Hello Readers,
Today I wish to discuss a non-specific topic. A criticism I have had on many of the themed lands produced by Universal Orlando and Disney in the last few years. That being the underwhelming nature of their immersivelands, and what I believe is the reason for this.
As many of you already know I am an Immersion Junky, I love to feel Immersed in LARP experiences and lost in new exciting worlds. Some of my Favorites include Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Avatar: The World of Pandora, Dark Universe and Super Nintendo Land. I love Immersion so much that I went to college to study Transmedia Storytelling and focused heavily on what makes a Theme Park and what makes us want to return for these Immersive experiences.
The reason I started this blog as many of you know was to criticize Disney for the Galactic Star Cruiser and provide dozens of concepts by which they could have saved money on the project as well as give myself a voice to discuss my own concepts for creating Theme Park Lands and Immersive Experiences.
Today I wish to discuss how one goes about developing an Immersive land, and my criticism on what can make theme parklands all that much more special in the future.
The subject: Film Series, Book Series, Video Game Series, or Non-Franchise specific IP
As we all know the first thing Imagineers and Universal do when designing a Theme Park land is look under their umbrella of IP and brainstorm what under their umbrella they can create. They outline their idea, with reasons they should make this land, why it’s important that guests visit this land and what they can do in this land.
The problem with this way of thinking is, today, (in many cases) this is done by a Think Tank of Individuals on Assignment from a Corporate Shill, rather than by the creatives themselves. Imagineering, is under the thumb of individuals like Bob Iger, who has every right to say no to the project or send it back to drawing board, despite the idea being perceived as perfect, by all teams leading up to the top. This is the reason Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge is Set in The Sequel Era not the Original Trilogy, and why experiences appear to be missing from the land.
Once the subject is approved, by the shills development of the project begins to take shape, as the artists and designers are brought in to conceptualize and bring the ideas of the person who thought up the idea to life on paper, and digitally.
The problem I have with this approach is Corporate Business figures sometimes miss their mark when it comes to the subject matter. They have no regard for the actual fandom associated with the subject and how they feel in regards to what is being built, rather they look at numbers, dollar signs and ass kissers, for the subject to be approved. Success to them is the dollar sign, not the response from the fans of the franchise but rather the response from the average park guests. Not the people who come into the park in cosplay or bounds who love the land because its star wars, but rather the idiot guests who still doesn’t understand that Kylo Ren is not Darth Vader, and that Diagon Alley isn’t just a place you walk around and the attraction is inside of Gringott(They don’t even Know what Gringotts is).
The Subject needs to be based around the fans, not the greater populus. In my opinion the Average Theme Park Guests is an unintelligent Tourist, who figured the park is open and they are on vacation there for 4 days so they might as well check it out. The fans who visit these lands are the ones who are more likely to purchase obscure cheaply made artifacts, and understand where everything is, the importance of the franchise to them is what will make the land brilliant and profitable, not just the average guest who cannot figure out how to cast a spell at the windows in Diagon Alley or see’s Vai Moradi and asks her for directions, are the people who bring the quality of the subject down, breaking the immersion for everyone involved.
Know your audience: Your Average Guests vs Your Super Fans
This brings me to the second part of developing the land: know your audience. In order to build a land within the subject one must know who is willing to pay for that experience, who loves the franchise and who is willing to visit it time and time again, or meet up with friends and explore this land and its repeatability for those fans. Your average guest will normally just ride through everything not care for the merchandise and be completely confused when in an immersive land. They are the ignorant individual, who thinks Lion King isn’t in Animal Kingdom, that thinks there should be more characters in Disney World when they went Universal Studios instead of Hollywood Studios(which we know is at Disney). These are the people who annoy Team Members and Cast Members, as well as the cosplaying and bounding guests, with questions, who don’t understand the difference between the subject and what is featured at the parks.
The superfan on the other hand can recite lore backwards and forwards knowing obscure facts in regards to Hogwarts houses and characters. They know their house because they took the pottermore test, they don’t just label Gryffindor and the good guys and Slytherin’s as the bad guys, and know the difference between a Death Eater and Dementor. These are the fans who will revisit the lands and buy items that aren’t popular, but expensive Niche Items, and can tell you facts about the item to educate your Cast members and Team members, who we know aren’t educated as much by their company.
The superfan is the one willing to spend $100-$200 for a Dejarik/Holochess table, or play sabacc with a cast member on a hot day in black spire outpost. They are the ones who dress up and know everything, about the land, and where everything is located. These are the guests who Disney and Universal should cater to before the average guests, because while there may be more average Theme Park Guests, the Super-Fans unbeknownst to them are willing to buy and pay more for experiences and food within these specific lands, for usage that day or in their lives everyday. These are the fans who live and breathe the franchise, the Jedi who repairs his droids and modifies his lightsabers, the wizard who practices their wand in the mirror and keeps their robe ready for their next adventure. These are the guests who are adults who play who larp in these lands, the guests who make your Cast and Team Members happier, and more educated the guests who aren’t asking dumb questions, the guests who know what is happening. These are the fans who interact with roaming characters, instead of following them around hoping to get a picture, because they aren’t meant for meet and greets, they are meant to enhance and entertain around the land.
The creatives who design these lands must know their audience, and while not making a deep dive into lore, for their hardcore fans they must still create these worlds with these fans in mind, and will deal with the ignorant park guests as time goes on.
Attractions:
So we have the subject, the franchise, the IP for the land, we have the Audience the fandom who we wish to introduce to our land, now we get down to the attractions.
To make an attraction one may think is simple however a lot of thought goes into the attractions especially in regards to your subject and audience.
If your subject is Frozen or Moana, a person isn’t going to make a high speed roller coaster, because the audience for Frozen or Moana is normally 3-7 years old. You're probably also not going to make a Roller Coaster in a Star Wars Themed land, because vehicles in the Star Wars Galaxy normally float, so to put them on a track all of a sudden, that is visible to guests, may not be the best course of action.
So to make an attraction the creative must know their audience: what the fans want to see, the age of the fans of the franchise or IP, and where in the story of this land their story takes place.
The next question is how many attractions do we include for our immersive land. This is tricky for most creatives, as I find 2 attractions in a land to be too little and 5 to be too much. However there are some exceptions to this rule. The world of Avatar that despite having two attractions makes up for it in terms of beautiful scenery and immersivity and Diagon Alley in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando only truly has one Ride in the land(I consider the Hogwarts Express Transportation) but the land has dozens of places to play with immersive wands, guests can also purchase their wand with an optional olivander’s experience or watch the shows on the stage in the Carkit Market, but one more attraction to this land wouldn’t hurt because, it would definitely assist in Crowd control.
It is my opinion that Immersive Theme Park Lands need to cover multiple bases, requiring 3 or 4 attractions to not be overwhelming, and to keep crowds controlled in the lands with more popular IP’s. An example of a land that requires a second ride attraction is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Ministry of Magic/ Place Cache. This area is beautiful and massive, but battle of the Ministry is so high in demand, and Cirque Arcanus, while an attraction is a show meaning, crowds can only go into the cue and into the theater, every show time period. Meaning this land, will require more to be done in the future, in order to keep crowds under control. Another example of a land that needs more attractions is Dark Universe at Epic Universe. This land has two rides Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment, and Curse of the Werewolf, while these two rides are great, they aren’t seen as priority to many guests in the park and thus by adding another two attractions to this land, perhaps a Creature of the Black Lagoon Boat Ride, or a Haunted House walkthrough attraction, this land could assist in crowd controls.
Disney is also victim to the underwhelming experience of an Immersive land, because it has two attractions. Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge (sadly) seems incomplete(it falls short of what is expected), and actually is. As per concept art and Imagineering interviews. Budgeting for the land, research and development, and other constraints led to the third attraction for this land being canceled. Galaxy’s Edge is also missing elements promised in its announcement such as interactive alien and droid characters, and the failure of the Galactic Star Cruiser(saldy and unfortunately) as an attraction has broken the spirits of this lands creatives ever being what was promised at D23 all those years ago.
Another land I foresee having this issue is Monstropolis, the Monsters Inc themed land in development, as it will have one Roller Coaster Attraction that has been announced and nothing else, as well as Villains land which has only announced one thrill ride/roller coaster attraction and a dark ride, aside from shopping and restaurants.
Another Land I will continue to mention and hope to get more lands like in the future is The Isle of Berk at Epic Universe while super Immersive, it has 4 attractions and a show within its borders. While not all of these attractions are for all ages, some being for smaller children, the land is truly one of the best lands in Epic Universe, in terms of Roaming Characters theming and creativity, in terms of making these attractions make sense to the land. Another land I wish to highlight is Super-Nintendo World at Epic Universe, which has 3 attractions, two of which doubling as a video game and they utilize their power-up bands to also create attractions for guests to play as they journey around this epic new park.
Food and Drink:
Following the attractions being designed the next step of course is the foods of these worlds, be it the Blue Milk at Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, or the Butterbeer of the Wizarding World, these items set the tone for your world, and they should be as good as expected in the films. Creatives and food scientists work together for days, months even at times to create menus for these lands combining familiar flavors with exciting new culinary inventions to create items that guests can enjoy. What is is eaten however should in many cases, coincide with the attractions within the land, and the subject and audience of the land as well. You wouldn’t want to eat chili dog at the leaky cauldron and then ride Gringotts, would you? (I wouldn’t think so and neither would the maintenance and custodial staff at Universal).
The food featured should make you happy and should be stuff either seen in the film or taste like something foreign and look like it’s from the world you are visiting. For example, we never see anyone eat in the Avatar Films, so Disney had to create the items in Satuli Canteen from their imagination, and I swear it feels and tastes like you are on Pandora.
Of course there are some hit and misses on some items. Chocolate Frogs for instance don’t jump and aren’t necessarily the best candy in the wizarding world of harry potter, nor at Universal and the Ronto Wrap has too many flavors for me personally at Galaxy’s Edge( I Prefer the more Savory Breakfast Variety), but items like this will sell especially to hungry people, who are looking for food and see the line is short because of its eccentricity.
MERCH
The final item, that is looked at is Merch, while some Items, like Wands and Lightsabers are obvious and attached to experiences, the merch sold in the park should be targeted at the superfans not only the daily park guests.
When galaxy’s edge first opened majority of the items sold in Dok Ondar’s Den of Antiquities were on a whole other level and now, the items are more variety aimed at average guests instead of the superfans. The same can be said about items across Galaxy’s Edge which has left its original immersive only items to more common theme park goer items, which I swear don’t change for years on end, because the items have lost their magic.
The Wizarding World originally didn’t sell interactive wands, but they have always sold wands and when the Interactive Wands came out, guests immediately jumped on the chance to purchase these wands and wave them at the windows. The unfortunate nature is, the variety will always be an issue and the customization options as well will see to it that the wand isn’t what is described in the book for a long time, but they are getting better with lighting and haptics assisting guests in casting their spells.
When developing merch, something to think about is there characters of your story the deeper meaning and sentiment behind each item. For instance one wouldn’t make a Christoph Sword in a Frozen themed land. For one Christoph never used a Sword in the films and two Girls would prefer an Elsa Wand that shoots bubbles.
Dust collecting Chotchkies are also a bad option for theme park merch, hence the issue with Dok Ondars when it first opened nearly all items in the shop were display pieces and paper weights, nothing that a fan is going to freak out over especially if they can buy a lightsaber or a droid. Have you seen anyone actually buy any of the items in the window at Wiseacre's in Diagon Alley? It is rare, but these items are expensive normally so it explains why.
Hence, I would argue that the more immersive the souvenir and merch is the more of these items will be sold. Robes, Tunics, Costume and Cosplay pieces, Lightsabers, Power-Up Bands, Kyber Crystals, Banshees, Dragons, Kowakian Monkey Lizards and Makeup and Costuming Experiences, make these items special for guests, and the more Merch that immersifies guests in the land sold in the land, the more that the super fan guest will be willing to pay to expand their experience and enjoy themselves more in the land and when they return home, they shouldn’t collect dust they should displayed, played with and cherished until their next visit.
Replayability, New Features: Keep them coming, Keep them wanting more.
The final check lists Creatives for Theme Parks need to consider is the return factor. Many of these superfans are locals, and have annual passes, how do we make the people who return every week excited, keep their money coming back in.
The fact is they don’t do this. For some reason Universal Creative and Walt Disney Imagineering, care more about the once in a lifetime normal guest than the ever returning Passholder. They believe that guests who come once in a lifetime spend more money than guests who are in attendance once a week or once a month. This is incorrect.
By my logic, the local super fan will return and spend a total of $50-$200 a visit, per person, depending on the offerings. Passholders, many of whom return weekly, may not pay $120+ for a ticket a day for this visit or the hotel room stay, but they do spend the majority of their paychecks in the parks every month.
That is why i propose this final check for the immersive land, for the returning guest, for the superfans who come to the parks who dress up and play in these lands. For the larpers, and the immersion junkies, the final thing Creatives need to consider are these fans, the ones whose money is the economy of this land of this industry.
To do so, what Creatives must do is analyze what can be done, think of all the options, dream and dare to make the impossible possible.
These parks aren’t just theirs during this final stage. This park is open, this park is communal, and has a community around it. They must interact with the community, work with them, take in their feedback, and work to continue to create these immersive worlds for the masses to enjoy.
I ask that if you are an Imagineer or Creative Universal and you are reading this, to think about what you see, what you hear from guests in the park, and using creative thinking develop a way to not only solve problems but increase the immersive experience of all guests who come to these places where Magic must be continued to be created for ages to come.
The job of a creative is never done, and never should be done even after their project has ended. Perhaps Joe Rhody will eventually fix the Yeti, perhaps the 7 hour cue for the ministry of Magic will be opened and the virtual cue removed, perhaps the Galactic Star Cruiser or the third Attraction at Galaxy’s Edge Will eventually open. Just look at the Hatbox Ghost. It took years to return to Disneyland and now its in Disney World as well.
Creatives must strive to bring something new to the table weekly, monthly even, it can be as big as a new Attraction or Experience or as small as a cosmetic item or holster for your wand.
As Walt Disney the Founder of Transmedia Storytelling in terms of Theme Park innovations Stated: “it’s kind of fun to do the Impossible”
Conclusion:
I hope you enjoyed reading, let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
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