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Halloween Horror Nights 25 Wishful Thinking


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Okay. I like the idea of the interactive scarezone thing. But I have a big concern about that due to my experience with playing Sorcerer's of The Magic Kingdom at Disney. This might not annoy a lot of people but when I am trying to play Sorcerer's, I always have groups of people coming up to me and I have to explain what I'm doing and how to get started and then I can't pay attention to the story or where I'm supposed to go next. Not to mention all the little kids running in front of the screen and blocking the scanner making it virtually impossible to play. End rant. Also there is the concern with people overusing the same scare thinking its funny or overuse to the point of breaking. Again, love the idea but thinking of it logically I doubt they would risk making a scarezone interactive.

The best I can logically see happening is an exclusive interactive house that isn't your typical conga line experience. Probably have to pay extra and have a specific time to go and that whole ordeal. (Apologies for keep comparing to Howl-O-Scream but...*sigh*) Like The Experiment.

They could use NFC on phones as the trigger, wave it in front of a symbol and something will happen. Tracking which phone has activated it will ensure no one hogs it all to themselves (maybe give them a once-per-night trigger allowance). As with the interrupting people, I'd usually tell them to look into the website first . That's what I do when people stop me while I'm playing Ingress.

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They could use NFC on phones as the trigger, wave it in front of a symbol and something will happen. Tracking which phone has activated it will ensure no one hogs it all to themselves (maybe give them a once-per-night trigger allowance). As with the interrupting people, I'd usually tell them to look into the website first . That's what I do when people stop me while I'm playing Ingress.

This sort of thing is already being demonstrated at trade shows. At Scare LA, a vendor called Phantom Finder (phantomfindercamera.com) had a booth where they let you play with it. They have an app that basically uses your camera as an augmented reality tool. When your camera focuses at specific "banners", an AR "video" plays on your screen as if some ghostly reaction is appearing on your device. The "banners" are silhouettes that can be cleverly hidden as objects (i.e. in wallpaper, the frame of a mirror, a TV screen, etc.) An example they had was a TV with "snow" playing on it. The snow hides an embedded marker, and when your phone focuses on it, ghosts appear in the TV and crawl out of the screen. It's the opposite of what happens with the wands in Potterland, where the wand is a trigger for something to happen in the real world. Here, a static marker in the real world triggers something to happen in the "augmented world" you see on your phone's screen.

The technology is still new, and it takes time for a phone to identify and focus on a marker, so this is certainly not ready for HHN, but perfect for queues, or scattered around scarezones - where I think this sort of thing could best work. The problem with putting camera-based technology in a house is your camera's inability to handle low lighting conditions, not to mention the horrible resulting throughput of the line. Plus, it would send a message that it's OK to use phones in houses.

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This sort of thing is already being demonstrated at trade shows. At Scare LA, a vendor called Phantom Finder (phantomfindercamera.com) had a booth where they let you play with it. They have an app that basically uses your camera as an augmented reality tool. When your camera focuses at specific "banners", an AR "video" plays on your screen as if some ghostly reaction is appearing on your device. The "banners" are silhouettes that can be cleverly hidden as objects (i.e. in wallpaper, the frame of a mirror, a TV screen, etc.) An example they had was a TV with "snow" playing on it. The snow hides an embedded marker, and when your phone focuses on it, ghosts appear in the TV and crawl out of the screen. It's the opposite of what happens with the wands in Potterland, where the wand is a trigger for something to happen in the real world. Here, a static marker in the real world triggers something to happen in the "augmented world" you see on your phone's screen.

The technology is still new, and it takes time for a phone to identify and focus on a marker, so this is certainly not ready for HHN, but perfect for queues, or scattered around scarezones - where I think this sort of thing could best work. The problem with putting camera-based technology in a house is your camera's inability to handle low lighting conditions, not to mention the horrible resulting throughput of the line. Plus, it would send a message that it's OK to use phones in houses.

what I was thinking is using the phones as both. The camera, and using the phone as the "wand" to affect the real world.

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I believe they've had several in the 90s/early 2000s but I'm not certain on how many. At least one, but I'm inclined to say 2. And then of course The Mummy was featured in HoH in 2012.

I can see it happening in 2016, but not next year.

Also, TWD broke its own record (AGAIN) last night in viewers during the midseason finale so I don't think we need to discuss the possibility of TWD anymore. It's really just where is it going and how are they going to top the "biggest house of HHN history"?

my biggest problem for next year is just how will they top the WD house or experience of previews years... I've said this before, but What will they do next? what's there to do? as far as out doing themselves

i still think about it... what will they do to surprise WD fans?.... what can they do?

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my biggest problem for next year is just how will they top the WD house or experience of previews years... I've said this before, but What will they do next? what's there to do? as far as out doing themselves

i still think about it... what will they do to surprise WD fans?.... what can they do?

See, to me, that is not a problem. My guess is they cannot outdo what they have done so therefore it will be a house that pales in comparison. If the house is less maybe the GP will finally tire of TWD being at the event and we can finally get rid of it and move onto something else.

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my biggest problem for next year is just how will they top the WD house or experience of previews years... I've said this before, but What will they do next? what's there to do? as far as out doing themselves

i still think about it... what will they do to surprise WD fans?.... what can they do?

The better question is do they actually have do anything to "surprise" TWD fans, or can just do a house for the season?
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Could you imagine having 2 Walking Dead houses? One for the original and one for the Spinoff?

I'm an optimist. I'm not %100 sure that it might return this year. I hope that AMC takes it someplace else, like an "Eli Roth's Goretoreum" situation.

I hope they realize they have a gold mine in their hands, charge too much for the rights, and lose Universal as a medium for it.

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See, to me, that is not a problem. My guess is they cannot outdo what they have done so therefore it will be a house that pales in comparison. If the house is less maybe the GP will finally tire of TWD being at the event and we can finally get rid of it and move onto something else.

the problem is that people are expecting it now. the masses have been shown that Universal is willing to sacrifice all the street zones for WD and they were willing to go as far as to make the biggest house ever made

going to a regular sized house now would be like going from eating a 5 stars steak to eating beef jerky, the word of mouth that helped HHN with the WD fans before could hurt HHN if they don't deliver something as big. At least, that's how it feels to me. I might be absolutely wrong but I could imagine the comments from the WD first timers "how come the house is so tiny now?"

maybe I am over thinking it too much but It just feels like if they don't do something as big they risk losing some of the newer fanbase

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the problem is that people are expecting it now. the masses have been shown that Universal is willing to sacrifice all the street zones for WD and they were willing to go as far as to make the biggest house ever made

going to a regular sized house now would be like going from eating a 5 stars steak to eating beef jerky, the word of mouth that helped HHN with the WD fans before could hurt HHN if they don't deliver something as big. At least, that's how it feels to me. I might be absolutely wrong but I could imagine the comments from the WD first timers "how come the house is so tiny now?"

maybe I am over thinking it too much but It just feels like if they don't do something as big they risk losing some of the newer fanbase

The 'biggest house ever' line was really more of a gimmick than anything else. There were transitional hallways that they still labelled as 'scenes' to pad the roomcount. Add to that the fact that they counted the entrance as a scene.

Honestly, the house felt no bigger to me than 2013's house and I have to imagine that had they not said 'biggest house ever' no one would have even thought it was longer. I feel like when they do it again this year they may just advertise it as 'the most detailed' or 'the biggest special effects' or 'we finally have character rights!' to fuel the marketing push. Because really, it is all about perception, not reality.

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the problem is that people are expecting it now. the masses have been shown that Universal is willing to sacrifice all the street zones for WD and they were willing to go as far as to make the biggest house ever made

going to a regular sized house now would be like going from eating a 5 stars steak to eating beef jerky, the word of mouth that helped HHN with the WD fans before could hurt HHN if they don't deliver something as big. At least, that's how it feels to me. I might be absolutely wrong but I could imagine the comments from the WD first timers "how come the house is so tiny now?"

maybe I am over thinking it too much but It just feels like if they don't do something as big they risk losing some of the newer fanbase

I cannot imagine A&D has been thrilled having to keep returning to the same WD property year after year. I'd like to think that the supersized house they did last year was their way of telling the powers that be that they are done with the property; that A&D purposely painted themselves into a corner. As you said, it's been presented as a park-wide scarezone, and the largest ever house. There's really nowhere else to go...unless they have two WD houses - one for the main show and one for the spinoff. And I shudder at that thought.

I still find it crazy that they are not allowed to present characters that are still living in the HHN houses. Does anyone else here think the WD houses would have been FAR better had we been able to see the main characters of the show in the houses? I can't think of a single other IP that HHN has done where they were not permitted to show well-known characters. Anyone know the story behind AMC's bizarre restriction?

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I still find it crazy that they are not allowed to present characters that are still living in the HHN houses. Does anyone else here think the WD houses would have been FAR better had we been able to see the main characters of the show in the houses? I can't think of a single other IP that HHN has done where they were not permitted to show well-known characters. Anyone know the story behind AMC's bizarre restriction?

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe there is an issue with rights regarding the actors. I know Sigourney Weaver has held the rights for the use of her image being as Ripley from the Alien series. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but actors can retain the rights to their images. It could also be that AMC said you have to pay X amount more to use character images.

Tweets:

@HorrorNightsORL: #HHN25 Update- the team has been hard at work on concepts. Elements of our past are definitely going to be represented next year.

@HorrorNightsORL: With next being a huge anniversary.. What has resonated the most with you.. My fellow hardcore fans of HHN? Characters, thematics, mazes etc

@HorrorNightsORL: Concepts... http://t.co/M1f2pt2f11

That little tiny concept pic, the reference to the past, and some answers to Mike's questions made me think...

One of the suggestions was using past houses as scarezones and past scarezones as houses. We know from the initial tease that Jack will be making a reappearance. Could the inmates finally leave the asylum, and wreak havoc in the streets?

And since it occurred to me as I was typing the word havoc, could we see the DoWs in e streets?

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On the topic of past scarezones as houses and past houses as scarezones, which one's would be great choices?

From 2011, I think Winter's Night could make for a nice atmospheric scare zone, and on the flipside Grown Evil could make for a nice house.

Farther back, 2008 is chock full of possibilities scarezone to house-wise. American Gothic, Asylum in Wonderland and Path of the Wicked could make for good houses.

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The only zone they should make a house 7. Though I wouldn't be surprised if Face-Off came back as a house.

They may want to do a Catacombs zone (I would hope), though there would be more Infecteds than Plague Doctors. Those masks would be hell in the streets.

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They may want to do a Catacombs zone (I would hope), though there would be more Infecteds than Plague Doctors. Those masks would be hell in the streets.

Catacombs did cross my mind on this subject, but with catacombs being underground it's more house material then scare zone. Now if they take away the catacombs and do something like a plague-ridden village, then they have a possible scare zone.

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I really hope they use the central park area and the alleys more efficiently. Those would be great places to use people I don't get why they have been neglected the past few years.

Money (And time) is the main reason... Last yr they planned to have gravestones through the park as part of the whole Bayou theme but the houses wasnt finished in time so they pulled the scenic/decor team off the streets to finished the houses.

If you look closely last year you can see the lights in Bayou shinning on random parts of grass

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