nickw5 April 4th, 2008
Yesterday was a day of adrenaline fuelled fun and enjoyment as Jo, I and 2 friends all headed out to Alton Towers to experience the rush of the rollercaosters and the waters of ripsaw. I had a great time and a lot of laughs were had throughout the day. It also got us all thiking of what rides we would like to see, or how they could improve the park by thinking a little outside the box.
Firstly why have rides finish right where they started. Ok I can see the plus points (if one person doesn’t want to go on the ride then they can wait, less staff needed, less space in the park required) but I think that if the park works into the equation the financial defiecit (which is likely to be arbitrarily small) the enjoyment and forward thinking image projected could be a big positive. Just think, you get onto the rapids and finish up over the other side of the park ready for another ride. The park, although loosing out on a multitude of business I susepct they generate from people walking round the park past various vendors, gain a lot of control in the movement of people round the park and how they get from one location to the next. Take it onto the next level and have a rollercoaster ending up at a different location and I think it could be a lot of fun. You could even categorise (or tag) these rides as “transport rides”; “This ride is a Transport Ride, and ends up in Sector X”.
Secondly, running in roughly the same vein, how about a ride that has different pathways which are randomised (either electronically or in the hands of the gods) so that a single ride has multiple experiences and thus has a big returnability factor. A ride that springs to mind that could suit this form well is the rapids, which has a natural randomness to its definitive path it takes, but could be extended to actually include multiple pathways. On a higher level you could have rollercoasters that have different tracks, and each track has a different twist or loop configuration.
Next up was a new ride - a water based ride that has people sitting in two different compartments. Take the rapids as an example again, and imagine sitting in the circular ring, but down the middle splitting up you and your mates is a piece of persplex glass. So all (say 6) of you are now sitting in the same ring, but in 2 different compartments. Now as the ride spins and gets knocked about it comes up to the water drencher, however the ring spins round and suddendly stops in one orientation such that one side is in the orientation to get completely soaked. Suddendly, unexpectantly (and randomly) it spins round 180degress and you’re in the orientation to get wet. Will it spin again before the water drencher …… I think this element would add a lot of fun, laughs, and general banter to the ride and be a lot of fun as you see your mates get soaked by water as you stay relatively dry (or they see you as they laugh and cajole).
Finally on these rambling thoughts, how about a (completely unpractical but fun to muse over) idea which involves getting into the park. As you get onto the monorail it randomly (or programmatically, but to the rider, randomly) decides which part of the park to start you off at, so not everyone starts at the same location. The monorail would get the whole park being used from the off (which has to be a bonus in park people management) and add a little bit of extra razamataz to the otherwise mundane transport system for getting into the park.
Ideas, fun thoughts, and muses, but a good thinking ground on a couple of ideas. Hey Mr Alton Towers ride designer, are you reading this?
Amendment:
As reading over this post and expending on some points, I notice that a lot of the ideas above involve a random factor to enhance enjoyment and unexpectability. Is this a vein in my thought process of my enjoyment, or is it an insight into why these ideas are not already designed and implemented?
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