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Thorpe Park Theory

cjbrandy

cjbrandy

Hyper Poster
Recently it was announced the last 2 rows of The Swarm would be going forwards again. Although its not a huge and lengthy task Merlin could simply sit there and leave it be. I think they had a reason behind it.

The world and the internet is going crazy for VR right now, with gamers and tech enthusiasts snapping up these stupidly overpriced Oculus Rifts and HTC Vives etc. And as we know, theme parks are jumping on the bandwagon with Six Flags slapping VR on a bunch of their coasters and Alton turning Air into 'Galactica'. There will be quite a lot of news stories when it opens and I think the public will like it for the most part.

And that's where The Swarm comes in. If Galactica is well recieved Merlin would probably be like "Why stop there?" The Swarm is a good candidate for optional VR because it is smooth and graceful, head banging is impossible, and the video could simply be the theme of The Swarm (riding the wing of a flying alien invasion) but with some Michael Bay esque CGI action ****. Since the last 2 rows will have been turned forward it would be ready for a quick and easy VR conversion and that's all Thorpe would probably get if it was done in 2017 because of the huge Derren Brown ride.
 
I don't doubt we'll see another VR coaster at a Merlin park. It's bound to happen. However, cjbrandy, I disagree with your thinking it would be on Swarm. I think most of Swarm's charm is seeing what's going on. By shoving on a VR headset, riders won't see that they are suspended beside the track, they won't see the near misses or the spectacular roll through thingy above the station. The 'natural' visuals are good enough. Whereas if you take either Inferno or Colossus, there isn't much to see on-ride (or riders don't need to see anything) so I think it would work better on either of them. Although personally I wouldn't want to see either coaster ruined by VR! If I were to hedge bets, I'd go for Inferno because after they've converted Air. They'll have experience VRing suspended B&Ms.

And as for Swarm facing forwards, I reckon that's down to lack of popularity. Whenever I've visted Thorpe, the rows for mrawS were nearly empty.
 
Why would they bother when DBGT is using VR?! In essence, it's the exact same experience, regardless of ride types.


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I actually think the coaster/VR thing will die down. I think VR works best on dark rides, which is why Thorpe investing in DBGT is a good idea and covers that missing piece in the theme park puzzle, so to speak.

I just can't see masses of the GP buying into the headset thing, I mean it works as a one off at some parks... but imagine having say 3 VR-type rides in a park like Thorpe? The public are fickle enough to see through that! Riding coasters is quite a big social experience for a lot of the public in that they enjoy interacting with their friends on rides and enjoying the very real thrill of seeing the coaster and what it does.
 
See, Merlin have this grand plan to tear down all of their existing parks and replace them with VR parks. No real rides, you simply walk through the front gate, put on headset, then sit on a bench all day and enjoy your virtual theme park. Tickets £95.
 
Sandman said:
Riding coasters is quite a big social experience for a lot of the public in that they enjoy interacting with their friends on rides and enjoying the very real thrill of seeing the coaster and what it does.
Click to expand...
Here's an idea. Don't make up the whole world. Use the headset to add to what is normally seen. You could have aliens flying around you while seeing your friends and the track and natural scenery.
 
What you're describing is known as 'Augmented Reality' and is extremely common.


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Or even better than anything mentioned so far, 'reality coaster'. Basically just sit in a seat and actually experience real life things!
 
Ian's logic that Swarm's near misses and overall design are why they wouldn't equip it with VR doesn't add up, as thats an argument against having backwards rows! As if they'd follow such logic?

I suspect, just guess work here, that Swarm's back rows were causing so much operational grief for minimal guest experience and marketing gain, that they gave up on it. Every time I visited they'd changed the layout of the queue in an attempt to make it work, but it never did. It never worked before the added complication of reversed rows! Remember front row allocation with tickets? Jesus Christ.

The reason I don't think it'll be Swarm is because of its already complicated loading.

I actually don't think Merlin will get another VR coaster conversion, even if they currently plan to, because I think Air will be a flop.

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