# Creator Mayhem this week

**Source:** Don's Pinball Podcast (patreon feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2024-05-21  
**Duration:** 29m 10s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.patreon.com/posts/creator-mayhem-104619606

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## Analysis

Don discusses the chaotic social media reactions within the pinball community following Stern's John Wick release, including controversies over missing guns on the playfield, a prominent creator brandishing a firearm on YouTube, and entitled reactions from content creators excluded from Stern's media day event. He contrasts this negativity with his own philosophy of participating in hobbies for fun rather than seeking validation, shares his enthusiasm about being invited to the media day, and celebrates his growing Patreon community as evidence that constructive engagement builds credibility and opportunities.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Stern released John Wick without guns on the playfield due to licensor concerns about children, though the explanation doesn't match movie marketing practices — _Don discussing Stern's John Wick release on this episode_
- [MEDIUM] A prominent pinball personality made a YouTube video brandishing a firearm in response to the gun controversy — _Don referencing a reaction video from an unnamed 'prominent pinball personality'_
- [HIGH] Stern is charging $2,000 for the Foo Fighters topper, which Don considers overpriced for the features offered — _Don's detailed critique of the topper pricing and reuse of existing graphics_
- [HIGH] Stern organized a media day event for John Wick and invited select content creators including Don, paying all expenses — _Don confirming he received an invitation from Zach Sharpe at Stern to attend the media day_
- [HIGH] Content creators including 'Jason' from Pinball Party and Orbital Alben publicly expressed disappointment about not being invited to the Stern media day — _Don discussing negative reactions from specific podcast hosts about media day exclusion_
- [HIGH] Don has 58 paid Patreon members (73 total including free), ranking 4th among pinball podcasts per Kaneda's infographic — _Don citing Kaneda's Patreon comparison chart posted to Pinball Mods Facebook group_
- [HIGH] The Pinball Show leads with 88 Patreon members, and Pinball Party has approximately 70 members — _Don referencing numbers from Kaneda's infographic comparison_
- [MEDIUM] Stern's media day is the first major cornerstone release media event they've done at least since COVID — _Don speculating on the rarity of such events from Stern_

### Notable Quotes

> "The licensor doesn't want guns to be associated with the characters of this film because children? But then every movie poster for the film features them prominently"
> — **Don**, early in episode
> _Core criticism of Stern's justification for removing guns from John Wick playfield_

> "I get it if it was like a character thing and made for content and such. But I think it was real. And it was just real strange."
> — **Don**, discussing the firearm video
> _Expressing discomfort with apparent seriousness of creator's gun brandishing_

> "I don't need their validation. I've got six other hobbies I participate in. So I don't live and die based on if I'm getting enough attention in pinball."
> — **Don**, mid-episode philosophy
> _Core philosophy distinguishing Don's approach from entitled creators_

> "They don't owe you that, you know. Do it because you like it, because it's fun. Do it for the interactions you get with the community."
> — **Don**, discussing media day entitlement
> _Direct critique of creators feeling entitled to Stern invitations_

> "Zach Roger Sharpe, the son of the guy that saved pinball, who now works marketing for Stern, emailed me and invited me down to fly me to the factory to go play John Wick. Like, that's nuts, right?"
> — **Don**, announcing invitation details
> _Confirms Zach Sharpe as Stern marketing contact and reveals media day invitation_

> "I'm definitely not threatened by that. But that being said, I've got more than Pinball Profile, more than Triple Drain Pinball Podcast, more than Silverball Chronicles, more than Eclectic Gamers."
> — **Don**, Patreon comparison section
> _Competitive sentiment creeping in while claiming non-confrontational approach_

> "I'd much rather do that [share mods directly with fans] rather than just put something on Pinside and grind it out and then everybody's like, you just took that thing online"
> — **Don**, discussing mod distribution strategy
> _Explains motivation for direct-to-Patreon approach versus broad community sharing_

> "I'm happy to go lead the charge in there. Cause I'm just having fun in pinball and that's super fun, and I really want to do it."
> — **Don**, late episode motivation
> _Reaffirms that fun and community building, not competition, drive his involvement_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Stern Pinball | company | Released John Wick; organized media day event; charged $2,000 for Foo Fighters topper |
| Don | person | Host of Don's Pinball Podcast and We Are Pinball Patreon community; invited to Stern media day; critically analyzing community drama |
| Zach Sharpe | person | Stern marketing contact; son of pinball industry pioneer; sent Don media day invitation email |
| Kaneda | person | Pinball content creator with 703 Patreon members (ranked #1); posted infographic comparing Patreon numbers of multiple pinball podcasts |
| Jason | person | Host of Pinball Party podcast; reportedly expressed strong negative reaction to not being invited to Stern media day |
| Orbital Alben | person | Pinball Nerds podcast co-host; described by Don as positive but criticized Stern over media day exclusion |
| John Wick | game | Recently released Stern pinball machine; missing guns from playfield; subject of significant community controversy |
| Foo Fighters | game | Stern pinball with $2,000 topper that Don criticizes as overpriced |
| Pulp Fiction | game | Pinball machine Don owns and frequently references positively |
| Pinball Party | content | Podcast hosted by Jason; estimated ~70 Patreon members; featured negative commentary on Stern media day |
| The Pinball Show | content | Leads Patreon rankings among pinball podcasts with 88 paid members |
| Pinball Nerds | content | Podcast featuring Orbital Alben; covered media day controversy |
| We Are Pinball | organization | Don's Patreon community and content initiative; aims to build community through mods, tips, and insider access |
| American Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; Don previously mentioned wanting manufacturer access similar to Stern |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; Don has told them he only participates if it's fun and helpful |
| Knapp Arcade | person/entity | Content creator confirmed attending Stern media day |
| Kineticist | person | Content creator confirmed attending Stern media day |
| Kevin Loza | person | Content creator (Kid) confirmed attending Stern media day |
| Joel | person | Operator from Flip N Out Pinball; presumed to be attending Stern media day |
| Pinball Mods Facebook group | organization | Community forum where Kaneda posted Patreon comparison infographic |

### Topics

- **Primary:** John Wick release and missing guns controversy, Creator behavior and public drama in pinball community, Stern's media day event and content creator invitations, Patreon economics and content creator competition, Philosophy of hobby participation and avoiding entitlement
- **Secondary:** Foo Fighters topper pricing controversy, Pinball mod development and community sharing, Parallel drama patterns across enthusiast hobbies (coasters, paramotors, Disney)

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.35) — Don expresses frustration and disappointment with community drama and creator entitlement, but balances this with optimism about his own community-building efforts. Tone is critical of named creators' reactions but ultimately constructive and forward-looking. Some competitive undertones emerge when discussing Patreon rankings despite stated non-confrontational philosophy.

### Signals

- **[product_strategy]** Stern's explanation for removing guns from John Wick playfield attributed to licensor concerns, though Don questions the rationale given movie marketing includes prominent firearms (confidence: high) — Don's detailed discussion of gun removal and licensing sign-off costs as alternative explanation
- **[product_concern]** Foo Fighters topper priced at $2,000 using reused graphics and single-axis mechanism; Don considers it significantly overpriced, suggesting $799-$1,000 would be appropriate (confidence: high) — Don's detailed critique: 'at $2,000, it just felt like, just kind of gross. It turned me off to owning the game again'
- **[event_signal]** Stern organized first major media day event since COVID for John Wick release; invited select content creators with all expenses paid; event location is Stern factory, confirmed attendees include Knapp Arcade, Kineticist, Kevin Loza Kid, Don, and possibly Joel from Flip N Out (confidence: high) — Don confirming invitation from Zach Sharpe and listing confirmed/presumed attendees
- **[content_signal]** Prominent pinball content creator produced YouTube video brandishing firearm in apparent response to John Wick gun controversy; described as 'weird' and unnecessary escalation (confidence: medium) — Don referencing 'prominent pinball personality' creating firearm video within an hour of release livestream
- **[sentiment_shift]** Multiple content creators (Jason/Pinball Party, Orbital Alben/Pinball Nerds) expressed public disappointment and negative reactions to exclusion from Stern media day; Don sees this as entitlement similar to theme park/coaster enthusiast communities (confidence: high) — Don describing Jason as 'so depressed over the whole thing' and Orbital Alben's unexpected harsh reaction despite positive personality
- **[business_signal]** Kaneda posted infographic comparing Patreon numbers across pinball content creators; Kaneda leads with 703 members, The Pinball Show has 88, Don ranks 4th with 58 paid members (73 total with free), positioning exists between roughly 70-88 range for competitors (confidence: high) — Don citing specific numbers from Kaneda's infographic and articulating ranking positions
- **[content_signal]** Don deliberating balance between free public podcast (1,000 listens/episode) vs paywalled Patreon content; considering more frequent short-form YouTube content, story episodes, and exclusive access to build Patreon tier without abandoning free distribution (confidence: high) — Don discussing listener drop-off projections and commitment to free podcast while growing Patreon community
- **[community_signal]** Don advocates for distinguishing between constructive hobby participation based on fun/community and entitled expectation of recognition/validation; draws parallels to theme park, coaster, and Disney fandoms where this tension appears (confidence: high) — Extended discussion comparing Cedar Point forum moderators' entitlement to coaster media days with pinball content creator reactions
- **[personnel_signal]** Zach Sharpe identified as Stern marketing contact who initiated John Wick media day invitations; noted as son of pinball industry pioneer ('the guy that saved pinball') (confidence: high) — Don's direct reference to email from Zach Sharpe and genealogical connection
- **[product_strategy]** Stern distributing early access to John Wick (LE units) to invited content creators before general availability; positioning as opportunity to build positive media coverage and content creation (confidence: medium) — Don mentioning expectation to play LE soon and hope that positive experience could lead to future invitations
- **[manufacturing_signal]** Don planning to expand 3D printing capacity from one to two printers to double mod output; increasing demand for specific mods (Foo Fighters start buttons, Cinder inserts) (confidence: medium) — Don stating 'I'm about to get another printer so we can double the output' and listing specific mod requests
- **[venue_signal]** Don obtained vendor booth at Texas Expo with ability to distribute vendor badges to Patreon community members for early access and behind-scenes setup participation (confidence: medium) — Don describing vendor badge privileges and plan to scale up booth and badge distribution at future expos

---

## Transcript

 It's been kind of wild going on on the social medias when it comes to pinball and the hobby in general. And not just this hobby, but some strange reactions I've been seeing. And I know everybody else has been seeing them too. So I thought let's go ahead and discuss that. Just a little bit for some bonus content for everybody on a Patreon episode. Man, like, were we all just sitting around bored like nothing's going on? And so it's like, you know, Stern Pinball releases a game and that everybody is collectively just losing their minds for just all these different reasons all at once. Does anybody else feel like that? This game came out, and there weren't guns on the play field, and it seemed really weird, and the explanation that we got was a little weird and doesn't make much sense either. The licensor doesn't want guns to be associated with the characters of this film because children? But then every movie poster for the film features them prominently, and they're displayed in public where children are going to see them. So, you know, was it that to have the guns in the images, you'd have to get the licensing sign-off from the gun manufacturers, and that would actually cost too much? That seems more believable to me. But notwithstanding, like everybody, not everybody, in fact, probably just a minority of people, use that as like a springboard to just completely lose their minds. You know, I was watching the live stream release, like everybody else on release day. And I did a live stream on Facebook as well and gave my like real-time reactions and then realized to myself, hey, you know what? You're right. There's no guns on the play field. That's kind of weird. And then like no way would I expect like, you know, within an hour that a prominent pinball personality would do a YouTube video brandishing a firearm about pinball, you know? Now, I'm not triggered by that pun, but that was just weird, right? Like we don't need to be pulling out our weapons, during YouTube videos and taking a stand and perceived injustices. Just like a complete overreaction. And I get it if it was like a character thing and made for content and such. But I think it was real. And it was just real and it was real strange. You know? And like, I'm not a prude about weapons and armories. Playing a lot of Pulp Fiction back here. Hell of a game. Obviously, you know, Like I tolerate this content. I'm not snowflaking myself. Personally, and this is not a dig at anybody else, but when it comes to your personal armory, I kind of think the less you say about it publicly, the safer you are. It's there if you need it, but we don't need to go bragging about it. But I can't fault somebody for doing that. But what does it have to do with pinball? And what I want to make this point is it's not just pinball. I know people get consumed with these hobbies, and it becomes like your lifestyle, your whole worldview, and that's super fun to do. Like, it's super fun to have your thing. And I'm kind of, you know, cross-interested. I was going to say transcontinental, but, like, I transcend different hobbies. Like, I float in and out. My Venn diagram has got, like, five rings like the Olympics, you know. Like, sometimes I'm in the theme park world. I venture over to an offshoot, the roller coaster world. And I venture into travel, you know, adventure travel, skateboarding, paramotor and flight sports, you know. For those of you who don't know, I fly an ultralight flying vehicle as well. And you see the same personalities purvey through these areas. In fact, there was two people in the paramotor hobby, both on YouTube, both at one point brandished firearms in pretty much a threatening manner towards other content people. You know, like, you know, I'm going to do a video calling out this guy. You know, there was a guy that has, like, unsafe practices, and people, like, legitimately have issues with, like, some of the stuff that he proposes on his show. And so he showed up, you know, in a video addressing another content person who's pretty family friendly, pretty much the first person anybody that gets into the hobby sees their interesting videos and things, gets them hyped on the sport. But he pretty much pulled out his handgun from his waist and he's like, are we going to have a problem? And it's like, what the hell is this? And so I don't care. His gun was zip-tied, gun-locked, so it was obviously unarmed, not ready to fire, not loaded. But still, it's just kind of weird. Why bring that energy into it? And then it kept going. I've been hanging out at work. I've been working for three weeks straight now. And on Saturdays, with a dearth of content, I've been going back to Canada's live streams and watching those just to see kind of what's going on. And the cringe did not leave. It's been right there waiting for me to come back. And I've said this before. I don't instigate or try to thrive on drama. I honestly have fun in pinball, and that's why I participate in here. So I know a lot of people listen to Kaneda's pinball podcast. You give him money, you're part of it. I'm not anymore, and I'm okay with that. And if you are part of it, I'm okay with that too. You don't have to choose between listen to me or listen to him. You can't do both. And if you support him, you're completely opposite of me. I'm just not like that. I think if you have fun with it, go ahead. Who am I to say that you can't content with there? I just don't want to go pay him money and join back in his thing but I'll pop into the live stream like anybody else, I like to watch what's going on, you pass the car accident turn your head and see what's going on, try not to slow down too much don't disrupt traffic who doesn't like watching a car crash or police videos, god I watch so much police videos on YouTube between police videos on YouTube and daily political jargon and travel blogs and things sometimes I throw up the pinball stuff and sit and watch it there So he was in rare form a couple of weeks ago, just F-bomb a palooza. Cool. Let's go with the character. Sounded kind of like my Pulp Fiction game behind me in profane mode. And just like went wild, just F you, Stern. You know, who the hell do you think you are? Now, I agree. The $2,000 Foo Fighter topper felt gross, you know. I think the topper itself, I think it looks fine. It looks cool. I like it, you know. But for $2,000, I expect a heck of a lot more. and the fact they just reuse the same graphics that are on plastics and on the play field and just put it up there with a couple of LED light boards and the same mechanism from the R2-D2 topper, not even the Black Knight moving head that articulates in two axes of freedom. There's just one axis. It looks cool. I think $799 would have been, I wouldn't have been mad at all. Even $1,000, I probably wouldn't have been too upset, but at $2,000, it just felt like, just kind of gross. It turned me off to owning the game again because if I got the game, I'd want to get the official topper, and now I'm not even thinking about it anymore. I just moved right on. So if they sold them out, I guess it was the right decision for them to make, but it sucks for me. But I'm not out there saying, F you, Stern Pinball. If they make something I don't like, I'm not going to buy it. If they make something that I think is kind of lame, I'm not going to endorse it. Not that I'm paid money either way to endorse games. I'll try to give you my honest opinion. Honestly, I think the Foo Fighters topper is cool. honestly I think it's way overpriced and it sucks that they priced it like that because it just kind of turns me off of the whole thing and that really sucks so there my honest opinion there but man just to rail against him and know doing it for content I sure it helped I sure his numbers are better than they ever been I want to talk about Patreon numbers here in a bit, too, because, like, I'm a little bit enthused about something else that happened this week. The final thing that happened, you know, besides Jane Giz calling everybody that owns a gun an inbred hillbilly, which that honestly made me giggle, and I chomped the popcorn. But, yeah, wow, like, what a strange reaction, you know. Oh, no, there's two more. There's two more. Pinball Party. This episode just dropped a couple of days ago. I never miss an episode of Pinball Party. Fellow Wisconsin pinball guy. Dig him. Was on the Pinball Network. Now he's solo. I can dig it. I like his music. I like Neon Dale. I like when he drops songs on there. I like to listen to him. So, you know, don't hate me on that. But, like, you know, he was just so upset about, like, the marketing around John Wick. And, you know, not just that the YouTube people got to have early access and we didn't. but then Stern is throwing some kind of media day event, and they've invited content people out there. I got an email. I got invited, and I was like, dude, that's awesome. That's awesome. I'm excited. Of course I'll show up. I'm off that day anyway. I would try to get the day off work if I was working, but I'm going to go, and it's going to be fun. At the same time, if everybody else was invited except for me, that's fine. I've been to the factory before. No sweat off my game. I was joking the other week. Like Stern just probably don't even know who I am. That's fine. I don't need their validation. I've got six other hobbies I participate in. So I don't live and die based on if I'm getting enough attention in pinball. And I've said before, and I've told this to Spooky Pinball, I've told this to American Pinball, I only want to do this and be involved if, number one, it's fun, and number two, I can be helpful. I don't want to impose myself someplace where I isn't appreciated, or like, oh, it's this guy again. He's got a media following. We've got to tolerate him, but he's really kind of lame. Damn Pulp Fiction. What does Marcelo Suarez look like? We all know the answer to that one, ladies and gentlemen. What a game this is. But, like, I saw something in the Pinball Party podcast this last week that I've seen before in the roller coaster enthusiast hobby. So a theme park will have a media day for a brand-new ride. Usually they're done in April or May, sometimes just before the park opens for the season, sometimes the opening week of the season. And the whole idea is to generate some buzz at the beginning of a busy summer season for a seasonal park. Hey, we got a new ride. Plan your family vacation out here now. And so what they want is their new roller coaster or their new giant swing or their new merry-go-round or whatever it is. They want to have some B-roll footage of people laughing and having a great time on this new ride. And so what they'll do is they'll reach out to enthusiast communities. Just like there's pinball people, there's coaster people. And so they'll say, hey, guys, why don't you come up? We need 60 people to fill up two trains. We need you to ride for two hours while the media is here, while the local weatherman is here doing his remotes. And film some B-roll footage. Sign this waiver signing away your rights to own any of this. But you'll appear in promotional materials and all this stuff. You won't be compensated, but you'll get a T-shirt, a sticker package, and there's a buffet for lunch. And that's usually it. And people will act incredibly entitled. Like I run the largest theme park and amusement internet forum in the state of Ohio, and I wasn't invited to Cedar Point for their new ride. What the hell is wrong with them? Don't they know how much time of my life I spend posting in this thing and doing the moderations? All of that just to show people how great the ride is, and I do the trip reports, and I do all this stuff. And it's like, so what? You're having fun in the hobby. Maybe you're taking it too seriously. You didn't get invited to media day. Maybe it's because you smell. I don't know. Maybe you made someone mad. Maybe they just didn't. Maybe they hit 60 people and you were number 61 and they just didn't get to it. It's like, yeah, but like the entitlement of some people within these hobbies and fandoms is just such like the antithesis of why I participate in it. So I distance myself from coaster clubs, even though I still love roller coasters, even though I've been on a thousand of them. I've been to 20 countries riding coasters and I still do it. I go back to parks that I love. Europa Park in Germany, go look it up. It's the most fantastic theme park that's not Tokyo DisneySea on the planet. Everybody needs to make a pilgrimage there. It's the most amazing theme park ever. It's cheaper than Disney. It's bigger than Disney. It's got more rides than Disney. And the food is amazing. Imagine Epcot packed with rides, and that's what you got. Anyway, that and all this nitty. But I haven't been invited to Europa Parks Media Day, and that's totally fine. I'm not a Disney mommy blogger, so I don't get invited to the pre-opening things for Disney parks. Tiana's Bayou Adventure is in pre-opening soon, next month at the Magic Kingdom in Disney World in Florida. It's the re-theme of Splash Mountain. I'm a Disney Vacation Club member. I'm an annual pass holder. Both of those groups have preview days that they can go and try out the ride. I'm there at the resort already staying in one of their top-level hotels for those two days, and I wasn't able to grab a reservation for the annual pass holder for that park for the day, and even though I'm a DVC member, I'm not using my DVC points to stay because I'm doing a conference so I'm using my continuing medical education money from my job to pay for that. So even though I'm staying in a top-end resort and I'm a DVC member, I'm excluded from the preview there. And like, okay, that's fine. I'm not going to... It would be super cool if I could partake, but I can't, but I'm still going to be having fun there and if it gets to the point that, you know, I think it's too cash-grabby and it's not a good value, I'm just going to stop going. But I'm not losing my mind online, like yelling at Disney. At the same time, I don't let them completely off the hook and cheerlead everything that they do. It's going to be complicated anytime there's a new ride opening. So for me, I love to participate in them. If I can do it in a way that makes sense, I'll do it. But I'm not going to bend over backwards and put myself through stress just to try to make it happen. I went to a media day at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Los Angeles for the opening of Tatsu. It's their flying dragon coaster. This was sometime in like 2008. And we had to show up there pre-opening. We camped out all night in front of the park. So 6 a.m. we could go in there and ride this coaster for three hours. And it was like, you know what? I think I wouldn't have minded just showing up on a random day two weeks later and just riding as a member of the general public and not have to sleep on the concrete in a sleeping bag overnight with a bunch of coaster weirdos. Whatever. Anyway. So I saw some of that in Jason. You know, he's really upset, like, you know, who does Stern think they are for not inviting me after I cheerlead all their stuff. It's like they don't owe you that, you know. Do it because you like it, because it's fun. Do it for the interactions you get with the community. But, like, don't do it because, you know, you have this entitlement sense for, you know, something like that. If that makes sense. If that makes sense. this coalesced this morning when I listened to the Pinball Nerds podcast with my buddy Orbital Albert, who's like always has just the positive laissez faire you know le bon temps brûlé you know, like the happy kind of guy and he just railed into the F against Stern because he was not invited to the media Day thing Now it kind of cool that Stern is offering to fly people out for this thing So far, I know Nap Arcade's going. I know Kineticist is going. Loser Kid's going. I'm going. Probably Joel from Flip N Out Pinball, but I haven't heard confirmation of that. You know, it's cool that Stern's like, they contacted me. They're like, Don, all expenses paid. We'll fly you out here. We'll put you up in a hotel. You come to the thing, play the new game, and then we'll fly you home the next day. And I'm like, that's amazing. Like, I can't believe that that just, like, fell in my lap. Like, I didn't ask for it. I wasn't expecting it at all. It just kind of dropped out of nowhere. And heck, yeah, I'm going to go. I'm going to drive. I'm not going to – yeah, there are flights locally to Chicago. They're, like, 40-minute flights. But, yeah, I'm not going to put them through that. I'll just – I'll drive down there. That's totally fine. Then I can have my car and I can go do other stuff while I'm down there, right? But, I mean, I appreciate it. You know, and I saw – Zach Sharp was the one that emailed me. And I'm like – I called my wife and I'm like, Zach Sharp, the son of the guy that saved pinball, who now works marketing for Stern, emailed me and invited me down to fly me to the factory to go play John Wick. Like, that's nuts, right? That's crazy, right? And so my hope was that, and I understand not everybody could be invited, and I understand following the hobby for the last couple of years, this isn't something that Stern does for every Cornerstone release. This is the first time, I guess, at least since COVID, that they've done it. And so maybe we could show up and say, hey, you know, we can be helpful. We can have fun. I like playing new games as soon as I can I presume we'll be able to play the LE soon I don't think anybody else has done that yet so I'm really excited about that and give my impressions of it whether it's a game I buy or not but maybe if it went well Stern would see some value in it and they may say, you know what, maybe next time God makes the impossible possible God does make the impossible possible thank you, thank you so maybe it goes well enough that next time, next release, they might invite more of us out there, you know, for an even bigger kind of party. Maybe we could build it up to the point that they can offer a contest and you can win an all-expenses-paid trip. It's just a fan of pinball to join the media content people for a party hosted at this new streaming room that Stern has. And, like, you know, so I had this idea, like, maybe that would be something cool we could do. We could, like, show that we, you know, we don't show our whole ass when we go to the Stern factory. And they're like, you know, maybe we'll invite us back, right? right just you know we'll mind our manners we'll be respectful we'll play the game and then we'll give our honest results online and then they'll see some value in that we can just build it but like when they turn around and see like we invited these people and we just immediately got all this hate from this guy and this guy and this guy it's like they might just say you know what let's just not even do this anymore and then everybody just kind of misses out on it you know and like i'm happy i'm going i didn't turn around and just put it out online right away like hey all you suck I get to go look how cool I am I was just really enthusiastic about going and then finding out how we can get other people maybe involved in it next time turn it into a thing so that was just harsh man just these harsh takes I've seen you know Carrie's reaction kind of caught me off guard it's like oh that kind of kind of sucks you know it just sucks to kind of lose cool points like that you know watching Jen gives this weird reaction it was like okay Like, different kind of energy, but still, I don't know that that's needed. And then, you know, Jason's just so depressed over the whole thing, like, maybe I should just give up doing podcasting. It sounded just like somebody that runs the Cedar Point fan group in Ohio saying, you know, don't they see how much I mod? I did 80,000 posts this year covering everything about Cedar Point, and they won't even invite me to this. Or, like, you know, there's people that are this passionate about Dollywood and Tennessee that act the same way. The Disney fandom is loaded with these types of fools. it's just like and it's the part of the hobby that just sucks that i that i don't want to participate in to the point that when there's coaster events now i don't even go to them i don't go to the coaster conventions even though there's exclusive ride time and like you know backstage tours and stuff they were fun for me when i was early on the hobby but now it's like that those personalities that energy just kind of like they make it lame i'd rather just show up as just a regular member of the public on a random day but use my inside knowledge of the park to navigate and beat lines and ride more than everybody else and have more fun than everybody else and eat more food than everybody else and like beat the lines to lunch because I know where they are and like I know where the secret bathroom is it never has a line or a wait you know and like I love doing that and then like sharing those tips with my friends and then you know meeting up with core groups of people that we all share the same interests and it's like we're part of the secret club let's go around you know hey the single single rider lines open out here nobody's in it let's go ride test track five times in 40 minutes and then let's go get some donuts you know like that's how I like to have fun now um and so I'm going to keep enjoying pinball in that way and as I find little inside tips and tricks, maybe a way to make a mod a little bit cheaper for yourself or upgrade your premium to look like an Elise, to spend all that money, and then we can kind of share these tips online amongst ourselves. That's kind of the energy I'm building here. And I'd like to say that we are building too. Kaneda posted this infographic on the Pitball Mods Facebook group for reasons unknown, trolling for people to join his Patreon. And it was an infographic that had six different content channels, podcasts that all have Patreon, and then himself at the top at his number one. It's got 703 paid member subscribers. That's right. That's exactly what it means. So, okay, so he's got the most for sure. And then he listed, you know, number two, number three, number four, and all the way down. And I showed up on there. I showed up on there in the number four position as far as, like, members of Patreon that I have. And, like, that blew my mind. That was, like, he gave me, like, the greatest gifts of the day when I saw that. I'm like, wow, look at that. He's run the numbers, and I'm like number four. 58 paid Patreon members, 73 total. Once you drop to a free member, you kind of stick around. You don't have access anymore, but it's easy to rejoin if you'd like. And so I'm like, man, let's build this up, man. Let's 10X this thing. I definitely haven't started this to be in direct competition with anybody. I think the more the merrier, more content, more views. Let's get more people into this. If you want to start a podcast, I'll help you out. Nuno Gomez, my buddy in Miami he's a Patreon member saludos amigo he reached out, he's like I think I'd like to do a podcast, there's not a Spanish language podcast let's do it man, I'll help you out I'll show you what equipment I do, whatever I can do to help promote it when you're ready man, let's do this dude let's do some YouTube collabs, let's make it happen so I'm definitely not threatened by that but that being said, I've got more than Pinball Profile more than Triple Drain, more than Silverball Chronicles more than Eclectic Gamers. We just beat them out. This group of us that participate in this little thing that I started in my game room here, we're all a part of it here. It's very much appreciated. I'm getting more requests for mods for different things. It's so fun for me to make pinball mods and then get them out to fans directly rather than just put something on Pinside and grind it out and then everybody's like, you just took that thing online and just made this. It's like, I made something cool. we're sharing it. Like I'd much rather do that. So let's build this community. Um, uh, let's see, I think, uh, we were just beating out the 70 people for pinball party. Um, and then, uh, the pinball show is number one at like 88. So we're not that far off from being number two, you know Um what if we could 10 X this thing you know and just like build this whole community build out the Discord I could start doing you know like more frequent shorter like YouTube content so there could be video content for everybody I want to, what I don't want to do is take this completely behind the paywall. I think I'd go from getting 600 to 1,000 listens per episode. I think I'd probably get 250 to 300 people that would probably come in, but then I'd only get 250 to 300 people that would listen to these episodes, you know, would drop down. And I like having the podcast out there for free. I like reaching up to 1,000 people with every episode and getting it out just everywhere as soon as news drops. But at the same time, I want to have more Patreon content too because I want people to stick around and feel like their $5 or $10 or $20 they're spending every month is like going to a good cause, going to content that they like. And I can keep putting it out, and I want to keep being consistent. So I'm open to ideas of other things you'd like to see. I'm going to finish out the story time episodes. I've got like 15 other machines I need to go through the story of how I got them and what's going on. The virtual pinball machine is up next. I can't wait to talk more about that. I'm going to keep doing some more Dawn After Darks. I want to do some content like this. Like I wouldn't go out on the public, the free channel, and just like start saying things that would kind of, you know, strict towards, you know, and I don't like to name drop people. Like did you see what Kerry already did today? Like wasn't that cringy? Or like didn't you see what Orbit of Alward did today? That was like a little nuts. Go ahead and pick it up. Come on, dad. And I understand where these people are coming from, and I understand that they have a right to get their content out there and get it off their chest, and, you know, that's cathartic. That's healthy to do. It's good to share that. But I was just hoping we were moving in a direction where we can get more of these invites from people like Stern, and I think what I've seen the last week is just fighting right against that. And maybe that's how it has to be, and, like, I'm powerless to stop it. But, you know, just know that I'm out there. You know, when I do interact with folks, I'm trying to do it in a way, to bring us all along. If I can get to the point that I can do a bigger booth at Expo and I can get extra vendor bands, and maybe we can give them away to some of the Patreon members that are going to be coming, and you can get a vendor band. That means you don't have to wait for the public hours. You can come in early and be a little behind the scenes during setup. It's kind of cool. I've been able to do that. At Texas, I had a booth, so I got a vendor badge. I was able to get some of my friends' vendor badges, and they got to work as booth babes at the booth. And so they got to get in early and hang out and it was, they have a place to leave your purse and have some cold drinks and a cooler. Like it was great. We could keep doing that. And the more that we are able to build it up, not only does it help, you know, my numbers here, but also helps the credibility. And so the more that I can get invited to events, the more I can get things sent to me, translates, t-shirts, stickers, the more I can then share that with every, all of you, you know, so I'm happy to go lead the charge into there. Cause I'm just, I'm having fun and pinball and that's super fun. and I really want to do it. But I also have my camera that I can take with me so we can be there. I can give more candid Patreon episodes like this directly to you. So, you know, you're in as a part of it, like in this inner circle. And I think if we function like that and, you know, you tell 10 of your friends and three of them join and we keep building and I can turn around and say, like, look, you know, I've got, you know, more Patreon subscribers than the pinball show, which is a huge show. You know, so I have some relevancy in this. So, you know, American Pinball, you got Whitewater too. Can I come in and take a look at it and maybe give my Patreon members a little subtle hint? Like you might want to go in this next game when it gets revealed or you might want to hold back and play it on location. You know, just little tips without violating any NDAs or anything. You know, that's something that we can do. So I was, you know, in the setting of kind of the vitriol that was coming out, I was seeing some encouragement in it too. And I probably saw the most of it from Kaneda of all people when he posted that infographic. and his sense was he's trying to put that out saying look I'm better than everybody else and I want to be even better so come join it but my take away from it was look at how far we've come look at what we've built look at the dais that I'm sitting on here now and just from grinding and just doing this I had no idea if anybody would even listen to any of this when I started I just sat down and hit record in that room right across the hall now it's full of banners that I have Translight to give away The 3D printer's whirring. I'm about to get another printer so we can double the output. I've had people saying they want Foo Fighters start buttons and Coindor inserts and things, and it's like I can only do one project at a time on my printer, but if I have two, we can double it. I'm prototyping an amazing mod for John Wick that I think about six people now have seen what I'm working on, and the reaction that I've got from all six of them is like, that is amazing. I want it now. Somebody said that is $150 all day. somebody else said that's a $200 project and I would have no problem paying you for that and I want one and these are people that aren't even getting the game like it's impressive I'm kind of happy about what's coming out and I'm happy to say that great vengeance and furious anger next time I record I'll go ahead and turn Pulp Fiction off but I'm going to go play it some more but when that is ready to come out and I think it might be next week I'm just I want to have it you know I want to have it finalized functions it can be bolted together and go right in and work without any problems once I get there and I think it's going to be soon of course I'll let the Patreon know first and then I've got to figure out how to market and launch this thing and like if it's going to go on to Pinsight or just be a word of mouth either way I think it would be really successful man I'm jazzed about I'm not jazzed about it and it's not specific to just John Wick it can work on like any other machine and I kind of think I think both it would carry Hardy and Cengiz would probably both really like it and that makes me happy. If I could be the one to kind of bring everybody together, let's do that. Let's moderate this. Thanks so much for joining everybody for this Patreon expose. A little short interlude that I've done. I'm going to keep doing more of these. I'm finishing up tonight. Tonight is my last night of 21 days in a row of night shifts and then I'm going to have a week off and we're going to do some fun stuff. We're going to Stern. I'm going to meet some people. I'm going to be doing live streams and things. I'll record my reactions and I'll put maybe a daily diary and I'll just put it on Patreon for everybody here and then I'll save everything else for an episode down the road. But let's start doing that. I don't want to go completely behind the paywall, but I want to have the public stuff out there, but I want to do more of this. Let's talk about what was really going on and how I really feel about it and help you guys make some decisions about how you participate in the pinball community. And I think that's fun. And I say that because it's the kind of thing that I would enjoy if I was paying five bucks a month, which which I do to pinball party to the pinball show. I'm Patreon members with them, you know? So I look, that's the kind of things that I would like. So I'm going to turn around and I'm gonna do the things that, um, that I would like for y'all as well. If that makes sense. Thanks for hanging out with me. I'm going to go play some Pulp Fiction. Everybody go, go pet your dogs, hug your children, try to pet the cat if they want it. They don't always act like they do. I'm going to work tonight. And then let's participate. Comment down below, go on the discord. I'm going to post another link for the Discord. Jump on there and participate because we're really good community there too as well. Have a great week, everybody. I thought it was like the weekend coming up. I don't know.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: ba5a38f5-effa-4bc2-84cc-947580ca042f*