What is the most 'average' Six Flags park?

[Heth]

I have never been to a Six Flags park in my life. I live in the UK and these parks have always seemed quite far away. Whenever I hear about these parks and their rides I often get confused about which is which. How many Batman: The Rides can there be? How many of them are Inverted Coasters and how many are 4D wing coasters?

This made me consider a question:

What is the most average Six Flags park?

By average, I mean which Six Flags park is the most average in terms of featuring key 'standard' rides. How could that be measured?

'Averageness' is pretty hard to measure, and so I've had to come up with a few methods. It is definitely far from perfect, and I'm open to other suggestions!

Note: I didnt bother with Great Escape or Frontier City as they were both obviously not going to be most average from the outset.

Method 1:
First, I've gone through RCDB and worked out which Six Flags coasters appear at more than one park with the same name. These are not necessarily clones, but essentially the same kind of ride with the same name:

Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang
Flashback - Vekoma boomerang
Goliath - B&M / Giovanola hypercoaster
Batman - B&M Inverted
Mind Eraser - Vekoma SLC
Batman: The Ride - S&S 4D
Joker - S&S 4D
Pandemonium - Gerstlauer Spinning
Superman ROS - Intamin Coaster
Dark Knight - Mack Wild mouse
Superman Ultimate Flight - B&M flying coaster
Vertical Velocity - Intamin Impulse
Viper - Arrow Multi Looper
Mr Freeze - Premier LIM Launch
Road Runner Express - Vekoma jnr coaster
Runaway Mine Train - Arrow mine train

I then adopted a scoring system. A park with a standard ride scores a 2. A park with a clone / similar ride but a different name scores a 1.

E.g. having a Batman: The Ride B&M Inverted at Six Flags Magic Mountain scores a 2, but Goliath at Six Flags Fiesta Texas scores a 1.

Six Flags St. Louis
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 2
Batman - inverted b&m = 2
Pandemonium - Spinning = 2
Mr Freeze - Premier LIM = 2
Arrow mine train = 1

= 9

Six Flags Over Texas
Hypercoaster = 1
Batman - inverted b&m = 2
Joker - 4D = 2
Pandemonium - Spinning = 2
Mr Freeze - Premier LIM = 2
Vekoma jnr = 1
Runaway Mine Train - arrow mine train = 2

=12

Six Flags Over Georgia
Batman - inverted b&m = 2
Superman Ultimate Flight - flying coaster = 2
Goliath - hypercoaster = 2
Arrow mine train = 1

= 7

Six Flags New England
Flashback - Vekoma boomerang = 2
Vekoma SLC = 1
Joker - 4D = 2
Pandemonium - Spinning = 2
Superman ROS - hypercoaster = 2

= 9

Six Flags Mexico
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 2
Vekoma SLC = 1
4D = 1
Spinning = 1
Dark Knight - wild mouse = 2
Vekoma jnr = 1

= 8


Six Flags Magic Mountain
Goliath - hypercoaster = 2
Batman - inverted b&m = 2
Flying b&m = 1
Viper - Arrow looper = 2
Road Runner Express - vekoma jnr = 2
Arrow mine train = 1

= 10

Six Flags Great America
Hypercoaster = 1
Batman - inverted b&m = 2
Joker - 4D = 2
Dark Knight - wild mouse = 2
Superman Ultimate Flight - flying coaster = 2
Vertical Velocity - impulse = 2
Vekoma jnr = 1
Arrow looper = 1

= 13

Six Flags Great Adventure
Hypercoaster = 1
Batman - inverted b&m = 2
Joker - 4D = 2
Dark Knight - wild mouse = 2
Superman Ultimate Flight - flying coaster = 2
Runaway Mine Train - arrow mine train = 2

= 11

Six Flags Fiesta Texas
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 2
Inverted b&m = 1
Batman - 4D = 2
Pandemonium - Spinning = 2
Vekoma jnr = 1
Arrow mine train = 1

= 9

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 2
Batman - 4D = 2
Vertical Velocity - impulse = 2

= 6

Six Flags Darien Lake
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 2
Mind Eraser - vekoma SLC = 2
Superman ROS - hypercoaster = 2
Viper - Arrow looper = 2

= 8

Six Flags America
Mind Eraser - vekoma SLC = 2
Superman ROS - hypercoaster = 2

= 4

La Ronde
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 2
Goliath - hypercoaster = 2
Inverted b&m = 1
Vekoma SLC = 1

= 6

Under method 1 the most average parks are:

1. Great America = 13
2. Over Texas = 12
3. Great Adventure = 11

----------

Method 2:
Method 1 was interesting, but didn't represent the frequency of certain clones. I have now proportionally weighted each key cloned/similar coaster relative to its frequency.

E.g. there are 6 Batman Inverted Coasters, so a park with one of these scores a 6. There are 2 Mr. Freeze coasters, so a park with one of these scores a 2.

As before, rides with the same clone / similar ride but a different name score a 1.


Six Flags St. Louis
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 6
Batman - inverted b&m = 6
Pandemonium - Spinning = 4
Mr Freeze - Premier LIM = 2
Arrow mine train = 1

= 19

Six Flags Over Texas
Hypercoaster = 1
Batman - inverted b&m = 6
Joker - 4D = 4
Pandemonium - Spinning = 4
Mr Freeze - Premier LIM = 2
Vekoma jnr = 1
Runaway Mine Train - arrow mine train = 2

= 20

Six Flags Over Georgia
Batman - inverted b&m = 6
Superman Ultimate Flight - flying coaster = 3
Goliath - hypercoaster = 3
Arrow mine train = 1

= 13

Six Flags New England
Flashback - Vekoma boomerang = 2
Vekoma SLC = 1
Joker - 4D = 4
Pandemonium - Spinning = 4
Superman ROS - hypercoaster = 3

= 14

Six Flags Mexico
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 6
Vekoma SLC = 1
4D = 1
Spinning = 1
Dark Knight - wild mouse = 3
Vekoma jnr = 1

= 13

Six Flags Magic Mountain
Goliath - hypercoaster = 3
Batman - inverted b&m = 6
Flying b&m = 1
Viper - Arrow looper = 2
Road Runner Express - vekoma jnr = 2
Arrow mine train = 1

= 15

Six Flags Great America
Hypercoaster = 1
Batman - inverted b&m = 6
Joker - 4D = 4
Dark Knight - wild mouse = 3
Superman Ultimate Flight - flying coaster = 3
Vertical Velocity - impulse = 2
Vekoma jnr = 1
Arrow looper = 1

= 21

Six Flags Great Adventure
Hypercoaster = 1
Batman - inverted b&m = 6
Joker - 4D = 4
Dark Knight - wild mouse = 3
Superman Ultimate Flight - flying coaster = 3
Runaway Mine Train - arrow mine train = 2

= 21

Six Flags Fiesta Texas
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 6
Inverted b&m = 1
Batman - 4D = 2
Pandemonium - Spinning = 4
Vekoma jnr = 1
Arrow mine train = 1

= 15

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 6
Batman - 4D = 2
Vertical Velocity - impulse = 2

= 10

Six Flags Darien Lake
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 6
Mind Eraser - vekoma SLC = 2
Superman ROS - hypercoaster = 3
Viper - Arrow looper = 2

= 13

Six Flags America
Mind Eraser - vekoma SLC = 2
Superman ROS - hypercoaster = 3

= 5

La Ronde
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 6
Goliath - hypercoaster = 3
Inverted b&m = 1
vekoma SLC = 1

= 11

With Method 2 the most average parks are:

=1. Great America = 21
=1. Great Adventure = 21
3. Over Texas = 20

Same top 3 as Method 1, with number 2 and 3 swapped.

I'd love to hear thoughts on this, especially if there are other methods to calculate this. Alternatively if I clearly need to do more with my spare time, please let me know .

 

[Hyde]

Oh I'm sorry, the answer we were looking for was: Six Flags Over Georgia

 

[Heth]

Oh I'm sorry, the answer we were looking for was: Six Flags Over Georgia

For the uninformed (me), what makes you say that?

Not even in my ridiculous numerical terms, I'd be curious to know which is considered to 'feel' most representative of the brand.

 

[Howie]

Saw the title, immediately thought of Great America. Call it gut instinct. It's not the best Six Flags park, but it's not the worst either. It's got lots of rides, but most of them can be found at other parks within the chain, either in clone form (Batman, Superman, Joker, Dark Knight, Justice League) or just similar make and model (B&M hyper, Arrow looper, Roller Skaters and crappy old woodies). Even the creds that are unique to the Six Flags chain (Goliath, X Flight and Maxx Force, for example) are not good enough to make the park stand out.
Add to all that the average, suburban setting with the average, nondescript landscape and what you have is Six Flags most 'average' park.
Turns out then that you should always go with your gut instinct, as all 3 of your scientific methods back me up!

 

[Gazza]

I was gonna say SFNE or SFFT.....a few good signature SF rides to make them good, but not overly big nor ****fully small.

 

[roomraider]

I was gonna say SFNE or SFFT.....a few good signature SF rides to make them good, but not overly big nor ****fully small.

I certainly havent been to that that many SF parks, SFMM, SFFT, SFoG, SFA and SFGAdv but SFFT is by far and away IMO the best of those. Location alone puts FT above the others not to mention the best Floorless in the world.

SFA was the worst and for me SFoG was dead center. Sounds like I agree with @Hyde . Crap i need to re-evaluate my life choices

 

[Gazza]

Everyone says SFA is the worst but I thought SFStL was much less engaging.

 

[GuyWithAStick]

Six Flags Great America
Hypercoaster = 1
Batman - inverted b&m = 2
Mind Eraser - vekoma SLC = 2
Joker - 4D = 2
Dark Knight - wild mouse = 2
Superman Ultimate Flight - flying coaster = 2
Vertical Velocity - impulse = 2
Vekoma jnr = 1
Runaway Mine Train - arrow mine train = 2
Arrow looper = 1

= 17

Six Flags Great America
Hypercoaster = 1
Batman - inverted b&m = 6
Mind Eraser - vekoma SLC = 2
Joker - 4D = 4
Dark Knight - wild mouse = 3
Superman Ultimate Flight - flying coaster = 3
Vertical Velocity - impulse = 2
Vekoma jnr = 1
Runaway Mine Train - arrow mine train = 2
Arrow looper = 1

= 25

Not sure what Great America you're looking at, we don't have an SLC or a Mine Train.

But yeah, GAm does have quite a few not-so-unique rides. But that doesn't mean it's a bad thing, we run our rides pretty well compared to other places!

 

[Heth]

Fixed that error!

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Love this concept, particularly as it has a dig at clones, well done. If you want to have some more fun with it, why not do a version where clones from parks outside the chain also count - so stuff like Joker's Jinx and Ragin' Cajun can drag SFA down?

It's hard not to associate the word average with boring and lean towards the parks without anything truly significant, so it's interesting to see something like Great America come out on top.

According to my maths in the rank the SF parks thread where used ride lineup + how much the park annoyed me, I ended up with SFA in the middle of the pack, but that throws personal experience into the mix.

I keep looking at this thread thinking I'll do it someday, then I decide I don't really know - none of them made a good enough impression on me as a park.
They're all just soulless vessels for large quantities of creds (and then some RMC whoring).

So I'll try two different lists and then some maths.
By ride lineup:
1. Six Flags Magic Mountain - My boy TC, plus some other cool rerideable stuff.
2. Six Flags Great Adventure - My boy Toro, plus some generic rerideable stuff.
3. Six Flags Over Georgia - Cyclone then leave, but it has a dark ride
4. Six Flags New England - Cyclone then leave
5. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom - Joker then leave
6. Six Flags America - Umm...

And in order of the ones that pissed me off the least:
1. Six Flags America - The woodie was closed for a while, but they fixed it. With hilarious consequences.
2. Six Flags Over Georgia - Queues were too big and too many waspy things. Spited some meh stuff.
3. Six Flags Great Adventure - Turned El Toro into a living nightmare by the end of the day through terrible operations. Ugly, ugly place regardless.
4. Six Flags Magic Mountain - Constantly closing rides here and there when they feel like it because supposedly they've got enough to keep you occupied.
5. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom - Denied Joker to my face at opening because I wasn't privileged enough. Then had to queue 90 minutes a pop on 1 train op.
6. Six Flags New England - Denied Wicked Cyclone to my face 5 hours before the park was due to close because they got lazy and went home.

Which leaves us:
5. SFMM
5. SFGAdv
5. SFoG
7. SFA
10. SFNE
10. SFDK

That'll do.
I've probably forgotten one as well.

I look forward to experiencing the most average Six Flags this year.

 

[Pokemaniac]

I'd love to hear thoughts on this, especially if there are other methods to calculate this. Alternatively if I clearly need to do more with my spare time, please let me know .

Maybe the method should account for the size of the parks as well? Otherwise, the park with the most stuff in it would be likely to top the ranking, because it would be likely to have the "complete set" of Six Flags cliches somewhere in its lineup. But you'd have to account for the fact the parks having other, unique stuff too.

Also, Six Flags being Six Flags, I think you shouldn't just rate the parks on having identical rides, but different rides sharing names too. So Goliath at SFFT would score only one point for being a Batman: The Ride clone, as it isn't named Batman: The Ride, but it would score a bonus point instead for being named Goliath. Another often-repeated name is Viper, although most of the Vipers have been dismantled or re-themed in the past couple of decades.

 

[MagicWeasel]

SFGAm could break is average status if its new additions weren't so short. If Maxx Force or Goliath had an extra 1000'-2000' of track they'd be world class coasters.

 

[Heth]

Maybe the method should account for the size of the parks as well? Otherwise, the park with the most stuff in it would be likely to top the ranking, because it would be likely to have the "complete set" of Six Flags cliches somewhere in its lineup. But you'd have to account for the fact the parks having other, unique stuff too.

Also, Six Flags being Six Flags, I think you shouldn't just rate the parks on having identical rides, but different rides sharing names too. So Goliath at SFFT would score only one point for being a Batman: The Ride clone, as it isn't named Batman: The Ride, but it would score a bonus point instead for being named Goliath. Another often-repeated name is Viper, although most of the Vipers have been dismantled or re-themed in the past couple of decades.

Method 3
It is funny you should say that, as I actually did calculate the scores of Method 2 divided by the number of coasters in the park. The reason I didnt post this before was because, theoretically, a park with 1 coaster which is a Batman The Ride clone would come out as top because the line up is 100% 'average'. Great America tied with La Ronde, which also didnt sound right given the whole park is essentially off-brand. I'll post the results anyway below


Six Flags St. Louis
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 6
Batman - inverted b&m = 6
Pandemonium - Spinning = 4
Mr Freeze - Premier LIM = 2
arrow mine train = 1

= 19 / 9 = 2.1

Six Flags Over Texas
hypercoaster = 1
Batman - inverted b&m = 6
Joker - 4D = 4
Pandemonium - Spinning = 4
Mr Freeze - Premier LIM = 2
vekoma jnr = 1
Runaway Mine Train - arrow mine train = 2

= 20 / 13 = 1.5

Six Flags Over Georgia
Batman - inverted b&m = 6
Superman Ultimate Flight - flying coaster = 3
Goliath - hypercoaster = 3
arrow mine train = 1

= 13 / 11 = 1.2

Six Flags New England
Flashback - Vekoma boomerang = 2
vekoma SLC = 1
Joker - 4D = 4
Pandemonium - Spinning = 4
Superman ROS - hypercoaster = 3

= 14 / 12 = 1.2

Six Flags Mexico
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 6
vekoma SLC = 1
4D = 1
Spinning = 1
Dark Knight - wild mouse = 3
vekoma jnr = 1

= 13 / 9 = 1.4

Six Flags Magic Mountain
Goliath - hypercoaster = 3
Batman - inverted b&m = 6
flying b&m = 1
Viper - Arrow looper = 2
Road Runner Express - vekoma jnr = 2
arrow mine train = 1

= 15 / 19 = 0.8

Six Flags Great America
hypercoaster = 1
Batman - inverted b&m = 6
Joker - 4D = 4
Dark Knight - wild mouse = 3
Superman Ultimate Flight - flying coaster = 3
Vertical Velocity - impulse = 2
vekoma jnr = 1
Arrow looper = 1

= 21 / 15 = 1.4

Six Flags Great Adventure
hypercoaster = 1
Batman - inverted b&m = 6
Joker - 4D = 4
Dark Knight - wild mouse = 3
Superman Ultimate Flight - flying coaster = 3
Runaway Mine Train - arrow mine train = 2

= 21 / 12 = 1.8

Six Flags Fiesta Texas
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 6
inverted b&m = 1
Batman - 4D = 2
Pandemonium - Spinning = 4
vekoma jnr = 1
Arrow mine train = 1

= 15 / 10 = 1.5

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 6
Batman - 4D = 2
Vertical Velocity - impulse = 2

= 10 / 10 = 1

Six Flags Darien Lake
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 6
Mind Eraser - vekoma SLC = 2
Superman ROS - hypercoaster = 3
Viper - Arrow looper = 2

= 13 / 8 = 1.6

Six Flags America
Mind Eraser - vekoma SLC = 2
Superman ROS - hypercoaster = 3

= 5 / 9 = 0.6

La Ronde
Boomerang - Vekoma boomerang = 6
Goliath - hypercoaster = 3
Inverted b&m = 1
Vekoma SLC = 1

= 11 / 8 = 1.4

1. St. Louis
2. Great Adventure
3. Darien Lake

Darien Lake being 3rd just doesn't sound right!

I agree with you about the repeated names on atypical coasters to some extend, but I figured with examples like SFNE's Goliath the name is the only thing that is standard, as it's a model not at other parks so I kind of ignored it.

 

[Hyde]

For the uninformed (me), what makes you say that?

Not even in my ridiculous numerical terms, I'd be curious to know which is considered to 'feel' most representative of the brand.

Call it the qualitative assessment on how I landed on SFoG - just answering the question "How do you feel?" as you walk out of the park at the end of the day. To me, SFOG was exactly what I had expected - a few random roller coasters with a couple gems, couple duds, randomly spotted in a part of the United States. No more, no less. While I've been overwhelmed by some Six Flags parks (SFMM, SFFT, SFOT) and underwhelmed by others (SFStL, SFA), SFOG just stands out as being exactly "whelmed" in my mind.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

If you want to have some more fun with it, why not do a version where clones from parks outside the chain also count - so stuff like Joker's Jinx and Ragin' Cajun can drag SFA down?

So I went away and did this myself for a laugh. To me the most average park is the one with the least unique experiences to offer.
Of course that may depend on where else you've already been before you visit, but if you're someone in the mindset of 'gotta catch 'em all', like me, then you're going to encounter them at some point.

It's not 100% solid, I've given the benefit of the doubt to a few rides that I can't confirm from RCDB alone (looking at you, skull mountain) and would have to watch POVs (which I won't, spoilers), so the situation is potentially even less fortunate.

	Creds	Clones	% Clones
Frontier City	5​	4​	80.00​
Six Flags Mexico	9​	7​	77.78​
Six Flags Darien Lake	8​	6​	75.00​
Six Flags Fiesta Texas	10​	7​	70.00​
Six Flags America	9​	6​	66.67​
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom	9​	6​	66.67​
Six Flags New England	12​	8​	66.67​
Six Flags Great Adventure	12​	7​	58.33​
Six Flags St. Louis	9​	5​	55.56​
Six Flags Over Texas	13​	7​	53.85​
Great Escape	6​	3​	50.00​
La Ronde	8​	4​	50.00​
Six Flags Great America	15​	7​	46.67​
Six Flags Magic Mountain	19​	7​	36.84​
Six Flags Over Georgia	11​	2​	18.18​
Total	155​	86​	55.48​

Interesting that Georgia has come up in conversation already. It has the most unique layout attractions in the chain.
Also Great America which was winning (or losing) by Six Flags standards alone is well below average and has more than its fair share of fresher experiences.

So depressingly at any Six Flags park, at 56% across the chain, there's a good chance more than half the rides you ride you've already ridden.
It's good to suck the fun out of it for myself sometimes.

 

[cocoa]

This is great, nice to see some inspired statistics. I think there is probably some bias in how one includes/doesn't include the 'rest' of the park's offerings that would be interesting to explore. But I'm mostly just happy when someone sits down and comes up with their own statistical methods to really capture the data set they have in front of them, and are willing to play with their ideas to come up with the most relevant quantifier. I'm sick of people rote-learning and applying things like p-tests wherever they go... ok science rant over lol

I think you need to come up with a system where every coaster gets a rank between -1 and 1 depending on its 'averageness', where -1 is truly unique and +1 is the most boring possible. Then the sum of all the rides rankings in this park will give you an idea of how average or unique its lineup is, with lower numbers being more robust and interesting and higher numbers being more boring. This fixes the problem in method 1, where simply having a lot of coasters in general nets you a high score. I suspect this may be slightly more robust than just dividing by the total coaster count of a park- but you'd have to check and see for yourself! And tweak the method until it makes sense to you.

 

[Heth]

Heartline Coasters, that method you have used is very interesting! It is interesting to see an alternative but equally valid method yielding such different results.

The things I struggled with were mainly how to weight those most common clones versus those which were less common, but still clones. I definitely maintain that a B&M inverted Batman the Ride should yield more points than a Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast, because one is more common than the other. That flaw might be reflected a little in the table above as I don't feel all clones are equal. However, a flaw in my working is that a park with a Boomerang and Batman The Ride would get 12 points, but a park with a Mr. Freeze, Superman Flying coaster, Pandemonium and Goliath scores the same. It's hard and I'm not sure how to fully solve that.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Ok, If a Batman Invert should weigh more than a Mr. Freeze, here's another one to try.
For each clone i assigned to a park, I took the total that there are of that layout in the world and then added them up.
So a Boomerang gets a score of 51 points, Batman Invert is 11 points, Mr. Freeze gets 2 points and so on.

	Creds	Clones	∑Clones	% Clones
Six Flags Mexico	9​	7​	144​	98.63014​
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom	9​	6​	158​	98.13665​
Six Flags Darien Lake	8​	6​	103​	98.09524​
Frontier City	5​	4​	49​	98​
Six Flags America	9​	6​	99​	97.05882​
Great Escape	6​	3​	92​	96.84211​
Six Flags Fiesta Texas	10​	7​	82​	96.47059​
Six Flags New England	12​	7​	132​	96.35036​
La Ronde	8​	4​	96​	96​
Six Flags St. Louis	9​	5​	69​	94.52055​
Six Flags Great Adventure	12​	6​	54​	90​
Six Flags Great America	15​	6​	60​	86.95652​
Six Flags Magic Mountain	19​	6​	86​	86.86869​
Six Flags Over Texas	13​	6​	29​	80.55556​
Six Flags Over Georgia	11​	2​	15​	62.5​

For the output of this, you have to imagine a terrible world in which each park that contains a clone, contains every version of it in the world (and you have to ride them all). So you go to Georgia and the park has 11 Batman Inverts and 4 Superman Flyers along with the rest of its lineup. The % is how much those rides now dominate the lineup over anything else unique.

Bit of a shift at the top now, with Six Flags Mexico being home to so many prolific clones. Georgia still reigns supreme at the bottom.

 

[Peet]

For the output of this, you have to imagine a terrible world in which each park that contains a clone, contains every version of it in the world (and you have to ride them all). So you go to Georgia and the park has 11 Batman Inverts and 4 Superman Flyers along with the rest of its lineup. The % is how much those rides now dominate the lineup over anything else unique.

I love a bit of statistical overkill, especially with a very clear logical explanation like this, I tip my hat to you, sir.