Trip Report (via link): World Joyland - China

[theGrayZone]

(note: all images are from linked articles)

 

I came across a couple of articles recently about World Joyland in China. The articles cover two angles about the park... one, the park itself... and two, the details of significant World of Warcraft and Starcraft parallels... apparently without parent company (Blizzard) endorsements.

 

The first article may be found HERE.

 

The second article, a trip report, is linked within the article above... and may be directly found HERE.

 

The trip report contains a decent narrative along with photos of theming, buildings, rides, and art. Here's a clip from the review:

 

The concept of the park in general is actually pretty cool - Joyland is an attempt to merge our digital entertainment lives with the real world:

 

World Joyland will gather the world’s best contents of digital culture, combine the newest digital entertainment and interactive technologies, partially realize anime-and-game virtual sceneries, innovate anime and game communication and display methods, interpret the core value of digital culture, archive education during entertainment.

To that end, they have devoted a large section of the park to arguably the two most popular games on the planet: Blizzard behemoths World of Warcraft and Starcraft. And the park has now successfully become a conceptual mecca of sorts to the gamers of the earth. 1337!

 

They've also built enormous gaming and technology R&D facilities on the park premises, including the National E-Sports Competition Center(!!!), International Anime-and-Game Expo Pavilion, Anime-and-Game Technology and Derivatives R&D Park, and a Digital Technology High-end Professionals Training Center.

 

According to their promotional video [...] China wants World Joyland to compete with the likes of Universal Studios and Disney! They don't bother to address the logistical and legal issues involved with exporting such a shanzhai-tastic park, though, without going completely broke from legitimately licensing the project.

 

Because they obviously didn't purchase the rights to use characters and names from Blizzard, the Warcraft park is instead "Terrain of Magic" and Starcraft is humorously mislabeled the "Universe of Starship."

 

Here are three images from the report...

 

Wow... It says "WoW":

 

The drop portion of a water ride:

 

What we like! ... A B&M in the background (nice, non-curving drop on a flyer!):

 

It's crazy how the entire park has gotten built and is in operation despite the similarities to, and blatant borrowing from, certain franchises... yet I'm reminded of numerous copies and reproductions of many other "name brand" consumable goods that some eastern countries are notorious for churning out. I'm also recalling images and trip reports posted here at TPR featuring parks around the globe that copy designs, rides, art, and theming from other more notorious parks and product lines (Disney, Universal, etc.) to draw the masses!

 

Have any other readers visited World Joyland?

 

Any thoughts about the theming/licensing shenanigans?

 

I can't wait for a thorough and proper trip report and ride reviews about World Joyland... if you go, please share the experience!