Some Guy Has Thoughts on the Star Wars Galactic Starcruser

 Today is the last Star Wars Galactic Star Cruiser voyage. 

Announced at D23 2017, three years after Diagon Alley opened and as part of Disney's "response" to Universal, the new hotel immediately sparked interest and speculation. How much would it cost? What would be involved? How long would the stay be? Would this be the true next step for themed entertainment? Will we get a Harry Potter experience?

Well, today, September 30, 2023, is the Star Cruiser's closing day. After a short 516 days of operation, shorter than Harmonious's 594 days by 2 1/2 months, the much-praised and maligned offering is shutting down. But Bob Chapek said the hotel was selling out months ahead of time, with tons of satisfied guests booking again. Turns out Chapek was kind of full of it, the Star Cruiser immediately started running into issues with guests and bookings. Soon after opening Cast Members were frequently being comped into the hotel to pad out the cruises while the staff on the ship were resigning due to mismanagement. 

So what happened? 

Well, I think there are a few factors in the failure of this ambitious themed entertainment experience...

Star Wars Hubris

Disney's been super weird about Star Wars since they acquired the franchise from George Lucas. From the handling of The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker, the botched production of Solo, mixed TV series, and the disastrous opening of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge in Disneyland. Hell Bob Iger even thought he could "just tweet out" Galaxy's Edge would open and the crowds would come. They did not.

Iger has a bad habit of just assuming things of the public. Assuming they'll plan out their whole days months before they arrive at the parks, for example, or that minimal advertising with tons of whispers of bottleneck crowds all summer leads to an attendance and revenue disaster at Disneyland.

This hubris extended to the marketing, advertising, and nearly all the decisions behind the Star Cruiser. The advertising campaigns for the experience were all over the place, with cringe-worthy ads and confusing explanations. I would link to the really bad explanation video but Disney expunged it from the internet and the only accounts posting it really don't like The Last Jedi if you get what I'm saying. Disney never nailed the elevator pitch for this experience and it shows; is it a high-end hotel or a LARP? The ultimate extension of your personal Star Wars adventure or an immersive theater experience in the Star Wars canon? There is more than one story floating around of a family arriving at the hotel completely confused about the experience they booked and frustrated with the offerings. "Stupid tourists" some might say, but really is that an excuse for one of the world's largest media companies?

Disney's "if we build it they will come" mentality just does not work.

Not for Florida

Friend of the site David Daut and I texted over the past few months on our feelings on the Star Cruiser closing. David got to experience it twice, and I was some a-hole with just Opinions and Thoughts ™️. One thing that kept coming up between us was the fact Californians LOVED this experience - I knew more people from LA and SF who did this than anyone on the East Coast outside of FL. 

The Imagineering Tax and Chapek Inflation struck the Star Cruiser hard. Even factoring in the room, park admission, dinner, snacks, and character experiences a minimum of $5000 for two days for two people is a LOT. In order for this to succeed in Florida and Walt Disney World's demographics it would need to be significantly less expensive, even the 30% off discounts offered in early 2023 didn't draw the crowds.

A majority of Walt Disney World guests are tourists flying into affordable accommodations. They want to go on rides, hit the pool, and eat at fun restaurants. They love merchandise and being on vacation. Do you know what kid's #1 favorite thing is from their WDW visits? The pool. The most popular things at Disney parks? Meet and greets. They travel for weeks at a time and create their own rhythm of life in the middle of the Florida swamps.

In California, a lot of guests are locals visiting after work and on weekends or tri-state locals on long weekend trips. Locals don't spend as much on food, merchandise, or experiences but they go a lot. And when you go a lot you want new things to do besides the rides and shows already in Disneyland. Plus, we have pools at home. LA is home to movie nerds, theming experts, and other nerds to keep an experience going for a long time. And finally, with a higher cost of living, we can spend more on frivolous things like a two-day Star Wars LARP.

Placing the first Star Cruiser in California instead of Florida solves tons of issues :

1. Staffing - local artists and actors to fill the experience. Expand the stories out AND build a rotating bench of cast for the roles to prevent burnout and abuse.
2. Affordability - $5k in California is different than $5k in Ohio or Georgia. More guests would be willing to buy into the experience.
3. Expectations - instead of the vacation capital of the world it's the happiest place on earth. Locals buy into exclusive events and offerings more than at WDW, just see Club 33 and the parties.
4. Design - The hotel with no windows and is all in-doors works better on Harbor Blvd than in Florida where the guests want sun.

Imagineering Hubris

For over a decade, Imagineering has been developing a storytelling software package for growing narratives in an interactive setting. In layman's terms, how can Disney operations control a LAPR, Live Action Role Playing, experience? Disney tested the waters with The Optimist in 2013 and Legends of Frontierland in 2013 and 2014 and even Knotts tried it out in 2016 with with Ghost Town Alive. For more on these, read Hastin's build-up to the SWGS article. Imagineering tested the gameplay systems and fine-tuned them, but too much relied on Cast Member knowledge and skill. The first big test of this gameplay was Galaxy's Edge, but after budget reshuffling under Chapek, the add-on became a standalone experience supported by a Star Wars hotel. The tests with a few hundred over one park day expanded too quickly. 

Testing the gameplay systems skipped a massive step - overnight stays. This might seem like a small jump,  guests will go back to their rooms and rest when not experiencing the highly planned set pieces. After all, this is just like a cruise on water, right? No, it wasn't. Guests went waiting for things to do during off times, including issues with what to do with the youngest children and the binge drinking by adults at night (the latter of which led to several Cast Member resignations).

A proper overnight test would have given Imagineering the data and backing to push for a better in-room and expanded in-ship experience. For example, the rooms on the Star Cruiser are most charitably described as "serviceable" and "you won't be in them that long anyway". This is not what you want guests saying about where they'll spend 1/3 of their time on a $1250 per person per day experience. Justify the indoor pool, fitness center, and hang-out spaces - everyone wants to be on a space lido deck! Show why the rooms should have more fun things to do in them AND why maybe spring for the good mattresses. 

It's a shame to see how much WDI play-tested the game only to not even attempt to figure out the other 1/3rd of the show.

Performing overnight tests would have done two things - test the most volatile aspect of the experience and build hype. Especially the last part, imagine if the Star Cruiser had legitimate "oh my god we did a test and it was amazing but it was super limited time" hype behind it? Years of people asking when it'll return, for how long, and when Disney will FINALLY make it permanent and not just a test in a random hotel. You have a new, unique experience so why not get your fans to refine the message on your behalf? And most importantly if the whole thing blows up there is no concrete poured or assets to depreciate.

Not a Good Cruise

The central conceit of the Star Cruiser is the space cruise ship, and frankly, it's not that good of a cruise. Seriously, think about cruising and what it involves. There are dozens of different daily activities on the ship, let alone the excursions when at port. SWSC largely had a set list of things to experience with a checklist of items to complete to see everything. Instead of having the cruise cater to them, the guests had to cater to the cruise.

This ties into the mixed marketing of this experience, it's not quite a high-end cruise-on-land and it's not quite that Star Wars LARP for all fans. It was a limited theatrical experience with in-park elements, mini-games, and intimate guest interactions. This is not bad, that's actually great! But it's not a cruise. 

Imagineering should have considered another conceit for the experience - travel to a Star Wars planet for a resort experience. Say it's a tropical climate even to justify outdoor activities and a pool. But structure all the LARPing around the resort, a resort which so just happens to offer daily shuttles to other planets of course! Nearly everything works just as well if not better as a resort, not a cruise. Lightsaber training in a remote, dank cave similar to Luke's Jedi training? The defense segments are now gunner positions at a nearby resistance base. Get what I'm saying?

Why I'm Hopeful

One or two of these issues could have been overcome, but all of them? The Star Cruiser was not set up for success by the company and was left to flail in the wind before it was put out of its misery under different leadership. Star Cruiser will now live on as stories of those who got to experience it - it will form its own mythology, cult status, and over-inflated emotions. After all, now it can live in the memories of fans away from the cruel factors existing in the real world.

Lots of Star Cruiser fans are very dismayed over its closing and the future of Imagineering and the future of the parks. Despite Disney's public face plant with the Star Cruiser, I am still very hopeful for the future of theme parks, themed entertainment, and hell even Imagineering. 

First, I'd argue the failure of the Star Cruiser is a good thing. It's a much-needed wake-up call for a company that has attempted to convince itself for twenty years they are in a blue ocean. What Disney needs is a period of consistent attraction investment in the domestic parks to refresh and improve what is already here. There is a reason why all new attraction rumors vanished, with Josh on stage showing off some ideas two years in a row, yet there were well-founded and placed rumors of Marvel and Indiana Jones-themed Star Cruiser-like experiences. To pretend this wasn't going to be Disney's focus from now on out was pure denial.

Themed narrative experiences like the Star Cruiser are not dying. MeowWolf and OtherWorld continue to expand to new markets, each offering interactive art and narrative experiences. Sleep No More in NYC is a fantastic 2 1/2 hour story experience with one-on-ones and a story to discover. Here Lies Love on Broadway puts guests in the middle of a dance floor for a musical experience. HLL's co-creator David Bryne experimented in Denver with Theater of the Mind, a guided narrative look at how we perceive the world. With a willing demand from the public, at a correct price, and their own pride at stake I don't think this is the last time Disney is going to attempt an interactive storytelling experience.

Disney bet big on this new overnight storytelling concept, but the Star Cruiser was just not something sustainable, and that's fine. There are rumors coming out of Disney that the ship will be stripped for concepts, either to add to Galaxy's Edge or as an add-on experience to a day in the park. Maybe this was always the endpoint - the same elements designed for a park, removed to a deluxe hotel experience, returned to the land it came from. The same shuttle that would have taken guests from the Star Cruser to Batuu is now taking Batuu guests to a dining experience. Better ideas have died worse fates.

But I do not blame the fans, Cast Members, Imagineers, or the salaried daily staff behind the Star Cruser for its shuttering. Instead, it's people long gone who should shoulder the blame. They ignored the warning signs - we are just paying for their sins. Your love of this experience isn't any less valid after this article than the day you first stepped on the Haylcon, and it is the fandom that will keep the Haylcon alive. It's part of the reason why I feel hopeful for the future. Disney can stomp and pout but guests will vote with their feet.

What I find frustrating and worth our ire are the systems and executive structures that collectively mold good ideas into awkward and lesser ones. Star Wars Galactic Starcruise was pure hubris that burned bright, fast and deserved better. But that's another, older story for another time.

-----

You can find good friends David and Hastin discussing this experience on our podcast, I highly recommend it. David also wrote a fantastic article for us about his experience on the Halcyon and Hastin wrote about the lead-up to the Star Cruser's opening. I hope to have them on the podcast soon to debrief them from their last cruise.

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser – Weighing the Cost of a Miracle

How do you describe something that has never existed before and how do you assess the value of what it’s worth?

These are the two interlocking problems one runs up against while trying to talk about Disney’s new Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser immersive experience. Even that, “immersive experience”, what does that even mean? For people like myself who are deeply interested in theme parks, immersive theatre, weird art installations, and the like, it can conjure up images that get you in a similar zip code to what Starcruiser is doing. But for your average person, even your average Walt Disney World vacationer, I’m not sure it would sound like anything to them. And then you hit them with the punch that this thing – whatever it is – costs a little over $5,000. For two people. For two nights. That’s more than what 90% of American families spend on travel in any given year, and we’re still not totally clear on what on earth it even is.

Worlds or Rides: Is Immersion Reconcilable with Function in Theme Parks?

Disneyland and Disney Hollywood Studios' newest expansion, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge (SW:GE), has led to a lot of divisive opinions. None is more divisive than the argument of why it has, at it's best, turned out to simply draw crowds close to numbers of people who came last year before the expansion was completed. Most of these discussions ultimately revolve around the fact that Rise of the Resistance, arguably Disney's most complex attraction ever constructed, will not be open for months. No Rise, no armies of humanity demanding entry.

Beyond the fact that this is not provable now given that it is a hypothesis about the future, that this is usually agreed upon doesn't necessarily mean that everyone agrees upon what that means about what presently exists at Galaxy's Edge. The land itself is completed minus Rise: it is done, and by all accounts, it looks great. You can go and see it and "fly" the Millennium Falcon, eat at Oga's Cantina, buy a Blue Milk, build a light saber, and make things beep with your phone. For those who purely want to "experience Star Wars", there really aren't any barriers beyond the expense of a one day ticket, which if we are being very frank here, anyone actively in this exorbitantly expensive hobby should have the capacity to afford.

As Galaxy's Edge has opened to guests in Florida however, there are concerns which have arisen from guests demanding the utmost in "immersion". Many revenue centers (restaurants, shops) don't feature any form of air conditioning, given that they are open air markets, so fans were frequently seen propped up in corners during the summer months. Seating is at a premium in the land, which has led Operations to go to the store and buy stock patio furniture to give people a place to sit down and eat. Much rumoured live entertainment and character interactions in the land did not appear, with Bob Chapek being blamed as some sort of villainous accountant. If the intent is absolute pitch perfect world building, these things obviously are a detriment to it as functional as they may be. This question of functionality is in fact a fundamental question about the parks themselves: What is the function of a theme park? This seems an almost ridiculously basic question, but it is rarely asked and merely accepted to be inferred as self evident. There is in fact a significant divide in this.

SW:GE is generally accepted to have been influenced by the construction of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands Of Adventure, which was the first US example of what one might term "hyperreal". Rather than produce a theme park space that was a pastiche of known entities in a safe-for-children-and-mass-tourists manner (like how Adventureland is basically every place brown people live smashed together), these new hyperreal places intend to build fully-formed worlds for people to explore and interact with. Whether that is Avatar's "interactive" sperm cannon plant, Potter's wands, or the Play Disney App in Star Wars, these places put you in your own individual role playing game (full cooperation optional) to be part of the land. That then is the point of theme parks, isn't it? To put us in foreign worlds where we get to "escape" and become someone else; to transform ourselves into junk traders and wizards and, uhhh, intergalactic tourists. Or is it?

That is perhaps what some people would like theme parks to be. The media portals we use boost the negative signals because negatives attract attention, and advertisers crave content that gets attention, creating a sort of death spiral in which no matter who you are, we are in constant global peril from some sort of existential threat. Many people are exhausted of constant worry; worry about global climate change, billionaire rapists, financial ruin due to medical bills, armed conflict, mass shooters, fentanyl, immigration, loss of individual freedoms. No matter what side of the political fence you are on, there is someone, somewhere who wants to radicalize you (and subsequently sell you media, dietary supplements, and possibly donate to a political campaign or ten) even if you are the sort of individual who has well paying work and can easily afford a luxury hobby such as "attend theme parks". These worlds are then a potential escape for you, a thoroughly psychologically taxed and beaten individual. It should be no surprise then that on Twitter, Facebook, and the like there are many, many people who relate to these parks as a form of therapy. Walt did intend for his park to be an escape from every day life. That is true. So did Walter Knott. So did literally everyone who built traditional amusement parks or zoological gardens.

And this is where the problem with this thinking lies: "immersion" is not simply a thing that exists in the confines of Disney theme parks. Modern and postmodern art has played with the interactivity of art and the public for much of the 20th century, and in the 21st century this has been taken to bold new places by the likes of Meow Wolf and teamLab, as well as theater troupes and museums. There are many places in the US with spaces reserved purely for renaissance festivals (not unlike fairgrounds, which of course they mimic the European precursor to), and Evermore Park was constructed to more impressively/permanently fulfill these role playing fantasies. Cedar Point constructed Forbidden Frontier for 2019 following the success of the Ghost Town Alive summer "game" in Knott's Berry Farm. Immersive theater has been used by the Smithsonian; Orlando has had a fairly authentic and expensive representation of ancient Israel in the Holy Land Experience for many, many years. The Ark Encounter in Kentucky? It's built to the cubit based on the descriptions in the Bible and filled with animatronics to make you know just what Noah was doing. Can't immerse more than that.

So clearly, if world construction and relocating to that fantasy is the demand, then these things must be doing strong business. Ark Encounter? Attendance there is sluggish and it would probably have shuttered inside of 5 years if not for state tax breaks. Holy Land Experience - which has never had a ride - failed financially and had to be bought out and operated by a religious TV station. Evermore is operating at a whopping three nights a week. Cedar Point announced they're going to bring back a family boat ride that just so happens to encircle where Forbidden Frontier is....on an island. That means the bridges to the island have to go. Turns out immersive themed experiences at "big iron rides" parks - no matter how well done - aren't appealing to people who don't like "big iron rides" parks since it's still a "big iron rides" park. Art installations like Otherworld in Columbus. OH or THE EXPERIENCE in Tulsa, OK are expanding, but the cost for entry in that space is dramatically lower than that of a theme park world (or theme park sized entity). And more importantly: these art installations are not theme parks.

What separates immersive art experiences from a "theme park" is that a "theme park," very specifically by the language we use, refers to themed amusement facilities. Amusement facilities have shows, rides, dancing, swimming, and so on. Theme Parks have existed for decades with people flocking to them to experience things: Country Bear Jamboree, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, just to name a few of these. Things happen around them and occasionally to them, but never do they make things truly happen. The idea of immersive world building as the future of theme parks changes this dramatically. The impact of the art is maximized by interaction with it, then the art must be encouraged to be interacted with. For those who've seen the parks as that kind of escape - a space for reinvention of themselves - this is a dream come true.

But what about everyone else? What about the people who just want to go on a ride? What about kids? Children will have the least ability to accumulate points in Galaxy's Edge compared to childless adults who use it as an after work escape, and the younger they are, the less likely that they will be turned on by a series of games and missions with such stringent rules. In creating a rich mythology for visitors, Disney imagineers have left nothing to the imagination of the guests. There is not intended to be much in terms of individual interpretation. The scenes mean what they mean; they communicate with brute force intensity. It sees the lack of narrative in Pirates of the Caribbean not as an asset, but a liability. Star Wars as a intellectual property shows this conflict in the parks as well. As bound to canon as Galaxy's Edge is, many early reviews and anecdotal evidence suggest Smuggler's Run doesn't on average receive as high of marks from guests Star Tours (a ride that plays liberally with canon).

If the functionality of theme parks is to merely to entertain rather than "immerse" in a realistic world, this wouldn't be surprising. Star Tours introduces us to old favorites and worlds we've always wanted to explore, in addition to huge battle sequences. It's been updated fairly recently and has reasonably good animation and animatronic figures aboard the craft (Smuggler's Run has one animatronic in a pre-show, and he's from a cartoon series that averaged about 3 million viewers). It hits the right notes of nostalgia (a huge part of Disney's success in general) while also providing variation in experience to draw guests back. Star Tours offers no buttons to mash and no points to get, but still manages to have an average wait not far from a half hour even after the construction of Galaxy's Edge.

Function subsequently has led to changes in form elsewhere in Disney World's Galaxy's Edge. Recently, news that menu boards would see the names of food items changed to reflect what they actually were instead of "in character" names; Fried Endorian Tip-Yip became Fried Chicken. Guests apparently had been confused by the names and cast members were complaining the refusal of paying customers to play along with the conceit of being on another planet (a planet, it should be noted, where Coca Cola and paper receipts saying the park name are apparently Star Wars canon) when attempting to spend huge amounts of money on food for their family. To an outsider, the notion that customers would be forced to change their behavior in this way is hilarious, but is largely accepted as a given by those deep in the bubble of hyperimmersion. Cast members have increasingly moved away from calling water fountains as "hydrators" and restrooms as "refreshers" given that those words mean nothing in the context of actual reality when people need to drink water.

This isn't to say that Galaxy's Edge is a total failure: while domestic park attendance dropped in spite of this massive investment, there have been increases in per capita spending related to the new restaurants and retail shops inside. And of course there's the small issue of Rise Of The Resistance not being open. Without it operating, it feels like that period of time this section is opened is more or less a control for the real experiment of "Worlds or rides?"

For all the hand wringing to the contrary, theme parks are just a subgenre of amusement park. Without the function - the rides, in this case - there's no need to see what the section has until they've arrived. If you disagree, ask yourself this: would hundreds of thousands of guests refuse to book travel to Disney if Rise of The Resistance was open but it was Oga's Cantina that was behind in development? How about if it was Droid Depot that was delayed 9 months? Do you really think if they pushed out the roving bots and doubled the number of costumed characters that it would lead to monster lines and record attendance more than if it was the 20+ minute, multi-system, multi-sensory E-ticket ride to end all E-tickets? Be honest with not just yourself but what you know about other people.

I've learned there's always someone who has the contrarian position. I once had someone on Twitter tell me they traveled to stay at Disney moderate resorts for a week and never go to the parks. To be entirely honest, that claim was mind blowing. Doesn't mean I think they're a bad person or anything (they are probably very nice people who I would bet are shy as hell in real life), but I reserve the right to question some people's life choices and what it says about the relationship they have with the rest of society. I also know that going to Disney World for a week and not going to parks because "pools" and "Disney Springs" is not standard procedure for most people who are hardened Disney fans, much less regular, normal people. There would absolutely be one or two people who would wait out Droid Depot out of 20 million. But that's what you're looking at. Theme parks can't be geared to that one or two: it has to be to the 20 million, and maybe the way guests have reacted (or not reacted) to Galaxy's Edge is the path back to that.

Parkscope Unprofessional Podcast Hour #131 - SWEEPSTAKES

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Joe and Lane talk about ALL THE HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS 27 NEWS. Or not really. Our bad. We talk about local parks additions with Cedar Fair, Six Flags Fiesta Texas' Wonder Woman Golden Lasso, and some Busch rumors. Then we talk about some Star Wars VR, more Harry Potter construction news, and then your questions! SWEEPSTAKES!

Email us at parkscopeblog at gmail dot com or follow us at Parkscope, ParkscopeJoe, ParkscopeNick,  ParkscopeLane, and Sean.

Parkscope Unprofessional Podcast Hour #123 - Pandora 20/20

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We're back baby! Joe's drinking, Sean's talking MST3K, Nick is killing palmetto bugs, and Lane is interrupting. We talk about SeaWorld's investments, Infinity Falls (infinity = 40 ft.), Pandora photos, Star Wars land news, Club 33 at WDW, A Very Merry Potter Christmas, #HHN27, Volcano Bay cabanas, and all the delicious food. At the end Nick gives his impressions of this year's Grad Bash (and Fallon) then Joe talks about his First Rider Event for Mystic Timbers!

Email us at parkscopeblog at gmail dot com or follow us at Parkscope, ParkscopeJoe, ParkscopeNick,  ParkscopeLane, and Sean.

Spoils and Consequences of Culture War: Nerds, Disney, and Star Wars

"Vampire, pirate, alien, spy. Werewolf, robber baron, Muppet, nun. Casablanca one weekend, Babylon the next. On any given night, and virtually every weekend during the summer peak, thousands of adults across the country are playing make-believe in cheap hotels, empty warehouses, private homes and isolated woods. In elaborate period dress or ordinary street clothes, they portray characters in scriptless fantasies that can run for a few hours or several years."
- Washington Post, 1996

The Orange County Convention Center has played host to an array of large events of the years intrinsically important to the theme park industry. April 2017 was no different, with Star Wars Celebration, an official Lucasfilm/Disney fan convention dedicated to the movie series and the endless array of media spawned from its vast mythology. Persons of all gender and age gathered together in the immense halls to catch a glimpse of the actors and actresses, to see a vast cornucopia of merchandise, many dressed as their favorite characters from the film. However, one of the major hoped for pieces of information to trickle out would be updates from Disney's efforts to make a part of Star Wars come to exist in some form in reality. They were not left disappointed.

A panel of Imagineers revealed new artwork showing what the land might look like, but little about the actual rides inside. However, almost of equal interest to the crowd assembled, they began to discuss different elements to the theme park land than had ever before been constructed into one. "Opportunities to support The Resistance" or "First Order" and work for bounty hunters all came up. Should those riding the Millennium Falcon attraction (which would be controlled by human crews) bring it back damaged, "there are consequences to your actions in this world." It would be a fluid, tactile world in which not only could you look for things, but things would look for you.

"The event took place on Ye Olde Commons on Northside Road. Harald Henning bought the 40-acre parcel of rolling, hilly woods, trails, large open field, winding brook and bridges with LARPing in mind.

'I blame my wife, Inger, for getting me involved. Actually, we both used to direct groups and it was always a problem trying to find a place to hold them,' said Mr. Hennings.

'We have five regular groups and several more that come on an irregular basis. LARPing is not a money-making business, it's more of a labor of love.' "
- Telegram and Gazette, 2011

Disney fandom's association of "immersion" with the theme park space has a cloudy history. When, precisely, the use of the term became prevalent is tough to ascertain. However "immersive" as a noun and verb became generally used in the 1980s, beginning with computer scientists and expanding from there. (a). Immersive Design, while likely in colloquial use prior to 2007, is credited on Wikipedia to being the creation that year of production designer Alex McDowell, an individual who's first feature film (Lawnmower Man, a film depicting a virtual reality world) was almost prophetic both about his career path and that of society. Our ability to interact with these worlds became key to the "immersive" nature of them, and among the first pieces of academic literature on the subject appears as the Ph.D. dissertation of Tinsley Galyean III, founder of Nearlife Inc, a company that has primarily worked on things such as museum exhibits. The application to theme parks has come much more slowly. First in analog (wild ringing phones with recorded spiels at various parks and zoos, Flooded Mine at Silver Dollar City), then slowly to digital (wands in Harry Potter, Kim Possible in EPCOT, Pearl Masters at Yas Waterworld).

Slow adoption of new technologies has been with good reason: until only the last decade have devices like smart phones become generally ubiquitous. That prevalence of technology provides the overwhelming majority with real literacy with high tech, without which being able to participate in increasingly complex tasks would be impossible. Disneyland, said Walt Disney, sold assurance and positive reinforcement to the public. To confront people with technology they wouldn't be able to grasp in order to function would consequently have a negative effect on that. Disney's Great Leap Forward (b), MyMagic+, was in part created to prepare for the sorts of specific tasks which no other system had been capable of in the past, creating reasonable usability for everyone attending, and fully thrust the theme park industry deep into the 21st century.

"When I look at the landscape of pop culture right now, there is no argument anyone can reasonably muster that positions nerd culture as outsider culture. 
....
Nerd culture has taken over, which means that we are no longer underdogs, and there is some part of being a nerd that almost requires that element. It's where so much of our art has come from. Letting go of that part of the identity is hard, and it appears to have curdled in a certain percentage of the people who love the same things we love. It”s not enough for them to love something; they have to love it more than you do, and they have to feel like you don't get it. " 
- Drew McWeeny, Uproxx.com

In 2014, Disney somewhat quietly put into place a new sort of attraction into Disneyland's Frontierland. Called "Legends of Frontierland," it was neither ride nor show. Legends of Frontierland, in the words of David Daut, "make you feel as though you are a citizen in Walt Disney’s vision of the American West." It did this by creating a dynamic gaming environment in which individuals became citizens of Frontierland and by interacting not only with other guests but with cast members in their roles, were set into a central dispute over land, but given the freedom to act as they wished. For many like Mr. Daut, the result was an unmitigated success. It allowed guests to create their own narratives about the parks rather than merely observe one written for them, and it was deeply, deeply satisfying to many. It should not be surprising then to read the description of Star Wars Land and its interactive properties as having used Legends of Frontierland for a test bed that it will expound upon.

As an artificial world populated by aliens and "droids" alike, the world of Star Wars is free of many of the problems that arise in creating artificial worlds from Earthen influences. Star Wars does not have intrinsic racist properties, though there is a clear allusion that many non-human races are treated exceptionally poorly because of their alien-ness. It is not outwardly paternalistic, colonialism has generally been offered to the audience as less appealing than self-determination and cooperation, and women, Slave Leia aside, seem to occupy a high standard of respect. The slate has only a rough outline, and we are very much free to start filling in wherever we desire. The appeal of becoming part of Star Wars and it's Universe is most appealing to a huge subset of fans. And there will even be lightsabers. Did you hear that? Lightsabers!

“If you are not a geek, you are Luddite, and that is not cool,” said Thomas Dolby, an arts professor at Johns Hopkins University and a nerd icon from the 1980s because of his hit song 'She Blinded Me With Science.'

Mr. Dolby, born Thomas Robertson, took his stage name from Dolby Laboratories because of his fascination with audio technology. He said that he decided to use his nerd persona as a way of distinguishing himself from the 'good-looking lads' on the 1980s pop scene — Sting, Simon Le Bon, Adam Ant.

But, he added, “I am no more comfortable in my geek skin now than in 1982.”
- New York Times, 2014

When I was a teenager working at a grocery store in rural Connecticut, in between walking 15 miles in the snow and other apocryphal old man tales, I was invited to participate in a Vampire: The Masquerade based live-action role play (LARP). I think I remember who made the proposition that I should join, but honestly, there were a decent number of disaffected kids in the town. I really only had two friends of distinct note, and we were at equivalent ends of the nerd spectrum. AJ was into Star Trek, which I found distasteful and somehow beneath me and my acceptable-but-not-overt level of dorkdom. I, like my friend Jon, merely enjoyed Star Wars. The release of a collectible card game led all of us to abandon Magic: The Gathering in its early years and sell our cards for Lucasfilm-licensed ones that are probably worth a fraction of what we traded in for them. But there were others at varying ends of the social ladder, and they stuck with Magic and progressed further down the rabbit hole. I, a hardcore punk kid at heart, could only tolerate so much. We were too busy beating each other up to metal riffs to do something like that.

So yes, I didn't go. I did know how it worked. A space would be themed to a nightclub (sometimes it was one - how immersive!) and people created characters with a vast variety of physical and mental attributes, and there was a combat system by which your character could end up dead. In turn, you got things, you hung out with people, and probably a goodly number of those people became friends with one another along with all the usual drama that comes with human interactions over the long haul. Our interest in certain parts of what was still certainly "nerd culture" was in part stratified by social class within the insular world of our schools. Now, at a dramatically different stage of my life, I have no idea why we thought dice-based role playing games were so dumb. Death In June still sucks (c), but maybe if I had gone to LARP I might have gotten laid a lot more. I imagine my life would likely be abjectly worse for it, but in the short term, it might have been good for me! And when I encountered in college, I learned nothing from past (non?) experiences and rejected it again. I was slow to learn that interacting with people is sometimes better than not.

"In it's prime, poseur, or poser as most of you posers probably spell it, was amongst the lowest insults one could deploy. It questioned everything you stood for—your authenticity, your integrity, your commitment. If you were a poser, you were a fraud, a phony, a faker and you probably couldn't even kickflip. Off my wave, kook! But as we all know, no one stands for anything anymore, so has poser become obsolete?

No. It hasn't. And it's more critical now than ever.

Subcultures need protecting because easy access to information has made them vulnerable. Whatever it is, hip-hop, hardcore, riding waves and robbing banks, there will be vultures. Skateboarding is cool. Like punk and cosplay, it comes with a lifestyle that is alluring to norms...." 
- Noah Johnson, Complex, 2015

By the time I had reached my mid-late 20s, the world was a much different place. Marvel Studios came into being and to some degree re-wrote the rules about how nerd culture needed to be appropriated for maximum commercial gain. We are now on movie 16 or 17 in the large serialized Marvel Cinematic Universe, a success of such unparalleled nature that it has caused the entire film industry to effectively abandon mid-budget films and concentrate on nostalgia driven blockbusters. They're often better blockbuster films than what preceded them in the 90s, but have come at the expense of just about everything else. Many of the great modern directors can't even be bothered to pitch films, as studios simply want them to resurrect the X-Men or Batman franchises for the umpteenth time in my memory. Video gaming is mainstream. The Pope tweets. Action figures are now produced almost as much for adult collectors as kids. With the ease of entry and the volume of information on the internet, virtual communities for all of these things are huge. They've carried with them a whole host of other attractions at the "nerd" level; pro wrestling, cosplay, dice based board games, extreme heavy metal, anime, et al. to greater mainstream acceptance than ever before.

LARPing, however, hasn't really been a part of this. Too complex in a world of cell phone based "augmented reality" style games like Pokemon Go to be understood, much less readily played by the masses, it has stayed on the periphery. Disney's ownership of perhaps the largest intellectual property in "nerd culture," Star Wars, and their ability to fine tune a game to make it accessible to the masses, changes this equation. Unlike with Legends of Frontierland, Disney will even have tracking devices located on all the guests who walk into Star Wars Land in what is now known as the Hollywood Studios park in Orlando thanks to MyMagic+. Droids can act autonomously and react to real people with real knowledge about them; name, home address, hotel they're staying at, if they're a local, consumption habits, and more.

"Q: What are the absolute don’ts at a LARP, a.k.a. “how can I avoid making an ass of myself and accidentally ruining everyone’s day?”

A: Number 1 rule for most LARP communities that are filled with good people: Don’t be a dick. This means don’t be someone who harasses people, hits people with their weapon too hard, or cheats."
- Mackenzie Jamieson, geekandsundry.com

As a social experience, Daut notes that a natural barrier to the game play of Legends of Frontierland was that it was difficult to ease people into the role of actually talking to other people. Ultimately, Disney's creative team began to devise ways in which new players could easily obtain some rewards without necessarily having the social net that more established players had within the world of Frontierland. As Star Wars Land intends to operate within the context of a trading port and the constant flux and movement associated with one, it's likely that the game play will include these sorts of tasks for people to do on single day visits, such as those on their once-in-a-lifetime family vacation. However, this is intended to be a permanent part of the overall Star Wars Land operation, and that creates a set of potential pitfalls which will be interesting to see overcome, if they are at all:

-from a moral game play perspective, the aims of The Republic can be linked to the political far right. They should, in reality, have authority here. How will the storytellers, to use the LARP term, monitor and alter the game play around this? Has Disney considered the potential blow back if their players choose to try and force the adoption of racially-unambiguous 4chan slang?

-from a pure moralist perspective: Does creating such an "immersive" artificial world and allowing people to effectively exist as alternate beings within that world present risks of dis-associative personalities? Science fiction generally takes an ill view of allowing people to so completely submit their own identity to create new ones typically; is this what we're being warned of? Is this really a low-tech version of Total Recall rather than a high-tech version of medieval LARP?

-from a practical perspective of the players: as the limits of Star Wars Land are far smaller than, for example, the number of available World of Warcraft servers, what will entice them to play on for months and years into the future? If people do play for 3-4-5-6 years straight, how will new players be able to become part of the game without being exploited by those much further into it? Will storytellers be willing to interject should someone be able to consolidate power?

-from the perspective of the once-in-awhile or once-in-a-lifetime guest: While those introductory game bits may be fun, how will the activity look to those who are unwilling to participate in it? "Being part of Star Wars Land" sounds great for those in it, but for those sticking to the traditionalist observer role we're used to in theme parks, how sure are we that the "regulars" won't ruin it for everyone else? That was one of the great knocks on Adventurer's Club after all - the people that went every week began to overwhelm the performers, creating a scene which pleased them and almost no one else.

Even if Disney manages to work its way around all of these hurdles, there will still potentially be a knocks against their efforts. LARPing was an organic, fan-motivated, created, and operated experience. It may have sometimes been based around larger universes like Star Wars, but it was intrinsically about some form of self expression. Like all the other things which have been made more palatable by the masses, moving LARP into corporate hands will probably be seen by some as an unfriendly co-opting of fringe culture. It will be inauthentic, run by johnny-come-latelys (d) who have unappreciative or insulting to the efforts of those who made past games work and were very likely heavy influences for what Disney has and will do with interactive environments. "No one cares, grandpa," is the response they, as have all generations prior, will receive.

More concerning: by making paying guests playing along as part of Star Wars Land, it makes them part of Star Wars Land. Disney is not mere commoditizing the data of those who choose to attend the parks, though certainly that is very much part of MyMagic+. Rather, it is commoditizing those who play the game as part of the attraction itself. "Streetmosphere" a term trademarked not by Disney, but by Las Vegas Sands in the construction of the Grand Canal Shoppes at Las Vegas' Venetian, has been an effective way of making fake cityscapes seem more real. There are character actors wandering around, singers, occasionally vehicles sputtering by. In addition to the living and robotic actors of The Walt Disney Corporation, Star Wars Land will have an army of conscripts willing to pay top dollar for the opportunity to win prizes and "respect" in the kind of physical space many likely participants have probably been unwilling to enter and socialize in before.

This is a social game which is still run by people, not machines or advanced algorithms. As such, those playing the game are subject to all the foibles of actual social activity and influence. That will include something Disney has never done before; the potential of rejection over affirmation. By keeping individuals visiting the parks as mere observers, Disney could best control the way in which they interacted with the theme park and its apparatus participated back. By extending the intended interaction to purposely involve guests, increasing the "immersion" level can only come with a managed increased risk of negative feedback. Unlike traditional LARP, which is user-created and structured for the overall benefit of all participants, Disney's variation is structured to make money first. Disney will not need to rely on pleasing a small community of like-minded people because it will always have fresh meat tourists busting the door down. This new assumption of risk is both the true innovation of Star Wars Land and the greatest hurdle which Disney must clear. To establish a game that pleases not only the minority of extremist regulars, but its larger casual visitor base, and meet the needs/desires of both in a financially solvent way, is a lot for anyone, even the Mouse, to chew off.

--------------------------

FOOTNOTES:

(a) cited from "Immersive Theatres: Intimacy and Immediacy in Contemporary Performance" By Josephine Machon.

(b) Disney's Great Leap Forward obviously didn't cost 55 million lives, but in its direct aftermath many heads rolled and a different course of action - one involving actual rides and expansion - seems to be taking place.

(c) Death In June is one of the progenitors of a genre known as neofolk. There are a lot of Death In June records, and anyone who spends even a cursory amount of time researching the act comes to realize very quickly that DIJ is controversial in so much as many people believe it promotes neo-nazi ideals. Imagine, if you will, Fleet Foxes, but with less percussion, more synthesizers, and a lot more songs about genocide. Yeah, I don't blame you for not rushing to Spotify.

(d) To de-mystify this: I don't necessarily believe people interested in the game are being "untrue" to themselves. They aren't posers in the classic sense, at least in my mind. I can't even say what percentage of them have done "true" LARP, whatever the hell that resembles. I've never participated in that subculture and it certainly isn't my job to police it. But I know well enough to realize that some people will nominate themselves for that task. 

Parkscope Unprofessional Podcast Hour #118- Actual Polynesia

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Joe, Lane, and Sean return and are joined by our guest Felipe! This week's show covers Volcano Bay, Jimmy Fallon testing, a review of the Celebration of Harry Potter, the Forbidden Forrest rumors, Star Wars and Avatar land opening dates (or years), Rivers of Light, and a quick Marathon Weekends review from Lane.

Email us at parkscopeblog at gmail dot com or follow us at Parkscope, ParkscopeJoe, ParkscopeNick, and/or ParkscopeLane.

116- MaxiPass

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Joe and Nick stretch one out in the new year and talk Avatar, Star Wars Galactic Nights, booze, Potter nighttime show rumors, Volcano Bay updates, and then close it out with Lane calling in to talk about his recent trip for the WDW Marathon.

Email us at parkscopeblog at gmail dot com or follow us at Parkscope, ParkscopeJoe, ParkscopeNick, and/or ParkscopeLane.

115- 2016 Holiday Extravaganza

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Parkscope gathers around the fire to drink Christmas beers and talk theme parks. Sean talks about Grinchmas, Lane talks about his trips to Universal Studios Singapore and Disneyland, we discuss a seven hour Star Wars guided tour at Hollywood Studios, SeaWorld's slow decline, and then answer your questions! Happy holidays everyone and make sure to decorate that aluminum pole!

Email us at parkscopeblog at gmail dot com or follow us at Parkscope, ParkscopeJoe, ParkscopeNick, and/or ParkscopeLane.

5.13- Rivers of LOL

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Joe, Lane, Mike, and Nick celebrate a bachelor party in Las Vegas and wake up forgetting what happened and where the groom is. We talk about regional parks, the start of Halloween Horror Nights announcements, Magic Kingdom after hours event attendance, Disney's Awaken Summer media event, why it's really dumb to call Animal Kingdom at night "like a 5th park", Avatar, Star Wars, Toy Story Playland, Lane's Dark Side race rant, and Nick's Grad Bash.

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5.5- Pirates of Dagobah

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Joe, Mike, Nick, and Sean start the new year off right by talking Shanghai Disneyland, Star Wars land, the validity of wine as an alcohol choice, Reign of Kong, Hulk, Volcano Bay, more UOR construction, snow, and take your questions.

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Festivus for the Theme Park Us

Today is the day where we forego the stress and commercialism of this time of year and celebrate around the adorned aluminium pole. To the uninitiated, Festivus was brought to the public forefront in 1997 through the TV classic ‘Seinfeld’ as a holiday excuse for George not to give co-workers gifts and for Kramer to take off work.

So finish up your Festivus meal around the aluminium pole and lets kick it off with some theme park Festivus activities...

Airing of Grievances

Tom Bricker

Universal Orlando, you have parks with some of the most beautiful lands and areas in theme parks seen at night, so why do you close your parks so early? A 10PM closing should be a normal occurrence, not a rare event that only happens during the summer and at Festivus (and Christmas too, I guess.) Additionally, odd restaurant and quick service hours cause issues finding a good place to eat in the parks. Why does Mythos close at 3pm while the park is open till 7? I understand the desire to have guests to go CityWalk, but even CityWalk isn’t fully open till dinner. Take a page out of Disney’s book and expand your operating hours to match the demand

From @tweetneal

Walt Disney World, you differentiate yourself with the super cool monorail system that connects the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and several deluxe resorts. It’s of of your signature features in the resort, so why have you let it rot away? Yes, some carpets in the monorails have been changed out, but lots of them still look worn, AC is incredibly weak, smell bad, and stories of the monorails going down happen frequently. The Parks and Resorts division is claiming record attendance and profits, so why not spend the money to upgrade your monorails to the futuristic and sleek transportation system that it is!

Photo courtesy of InsideUniversal.net

Universal Studios Hollywood, you’re entering the big leagues next year when The Wizarding World of Harry Potter- Hogsmeade opens on the west coast. You’ll add two new attractions, many cool new shops, and new shows. But why can’t the same attention and care put into Harry Potter be extended to your parking situation? Crazy traffic flows, scattered parking garages, and now no annual passes include free parking. For a park that treated its annual passholders well and was supported by said passholders through ugly times, the lack of parking options is ugly.

Feats of Strength

Let's not rumble, son. Folks we get it, you're strong and have had a few drinks. Please stop acting tough and fighting Halloween Horror Nights scare actors? Some of the coolest and best scare actors have left the event due to stupid guests, so lets end this now. Scare actors in scare zones and houses are not just amazing actors but are amazing people. Please, just wrestle your dad.

About positive feats of strength, need I say more than these two tweets?

Cinderella's Royal Table is the hardest reservation to get in WDW. Guess what's #2? (Hint: not Be Our Guest.)

— Len Testa (@LenTesta) December 23, 2015

2nd hardest table to get in WDW is Via Napoli: 20% chance of not getting in (CRT = 30%, BOG=9%) https://t.co/1CENhjb5ah

— Len Testa (@LenTesta) December 23, 2015

Festivus Miracles

IT'S A MIRACLE! Star Wars land has been rumored for decades, and finally with the release of The Force Awakens around the bend, Bob Iger announced the new land at D23. And woah, if The Force Awakens is any indicator, this land will be the bees knees. Incorporating all of our favorite planets into one rim planet was a sort-of stroke of genius as we now can experience all our favorite locations without that weird necessary issues of planet traversal or story! With many insiders worrying Disney would spend "their time" and wait for any sort of announcement or building, this was a great surprise to have.

But what about another new theme park in Orlando? Today, the Orlando Sentinel leaked Universal Orlando finished the purchase of 450 acres of land for future development. With this much land Universal can build new resorts, CityWalk, and a new theme park. And with "green lights" ahead we're really looking at a bright future.

5.4- Seth Lord

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Joe and Nick are joined by Seth Kubersky from The Unofficial Guide series and TouringPlans.com! Reporting live from Disney's Hollywood Studios, Seth describes the new Star Wars food and drink offerings, talks about the Star Wars launch bay, and Star Tours. Then we dive into metal detectors at parks, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Hollywood opening, Disneyland construction, goats, virtual reality, I Drive, Nick's weekend Orlando trip, answer your questions, and more!

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Spoilerscope- The Force Awakens

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Joe, Meg, and Sean talk SPOILERS about Star Wars: The Force Awakens! Do not listen until you've seen the movie, you've been warned!

Email us at parkscopeblog at gmail dot com or follow us at Parkscope, ParkscopeJoe, CaptMichael87, ParkscopeNick, and/or Parkscope_Sean.

D23 After Party Podcast

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NOTE: Sorry for poor audio quality. Joe, Mike, Nick, and Sean are drunk on Disney Parks news and Rougabrew as we recap all the D23 Parks & Resorts announcements. Star Wars, Avatar, Shanghai, Skipper Canteen, Toy Story Land, and MORE! Make sure to also enter to win a copy of the Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando!

Email us at parkscopeblog at gmail dot com or follow us at Parkscope, ParkscopeJoe, CaptMichael87, ParkscopeNick, and/or Parkscope_Sean.