What counts as a coaster is generally a pretty tricky subject among enthusiasts and has inspired a lot of debates. Most attempts to define properties that are necessary and/or sufficient for a device to be a ‘roller coaster’ seem to be at the inclusion or exclusion of rides that common sense would dictate don’t belong. I’ve since then come up with a method that favors simple intuition over increasingly complex checklists, but also requires a greater degree of consistency across judges that simple intuition can’t provide. I’ll call it something like the “categorical method” of coaster evaluation. Basically how it works is you define several categories of rides, and then treat each attraction as a credit in one and only one of those categories. I think the major categories would be something like this: Roller Coaster, Dark Ride, Water Ride, Car Ride, Flat Ride, Tower Ride, and maybe a few others. Pretending that I am as passionate about collecting credits in each of these categories as I am roller coasters, if I could only credit the Snail to one category which would it be? Intuition would tell me it’s a ‘Car Ride’ before a ‘Roller Coaster’. So even if shares qualities with a roller coaster or dark ride, categorically it remains a car ride first and foremost. What about Tyrolean Tubtwist? Nothing that intense deserves to be called a ‘Car Ride’ just because it’s electrically powered at times, and none of the other categories fit so ‘Roller Coaster’ is what I file it under as being of primary essence. Simple, right?
(Actually it’s not so simple. While it works well for coasters (I was able to use it to easily argue that all powered coasters do count towards my list while flumes or dark rides with dropping sections don’t), I found that if I were to treat all categories equally I had more tricky scenarios where my intuition was that a ride is simultaneously dark ride and water ride. This method also is clearly begging the questions “what categories are to be used?” and “how do you define the properties belonging to each category?” But for the moment it’s still the best and easiest method of credit-counting I’ve got when it comes to ‘miscellaneous’ rides.)
