Are themed rides the future of the industry?

With the opening of TR:TR looming upon us, with everyone wondering just wtf it is, do you think highly themed rides like this will be the future of the amusement industry? Maybe parks will stop worrying about record breaking coasters and focus on the GP and what they want, which seems to be more rides like TR:TR. What do you think?

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Rollercoasters are my life, I think about them more than I think about....wait, thats all I think about :)

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I wouldn't bet on it but we will see how TR:TR is recieved by everyone and how it affects the attendance of PKI. Most likely though, I think that these types of rides are too costly for most parks and probably won't draw in people to the park as a major coaster does in most instances. But we will see.... Disney is such a major success, maybe another chain can replicate their success but not in the same magical sense:)

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In the future, I don't think rides will be themed. I think they will be added to the theme.

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Kingbob wrote this.

I doubt we'll see themed rides become the major theme in upcomin years, but depending on how well received TR:TR is. we may see an increase in teh number, but the extra cost will also likely mean fewer new rides, not to mention the extra work needed to develop, design, and put together the theming.

Disney, of course, has done this for decades, and Universal had a huge hit with IOA and the heavily themed rides there, so it wouldn't be unique, but if people come from all around and increase PKI's attendance significantly, I'm sure we will see smaller parks seriously consider allocating more money for theming when deciding on new rides.

For now, though, I'd say we're likely to continue to see moderately themed rides just because of the heavy cost and the low level of the economy.