2. Quests instead of tours

Image: Jett Farrell-Vega (Screenshot from Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare)

It cannot be overemphasized what a game-changer the immersion concept is, and the more information Disney releases, the more likely it seems that, intentional or not, their end goal aligns remarkably close to replicating something like a living video game. One area where this possibility seems especially strong is in the description of Galaxy’s Edge’s flagship attractions.

In the past, most theme park attractions surrounded the concept of a tour of our favorite stories. Even the Navi River Journey at World of Pandora falls into this category to an extent. For a few brief minutes, we are given a leisurely or thrilling tour of our favorite tales. Often these stories have a haphazard feel to them, like that of the Yeti in Expedition: Everest or the sequel story behind Frozen Ever After. While Disney has done a brilliant job over the years making guests feel like active parts of these attractions, the audience’s role in the ride’s lore can sometimes feel a bit nebulous.

Already in their updates of Star Tours, Disney has taken a step away from this wishy-washy handling of audience’s roles in attraction stories. Within Star Tours, guests now have a specific role as travelers inadvertently harboring a rebel spy.

While MMORPG’s allow players to choose their own path within a game’s shared world, the central story still surrounds completing a series of quests. Players are given a specific objective to fulfill, giving them a sense of purpose and place within that world.

Image: Disney

Galaxy’s Edge will surround two primary attractions. The first will immerse guests in a battle between the Resistance and the First Order. The second—which Disney recently released some juicy new details about—will place guests within the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon itself to complete a critical mission. Here’s the interesting part though—how guests perform during these missions will affect how the rest of the park interacts with them.

We recently explored how escape games give us some clues what Disney may be up to in the future regarding immersive attractions. In these live action games, guests are given a mission to complete within 60 minutes to escape a room by interacting with puzzles. Most video games operate on the same concept, emphasizing the power of a quest to involve and captivate audiences. In games like Star Wars Galaxies and The Old Republic, this could involve anything from collecting animal pelts to infiltrating a galactic crime syndicate.

Quests give audiences much-needed purpose within attractions. It raises the stakes, places us within the story, and takes audiences out of the role of spectators and places us in the position of characters within the plot. Pandora’s “Avatar: Flight of Passage” made a noble pass at this, but even it fell far short of the mark Disney seems to be setting for Galaxy’s Edge. Attractions based on quests opens all sorts of possibilities, such as using mobile technology to give guests mini-missions like scavenger hunts. The sky is the limit, which leads us into one of the coolest video game-Galaxy’s Edge connections announced so far.

3. Faction standing

Image: Jett Farrell-Vega (from Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare) 

In video games like Star Wars Galaxies and The Old Republic, player choices matter significantly, particularly among factions within the game’s world. The large and obvious ones would be good guys and bad guys—the Rebellion/Republic and the Empire. However, your choices also affect your standing with groups like The Hutts, The Bounty Hunters Guild, even with political figures like senators and the royal families. Your standing with these groups can dramatically change how characters interact with you, whether you’re toasted as a friend or shot on sight.

One of the most exciting announcements about Galaxy’s Edge is the suggestion of a faction-based system that will change guest experiences depending on their choices during attractions. The details are foggy on entirely what this will mean but the possibilities are exciting. Might certain attractions give players a choice to side with the First Order or the Resistance? Random stormtrooper patrols in Disney’s Hollywood Studios are fun, but what if stormtroopers within the park interacted with you based on a ride decision to side with the Resistance?

“Contraband? What contraband? I don’t know anything about contraband. Who said anything about contraband? I don’t know anything about contraband. Hail the First Order!”

What if bounty hunters might seek you out in the park or characters might remark that you’re the best crack shot in the galaxy (and you have the high score to prove it!). What if kids could spontaneously earn a special badge from a random cast member interaction for their performance on a ride? The introduction of quests that affect even basic factions within the park would mean that every visit to Galaxy’s Edge will be entirely unpredictable.