How do you rate your coasters?

[Screaming Coasters]

Split from the Saw topic!

Just to bring this from the Saw topic :roll: - but how do you rate your coasters. Do you rate them on an individual basis, in comparison to the others you've been on or some other way? Do you have a sliding scale where as you add new coasters to your count, you move things appropriately as you ride better ones?

Discuss

I think its utterly stupid to rate a ride because you compare it to others!
I rate my coasters separately for what they are there and then, not because I've given Furius Baco a 9. Thats a load of bullshiz to do so.

You rate it for what it is, not because you've given something else a better score.

 

[Ben]

I think its utterly stupid to rate a ride because you compare it to others!
I rate my coasters separately for what they are there and then, not because I've given Furius Baco a 9. Thats a load of bullshiz to do so.

You rate it for what it is, not because you've given something else a better score.

That makes... uh... no sense. How are you supposed to know the quality of a ride if others aren't taken into account.

My second computer analogy of the day - Mac's a secure, yes? But, how do we know they're secure? Not because they're not compared with anything else, but, because they're secure compared to ______. It's why ______ isn't secure, because you look at a Mac and go "Oh..."

Or, buy some cheap and nasty chocolate, and then some Swiss stuff for £X0000. You compare the cheap and nasty to the expensive if you want to know the quality of them.

Same thing.

 

[Screaming Coasters]

No, Macs are secure because theyr are hard to program a virus on as there is no registry to disrupt. Thats why

 

[Ben]

But "secure" only takes on a meaning when it's used as a way of comparing.

I mean, if the average computer got 400,000,000 viruses a day, and a Mac got 100,000, it would be "secure". It isn't actually secure to us, but in that comparison, it is.

It works the same way with quality of everything, and that includes rides.

 

[Screaming Coasters]

In all honesty, I prefer an Amiga system to a PC but I still rank the PC higher than it and a Mac even higher. It's not about what I give other things, it's about what its doing for me there and then.

Saw did it for me, the same Baco did. Khan didn't do it for me even though I know it is the better ride. I rank them separately and thats why I don't have a top ten list.

 

[Ben]

Well, then, you're doing it wrong.

 

[Screaming Coasters]

Well, then, I'm not.
How do you know whats right and wrong for me?

Lets put it this way -

You don't rate a song the same way you're rating coasters. You rate it because it did it for you, at that time regardless of any other track.

 

[Ben]

^Do I now?

I rate it based on quality. Which is relative. I don't see what else you can rate something on when rating its quality...?

Even if it's "doing it for you", it still "does it for you" more than something else. Relative!

 

[Screaming Coasters]

But then going by your method and relating it to music, other songs would suddenly become worse because something new has come out. Your once 9/10 would become a 4/10, and that to me, makes no sense.

 

[furie]

But then going by your method and relating it to music, other songs would suddenly become worse because something new has come out. Your once 9/10 would become a 4/10, and that to me, makes no sense.

Not completely.

Music is very much a taste thing. You could argue that a certain piece, because it contains some fantastic writing and brilliant musical technique, that it does make other music seem less good. Like a world before the Beatles

However, if you love The Wheels on the Bus, then you love it because music isn't all about complexity of musical achievement.

I'll bet Lain classes music based on that though

For a coaster, nobody is going to argue with you if you say a Big Apple is worth 1/10.

Likewise, 5 or 6 out of 10 for a Vekoma corkscrew is about right.

It gets trickier as the rides get better, but - Ben is right. In 1995, PMBO would have scored a 10/10 for me.

So, Erol, should PMBO still get a 10/10? It's the same ride (pretty much), so why not? It's because better coasters have been built, greater experiences have come along and my view point has been altered because of it. You have to work on a scale that slides according to experience (for the most part)

Having said that:

I have coasters I would class as 10/10 not in my top ten, but I have a 9/10 coaster in my top ten. This may seem odd, but it isn't really - like music, sometimes you do have to take personal taste into account. I know Lightning Racer isn't a 10/10 coaster, it doesn't tick enough boxes. It's superb fun though and I loved every ride I had on it. No Balder with "one mind blowing ride out of fifty", or Khan which is just "blatantly a 10/10 coaster". Pure fun for me makes it hit my top ten, but I'm intelligent enough to be able to deal with vagueries like this and work around both technical and personal reasons for rating coasters

 

[divvie_dave]

I rate a ride higher if I enjoyed it, and lower if I did not. :roll:

 

[A-Kid]

10 - Love it. Brilliant.
9 - Great fun.
8 - Good fun.
7 - Slightly less good.
6 - Not too bad.
5 - Border line.

4,3,2,1. Depending how much I don't like it.

I just made that up on the spot, but yeah it seems about how I think.

I screwed up the discription of how I rate last time. Heres a better attempt.

Basically. Fun factor + Layout. I do not rate purley on such things like "airtime". All about the elements and how they are put together. A good mix of accelerations and fun.

This is probally why I like MilF so much. It has a lot of fun factor. It has the G differences at some point. The lift is fairly exciting, the first drop is like a big G spot. Then speed then high overbank +G's, then speed corner, tunnel, to a hight....ect..

 

[nealbie]

Hehehe, I wonder how far this argument will run :lol:

 

[rollermonkey]

I don't generally do the 1-10 scale thing.

At the end of a season, when I'm re-doing my ballot for Mitch's poll, I think about what I rode that year and how it compares to the rides I've done before.

More fun? Move on up.
More pain? Move on down.

It's how I have Millenium Force, Jackrabbit, Wild Mouse (BP), S:RoS (6FNE) and Rollercoaster (BP) all as top 5 coasters.

They are just plain fun.

 

[Ormerod]

I rate on the basis of.

Coaster Intensity
Re-ridability
Fear factor
Theme & Appearance


But obviously you have to compare it to coasters you have ridden before.

 

[marc]

I split mine up into different types.

Then for me its about enjoyment and if I would re ride without thinking twice.

Also what Ormerod said.

 

[caffeine_demon]

I use a strange combination of rerideability, thrills, fun, my mood and other factors, coaster marks may go up or down later.

I won't necessarily mark down a ride that's too intense for immediate rerides, if it's a really good ride - eg nemmy and batman.

also - I'll rate coasters according to their category (family, kiddy, high thrills etc..) - colorado adventure and troy have 10's - as do nemesis, oblivion, and stealth

 

[tomahawk]

I rate my rides randomly, but I typically don't give it a "real" ranking until I ride it more than once, or I have time to digest the experience. Now of course there are rides that instantly blow your mind and you know they are going to be top 5. Top Thrill Dragster was one of these for me, as well as X(2).

An example of a ride that changed after multiple rides is Prowler, it was barely top ten for me after my first ride, but I wouldn't have put it above GhostRider in its first few seasons, but after 2 more rides on Prowler, it became number one or number two, I still can't figure out where it is.

 

[Error]

There are several key features that makes or breaks rides for me:

Experience
Setting
Rideability (Relating to roughness)
Rerideability (Is the wait ever worth it?)

I tend to take into account Experience and Rideability above overs, but sometimes a setting really kicks it up (Beast originally would of gotten an 8, but the night ride boasted it up to a 10). Marcus was wondering why I ranked Diamondback higher then Ravine Flyer II, and it was about rerideability. I could ride Diamondback all day without a care, but Ravine Flyer II shakes and rattles in the tunnels to cause me major headaches. Thus, it was clear.

But it comes down to personal taste over anything else. I like floater and ejector over huge forces, and like rides more if they have more air then anything else. Plus I like it smooth.

 

[wolverinechris]

This seems like it boils down to the argument of whether everything is relative or there are some absolutes. Then again, that could certainly be exciting...

Given that you can't take back a ranking, you pretty much have to rate things relatively. You can't have a worse ride ranking higher because you later realize you rated it too highly. You just have to rate the new stuff higher (if possible).

As for me, I rate things pretty simply on a simple ranking system. I'm thinking about switching to something a bit more subjective though.

In all honesty, I prefer an Amiga system to a PC but I still rank the PC higher than it ...

I'm a bit confused about what you're trying to say there, but I have always found Amigas interesting. It's cool that you've gotten to use one; I've not even seen one .