Pinball

"I think we're at the point now where Eric Meunier and Keith are the two best designers in pinball. I'm seeing the two most creative designers in all of pinball, Keith Elwin and Eric Meunier. And I think everybody else is chasing those two."

Keith Elwin and Eric Meunier are the two best designers in pinball, everyone else is chasing them

"It's not that hard to design a pinball machine. It's not. It's really hard to make a pinball machine. And there's no greater proof than both Fathom and Cactus Canyon, two games that were designed decades ago and look how hard it is to just remake something that was designed years ago."

Designing games is easy, manufacturing is the real challenge

"Do me a favor and look at your pinball collection. Look at the amazing games you have... Have you beat all of your machines? Have you been to the wizard modes on all of your games? Have you explored the full potential of your lineup? And so why do you need another game?"

Most collectors don't need more games and should focus on what they have

"It would be hard enough to get people off of the street and train them how to make a good pizza pie. Let alone a pinball machine with thousands of parts and wiring harnesses and soldering this and that"

Labor shortage is the real problem, not parts shortage - training people to make pinball is extremely difficult

"you know why it's got to be a secret because they want to create FOMO. They want you to buy these games without seeing them. They want you to spend $15,000 without even thinking about it"

Pinball manufacturers create secrecy to generate FOMO and sell games sight unseen

"The interest is now, I think, at an all-time high. The prices, as everybody knows, for video and pinballs are at all-time high... the demand for these games just seems to be increasing."

Current pinball prices are at all-time high with crazy demand

"Everyone else other than Stern Pinball. It's just amateur hour... when Stern and spooky are not setting your expectations, you will be sorely disappointed"

Only Stern and Spooky are professional - all other manufacturers are amateur hour

"People in this hobby are pretty stupid if you ask me. They're like, oh, oh, everything must be going well because I got an invoice."

Pinball hobby participants lack critical thinking about boutique companies

"if I had a few million dollars, the last thing I would do with it is start a Pinball company. These guys are crazy, I mean it, they are absolutely crazy"

Starting a pinball company is crazy and incredibly difficult - wouldn't do it even with millions

"if you have a few million dollars, the easiest way to lose it is to go into pinball manufacturing... it is honestly a fool's venture to go into pinball manufacturing"

Starting a pinball manufacturing company is a fool's venture with terrible margins

"I don't feel like anyone should have to pay the remainder until the game is built. You've got my money. Like why is that so hard to get to that I shouldn't have to pay for a pinball machine until it's built?"

"You don't need your loyal customers anymore because there are so many people dying to buy these machines, especially at MSRP."

Dealers no longer need loyal customers due to high demand

"When you buy games that absolutely don't have an emotional connection to you just because it's got flow, I think you're actually moving us in the wrong direction"

Customers buying everything regardless of theme hurts the hobby

"I think the real issue is this, a pinball machine has become a flex item. It's become an item people use to flex and to say, hey, look at me. Look at what I got."

Pinball has become a flex item for showing off wealth, not just for gameplay enjoyment

"when you look at most of these companies it's been a bit of a mixed bag year some of them have had great financial success but have had really customer service quality control nightmare issues some people have sold out games in one day but then the games shipped incomplete"

Plans to do a year-end review of pinball manufacturers - mixed results across the industry

"you don't need more games. You don't need to keep chasing after every new release... We already have enough, right? If we were to say no more games ever again, okay, fine. We've got hundreds of amazing pinball machines available."

Consumers don't need more pinball machines - there are already enough great games

"these companies, what they really want to do is create this fomo. They don't want you to know what's next because they don't want you to make wise decisions."

Pinball companies deliberately withhold upcoming game information to create FOMO

"waiting for games and the supply shortage And the delays in getting your game is going to be the reason why The main reason why we are going to see more inflation in the pinball hobby next year People are going to want to spend more money to get the game today"

Prediction: Supply shortages and game delays will cause inflation in the pinball hobby next year, with people willing to pay more for immediate availability.

"it's fatiguing, it's exhausting, it's never what pinball was supposed to be, it was fun, it's been a lot of fun, the whole like FOMO, but over and over and over again, you reach a point where you're just FOMOed out"

Pinball collecting has become fatiguing and unsustainable - everyone should buy games they love and play them instead of chasing collectibles

"I think a goal for each and every one of us, that every single game we buy, we should have a goal to play that game, the same amount of times as the price of the game itself"

Goal should be to play every pinball machine the same number of times as its purchase price

"This machine, are you listening American pinball? Are you listening Stern pinball? Are you listening Jersey Jack pinball? Can you imagine if Ryan went over to Jersey Jack pinball and they made Sonic?"

Ryan McQuaid's Sonic Spinball homebrew should be manufactured and would be a huge success

"These Pinball machines will not make your life better. They will not make you a better human being. They're toys."

Pinball machines don't make your life better - they're just toys

"I actually think it's a blessing in disguise when a theme comes out that's an easy pass for you. Like Rush is so easy pass for me, it's going to save my money."

It's actually a blessing when Stern releases themes you don't want - saves money and prevents financial ruin from buying every machine

"if you just turn off two things, if you turn off two things, absolutely nobody cares about this stuff. If you turn off Pinside and you turn off Facebook, there is nobody that cares about your Pinball collection."

Nobody cares about your pinball collection outside of Pinside and Facebook

"I would much rather own $10,000 in a stock. I would much rather use $10,000 to take an amazing vacation. I would much rather spend $10,000 on my beautiful wife. I would much rather put that $10,000 aside for Killian's College Fund."

Would rather spend $10k on stocks, vacations, wife, or son's college fund than pinball

"This is a non-essential toy that nobody needs to own. I mean that nobody needs to own a Pinball machine. Nobody needs one in their house. Nobody needs one in their family."

Pinball machines are non-essential toys that nobody needs to own

"And all these collectors with their machines that have less than 200 plays, I guarantee you most of those guys never turn their games on. They've never even seen a single wizard mode in any of those machines."

Prediction: Most collectors with machines under 200 plays never turn their games on and have never seen wizard modes.

"Do I think the world in general is inflating ginormous bubbles around all of these kinds of items? I do. I think it's gonna all come crashing down one day. There's gonna reach a point where I think a lot of people are gonna do some soul searching and realize the happiest people in pinball just own a few machines, turn them on and play them."

Pinball collecting bubble will crash

"it's a freaking pinball machine. If you think this thing is greater than being civil to human beings, then you're misguided... These things are meaningless. They're absolutely meaningless toys. You don't need them."

Pinball is meaningless compared to real life - people get too caught up in trivial aspects

"you don't have to launch your games around a pinball show it doesn't matter anymore covid has shown us there's absolutely no need to invest all that time energy and money to shuffle your product to these shows... the internet is the greatest pinball show in town"

Pinball shows are unnecessary for launches

"When you're in a world like that, where stuff sells out before people even see it or play it... It makes them lazier. They know they don't have to do much work now to get your money"

Games selling out before anyone sees them makes manufacturers lazier and hurts product quality

"I have adopted the view that there simply is no warranty... you need to figure out how to fix a few things yourself"

Pinball machines essentially have no warranty and buyers should expect to fix things themselves

"Where are the other pinball podcasters out there that are covering? Probably the biggest news story that it's happened this year that the world's second largest pinball companies playfields are having serious issues"

Criticizing pinball media and podcasters for ignoring Jersey Jack playfield issues

"we just can't have You know the pinball media protecting Protecting the companies over the customers. That's not the way it should be"

Pinball media protects companies over customers and lacks journalistic integrity

"I for one am surprised that no company understands that I'm surprised that nobody is making pinball machines for rich people because so many rich people are in this hobby... still here we are today in 2021 and no one's making games for rich people."

Nobody makes pinball machines for rich people despite many wealthy collectors in the hobby

"four to five new games a year will come out from these three people probably more like six or seven and is that not good enough we need we need 10 games we need 15 games we don't we don't so this is good I can't wait first week in May you heard it here first."

Prediction: Something significant will happen in the first week of May.

"the key to happiness in this hobby is simply buy a game because you love it, buy a game because you enjoy it. Do not buy a game because you're afraid you won't be able to get it."

Buy pinball games only because you love them, not for investment or FOMO

"I think that there is going to be a level set, a resetting, if you will... It's not a real thing. It's a manufactured economy of scarcity and FOMO working together and you don't need to get on it."

Current pinball price explosion is manufactured scarcity and will reset

"If you bought Bitcoin in 2011 on the exact same day that Tron LE came out, you would have two days 46 million dollars in Bitcoin. So don't talk about pinball being an investment. It's a toy to enjoy."

Pinball is terrible investment compared to Bitcoin - bought Tron LE money would be worth $46 million in Bitcoin

"I am providing the below update as a matter of goodwill and transparency knowing that it will be unfortunately posted online or misreported by podcasts plural twisted in ways where truth, civility and rationality go to die."

deeproot Pinball blamed podcasters for twisting truth in customer communication

"I think you need to stop putting dates out in the world. I think you need to get everything in house first. I think you need to screw everything together. I think you need to load your game into a pin pod or a box and figure all of that out first."

Companies should not give delivery dates until manufacturing is 100% ready

"Pinball without booze is no fun. The reason why modern pinball in New York City was such a sad place to go into Because they didn't serve any booze"

Pinball without booze is no fun and the Pinball Hall of Fame should serve alcohol

"And I think the other dirty little secret and pinball that they don't want you to know about is so many of the games you enjoy are designed before they know what the theme is. And you can see it in the designs, you can see it in the laziness, you can see it in the mechanisms themselves."

Games are designed before knowing the theme, leading to lazy integration

"All this news is worthless. It's worthless. This isn't why people listen to pinball podcasts. They're here to be entertained. They're here to chuckle and to laugh and to actually tune in to someone who even knows a few things about the very hobby they're into."

Breaking pinball news is worthless - people listen for entertainment and honest opinions

"The happiest person will be the person who buys neither one of these games, Guns N' Roses and Led Zeppelin. The happiest person is someone who just loves both bands, doesn't feel compelled to own either, walks into a barcade, gets a couple beers, a whiskey, jumps on, both of these machines, rocks out with them for like a half hour, has a great time and goes home and doesn't have to worry about any maintenance"

The happiest person buys neither machine and just plays both at barcades without ownership hassles

"I want to end this show and I want to I really do I want everybody to just bury the hatchet that exists in the pinball media world I mean it's enough already and it's gone on way too long"

Pinball community drama has gone too far and needs to end

"So like a lot of manufacturers like won't come on my show because I do honest reviews of their products"

Manufacturers won't come on show due to honest reviews

"all of it somewhat fatigues me at this point, because I'm so exhausted by the sheer amount of titles that are already out, and now we've got this hanging over the community. We've got Alien possibly coming back. We've got Cactus Canyon possibly happening soon. We've got Raze possibly happening. Led Zeppelin, you know, I mean, it's like, and we just allocated all this money to Avengers and Guns N' Roses, this hobby. I mean, I swear, some of you guys, you guys all multi-millionaires, because how can this hobby maintain and sustain itself under the weight of all of these titles?"

The pinball hobby is fatigued by too many new titles and financial demands

"can we stop referring to these people as the VIPs? I mean nobody and I mean this nobody who's in the pinball media is a VIP... This is not a VIP industry people were just pinball nerds were not VIPs say their names"

Nobody in pinball media is actually a VIP - they're just pinball nerds

"I think that the people who are hosting these shows now have a responsibility to put people's health and safety first. And I just don't think these shows are going to happen. And I think the sooner we accept that, the better."

March 2021 pinball shows are irresponsible due to COVID-19