Should coasters be punished for being overhyped?

Ok, pardon me for rambling a bit.

Take a recent coaster which opened in the last few years to at least ninety percent or more rave reviews: Millennium Force, X, Shivering Timbers or take your pick. Does this effect your take on a ride, or can you separate hype and maintain realistic expectations? I notice alot of people using the words, "overrated" or "overhyped". But what constitutes this? And who's doing the overhyping, enthusiasts, the park or yourself? And when you *finally* get to ride a ride that's received all this attention, how do you feel the ride must perform to live up to what you've heard?

After all, it's not really the coaster's or park's fault that so many people like it, is it?

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2001:The downfall of Disney. The year they stopped asking the mouse for his opinion.

Punished? Yes they should all be spanked and sent to their room.
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Is it the roar of Kumba or the kumba of Roar? Discuss!

You know what...I really don't see what the problem is. If you expect a ride to be awsome, and it isn't, then its just human nature to be dissapointed. Of course, I'm not going to go into a ride expecting it to be the best coaster ever like some people will (and those people just about always come out dissapointed.)
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Idle hands were orient to her.

Dont really know. People said Hulk, millie, Kumba and Raven were all near perfection. I agreed that 75% of them were damn good. Only one left me "underwhelmed".

Kinda like Alicia Keyes' CD. After hearing Fallin AND hearing her sing live,' I *had* to BUY her CD (not d/l it from audiogalaxy). I was ready for it to be BOMB like that. but when I listened to it, it was just "aiight". not *bad* per se, but not what I thought it was going to be.
jeremy
--one of these kids is doing they're own thing...

I hyped the hell out of MF the winter of it's construction, and was haveing my doubt that I was setting myself up for a fall, but the ride blew my away even after all that. It's just that insane of a ride.

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Sept. 11th 2001, Slayer released God Hates Us All. The song "Disciple" uncannily describes the events of that day, as well as the anthrax letters that followed.
--Slayer: Thrash band, or the next Nostradamus?

I honestly have never been in that situation because either the hype had died down before I got to the ride, or (in the case of MF and the SFO rides) I rode first at media events, before the real hype could begin.

The biggest problem comes from coaster snobs who have this precise criteria for what constitutes a good ride. "Good" is often confused with "different," and it seems to get worse as one's track record gets larger.

That's why I like Sean F... he doesn't seem to get that way even after hundreds of coasters.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

Bad! Bad coaster! No maintenance for you!
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Don't.....look.....back! The Headless Horseman awaits you in 2002!
Model coasters and rides

I'm trying not to hype myself up for X, but that's pretty hard. I'm gonna ride it on Saturday for the first time and all the reviews I've read say it's simply amazing. I hope it isn't a let-down, but I don't expect it to be.
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My wishlist for the 2002 season includes 121 different coasters, 92 of which I have not ridden.

overhyped? why bother to think about it. its a coaster, its built, its fun, go ride it .

haux said:
I'm trying not to hype myself up for X, but that's pretty hard. I'm gonna ride it on Saturday for the first time and all the reviews I've read say it's simply amazing. I hope it isn't a let-down, but I don't expect it to be.
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My wishlist for the 2002 season includes 121 different coasters, 92 of which I have not ridden.

90% of the time I go into a coaster with no expectations or think it is not going to be that good. Most of the times that works and I am sometimes blown away by how good it was.
Now there have been two coasters that I have been a little let down due to the hype and they are ST and BD. ST latter in the day became the AIRTIME MONSTER that it was hyped to be but my early rides were kind of like not what I was expecting. I came to love ST after it was greased though. BD on the other hand never seemed to reach the potential I thought it had and therfore I reserve judgment till I ride it again.
Chuck, who was shocked by Legend, Cheetah, Villain (On my second visit), and several other coasters by just reserving my judgment until I actually rode them.
BTW. I still like just about every coaster I've ridden in one form or another.

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Charles Nungester
167 coasters asn hopes to be over 200 by the end of 2002

I feel the same way with Nitro. I rode it last spring expecting a great ride. I got quite the opposite. Both of my two rides were very flat and somewhat dull, where others in my party were blown away. Why did this happen? My theory is that I was on a slow train both times. However, my opinion is still open and I'm willing to give Nitro another try.
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Scott W. Short
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

One thing I've learned is to judge each coaster on its own merits [or lack thereof] and never judge on the first few rides, no matter how good or bad it is. The point of our hobby is to have fun, and I'd rather be on a bad coaster than no coaster at all. As for hype I always consider the source. I trust friends who have similar tastes in coasters as myself. I know that when they discover a great new coaster and tell me how great it is that I'll probably end up feeling the same way.

*** This post was edited by Mamoosh on 2/14/2002. ***

Ride it once with no preconecptions, or as little as possible, to get the taste and idea of how it works and flows. Ride it again to see if you like it or not. I always ride any new to me coaster at least twice, cannot pass judgement on it any other way. Because who is to say my idea of what it should be is the right way? So I ride it first to see what the designer was doing, then again to see if I like it. Same thing with CDs, gotta listen twice before I tell if it sucks or not.

By the way, how do you punished a coaster? "You will not be open today!! No rides for you!!"
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*** This post was edited by skysox on 2/14/2002. ***

For me Magnum was a big let down (note the "was" I've gotten over most of my initial disappointment). Three or four rides later I started to warm up to it, though I still don't like those little hills at the end of the ride (if the tops were actually rounded off, and didn't create a point it would be better). It's a decent ride, fun, but not the end-all be-all of steel coasters that many people had made it out to be. Needless to say I don't listen to those polls that rank coasters any more.....

just my opinion mind you, but don't punish the COASTER for being over-hyped, punish the PARK for over-hyping it...

R'gator - or perhaps its the enthusiasts who do the most over-hyping?

'moosh, what on Earth is a "standing" gyro-drop? I agree that WE, the enthusiast community, are responsible for alot of the hype, but SOME parks seem to give us LOTS of help in the "over"hyping dep't...Honestly, the rides are GREAT on their own.

And please, BGT, stop referring to Gwazi as a dueling coaster until you start operating it as one...just relax the absurd loading procedures, and dueling can return. It improves the ride experience considerably, but BGT has a large "older" demographic that simply enjoys watching the ride(s). Their "experience" really suffers when the coaster doesn't duel...

BGT isn't hyping Gwazi... they're flat out lying

Next time you're at BGT try asking nicely if they'll duel the trains for you. I really didn't think they would...but they did for us last month and everyone on the station was cheering. What's even better is that they continued dueling for at least another hour (we headed over to Montu after awhile so I don't know how long they dueled for).

-Nate

R'gator - Ya lost me...where did I mention a Standing Gyro Drop? Or are you referring to something said in the past that I've forgotten?