{"id":501,"date":"2016-10-28T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\/?p=501"},"modified":"2017-10-09T13:12:50","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T13:12:50","slug":"rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking the Theme Park at Halloween Horror Nights"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_345\" style=\"max-width: 206px;\" class=\"figure float-left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2016\/10\/SALTER.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"http:\/\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2016\/10\/SALTER-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"salter\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" class=\"figure-img  size-medium wp-image-383 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2016\/10\/SALTER-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"salter\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" class=\"figure-img  size-medium wp-image-383\"><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">An actor at Halloween Horror Nights.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While I\u2019ve lived here in Florida for a few years, and been an annual passholder at Disney since before I came to Orlando, I haven\u2019t spent as much time at Universal Studios. Every year I\u2019m impressed by the advertising campaign that accompanies the arrival of Universal\u2019s Halloween Horror Nights (\u201chosted\u201d by Chance, pictured above), but this is the first year I\u2019ve actually been lured in to attending. I was delighted to find it to be a great place to see principles of environmental storytelling (see Henry Jenkins for a <a href=\"http:\/\/interactive.usc.edu\/blog-old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/jenkins_narrative_architecture.pdf\">great description<\/a> on display, although I was also surprised by how little digital media has impacted their design so far. <\/br><br \/>\nPerhaps the most fascinating of the house from my perspective as a newcomer were those based on <em>American Horror Story<\/em> and <em>The Walking Dead<\/em>\u2014two series shows that are now fairly long-lived, with a range of narrative arcs between them. Their haunted house iterations were extremely fragmented, moving rapidly from season to season with changes in theme and relying on passageways of darkness or flashing lights to provide a sense of transition. Even the term haunted house is a bit misleading, as ultimately exploration is limited by the constant pressure to move forward on a set, sometimes frantic, linear path.<\/br><br \/>\nUniversal Studios divides their haunted houses between adaptations (associated with TV shows or movies) and \u201coriginal\u201d houses. Of course, even the \u201coriginal\u201d houses aren\u2019t particularly original: instead, they vaguely evoke connections to images from across several franchises. The \u201cscare zones\u201d are likewise send-ups of popular movies and themes, with the expected post-apocalypse zone with roving gangs recalling <em>Mad Max<\/em> while \u201cDead Man\u2019s Wharf\u201d channels the Davy Jones moments from <em>Pirates of the Caribbean<\/em>. While all theme parks rely endlessly on our investment in the referenced texts to fill in the gaps in the environmental narrative shorthand, the rapid-fire pace of haunted houses makes them even more reliant on our understanding that we \u201cshould\u201d be scared.<\/br><br \/>\nThe Halloween Horror Nights \u201cscare zones\u201d and the very concept of the haunted house are based on a type of passive interactivity\u2014the viewer enters the space, co-exists, and might even engage in dialogue with the performers, but the interactions never take a next step. This makes the new virtual reality haunted house \u201cThe Reposistory\u201d (an experimental, additional ticket multiplayer haunt) particularly interesting as a step towards even further integration of game and theme park. The experience combines live action set-up with a virtual reality setting and an escape room puzzle. There are a lot of cool experiments in this direction that you can easily check out in Orlando: Disney\u2019s Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom and Agent P\u2019s World Showcase Adventure both combine screens and story to let players take a role in chasing down bad guys through multiple sections of the park, while more traditional installations like those at Innoventions and DisneyQuest simply bring gaming hardware on-site. <\/br><br \/>\nIf the next generation of gamers is going to be brought up on virtual reality headsets and catching Pokemon in the wild, it\u2019s likely that theme park design is going to have to take even more lessons from games to develop transmedia experiences that give us something new besides the physical recreation of a familiar property\u2019s settings. With Halloween almost upon us, I highly recommend making the trip to Universal to consider what that next generation of design might look like\u2014particularly when it comes to getting a scare. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While I\u2019ve lived here in Florida for a few years, and been an annual passholder at Disney since before I came to Orlando, I haven\u2019t spent as much time at Universal Studios. Every year I\u2019m impressed by the advertising campaign that accompanies the arrival of Universal\u2019s Halloween Horror Nights (\u201chosted\u201d by Chance, pictured above), but [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rethinking the Theme Park at Halloween Horror Nights - Texts and Technology Ph.D.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rethinking the Theme Park at Halloween Horror Nights - Texts and Technology Ph.D.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While I\u2019ve lived here in Florida for a few years, and been an annual passholder at Disney since before I came to Orlando, I haven\u2019t spent as much time at Universal Studios. Every year I\u2019m impressed by the advertising campaign that accompanies the arrival of Universal\u2019s Halloween Horror Nights (\u201chosted\u201d by Chance, pictured above), but [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Texts and Technology Ph.D.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-28T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-10-09T13:12:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2016\/10\/SALTER-225x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Texts &amp; Technology\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Texts &amp; Technology\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/28\\\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/28\\\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Texts &amp; Technology\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/83c2b1bb2831d351584a7bd1460767b9\"},\"headline\":\"Rethinking the Theme Park at Halloween Horror Nights\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-28T13:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-09T13:12:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/28\\\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":603,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/28\\\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/26\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/SALTER-225x300.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/28\\\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/28\\\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/28\\\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\\\/\",\"name\":\"Rethinking the Theme Park at Halloween Horror Nights - Texts and Technology Ph.D.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/28\\\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/28\\\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/26\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/SALTER-225x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-28T13:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-09T13:12:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/83c2b1bb2831d351584a7bd1460767b9\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/28\\\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/28\\\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/26\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/SALTER-225x300.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/26\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/SALTER-225x300.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/\",\"name\":\"Texts and Technology Ph.D.\",\"description\":\"The Texts and Technology Ph.D. program at UCF is part of a growing interdisciplinary field combining scholarly study, creative production in fields including digital humanities, digital media, public history, rhetoric and composition, and scientific and technical communication.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/83c2b1bb2831d351584a7bd1460767b9\",\"name\":\"Texts &amp; Technology\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/60500069a90ff49eca8903a079d58f887c87612c1f2a2ff64964e297cad17b65?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/60500069a90ff49eca8903a079d58f887c87612c1f2a2ff64964e297cad17b65?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/60500069a90ff49eca8903a079d58f887c87612c1f2a2ff64964e297cad17b65?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Texts &amp; Technology\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/textstech\\\/author\\\/tandt\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rethinking the Theme Park at Halloween Horror Nights - Texts and Technology Ph.D.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rethinking the Theme Park at Halloween Horror Nights - Texts and Technology Ph.D.","og_description":"While I\u2019ve lived here in Florida for a few years, and been an annual passholder at Disney since before I came to Orlando, I haven\u2019t spent as much time at Universal Studios. Every year I\u2019m impressed by the advertising campaign that accompanies the arrival of Universal\u2019s Halloween Horror Nights (\u201chosted\u201d by Chance, pictured above), but [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/","og_site_name":"Texts and Technology Ph.D.","article_published_time":"2016-10-28T13:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-10-09T13:12:50+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2016\/10\/SALTER-225x300.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Texts &amp; Technology","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Texts &amp; Technology","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/"},"author":{"name":"Texts &amp; Technology","@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/#\/schema\/person\/83c2b1bb2831d351584a7bd1460767b9"},"headline":"Rethinking the Theme Park at Halloween Horror Nights","datePublished":"2016-10-28T13:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-10-09T13:12:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/"},"wordCount":603,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2016\/10\/SALTER-225x300.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/","url":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/","name":"Rethinking the Theme Park at Halloween Horror Nights - Texts and Technology Ph.D.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2016\/10\/SALTER-225x300.jpg","datePublished":"2016-10-28T13:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-10-09T13:12:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/#\/schema\/person\/83c2b1bb2831d351584a7bd1460767b9"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/2016\/10\/28\/rethinking-the-theme-park-at-halloween-horror-nights\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2016\/10\/SALTER-225x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/tandt-blog.cah.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2016\/10\/SALTER-225x300.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/","name":"Texts and Technology Ph.D.","description":"The Texts and Technology Ph.D. program at UCF is part of a growing interdisciplinary field combining scholarly study, creative production in fields including digital humanities, digital media, public history, rhetoric and composition, and scientific and technical communication.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/#\/schema\/person\/83c2b1bb2831d351584a7bd1460767b9","name":"Texts &amp; Technology","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/60500069a90ff49eca8903a079d58f887c87612c1f2a2ff64964e297cad17b65?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/60500069a90ff49eca8903a079d58f887c87612c1f2a2ff64964e297cad17b65?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/60500069a90ff49eca8903a079d58f887c87612c1f2a2ff64964e297cad17b65?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Texts &amp; Technology"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech"],"url":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/author\/tandt\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823,"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/textstech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}