www.themeparkinsider.com: Great theme park attractions often employ fresh technology. Motion simulators have become a staple in the industry, and for the past few years interaction between the passenger and the ride have become more and more prevalent, which can be quite exciting! One thing many simulator and interactive rides have in common is they rely heavily on screens.
3 comments:
The incorporation of digital media into the physical world is one of the most difficult things to do in entertainment. Weather you are designing for the Chosky or for Star Wars land the temptation to take the cheep and easy route and put your standard white rectangles and project what is often beautiful artwork onto them is strong. I often feel when experiencing a story however that possibly in a contradictory manor to your typical idea of media design that the physical design can be just as or more important than the digital. This is how I believe the truly timeless digital experiences of today will be designed. Media should support the story but in a way that is seamless to the physical effects or it simply pulls you out of the story, shoves some new information in your face before you are slammed back into the story. This experience is at least for me, jarring and detrimental to a cohesive design.
This article poses a cool question! I think that when it comes to theme parks, physical attractions age much better than digital ones. A large part of that is because most of our entertainment is digital now, so when we see something on a ride screen that isn't as well done as what we can watch on Netflix every day, it's a little annoying, unsettling. We can't compare a physical attraction such as animatronics to what we see on our computer or TV screens every day, and in that way we allow them to seem sweetly old-fashioned, encouraging nostalgia, rather than being frustrated with their aging technology. After all, we don't necessarily see robots/animatronics like the ones from the Pirates ride every day! I highly doubt that the parks will keep the screens and films from today around all that long, and if they do, I think that most visitors would find them a little outdated, and not necessarily in a nostalgic way.
While I understand the point the author is making about classic rides vs the newer and more modern rides, I think this article raises the question that do the older rides actually have any merit in themselves, or do we like them just because of the nostalgia factor? Some rides, like the ones mentioned, have been a part of many people's childhoods for so long that the idea of getting rid of them could make them seem like better rides purely because of the sentimental value. On the other hand, maybe there is a certain appeal to actually building a physical world with tangible characters such as in the Haunted Mansion or Pirates rides. It's important to note that these kind of rides seem to only exist in the Disney theme parks, which means you also have to consider if this phenomenon hinges on the fact that this is Disney and therefore already part of an enormous fanbase going back to the parks' creations.
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