Six Flags gives online social gaming a try

It will be interesting to see if this pans out as a new source of income for them.

Good for Six Flags! Game sounds dumb to me but it also sounds like fairly brilliant marketing for them. Nice to see them really exploring alternative marketing strategies.

Six Flags taps into Facebook games which are super hot now. Cedar Fair taps into...Snoopy. Also not sure if they are in all the Cedar Fair markets but the Canada's Wonderland commercials this season are really, really bad. Not irritatingly cute but change-the-channel-to-make-it-stop annoying. Children of various ethnic backgrounds dance around pictures of rides that aren't at the park singing "Canada's Wonderland - Fun and Only!".

As a point of reference I'm living in a market with infamously annoying Marineland commercials. Many find the Marineland song annoying but I think it's far less irritating than the CW hell they've unlreashed this season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pvji7Xcn3R8

Cropsey said:
Six Flags taps into Facebook games which are super hot now. Cedar Fair taps into...Snoopy.

Doesn't that just sum it up? Classic. :)

Also not sure if they are in all the Cedar Fair markets but the Canada's Wonderland commercials this season are really, really bad. Not irritatingly cute but change-the-channel-to-make-it-stop annoying. Children of various ethnic backgrounds dance around pictures of rides that aren't at the park singing "Canada's Wonderland - Fun and Only!".

Yep. They're all the same, I think. We get both KI and CP commercial here and it's the same damn thing just insert the different park names into the song. Really one of the lamest park commercials ever. Even my kids were like, "Pfft!" the first time they saw it.

When I see the KI commercial that the TV stations play here, I play a game. I call it the "Is, or is not, that attraction at Kings Island?" game.

ANNOYING!

I didn't know that Kings Island had a S&S drop tower. lol

There's a new commercial with an extended version of the song, lite on the kids but heavy on pictures of various rides that aren't in the park. Behemoth intercut with a slow-mo looping B&M invert which I assume is the one at CGA. Still very, very annoying but at least the tween with the jazz hands are gone. This all just seems embarassingly out of touch.

It's relieving to hear that Gonch's kids agree with me. I don't get the whole Justin Bieber thing either so never know with this stuff. One of the kids with jazz hands in the commercial has that hair. *shudder*

Some of the social gaming on facebook has real world marketing. In other words, in order to get certain virtual goods you have to go to 7-11 and buy specially marked products. These products have codes on them that will give you the virtual goods.

I could see Six Flags going this route as well. People could play the game and have fun. But, if there are certain things they want to get, they need to go to the park and buy a Souvenir Soda or something.

Cropsey said:
There's a new commercial with an extended version of the song, lite on the kids but heavy on pictures of various rides that aren't in the park.

Yes, just saw it myself. Looks like even CF eventually realized the original idea was super horrible.

Here's the original KI commercial that they were running (just swap out the opening day info with even more footage of pathetically average people looking and dancing like tools) - really? That commercial makes me want to go to KI and punch people.

Here's the newer version that features rides at other parks rather than people who invoke feelings of violence.

---

(actually, the rides at other parks thing doesn't bug me - most people would never even realize)

Lord Gonchar said:
Here's the original KI commercial that they were running (just swap out the opening day info with even more footage of pathetically average people looking and dancing like tools) - really? That commercial makes me want to go to KI and punch people.

Here's where it gets creepy. (I can't find the CW commercial online anywhere.) But the CW commercial is actually slightly more annoying. Same concept and song but the group is ethnically more diverse. The main dancer and pointer is a white kid with the Bieber doo. The rest of the cast spans various ethnic groups and there a lot more dancing and pointing in the air, not to mention jazz hands going on. Possibly this is a calculated move to include all the ethnically diverse population of the greater Toronto are to all feel included in wanting to jump off a bridge after seeing this.

Jason's right, a park visit as a result of a game to gain some kind of status will generate some revenue.
However, I wish the game would have gotten the public more involved in the technological aspects of rides and the practical application of the technology. I have no idea about social game design, but if someone could incorporate some kind of custom construction process that would make it more addicting! Not PLC/dynamic stuff, but rare earth magnets and compressed air, things like that . I think more people would appreciate these masterful machines if they had a better understanding of how they work. I don't think it would make money though.. RCT crossed with that farm game.
As far as the CW commercial, having a better half from that area of Canada (Hamilton) leads me to believe that a bad demographic study has taken place.

Wow. I don't recall ever seeing the first, more annoying KI commercial that Gonch posted. That's even worse than showing rides that the park doesn't have, like power Tower.

I fully understand wanting to go to the park and punching people after seeing this commercial. How embarrassing for the Models, actors, and actresses who were a part of that atrocity.

Yesterday, just minutes after posting how sucky the KI commercial was, I noticed a pretty cool KI commercial that they have been playing today as well. It's a lot better, and has heart and an emotional component to it.

Big bro comes home from Iraq, or Afghanistan, or somewhere(?). Big bro noticed how big little bro got. Little bro tells him that they are going to KI. The whole family goes, rides Power Tower and some other rides, some of which are not at the park, and they hang out together and romp around the park. At the end, little bro says something cute to big bro, and big bro says something cute to little bro, and they live happily ever after.

I liked it a lot better. lol

^ Wow I bet we won't be getting that one up here in Canada. But they did start running a ride warrors commercial that's not too bad!