There are many problems with Stern. The biggest problem, by far, is

that pinball machines do not earn enough money on location. Whatever

the reasons for that (and there are a LOT), that is the problem that

must be solved.

There are several prevailing opinions held by the only people that

matter:

1. Players must have 3 minute games to feel like they are getting

their money's worth.

2. Games must have at least 3 bumpers, “Italian bottom”, plunger rod,

and a toy.

3. All the toys have to be seen by every player every game for them

to feel like they are getting their money's worth.

4. A couple bars in south Chicago are a microcosm of the entire

world.

Point 1 is certainly arguable. Frankly, though, I don't see how you

have any clue about how much fun people are having unless you're at

the location watching people play the game. Guess how often this

happens?

Point 2 is probably actually a pretty good forumla in general. It

would certainly be the one of the 4 I agree with the most. You'll

still never get me to agree that the WPT plunger wasn't a complete

waste of money though. But for all of these demands, it was never

demanded that playfields have fewer shots and more pinball activity

(or ball randomess). People play pinball to see the ball do stuff,

not to hit posts between an assload of shots all day long.

Point 3 is asinine. If people can see every cool thing the game does

every game, there's no carrot for them to want to try and see it

again. The biggest example people always talk about is Thing coming

out to grab the ball in TAF. Think that happened every game? I'd bet

closer to one in every 3 or 4. Multiball in the 90s was also

generally an average 33% achievement. IMNSHO, you have a far better

chance of drawing repeat money from someone trying to get something

than from someone who probably only would've played once anyway and

has no interest in seeing the cool thing again.

Point 4 is just conceit. And irrelevant anyway if you're not watching

them.

Anyway, those are my views on what's wrong. Now, what needs to be

done?

Your best shot at making games earn more is tournament. For whatever

reasons, ops just haven't taken to it. You'd be much better off with

a newish product dedicated strictly to tournament (or at least

primarily). People also complain that games last too long (this is

mostly a byproduct of point 1 above and the fact that the gap between

players of any skill (let alone good players) and casual players is

gigantic). The natural solution to both of these problems is

tournament bagatelle. I'm not even joking.

But I've suggested that, whined about shot-based games, whined about

3-minute games, and countless other things and was never listened to.

I was barely starting to make some ground on more random playfields,

but who knows what will happen now.

Ultimately, though, if you're going to pay people to work for you and

do a good job and have good ideas, but then disregard them for your

own prejudices, what's the point really?

I can't remember if I said it during my topcast or not, but in the end

it was really a relief to be let go. Plus, I had already started

looking. It took a long time, but ultimately it became obvious to me

that I was tired of trying to help and feeling like I was generally

ignored and no way was I going down on that ship.

When the ship is going down, you have 2 options: repair the hole, or

get a bigger bucket and bail faster. The problem with the latter is

that eventually the bucket gets to be so big and so unwieldy that it's

impossible to deal with anymore. And ultimately, that is where I

personally feel Stern is at.

keith

–

At one time I had random Your Mother jokes down here.

Maybe someday they'll return…