You may indeed, I have no problems having a discussion.
Adding the one house from the neutered event last year is, at best, a fix for the mutilated budget from last year. 9 zones doesn't mean much to me when 2008 was able to pull off the same feat with actual sets and high-quality, new costumes (and without resorting to real hordes). The costumes last year were an embarrassment with the exception of the vampires. The Traditionals' masks came from a haunt shop down the road, the Beasts had recycled Spawning and Grinch masks, the Prisoners had some of the cheapest costumes imaginable, the Warriors had those awful, bizarre shirt tattoo things... very little of it was original, and very little of what was was cheap or recycled. That tells me (and everything I've heard confirmed this) that A&D had a tiny, tiny street budget last year.
Do understand I don't automatically consider things better if it improved upon *last* year, especially since *last* year was pretty mediocre at best. So 9 street experiences of some sort is not an improvement... not even off of last year, actually, since they threw in 3 "bonus" hordes midway through the event as a sort of desperation move (what does that tell you about guest feedback to the hordes?) Everything I've heard about the streets (and some of it I really can't talk about) is not good - it's extremely worrying. My confidence is not there, especially not after last year.
Two shows is (again) not an improvement to me. We used to get three or even four shows and that was the norm, and now we celebrate when we have two? I'm glad RHPS is coming back, but it doesn't forgive the shrinking show slate or the absolutely abysmal writing of Bill & Ted last year (and it's the same writer this year, so, goodie.)
I attended the Legendary Truth panel at Halloween Extreme, and while I admire their ambition, I'm not altogether convinced it's going to work as well as they want it to. So far the activity online has fizzled and has the fan community disappointed and restless (though to be fair part of that is to deal with the marketing blunder that is "PS's blog"). It's just when they promise "year-round fan interaction" and "bi-weekly updates" people are expecting a little more than a comment from Goth (who is a whole other story) or a hurried "keep waiting" status from LT. This is one of the more encouraging aspects of the event this year and I'll keep waiting to see if it takes off, but right now, things seem very unfocused and I'm forced to recall 2010's LT misfire.
Lack of chainsaws & stilts means money saved for Universal. They have to pay each scare actor group more per hour throughout the event for their specialized duties. Cutting them saves them some $$ that could go towards that 8th house that we're getting back (and praising them for, for some reason?) I don't even care for the chainsaws that much, but it isn't hard to see this is a cut.
Answer me this - last year we didn't have an 8th house or real sets in the scare zones (sans one of them). (No those recycled headstones do not count.) Where did all of the money that was usually allocated to those things go? (Hint: the answer is two words and rhymes with
Talking Bed.)