I don't understand why the park insists on SW projects being world's first coasters. So far as I can see it isn't:
To make a new ride more marketable.
When the general public visit a park, they're just looking for a line-up of really good rides that make them feel that they've got their money's worth from the high ticket price. They don't really care what a coaster does that no other in the world can. Sure, a world's first element might be something that they'll specifically mention to friends after the visit, but if they've had a really good time they'll tell people about their day anyway.
Alton Towers is the UK's favourite theme park, and at the moment its reputation means that if people know there's a new coaster they'll visit. As I seem to recall Rupert saying ages ago when we were all on TT, the park could in theory be very simple and easy to market; given the chance it could sell itself. "Here's a picture of some very excited/terrified people aboard a train on our big new coaster, and here are our other fantastic rides. Come and visit. You'll probably like it a lot."
Instead there always has to be some sort of unnecessary claim about the ride or a mention of how it should make guests feel. Building insubstantial attractions that lack lasting appeal and marketing them in this way could completely undermine the park's aforementioned reputation; much as I like Thirteen and Sub-Terra, the last couple of seasons indicate that guests already have less faith in the park's ability to deliver the standard of attractions they expect. We'll just have to see how SW7 is received.
To differentiate a new ride at the park from other parks' new rides.
Merlin's parks have a certain amount of competition, but none of it could be considered serious competition at the moment. When not even the larger rivals like Drayton and Pleasure Beach have built a serious coaster in years, Alton don't exactly need to build something vastly different to anyone else. It actually seems like madness for Alton to go out of its way to build an unconventional coaster just for the sheer hell of it, and in fact with the attitude to investment Merlin have been displaying of late it doesn't seem like a very Merlin park thing to do at all! "Spending huge amounts of money on R&D to build something nobody else has done before? Why would we bother when we can build a standard coaster type with a reasonable layout and dress it up with shipping containers for much less?"
Because the park's fans and enthusiasts demand it.
This can be immediately discredited because in the park's view we're a minority audience. We can be an annoyance, but we're mostly harmless, good for a bit of free word-of-mouth marketing and fun to tease. I imagine the latter helps to offset how much of a pain we can be.
We're certainly not important though, and aside from a steady stream of AP renewals, merch and food we're not a great source of profit.
Ignoring this, ever since I was just a lurker on TT in 2009 it's always seemed that most of the forum would rather see the park build one of the world's best coasters than a world's first coaster. It's a sentiment that many people express at the first mention on here of a new coaster at any park! Discussing secret elements or world's firsts can make for interesting discussion, but following an amazing project that a park is happy to talk about openly can be just as interesting. Frankly if the park looked to us for guidance on what to build the SW concept would probably be no more. However, they'd have an awesome Mack launched coaster and GCI woodie...
Alton, to sum up I'll echo the sentiments of many other members of this forum. I'm optimistic that SW7 will be a good experience, but how about something less innovative yet truly incredible for next time?
