park, amusement park, or other themed entrainment fan looking for people to share your hobby with? Disappointed by the lack of theme park related content on a website that otherwise seems to have everything? Want to get more people enthused about theme park enthusiasm!

That’s great, because I am too! Welcome to TPENG!

To join, just give us your name and your favorite park or attraction (can be one you’ve been to or one that’s on your bucket list)!

[ayy51]

I love theme parks with an emphasis on creating an "environment" like Harry Potter world or some places in Disney World rather than a focus on the rides like Six Flags. Don't get to go to either of the mentioned ones often at all though because it's expensive.

[Thetageist]

At 11/13/22 07:18 PM, leechyscreams wrote: I love theme parks with an emphasis on creating an "environment" like Harry Potter world or some places in Disney World rather than a focus on the rides like Six Flags. Don't get to go to either of the mentioned ones often at all though because it's expensive.

Yeah! Theming is my favorite part of all of it, though I do love a good ride experience.

[splenectomy]

can't say i know too much about themeparks, but I was just watching Jenny Nicholson's video on Evermore. It's the best kind of shitshow where the CEO has tons of lofty ideas that can be blown to shreds just by asking "with what fucking money?" it actually got made, but in a much worse state than the concept art and press panels would want people to believe. exposed wires, pyrotechnic effect failures, LARPing so intense you lose your sense of self, the absolute inability to buy gift shop t shirts that are RIGHT THERE even after asking the CEO of the entire goddamn place, this one has got it all. very much the Kickstarter scam of theme parks. its been four days of on-off watching and im still only halfway through this absolute monster of a video

[Thetageist]

At 11/17/22 01:27 AM, splenectomy wrote: can't say i know too much about themeparks, but I was just watching Jenny Nicholson's video on Evermore. It's the best kind of shitshow where the CEO has tons of lofty ideas that can be blown to shreds just by asking "with what fucking money?" it actually got made, but in a much worse state than the concept art and press panels would want people to believe. exposed wires, pyrotechnic effect failures, LARPing so intense you lose your sense of self, the absolute inability to buy gift shop t shirts that are RIGHT THERE even after asking the CEO of the entire goddamn place, this one has got it all. very much the Kickstarter scam of theme parks. its been four days of on-off watching and im still only halfway through this absolute monster of a video

Lord, no wonder I haven’t seen any theme park Youtubers cover this overgrown Renaissance festival. I’d initially had hopes about Evermore when I first heard of it, but they lost me after they tried to leech some popularity off of Taylor Swift. (Why is every celebrity copyright lawsuit that way nowadays?)

If you want a legit theme park, go to a legit theme park. Don’t go to Action Park for the soul.

[Thetageist]

At 11/17/22 01:27 AM, splenectomy wrote: can't say i know too much about themeparks, but I was just watching Jenny Nicholson's video on Evermore. It's the best kind of shitshow where the CEO has tons of lofty ideas that can be blown to shreds just by asking "with what fucking money?" it actually got made, but in a much worse state than the concept art and press panels would want people to believe. exposed wires, pyrotechnic effect failures, LARPing so intense you lose your sense of self, the absolute inability to buy gift shop t shirts that are RIGHT THERE even after asking the CEO of the entire goddamn place, this one has got it all. very much the Kickstarter scam of theme parks. its been four days of on-off watching and im still only halfway through this absolute monster of a video

Hey, I think I found something you might like, especially in the case that you would’ve been into Evermore if not for the crappy company.

Check out MagiQuest! It’s several LARPing-based attractions with electronic magic wands and quests to complete. At this point, it’s kinda inactive (if I’m reading right), but it’s still something cool to research, or look into the spinoff games of.

[splenectomy]

At 11/17/22 07:37 AM, Thetageist wrote:
Lord, no wonder I haven’t seen any theme park Youtubers cover this overgrown Renaissance festival. I’d initially had hopes about Evermore when I first heard of it, but they lost me after they tried to leech some popularity off of Taylor Swift. (Why is every celebrity copyright lawsuit that way nowadays?)

If you want a legit theme park, go to a legit theme park. Don’t go to Action Park for the soul.

Boosting sales by attacking the pop industry's darling... how could this go wrong? So much of Evermore's faliures lay in it's marketing- their website sucks, any advertising they do have is vague at best and provides no info on what its about or even that it's a theme park at ALL. And now whenever you google them, their Taylor Swift lawsuit is one of the first things that shows up. I can only imagine the impression that makes on the tired mom trying to find some place to take her kids for a weekend. I'll never understand why they didn't just make a few jokes about the name of the album being the same as the name of their park and move on.

At 11/17/22 05:45 PM, Thetageist wrote: Hey, I think I found something you might like, especially in the case that you would’ve been into Evermore if not for the crappy company.

Check out MagiQuest! It’s several LARPing-based attractions with electronic magic wands and quests to complete. At this point, it’s kinda inactive (if I’m reading right), but it’s still something cool to research, or look into the spinoff games of.

Interesting! I actually remember doing some kind of interactive wand game at a Great Bear Lodge when I was a kid. I imagine this is what Evermore wants to be, the wands let guests actually interact with stuff outside of watching employees LARP with each other while being not nearly as expensive as some of the stuff the Evermore CEO was dreaming up (giant interactive pirate ship ride with multiple islands to stop off and explore? cool, with what fucking money though?). When you don't have that Disney money (and honestly even WITH Disney money) a lot of your ride design is gonna center around budget and return on your investment, i'd imagine.

[Thetageist]

At 11/18/22 12:00 AM, splenectomy wrote:

At 11/17/22 07:37 AM, Thetageist wrote:
Lord, no wonder I haven’t seen any theme park Youtubers cover this overgrown Renaissance festival. I’d initially had hopes about Evermore when I first heard of it, but they lost me after they tried to leech some popularity off of Taylor Swift. (Why is every celebrity copyright lawsuit that way nowadays?)

If you want a legit theme park, go to a legit theme park. Don’t go to Action Park for the soul.

Boosting sales by attacking the pop industry's darling... how could this go wrong? So much of Evermore's faliures lay in it's marketing- their website sucks, any advertising they do have is vague at best and provides no info on what its about or even that it's a theme park at ALL. And now whenever you google them, their Taylor Swift lawsuit is one of the first things that shows up. I can only imagine the impression that makes on the tired mom trying to find some place to take her kids for a weekend. I'll never understand why they didn't just make a few jokes about the name of the album being the same as the name of their park and move on.

At 11/17/22 05:45 PM, Thetageist wrote: Hey, I think I found something you might like, especially in the case that you would’ve been into Evermore if not for the crappy company.

Check out MagiQuest! It’s several LARPing-based attractions with electronic magic wands and quests to complete. At this point, it’s kinda inactive (if I’m reading right), but it’s still something cool to research, or look into the spinoff games of.

Interesting! I actually remember doing some kind of interactive wand game at a Great Bear Lodge when I was a kid.

Actually, that is MagiQuest! I just googled a bit and yes, that lodge was/is Great Wolf Resorts property, and they own MagiQuest!

I imagine this is what Evermore wants to be, the wands let guests actually interact with stuff outside of watching employees LARP with each other while being not nearly as expensive as some of the stuff the Evermore CEO was dreaming up (giant interactive pirate ship ride with multiple islands to stop off and explore? cool, with what fucking money though?).

Honestly, that sounds like a Disney cruise like thing to do. After such ambitious stuff as literally anything to do with Galaxy’s Edge, I could totally see the House of Mouse liking that off. Renaissance fair with very little established income, though? Not gonna happen, especially not now.

When you don't have that Disney money (and honestly even WITH Disney money) a lot of your ride design is gonna center around budget and return on your investment, i'd imagine.

This Evernore situation is beginning to sound like if Walt was a fragile fantasy nerd and had no brother Roy to lend any business know-how. Imagine how sad that would be.

That’s exactly correct, though, and there’s an entire frickin’ book that you can buy and read through, that details all the different business aspects that go into it. It’s called “The Art of Theme Park Design” by David Younger. For me it’s definitely tiring to read due to the amount of information packed into even one chapter, but it’s also really interesting.

[splenectomy]

At 11/18/22 12:31 PM, Thetageist wrote: That’s exactly correct, though, and there’s an entire frickin’ book that you can buy and read through, that details all the different business aspects that go into it. It’s called “The Art of Theme Park Design” by David Younger. For me it’s definitely tiring to read due to the amount of information packed into even one chapter, but it’s also really interesting.

Oh cool, I have a friend that's going into theme park design I'll def forward that to her as well! I'm not sure if I'd go into it, but I always thought the idea of creating a whole little world for visitors was cool. There was an article about it in ImagineFX a few years ago, that's when I first learned it was even a thing.

I think the real question for this thread is: how would YOU fix Evermore? Let's say you have a decent, but not infinite, amount of cash.

Implementing the MagiQuest system would definitely be a massive improvement. It goes perfectly with the theme, and you get to sell kids wands for $12 a pop (or however much it is). I can't get any good numbers on how much the installation would cost, but I'd bet its somewhat cheaper than all the other stuff the CEO was dreaming up. With the leftover money I'd start working on covering up the exposed wires and maybe giving my employees a pyrotechnics safety course. The LARPing system they have could be massively improved, it's more on the level of semi-interactive theatre, which really doesn't work for something like a theme park where families are coming maybe a few times a year. Storylines should take place over the course of a few hours or a day at most, because only the most hardcore of theme park fans are going to be able to keep up with a months-long overarching plotline. Even THOSE people will sometimes miss a day, because people have lives! And besides, you don't really want the money of themeparkhead22, you want Becky who will buy seven wands and a fairy costume for each of her kids so they'll stop screaming for five seconds. As it stands right now, the interactive story part of Evermore only seems to benefit the people doing the larping, not the people actually attending the theme park.

[Thetageist]

At 11/18/22 03:27 PM, splenectomy wrote:

At 11/18/22 12:31 PM, Thetageist wrote: That’s exactly correct, though, and there’s an entire frickin’ book that you can buy and read through, that details all the different business aspects that go into it. It’s called “The Art of Theme Park Design” by David Younger. For me it’s definitely tiring to read due to the amount of information packed into even one chapter, but it’s also really interesting.

Oh cool, I have a friend that's going into theme park design I'll def forward that to her as well! I'm not sure if I'd go into it, but I always thought the idea of creating a whole little world for visitors was cool. There was an article about it in ImagineFX a few years ago, that's when I first learned it was even a thing.

I think the real question for this thread is: how would YOU fix Evermore? Let's say you have a decent, but not infinite, amount of cash.

Implementing the MagiQuest system would definitely be a massive improvement. It goes perfectly with the theme, and you get to sell kids wands for $12 a pop (or however much it is). I can't get any good numbers on how much the installation would cost, but I'd bet its somewhat cheaper than all the other stuff the CEO was dreaming up. With the leftover money I'd start working on covering up the exposed wires and maybe giving my employees a pyrotechnics safety course. The LARPing system they have could be massively improved, it's more on the level of semi-interactive theatre, which really doesn't work for something like a theme park where families are coming maybe a few times a year. Storylines should take place over the course of a few hours or a day at most, because only the most hardcore of theme park fans are going to be able to keep up with a months-long overarching plotline. Even THOSE people will sometimes miss a day, because people have lives! And besides, you don't really want the money of themeparkhead22, you want Becky who will buy seven wands and a fairy costume for each of her kids so they'll stop screaming for five seconds. As it stands right now, the interactive story part of Evermore only seems to benefit the people doing the larping, not the people actually attending the theme park.

And that’s kinda who it was built for, no? I think everyone I heard talking about Evermore (before the Taylor Swift case went down) was a D&D cosplayer, not just for a hobby, but as the primary purpose of their social media, if not their only source of income (from being an influencer). But it’s a very niche market.

[splenectomy]

At 11/18/22 06:36 PM, Thetageist wrote: And that’s kinda who it was built for, no? I think everyone I heard talking about Evermore (before the Taylor Swift case went down) was a D&D cosplayer, not just for a hobby, but as the primary purpose of their social media, if not their only source of income (from being an influencer). But it’s a very niche market.

Really, if the CEO really wanted the "interactive fantasy world" model at all costs, he'd be much better off opening a LARP camp or something like that. Maybe there's not as much money in it, but there's also much less startup cost than a whole themepark and those are the kids that are REALLY going to appreciate a detailed storyline and elaborate props

[Thetageist]

Hey you!

What would your favorite video game look like as a theme park attraction?

[Thetageist]

At 11/19/22 02:40 PM, splenectomy wrote:

At 11/18/22 06:36 PM, Thetageist wrote: And that’s kinda who it was built for, no? I think everyone I heard talking about Evermore (before the Taylor Swift case went down) was a D&D cosplayer, not just for a hobby, but as the primary purpose of their social media, if not their only source of income (from being an influencer). But it’s a very niche market.

Really, if the CEO really wanted the "interactive fantasy world" model at all costs, he'd be much better off opening a LARP camp or something like that. Maybe there's not as much money in it, but there's also much less startup cost than a whole themepark and those are the kids that are REALLY going to appreciate a detailed storyline and elaborate props

Or at least a smaller scale attraction, probably indoors- going back to MagiQuest again. But maybe less of a game, and more of a choose your own adventure, or choose not to adventure if you wish. In the latter case there could be some cool interactive displays that don’t have a plot involved, like at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter with the infrared wands.

[Tangerine]

The only real theme park in my city is a place called Rainbow's End. The last time I went was over a decade ago :(