# The Haunt Industry



## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

Just read this and thought it might be of interest to many here.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/inter...oducer-steve-koppelman-20121017.html?page=all
This is an article on the growth and state of the haunt industry throughout the world. Good article, with some interesting thoughts.


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## Warrant2000 (Oct 8, 2008)

Good article. I especially liked the RFID concept, I think that's a fantastic idea! And here I was excited about folks "checking in" with Facebook at my haunt.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

Maybe I'm just a bit paranoid (heck, maybe triple annoyed), but I'd be really leery about handing over access to my email, facebook, etc. accounts to some stranger anyplace, much less at a haunt, though I do think the use of faces and names for stones and such would be an interesting touch. I wonder what they'll do when they run into people who don't have those kinds of accounts or who won't give them access to them?


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## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

I think I too would be leary about giving out personal info. If they had a way to get an image of you as you enter and project it onto a picture or poster farther down the haunt that could be fun and startling.


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## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

That was a good article. Thanks for sharing it.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Interesting, but I don't see how the whole "accessing the customers social media" will ever work, due to time & privacy constraints. Nice idea, in theory.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

Apparently, they think that everyone would hand over that information before entering the haunt.
I could see having a "guest book" that people sign in on and using those names for something like tombstones built around a monitor/computer screen so that someone could be keying in new names and such as people go through, you couldn't do everyone's name unless you had a bunch of the digital tombstones and a team of people entering the names, or a long enough delay between groups going through.
But I could see the guest starting to abuse that like high school grads who list prank names that get read to the public before the reader realizes what he or she is saying.


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## Warrant2000 (Oct 8, 2008)

It's as easy enough as any of the current Facebook games or apps that access your info. Play Farmville or any of the 'villes? That accesses your info and contacts. Like to tell your friends what you're listening to on Spotify? You gave that app permission to access your data and post in your timeline, _"Don just listened to Lady Gaga!"_

A business (haunt location) can do the same thing. Permission for your basic data including your profile picture and contacts list. GPS/RFID in the phone tracks when you hit certain points in the haunt then puts up the data on the screens in the form of a tombstone, obituary, or before/after zombie portrait. And since you gave them permission, your Facebook status will reports several updates through the haunt, "Don just pee'd his pants at Super Scary Haunt!"

If they don't give permission, guests still go through the haunt and get scared, but don't get to see the "bonus" things mentioned above, and no updates on the timeline.

But, in this day and age of everyone taking pictures of their latte' and posting it, I bet this will be a hit.


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## Troll Wizard (May 3, 2012)

I know this sounds really great and exciting. Yes new technology is always exciting, but at times it can become too invasive in our lives. Information flows easily throughout the world in the blink of an eye. It has become so easy to post anything and everything about one's self on the internet, and it's done without even a thought. It has become to easy to gather information on things and people that sometimes we don't even know it's being done.

Take the RFID technology. It's in just about everything we purchase these days. It's so small and imbedded in so many products we buy that you would never know it's there. This is how stores track what we purchase, this is how the know what to carry in their stores. It is part of their inventory system and helps with ordering product and it let's them know what not to bring in and what to bring in. It can also be used for identification purposes as well. 

So I would agree with Hairazor, that I would not let my own personal information to be accessed at this new haunted attraction. Sometimes we are too easily persuaded and we embrace it because it's new technology, without fully knowing what it's about. Thinking that's it just okay. I kind of liken it to when we get our Social Security numbers. We all know it states right on the card "Not to be used for identification" and yet, almost everyone requests it and is used just for that purpose when we are filling out forms or applications! And we wonder why we are told not to carry our Social Security cards with us? :jol:


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

The reviews seem to be very mixed on that particular haunt. Between the expense, and the lack of acting or acting ability, it sounds like there is/was a lot more hype than reality. I didn't see any comments on the tombstones, photos, etc., that were going to be a major part of the experience, at least in the way the owner describes it.

Something I always look at in reviews is the language used. When everything is "Fantastic", "Wild", etc., and the reviews seem to mimic the haunter's own description, I tend to discount the review as being done by someone who owns or works at the haunt.

I'd be interested to hear a review from someone we know here on the forum


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## HalloweenZombie (Jul 22, 2007)

Fantastic read!


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