Two blogs ago I talked about Hyper Entertainment. These were the tentpole attractions; the Tower of Druaga, and Galaxian³ which were
featured at Expo ’90 in Osaka Japan. They were disassembled, and moved to Futakotamagawa Tokyo in 1992. Yet if you remember
I mentioned that the financing people at Namco said that they never wanted the company to build anything as expensive ever again. This warning of building expensive rides extended to Wonder Eggs. So the team had to get creative. They developed something called “Participatory Story Attractions” which were a fraction of the cost. These grew organically from the desire to make connections, build community, and most important because of the need to play.
Before we look at these new attraction types let’s talk about paying for a park. Amusement parks, carnivals, and pleasure fairs might have an entry fee, and then would have guests pay per attraction. Visitors would buy a ticket book instead of pay cash at each attraction. Rides required a specific amount of tickets. A simple carnival game might be a single ticket, a ride on a Ferris wheel might be two tickets, and a roller coaster might be three tickets. Counting the tickets, or turnstile revolutions at the end of the day allowed organizers to know how popular the attractions were. It told them whether or not they should invest more or less in staffing, upkeep, and maintenance. Even Disneyland operated with a ticket book system for more almost 30 years. When the park first opened there were no such things as unlimited coaster or “E Ticket” rides, you had to buy a whole new ticket book once you ran out of E-Tickets, even if you didn’t use any of the A, B, C, or D tickets. In the ‘80s that changed, and the park went to unlimited rides by raising the price for admission at the gate. Light counters, phone apps, and RFID
MagicBands would become the modern way of tracking ride usage, and help allocate the budget for the park.
Smart phones, and inexpensive RFID wrist bands were unavailable to park operators in the early ‘90s. Namco managed to come up with an ingenious ticketing system nonetheless. They had a paper ticket with printed digital code, and value on it. This allowed them to track guests without exchanging cash at different attractions. The park had flexible pricing; the Wonder Entry was ¥800 yen, about $5 US. Night passes were slightly less. There was also a Wonder Set which included admission, plus attraction tickets for ¥2500 or about $15 US. Since Laperot was a fictional place the dreamers traded their currency for “Eggs” which were put on their paper tickets. Games and attractions cost ¥100-¥200, or about 50¢ to $1. To help keep attendance up during the slow seasons Namco came up with all sorts of offers. During Wonder Eggs 2, and 3 the first customers at the gate could say the secret password and get discount tickets or annual passes. To me the best part of their ticketing system was that they were designed to be keepsakes for the visitors.
The Wonder Ticket that each entrant received was also called a “Karla Card.” It had a set egg-currency value, and had the date of the visit printed on it. Each time a guest or Dreamer got off an attraction then it would print an update on the ticket. It recorded what, and when you played. It even printed what score you achieved. At the end of the day the Karla Card was a collection of “memory goods.” In this way every Dreamer was guaranteed to go home with at least one souvenir. You could savor the memories printed on your Wonder Ticket even if you couldn’t afford a collectable during your visit. It was the opposite of throwing away a Disneyland ticket book once you ran out of tickets.
I thought it was lovely that Namco provided something tangible that guests could reminisce with. The ticket was also the first chance for a Dreamer to try and figure out the language of Laperot. All of the secret signage that the park created in Laperot, and on their paper goods was unique. The translation on the back of the Karla Card read:
The village calls on
Goddess Elds
for spontaneous play
Namco rewarded Dreamers for playing the various attractions. They did this in a number of ways, some of which were inspired, but they turned out to be practical. The Karla Card was the most obvious. It allowed you to compare your scores against your family, or friends. For several of their attractions there was also a chance you could also win a sticker for being the best player. For the Tower of Druaga, and Galaxian³ if you managed to reach the highest possible score, or best ending then your score would be recorded on the Wonder Ticket, plus the staff would also give you a sticker. This was physical proof that you were the best player that session, if not that entire day. It was not a guaranteed that every play through would reward anyone with a sticker. Among the arcade enthusiasts it was proof that you were the best player around. Rewarding excellent play was a way for Namco guarantee return visits.
Disney attractions like Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, and Toy Story Midway Mania had strategies that you could employ to achieve ridiculously high scores.
These were well documented on YouTube. The scores didn’t really matter once you were off the ride. You couldn’t enter your name, or initials on the leaderboard as you could in an arcade. Nor could you get a printout of your score for proof. The thing about the Wonder Eggs attractions were that the targets, and goals changed on every play through. On the Tower of Druaga you had to listen for clues, and know which targets to hit, and when to hit them. For Galaxian³ you could be seated in one of 28 different spots. You had to have fast reflexes, and know which targets to hit on offense, and which projectiles to deflect so you wouldn’t lose energy. If the other gunners didn’t play well then you would also suffer the consequences. There was literally no way to just memorize one pattern, or have one strategy on either attraction. Even the designers at Namco said these were difficult attractions to master.
Dreamers loved having proof of accomplishing something that very few theme park visitors achieved. There were a handful of keepsakes that were comparable at the Disney parks. You could get a free button if you were celebrating a milestone, anniversary or birthday. You could also get a phone call on your birthday from Goofy if you visited City Hall. You might get a certificate for co-piloting the Monorail at Walt Disney World. You might even be lucky enough to ride the Lilly Belle private rail car on the Disneyland railroad. One of the rarest treats was if you rode the Mark Twain river boat. If you asked nicely (and were very lucky) then you might get to visit the wheelhouse, and pilot the boat. You might even get proof of this with a certificate. After decades this was phased out as regulars felt entitled to it, and became pushy with cast members (employees) as well as other guests. Physical mementos that couldn’t be purchased necessarily carried a lot of weight within the community. Imagine the bragging rights from Disney aficionados if they could prove they were the best at riding Pirates of the Caribbean or the Haunted Mansion. If an employee gave them a doubloon, or Hatbox Ghost pin for outstanding play then it would make long-time visitors insanely jealous.
Competition was one of the major draws to Wonder Eggs. Competition was reflected in the Pyrallis named Agon. Going for the high score, trying to win a pin or a sticker was something that kept many guests coming back. In earlier blogs I talked about the mythology of play, and even the philosophy of play. These were things that helped guide CEO Masaya Nakamura, and his senior employees at Namco. It turned out that there was an actual science of play as well. You might have heard of the “10,000-hour rule.” Journalist Malcolm Gladwell coined this term in his book the Outliers. He stated that “Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.” This meant that a sport, art, music, or any activity could be mastered if the person spent 10,000 hours on it. That’s roughly three hours a day for nine years.
I talked about 10,000 hours and practicing correct forms to become proficient at fighting games. Repetition was crucial for developing muscle memory, the ability to react quickly and with minimal thought.
It also mattered how you practiced. If you practiced a bad form, or a bad technique then you limited your true potential. Repeating correct forms was more important than just repeating the same thing over and over. There was a way to become better at any activity faster than 10,000 hours. Scientists discovered that it took approximately 400 repetitions to create a new synapse in the brain, unless it was done in play, in which case it only took 10 to 20 repetitions. People that focused intensely on play became better at it exponentially. It explained why the best video game players tended to be good at several different titles, and not just one. The best game designers managed to stumble into this organically. They tricked our brains into engaging with their titles. They challenged us, by rewarded the learning part of our brain.
Play caused changes in the Prefrontal Cortex which helped rewire the brain's executive control system. This was important in regulating emotions, making plans, problem solving, and supporting whole brain integration. Neural-plasticity was the scientific term for how our brain learned new things. It was how our habits could change through repetition. Physical activity, or hand-eye activities were not the only thing that affected neural-plasticity. Audio also affected our brain.
Neural nostalgia was an important topic in understanding memory. The music we listened to as teenagers binded differently to ours brains compared to anything we listened to as adults. To deal with stress a useful coping skill would be to listen to the music so you could process emotions easier.
Then
there was the science of smell. Our memories,
especially positive memories could be wired through scents into our olfactory, and limbic systems. It was entirely possible for the music, and especially
the smell of the water in the Pirates of the Caribbean to bring back a flood of positive emotions. Any fan of the theme park could tell you how happy the smell, and music of the attraction made them feel.
The science behind music, and smell were things that Disney Imagineers used to great success. Disney fans could recite how
the patented Smellitzer pumped odors into particular areas of the park. Doing this affected our senses, emotions, and even appetites. The science behind play, specifically in a video game context, was something that the Imagineers were still refining. By comparison in the early 1990’s Namco was well versed in game development. This allowed them to build theme park attractions that predated the work of western theme parks. Not every visitor to Wonder Eggs was a serious video game aficionado. We will talk about building attractions for different customers in the next entry. Were there any defunct parks that you visited? Please tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me
please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!
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