Swiftdrawer

I think you’re right. As time has gone on, there have been certain image “styles” that AI slop seems to most often put out. The worst looking kind of AI slop generated images is the kind where it looks hyper realistic and cartoony at the same time. I’m thrilled they confirmed it’s not AI slop and now I gotta know how designed the poster because whoever did deserves all the props. After all, creatives are usually underpaid for their work in every creative industry and deserve more recognition for the hard work they do. That’s most glaringly in writing and animation. I find this confirmation to be really exciting. It’ll make hardcore PT fans and BB/Scooby Doo fans happy. A best of both worlds situation, combining the most popular aspects of attractions that have been inside the building over the years. With all the bad stuff that is going on on a daily basis to the point it’s probably hard for someone to fully process everything that has happened in just the past week in the country alone, this is really really good news to have. This along with the revivals of Regular Show, Phineas & Ferb, and Gumball feel like it’s just what we needed. Returning what was once over but doing it in a way that makes it new all over again.

Hope not either. There are so many things wrong with things generated with AI slop. For starters, it’s highly disrespectful to the literal thousands of years of human creativity. It’s a slap in the face for just about every artist who has ever lived. Ai slop is also the worst example of plagiarism out there. Not to mention how much water it makes dirty and unsafe to use in areas where data centers have been recently built. Feel like we need to speak out more about the new Six Flags’s use of AI slop and do things like wear anti-AI slop shirts as a regular thing at the parks and write to them about it. The use of AI slop for a Phantom Theater revival would be hugely disrespectful to the original attraction, Encore, and those who were involved in them as well as their many fans. If they really want to go cheap, they could always try to reuse whatever posters and such are still left from Encore and the original attraction. I don’t know how much commissioning artists who work in the amusement industry to create graphics these days costs but I’ve seen some artists in like the furry community charge a couple hundred dollars for logo design.

All of this! And I hope there’s a reference to Larry’s Happy Feet song somewhere because that’s the goofiest bit of the entire Phantom Theater Encore show in my opinion and it keeps making me think of the obscure movie of that name I haven’t watched in many years.

*gestures to things like the character dining at some Disney restaurants* You are spot on. It’s often expected that the more you pay, the better experience you’ll get. That’s an obvious standard.

After reading this thread as it is now, I’m really thinking the Six Flags board members could all benefit from playing the RCT game scenarios. See what it’s like to be in charge of a park all by yourself with some advice from notifications or RCT3’s park inspector: building things, hiring and managing staff and giving them patrol routes for more efficiency, etc. Some of the scenarios are real tricky too. I say the RCT scenarios for a reason. It’s not just because I’m most familiar with them(especially RCT3’s) but from what I’m seeing in the few scenarios on the original Planet Coaster game I’ve played so far, their scenario challenges just don’t hold up that well by comparison. Hopefully the new CEO actually knows what they’re talking about when it comes to the industry and is devoted to coasters and such.

10 years ago, during my first visit to Six Flags Magic Mountain, I did most of the coasters including Viper. At the time, Viper’s trains were covered in ads. It was really strange. I think some of the ads were beauty products themed or something. Next time I went to the park in 2018, they did get rid of them by then at least. Like honestly, a feature in the now year old Planet Coaster 2 game allows you to put things on rides and coaster trains to skin them and some people have taken that to the extremely. I saw a video on YouTube by LetsGameItOut with a steel coaster train having literally thousands of trees attached to it, leading to a nightmarish and hilarious outcome as the train went around. I’d honestly much prefer to see something nightmarish like that somehow irl against literal physics than see another ad plastered onto a roller coaster train.

Nice photoshop skills! Pretty convincing. It’s funny how I fell for it when I literally got a certification in Photoshop in October 2021. It expired last year and it’s been a while since I’ve dusted off the photoshop skills I have myself but still. I also could see the park putting sponsor logos on shirts. These 25th anniversary shirts scream: “merchandising. Where the real money from the movie is made.” to me. But hey, at least they aren’t actually shameless plugs like the Spaceballs themed merchandise shown in the Spaceballs movie itself are. Instead, they’re actually a good move.

We’ll see soon. Just gotta be patient. I hope you’re right. I wouldn’t mind not only Boo Blasters being replaced but also one or two hand me down rides from Six Flags America. Ride relocations are much more affordable most of the time than new rides so it would be so Six Flags to already have plans to relocate or sell off most of Six Flags America’s rides. Geauga Lake all over again. But if they don’t bring anything from Six Flags America to Kings Island, there’s always CGA’s rides after the 2027 season. That said, in an ideal world, the new Six Flags or as I like to call it, Cedar Flags would not only add relocations from SFs America to KI and replace Boo Blasters next year but it would also put more love into parks that don’t get as much investment. Those parks need love even more.

This thread is bumping. Dang. Anyway, I don’t have much to add to what everyone has been saying. I don’t trust corporations one millimeter and the current Six Flags’s actions are really bad optics in many ways. Makes me wonder how the executives on the board of directors would do if each of them was challenged individually to play the scenarios in the original Roller Coaster Tycoon trilogy. (RCT World is a terrible game..) Sure, they can run parks in these games like money pits but the park rating mechanic and overall park management mechanic means they can’t just sit around, doing not much but adding flat rides, pre designed coasters, restaurants, stores, etc. When a corporation chases profit no matter what, something that happens extremely often, things get nasty for customers. Real nasty. You know, if the new CEO ends up being a totally unexpected pick somehow in the form of Ed Hart, who was behind the revitalization of Kentucky Kingdom in the late 80s/early 90s and then its reopening in 2014 and further growth up till 2021, that might actually do a lot of good. Zimmerman made almost $30 million last year, including bonuses. Realistically, a person doesn’t make to be a millionaire to live well and happily. Things would be very different if the board of directors weren’t being paid millions of dollars. Very different. One more thing: someone brought up the use of AI generated images by Six Flags for online designs and such. That doesn’t even surprise me given the strange surreal feel of the animations that play during Nytewalkers. Something is very off about those animations, as if Cedar Fair pre merge just let AI generate them all which is an extremely sleazy move. Things like Midjourney and ChatGPT shouldn’t exist. I won’t go all into it because this is a thread about KI’s Haunt but all I will say is that both rely on the blatant theft of media created by illustrators, writers, animators, and more in order to be able to generate anything. And that’s bad.

Considering how quickly the media was told that Boo Blasters is closing to make way for “future additions”.. I interpret what’s going on as varying different things that could happen. The first one I’m not a fan of and really doubt: a demolition of the entire ride in favor of several new rides. I also really doubt some kind of retheme of the area around Boo Blasters. The obvious possibility is new dark ride. And considering the fact that Boo Blasters’s blasters haven’t worked correctly in a very long time along with the removal of the picture spot and the fact they never changed the narration after it was removed.. I feel like the removal of Boo Blasters has been planned for some time. Also obvious is putting in a new dark ride would be the cheapest replacement for Boo Blasters other than some big haunted house. Phantom Theater revival is exactly what Kings Island needs. Spectulation of a Peanuts dark ride or Scooby Doo’s return have also been floating around. I don’t think a Boo Blasters replacement will be coming next year as the park is supposed to get a family thrill attraction. Unless plans have changed, the replacement is coming in 2027(or 2028) or Boo Blasters is just going to sit empty for a while. Some additions planned for next year at other parks or expected to open this year have already been delayed. Quantum Accelerator. And who knows when Montezooma’s Revenge’s refurbishment will be finished? Its reopening might also be delayed. Back to Boo Blasters. It’s very interesting that they announced its closing date to be the 1st of next month as opposed to the last day of the regular operating season: the last Sunday after the last day of Haunt. What are they planning? Why not let it stay open till the last day of the operating season before the park closes to be transformed for Winterfest?

Many people on here have been talking about bringing back the Phantom Theater to replace Boo Blasters. And I believe it’s the way to go. With how Boo Blasters has had its blasters no longer make noise for years, I don’t think they have plans to keep Boo Blasters around forever. The idea of Boo Blasters was always just a retooling to replace the Scooby Doo elements that were in the Scooby Doo and The Haunted Mansion that was rethemed into it. A pretty cheap way to create a IP with the stuff they could keep from Scooby Doo. Cedar Fair attempted to become somewhat known for dark rides in the last decade though that didn’t get too far. Bringing back Phantom Theater would be a huge sell for Kings Island. The marketing, the merchandise, potentially Phantom Theater treats, so many possibilities. And they don’t have to recreate the original Phantom Theater. They could tie in the new version with the original as well as Phantom Theater Encore, telling us of what happens after Encore. As a fiction writer who has written around 3 million words of fiction, I know very well the different directions in storytelling they can go with. My concept for a Phantom Theater revival is to have it set after Encore, in which something changes in the spirit world. After the Phantom Theater returns for its encore, demand from both the living and the dead causes someone to bring back the Phantom Theater, reopening it to the public somehow and ushering in a new era for it. The living owners of the building housing the returned Phantom Theater would have ties to Kings Island’s storyline really set up by both Area 72 and Adventure Express’s refurbishment 2 years ago. The storyline connects Flight of Fear, Orion, The Beast, Mystic Timbers, and more already. They could go with a story that some people connected to the Miami River Company saw the Phantom Theater return only to vanish again and tried to break the curse that keeps the Phantom Theater from only returning once every 50 years and they contact possibly CHAOS Labs or even Madame Fatale to see about doing something about the curse because of all the smiling faces who enjoyed the Phantom Theater when they saw it too. Eventually, they overcome the hurtles required to bring it back and contact the spirit world in order to aid in making that happen. And riders would experience the grand reopening of the Phantom Theater, rather than just an Encore. All new scenes and animatronics would show a performance filled with more energy than ever before and even introducing new elements such as some featuring Larry, naturally. I was born after the original ride closed so I never got to ride it sadly but still, the dream for enhancing Kings Island to make it even more fun would involve Phantom Theater’s revival as a key project. But they can go even further. They can tie in more things that already exist along with a revived Phantom Theater into the storyline for Kings Island. That includes the haunted houses. But will a Phantom Theater revival actually happen? Not for a while. Between the merger and all the cost cutting measures lately and the elimination some positions in Six Flags this year, I doubt they will be focusing on it any time soon. That said, many dark rides are cheaper than a big steel roller coaster like Diamondback, Banshee, or Orion. And they already have the building, ride vehicles, and omnimover system. Personally, if I were in charge of Kings Island’s future direction, I would heavily emphasize the art of storytelling, something that appeals to all ages and demographics. Such storytelling would also include turning Soak City into something more unique in theme, likely dividing the water park into areas themed to various bodies of water. You could make the case for retheming it around Ohio itself given the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Let me know what y’all think about my concept. The backstory I propose isn’t perfect in my perspective. It’d be better to introduce some new faces who have nothing to have with Area 72 or the Miami River Lumber Company who are nerds really into the supernatural.