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Theme park YouTubers: what do you think of them?

What do you think of theme park YouTubers?


  • Total voters
    53
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.

Valid points Snoo and I can't argue with your perspective! Age really isn't a factor for me though. It's more about how the content is presented. I understand what you're saying regardless. Definitely glad to be here. :emoji_metal:
 
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I like Theme Park Crazy plus "MiyaPA Masane" posts some nice Chinese coaster POVs.

This. MiyaPa Masane/RCDream's video contributions are immensely valuable. Not only are they often the only ones to provide videos of amazing but remote (by American/European-based standards anyway) coasters, the video quality is almost always top notch - THAT iPhone POV of Flash being the most blatant exception. 1080p mounted GoPro? Actually beats most western channels hands down! You can't find a great pov of an American or European flying coaster. But Miyapa's videos of Harpy, Starry Sky Ripper are impeccable.

Given the amount of censorship China practices on even the most basic social media, this is quite a miracle that I really, really appreciate!
 
Plot twist: Snoo is actually Taylor Bybee in disguise

Little did you know that Taylor is ACTUALLY a 31 year old black man from Ohio with 3 kids.

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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.
But Robb Averly never grew up...
 
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!
Yeah even I watch them, fight me.
 
I watch for theme parks:
  • Rob Plays (which is just well produced short yet interesting Disney videos about random pieces of information)
  • TPW and Coastersaurus for vlogs (the latter is a more relaxed vlogging channel)
  • Coaster Force for the ride element series
  • Coaster Bot for information videos
  • Coaster Studios for the content done
However I really don't like channels that just post old pieces of news a week late.
 
I'll hop in on TPCs approach:

  • The Tim Tracker - He's a likable guy and its a fun channel especially when his wife joins him on the adventures.
  • Coaster Force - for POVs and the occasional interviews
  • Defunctland - For his documentary style content
  • Expedition Theme Park - Documentary style similar to Defunctland. I find his narration rather enjoyable.
  • Yesterworld - Similar to the two above.
  • Offhand Disney - depending on the content but his Legends of the Haunted Mansions video was pretty damn well done.
  • Theme Park Crazy - He's hit or miss for me but most of his content I find enjoyable
  • Coaster Studios - But less and less as time goes one. Plus I don't like his first name...
  • Midway Mayhem - His approach is relatable to me but his videos tend to be waaaay too long. The bad audio drives me nuts sometimes as well. He's a likable guy nonetheless.
 
XYZcoaster has some pretty funny stuff. Especially “El Suspendtoro”

WTF did I just watch!? Jeezus. hahaha. I bet that guy smokes a ton of weed or something. It was oddly mesmerizing and a little disturbing at the same time. Ended up watching a couple more of his vids. Deinitley might have some trippy dreams tonight.

BTW how hard is NL2 to learn? I use 3d modelling software daily at work so I'm guessing it would be somewhat easy?
 
BTW how hard is NL2 to learn? I use 3d modelling software daily at work so I'm guessing it would be somewhat easy?
If you regularly work with 3D modelling software, that's the first hurdle on NL sorted. You'll quickly grasp how to shape the track in the X-Y-Z planes, and how this'll work in 3D. The trickier aspects of pacing, track smoothing, banking, etc, I'm afraid will only come with time. There's a small group of us here on CF who do use/have used NL for some years, and you'll find plenty of our work, competitions, and discussions here:

http://coasterforce.com/forums/forums/coaster-games.9/
http://coasterforce.com/forums/forums/nolimits-projects.8/
http://coasterforce.com/forums/forums/competitions.62/
 
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I've just seen that Scotty Too Hotty from early 00's WWF has a theme park based YouTube channel. Is this common knowledge? Had no idea he was a coaster dork.

Ha, I didn't know he had a youtube channel but was aware he was a massive goon. He's appeared on the DisUnplugged podcast before which felt weird, I think he's popped up on various other Orlando podcasts etc too.
 
Don't like them, to be honest. For a few reasons:

- From what I've seen, some of the more popular ones seem to think that they're gods gift to the theme park community, and like they're royalty or celebrities being followed around parks by fans. I once watched a TPW vlog where he says something like "that ride op there just looked at the camera, she must watch TPW". No. Just no. Insufferably huge egos everywhere.

- Most of them repeat themselves over and over again. Lots of "as I was saying" followed by repeating what they said two sentences ago, lots of sidetracking, lots of needlessly overexplaining every little detail of something.....no wonder some of these vlogs are a week and a half long.

- Speaking of vlog run times, WTF? Who wants to sit down for 90 minutes for someone to act like a prat and prance around a theme park making a fool of themselves whilst stating the obvious? Plus, how can you enjoy your day when you're filming practically all of it for a vlog? That's not an enjoyable visit to a park, that's just going somewhere specifically to get views.

- All of their attempts at comedy are toe curlingly cringey and unfunny. The most popular theme park vloggers seem to think the way to get a laugh is by making noise and stupid faces to the camera, or making references to other theme parks or rides in a way that's less "ha ha I got that reference" and more of "SEE HOW MUCH I KNOW BECAUSE I REFERENCED THAT?"

- Most of them are know it alls who really want to make sure you know that they're theme park experts, when sometimes they're utterly clueless. It's like they're trying to prove something, as if anyone out there is thinking "well you didn't mention this about that ride, you fraud".

- Some of them seem to enjoy providing a commentary to their ride POVs. It's like they don't realise how big of a lunatic they sound when they're riding a family Pinifari yelling " WE'RE GOING JNTO THE HELIIIIIIIIIIIIIIX AHHHHHHHHHH" or "HERE COMES ANOTHER DROP, WOAAAAAAH". We can see there's a f****** drop coming, that's the point of a POV.

- A lot of its all the same. Thanks for the 4000 videos about some markings, this really is something that's getting no coverage. At some points it becomes a race to see who can make a video about something the quickest.

Yeah, not a big fan of theme park YouTubers. Obviously there are good ones, but on the whole, quite an annoying group.
 
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