Amusement Parks & Family Entertainment Amusement Parks

Theme Parks in the Digital Age
Somewhere in the future...
What to do tonight? Well,
Blade Runner II beckons.
I’ve seen the movie four times
since it came out last year, but
there are other ways to enjoy it
now... I’ll just log in to the 3D
multi-user Blade Runner Adventure
sim and see if that replicant
role I played last week has evolved
in an interesting direction. Since
they added real-time voice, a lot
more women seem to be spending
time in-world which makes it
more realistic. Speaking of realistic,
Every bit of a park, including
the landscaping and robotic
fauna, should respond interestingly,
engagingly, or compellingly
as one walks by...
maybe I should drive down to the
mall instead. The Blade Runner II
site there has vehicle motion-base
sims and 110-degree out-the-window
displays with surround
sound, not to mention better textures,
more polys, and a higher
frame rate than I can afford to run
here at home. And I can meet
some of the people I played with
last week in person — maybe get
something to eat with them afterwards.
One of these days,
though, I want to experience the
Blade Runner sim world in its full
glory, at the theme park in Orlando.
I’m certain the guys who go
in-world from there have better
maneuverability and reaction
times than I do, because of the
force-feedback. Plus, seeing the
actual faces of everybody mapped
onto their character’s head in full
video would be great; I could really
act the role, then...”
Let’s Talk Today & Beyond
As this issue goes to ’Net,
the finishing touches are being
put on the largest theme park to
open in North America since Disney
World. Universal Studios’
Islands of Adventure “expansion”
to their Orlando park is larger than
the entire original park. Size is the
smallest detail however; the
expansion uses roughly two
orders of magnitude more digital
infrastructure than the original,
and is designed to accommodate
additional interactive features and
functionality in the future. This is
far from just being a matter of convenience
for maintenance and
security however. It’s about putting
ubiquitous digital sensory intelligence
into an entire theme park
environment, indoors and outdoors.
The guiding notion is that a
park should ideally be aware of
everyone who enters, learn a few
facts about them like age, gender,
and when they last visited, and
then provide a customized user
experience based on those facts,
plus what the person does at the
park. In fact, to take themeing to
its logical extreme, every bit of a
park, including the landscaping
and robotic fauna, should respond
interestingly, engagingly, or com-
by Clark Dodsworth
Clark Dodsworth.
pellingly as one walks by, and
then respond differently to the
next person or family! I call that
Active Themeing, and it’s coming
to a thrill ride site near us soon —
that is as soon as embedded computing
processors and development
tools evolve a bit more in
power and price.
The competition for our
leisure dollar is fierce.
At the same time, the information
that the systems gather
from our behavior will go into a
database and be used for marketing
programs after we go back
home. The guiding notion in this
context is to provide maximum
opportunities for any demographically
targeted consumer to access
themed services and licensedcharacter-based
product and ser-
ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE December 1998 19