What's new
By:
FORUMS - COASTERFORCE

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Are we just getting soft?

R

RevolutionRuleZ

Mega Poster
I am starting to think that as a group, collectively the UK enthusiasts are becoming a little soft with regard to what we like or are able to tolerate from a coaster.

There are (or were) certain rides that have always proven to be popular Wild Mouse, Grand National, Ultimate, Nemesis that for whatever reason in the last decade or so seem to have fallen out of fashion despite in some cases have given decades of service and being headline draws as there respective parks.

Have they actually got worse, or are we just being somewhat over sensitive about things? This Nemesis rattle for example? I have seen Spanish coaster fans lap Baco for example, yet suggest that to most over hear and they will suggest you get yourself seen by a shrink.

I don't know maybe I'm being too over sensitive, but I think out of all the rides in this country the only ones I would say are uncomfortable are Hero and the Smiler, yet I am constantly seeing Colossus, Saw, the National, Infusion, Dipper, Big One even the Streak on occasions gets slated amongst others.

Is it just me or are me as a collective become to sensitive to things. I mean our parents, grandparents and great grandparents rode the likes of the Mouse and National so why are we now saying these things are unridable or social media?
 
I think it's part of our national identity to moan and complain and I'm not excluding myself from that, moaning is the most British form of expression.

The Grand National used to be alot more tolerable, but in the past 10 years it's become more painful than fun. I haven't done "Reborn" yet, but in that case I think the criticism is more to do with the expectation that a newly tracked B&M should be as smooth as butter.
 
Last edited:
James F said:
I haven't done "Reborn" yet, but in case I think the criticism is more to do with the expectation that a newly tracked B&M should be as smooth as butter.
Click to expand...

Agree with this. Nemesis reborn is its own different issue, it’s massively about expectation. There is a slight rattle but nothing particularly bad, but it does ride slightly worse than the original in my opinion, which isn’t great when technology has moved so far since 1994. It’s still a great ride though, and now my second favourite in the country after Hyperia.

Other older rides, it’s to be expected that they aren’t perfectly smooth. But maybe it’s commented on more because more people have ridden more coasters, have experienced what rides like Hyperion, Zadra, Taron, Ride to Happiness, Velocicoaster etc can all do while staying butterly smooth. When you get back on the Big One, it suddenly becomes more noticeable and you perhaps just don’t want to tolerate it as much.

We are probably just spoilt with new technology. It doesn’t mean the older rougher coasters don’t have their place or provide fun though. I do love being bounced around on something like Big Dipper or Grand National, but there’s a certain element of nostalgia that adds to the fun of rides like that. And an appreciation of theme park/coaster history.
 
I do think people complain too much about roughness, Colossus does need new trains but it's butter smooth compared to Baco, to use the same comparison you used.
For me it peaked when I rode Mandrill last year and the ride was spoiled by another enthusiast on the row behind vocally complaining about the (sorry, it's non-existent) rattle throughout the entire ride. Mate, shut up back there!

Also, Nemesis is forceful, it's not going to be perfectly smooth.
 
I think there’s an element of relativity about it.

When there are coasters abroad and in the UK that are glass smooth while also delivering thrills, it will naturally make the ones that are rougher not look as good. Why would you rate the roughness of, say, Saw highly when something like Hyperia is smoother and arguably provides equivalent thrill?

It’s also worth remembering individual tolerances. Some people have a higher tolerance to roughness than others, which can make it harder to enjoy a rough coaster in some cases. It’s always been the case that some people have found some coasters a bit rough for their liking; I don’t think that’s a new thing.

I’ll admit that I don’t have the highest roughness tolerance, but I personally found the rattle criticism on Nemesis, as an example, overblown. I found the newfound rattle on Nemesis largely benign and unnoticeable on my 5 rides last year, and it didn’t impede my enjoyment of the ride whatsoever.
 
Tonkso said:
I do think people complain too much about roughness, Colossus does need new trains but it's butter smooth compared to Baco, to use the same comparison you used.
For me it peaked when I rode Mandrill last year and the ride was spoiled by another enthusiast on the row behind vocally complaining about the (sorry, it's non-existent) rattle throughout the entire ride. Mate, shut up back there!

Also, Nemesis is forceful, it's not going to be perfectly smooth.
Click to expand...

The problem I have with Nemesis is that the last days of operation in 2022, the ride was running incredibly smooth, and combined with the power of the coaster made it such a special coaster experience. Being sensitive to such a downgrade I wouldn't label as soft.

Some rides you expect to be thrown around and the restraints help accommodate that. I do think people over exaggerate some shakeyness on coasters going over 70mph, but this discussion of thoosies becoming "soft" has raised it's head year after year. My view is half of us love the aggression and half of us want a free smooth floaty experience, we're not getting softer, just sometimes some voices are louder than others for a period. 20 years on this forum, has made me see many cycles.
 
It's a bit of both isn't it really. People love to complain (and will complain about literally anything) but there's definitely a higher expectation for coasters these days as well. The more manufacturers push the boundaries of what a coaster is capable of the more the old rides will feel dated, it's natural really.

Tonkso said:
For me it peaked when I rode Mandrill last year and the ride was spoiled by another enthusiast on the row behind vocally complaining about the (sorry, it's non-existent) rattle throughout the entire ride. Mate, shut up back there!
Click to expand...
This type of thing really annoys me, first time I rode Hyperia there was someone near me in the queue banging on to his mates about how it could have been so much better if the ride was longer and how Merlin had f***** up by only making it a 2 train ride ect, ect. Needless to say I still absolutely loved Hyperia but it did leave me thinking about how some people in this community see themselves as "ride critics" which I guess is okay but vocally criticizing a ride whilst actually on it, or about to get on it, is a bit daft really.
 
The only coaster that has genuinely hurt me is Nash. Does she still have that passionate jolt at the bottom of the first drop? I still feel that in my spine when I think about it 😂

I think we are a soft bunch though. I remember my first rides on Infusion and Odyssey - assuming (after seeing you pansies crying over them on here for years) that they were both going to crack my head open like a common egg - and coming off both thinking "what on earth is all the fuss about?". Yeah, you might get a bitch slap or two, but it's never been anything worth writing home about, in my experience. I thought it was part of the fun.

I am getting soft in that I can't hack many spinning flat rides anymore. Thorpe Park last year... we did a Vortex Zodiac one-two then I had to find a nice bench to sit on for a little bit. I've felt less ropey at the tail end of a night out than I did after riding those two torture devices! A far cry from my 14 year old self marathoning the afterburner they (used to?) have at Brean for the best part of a day in 2006. That would finish me off now.
 
Last edited:
Spinning rides don't particularly agree with me now, that's definitely an age thing!

I haven't had a issue with the bottom of the first drop? I have however noticed a jolt on the bottom of the second double down (drop 5) on the left hand track. It caused my leg to slip when I was using it to prop the lap bar up, resulting in me being pinned instead of the dose of airtime I expect which almost cut the blood supply to my legs down the back straight. Made sure that didn't happen again lol
 
I think it is as simple as back in the day, you could accept a bit of roughness or jank on older rides, but newer coasters tended to be smooth, especially B&Ms. Now though, rides are expected to be smoother due to technological advancements and sometimes you get brand new coasters that just aren't, like Mandrill Mayhem.
 
The spinning really is an age thing. Apparently fluid in your inner ear gets thinner as you age, and leads to more balance problems. Used to love a spinning ride but now avoid. As I've said elsewhere I like a rattley woody, or a harsh crazy mouse and I do think there is a bit of excess criticism of that. It's a feature not a bug! Each to their own though, I'm clearly being a hypocrite as I hate anything with a restraint that bashes me around the ears.
 
MannekenPis said:
The spinning really is an age thing. Apparently fluid in your inner ear gets thinner as you age, and leads to more balance problems. Used to love a spinning ride but now avoid. As I've said elsewhere I like a rattley woody, or a harsh crazy mouse and I do think there is a bit of excess criticism of that. It's a feature not a bug! Each to their own though, I'm clearly being a hypocrite as I hate anything with a restraint that bashes me around the ears.
Click to expand...
In fairness my worst two coasters in the country are Hero and the Smiler for that very reason. I'd sit on the National all day and have done so without a problem.
 
RevolutionRuleZ said:
Spinning rides don't particularly agree with me now, that's definitely an age thing!

I haven't had a issue with the bottom of the first drop? I have however noticed a jolt on the bottom of the second double down (drop 5) on the left hand track. It caused my leg to slip when I was using it to prop the lap bar up, resulting in me being pinned instead of the dose of airtime I expect which almost cut the blood supply to my legs down the back straight. Made sure that didn't happen again lol
Click to expand...
The nash-jolt incident was either 2018 or 2019. Our train hit the bottom of the first drop like it was bearing a grudge. It was definitely a thing, I remember a discussion online about it not long after, somewhere, maybe here? I wasn't the only one that had to wait a week for their spine to sink back into place!
 
People are probably being critical because the ‘good rides’ (globally) are now ‘really good rides’ and, generally speaking, it’s showing the older rides up.

‘Crispy’ / ‘shonky’ can be fun in the same way that naff special effects in films can be entertaining. Many woodies can carry this. Otherwise, if it’s going to be ‘exhausting’ then it needs to ****ing bring it (like, X2) rather than being a slab of forgettable average (like, Colossus at Thorpe).

Even in the US, many B&M sit down and floorless loopers are just hopelessly dated / uninspired and I tend to just skip these, because I truly get nothing out of them. I’d rather just re-ride the things that are interesting / fun. The last one I went on was Scream at Magic Mountain (for that ‘car park lulz cred’) and it was impossibly bad. There’s only so many interlocking corkscrews that a person can deal with in their lifetime and that’s before you factor in getting rattled to death.

Back in the UK, Hyperia can give vibration induced headaches despite being ~one year old and Nemesis Reborn seems shakier than the original - wtf happened there?!
 
It has been a recent noticeable change, than vibrations found on new coasters are considered something that's rough. I don't remember this being the case 10, 12 years ago; it was almost just an accepted thing for a ride to have a very slight judder as it was breaking in. Nowadays it seems like people put that in the same bracket as jack hammering, or headbanging, which I fundamentally disagree with.

I also think that coasterforce being the microcosm that it is, inevitably has a certain general age bracket of users. Forums are a dying breed of conversation online, and have been for a while, and those that still regularly use them aren't going to be the teenagers who're just getting a stomach for the most intense rides out there. They'll be firmly locked into tiktok, X, and discords. The general catchment of people who use forums have probably been using them for at least the best part of a decade, and inevitably with that time comes a sensitivity to roughness and intensity.

As has also been mentioned, ride hardware has also dramatically increased in quality in recent years. B&M now generally being considered rougher than Vekoma?! RMC making woodies that are accessible to those with whiplash and hip replacements?! Hell I remember when Mack were referred to as a bunch of drunk german engineers, now they're at the cutting edge of making some of the most iconic and enjoyable, smooth and well operating rides in this industry. With Titan track doing what it's doing, will Jack Hammers become something that's reserved for legacy attractions?

So yeah - I guess in my opinion, we're getting older, terminology and expectations have changed, and innovation and new engineering has forced standards to be higher.
 
A bit of a preamble: I went to Blackpool on opening weekend (Sunday) in March this year to ride a coaster for the first time ever. I've been an avid fan of Rollercoaster Tycoon for about 25 years but was never interested in going on a coaster. Mostly down to my brother who did get to visit parks being a prat and lauding it over me and the only opportunities I ever had with school being very unappealing.

I'd just turned 30, my 20's were filled with depression and feeling like I was running out of time I wanted to try a coaster. BPB was the big name as a kid growing up so that was the destination. Based on reading online I was under the impression It would be diabolical, the place was falling to bits, the coasters were knackered, the foods a scam, everything's SBNO, breakdowns blah blah.
So a few reflections:
  1. Infusion was the first ride I went on. Loved every single second of it as did my friend who has been to parks in and out of the UK. She's a short arse and I'm 6ft 2 and neither of us felt banged up. We ended up going on it twice more during the rest of the day.
  2. Icon is silky smooth and the much claimed "slow launch" felt pretty darn intense to me. This was the only ride I ever felt a bit queasy on. After the first ride I felt a feeling which I just thought was me being hungry. The second one a few hours later was a close call but I managed to clutch it and not spew.
  3. Food, went to coasters, cheaper than I thought it was gonna be. My cheese hadn't melted but then I'd gone for vegan cheese on potato tots, so I'm not sure what I expected. Her beans and normal cheese on tots melted and went down a treat.
  4. I'm not aware of any breakdowns, though on our last run of the Big One it felt like journeys were taking a while at one point while queuing.
  5. Not at one point did I ever notice that parts needed a lick of paint
This isn't all encompassing of the common claims about BPB but it's a few that stick in my head. I think at some point you may become such an enthusiast that you're focusing on things that are just nit picky. The theming is a bit rubbish in areas I guess but I can't say it stopped my enjoyment, though if Infusion had its pool more filled it would certainly have added to the low sections of the coaster. I think they are called "leg choppers" when you think you're going to bash your leg, well a leg soaker in this case it would be.

So just on the subject of parks and coasters, thats what I think. My pov goes even further: I think the British people as a whole have gotten soft. Have you been to a car boot sale recently? Sellers moaning about people haggling, sellers moaning that it's a bit cold (It's April for christs sake). I was chewed out and sworn at for daring to ask somebody to knock off two quid on a £22 spend (offered £20) consisting of five items. Bought none in the end, not having that.

My visit in march has kickstarted what I expect will be a lifelong love. I feel so stupid for not visiting sooner. Maybe in the fulness of time with more creds under my belt I'll be cynical and critical like some I see, but for now, just enjoy it. I really worry that if the current approach to parks in the UK and pining for the now announced universal parks carries on then lots of parks will just fold and we will rue the lack of variety in years to come.

We're already planning Alton Towers at some point and a return to BPB is a must to try the former Playstation/IceBlast and the new Intamin Gyro Swing coming in next year.

This post shouldn't be taken in an aggro way, I do intend to post more often here, just lurking the past few months and this thread coming up seemed like the perfect time to register.
 
MannekenPis said:
I'm glad you finally tried a roller coaster and enjoyed it. I hope things are looking up in general. I think you make a lot of valid points.
Click to expand...
Can't say I have ever felt a feeling in my chest like the one I felt after getting off Infusion and definitely not in my 20's. My heart wasn't beating fast as much as the excitement and adrenaline were combining and making me feel almost ethereal. It was where the very good start to my 30's began. Actually had to hug the person I was with I felt that emotional. Thank you for your well wishes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top