Would you have said you had a preference towards wood and launch coasters? Looks like it based on your top 10, but obviously, that's a small sample size, so wondered if you'd agree?
I almost wrote up a mini conclusion about what could be based off how my table made it look, but decided against it because it's a deeper conversation and I didn't have the time then. But I have a little bit of time now.
@Hixee has covered a lot of the points I was going to raise tbf (and also had much nicer-looking tables than me, as does
@Hyde..need to up my game!). But yes, if you look at my Top 10, it looks like I have a preference to wood and to the (multi-)launch coasters.
I don't have the nice charts yet like Hixee to show this yet, but... Steel coasters make up approx. 92% of my coaster count, so you could - crudely - say you'd expect 9 of my Top 10 to be steel. But that's a little bit off arguably, because there's a lot of +1 junk I've ridden that are steel, and very few +1 junk that are wood.
But even ignoring all of the +1 junk, steel coasters make up approx. 89% of my "ranked"* coasters, so again, you could still crudely say 9 out of my Top 10 should be steel.
So, you can use that to say that I have a preference towards wood.
But there's plenty of other factors that come into play. The spread of steel coasters is much broader in terms of quality I'd say (at the least, amongst to ones I've ridden this is true). So it's not really a surprise that there's not an alignment.
As you say as well, a Top 10 is a small sample size. It could be the case that those are the only 3 woodies I rate highly, and all the others are ranked pitifully. That's not the case, for the record, but it could have been the case.
To answer the question directly of "Would I say I have a preference to wood?" (ooh-err), I guess the answer would be "Not particularly, but when wood is good, it's great".
When it comes to launches, that's much trickier. I think "launch" is a big umbrella term these days. You have single launch coasters, multi-launch (non-swing) coasters, swing launch coasters, launched shuttle coasters. You could even split single launch coasters into standing launches and rolling launches. All launch coasters, but all very different, so where should lines be divided there. I haven't really thought about it much, but that was an interesting thought that popped in my head when I saw your post..
Again to answer the question directly. I
would have said confidently "I have a preference to multi-launch coasters" before riding Icon, but after riding Icon, I had no fondness over it. So it becomes hard to draw a conclusion - do I actually have a preference towards multi-launch coasters, and Icon is just a dud, or have I just happened to find 3 coasters I love which happen to be multi-launchers, and there's other factors at play?
That's becoming a bit technical and philosophical, and in honesty, I still think I have a preference towards multi-launch (and launch more generally) coasters!
*The age old 'ranking coasters' debate has been cropping up a couple of times on the forums again. So I'll (try to) briefly mention my method again. I've done a post on the forums somewhere, but can't remember where, so I'll post the link to my (now never-updated) blog where I discussed it:
https://justanotherthemeparkblog.wordpress.com/2021/02/11/geeky-analysis-of-my-coaster-rankings/
Basically, I was bored during a lockdown, and ranked every 'worthwhile' coaster I had ridden. The term 'worthwhile' is loose, and basically just means anything bigger than kid-family thrill in some sense. The ranking procedure I did was to ask 'Which coaster do I really want to ride the most?', and then exclude the list of already ranked ones. Not perfect, but did the job.
I then did some stuff and came up with a formula to try and, in effect, "predict" how a coaster would rank, based off it's different core stats (height, length, max. speed, number of inversions). I've yet to test it out in practice (grrr covid), but it's something I've always been interested by. There's plenty of other factors to consider too. Manufacturer, material, 'type', intended thrill category are all very big factors, but hard to measure due to not being quantitative data. I could also include opening year, age of ride when last ridden, etc.
Will end this long rambling post (sorry), by posting something I've added to my spreadsheet file and don't really know what to do with at the moment:
| Age of Coaster when First Ridden (Yrs) | Age of Coaster when Last Ridden (Yrs) | Years Since Last Ridden |
| 13.10 | 15.03 | 3.50 |
Column 1 I take a mean average of the age of every coaster ridden when I first rode it.
So say I had ridden 2 coasters, one which was 20 years old for my first ride, the other which was 10 years old for my first ride, the average would be 15.
Column 2 I take a mean average of the age of every coaster ridden when I rode it most recently.
So again, say I had ridden the same 2 coasters. The first I rode when it was 20 years old and it was my only ride on it. The second, say, I have ridden twice, once when it was 10 years old, the other time when it was 16 years old. Then the average would be 18.
Column 3 is probably a bit more self explanatory.
Say I had ridden 2 coasters, one I last rode in 2020, the other in 2014. Then the average would 6.
I don't think that taking the averages of these is very insightful or worthwhile, but it's the easiest and laziest thing I could do when I set the data up. I should toy around with setting charts up and, more importantly, making them look pretty, one day.
Anyway, enough rambling from me!
