again, I have serious doubts that people outside of this forum are not going to think this lineup isn't good. IPs that people love are a huge part of the reason horror nights has absolutely drubbed scary farm, an event that has been around for 50 years as it relates to popularity.
I agree with you. Not a single person I know in "real life" who enjoys going to HHN thinks about the event throughout the year beyond "Ooh, I'm looking forward to it again!" or keeps up on rumors/speculation, and 90% of the time rolls up to the event not even knowing what the lineup is other than the "big" IP (like
Stranger Things 4, for instance) they'll unavoidably see on billboards and social media. Hell, even listening to strangers at the event, it's clear many of them don't even know everything that's there until they're in the park itself -- the amount of times I heard things like, "Oh, they've got a
Chucky maze!?" or "Whoa, I didn't know
The Last of Us was here!" last year in passing (across multiple nights) was a reminder that I'm an outlier.
And at this point, it's less about what specific IP
could be there (at least beyond a headliner) and more about the fact people know various IP
will be there, regardless of whether they know which ones are/aren't, that gets people coming back. Most people are gonna come to the park this year and think, "Oh, they've got a TCM maze! Cool!" rather than "Oh, they're doing TCM
again? Ugh," all because they don't obsess year after year over what's coming and what's not, which is something I think a lot of people (here and other HHN-focused communities) tend to forget.