Is There Really a GP Divide?

[Edward M]

I find it interesting how enthusiasts often talk about the GP. Saying this ride is meant to be for the GP and not the enthusiasts. There seems to be a general idea that the GP simply love the biggest ride. I'm unsure if a GP divide really exists, and, if it does, if it is very bad. When I go with my non-enthusiast friends to a park, we often agree on the best coasters. We often liked and disliked the same elements about each coaster. They prefer a long, airtime filled coaster to something with a gimmick or just some height to it. I still remember how surprised I was by how much my friend loved American Thunder at SFStL. Despite having a short height and lacking much extreme speed, he kept wanting to ride it and raved about it. At that same time, Mr. Freeze and Batman: The Ride didn't really do much for him.

In fact, a good amount of the GP I've spoken to tend to share my favorite ride in the park. While they don't know exactly WHY they love the ride, they feel the same sensation that we do on the ride. I guess I often wonder if many enthusiasts feel like they are enjoying the coasters than the GP. Or, at least, feel like they are superior to most of the GP for their knowledge. Cause, likely, it is the other way around. I would imagine something like Superman at Darien Lake would insanely tall and amazing to the average visitor while many enthusiasts don't think much of it. They would likely be more amazed by the thrills that can often seem to commonplace to us. In the end, do we lose more on an average coaster experience than the GP? Or does our extra knowledge enhance out ride experience? I love coasters now of course, but I can't deny that I did enjoy a good amount of coasters more before I rode all these.

 

[Alaeriia]

I usually define a "GP coaster" as something that has big numbers attached to it as the major selling point. Kingda Ka and The Big One come to mind immediately.

It's a coaster that is marketed entirely on stats: "TALLEST FASTEST COASTER IN THE WORLD!" (also rough and not much to write home about; TTD is better.)

 

[Pink Cadillac]

The more experience you have, the better you will be able to articulate your opinions and talk about it in depth (as with any subject really). However, regarding the "GP", I have feeling that some enthusiasts feel the need to:
1. Invalidate their opinions
2. Consistently lump them as one hive mind entity as if they cannot think for themselves or have personal opinions.
3. Treat them as if they are stupid
4. Assume that they cannot contemplate a coaster experience past statistics.
I'll stop at that as I'm starting throw up in my mouth a little. It's all a bit sad really. I guess it stems from a feeling on inadequacy in real life which causes them to look down on anyone with less (perceived) coaster knowledge as them. Yes, impressive statistics and gimmicks might help get people through the gate but that's just good marketing. Also, the GP cannot succumb to all the convincing hype from the enthusiast world and they have not been following construction so coasters are likely to be more surprising to them which is generally seen as a benefit. Sometimes knowing too much can spoil something. Riding many coasters may cause people to predict how a coaster will ride which can then turn into the 'self-fulfilling prophecy' - another pitfall that the GP aren't likely to fall into. Both groups have their positives and negatives. I enjoy hearing detailed reviews about coaster related things from enthusiasts, but also find members of the GP a breath of fresh air and sometimes more interesting.

 

[Pokemaniac]

In my humble experience, I think the GP can't be defined by pointing a finger at the common masses. Rather, it's a term that reflects more accurately on enthusiasts. More specifically, the sense of excitement and wonder we lose as we gain experience. Knowledge will eventually harden us, like connoisseurs who can't enjoy a decent burger any more without comparing it to a world-class gourmet meal. Suddenly, what would have excited our pants off when we first learned about coasters, has become more mundane or even boring.

"Oh, cool! A coaster where you sit under the track? It goes upside down five times? And it's themed to Batman!" The news of such a coaster hitting one's home park is like somebody snuck an extra Christmas Eve into this year's calendar if you've never seen it before.
"It's called an Invert. It's a carbon copy of a ride that has been around for twenty years. And for the sake of this argument, I find this layout boring. Meh, unoriginal."

"Woo! Our home park is building a coaster with a 70-meter vertical drop! It goes upside down three times! It will be the largest of its type in the world! I'm excited!"
"It's a boring ride type, making it bigger won't change that. And it only inverts twice. Why couldn't they have built something better?"

"They're adding another fantastic coaster to their lineup! Can't wait to go there next year to ride it!"
"It's a second-hand ride by a manufacturer of poor repute. Reviews say it was pretty meh at the last park it was at. The park has wasted a pretty good plot and this is the worst day of my life."

Part of the theme park experience - or the coaster riding experience - is the unfamiliarity of it. Being taken out of everyday routines to do something completely different, letting oneself be thrown about by a large machine you can't quite convince yourself to be safe. Going on a coaster is, for most people, going outside your comfort zone. Overstepping that little treshold is part of the experience. But if you make parks part of your routine, you feel comfortable and totally un-excited boarding a coaster train, and know the intricate details of a ride just by glancing at it, you won't get the "full package" which involves butterflies in your stomach, a sense of fear, or a giddy excitement of being in a park. Unless it's the opening day of an entirely new concept, you've "seen it before", and a park is just another park, a coaster is just another coaster.

Riding hundreds of coasters will refine your tastes. You know what you like, you learn to recognize quality, and you'll be quick to spot something subpar. Just before a launch, you don't think "ohmygodohmygodohmygod", you're annoyed by the inefficient ride ops and fuming that the manufacturer went for a sub-par type of restraint. As it launches, you're not screaming with excitement, you're noting how it is among the weaker half of launches you've ridden, and that you can feel the tugging of the launch cable. You're never convinced you're going to fall out, "like that time it flew off the track and landed among the dodgems", you're counting seconds of airtime. And so on ad nauseatum. "It could be better, I have seen it done better a hundred times. I'm getting an inferior experience here. But +1 anyhow."

"The GP" isn't Them. It's Us, minus the years of experience. It is about what we have become and what we have lost.

 

[zazobo]

"The GP" isn't Them. It's Us, minus the years of experience. It is about what we have become and what we have lost.

Whoahhh.. Deep bro.

 

[jayjay]

Very good write up by Pokemaniac.

One thing I wonder (and I haven't talked to enough people to be sure) is how adrenaline and fear affects the sort of rides somebody might enjoy. I've noticed I rate launches generally higher than other enthusiasts: my two favourite British coasters are Stealth and Rita. That feeling of standing at the airgates: watching a train yanked out of the station, then sitting down and feeling the stomach drop while the lights count up to the launch. I don't get feelings like that on any regular coaster, and it enhances the ride so much, I can even forgive the problems with roughness or a short layout. Leftover adrenaline makes the airtime hills and the turns more exciting.

Now imagine I'm a regular guy that hasn't been hardened by years of getting used to coaster motions. My fear level for height, going upside-down, speed is lower and that adrenaline is there on anything advertised with big numbers or with certain gimmicks (not all of them obviously, can't see "first suspended coaster over water" sending nerves on edge). Suddenly the tall height, the over-vertical drops, they all fire off the adrenaline and makes those rides much more exciting. Something subtle, like a traditional woodie, may be looked at as relatively tame or unexciting from the outset, and lessen the impact when riding. To take Pokemaniac's main point, enthusiasts are usually people where that adrenaline edge is lost from a lot of different coasters

 

[Howie]

Whoahhh.. Deep bro.

Quite. New award suggestion for 2017: Most Profound Member. I nominate Pokemaniac.

He's right of course. I personally don't have a huuuuge coaster count, but I have been at it for a fairly long time, and yeah, those feelings of fear, anxiety, butterflies, wobbly legs, sweaty palms, exhilaration etc.. tend to fade, or become more difficult to find.
However, on those rare occasions when you do find something that sets the heart racing, gets the needle twitching, gets the blood pumping... man, you can guarantee that ride will rocket straight into your top 10.
Take Kingda Ka for example. Many hate it, but not me. Sitting on that launch pad, waiting for one of the fastest launches in the world to fling me up a 450ft tower was one of the scariest things I've ever done. Operations were slow that day too, so it was an extra long wait, a good 60 seconds or so, plenty of time to contemplate the enormity of what was about to happen.
It reminded me of being dangled over that vertical drop on my first ride on Oblivion, what, 19 years ago? One of those moments when you actually think to yourself "Oh sh*t, am I really brave enough to do this?", but you know it's already too late.
That's why I love Kingda Ka - because for a few delicious moments it reminded me of being a GP again.
The divide is there, but you can still cross over it from time to time.

 

[Ian]

@Pokemaniac put it so eloquently, I don't think there's much else to add.

Although, maybe, to exaggerate slightly on one of his points, in terms of new coasters, us enthusiasts will generally follow construction from the rumour, through to the announcement, then the mud stage, up it goes, marketing campaign right until we're panting at the gates on opening day. It's not just the time we've spent becoming an enthusiast through our love of riding and learning about coasters, but we also watch these babies grow.

I have several friends (yeah, look at me!) who have popped out a few kids. I'm closer to some of them than others. When they're pregnant, I see the bump grow, I pretend to be interested in it kicking and listen patiently about the scans, nursery preparations and so on. After those nine months are up and I meet the little mite, I find I'm usually more attached to the ones I've been "following" more so than the ones who just appear. Same could be said about creds.

 

[Hyde]

Well said @Pink Panther, @Pokemaniac, and @Ian.

I have found myself coming down from peak enthusiast to a certain extent, or at least trying to, as poke puts it, "Be taken out of everyday routines to do something completely different, letting oneself be thrown about by a large machine you can't quite convince yourself to be safe." At the end of the day, I would rather be riding a roller coaster than not; who am I to let the semantics of make, model, height, speed of a roller coaster guide the course of my enjoyment while riding.

 

[Fi]

The GP are people just like us, they experience the exact same sensations. The GP can often enjoy a coaster even more than enthusiasts precisely because they have less knowledge. Ignorance is bliss and so the GP can get excited and enjoy an average coaster because it's good relative to their other experiences whereas the enthusiast will go and be disapointed/find it forgettable because they know there is better out there.