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Theme park YouTubers: what do you think of them?

What do you think of theme park YouTubers?


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Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. Sorry if a topic like this already exists, but I decided that this would be an interesting debate after how extensive a similar debate in the Hyperion topic became. So; what do you guys think of the theme park YouTube community? It is something that's becoming all the more prevalent as we enter the Information Age, so I'd be interested to know some of your thoughts.

As for my own thoughts, I personally like the theme park YouTube community. I know that's a very uncommon opinion around these parts, but I personally think that theme park YouTubers provide very insightful videos into parks I've never visited before and I enjoy their content. Some particular favourite YouTube channels of mine include Theme Park Worldwide, Coaster Studios, Koaster Kids and CoasterForce amongst others. Also, I know this might sound a bit weird, but I really enjoy hearing other people's opinions, no matter how controversial they might be. So theme park YouTube channels offer me good insight into what other people think, and they help me form a general consensus on certain rides and parks, along with permitting me to see how others' opinions differ from my own. That's also one of the many reasons I like forums.

So, what are you guys' thoughts on the theme park YouTube community? Also, if you have ever met a theme park YouTuber, I would be interested to hear how you liked your interactions with them.
 
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They're great but I prefer, for example, written trip reports instead of vlogs. Some content is good, some is bad.
 
Actually wanted to start a thead on that topic to enquire on the occasional hostile reactions to some Youtubers, not really to spark some unnecessary flame war, but rather out of curiosity and wanting to have some civil and fruitful talk about that.

To be honest, my feelings are very mixed about the whole Youtube coaster community. The overall quality is very uneven, and I find a lot of content to be quite shallow. Sometimes there is the unfortunate mentality of judging other people's opinions and rankings far too pettily, in a condescending way - which, granted, isn't exclusive to Youtube. I also find the community not to be the most mature, but the (probably?) younger audience might explain that.

I have subscribed to a fair amount of channels, and thus I get a lot of notifications from these. As a result, I am sometimes frustrated with the lack of creativity and saturation with similar content from so many channels. For example, with the recent Six Flags announcements, it seemed almost everyone was doing their "Analysis" of a new coaster thing. To be fair, some of these analysis videos were decent and enjoyable to watch, but I feel most of these are only scratching the surface in terms of insight and... actual analysis. Too much "reaction" stuff, some personal thoughts on the layout and theme. I feel there is more insightful and original commentary to say. For example, some manufacturers like S&S, Premier (and even Vekoma) seem to make a return in the US market. Would be interesting attempting to explain why rather suddently the market seems to become more competitive after years when it was almost only RMC and B&M. In other words, I wish some Youtubers try to put things more into perspective, rather than just give their personal opinion and basic facts.

I am also critical about the (perceived) saturation with all the vlogging stuff. I am guilty of that myself to be fair, but too many vlogs seem to reuse the same 'narrating my day' formula with little thought as to how to make the content more interesting and in-depth. This might be only a personal quibble, but I am also not very fond of the whole 'showing my face talking for minutes'. I want to see coasters and theming, not some whoever Youtuber's face damnnit! Showing your face and honest reaction can help you being more relatable, but I really think this sort of device has to be used very sparingly. It doesn't help that few vlogs actually have polished editing and filming, something which admittedly takes a lot of practice and experimentation to grasp. Take for example movemotions' brilliant video montages. Fair enough, movemotions are professionals, but I haven't found any Youtuber creating videos with the same dynamic.

On the other hand, I find some people there on Youtube put some insightful and/or entertaining stuff. There is potential in the medium. Theme Park Crazy does some cool research on more obscure or historical coaster trivia - actually I often ended up seeing him commenting to request permission to use footage on many obscure Youtube videos! His video on Vertigo at Walibi Belgium was well researched and dealt with a coaster venture worth mentioning and discussing. Also Coaster Bot has a very promising progression. His videos are perhaps more targeted towards a larger, more casual audience, but I appreciate his careful editing efforts and his Manufacturers videos provide a comprehensive insight into a manufacturer's history and portfolio. There might be more Youtubers worth mentioning here, but it can be quite hard to filter between so much generic, shallow content and genuinely relevant stuff. Tyler Bybee (Coaster Studios) is quite polarizing here I believe. Some of his content isn't exactly my type, but imo other videos like his Kings Dominion documentary show promise and interesting creative decisions like interviewing GPs to discuss their experience and thoughts.

I have to admit I've been personally struggling to put out satisfying content on my own channel for a while. I stopped vlogging for reasons stated above and while I have some ideas in the back of my mind, it proved quite challenging to actually make them work. I have several thoughts for future 'Obscure Coasters' episodes, but sometimes it is very difficult to find footage of such rides to illustrate my comments. I've been thinking of taking about Jet Rescue at Sea World Australia for a while, however it seems only TPR has decent video clips of that coaster - and Robb's never gonna give permission to use his videos. Some other concepts, like a 'Coaster Geography' series, are stuck in development hell due to my own lazyness and not finding the right montage and software tools to convey the whole 'getting some sense of actual geography' feeling. I might eventually find the drive and solutions to that, hopefully. But enough of personal whining.

In short, coaster talk on Youtube has potential. In my opinion, a lot of it is superficial and immature (but sometimes entertaining) though. I also believe the way Youtube works i.e. often quantity > quality doesn't help. Nonetheless, the platform has room for quality, thoughtful, polished and insightful videos. There just needs to be more of it.
 
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I don't like vloggers or YouTubers or anything like that.

Nothing against the people who do them, I just don't like the medium. I'm sure there's people who are great at it, with wonderful personalities and amazing video skills. But it just doesn't interest me.

I am much more a read an article, report or whatever sort of person, look at pictures, then go to videos if I'm particularly curious about something.
 
Youtube's just another medium that can be handled with quality or not. The barrier to entry is lower than other media, so it has more tendency to be flooded with people who don't know what they're doing but I've no objection to it as a concept.
 
I'm old, so I don't follow these new-fangled Vlogs for the most part, but from what little I've seen, I'm not particularly impressed with the majority of them.

Here's the arrogant bit: I've usually been to the parks being vlogged about, so I don't find most vlogs particularly insightful. It can be interesting to see someone else's take on places you're more familiar with. For example, I've enjoyed Cupcakes and Coasters' recent China vlogs because I "trust" the people making them to know what they're talking about and I'm interested to see what they think. However, others I've seen have been infuriating in their downright ignorance, stupidity and borderline racism.

Other issues:

  • So many of them are ridiculously long. Who has time to spend over an hour watching someone fannying about in a theme park? EDIT!
  • Very little footage or focus on the rides. I get what a Vlog is, but why bother even being in the park if the camera is turned on you the entire time?
  • Lack of scope and experience leading to repetition. Oh great, here's your 5th vlog in a row from Blackpool. Can't wait to see what's different from when you went last week.
  • Lack of knowledge. Every c**t with a camera has a "channel" now, but lack the knowledge and experience to come up with remotely interesting content
Part of me thinks I should have got on this bandwagon years ago given the number of parks I've been to, with a lot of them being very different from the mainstream, but it's not something that's ever appealed to me to do. Again, it's probably an age thing, but I'd much rather write something and bung a few pictures in than film myself walking around a park.
 
I'm old, so I don't follow these new-fangled Vlogs for the most part, but from what little I've seen, I'm not particularly impressed with the majority of them.

Here's the arrogant bit: I've usually been to the parks being vlogged about, so I don't find most vlogs particularly insightful. It can be interesting to see someone else's take on places you're more familiar with. For example, I've enjoyed Cupcakes and Coasters' recent China vlogs because I "trust" the people making them to know what they're talking about and I'm interested to see what they think. However, others I've seen have been infuriating in their downright ignorance, stupidity and borderline racism.

Other issues:

  • So many of them are ridiculously long. Who has time to spend over an hour watching someone fannying about in a theme park? EDIT!
  • Very little footage or focus on the rides. I get what a Vlog is, but why bother even being in the park if the camera is turned on you the entire time?
  • Lack of scope and experience leading to repetition. Oh great, here's your 5th vlog in a row from Blackpool. Can't wait to see what's different from when you went last week.
  • Lack of knowledge. Every c**t with a camera has a "channel" now, but lack the knowledge and experience to come up with remotely interesting content
Part of me thinks I should have got on this bandwagon years ago given the number of parks I've been to, with a lot of them being very different from the mainstream, but it's not something that's ever appealed to me to do. Again, it's probably an age thing, but I'd much rather write something and bung a few pictures in than film myself walking around a park.

Essentially this in a nutshell. To expand upon that, I'm not about sensationalism or enormous speculation. I'm down for intelligent discussion but trying to get views for the sake of views is just annoying and leads to degradation of quality as mentioned before.

Most of you know my stance. It may seem a bit hypocritical being I'm part of the CF Podcast.. but to be honest, we wanted to and I think have been fairly close to remaining much like we would be on the forums. We wanted to be friends bull****ting, which is essentially the essence of CF. Yeah, you talk about hot topics from time to time, but for the most part, keeping it real and unique is and has always been the way to be. The fakeness of those channels blow me away and given I've been following youtube since the platform began and see vloging evolve, they don't add much short of clickbait.

On top of that, the legions of followers borders on TPR fanaticism at times. Those fanboys will defend their people no matter how much intelligence may be thrown back at them. Typical YT mob mentality tbh. Screw that.
 
I think the vast majority are an exercise in self-indulgence, which is always grating - if I switch on and I'm immediately greeted by somebody's face, I'll probably switch off again - there are plenty of places I can go on the internet if I just want people's faces and opinions. Equally, with opinions - I want to make my own, not have somebody else's forced upon me, especially as it often feels like there are ulterior motives behind the things that the vlogger will and will not praise, to the point that you're basically just watching an advert.

I'd much rather go back to the days when people made park videos that were like our old Live videos and would mainly be footage of the park, set to music, with maybe the odd bit of dicking around in between to give the video some personality :)
 
Yeah basically what Gavin said.

Several years ago I'd probably check around on YouTube for POV's of the coasters and you'd get the odd promo-video from the park's official channel.

Now, it's just full of that weird guy and his 90 minutes at a time vlog that has spawned multiple copy-cats; I don't care what you thought of the ride whilst you walk through the queueline, I don't care for your intricate walkthrough of the ride. Show me bits of the park, show me clips of the ride, I get that some people (bizarrely) enjoy watching it for the character as much as the insight but it shouldn't be feature film length.
 
I really don't think that theme park vloggers are as bad as people are suggesting here.

These general complaints seem to be around repetition of content, lack of on-ride footage, lack of informative content.
But similar issues occur with any subsection of vlogging, or indeed video creation. It's just abut who you choose to follow.

I personally follow a few different channels, and enjoy seeing what is essentially a virtual tour of a theme park I'm planning on visiting (or one that I'm unknowledgeable about).
I think of them as similar to a product review for me, in that they try these places out and I can pass judgement depending on what I think the park looks like.

Granted, if I had hundreds of parks under my belt I would probably find these vlogs less interesting, but with my current experience level I find them pretty useful or at least a little informative. But I certainly don't think they detract from this fandom, except for maybe slightly portraying enthusiasts as a tad obnoxious in some cases (I'm sure we know who I'm talking about).
 
Like Thirteen, I feel as though this whole vlogging thing has been mis-sold a bit. Rather than these vlogs being about a theme parks, it's more about characters in some parallel universe soap opera. The rides and the theme parks has taken a back seat (pun intended) and are more of a sub-plot to the characters involved in the "vlogging community". That's probably why it's annoying to enthusiasts who actually want vlogs that are well edited, more well-researched and informative. They aren't really aimed at us, at all. There are exceptions though, like in every community.

Thing is, this wouldn't be as noticeable if quite a lot of the main vloggers out there weren't doing exactly the same thing as one another. It means that when it comes down to difference, the only thing separating them is, ironically, the characters. As gavin said, good editing and actual research would be the difference here.
 
I have to say, while I don't hate the coaster Youtube community, Coaster Studios's Steel Vengeance parody was absolutely terrible (no good jokes, droned on and on and on, totally missed the mark) and his fanboys were still raving about how it was the best thing since sliced bread. That kinda stuff makes me really hate Theme Park Youtubers
 
I myself would consider myself a Coaster Studios fan. Do I share the same opinions as him, no, but I'll enjoy his parodies every once in a while. However, I've gotta say, the quality of his videos has severely decreased. Maybe it's because I'm getting older, or maybe it's because it's actually getting worse, but nonetheless, it just doesn't seem as good. I'll watch his reviews and his other content just to see how it is, but it's just not the same as how it was. Taylor practically made me into who I am today, a coaster enthusiast, and it's pretty sad and upsetting to see his content quality decrease.

Also ya, the Steel Vengeance parody was trash. I swear there's at least a new character every parody, and the ones that have been around for a while got old very fast.
 
I really enjoy video editing, and there was a period where I even made some youtube videos. That's one of the worst aspects of these channels, ugh. I'd be much more okay with that if they were funny or informative. They're neither. Coaster Studios is the only one I've actually seen a video of, and it was like watching a cringe compilation except insanely unfunny. I love coasters and all, but I simply don't care what these guys' opinions are. Oh god and the vlogs, just staring at some kid's face for an hour while he walks around.
 
I'm new here but would like to share maybe a different perspective on those YT channels if I may. I took about a 16 year hiatus from riding coasters until recently. I'm 40, am well into my career and other aspects of life became more important. That was changed due to some of those channels, emphasis on some. About 2 years ago I was bored one night and decided to search YT for what rides were at SFMM at the time. I live about 2 hours south in Laguna Beach so it's reasonably close, sort of. In that search I found the CF channel and spent all night watching a crap ton of the POVs. That later led to the discovery of other channels, like Taylor's, the hated (on here) AI and many others good, bad or indifferent. You know what viewing the various YT enthusiast content did? It brought back the stoke for coasters again, lead to an SFFM mission last month and another visit this past Monday. I bought a season pass as well and can't wait to go back agin. I highly doubt most on here would view that as a bad thing? With that said, there is horrible enthusiast content on YT for various reasons. That's goes for any topic on YT though. I'm a mountain biker for example and one of most followed Vloggers I find annoyingly pompous and obnoxious.

As someone who is re-entering the enthusiast realm I think the biggest turn-off for me is the arrogance and pompousness from some of the YT content creators. I won't name names but I'm guessing you know the ones I am referring to... Acting in that fashion is a waste of time and useless in my opinion. It's coasters man, chill out. haha. That aspect bugs me more than bad audio or over graded footage to be honest. Are some of them going the click-bait / more views route? Sure they are. That's a whatever in my book. With that said there is some fun content to be viewed out there. That's my 2 cents take it or leave it but I figured I'd share.

Cheers,
Taylor
 
I'm new here but would like to share maybe a different perspective on those YT channels if I may. I took about a 16 year hiatus from riding coasters until recently. I'm 40, am well into my career and other aspects of life became more important. That was changed due to some of those channels, emphasis on some. About 2 years ago I was bored one night and decided to search YT for what rides were at SFMM at the time. I live about 2 hours south in Laguna Beach so it's reasonably close, sort of. In that search I found the CF channel and spent all night watching a crap ton of the POVs. That later led to the discovery of other channels, like Taylor's, the hated (on here) AI and many others good, bad or indifferent. You know what viewing the various YT enthusiast content did? It brought back the stoke for coasters again, lead to an SFFM mission last month and another visit this past Monday. I bought a season pass as well and can't wait to go back agin. I highly doubt most on here would view that as a bad thing? With that said, there is horrible enthusiast content on YT for various reasons. That's goes for any topic on YT though. I'm a mountain biker for example and one of most followed Vloggers I find annoyingly pompous and obnoxious.

As someone who is re-entering the enthusiast realm I think the biggest turn-off for me is the arrogance and pompousness from some of the YT content creators. I won't name names but I'm guessing you know the ones I am referring to... Acting in that fashion is a waste of time and useless in my opinion. It's coasters man, chill out. haha. That aspect bugs me more than bad audio or over graded footage to be honest. Are some of them going the click-bait / more views route? Sure they are. That's a whatever in my book. With that said there is some fun content to be viewed out there. That's my 2 cents take it or leave it but I figured I'd share.

Cheers,
Taylor

I also think that age has a major play in this, using yourself as an example, and you can also see this on the forums. Those of us who've been around for a hot minute tend to be more critical of those YouTubers (hell, just look at the ages of those who've posted in this thread) and vice versa for the younger folk. Also, as these YouTubers tend to be younger, many of those who are older may not want to be preached to by some 16 year old with a camera.

You can see that with your last paragraph Taylor. Now I'm 31 and have never really left the community but I can see your viewpoint. But once you found some folks you can enjoy, such as this forum, you moved on. Younger folks just don't have that in some ways.
 
Even though I know they are very divisive figures in the community, I still like and subscribe to channels like Theme Park Worldwide and Coaster Studios, amongst others. Of course CoasterForce is within my subscribed to list, and even Theme Park Review's YouTube channel is a guilty pleasure of mine! I'd say that I'm in a minority around these parts who like and enjoy these videos; even though I can't say any of the channels got me into theme parks, I'd definitely say that they offer an entertaining alternative to forums after you've read all the topics you're interested in! Part of what I like about these YouTubers is hearing their opinions; I'm the sort of person who has always really enjoyed hearing others' opinions and seeing how they compare with mine, and YouTube is a great place to do that! Forums are also a great place to do that, in my opinion!

As some people have started talking about Taylor's Steel Vengeance parody, I thought I'd offer my thoughts on it too. While I must admit I enjoyed it and it got a couple of good laughs out of me, I don't think it's the best parody he's ever done, although that's probably more a testament to how good his parodies are than anything else!

One thing that I'm not so much a fan of in the theme park YouTube community, however, is that quite a few theme park YouTubers seem to take quite a sarcastic stance in their videos. I know that I am in a very big minority here, but I don't often find sarcasm particularly funny, and I can't often identify sarcasm, as some of you may know. As much as I like Taylor and his videos, some of them have quite a sarcastic stance to them which I find quite difficult to enjoy, in places. Admittedly, I do understand it better when it's very blatant sarcasm, which Taylor's sarcasm mostly is, to be fair. But when it's less blatant, I don't often find it very funny, if you get what I mean. This is partly why I like TPW; Shawn never comes across as sarcastic in his videos, in my opinion.

I do admire these individuals' confidence, however; I could never make my own YouTube channel! I imagine that many of my opinions would get hugely scrutinised!
 
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