Spoiled enthusiasts / under-appreciated rides

Oh yeah, I love the Blue Streak. It's my favorite coaster at Cedar Point, actually. When people hear I'm a coaster enthusiast, they always want to know what my favorite coaster at Cedar Point is (because that's the major park where I live). Then I answer Blue Streak and they look at me like I'm messing with them or crazy. A common reaction is "Really?" Yes, really!

It’s all about relativity. Younger generations grow up with RMC, naturally the older rides (yet still of good quality), get an “eh”. However, my generation likes to exaggerate things (I’m 19), and they feel they will only get attention on social media if something is REALLY GOOD or REALLY BAD. In my opinion, riding older coasters is like riding history, which enhances the experience for me.

The only coaster I have ever voluntarily skipped without riding once was Green Lantern at Magic Mountain. I knew it would be a nausea inducing mistake and have no regrets skipping it. Occasionally I'll get a "don't bother with that ride" or "that ride sucks, just skip it" from both enthusiast and non-enthusiast friends. The worst that happens is that I ride it and go "you're right!"

LostKause said:

The only coaster I'd ever advise someone not to ride is Skyrush, and it's only certain people. .

I do agree with this 100%. My mom is nearing 70 and still enjoys many coasters. She really doesn't do well with inversions anymore (rides like Raptor are out) but Sheikra at Busch Gardens Tampa is her favorite coaster. That said, knowing her limits, I would never put her on a ride like SkyRush, El Toro, or Steel Vengeance.

Exaggeration isn't limited to the young. "Best/worse ever" by definition should be rare but are tossed around a lot like candy. More so I think on social media as a way of getting attention (presumably at some point you have to take it to another level to get attention). But you see it elsewhere too.

Rides anyone likes/doesn't like is subjective. Ask someone if you should ride any given ride and that subjective like/not like will bias that answer even though you may have a different experience in your subjective determination. So someone may tell you to skip a ride that you would love or ride one you hate. Seems to me the best answer is to give any ride at least one try and if you don't like it, don't ride it again.

The subjective bias isn't limited to coasters. Just here you see different views on hotels and food. Different people have very different views about the same hotel or restaurant. Is one of them wrong and the other right? No, just different.

I think in any hyper-niche community there's always some element of comparing fandom and one of the quickest ways to signify extreme fandom is to have a negative opinion about something that a "casual fan" would have a positive opinion about.

I'm a medium U2 fan (seen them 9 times) and if you read the extreme fans' reviews, you'd think that they couldn't do anything right. I'm pretty sure that 90% of that is just bluster to signal fans like me about how much more of a fan they are.

See also: enthusiass

Well, it’s like art or wine.

“That’s a pretty picture...”

“Um, that’s Thomas Kinkaid...”

“This wine is good”

”Yes, but 2000 was crap. I much prefer the 2001”

Somebody, somewhere is going to be a snooty expert.

ApolloAndy said:

I think in any hyper-niche community there's always some element of comparing fandom and one of the quickest ways to signify extreme fandom is to have a negative opinion about something that a "casual fan" would have a positive opinion about.

The first-hand example that I keep coming back to is local pro sports. I'm a Texas Rangers fan and, as a group, we've suffered through a lot of terrible seasons. When they started getting better in 2009 and made the World Series the next 2 years, fans were ecstatic. Unfortunately, a large part of the fan base was spoiled. Nothing the team has done since has been good enough. They were a wild card team one year, won the division twice, and played some fun baseball in between including this year. Same thing happened with the Dallas Cowboys after their Super Bowls in the mid-90s. A local sports radio guy dubbed it "Super Bowl or bust". Once they realize the team isn't good enough to go all the way, the fan base turns on them.

I thought I was more than a medium U2 fan because I've seen them 3 times including traveling cross country to see them on one occasion.

I thought I was a diehard U2 fan, and I’ve only seen them twice, haha. Bought all the deluxe digital albums, a box set, and picked up a handful of singles as well, and that’s just within the past two years, though, so if I’m not a diehard, I guess I’m at least a nerd.

"Out of Control" is the best U2 song and all the popular stuff is crap.

I liked them before they were cool, man!!!!

RCMAC said:

Somebody, somewhere is going to be a snooty expert.

In our community, Frasier and Niles Crane wear fanny packs and fight for the last train of the season on their favorite coaster at Closing Day of their local amusement park.

This is one of my favorite summaries of this effect:
https://xkcd.com/915/

I've seen them 9 times on 6 tours including one cross country trip (Fort Worth to San Jose), but haven't bought anything but the deluxe versions of the studio albums and don't really know or care about anything but the studio albums (no B-sides, rarities, etc.) My favorite songs are the radio hits: Beautiful Day, Streets, Pride, The Fly (plus California, which all the "real fans" tell me is garbage). It's possible that I'm a borderline superfan, but I didn't want to say I was a superfan while simultaneous denegrating superfans.

I'm not usually a fan of what ends up on disc 2 of deluxe editions, with them so often being demos that are essentially inferior versions of the songs on the main albums, but U2's has a treasure trove of b-sides that are as good as, if not better, than their album counterparts, and that especially goes for the wealth of remixes of their 90s/early 00s material.

Adam J said:

What an awesome ride. I completely fell in love, and understood where all of the hype came from. I see why people go so crazy over it. I get that very many enthusiasts do still appreciate this coaster, but I couldn’t believe how unappreciative some are of The Beast. It easily moved into my top few favorites, because of the overall experience, legendary status, and unique/intense ride. I loved it so much, it irked me to think of all those snobs complaining that its a crappy old rough coaster. To be fair, I have seen/understood the arguments of it being a bit overhyped, but I don’t understand how anyone could honestly say they think it’s a bad ride.

I was questioned by an enthusiast when I said The Beast is my all-time favorite ride. My response:

I won't say there aren't better rides out there, even in [Kings Island]. But if I had to pick one ride to ride, it's the one I would choose.

It's not my favorite because it's long, or because it's fast, or because it's wooden. It's my favorite because it reminds me of all that happened during the six months of going to the park, and those memories are what make the ride.

If I went to the doctor tomorrow and was told I was dying, my first plans would be a family trip to Kings Island to ride The Beast.

I'm a sort of 'middle quality" U2 fan myself. Love a lot of B-sides and album cuts but haven't seen them live. Whenever they've come locally it's been not a good time or more money than I have available or in a venue I'm not so thrilled with. I'm not a venue snob, but I just don't feel any urge to fight crowds online or in real life for crazy expensive tickets to a football stadium and then have to worry if my multi-hundred dollar night will be a washout if the weather sucks and that's pretty much what my last opportunity would have been. I've noticed that no matter what artist I think I'm a pretty big fan of as soon as you look at any online group and start discussing the music shows and whatever there's always gotta be those people who set weird standards that if you don't meet them you aren't a "real fan. Like you've seen someone 5 times and someone has to jump in and make sure you know they've seen them 53 times and they're going to see them again next week. Can't I be a "big fan" and have a real life too?

Adam J said:

While I believe that there have always been plenty of enthusiasts complaining, it feels like there are more rides dismissed now, since there are many more in operation.

You would be pretty correct on that I believe. Heck, you'd be amazed at how many enthusiasts nowadays are starting to dismiss even most B&M hypers as just "meh". Thats how desensitized some of them have become. Oh, but then of course there's the ol' beat-to-death-was-never-even-remotely-funny-or-clever in-the-first-place "Millennium Forceless" trope that you'll see on coaster meme pages quite often. Anything not RMC to these people is "not worth their time".

That having said, there's nothing inherently in not caring for certain rides. I mean, no one's going to like EVERY coaster. Its just that there are some enthusiasts out there who seemingly like so few coasters that you start to question whether they really even like roller coasters at all.

Sorry that I'm a little late to this discussion. Just understand that everyone has different tastes. Some people like some coasters, some people don't like other coasters. No big deal. This is normal and this is healthy. I think that most enthusiasts will ride everything, but for re-rides that park return trips, they'll gravitate towards the rides that they like the most, and the parks that they like the most. There's nothing wrong with people having preferences, and its important that we don't trash coasters (I mean we can give our opinions, but you know... be cool about it), and we don't insult other people for having different preferences.

It gets tricky when you have enthusiast friend groups where you're taking road trips, but I really appreciate going with other enthusiasts, so I'll gladly go back to parks I wasn't big on if it goes with the flow of the group.

So its cool to praise coasters, and yes many coasters are awesome, but its not the end of the world when other people don't like your coasters. It doesn't make them "GP," it doesn't make them "entitled" or "spoiled", and it doesn't make them terrible people.

But I will say that if somebody is trashing more coasters than they're praising, they need to re-consider if they are an enthusiast, and why they're spending their time on a hobby that doesn't seem to generate results for them.

^Agreed!

Its all about balance. On one hand, it'd be rather silly to expect everyone to like EVERY coaster they've ever ridden (Does a movie enthusiast like every movie they ever saw? Do you like every song/artist you've ever heard of your favorite music genre? Probably not, this hobby is no different)

After all, if you're not supposed to give you're honest opinions on rides, and just say you "like everything" (for fear of disagreement), then how it can be differentiated which rides are considered better than others?

But on the other hand, there does appear to be some enthusiasts out there who hate on so many rides, and like seemingly so few of them, that you start to wonder if they even like the things they're supposedly "enthusiastic" of.

PS: Now, ALL that having said. Anyone who's a fan of the Beast is a friend of mine... :P (but if you dislike or hate the ride, then well thats fine too we can set aside our differences lol)

Llama Drama said:

Anyone who's a fan of the Beast is a friend of mine... :P

https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters/comments/c6sxfc/what_could_you_say_is_the_best_coaster_youve_ever/esb1vfl

What could you say is the best coaster you’ve ever rode?
The Beast. Hands down. Rode it the first time in 2001 and haven't ridden it since that summer, but I still remember and love it. I'll be back one day.

I won't say there aren't better rides out there, even in the park. But if I had to pick one ride to ride, it's the one I would choose. It's not my favorite because it's long, or because it's fast, or because it's wooden. It's my favorite because it reminds me of all that happened during the six months of going to the park, and those memories are what make the ride.

OMG besties!!!1!!1