Boring Environments

I’ve recently had some design work that has thrown up a big question in my mind…

I believe that there are some narratives that would be powerful and interesting journeys to take guests on, but their associated visuals are just dull. Is that my personal taste, or is there some objective fact in this?

Instinctively, I want to tell you that theme parks, unlike film, are in danger of their stylistic qualities being misunderstood. I’ve discussed this phenomenon quite often on this blog when I talk about realism. Functional objects used as theming will be read not for their implied stylistic connotations but as functional objects, because theme parks, zoos, restaurants, museums and the like are, above all else, functional spaces.

Verbolten at Busch Gardens Williamsburg - Review

The new multi-launch, freefall, indoor-outdoor, highly themed roller coaster for Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia this season has been one hell of a surprise from construction to riding for the enthusiast community. Originally suspected to be something akin to Busch Gardens Tampa’s Cheetah Hunt, it was announced that Zierer, a company best known for their tiny kiddy coasters, was to build a ride similar to Intamin’s Thirteen at Alton Towers. No one quite knew what to expect.

Approaching from Italy over the bridge, Verbolten first presents itself in a spectator-friendly drop from a ruined bridge peering out of the trees to your left. The brightly coloured roadster themed trains slowly approach the drop and dive down towards the river before veering off and out of sight into the woods. There’s just the right about of goofy bright colours mixed with subtlety and believability you want from a theme park. The picturesque scene is accompanied by the whistling sound effects of wind coming from the Black Forest and the faint sound of a festival going on in Oktoberfest. Something I really love about this park is how the themed areas transition. There’s no awareness of having left Italy and entering Germany in crossing that bridge, you just instantly forget where you came from. The whole park is very much a passive experience, arguably like a good theme park should be – an escape from reality. The cheesy stereotypes blanket the park with the right amount of obscurity breaking up the monotony of cliché. Everything is self-explanatory to the right degree, without the need to force-feed you narratives, and much of the park and its rides simply lack explicit narratives, because until now they have typically chosen hardware which entertained purely on a visceral level.

The Swarm at Thorpe Park - Review

Introduction

“LC12” quickly became one of, if not thee, most anticipated roller coaster ever to planned for the UK. “Looping Coaster 2012” was initially all we had to go on, and then early marketing imagery suggested a theme of the apocalypse. A character, named Les Coogan - a  crazy conspiracy theorist, homeless and shunned by no one who’ll believe him that “the end is coming”, began wondering around the park. When Raptor was announced at Merlin’s Italian park, Gardaland, we expected to see the same ride type at Thorpe, a B&M Wing Coaster. And then it happened; the plans were put up on the local council site… And we were presented with the confirmation of a 130ft tall B&M monster, with a unique first drop and thematic elements including a full size passenger aircraft.

Whilst B&M coasters are more often than not tame and can even be considered dull, they are of highest build quality and they never fall into the category of bad rides. It’s kind of the best guarantee you can get as an enthusiast that the new ride is going to be good. It’s exciting to see Thorpe go back to them after going for cheaper hardware last time, when they went to Gerstlaurer for the Eurofighter Saw: The Ride. Saw, above all else, is an uncomfortable ride experience, and so to know that this next coaster wasn’t going to hurt brought a huge sigh of relief.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of Swarm. It’s been almost a decade since a B&M was opened in the UK, and… Well, it’s huge by UK standards. Not just in height, but the sheer amount of space it takes up. We just don’t have rides of this size in the UK. As coaster enthusiasm has grown with the internet, the anticipation for a new ride of this importance was long overdue.

Realism of Theming at the Merlin Theme Parks

Realism is a funny term with various meanings. When realism is discussed in artistic theory, it’s not usually looking at the accuracy with which something was visually drawn or painted. It’s not interested in the accuracy of portrayal of perspective, for example. Realism is concerned with objective reality – in portraying the mundane truth, not romanticized ideas. This is usually achieved by exaggerating negative aspects such as ugliness or dirtiness.

With regard to theme parks, there are so many things to consider when exploring “realism”. Typical theme parks are fake by their very nature, removed from site history. They are purpose-built environments, usually trying to emulate some real place elsewhere; think of somewhere like Walt Disney World, built on otherwise useless swampland. There are exceptions, such as theme parks that have long been leisure venues of some kind like Alton Towers, which was once a pleasure garden and holiday home. The oldest amusement park in the world, Bakken in Denmark, started its life as a pleasure site when a natural spring was discovered in 1583. Along the way, it’s evolved into the amusement park of today, acquiring various entertainment venue qualities along the way.  These spaces can feel more genuine because their history is accumulative and feels less purpose-made. But the art of hiding that, and making you feel like the environment has been that way forever with the use of scenery, is another kind of realism altogether - realism in the skill of fakery. How much like a rock does this pretend rock look? It’s very difficult to make an imaginary place seem real, and in complete juxtaposition of the realism which seeks to portray objective reality, making the imaginary look real involves using a lot of romanticized clichés. In trying to communicate to someone what something looks like, it’s easier to conform to stereotypes, which may be less accurate, and so less real. It’s funny how being more realistic in some ways makes something less realistic in others.

True family coasters, trick track and Maurer Sohne

Anyone who lives in Europe will have likely ridden one of Maurer Sohne’s fantastic spinning coasters, but in the US you’re restricted to the off-the-shelf and not particularly exciting Xtended SC 2000 layout. I cannot stress enough how impressive these rides can be, and their skill in entertaining a broad audience is something that should be praised.

Dragon's Fury at Chessington World of Adventures, England

Photo © CoasterForce

Chessington World of Adventures and the desperate search for audience

Chessington is my home park. I’ve been visiting since 1994 yearly at the very least and I have a soft spot for the place. It’s one of the UK’s major parks, and yet around the world not a lot is known about it. For a quick overview, this park started as a zoo and was developed by the Tussauds Group and John Wardley in the late 80’s with nice theming, a suspended Arrow, mine train, dark ride and some other bits and bobs.  The Chessington I grew up with was the only proper theme park in the south east, Legoland never appealed to me as a kid because it’s almost entirely interactives as opposed to rides. Chessington had small rides, big rides, great theming, landscaping and animals.  In ways, a very small and distinctly British version of Busch Gardens.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg and the use of theming to appeal to audience

Busch Gardens Williamsburg is a very well renowned park, and I could sit here and tell you all the things you’ve heard before, but I’m not because that would be boring. BGW is a really strange park that has interested me for quite some time. Even prior to visiting, I could see they do things really quite differently there.  After visiting several times, researching and writing about the park in my dissertation, I only confirmed my initial observations. I’ve faced people telling me I’m wrong or just looking at me confused for years, so I thought it was about time I collected all my thoughts on this strange but brilliant park together in one place, instead of fragmented bits around various internet forums. So here's some theoretical ramblings on Busch Gardens Williamsburg...