We also can't forget that when Behind the Thrills reported on the leak last week that the park tweeted a link to the article. This along with confirmation that "the images are real" leads me to believe this was all planned.
Project 2022: Pantheon
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Yep. The underlying message from this is "SeaWorld ain't dead! We're going to get competitive."
That still doesn't really change things and it's part of my problem with SEAS overall. A lack of being in front of a story. Not that this one is bad at all from their standpoint.
But if this was a confidential presentation, be in front and put out there that you are looking into how they leaked and where it came from. Not that this is like top secret nuclear codes or anything like that, but this is generally information you want under wraps. Or put in there, "Yes they are real, but they are also old." How about not relying on a reporter to ask you and put out through the SEAS Twitter account an official statement:
That's why my friend had the "this is a marketing game" thought.
The more and more I think about it, that's the way I feel.
And I'm going to go galaxy brain on you if this is a 'game':
The 'points' on the slides are mixed up and it's a matter of matching the correct points to the right park.
No, @warfelg I'd have to disagree on being that up front, unless I was pressed. I've been in a few similar situations and I've played it down. You don't want to emphasize you've got "renegade" employees leaking info. Basically I'm not volunteering anything unless pressed. And, even then, the least I can devulge the better.
In this case, I do concur it's part of a planned strategy. I'm surprised, for BGW, that local press haven't gone for the bait.
In this case, I do concur it's part of a planned strategy. I'm surprised, for BGW, that local press haven't gone for the bait.
Just like to point out that the BGT 2020 slide featured a piece of concept art from Steel Vengeance announcement day. This means that the slides were made anywhere from August 16, 2017 to early September 2018. Knowing that we saw BGW execs riding Twisted Timbers in April I feel that these slides may have been made within a month or two of this time. Obviously this is just inner-enthusiast in me trying to connect dots, but I just feel that knowing the only RMC that is very close is to a SEAS property is Iron Rattler in San Antonio and with TT opening down the road they needed to try out the product before deciding on a potential manufacturer.
If it wasn't planned.....no you be upfront. This is the same problem I have with their PETA problems. When something like this comes out that you didn't plan on you always get out in front of it. I think sitting back and playing down makes people think they can keep doing this stuff.
If this wasn't planned, it's not hard to make a statement of "It was unplanned, and we will work to ensure it doesn't happen again." It's just my overall problems with SEAS. They react to everything, aren't proactive about a single thing.
I think this was planned, and that quote is more about the surprise that someone asked if they were real.
The whole thing feels very very haphazard. The way the 'leak' happened, the RMC Gwazi setup on the BGT announcement that stole the thunder, the lack of a quick response. Like, if you are going to 'leak' this stuff and make it planned, why not ensure that whoever you pick to 'leak' it would also post the slides at the same time? Why not makes sure that the 'source' is someone that these sites could trust?
I've been around long enough to remember the Hershey Project 2012 game (Skyrush). I was one of the people there at the very beginning that was asked some very strange questions, and then was given the Ride Institute of Technology piece. We came to learn that it was a marketing employee that gave us that, and they said the reason they gave it to us in a group was they wanted us to open them all at the same time to know to put them together, and they targeted us because of bloggers and media outlets being in the group.
So if you are going to 'leak' something on purpose.....why not ensure that it's someone you know will write about it (check on SEAS Part), that they will post everything (fail), and they will put something together to lead to a next step (fail).
If this wasn't planned, it's not hard to make a statement of "It was unplanned, and we will work to ensure it doesn't happen again." It's just my overall problems with SEAS. They react to everything, aren't proactive about a single thing.
I think this was planned, and that quote is more about the surprise that someone asked if they were real.
The whole thing feels very very haphazard. The way the 'leak' happened, the RMC Gwazi setup on the BGT announcement that stole the thunder, the lack of a quick response. Like, if you are going to 'leak' this stuff and make it planned, why not ensure that whoever you pick to 'leak' it would also post the slides at the same time? Why not makes sure that the 'source' is someone that these sites could trust?
I've been around long enough to remember the Hershey Project 2012 game (Skyrush). I was one of the people there at the very beginning that was asked some very strange questions, and then was given the Ride Institute of Technology piece. We came to learn that it was a marketing employee that gave us that, and they said the reason they gave it to us in a group was they wanted us to open them all at the same time to know to put them together, and they targeted us because of bloggers and media outlets being in the group.
So if you are going to 'leak' something on purpose.....why not ensure that it's someone you know will write about it (check on SEAS Part), that they will post everything (fail), and they will put something together to lead to a next step (fail).
I see your point @warfelg . Accidental or not, they aren't following up. If I were pressed I'd probably respond something along what you stated. I'm actually surprised that no amusement industry publication hasn't followed up on this.
Not that I'm 100% (yet) I think a clone of Soaring with Dragon is in the cards. It's hard to quantify whether that's a shuttle or what. If they do some serious terrain follow after the launch, maybe throw in an invertion or two, and you've got (IMHO) a winner.
so, I decided to do some snooping with Error Level Analysis to determine whether or not this is an actual slide, or if the images are real and simply pasted over onto a fake slide. My results....
A little hard to make out, right? So I decided to zoom in closer
I'm not an expert in the field so I can't say for sure I'm right, but I'm leaning towards the images being taken from somewhere else, like an actual presentation, and added onto fake slides; the compression here on the photos has 2 different features; really noisy bits and then the sky that follows a compression pattern unlike the other portions of the slide. Again, I could easily be wrong but... yeah my gut's leaning towards the information on the slides being what's fake.
A little hard to make out, right? So I decided to zoom in closer
I'm not an expert in the field so I can't say for sure I'm right, but I'm leaning towards the images being taken from somewhere else, like an actual presentation, and added onto fake slides; the compression here on the photos has 2 different features; really noisy bits and then the sky that follows a compression pattern unlike the other portions of the slide. Again, I could easily be wrong but... yeah my gut's leaning towards the information on the slides being what's fake.
I don't think trying to separate the images in the slides from the slides themselves makes a lot of sense. They are almost certainly all coming from the same place: SeaWorld. In fact, I imagine the statement from SeaWorld would have almost certainly been very different if part of what we're seeing was fake. It would have given them a very easy out.
I think the real questions are:
I think the real questions are:
- How old is this slide deck?
- Was it designed to be leaked?
The reason I drift to 1 is two fold. First if you were intentionally leaking this....wouldn’t you want who’s doing it to actually post the slides and not just the data? And two; too much of that is unsettled or extremely ambiguous in order to really give a great confirmation or clue to anything.
It's hard to tell just how old these slides are; it's possible that they're newer due to the use of Steel Vengeance on the RMC Gwazi page, but it's entirely possible they're older and that RMC Gwazi just didn't have concept art so they slapped the closest thing onto it to build up hype. It's a little weird though for Madrid to have concept art, but RMC Gwazi not to, but that could also be entirely part of the plan all along.
This is a fascinating marketing strategy if this is a deliberate leak, even if it's making my head spin.
This is a fascinating marketing strategy if this is a deliberate leak, even if it's making my head spin.
Project Madrid has been in the pipeline for a long time. It's not surprising to me that it is further along than other 2020 SEAS projects.
A local Orlando TV station picked up on the slides. Other than repeating what we've already read they had this -
"We've made a commitment to have a new attraction, event or experience in each of our parks every year," spokesman Travis Claytor said in an email.
Claytor would not confirm any details included in the plans.
SWO has a media day October 4. Perhaps they'll confirm the slide for that property so we can see how far off it is from the leak.
"We've made a commitment to have a new attraction, event or experience in each of our parks every year," spokesman Travis Claytor said in an email.
Claytor would not confirm any details included in the plans.
SWO has a media day October 4. Perhaps they'll confirm the slide for that property so we can see how far off it is from the leak.
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