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This article explores the question of whether Kingdom Hearts, a Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) featuring Disney characters, can be considered a JRPG. The author examines the racialized labor behind the game and argues that it challenges the notion of a JRPG's Japanese identity. The article also discusses the collaboration between Square and Disney, the genre's lack of definition, and the controversy surrounding Kingdom Hearts' status as a JRPG. It analyzes the game's production, design choices, and the role of director Tetsuya Nomura as an anti-auteur. The article highlights the erasure of minority labor in the global video game industry and the racial politics underlying the development of JRPGs. [Extracted from the article]

In the context of extensive smart developments in amusement parks, this study aimed to understand how different smart tourism technologies could be transferred into tourists' expectations of smart tourism experiences. Drawing on the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) methodology, this study established a House of Quality (HoQ) for smart developments by analyzing data from 20 interviews (10 tourists and 10 service providers) and 300 survey responses (250 tourists and 50 service providers). The results identified 14 smart tourism technologies in amusement parks, and revealed that they correlated in different ways with the four smart tourism experience attributes (accessibility, informativeness, interactivity, and personalization), thus laying a theoretical foundation for more comprehensive discussions of smart tourism design, and providing practical implications for staging the smart tourism experience in a better way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wide concentration of facilities in the city of Tehran always provides the basis for attracting people from the surrounding areas into the urban area. The continuation of this situation, in addition to fueling the spatial inequalities and the wide gap between the center and the surrounding areas, has led to the fattening and increase of the population of the metropolis of Tehran. The 15th urban area of Tehran and especially the peripheral neighborhoods such as Mesgarabad and Masoudiyeh are among the places that are in an unfavorable situation compared to many urban areas of Tehran in terms of development level, wealth indicators, urban services and living facilities. Therefore, the development of tourism and recreational activities in this area will not only help to increase the urban living facilities for the deprived residents, but it will be very effective in terms of attracting investment and increasing local job creation platforms and infrastructure development. The general purpose of this research is to plan for the development of tourism and recreational activities in Mesgarabad or Narjes Khatun resort, which has been collected in the form of documents. This research is classified as applied research. The obtained results show that today despite having high potential as a resort, there is still a need for planning to create many infrastructures in the field of water supply, electricity, transportation network, parking, providing more access and entry and exit, resolving conflicts with Surrounding properties include fencing, further strengthening of existing dune mounds, recreational facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theme parks have been constantly updated and modified to maintain their attractiveness while managing seasonality and fluctuating visitors. Flexibility must be considered in spatial planning, design, and operations to meet the evolving daily and seasonal requirements and ensure long-term adjustability. Nonetheless, the flexibility remains unclear due to variations in its interpretation among different authors, thus hindering its adoption. Its application in spatial planning and design is still limited, primarily seen in the housing sector. This research aims to establish a framework for integrating and evaluating flexibility in the planning and design of a theme park based on the diverse interpretations of flexibility in residential and urban sectors. These interpretations were distilled into three primary dimensions: function, access, and transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important part of Chinese excellent traditional culture, Jingchu culture has profound historical and cultural value. The exploration and application of Jingchu culture elements is conducive to carrying forward and inheriting history and culture and enriching urban cultural deposits. Theme park is an important place to spread and promote Jingchu culture. It is of far-reaching significance to study and explore the integration of Jingchu culture elements into the construction of theme park. This paper analyzes the concept and connotation of Jingchu culture, combs and analyzes the extraction content of Jingchu culture elements, and summarizes the expression pathways of Jingchu culture elements in theme park and the practical application in Jingzhou Fantawild, in order to provide certain inspiration and reference for contemporary landscape designers to better inherit and develop Jingchu culture elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research proposes a methodology with a structural, participatory, flexible and dynamic character, for the design of sustainable theme parks preferably in protected natural areas adapted to the conditions of the Cuban destinaty. Theoretical methods such as systemic - structural - functional, analytical - synthetic, logical - historical, induction - deduction and modeling and empirical methods such as expert criteria and content analysis were used in the research. The methodology has three phases and six stages that allow establishing guidelines for the correct design of nature theme parks through the coherent integration of different methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The advent of COVID-19 and the subsequent national lockdown has catapulted higher education institutions into emergency remote teaching (ERT). A principal challenge in this shift is the ability to stimulate student interest towards engagement with, and retention of, course content. The creation of teaching and learning (T&L) resources and activities using a combination of the visual, aural, read/write and kinaesthetic (VARK) modes is fundamental in ensuring student engagement. Objectives. To determine the learning style profiles of undergraduate students and to explore how student learning profiles may be incorporated in T&L approaches during ERT. Methods. This descriptive study profiles the learning preferences of undergraduate students in a health science faculty using the VARK questionnaire. The study further outlines modifications in T&L implemented to support the varied learning preferences during the COVID-19 ERT response. Results. Our findings demonstrate that the majority of our students have a multimodal learning preference, with the kinaesthetic modality being the most preferred. Voice-over PowerPoint presentations with transitioning images, and audio files, supported the visual and aural learners through asynchronous engagement. Additionally, online discussion forums and applied projects (such as theme park designs) enhanced asynchronous learning by stimulating the visual, read/write and kinaesthetic preferences, respectively. Microsoft Team sessions with PowerPoint presentations supported visual and aural learning preferences through synchronous engagement. Conclusions. Rethinking traditional T&L approaches towards supporting the diverse student learning preferences is critical in student-centred T&L amidst the many challenges that ERT has precipitated. Academics need to be dynamic in their T&L approaches and intuitive in their awareness of how subject content may be modified/enhanced in the ERT environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese farming culture mostly starts from the angles of geography, history, sociology and folklore. However, there are relatively few systematic studies on farming culture from the perspective of landscape science, and the research direction mainly focuses on the concept, type, characteristics, function, and operation mode of farming culture. Under the background of the concept of agricultural ecology, it is necessary to improve the effect of the landscape design of agricultural theme parks. With the support of ecological concepts, this paper analyses the background requirements, public needs, design principles, design objectives, design essentials, and design elements of the agricultural theme park design based on the sustainable development and agricultural economic concepts. Moreover, this paper combines case studies to analyse the landscape design of agricultural theme park. From the design effect, it can be seen that the design method proposed in this paper has a certain effect, which can provide a reference for the subsequent landscape design of agricultural theme park. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a critical review of prior research on theme parks. By critically reviewing 195 academic publications in major hospitality and tourism journals as well as other journals covering theme park-related disciplines, a total of 138 studies were included in the final analysis. The results propose a conceptual framework that delineates the concepts, theoretical foundations, and multi-relations among critical stakeholders within the theme park arena. The proposed framework indicates the links between the theoretical concept and industry practices and provides a holistic view for industry practitioners to understand the fundamental concepts and visitors' demands. Accordingly, this study provides a benchmark to help industry practitioners design their theme park products. Furthermore, the framework identifies vital mediators (social factor, technical factor, economic factor, environmental factor, and political factor) in theme park destinations, guiding macro policies to promote the local theme park industry. Given the fragmented understanding of theme park research's conceptualization and its emerging popularity in hospitality and tourism research, this paper provides valuable contributions to the knowledge base of theme park research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-four cartographers. Twenty-four theme park landscape designers. Twenty-four theoreticians-in-training. Twenty-four dragon chasers. Twenty-four undergraduate students ready to slay. Not the dragons – theory. This is an article about my attempt at constructing an interdisciplinary theory and methods course. It is a course about theme parks. These theme parks are situated on a map. This map will show you where some dragons are. Curious? Sceptical? Confused? None of these, but reading this article fits into your schedule? Then, come on ... a quest awaits us! [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Making of Them and Us - Cultural encounters conveyed also through pictorial means "The Making of Them and Us" (MaTUs) was the name of a research project at Lund University which took place between the years 2014 and 2016, involving scholars from the Departments of Cognitive Semiotics and the History of Ideas, as well as the School of Architecture. Analyzing several Chinese posters in terms of the narratives they convey, Ranta demonstrates that they are predicated on an opposition between the Homeworld (Ego-culture) and the Alienworld (Alter/Alius-culture). [Extracted from the article]

Evaluation of other cultures is a strong force in a culture's definition of itself. Cultures are formed in encounters that include domination, conflict, and dismissal as much as appreciation and smooth exchange. In this paper, the construction of cultural identity is discussed, with reference to a Scandinavian Theme Park proposal made in cooperation between American design consultants and a local Swedish team of planners and visionaries. The image production in this design proposal, which never came to be realised in architectural production, shows that "Scandinavia" appears as a two-some dialogic construction that adopts stereotyped cultural identities, and that it was not brought to any wider public dialogue. In a semiotic account of this architectural decision-making, models of culture (Lotman. 1990. Universe of the mind: A semiotic theory of culture. London: Tauris.) are discussed in terms of the tripartition of culture into Ego-culture, Alter-culture and Alius-culture (Sonesson. 2000. Ego meets alter: The meaning of otherness in cultural semiotics. Semiotica 128(3/4). 537–559.; Cabak Rédei, Anna. 2007. An inquiry into cultural semiotics: Germaine de Staël's autobiographical travel accounts. Lund: Lund University Press.), considered as a basic abstracted backdrop of what is meant by cultural difference. In this paper it is suggested that this tripartite view on culture, can be further discussed in reflection of post-colonial studies, notably through terms such as "mimicry" (Bhabha. 1984. Of mimicry and man: The ambivalence of colonial discourse. October 28. 125–133.) and "subalterity" (Spivak. 1988. Can the subaltern speak?. In Cary Nelson & Lawrence Grossberg (eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture, 271–313. Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press.). The model of culture can furthermore be discussed through Peirce's distinction between different stages and carriers of representation, adding to the cultural model an understanding of what it means, over time, for a culture to relate to an admired as well as to a neglected other cultural actor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the field of park and recreation has long been focused on designing and delivering quality leisure experiences, the concept of experiences has become increasingly salient across almost all industries over the last two decades. From the time that Pine and Gilmore initially proposed the concept of the experience economy in a 1998 Harvard Business Review article, experiences have become a primary driver of the economy (Pine & Gilmore, 1999; 2011). If an organization is not providing experiences perceived by consumers as high quality and desirable, the organization most likely will not survive. A core concept associated with the design of experiences is co-creation--a collaborative process of value creation between participants and providers (Payne, Storbacka, & Frow 2008; Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004a). This paper examines the concept of co-creation and its relevance for the field of park and recreation administration. This is accomplished by introducing a three-phased model of cocreation that spans over the three phases of leisure (i.e., anticipation, participation, and reflection) and discussing co-creation's applicability to park and recreation settings through a descriptive case study. We define co-creation as active participation, dialogue, and collaboration between participants, producers, and a variety of other stakeholders throughout the process of designing, participating in, and reflecting on an experience (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004b; Rossman & Schlatter, 2015). Based on the work of Duerden, Ward, and Freeman (2015), we propose a three-phased model of co-creation, which includes co-design during the anticipation phase of an experience, co-actualization during the participation phase of the experience, and co-curation during the reflection phase of the experience. This paper provides specific examples of the different forms of cocreation during each experience phase. This paper also introduces the DART (dialogue, access, risk assessment, and transparency) model of co-creation (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2002; 2004a; 2004c) and provides examples of its applicability for park and recreation professionals. This paper concludes with a case study exemplifying how co-creation and its associated concepts can be used to design a swim program experience. Although park and recreation professionals have a long history of designing and delivering experiences, they risk seeing their offerings become obsolete if they do not find ways to stay on the forefront of the experience economy. As more organizations come to view themselves as experience providers, the competition for people's time and resources will increase. We hope the insights in this paper will help park and recreation professionals embrace and apply the concept of co-creation in their experience offerings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Reveals the most relevant moments of truth in the theme park experience. • Examines the impact of emotions on particular service encounters towards the appraisal of the overall experience. • Analyzes potential effects of memory on the subsequent appraisal of the service. • Uses the PANAS scale to ascertain which emotions are most prevalent while enjoying various aspects of a theme park. • Studies the effects of time on emotion elicitation and recollection. Abstract For years, the importance of customer emotions has been recognized in the service literature. Despite existing research, the discrete emotions generated by each service encounter within the theme park setting deserves more attention. The present research uses a quantitative research method to ascertain the various customer emotions experienced throughout the theme park experience using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Data was analyzed using multinomial logistic regression as well as correlation analysis. Results indicate that the emotions most likely to produce a satisfying theme park experience take place when enjoying rides, dining, and interacting with others. In contrast, the emotions generated while buying tickets were negatively associated with a satisfying theme park experience. Based on the results of this study, the authors provide a series of recommendations to generate positive emotions at key service encounters within the theme park experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the construction of locality in the three-dimensional space, or hyperreality, of Walt Disney World's shopping, dining and entertainment complex called Disney Springs, particularly Southern food that are representative of Florida and its locale. It highlights the architectural design of food spaces and the experiential realism of food consumption presented to patrons. The utilization of theme space and design in relation to Southern food and culture are discussed.

Amusement parks have been growing rapidly in Indonesia in the past five years but they seem affordable only for the middle and higher classes of society. Surabaya in East Java has several amusement parks that cater for low budgets and they have good-quality equipment and are safe to use. The purpose of this research is to show the results of building a low-cost amusement park. The amusement park was built by a player in the amusement park industry in collaboration with the Computer Engineering Department of Bina Nusantara University. An infinity mirror room (IMR) was built in one of the new amusement parks in Surabaya called Suroboyo Night Carnival. The full design of the IMR is discussed in this paper including the equipment used in the design. The IMR mainly uses fibre optics, LED and a mirror. The amusement park began operation on July 28, 2013, and the amount spent on one room was around US$8,500. No safety breaches have been reported. The facility has been able to attract 500 visitors on average from 2013 to 2016. The breakeven point of this facility was achieved in the first year of operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the connections between theme parks and films in light of the concept of intermediality developed by scholars Werner Wolf and Irina Rajewsky. Topics include the relation of motion pictures (movies) to the theme park Disneyland, the relation of Disneyland's layout to the establishing shot of a film, and the notion of synergy in mass media brands in influencing theme park design.

In order to optimize theme parks’ tourism carrying capacity, one must understand how park spatial structure influences visitor distribution and, in turn, congestion. This study applied a mixed-methods approach of statistical and spatial analyses of survey data from a theme park in China, to determine how attraction and spatial layout attributes affect theme park visitor movement. Results indicated that visitor movement is influenced by attraction attributes (e.g., attraction type, experience value, facility capacity, floor area, and indoor feature) and spatial layout attributes (e.g., distance between attractions, path network, entrance location, and attraction distribution). Theories relating intuitive and rational choices supported the effects of attraction and spatial layout attributes on visitor movement in light of the objective environment, benefits, costs, available information, and available options. Overall, these findings may inform theme park capacity design and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares and analyzes the users' perspectives based on Sign Design, focusing on Lotte World and Ever-Land, which are representative theme parks, There is a purpose. Consider various design elements of sign design. And how they affect the user experience. First, theoretical backgrounds of theme park and sign design were examined through literature review, and the elements of sign design were compared and analyzed. Secondly, the questionnaire was reconstructed based on Peter Morville's Honeycomb Model. As a result, it was necessary to improve the accessibility and location of sign design. Based on this study, I hope that it will be used as a reference material to improve the user experience according to sign design in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Railroads played a key role in developing resorts during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, few North American transportation museums emphasize this. This exhibition chronicles how rail links led to the development of amusement parks at an urban beach resort in New York. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Servicescape design of leisure spaces such as theme parks influence the level of visitor satisfaction and the re-visitation rate. However, only a few large theme park operators have a separate theme of specialists with heuristic knowledge for servicescaping. In response, small companies turn to the specialists paying high fees and royalties usually leading to outdated servicescape designs. In order to help small companies to design servicescape that provide satisfying experience to the visitors, a systematical understanding of the multi-layered and complex service environment of theme parks is necessary. The purpose of this research is to integrate the concept of precedent-based design into a rule-based system by identifying and organizing the design patterns of servicescape into reusable knowledge, propose a servicescape design support system, and confirm whether if the system helps to increase designers’ credence regarding their design in terms of its market success. To accomplish these research aims, six steps were carried out: (1) selection of globally accepted facilities for being successful, (2) analysis of precedents for the discovery of repeating servicescape design patterns, (3) knowledge acquisition and organization for each design patterns, (4) formulation of servicescape rules using the acquired and organized knowledge, (5) integration of the rules into a general design process of a facility as a system, and (6) application of the system in practice. The resulting system was presented to an expert in the field of theme park designs to confirm whether the design process is applicable and how it will perform in practice. From this interview, we received positive feedbacks and well as feedbacks for improvements in the aspects of the system’s applicability in practice, its functionality, and usability. After confirming the applicability of the overall process of the system, we conducted an experiment to experts in practice from various design and planning fields and asked to go through two sets of scenarios in which the first is to design a given site without the system and the second is to design the same site with the system. After each scenario, the subjects were asked to fill out a revised After-Scenario Questionnaire (ASQ). From this experiment, the results indicate that the subjects felt an increase in their credence toward their designs in terms of its market success while the satisfaction with the easiness and the time it took decreased. If our system is revised in the aspects of usability and functionality, our system which uses precedent design patterns could be used to help small company designers to produce servicescape concept designs with more design credence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the scarcity of academic research on customer-to-customer (C2C) interaction in theme parks, this study was designed to construct and test a conceptual model of visitors’ attribution of inappropriate behavior, satisfaction, and repeat patronage using attribution theory. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and analysis of the effect of visitor type were carried out. The results show that stability and controllability have a significant impact on satisfaction, and satisfaction also influences repeat patronage. Visitor type had no effect on the relationship between attribution and satisfaction. The theoretical and practical insights of the findings are presented along with the limitations of the study and future directions for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the article is to find the relationships between theme park visitor traffics and service facility location along with their capacities. To do that, we analyzed four Disneylands situated in Paris, Tokyo, and the United States (Florida and California). By analyzing the visual integration of visitor traffics at each Disneyland and calculating the capacities of service facilities such as the attractions, shops, and restaurants, we ran through a linear and a geographically weighted regression analysis. Our results indicate that there is a unique relationship between the service facility placements and the amount of predicted traffic flows for each Disneyland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights regarding the used Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus for establishment of classroom amusement park project. Among the topics discussed include the benefits of calculus for teachers and students, the role of calculus for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, and the significance of tecnology for amusement park construction.

In this paper a procedure for the design of the structures of a generic roller coaster ( RC ) is described. This activity is part of a partnership that the authors are entertaining with one of the major European amusement park industries. The full procedure, developed on theoretical bases and under simplified hypotheses, aims to make designers able to properly and quickly size the complete structure (for complete structure authors mean rails and support structures). In the present paper the design of the rails is presented. The data, needed by this procedure, are the rail track tridimensional geometry and the time histories of contact forces between vehicles and rails. The procedure has been subsequently verified by applying it to an existing RC in order to test all its capabilities and foresee future development and improvement, aiming to insert it in a consolidated general procedure, ever growing and expanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the form of reception of classical antiquity in the Spanish theme park Terra Mı'tica (Benidorm), concentrating in particular on its representation of Ancient Greece and on a ride centred on ancient mythology. This study exemplifies a methodology developed for investigating the forms of reception and cultural translation, especially of past and exotic societies, operating in theme parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the the implementation of American amusement park innovations around the world, focusing on themes of global industrialization and urbanization. Other topics include globalization and the transfer of technology around the world, amusement park design, and U.S. government involvement in spreading amusement park technology around the world.

The article presents guidelines that offer a classification for reducing the negative impact of subjective perception of time and allow for a particular model for designing queued environments in an amusement park setting. A table showing the 8 guidelines affecting theme park guests' temporal processing is presented including a queue design that needs to foster engagement, comfort that should not be overlooked in queues, and visual separation of inequitable wait queues.

Through analyzing development background and experience of butterfly theme tourism, this paper introduced basic concept, characteristics, significance, guiding ideology, principle and feasibility of butterfly theme park, as well as basic pattern and anticipative objectives of the butterfly theme park construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]