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Competition to help design Alton Tower's 2013 ride

What? Wait! That's not a bad piece of publicity for Alton Towers. What's going on? When will the world end???

Great idea and I imagine that a lot of people are currently struggling to read this with clean pants :p
 
The terms and conditions states "A place on the Design Council for the design of the new 2013 rollercoaster at the Alton Towers Resort. Prize includes involvement to be arranged by the promoter including discussions, focus groups and other activities deemed necessary by the promoter."

Any idea what they mean by promoter? Does that just mean Alton Towers?
 
Joey said:
The terms and conditions states "A place on the Design Council for the design of the new 2013 rollercoaster at the Alton Towers Resort. Prize includes involvement to be arranged by the promoter including discussions, focus groups and other activities deemed necessary by the promoter."

Any idea what they mean by promoter? Does that just mean Alton Towers?

Yeah it means Towers, who are the promoter of this competition...

For this, I applied, cos it is an interesting prize for anyone with some form of interest in the industry, even if it's a bit of a fib that the winner will have actually any say into the ride design itself... But probs with stuff to do with the name, theme, merch and a few other odds and sods...
 
I dont know if I could handle the pressure of winning. Threre are alot of people who would expect a coaster enthusiast to make some thing good, so what if it wasnt to their expectations?

Also, what if it isnt as good as it sounds, you end up on tv pretending to be part of it, when really you just choose the colour of the new ride and be patronised?

I dunno...either way, I think I wont be part of this. I can just sit back, and enjoy what someone else (hopefully a coaster enthusiast) makes. (Hopefully Loefet wins after seeing "Mission to Mars" ) ;)
 
I'd say it's probably for the best if anyone thinking of entering this doesn't harp on about being a coaster enthusiast; it's more likely to put them off than interest them.

Suck up to AT, and have big tits.
 
It's annoying that I can't enter as I have what I think a great idea for a new Alton ride.

Inverting Drop tower

What I have in mind here is a drop tower like Sky Drop at Adventure Island, where all the riders sit in one big line, but the seats can rotate, flipping the riders around. Have a badly drawn picture:
InvertingDropTowerconcept.jpg
 
^ Think, It's doesn't need to much height to be fun, another world first and it's a style of ride that IMO Alton is missing (Drop tower). It's almost perfect for Alton. For the inverting bit, It doesn't always have to flip right over. It could turn the riders so they're facing directly down.
 
^There's no way on earth they will be asking people for a new ride concept. They know exactly what ride they're getting for 2013. This is a publicity stunt, plain and simple.
 
I recon it's a stunt too, however I think there is some sneaky reason behind it all. I recon the reason it's 18+ isn't to do with quality of ideas, it's that the target audience of this attraction is adults. They did say it's going to be a thrill-seeker ride. I recon the winners (yes plural) will be a team of people who will be used like a market research panel with regard to name, marketing and some theming aspects.

It's hardly going to actually be anything to do with designing the ride... I've entered on the basis of why not? It's a good opportunity to get to talk to, meet and greet people within the company for whoever wins

I'd say it's probably for the best if anyone thinking of entering this doesn't harp on about being a coaster enthusiast; it's more likely to put them off than interest them.
I always thought that, but you'd be surprised. I've found that working knowledge actually really interests them. There are a lot of enthusiasts working in the industry, it's just that most aren't typical enthusiasts, they are people who are "enthusiasts" of the leisure industry in general, or of themed spaces in general. It goes back to what you said in the other topic though, there's a difference between types of enthusiast. "I go to alton towers 50 times a year and I love Nemesis!" won't impress them, but I recon that generally showing a working knowledge and interest that's not so specific might?

Though, if I'm right about the 18+ thing, playing a wild card of "I'm just your average 20 year and I'm a thrill seeker" might also work.
 
It's more than the competition though guys. They've having a kind of "election" for the best ride, with all the staff supporting their favourite ride, with a badge showing which ride they've voted for. Towers Street is lined with bunting with one colour representing each ride "White - Nemesis, Dark Green - Thirteen, Red - Rita, Blue - Air, Black - Oblivion) with all the original adverts being shown on the screen.

Also at each ride entrance there's big picket signs saying stuff like "Down with Thirteen!" and "Nemesis is the Beast". Also on the website there's a more-than-usually indepth look at each ride, including orginal adverts, opening day photos and concept art.

If you are interested in Alton Towers, it's a great campaign they've started.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Mp6jl5i7A&feature=channel_video_title[/youtube]

http://www.altontowers.com/all-time-greats/

air-archive-02large.jpg
 
Bob. I don't think that is entirely related. The park are also running an XFactor type competition between the rides, I saw a TV advert a little while ago (edit, which you just posted lol). I don't think it has anything to do with the 2013 thing though.

In terms of the 2013 competition, I agree with Gavin and Joey. It is blatantly a publicity stunt. They will make sure that they use a lot of suggestive behaviour and actually encourage the development to match exactly what they want.

Back when I was at MT and they were looking at redeveloping the main queue to be more interactive they held a 'focus group' in order to incorporate our ideas. However, as the meeting went on we realised that our actual ideas were being played down or manipulated to basically match exactly what the project manager wanted. It is actually quite easy to do. They just make you believe you had the idea by asking the right questions etc.

Well whoever they select is bound to be nice and close in order to visit the park frequently. It will be a bit like the Thir13en thing where nobody south of a certain point won...

Also, just a thought, but wont this be really handy for Alton Towers, if the people actually hate the thing and it turns out to be a large dissapointment, they have someone to blame this time...
 
Yeah but its about creating a 'new' great as apose to being directly related to which coaster wins the competition...
 
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