Why Do We Need More Interactive Attractions in the LBE Industry

Advanced technologies are highly accessible to everyone now and changed how we work, interact, and experience life. Today, we can create new worlds using technology and storytelling blended into immersive experiences. Location-based entertainment industry benefits the most from that by being able to take its guests to other times and places, without boundaries, improving and personalizing the guest experience with interactive attractions.

Today customers are more likely to spend money on experiences rather than goods, shows The Harris Poll.

Guests pay for the entire journey

The Transformational Economy concept indicates that people are evolving and their expectations are higher. Therefore they desire personalized experiences that help them grow and enjoy the moment. Certainly, people pay for the entire journey, not only the final result, craving connection and meaning. Rather than buying an expensive gift, parents may pay for a venue to provide a birthday experience for their child. That’s why the location-based entertainment industry is growing, and venue owners thrive when offering an outstanding guest experience.

How to Enhance Your Guest's Experience

The future of providing memorable experiences for customers is more and more immersive tech and group activities. True interactive attractions integrate immersive experiences. Hence, the hype around the Metaverse is driven by people’s interest in technology power. Meanwhile, people can experience impressive video games from their couches, so they have higher standards for location-based entertainment and expect a remarkable guest experience, more than the technology can offer in their home comfort.

An immersive experience is a multi-sensory venture across a journey. It allows people to explore places they haven’t been to before by blending their sight, touch, and hearing senses and engaging their minds in new worlds. Immersive changed how people experience life in general, making it an adventure. Entertainment locations, restaurants, events, or shops can improve customer experience using XR technologies.

How?

Extended Reality (XR), is an umbrella term for every immersive technology that exists, and that includes:

Virtual Reality (VR)

Guests can interact with a digital simulation that emulates the physical world and completely immerse them. VR headset enables the guest to see and hear the digital environment like reality. Moreover, accessories can provide haptic feedback, so the touching sense is also simulated.

Augmented Reality (AR)

Enhancement the reality through virtual overlays. Users can see virtual elements added to the real world and hear related sounds, but rarely can use their touch.

Mixed reality (MR)

Binds together AR and VR into an enhanced version of AR, creating a deeper sense of immersion for the user than AR alone does.

Projection mapping

A projection technique that turns objects into display surfaces for video projection. Guests can enjoy the experience without restrictions by head-mounted/use-worn/hand-held device projection. Projection mapping combined with real-time tracking detects the positions and movements of the guest, even at high speed, and then projects content onto or around them, enhancing the experience with sounds also.

Digital twin

Guests can interact with a digital replica of a real-life object, system, or process.

360 content

Users can see a photo or video shot in every direction at all times.

What differentiates extraordinary interactive attractions from good ones

Interactive attractions have lots of benefits for guests’ experience, from the emotions sparked to the fact that most of them have social attributes, enabling people to experience together.

What differentiates extraordinary interactive attractions from good ones is storytelling.

Here is how:

Attractions that use storytelling transform into experiences

Technology enhances how the message is told and how guests interact with it, but if the story behind it is not exceptional they will only remain with the memory of trying new technology.

Immersive techniques give your guests a sense of presence. Good stories move them from a passive observatory to being part of the experience.

Boost engagement by building an emotional connection

Interactive attractions use immersive storytelling that allows you to step into the shoes of your favorite characters.

A good story invokes guests’ emotions and connects them with the narrative and characters, so together with sensorial experience, their mind is completely immersed and they have the feeling of “being there”.

Storytelling invokes gamification

Narratives can be gamified, so guests will be activated to play repeatedly.

By adding gamification (framing a situation as a game or play) attractions leverage people’s natural desires for socializing, mastery and competition.

Storytelling is one of the main strengths of our product, Arkadia VR Arena.

Read more about our games stories here: Arkadia Games

Interactive Attractions For The Location-Based Entertainment Industry

As we said before, people have access to immersive, personalized, and interactive content from the comfort of their houses. American Time Use Survey shows that except for ages 15-19, more people were playing video games in 2021 compared to 2019.

The expectations for the location-based entertainment industry are higher and higher, no matter if we are talking about an FEC, museum, theme park, experience center, or any other place that guests visit during their leisure time. And that’s good news! It’s a chance for the location-based entertainment industry to redefine and mix the oldie but goldie attractions with brand-new ones like VR Attractions, laser tag, immersive rooms, etc.

Yes, redefining the attraction mix means investment, especially when you involve in cutting-edge technologies. But looking at our client’s return on investment, we can frankly say they took the right decision.

Great interactive attractions offer your guests:

Group fun experiences

Contact with cutting-edge technologies

A story they can relate

Competitive games & more

Interactive attractions bring a lot to the table and generate the guest’s desire to play again and again, increasing customer loyalty. By offering them a group-fun experience, you mix competitiveness with socializing and attract guest attention, time, and money. People realized how much we need human connection after the lockdown. Above all, folks want to enjoy memorable days out and hang out, visit and experience and share that with friends, filling their social media accounts with fun images and videos. Hence, by adding interactive attractions to your location-based entertainment location, you can offer them what they seek.

QBIX: The Newest 6-Player Interactive Unattended Attraction

We are thrilled to introduce QBIX! Discover this Portal of Fun and offer your guests a memorable experience through engaging 5-8 minutes games in a very small footprint: only a 13 ft x 13 ft cube.

QBIX Unattended Attraction

Being completely unattended, each player is walked through how the game is played, with added elements that increase the guest experience such as a self-serving intuitive kiosk. We didn’t want operators to worry about breakable items or staff requirements while maintaining our focus on creating an interactive and intuitive group experience for each player.