Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>Hey I bet they Welcome Me Home!<<<< Of course they will. And promptly give you a hard time about the third room, I bet, because Disney is NEVER in the wrong. Corp. Culture, every last bit of it. Regardless, sorry to hear that. And I hope you have a fun trip.
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub Thanks my grandaughter will turn 3. We plan to celebrate her party on the Illusions Cruise ships(pontoon boat). So that will be something new even for me. Yeah!
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer ^ Very nice! How far out in the lagoon do they take you for that?
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub I think just under the bridge walkway between England and France.
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub ...back on topic Next Gen Rumor...maybe Disney needs to do this to prevent "copying" all the new visual elements being added to Star Tours for example. I attended the final Star Tours Party at WDW last August and their control forbidding final taping of the last trip to Endor was HIGH Level. They would stop the ride if any taping was detected...That was the hottest coolest event I have ever attended. Midnight implosion strangers body to body waiting and waiting and sharing the sweat HOTITWAS!
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<I've heard that many are concerned with how this is going to play out in the fan community since Disney has let this go for so long ... but I've also heard the mandate to do something about it is coming from Legal and Burbank.>> OK, Disney... listen up. If you're *really* hell bent on making this happen, you obviously do NOT want to screw it up. And this is precisely the kind of fan-targeted product that could very easily be screwed up in a big way! Products like these, organized and led by folks who don't know their Disney park history, typically get messy, complicated, unfocused, and ultimately diluted. And attempts to sell diluted memories to the industrial strength fan base, like those of us here on LP, will fail. FAIL! So... here's what you need to do: Put someone in charge of this who knows the parks inside and out, who grew up with the parks, even beginning his Disney career working onstage in Disneyland before becoming an Imagineer. Give this to Tony Baxter. Here's why I know Tony is the best pick for the job: 1) Tony knows this park stuff better than the back of his hand. He is the undisputed single best source inside Disney at this time regarding the parks and their histories. 2) Tony is well-known amongst the hard core fans who comprise your target audience. If Tony's name is attached to this effort, the fans will be more receptive to this and more willing to try it. Having Tony Baxter overseeing development is like the gold seal of approval. 3) Tony has speed dial access to other Disney historians, like Jeff Kurtti and Stacia Martin, who will be valuable assets in shaping these new offerings. He also has a proven track record in working with current and former Disney execs, like Marty Sklar and John Lasseter, who are also big-time Disney park historians. Without these folks, the offerings will be diluted and less desirable. 4) Tony will first and foremost create something that he himself would want to own. And when it comes to the Disney parks and their history, if Tony Baxter wants a particular product, so do the rest of us. Tony's tastes in park memorabilia are excellent. He represents the target audience well. Why not give yourselves the edge by putting him in charge of this? You'll never have to doubt yourself about spending capital on creating these products, wondering if anyone will want them. A little Glendale birdie told me that Tony wasn't working on anything in particular at this time. Why not give this project to him? At least with Tony calling the shots, you won't have to worry about the quality of the end product. He'd be perfect for the job.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer ^ Logical, logical stuff. So, of course WDC won't do it like that. It has to fit the branding of synergy, dreams, magic and memories, so we will probably only get what we want out of the last one. But seriously, this could be something great, like you laid out.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox YOO HOO!! SPIRIT!! Can you give us a sense of how exactly Burbank sees this NEXTGEN, moving forward? I mean, do they have any idea what they want to produce or who precisely the target audience is? I'm just wondering how far this project has advanced in development. Is there a team in Glendale working on it already? Or is Burbank still trying to figure out how they're going to cut off the fan entrepreneurs so they can steal the market from them?
Originally Posted By Manfried Frankly give it to someone a little less old than Tony to give it a chance to succeed and not just be stuck in the past. But bring Tony into some blue sky idea sessions.
Originally Posted By Fowley Is it totally geeky that when I saw Next Gen in this title I thought Star Trek was coming to World :S
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<Frankly give it to someone a little less old than Tony to give it a chance to succeed and not just be stuck in the past.>> Which is precisely why Baxter should be doing it, because the NEXTGEN apps will focus on content directly dealing with the past of the Disney parks. If Disney is attempting a takeover of the fanboy nostalgia market, then they need to have quality content that's accurate and emotionally compelling. Since Tony worked at DL in the sixties and has been at WED/WDI for the past 41 years, it would make the most sense to put him in charge of this project. Sure, put the tech stuff in the hands of the young engineers. An app is an app is an app. But the content contained within these apps is the whole point of creating them in the first place. And the youngsters simply do not have the depth and breadth of experience that Tony does, to keep the content from sinking into mediocrity, mostly through ignorance and inexperience of their youth.
Originally Posted By Manfried Well Tony should participate, but they need a creative writer and a designer familiar with the technology to actually put it together. Tony would be better as an interview subject for the stuff. But putting him in charge of something he does not really understand would be an expensive mistake.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox ^^ What makes you think he doesn't understand this stuff? Have you worked directly with him recently? Or are you remembering how he used to be about 20 years ago, when Indy was being developed? People change. Besides, I didn't write that Tony should be doing ALL of the development work, which he obviously would not do. Writers and designers would be part of the team, working on the nuts and bolts of the apps. Simply utilizing Tony only as an *interview subject* wouldn't be enough. Younger Imagineers not personally familiar with how the parks were decades ago will introduce mistakes through their ignorance. Someone who was actually present and lived/worked in that environment needs to be on the team continuously to keep those kinds of errors at bay. Otherwise, ignorance and inexperience will screw it up. We've seen it before during the 50th, and it will surely happen again.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<For many years, Disney has simply looked the other way while others have profited by selling this stuff and there certainly is a fanboi audience rabid for the good old days. But, much like a strong desire to monetize the archives (the real reason for D23 and events like the upcoming WDW Destination D)... people in Burbank have realized (with some nudging from Glendale) that there's value in everything from America on Parade to Horizons to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and that it may not be the best policy to simply let folks 'borrow' the intellectual property for profit.>> I'm not surprised that Disney has finally caught on to these small little fan-based gold mines utilizing their intellectual property. Fans are making millions with this stuff, but Disney never believed it amounted to more than a few thousand. Hogwash. It is a VERY lucrative business, if you keep the quality high and market yourself well. I've heard from several knowledgable individuals that a very popular WDW-centric site has been netting six figures annually, mostly through advertising. Six figures? From one site? Why wouldn't Disney want that action for themselves? Makes perfect sense, since the site is all about parks and resorts which they own and operate. NEXTGEN in the parks will be the first step, followed by online content to download or possibly even DVDs. The small fan-based entrepreneur stuff is going to become extinct, once Disney has their own stuff for sale. The Mouse is too greedy to allow these kinds of profits to slip through their fingers. The only thing that shocks me about this development is how long it took Burbank to actually wake up to it.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo they always thought us "Walties" were in the minority skinnerbox, that we were a waste of time. Hmmmmm.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox Exactly, Dave. Now Disney has awaken to the reality of this situation, probably because of FB and Twitter, realizing that there are dozens of individuals who do this for a living. It's not a hobby for them... it's a career. And once you have enough people repackaging Disney intellectual property and selling it, even through a free access web site which you've sold advertising for, it becomes noticed. And that's what has happened... Disney has now finally noticed this stuff. It's only a matter of time before Disney Legal starts going after these people, like the DVD sellers and podcasters. That stuff directly affects Disney's bottom line. Free access fan-based web sites would be a bit trickier, since the money being made is only through advertising. But the folks selling "hard product" offerings, like DVDs and podcast subscriptions, aren't going to be tolerated for much longer. NEXTGEN clearly signals the beginning of the end for them.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom << Fans are making millions with this stuff, >> Oh come on! Name one fan that has made a million off of Disney's intellectual property? <<I've heard from several knowledgable individuals that a very popular WDW-centric site has been netting six figures annually, mostly through advertising. Six figures? From one site? >> Off of advertising sure... but that's not the same as making a million off of Disney's intellectual property. <<It's only a matter of time before Disney Legal starts going after these people, like the DVD sellers and podcasters.>> How are people making millions off of podcasts? And for the record I have no problem with Disney legal going after people profiting on Disney intellectual property.
Originally Posted By Manfried I'm sorry, but if you want Disney to appeal to a new generation, then you need to do it from a younger person's perspective in the lead. Otherwise it will remain trapped in the past, versus grounded in the past. Tony is sometimes trapped in the past. That's why he's a great interview subject, but should not be heading something like this up.
