# The One Where Money Talks **Source:** The Hardy Pinball Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2020-08-17 **Duration:** 15m 17s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/caryhardy --- ## Analysis Hardy discusses Kaneda's surprise livestream where Kaneda expressed frustration about listener-to-supporter conversion rates (2,500-3,000 listeners but only ~30 Patreon supporters), sparking broader conversation about content creator compensation and audience engagement. Hardy reflects on this dynamic, announces his own new Patreon page, and shares industry intel about Johnny Crap's firing from Stern and speculates that Zombie Yeti will now handle artwork for Keith Elwin's next two games. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Kaneda had 2,500-3,000 listeners per episode but only ~30 Patreon contributors — _Hardy reporting directly from Kaneda's livestream comments_ - [MEDIUM] Johnny Crap was fired from Stern after finishing art for Jurassic Park — _Hardy citing Kaneda's livestream statement, though Hardy notes uncertainty ('I don't know when')_ - [MEDIUM] Keith Elwin stated his next two games will use an artist he previously worked with — _Hardy reporting Keith Elwin's statement; Hardy infers this is Zombie Yeti_ - [MEDIUM] Kaneda has industry sources ('moles') at almost every manufacturing place — _Hardy's characterization of Kaneda's sourcing capabilities during livestream discussion_ - [HIGH] Hardy has information about certain manufacturers but won't disclose it due to confidentiality — _Hardy's direct statement in episode_ ### Notable Quotes > "yeah, you miss me and you want me, but where were you whenever I was on the air? Out of the 2,500 to 3,000 people that would listen to every one of his episodes, he only had, what he says, 30 people were contributing to his Patreon page monthly." > — **Kaneda (reported by Hardy)**, early in episode > _Core conflict: massive audience but minimal financial support; catalyst for entire episode's discussion_ > "a lot of you out there want us to keep putting out content and giving you giving you giving you giving you when nothing is returned" > — **Hardy paraphrasing Kaneda**, mid-episode > _Summarizes the central tension between content consumption and creator compensation_ > "I would cancel my Disney Plus to hear his content because, I mean, Disney is, what, $8 a month kind of thing?" > — **Hardy**, mid-episode > _Hardy demonstrating support and empathy for Kaneda's position via concrete example_ > "why is no one talking about this? And I'm like, yeah, I would love to talk about that, but that requires a lot of effort and research and looking into stuff, a lot of journalism time that needs to be done" > — **Hardy (referencing Kaneda's question)**, mid-episode > _Reveals resource and time constraints limiting Hardy's investigative capacity versus Kaneda's_ > "the art for that game was the downside to it. Everything else was great. You had a great soundtrack... but then you throw on the downside to it, which was the art, which was an immediate turnoff for me." > — **Hardy**, late-episode > _Substantive critique of Jurassic Park's visual design and indirect critique of Johnny Crap's work_ > "Zombie Yeti and Keith Elwin are teaming up again because what have we got? We've got an Iron Maiden to show that that was a damn good combination" > — **Hardy**, late-episode > _Hardy's inference linking Keith Elwin's artist choice to Zombie Yeti's prior success_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Kaneda | person | Prominent pinball podcaster (Kaneda's Pinball Podcast) who recently did a surprise livestream discussing Patreon support discrepancy and considering whether to produce more content conditionally based on funding | | Carrie Hardy | person | Host of The Hardy Pinball Podcast (this episode), content creator on YouTube, recently launched Patreon page, working on TMNT and Straight Down the Middle reviews | | Johnny Crap | person | Stern pinball artist, reportedly fired after completing art for Jurassic Park; known for using deliberately crude stage name; subject of Hardy's critique regarding Jurassic Park artwork quality | | Zombie Yeti | person | Pinball artist known for work on Iron Maiden and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Hardy speculates will be artist for Keith Elwin's next two games following Johnny Crap's departure from Stern | | Keith Elwin | person | Pinball designer with upcoming two games; stated next artist will be someone previously worked with on prior game | | Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; Johnny Crap was artist; produced Jurassic Park; subject of Hardy's industry intel discussion | | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | game | Recent pinball release (likely recent-to-Hardy's-recording); Hardy currently reviewing; features artwork by Zombie Yeti; Hardy views art favorably in early impressions | | Jurassic Park | game | Stern pinball game with artwork by Johnny Crap; Hardy critiques the art design while praising soundtrack, theme, and game design; Johnny Crap reportedly fired after completing art | | Iron Maiden | game | Prior collaboration between Zombie Yeti and Keith Elwin; Hardy cites as example of successful partnership | | Straight Down the Middle | game | Pinball machine Hardy is reviewing/restoring and creating video content about; Hardy working on disassembly | | Guns N' Roses | game | Upcoming Stern game (not yet officially revealed at time of Hardy's recording); Hardy plans to have Kaneda on show to discuss when officially revealed | | The Hardy Pinball Podcast | organization | Podcast hosted by Carrie Hardy; episode 3 is 'The One Where Money Talks'; format focuses on pinball discussion and community | | Kaneda's Pinball Podcast | organization | Prominent pinball podcast; had surprise livestream; ~700 Patreon subscribers mentioned in KB; 2,500-3,000 listeners per episode per Hardy's report of Kaneda's statement | ### Topics - **Primary:** Content creator monetization and Patreon support dynamics, Kaneda's livestream and audience engagement disparity, Johnny Crap's departure from Stern and Jurassic Park artwork criticism, Zombie Yeti's upcoming work for Keith Elwin's two games - **Secondary:** Hardy's TMNT pinball review in progress, Industry sourcing and journalist resources for pinball coverage, Planned Kaneda appearance on Hardy's show around Guns N' Roses reveal - **Mentioned:** Hardy's new Patreon page launch ### Sentiment **Mixed** (0.55) — Hardy is supportive of Kaneda's monetization stance and sympathetic to content creator compensation issues (positive tone), but critique of Johnny Crap's artwork and frustration with resource constraints introduce critical/negative elements. Overall constructive and community-focused rather than cynical. ### Signals - **[community_signal]** Kaneda's livestream surfaced widespread listener-to-supporter conversion failure (2,500-3,000 listeners vs. ~30 Patreon contributors), sparking broader community conversation about willingness to pay for content (confidence: high) — Hardy directly reporting Kaneda's statement from livestream with specific numbers - **[personnel_signal]** Johnny Crap reportedly fired from Stern after completing Jurassic Park artwork; timing and reason confirmed by Kaneda during livestream (confidence: medium) — Hardy citing Kaneda's statement; Hardy expresses uncertainty about exact timing ('I don't know when') - **[design_signal]** Keith Elwin announced his next two games will use a previously-collaborated artist; Hardy infers this is Zombie Yeti based on Iron Maiden precedent and Johnny Crap's departure (confidence: medium) — Hardy's logical inference from Keith Elwin statement + Johnny Crap firing; not explicitly confirmed - **[product_concern]** Hardy critiques Jurassic Park's artwork as major aesthetic downside despite strong game design, soundtrack, and theme; suggests Data East's minimalist approach would have been preferable (confidence: high) — Hardy's detailed critique with specific design suggestions and comparisons - **[content_signal]** Hardy acknowledges Kaneda has superior industry sourcing ('moles in almost every manufacturing place') compared to Hardy's limited sources; resource constraint limiting Hardy's investigative journalism (confidence: high) — Hardy's direct statement comparing his sourcing to Kaneda's during discussion of why Kaneda breaks more stories - **[machine_intel]** Keith Elwin has two upcoming games in production with artist assignment finalized; likely Zombie Yeti based on inference (confidence: medium) — Keith Elwin's statement (reported secondhand) about using previously-collaborated artist - **[gameplay_signal]** Hardy working on TMNT review; indicates game likely to receive high score; artwork described as 'home run' quality; game mechanics and depth being evaluated (confidence: high) — Hardy stating 'this game looks like it's going to be getting a pretty high score' and praising Zombie Yeti's artwork execution - **[announcement]** Hardy announces launch of new Patreon page (patreon.com/carrie_hardy) as response to Kaneda's monetization discussion; emphasizes voluntary contribution model (confidence: high) — Hardy's direct announcement: 'as of right now guys i officially do in fact have a patreon page' - **[content_signal]** Hardy plans to have Kaneda on show to discuss games when Guns N' Roses is officially revealed by Stern; will focus on conversational pinball discussion rather than formal interview format (confidence: high) — Hardy stating 'I think I'm going to hold out until Guns N' Roses is revealed' and explaining interview format preference - **[rumor_hype]** Hardy references Guns N' Roses as upcoming Stern title not yet officially revealed; positions reveal timing as strategic moment for content collaboration with Kaneda (confidence: medium) — Hardy references it as unannounced; timing suggests pre-announcement speculation phase --- ## Transcript what's up guys and welcome back to the hardy pinball podcast episode 3 the one where money talks now let's jump right into it to yesterday i'm busy working on my teenage mutant ninja turtles pinball review and my phone goes off to alarm notify me that kaneda's pinball podcast has just gone live. Now, due to the unexpected nature of this, I had to immediately check this out just to see what was going on, whether it was going to be him playing the piano again or if there was going to be him actually speaking. And to my surprise, this was him actually speaking to all of us. And I think he had a peak moment of about 86 individuals watching at one time. He was on there for like an hour and a half. I don't really know the exact time because for me, the stream kind of abruptly ended. So I don't know if that's actually how it ended or if that's just, you know, my internet going to crap. I don't know. But he was on there over an hour for sure. And people were asking him all kinds of questions and he answered. And that's what we're going to talk about first. I think one of the most common questions he was getting asked was, when are you coming back? We miss you, we miss hearing you, we want your content, etc. And this was a little bit of a turning point and kind of unexpected on my part. He was like, yeah, you miss me and you want me, but where were you whenever I was on the air? Out of the 2,500 to 3,000 people that would listen to every one of his episodes, he only had, what he says, 30 people were contributing to his Patreon page monthly. That gives you an idea right there that people will say one thing but actually do another. The fact remains, guys, and I've been doing YouTube for, I don't know, over a year now. A year and a half, doesn't matter. I've been giving out content for quite a while now, and I have made very little in comparison to how much time and effort and hours goes into what I do. We're talking a lot of time gets put into a lot of these things. Yes, granted, some of my videos require less effort than others, but still, that time that's put into putting things together to put up on YouTube for everyone's enjoyment takes time and effort that I technically don't even have to do. All of us content creators do this for the enjoyment of others, and we, at least the majority of us, don't ask for anything in return. But it definitely would be nice and a really good incentive to continue doing what we do. With that being said, you have Kaneda that is talking about having a largest, more than the largest, there's no way any other pinball podcast had the audience that he did. So when you have such a large audience and people that really loved his content, wanted to hear his content, that so little were willing to give back. And that what the major thing is guys is that a lot of you out there want us to keep putting out content and giving you giving you giving you giving you when nothing is returned That the ordeal So whenever he talking about how like you know where is this you know if if you guys give me this much money you know then maybe i give out the final episode or the 500th episode which is supposed to be his best episode ever so a lot of talk went back and forth about you know money and maybe if more people started contributing to the patreon then that would give him much more incentive to come back. I know a lot of people were like a little upset when they heard this, but the fact of the matter is, is that I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm on board with it. I agree. I am guilty of being the individual that listens or watches content and doesn't give things back. I'm humble enough to look back at myself and realize that, yeah, I'm one of those people. Not all the time. Now, there's definitely times where I go on to TNT's videos when he's doing premieres, and I'll throw in five bucks here, maybe even ten bucks there, whatever. I like to give back when I can. Same thing goes for streams. I mean, I technically only watch the flipping out stream, and I'll throw biddies at them and stuff like that. So I do like to give when I can. When I have the time to watch or whatever, then I definitely will do what I can to give to them, because I'm in the same pool as them knowing that what they're doing is not something that is easily done. I remember joking with him on the stream that I would cancel my Disney Plus to hear his content because, I mean, Disney is, what, $8 a month kind of thing? And, honestly, we don't even freaking watch it right now. I mean, it's very rare that unless my girls want to watch Frozen 2, which honestly I just need to buy the damn friggin DVD of it or Blu-ray whatever just so I don't have to pay for Disney Plus anymore but the fact remains is that he was pointing out that a lot of you out there pay monthly for something that you don't even use or is crap where that money could be going into something that you actually do use whether it be podcasts or YouTube whatever His point was that there's a lot of people willing to take, take, take, but not give. I think that was the gist of the whole conversation. He would put out multiple episodes a week, giving us all kinds of information, rumors, or even facts that he gets from his sources amongst the industry. Moles in almost every manufacturing place that gives him information to feed to us. that we were not going to be getting from anybody else. And me and Chris will talk every once in a while, and he's always like, Carrie, why aren't you talking about this? You should talk about this. This is a story. Talk about this. This is something that, you know, why is no one talking about this? And I'm like, yeah, I would love to talk about that, but that requires a lot of effort and research and looking into stuff, a lot of journalism time that needs to be done, of which I don't have that. So mainly either he had more time than I did or he had a lot more resources than I did when it came to getting the information. That's the thing I'm lacking right now is that I don't have the sources throughout everywhere. I mean, I've got a couple, but nowhere near what it sounds like he's got when it comes to getting the rumors and what's going on. I mean, I have information about certain manufacturers that I'm not going to tell because it's definitely secret. And if it does get out, then it's obvious that I'm the one that told because I'm only one of a couple that know. There are things that yeah I wouldn mind giving people information on or hints secrets whatever But I don have that information and I don want to lie to people so I not going to make up stuff either But if there's always a few out there that are in the industry, and you are curious about getting that information out in an anonymous form, then by all means contact me at hardypinball at gmail.com. As of right now, I do not have a Patreon page, but I'm thinking about creating one for those of you out there that are willing to contribute whether it be a dollar a month whatever then you can and like I said it's all up to you whether you want to or not I mean as of as of right now I'm not trying to go if you don't give me money then I'm going to stop making content no that's not how it is it's going to be out there just as it was for Kaneda for those that want to contribute to the content creator in the future I will have Chris on the show for us to talk pinball. He's already specified during his stream that he doesn't want to come on podcasts and be interviewed. That's not the way I anticipated him having on here anyways. I didn't want to have him on here and interview him. No, I wanted to have him on and we were going to talk pinball. Our thoughts and stuff like that and just let it rip. I think I'm going to hold out until Guns N' Roses is revealed. I think that will be when the iron is hot and that we need to strike and get the uh get all the info and thoughts and everything from kaneda on that is when guns and roses gets officially revealed that i'm going to have chris on here and we can give our thoughts on the game another tidbit of information that he said was that johnny crap from stern was fired after i i don't know when but he says that he was fired after his art was done for the Jurassic Park, which I thought was, I don't want to say funny. It's not funny when someone loses their job, but it does back up my theory and opinion that the art for that game was the downside to it. Everything else was great. You had a great soundtrack. You incorporated John Williams' score in there. The theme in general was gold because it's Jurassic Park. The game design was epic, but then you throw on the downside to it, which was the art, which was an immediate turnoff for me. And I'm like, oh, man. It was one of those things where I felt they could have easily just done what Data East did with their art package and just went, you know what, black cabinet, Jurassic Park logo on the side, bam. And that honestly would have been better than what we've got. I do like the premium art package better than over everything else, but the art was definitely the downside. Here's something else I'm not sure if anybody else put two and two together. But if Johnny Crap no longer were... Let's back up here, because when I think of the name Johnny Crap, and that's a name that he has given himself. That's someone who said, hey, you know what? I want to be called this. now I don't agree with that being a good idea if your art is not up to speed or what others would consider to be great because that would be funny to have a shitty name but great artwork you don't want to have the same thing you don't want to have shitty artwork and a shitty name that's just not Good, that's double stuffed Oreos for us podcasters here to just go, that's not good. I'm sorry, Johnny. I'm pretty sure that you have better work out there. I just haven't seen it. And maybe in the future for whatever you do hopefully you can redeem yourself and prove me wrong I look forward to it Keith Elwin has stated that the next artist for his upcoming two games will be someone that he already worked with on his previous game Now that Johnny Crap has, I guess, officially been fired from Stern, who does that leave? Zombie Yeti. so I would say that it's a safe bet that if everything is true that what we've heard then Zombie Yeti is doing the work for Keith Elwin's next two titles which is very good news if it is true that Zombie Yeti and Keith Elwin are teaming up again because what have we got? We've got an Iron Maiden to show that that was a damn good combination Zombie does great work, we know that especially for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles his most recent work like I said I'm working on the review right now and I'm starting the art section and I'm like do I even really need to go into all this detail about the art for this because it really speaks for itself, I mean it's an obvious just home run but that was my gathering of information so when he said that Johnny Crap was fired from Stern I'm like, oh, well then that means Zombie Yeti is going to be doing the artwork for Keith Elwin's next two games. That's what I got from that. When it comes to upcoming content for me, I am actually really behind. I have got to get my next video out for Straight Down the Middle. I'm still tearing that machine apart. And I've got my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles review that I'm working on. I'm hoping to get that out in the next day or so. I've got me a wireless lapel mic that should be coming in the mail today. I'm hoping that the audio quality on that is good enough for me to do, because that's going to make some recordings a lot better when it comes to me working on machines, because I'm hoping, fingers crossed, that that's going to work out real good. And then I've also already got mods in the mail that I need to get tested and reviewed on. I'm piled up here, so I've got plenty of future content. I just need to get the time to do so. The kids are in school now, so that's going to be a help. But I still have a number of other things that need to be accomplished in my life. So bear with me, guys. Content is on the way. As far as my early review, here is what I can say what my review is going to be for TMNT. right now this game looks like it's going to be getting a pretty high score i'll just leave it at that i will go into details on the things i like and what i do not like though that will be coming in the future as well and as of right now guys i officially do in fact have a patreon page you can find it at patreon.com slash carrie hardy you will see it there it's brand spanking new so as of right now as of recording this I have created a page I'm still new to it but this is all going to be new and learning for me but I figured I'd put it out there for those of you out there that do want to contribute and give back and I think on this note as of right now I'm going to bring this episode to a close until next time guys peace out Thank you. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: aa6f0c24-aa21-436a-bc8f-1431255a2b65*