Its not just a harmless tagline though, at Merlin it's a system by which attractions are greenlit. A concept may be excellent and a real solid attraction, but it won't be approved if it doesnt have a 'world first' as its premise. We've seen plenty of far better wooden coasters rejected until now because of this, and lots of compromise to fit 'worlds firsts' for not much benefit other than PR.
For someone who's never worked at Alton Towers you seem to know all the ins and outs of how their business is run, not just Towers though - Merlin. How on earth do you know that concepts are turned down due to lack of a 'worlds first' element, enlighten me Bill.
You've completely contradicted yourself here by stating that coaster concepts don't leave the planning stage because they don't have a world's first element hence the loss of previous woodie designs (this was not the case with the cross valley woodie) if this is the case how is SW8 being built? that's got no 'worlds first' element, how did that leave the planning stage?
Also as you've stated Merlin and not Alton Towers, how many of Thorpe's, Gardalands, Heide Park etc were world first, many of those coasters left the planning stages without world first taglines.
So Id say "world class" is at least a step towards the right direction, towards the actual merits of the ride being the selling point at the board meetings, not just the 'image'. I'd argue it doesn't even get people through the gate as much as they think.
I actually think 'world class' is worse than world's first, there's no real ambiguity with world's first it either is or it isn't a world's first. Advertising a ride as 'world class' means you're comparing it to the likes of Forbidden Journey, Escape from Gringotts or even Taron. They're putting themselves in the firing line for a lot of criticism if it's not epically themed or rides like something we've never seen before.
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People get so bent out of shape with the whole 'World's First' but I don't think people realise just what that means and take it for granted that we have had the first vertical drop coaster, first true flying coaster, first free-fall drop coaster and record breaking 14 inversion coaster. These coasters have shaped the world of innovation with variations of them but Alton did them first and whilst these concepts have mainly gone on to grow into larger more intense versions, our little park in Staffordshire did it first.
It makes good business sense to market a world's first if the coaster has one and I disagree entirely with your assumption that coasters don't leave the cutting room floor if they're not a world's first because that's been proven false multiple times at Alton. The difference with Alton is they actually strive for NEW ride experiences as a whole. With the exception of The Smiler the other big 3 world's firsts were through brand new ride innovation and technology, not just beating existing records.
Steel Vengeance - claiming 10 new world records, Time Traveller - claiming 6 new world records. From a marketing perspective these tag lines bring people through the gates which is what parks ultimately need to do, not appease to the moaning fanboys/girls who pick fault with anything they find.
Alton have a proven they can build fantastic coasters with or without the 'world's' tagline but you cannot blame them for pushing the envelope of innovation because Alton Towers would not be here today without it.
