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Ep 96: Talking TWIPys with Will Oetting

LoserKid Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·57m 2s·held·Nov 15, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Will Oetting on running TWIP, Silver Ball Swag, and evolving Twippies Awards Awards.

Summary

Will Oetting discusses taking over This Week in Pinball (TWIP) as Jeff O'Neill steps back, running Silver Ball Swag merchandise operation, and managing Twippies Awards Awards—a people's choice award for pinball games, content creators, and industry figures. The conversation covers Twippies voting mechanics, fraud prevention, committee structure, eligible games for 2022 (Rush, Toy Story 4, James Bond, Weird Al's Museum, Cactus Cactus Canyon (Remake), and others), category changes, and production improvements for the ceremony at Texas Pinball Festival in March.

Key Claims

  • Jeff O'Neill has stepped back from This Week in Pinball due to a career promotion and Will Oetting is now driving the site's operations

    high confidence · Will Oetting stated directly: 'he has definitely kind of stepped back. He's working on his career. He got a good promotion. So that's his focus. And so that TWIP doesn't die off... I have stepped up and am continuing that work at this point.'

  • Will Oetting has been working with Jeff O'Neill on TWIP for approximately four years before taking over, initially doing website maintenance

    high confidence · Will Oetting: 'I think, about four years ago that I reached out to him and just said, hey, you know, I can do website maintenance. So do you need any help?'

  • Silver Ball Swag started because Oetting and O'Neill wanted to provide pinball-themed merchandise for a broader community of enthusiasts with diverse tastes beyond Double Danger

    high confidence · Will Oetting: 'I was looking for a shirt when I was getting into the hobby and couldn't really find something that matched what I wanted... We thought there were a bigger community of pinball enthusiasts that kind of had different tastes.'

  • Kaneda shirts were Silver Ball Swag's biggest sellers, but the product was removed from the site after 'an issue'

    high confidence · Will Oetting: 'Biggest sellers, you know, we did for a short period of time, we sold Kaneda shirts... But then, of course, as usual, you know, we had an issue and he took his stuff off of our site.'

  • Twippies Awards committee has seven members including Lloyd Olson (SS Billiards), Steven Bowden (American Pinball), Amato Harney (Marco and Atomic Arcade), Joel Reeves (pinball enthusiast), Josh Sharpe (IFPA), and Lauren Gray (Backbox Pinball Podcast)

    high confidence · Will Oetting listed all committee members by name and role when asked about the composition of Twippies Awards committee

  • Twippies Awards uses ranked choice voting where voters can select a favorite and a second choice to help determine nominees

    high confidence · Will Oetting: 'We do use a ranked choice voting system... You can vote for your favorite and then you can essentially pick your second choice or your second favorite.'

Notable Quotes

  • “I am doing pretty much everything for This Week in Pinball... I was behind Jeff being behind the scenes. So I was trying to be out of the way as much as possible.”

    Will Oetting — Describes his backstage role and transition to public leadership of TWIP

  • “Twippies Awards are a people's choice awards... it's a chance for folks that are in the hobby or have some connection or desire to be able to express their favoritism for things in the pinball hobby.”

    Will Oetting — Core description of what the Twippies represent as a community event

  • “We are not the Golden Globes. We are not a fancy gala show... We are just kind of a celebration... a People's Choice Award... to kind of reflect real pinball people.”

    Will Oetting — Clarifies the Twippies identity and pushes back against high-end expectations that had been set

  • “Well, okay, so what prevents someone from getting grandma to vote for them? They don't really have a connection to pinball... How do you take all that into account?”

    Josh Roop — Raises the core challenge of open voting systems and fraud prevention

  • “Part of that too, though, is that the more data we have, the more people voting, the more accurate our results will be... The more data points you have... your end power goes up.”

    Will Oetting — Explains the statistical logic behind encouraging broad participation despite fraud concerns

  • “I feel like a lot of the drama comes from the content creators subcategories... does that has that become such a headache?”

    Josh Roop — Identifies a persistent source of contention in Twippies voting—content creator categories generate more complaints than game categories

  • “We do want to promote and kind of push the content creators and show that... they are a vital part of the community and the hobby. So celebrating them as well, I think, is just part of what we are looking to do.”

    Will Oetting — Justifies keeping content creator categories despite interpersonal drama they generate

Entities

Will Oettingperson[name withheld pending review]personJosh RooppersonScott LarsonpersonThis Week in Pinballwebsite/content_platformSilver Ball Swagproduct/merchandise_retailerTwippies Awardsevent/award_show

Signals

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Jeff O'Neill of This Week in Pinball steps back due to career promotion; Will Oetting assumes operational control after 4 years as behind-the-scenes support

    high · Will Oetting confirmed he has been 'doing pretty much everything for This Week in Pinball' and that Jeff 'has definitely kind of stepped back' due to a promotion and career focus

  • ?

    business_signal: Silver Ball Swag has significantly expanded partnerships with pinball content creators (podcasts, YouTube, streamers) and offers customizable products

    high · Will Oetting discussed outreach to 'other pinball content creators' and listed multiple partners including Just Another Pinball Podcast, Super Awesome Pinball Show, Black Box, Carrie Hardy, Flipping Off Cancer, and others

  • ?

    community_signal: Twippies Awards expanded governance with a diverse seven-member committee including manufacturers (American Pinball), aggregators (TWIP), players (IFPA), podcasters (Backbox), and arcade operators

    high · Will Oetting identified all committee members: Lloyd Olson, Steven Bowden, Amato Harney, Joel Reeves, Josh Sharpe, Lauren Gray, and himself

  • ?

    event_signal: 2022 Twippies ceremony planning includes production enhancements: dry runs for presenters, presenter guidebook with expectations, mic setup fixes, sizzle reels, and streamlined category count

    high · Will Oetting confirmed multiple improvements in response to Josh Roop's feedback about previous year's ceremony logistics, including 'definitely considering a dry run' and creating 'presenter guidebook'

  • $

    market_signal: 2022 Twippies eligible games show no clear frontrunner, unlike 2021 when Godzilla dominated—reflects broader manufacturing competition and new game releases

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.171

0:00
thanks for tuning in to loser kid pinball podcast this is episode 96 i am josh roop with me my co captain as always scott larson man we're getting up there in numbers aren't we scott i know we're getting long in the tooth so we we need to start our exit strategy because i agree most podcasters like go to 100 and then then poop out yeah something like that so but you know who hasn't pooped out yet that is great to get a pinball machine from who hasn't pooped out josh flipping out pinball and i know that nicole and zach do a great job at getting your product uh our friend julie she came to expo with us yep she was awesome she got her very first pinball machine ever she got a teenage mutant turtles pro i love teenage mutant ninja turtles it's a great game it's kind of brutal for a first game but hey put it on 12 ball because you can team up with the four turtles and then take on shredder now it is brutal but the pro is definitely the way to go um i thought the premium got in the way of the fun yeah but uh hey that's the that's the beauty is you can get whatever you want and i know they have those things in stock and so if you want those or if you want to get on a waiting list for godzilla uh go ahead and let him know or if you want that sweet mandalorian topper he will be able to hook you up also if you want to get in before the price increase which is january 1st on everything that isn't bond because bonds already got a price increase hit up zach avoid that 700 he's got rush in stock he's got mando in stock i think he's got a couple other titles that are all premiums that's it all applies to the premiums he has a a new in box lord of the rings that he's willing to no okay maybe not so yeah if you need a pinball machine it's coming to be becoming christmas time and whatnot Hit up Flippin' Out Pinball. Scott, we've got a special guest on today. We do have a special guest. This is this gentleman's first time ever being on a podcast, and he's coming on Loser Kid. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I think it just says that he asked about 10 other podcasts, and they are no longer accepting interviews. But either way, I'm glad to know we're at least on the list. Exactly. This is Mr. Silver Ball Swag himself, Will Otting. Yeah, thank you very much. I appreciate you having me on. Well, and you have become more of a public figure here in these last couple months because my email is starting to see that there is new content coming out from This Week in Pinball. And you have something to do with that, right? Yeah. Recently, I've been doing the Monday posts and I'm trying to keep up with what's going on. I'm definitely not putting the effort in that Jeff always did because he always talked about doing over 40 hours just on Twip a week. And I can't do that. I can't afford that. But I'm trying my best and getting that content out there. OK, so what begs the question is, are you taking over This Week in Pinball? Is Jeff still involved or is it a partnership? How does that work?

  • Twippies Awards committee reviews and removes suspicious votes each year, checking for duplicate emails, similar IP addresses, and rapid-fire voting patterns

    high confidence · Will Oetting: 'We go through and remove all the duplicates. We check to see, you know, did this email get used again? Or are there IP addresses that are similar?... We get rid of quite a few votes every year.'

  • Eight eligible games were being considered for the 2022 Twippies as of the episode (with two more possibly qualifying), with eligibility running from Dec 1, 2021 to Dec 1, 2022

    high confidence · Will Oetting listed the eight confirmed eligible games: Cactus Cactus Canyon (Remake), Funhaus 2.0 Rudy's Nightmare, Rush, Flipper Foxtrot Rhythm Explosion, Super Hoop, Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity, Toy Story 4, and James Bond

  • The 2022 Twippies categories for games will include: Best Theme, Best Animations and Display, Best Light Show, Best Toys and Gimmicks, Best Theme Integration, Best Music and Sound Effects, Best Call-Outs, Best Rules, Best Play Field Gameplay and Layout, Best Artwork, and Game of the Year

    high confidence · Will Oetting: 'And these may or may not change, but best theme, best animations and display, Best light show, best toys and gimmicks, best theme integration...'

  • Twippies Awards show hosts are changing from Jack Danger and Emoto to just Emoto and an as-yet-unselected co-host

    high confidence · Will Oetting: 'So we're looking for right now, really tell you the truth. Emoto is planning to be one of the co-hosts... But we are looking currently for her co-host.'

    • “There doesn't seem to be a runaway at this point when I look at this list. So it's going to be an interesting competition this year.”

    Josh Roop — Contrasts 2022 Twippies diversity with 2021 when Godzilla dominated voting

  • “Silver Ball Swag... you can find your stuff here so that's the bottom line you need swag”

    Josh Roop — Hosts endorsing the merchandise service and its breadth of content creator partnerships

  • “Do a nice sizzle reel at the beginning just to get to know you on all the games, and then you can have like a quick award sizzle for the winner.”

    Scott Larson — Constructive production feedback for improving the ceremony's pacing and viewer engagement

    • Texas Pinball Festival
    event
    Lloyd Olsonperson
    Steven Bowdenperson
    Amato Harneyperson
    Joel Reevesperson
    Josh Sharpeperson
    Lauren Grayperson
    Jack Dangerperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Chicago Gaming Companycompany
    Multimorphiccompany
    Pinball Brotherscompany
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Tom Brownperson
    Joel Engelberthperson
    Flip N Out Pinballcompany
    Zach Minneyperson

    high · Josh Roop observed 'doesn't seem to be a runaway at this point when I look at this list' and Will Oetting confirmed 'I don't think there's a clear-cut winner at this point'

  • ?

    machine_intel: Eight confirmed eligible games for 2022 Twippies (shipping Dec 1, 2021–Dec 1, 2022): Cactus Canyon Remake, Funhaus 2.0 Rudy's Nightmare, Rush, Flipper Foxtrot Rhythm Explosion, Super Hoop, Weird Al's Museum, Toy Story 4, James Bond. Two more (Queen, Spinal Tap) possibly qualifying.

    high · Will Oetting listed all eligible games and their manufacturers. Eligibility window and status explicitly stated.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Twippies positioning shift away from 'high-end fancy presentation' (Golden Globes comparison) toward grassroots 'people's choice celebration' reflecting real pinball community values

    high · Will Oetting: 'We are not the Golden Globes. We are not a fancy gala show... We are just kind of a celebration... to kind of reflect real pinball people'

  • ?

    product_concern: Twippies committee removes significant numbers of suspicious votes annually using email duplicate detection, IP address analysis, timing patterns, and committee review; acknowledges limitation that grandma voting cannot be prevented

    high · Will Oetting described review process: 'We go through and remove all the duplicates... did this email get used again? Or are there IP addresses that are similar?... We get rid of quite a few votes every year'

  • ?

    product_strategy: 2022 Twippies consolidates content creator and game categories; merged tournament + convention/event categories; reduced total categories from prior year to focus show quality

    high · Will Oetting confirmed categories 'fewer than last year' and explained 'making fewer categories kind of makes it easier for us to create the video and get presenters'

  • ?

    community_signal: Content creator categories generate more drama and complaints in Twippies voting than game categories; committee considered merging them but chose to keep separate to celebrate creators' contributions

    high · Josh Roop noted 'a lot of the drama comes from the content creators subcategories' while game categories (like Halloween/Godzilla) generate few complaints. Will Oetting confirmed committee 'threw around' merging them but decided against it.

  • ?

    event_signal: Twippies Awards changing show hosts; Amato Harney confirmed as co-host but seeking new co-host to replace Jack Danger; described as 'change of feeling' to refresh the show

    high · Will Oetting: 'Things get older. We want to change things up... Emoto is planning to be one of the co-hosts... But we are looking currently for her co-host'

  • ?

    content_signal: This Week in Pinball maintains content curation mission (weekly roundup of manufacturer and creator content) plus Pinball University educational vertical and deep-dive interviews with creators

    high · Will Oetting described TWIP focus as 'one place to go and kind of see it all wrapped up for the week' plus 'pinball university' and 'deep dives' with homebrew creators

    • 3:12
    So at the moment, I am doing pretty much everything for This Week in Pinball. I actually came on and I've been working with Jeff for a while with Twip. It was, I think, about four years ago that I reached out to him and just said, hey, you know, I can do website maintenance. So do you need any help? And so ever since then, I've been behind Jeff. And I think you probably know Jeff kind of is always trying to stay behind the scenes. And so I was behind Jeff being behind the scenes. So I was trying to be out of the way as much as possible. But, yeah, he has definitely kind of stepped back. He's working on his career. He got a good promotion. So that's his focus. And so that TWIP doesn't die off and doesn't leave, I have stepped up and am continuing that work at this point. So I would say it's fair to say that Jeff has stepped away and you're driving the bus now. Yeah, and that is also part of the reason I'm working on the Twippies more as well. Okay, so first off, we'll get to the Twippies, but what I want to know more about is tell me about Silver Ball Swag because you are basically the contact for so many options. I will say I have put some stuff in my cart before, and then I kind of forget about it. But there are some things that I'm really looking for. I really still want my Ray Day pinball hat. So I want to get that Silver Ball Chronicles hat. It would be awesome. And Josh, didn't you get a Triple Drain t-shirt? I'm wearing it right now, yes. I got two. I got Dehydra, and then I got just the logo. so the hydra is awesome i had to get the baseball style of the hydra with the triple drain uh even though there's some inside jokes before i made with the triple drain guys but uh which we can't talk about any of those on this show right now but no it's a great i love the design i'm slightly jealous man it was still it was still family friendly we just rid the yeah but i'm slightly jealous there's a sweet design this i mean this the triple drain looks like almost monster bash I love it. It looks clean. And I got to say, Will, the print on these shirts are wonderful. It feels quality. It feels like it's not going to fade out over time. I'm enjoying the product. I bought from Silver Ball Swag since you guys had started. That's awesome. I'm glad to hear that. Thank you. And you can even get your This Weekend Pinball Swag. That's part of the options here. Definitely is and that's kind of how we started You know Jeff and I Well originally I was looking for a shirt when I was getting into the hobby And couldn't really find something that matched what I wanted You know Double Danger was kind of the options out there And I did buy from them But we thought there were a bigger community of pinball enthusiasts That kind of had different tastes And so part of the reason we started was for that. And part of the reason we started was because TWIP, you know, needed the service to be able to provide merchandise. And so that's the direction we went with kind of reaching out to other pinball content creators and seeing if they needed that same service and see if we could provide it for them. So that's the direction we went. that's pretty awesome that you guys came up with that it's pretty amazing how many people have been able to do it and the nice thing about this is how customizable it is and it seems like every different one you you select it actually has many different options which is pretty cool yeah so we actually do have some products that you can actually customize the text that gets put on the product. So Joel Engelberth with Just Another Pinball Podcast, he has a couple options out there where he has stuff like Just Another Pinball Kid or Just Another Pinball Dad. And you can actually change that text, that kid or dad, to say whatever you want to say. So it kind of gives you some more freedom to make your own shirt or make your own products. Can you make one on the Triple Drain site that says which one is your favorite?
    7:41
    Like Team Travis, Team Joel, Team Tom? Sure. Sure we could. Yeah. All right. Okay. That's cool. What has been your biggest seller?
    7:55
    Oh, geez. Biggest sellers, you know, we did for a short period of time, we sold Kaneda shirts. Okay. Those were big sellers. Okay. But then, of course, as usual, you know, we had an issue and he took his stuff off of our site.
    8:15
    We also are one of our first products that was huge was back when Twip still had the did still did their podcast with Zach. Right. And, you know, he had a we did a Dennis one. And I can't remember what it said, but it was essentially like all their sayings in a cloud bubble of like of what was supposed to look like Dennis like face point or face palming himself. Yes, I actually have that shirt. I can tell you everything that's in there. It's a great shirt.
    8:54
    You have so many options on here and you can find our friends at Super Awesome Pinball Show. they're on there like there's ever i mean really i i'm gonna list off a few of just the ones that we've talked to black box carrie hardy don't panic flip um you know flipping off cancer you know just go through macho pinball it's all uh you can find your stuff here so that's the bottom line you need you need swag silver ball swag with with jeff stepping back and you taking more of the forefront will what's the new direction of twip are you is it going to be same old same old are you guys going for a new direction with the site and everything yeah so i i mean my focus is not really anything new um to me twip is still going to be what twip has been it's just that focus on um the weekly content from either like manufacturers or other content creators or any You know, anything out there that's kind of spreading pinball and giving people one place to go and kind of see it all wrapped up for the week.
    9:59
    That's I think that's always going to be the focus of this week in pinball. We do have other things out there like we do have the pinball university that's out there that we're still adding content to. And that focus is kind of bringing in new people to the hobby and getting them up to speed and giving them a place to go and find info, as well as we do the deep dives. So that's still going to go forward. I actually have an interview that I am working on with a homebrew, a creator of a homebrew that recently was at Expo. So I have that to post here fairly soon. so you know it's it's the focus i think has not changed too much um the only difference is that i am trying to push that content and jeff isn't so it seems like you guys get the information so quickly so it seems like you have at least you have once they announce the product it seems like they're able to get some information to you so because you are a good promotional tool for them. Yeah. Yeah. And that, I mean, that, that, that's our hope. Um, and Jeff is definitely, he, especially the last deep dive, he's still been in connection with the manufacturers. So I'm still kind of relying on him on some of those connections. Sure. Hopefully those will trickle over to me and we can move that forward so that Jeff can definitely step out of that, that arena. So we also have the Twippy awards coming up. We do. Yeah. So this voting starts this week. Okay. So pretend like I know nothing about pinball. How are you going to describe this to me? Gotcha. Yeah. So the Twippy Awards are a people's choice awards. You know, it's kind of the chance for folks that are in the hobby or have some connection or desire to be able to express their favoritism for things in the pinball hobby to go out and vote and kind of give some appreciation to the manufacturers that produce the games and to the content creators that are pushing out anything from websites to streams to podcasts. That's another category. So it's a chance for folks to vote on their favorites. And so, you know, the Twippy show itself is at Texas Pinball Festival in March. We've been there for the last, well, we were there last year and then COVID kind of took us back into virtual for a while, but Texas Pinball Festival is kind of our home for the show. And that's our chance to celebrate those favorites that people voted on. Part of the reason I wanted to get on here was to talk a little bit about our expectations, our people's expectations for the show.
    13:04
    We've had some talk of it being, and I know in the beginning there was some focus on making it a high-end, fancy presentation. It's getting compared to the Golden Globes. And so some of the reason I did want to talk to you guys is kind of set that expectation for the show, the Twippy Show going forward. Okay.
    13:26
    Because, like I said, it is a People's Choice Award. And so that we want to kind of reflect real pinball people. Okay. We're not the Golden Globes. We are not a fancy gala show. So, you know, but I mean, I say that, but people are definitely welcome to dress up and there and there will be presenters there that do dress up and and kind of make it the event they want it to be.
    13:55
    But, you know, in the same we're just kind of a celebration. You know we are we we there to kind of show how much we appreciate everything that you know all all these hardworking folks have done to make this pinball hobby what it is So that what the show is about And I just kind of want to make sure that everybody had that expectation going forward It sounds like a party celebration Yeah, exactly. I would say that now there are any time you have a, any time you have a voting that's open to anybody, there's always going to be challenges with that. Sure. Because, and these are, these are things that have been voiced before is that, well, okay, so what prevents someone from getting grandma to vote for them? They don't really have a connection to pinball. Or they have some sort of forum that they're just like, hey, go and vote for me, even though you don't really know what I do in pinball. Or, hey, we really like this game, so maybe you should – So how do you take all that into account in doing something like this? because you can vote regularly. Yeah, and we will even tell people, if you decide you want to change your vote, go ahead and vote again. Because one of the things we do do is we go through and remove all the duplicates. We check to see, you know, did this email get used again? Or are there IP addresses that are similar? And we have other, we check several other fields and data points to just kind of look at and see, you know, what's going on with the voting and is there something questionable going on. And we get rid of quite a few votes every year. So we do go through that. We go through that as a committee. We talk it through. We look at those through and definitely, you know, put some attention to that to make sure we have the best data. Now, I mean, it is a favoritism contest. I mean, there are going to be people asking, you know, their grandma to vote for them.
    16:12
    That's not something we can definitely, you know, we can't stop that and we don't necessarily want to. So part of it is we kind of feel like there's a balance, right? We have to make sure that the voting is easy, that everybody gets a chance and they don't have problems doing it. And it's something that they can enjoy and feel part of because it is, you know, they're part of the Twippies when they vote. But at the same time, you know, we do have to make sure that we don't get a big surge of the same vote over and over again from the same IP. Or, you know, we we definitely take both of those into account and try to kind of try to balance it out. Well, the one thing that you brought up is you said that you go through a lot of the votes every year and there are some that you have to discard. What makes you determine that? Like you share what like you saw a certain amount of votes that you're just like, OK, these these are obviously fakes. How do you determine that? Yeah, because I would say there's always the suspicion on any not not Twippies per se, but for any sort of email voting system. There are programs out there and services that would like to take your money to provide you with votes. We do. I mean, there are several data points that we look at. You know, we probably don't want to give you all that information. Sure, which is fine. Which is fine. Come on, Will. I want to know how to game this system. Come on now.
    17:42
    But it's, I mean, obviously email address is one of them. But even an email address, I mean, everybody can have multiple email addresses, right? So part of that is timing. You know, did we see three votes come in quickly? And their email address is a similar or they're from the same IP, you know, all of that is is taken into effect. And like I said, we kind of we we gather that up and we sit down as a committee and kind of go through it and point it out and discuss it. And so, you know, sometimes we just lean to like, hey, this is too questionable, but we don't know if it's right or not. We're just going to get rid of it and not worry about it. Um, part of that too, though, is that the more data we have, the more people voting, the more accurate our results will be. Right. So absolutely. The more data points you have, it's that's statistics that your end power goes up. Yeah, right. Exactly. So, so that is part of it. So we, you know, we do hope to get as many people voting. We want, we want to know what people's favorites are. And part of that is also We do use a ranked choice voting system So if you don't know You have a couple choices With the write-ins, this pre-vote You only have two options You can vote for your favorite And then you can essentially pick your second choice Or your second favorite for these items The pre-vote is only there to pick nominees For the final vote So we're just trying to get that top list.
    19:23
    And that top, you know, the top number of nominees is kind of dependent on the category. Some categories like maybe homebrew, we might not get enough. You know, we might not get 10. We're often shooting for the 10 nominees, but sometimes we don't get that many. So but the rank choice gives you kind of the option to say, hey, I have a favorite, but I want to give credit to somebody else. So you you can then have them as their second choice. And so the more first and second choices, those points add up and kind of weed out in our minds what what a favorite is in that category. Speaking on that. So speaking of the categories and whatnot, too.
    20:09
    Let's just put out there, I feel like a lot of the drama comes from the content creators subcategories. I don't ever hear at the end of when everything's said and done, the chips are down, the Twippies have been placed out. No one last year was like, you know, Halloween got ripped off because Godzilla is not that good. I didn't hear that. Godzilla got robbed. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. It usually comes down to complaints of content creators. uh does that has that become such a headache in your guys's uh in your field that you feel like maybe it's not worth your time having content creators in with something like as professional as the pinball industry because you've got these people making million dollar products million plus dollars that they've spent 18 months on and then you have i'm just gonna use us like yeah me that you know you've seen the quality of the podcast we've only dropped off three times tonight so Yeah. And I don't know if I would consider myself as quality of product as maybe a Stern Godzilla or even a spooky Halloween. So category wise, I mean, some of what the, you know, what TWIP, I was explaining a little bit about TWIP and what the TWIPPYs are is that we do want to promote and kind of push the content creators and show that, you know, they are a vital part of the community and the hobby. So celebrating them as well, I think, is just part of what we are looking to do. So, yes, they at times can be a little difficult and cause problems. And even we did kind of throw around in the TWBI committee recently, we did kind of throw around just kind of mashing them all into one category.
    21:54
    But we kind of felt that that would really limit who we were able to celebrate and who we were able to kind of give kudos to and all their hard work. Because, I mean, as you guys know, I'm sure that it's not, I mean, it takes work. It takes hard, dedicated work to get that stuff out there and to give us something to listen to and something to kind of look forward to. So we didn't want to lose that. Okay. And the one thing I do want to point out, so I pulled it up while we were talking. And the write-in categories, so these are the ones you settled on. Favorite pinball streamer. Favorite pinball podcast. Favorite pinball YouTube channel. Favorite pinball website. Favorite pinball mod of 2022, third-party mods only.
    22:44
    Favorite homebrew pinball machine. Favorite pinball location. Favorite pinball convention slash event. And favorite pinball topper of 2022. Now, this is obviously in addition to best art package, best rules, best game of the year, correct? Correct. Yeah, these are not the game categories. These are essentially the write-ins that we need to whittle down to get our nominees for the actual final voting.
    23:15
    Most of everything else is the game categories. And you'll notice that from that list, that is a shorter list than we had last year. We've eliminated several of the categories. We've actually merged the convention event. There used to be a tournament, favorite tournament. We've kind of merged that all together under favorite pinball convention event. Sure. And some of the reason for that is to kind of simplify things for us.
    23:47
    We wanted to focus a little bit more on quality of the show come TPF time. And so making fewer categories kind of makes it easier for us to create the video and get presenters and kind of focus on the show itself.
    24:07
    We have some other changes to the show that we're discussing through as well. But just wanted to point out that those categories are fewer than last year. Okay. You keep speaking of a committee too. How many is on the committee and can you talk about them a little bit? Is it just people from the industry? What is it? So we have, um, the committee's the same as what it was last year. Minus Jeff, of course. Um, so yeah, there's what, eight of us, no, seven of us now there's so Lloyd Olson from SS billiards is on it. Um, Steven Bowden from American pinball fun with bonus, um, a moto Harney from Marco and a moto arcade. Joel Reeves, who's a pinball enthusiast. Josh Sharp with IFBA. And Lauren Gray from Backbox Pinball Podcast. So that is our committee members. They were the committee last year as well. So they've decided to continue on and keep helping us get the Twippies going this year. That's a really solid group. Yeah. Yes. Very diverse, too. Yeah. That's our hope, yeah. No, that actually really impresses me that you have that many contributors because I was completely unaware of that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they're all very involved, both in the voting process, the meetings and in the show itself. So they're very helpful. We couldn't do it without them because doing it alone is not going to happen. well i know that when we originally talked about having you on you talked about having a moto with you too i assume she does uh she plays a bigger part in the twippies as well yeah yeah she is definitely kind of the second or part of the kind of leadership of the of the twippies um yeah unfortunately she is busy she's heading home from the houston arcade show so um she wasn't able to make it this time, but, um, yeah, definitely. And, and definitely a big part of producing the show all over. Um, so big part of it. Yeah. So if there's, if there's anything that I would, so I, we went to last year's ceremony. It was great. Uh, we were, uh, Josh and I were able to produce, I, I believe we did art package. Um, yes. And the, the one thing, if I were to give a suggestion that I heard. Yeah. Okay. We all know, like, especially in all the game categories, right. It may, it may be nice to have just a quick sizzle reel. Yeah. Of all of them, like at the beginning. Sure. And not have to do it every category time. Right. For last year, it was like, okay, it's Godzilla and it's a Mandalorian. And it's, and obviously they're going to be, you know, there's, especially this year, there's not going to be a lot of games.
    27:03
    So it will be very focused. So if I were to give a suggestion that I heard is do a nice sizzle reel at the beginning just to get to know you on all the games, and then you can have like a quick award sizzle for the winner. Yeah, that is definitely a good suggestion. We've actually already talked about that a little bit. and then probably for every category, not doing a full review of the games in that category, but just give a quick slide of the top three or the top two or so before showing the winner for that category. Yeah, that's definitely a great idea, and that'll speed up the show and just make it a little smoother. So that's a great idea. Well, my other thought process too, I know last year when we presented, we kind of were just dropped in there. We were sending an email saying, hey, we need you here at this time for the ceremony. And there was never like a dry run. I didn't know. Is that something you guys are considering this year as well? Yeah, we are definitely considering a dry run. And we've even besides that, one of the things we're talking about doing is kind of setting up a here's your presenter guidebook. You know, like here's what we expect. Here's where we want you to walk. Here you know what we wanted you to say for a particular port or you know here how you hold the mic or you know even some mic tips when you get up there I know last year too, we had an issue because we didn't have a mic at the podium. So we're going to resolve that as well.
    28:43
    But yeah, definitely more focus on having a dry run through, being able to practice it more and making sure our presenters have an idea of what to expect and what to do. Like, you know, they need to know what's expected of them as well. So, yeah, definitely something we're working on. So tell me about, obviously, you know, these are all the content creators. So what are the, like, what are the main categories for the games this year? And which games are really being considered so far? So the categories for the games we haven't gone through and haven't decided upon yet. So I don't have an answer for you on that one. We have started to go through and kind of pick games that are eligible. We do on our website already have, there's a 2022 page up and running. And it does list the game nominees as of now. Now, the eligibility for games, though, is through 12-1. So there's a couple other games that we're kind of watching that might end up. So the eligibility is that games have to start shipping within the year between 12-1 to 12-1 of the current year. So 12-1 of 2021 to 12-1 of this year, 2022.
    30:09
    And right now, do you want me to go? I can list off the games that we're currently looking at. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, so at the start is Cactus Canyon Remake by Chicago Gaming Company. We also have Funhaus 2.0 Rudy's Nightmare by Pedretti Gaming. Now, I know that's not a full game, so that won't be in every game category. It'll be limited to, you know, right now I think it's art and call-outs and display and animations. But, of course, like I said, we don't have our categories decided yet, so it's hard to say what it's going to be in. Then we do have Rush by Stern Nick Baldridge did a game for P3 called Flipper Foxtrot Rhythm Explosion That'll be in some categories We also have Super Hoop by Biktronic Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity by Multimorphic Toy Story 4 by Jersey Jack Pinball And the last one as of now is James Bond by Stern But like I said, we're looking at – I know Queen may be close by Pinball Brothers.
    31:19
    And then what's the other one that's currently – oh, this is Spinal Tap is the other possible that we're kind of watching and seeing if they get it in. Have they started shipping those?
    31:33
    I'm not aware that they have started shipping. Yeah, I don't – that's such a niche game then. Yeah. It may not. I don't know how many pinball enthusiasts will buy it as opposed to Spinal Tap fans. Right, right.
    31:48
    Okay, that's actually a much more complete list than I was anticipating. Legitimately, off the top of my head, I was like, I can think of like three, but man, you filled it out. Yeah, that's eight at this point. And it's kind of interesting. You mentioned Godzilla being such a runaway last year. There doesn't seem to be a runaway at this point when I look at this list. So it's going to be an interesting competition this year. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I don't think there's a clear-cut winner at this point. At least one that I can put my finger on and say, yeah, they're going to take all the votes from the people. So it's going to be a very interesting year. You're going to want to vote.
    32:34
    Especially all those Rush fans out there like Tom Brown. Yeah, actually, I'm going to say for the best third-party mod, I'm like those speaker light things that do the spinny things. I'm going to get those for my Rush game because that looks awesome.
    32:55
    And so here's the categories, at least the eligibility for next year. And these may or may not change, but best theme, best animations and display, Best light show, best toys and gimmicks, best theme integration, which is definitely different than best theme, best music and sound effects, best call outs, best rules, best play field, gameplay and layout, best artwork and game of the year. That's that that's a pretty solid list.
    33:23
    Yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely a good list. Like you said, I have no clue what of that will come through. I assume the majority of it will be the same, but there are changes possible. Sure. It's a work in progress. It's a work in progress, yeah.
    33:40
    So another change to this year's Twippies is you're going with new hosts. It was Jack Danger and Modo that seemed to be doing it the last couple of years. What's the change of direction for, and why are we going with new hosts? Well, I mean, so really it's just a change of feeling of the show. So, you know, things get older. We want to change things up. So we're looking for right now, really tell you the truth. Emoto is planning to be one of the co-hosts. So you can probably look forward to that. But we are looking currently for her co-host.
    34:20
    That's a good analog to her to kind of help push the show. Right. Because that's not easy. No, definitely not. a live show is not easy because you have to keep up with the pace. You have to keep up. You have to like, that's a big deal. Yeah, definitely a big deal. Um, but I do need to, to kind of say that we are considering as a Twippy committee, um, some of our issues or some of the, um, some of the challenges from the previous years are making sure we have a live stream show going along with the live show there at TPF. So we are considering, um, not doing the stream at the same time as the show at TPF and just doing a recorded playback later of the show. So, um, you know, that the, the hope there is to kind of focus on that TPF audience to give them a good experience and have them get something exclusive since they're there and they kind of see the awards getting presented.
    35:30
    And then still being able to get that information out to the rest of the public as soon as we can, probably on YouTube later on. Yeah, I think that would actually really help out. Yeah, I mean, it really will relieve some of the stress on us to kind of, you know, being able to perform to two audiences at once is not easy. So, you know, if we have one problem on the stream and that's not visible to us at the show, that makes it hard and vice versa. So this way we get a chance to focus really in on being able to celebrate with everybody there.
    36:08
    Well, it's hard, too, because I was talking about this last episode and it's not just Texas. There are other conventions that have this issue, but if you're using the sound at the convention, it's not the best for streaming and for the live. And there's a lot of variable factors that go into the sound equipment provided by Texas Pinball Festival or if it's the hotel itself. And so I agree. That's a good idea of recording it and then editing it down to the way that you want it for a presentation on YouTube. I think that's pretty reasonable. Well, I agree, and I hope others agree with that as well so they actually get to see a good – actual quality video presentation. So for voting, how does one vote? so right now pre-voting doesn't open till wednesday the 16th it'll open up at early in the morning and they'll go just need to go to twippies.com there'll be a link over from there to the pre-voting ballot page and that's where we allow you to do the write-ins for all those categories we listed before. So twippies.com, T-W-I-P-Y-S.com. That is correct. Yes, twippies.com. And then the final voting won't start until January 1st. And that'll include all the categories, all the nominees from the write-ins and all the game categories. So that's our big one. That's where we need as many people to vote as possible. So you went over some of the qualifications for the games have to go through to meet criteria for this Twippy year. But what is some of the qualifications for the content creators and the other categories that you're going to be working with? Sure, sure.
    38:03
    It obviously all depends on the category. We have an eligibility document that we post, and it's on the 2022 page currently already. So everybody is welcome to go and review and look at that. so some of the things and it's also on this week in pinball i'm looking at it right now oh yeah it is on the post from this week in pinball for this week yeah and some of the things are like streamer we we say they at least need to have five streams in the current year and that year always goes from 12-1 to 12-1 and i think podcaster and youtube is similar there's so many videos or podcasts that need to be out there.
    38:50
    And then there's like mod. Some of the things we look for in mod is to make sure it's a third party mod. It's not produced by a manufacturer. Not like insider connected or something. Correct. Yeah. Not like insider connected or yeah. Our, our art blades that are done by Stern are, won't be in that category. But we also need to make sure that they are not violating intellectual property rights. So, you know, we can't have. Right. Like fan arts, like you can't do Sonic as the, you know, the third party mod of the. Right. Because that's a that's considered a homebrew, a fan piece. Right. Exactly. Yeah. And then and then we also only let them be eligible for one year. So if, you know, let's say if Color DMD won a year, we don't then include Color DMD for the next year. Now, there are times, especially like Color DMD, that there may be, you know, they may come out with a new Color DMD for a particular game that hasn't been done yet. And if the folks that are voting put in that specific game, like Color DMD, I don't know, Ghostbusters or something specific, we will include that if it hadn't been included before. So as long as they're specific about it, we're good with that. Well, and the other follow-up question I have then, too, because obviously you've had Kaneda that's won the last five years, and some of the concerns I've heard is because his show is behind a paywall and not public, he's now concerned about releasing five episodes in the next week just to even be considered a nomination. Is that a concern? Or, like, that seems like we're splitting hairs because he's still producing pinball content yearly. It just isn't readily available to the public because of that paywall. Yeah, and I don't. So we haven't. I haven't gone and looked to see what he's produced that's not behind the paywall. We also don't have anything specifically that says, you know, there's a paid instance or not. Like if you have to pay for the product that are not, that's probably something I'm assuming he'll probably get nominated. But, you know, once he's nominated, that's something we would go over as a Twippy committee and say, hey, here's, you know, here's the five podcasts I found from him or from, you know, whoever is producing the content and talk through that and see, you know, what our thoughts are on that and how it meets our eligibility. What are you looking forward to most about this year? So this being my first year at the Realms, I am looking forward to getting through it at this point.
    41:47
    I just hope it's something that the pinball community can appreciate and enjoy and that it provides something that kind of just boosts up and does kind of bring out the best in the games and all the write-in categories. I would say I like how you basically boxed it and saying, look, this is a People's Choice Awards. And so you're going to get all the great things that happen with the People's Choice Awards and the challenges associated with that, but everybody can participate in this. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It is a community, right? I mean, that's part of what we're trying to come together and do So we might as well award and celebrate that as a community I agree It certainly been great when I been able to go and I planning on being there this year
    42:53
    Awesome. Looking forward to having you. Yeah, I was excited. I was all ready to go, and then we had some stuff come up. I had to back out.
    43:01
    I will not be in Texas this year, sadly. But I'm excited for you guys. Yeah, and I'm looking forward to ordering some shoes from Silver Bowl. yeah awesome also also a friendly reminder to those to the after party if you order pizza you make sure you hide that stuff will did you hear about that last year i i did not know so okay josh did you order the people who ordered the pizza i ordered the pizza okay so we were hanging out with the triple drain guys and i think uh i think zach and nicole were there and monica travis's wife was there and dennis was also dennis and tony and so we just or because we were starving after the twippies yeah and we i don't know you but you got like three or four boxes of pizza right i mean we yeah something like that and we're talking and like some rando dude like walks down the hall takes a look at the pizza box opens it up takes like three slices of pizza and And they just keep walking.
    44:06
    Like right in the middle of our group, too. We all kind of like looked at him like, what are you doing? We don't want to be that guy. That guy who's yelling at someone for taking a pizza. I'm like, I'm kind of impressed by his boldness. Yeah, that is a bold move. I guess it worked out for him. Yeah, three slices of pizza. He kept walking. I was like, you know what? That is a confident man right there. With this, if you do decide to keep going with this in the future with a live event and then the recorded afterwards, do you think you'll keep it at Texas just because of the time of year it is, the event that it is, and it's a big gathering of people that love the hobby? I mean, so far it seems to have definitely worked out well to have it at Texas, and Ed Vanderveen is great to work with and very helpful in helping us promote the Twippies and keep it running. So I don't see a reason to do anything different at this point. TPF has pretty much become the home.
    45:08
    Definitely. All right. Well, let's do a final plug. So what is the – this is the executive summary part. So what is it you want people to know about Twippy? How do they get involved, and where can they watch it? The main point for the Twippies is just a celebration of what pinball has to offer within that year from manufacturers, content creators, and those that are spreading the love of pinball. So it's a chance to vote on your favorites for multiple categories. and you can do that at twippies.com.
    45:46
    You also will see information on TWIP about the TWIPPies because they're closely connected. But to see the show later on or definitely come to Texas Pinball Festival to watch the show live and in person to get that exclusive, but we will definitely post that video in its polished state later on on YouTube on the TWIP YouTube channel. Okay, so, Will, I'm going to ask the standard questions. Yeah, which is fine. How long have you been a pinball collector?
    46:22
    Pinball collector, I think I started like in 2017-ish. So what, five or so years I've been collecting. And what is in your collection right now? Oh, so right now I have a Stars. I have a Genie. I have a Spider-Man.
    46:44
    I have an Iron Maiden Pro, a Deadpool Premium, an Earthshaker, and the last one is a Harlem Globetrotters. That's my collection at the moment.
    47:02
    That's a pretty diverse collection. Yeah. Which one are you playing the most right now? um probably i mean iron maiden it really gets a lot of my attention um if i have time because you love the music well not necessarily but i you know it's you know as it's the old standard i definitely enjoy the music more than i did or yeah that i than i even knew yeah um it's probably one of my my kids will now you know sing the music which is probably not good around the house but um actually so as an iron maiden fan growing up um i the lyrics are actually quite intelligent like they're they're it's non-intuitive because when you think heavy metal you think well okay you probably think a lot of hair band stuff right right but the the lyrics are really well thought out so i i'd be totally fine with my kids listening to iron maiden so i i would rather have them sing Iron Maiden as opposed to like Warrant Cherry Pie or something.
    48:11
    So what drew you into pinball, Will? So my father-in-law had a traumatic brain injury a while back. And then he, so he had a relative that actually owned pinball and it was kind of one of his things that he had always looked forward to, like being able to play pinball. and after his injury, you know, he needed to kind of help out his hand-eye coordination. So I started searching for some game, some pinball machine that I thought he might enjoy and he's definitely a big Western fan. So I found him a bounty hunter pinball machine that I had fixed up for him and given to him. And, you know, while I was fixing up and had it at home, I had gotten a chance to play it. And, of course, once you have one, you kind of – not having it anymore made me want something else. So I started collecting from that point on. Yeah, they multiply. They definitely multiply. They get into your blood or something. Yeah, something like that. It's – yeah, and they multiply quick, I found. Yeah.
    49:29
    What's on your wish list? What are you on the hunt for? Well, I am actually going to go see Jeff pretty soon And I am trying to get his Godzilla Premium from him So that's my next hope to grab Other than that, I kind of like some of the early classic Sterns Um, I actually just picked up a Trident that I need to fix up. Um, but if, I don't know if you guys have seen, there's, um, I forgot his name, but there's a guy that's been doing some new code for some of those classic sterns. So he's got a, what he's calling the Trident 2020 version. Really? Um, yeah. So you, I think it's just, you, um, my understanding is you have to get a Raspberry Pi and connect it. he has a connection to the board. Okay. Um, and then you just load his new code and you're playing a new version of Trident or with any, and he's put new sounds and new music to it. Um, it's pretty interesting. So that's why one of the reasons I wanted to grab that and try that out. Okay. Now that, that is really cool. Yeah. I mean the, the 2.0 versions of the, the games is kind of becoming. Yep. It's becoming pretty popular, and it's working. So Josh and I were talking to Aaron from Fast Pinball, and that was basically what they were doing, especially with the 2.0 kits, is basically putting a new rule set on an existing game and changing it, changing the vibe, changing the feel. Yeah, and that's definitely, I think that's pretty interesting, because we know there's layouts that are out there that are classic and really good layouts, but sometimes they just miss some of the depth that we enjoy and there are some games that are completely unbalanced they're a one trick pony just shoot that exactly before we wrap this up I want to do a quick update on flipping the script on autism I also want to do a quick update that I have been trying to get to the post office but I will try to get tomorrow I actually threw in an extra shirt and some extra stuff for the guy who bought the uh loser kid pinball hat so it's coming it's coming i'm just a little behind tim lee you should hit up scott you you hear this he gives out extra stuff to the other hat person you've been supporting us for so long what tim okay i'll i'll buy tim a pizza or some meat at uh at tpf so um so it sounds like everything has went through the board they have approved When we originally did this, it was 31 families that we were helping. Since then, it sounds like another family has been added to the list. And because we were able to raise $27,000, we have a little extra, and that will go to the last family on the list. And so thanks to all those that participated. Thank you again to all those that have been very patient, keeping updated with me and whatnot on your items. It sounds like everyone's received their items except for what Scott hasn't shipped out. but all Stern stuff went out last week and I got a message from a couple of people that they've already received their Stern stuff as well. So I think it has been a win, win for everyone. It's been amazing. The cool part too, is the, the Hot Wheels banner that was stolen, sadly was not signed by Joel Balser because he's no longer working at American pinball, but they got everyone else on there. Now they got like Dennis Norman and, and just, all other people that work there at American. So it's really cool.
    53:23
    It's one of those silver linings, right? It sucks that the cloud was there, but in the end, I think a lot of people ended up getting more than what they bargained for. And even the funny part was someone that bid on the koozie got their koozie, but Spooky jam-packed the box full of other stuff. It was like beanies and koozies and a travel mug. Oh, nice, nice. So they're like, we weren't expecting this. We only paid for our koozie. I'm like, well, cool. So good on Spooky.
    53:52
    Okay, Spooky, they're great guys, right? And they are. It's certainly a small company that is worth supporting. But yes, that does not surprise me at all. If you're looking for a new sweet shirt, hit up Silver Ball Swag. Go check out our friends, Triple Drain. They've got some awesome stuff that they just dropped on there in the last couple weeks. It was just right before Pinball Expo. if you don't have one of these shirts, I highly recommend the baseball shirt. I like it. It's comfortable. It hangs a little, it's a little longer, so you don't have to worry about like bending over and showing off your butt crack, I guess. It is what it is. That's, that's our, that's our first world problems. Right. And so, but seriously, go check out some of the swag. It's some great product. I haven't had an issue with any of mine. It's awesome. Well, I thank you very much. I, I want to appreciate, you know, all that you guys do for the community and putting out this great content. And thank you for having me on. Will, if someone wants to get a hold of you, how do they do it? You can probably, the easiest would be emailing me at will at thisweekinpinball.com. Easy enough. If you want to get a hold of us, we are Loser Kid Pinball Podcast at loserkidpinballpodcast.gmail.com. We're also on Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, and Instagram, all at Loser Kid Pinball. it seems like we've been people are finding us now on the socials so if you want to get a hold of us best ways through facebook messenger we appreciate everything i do apologize i've been a little slow on the emails but my there there's been more emails in the last two weeks to loser kid gmail account than we've had in the four years we've been doing seriously well because because of the flipping the script stuff and whatnot. It's like, it's pure insanity. Yes. It's, we're, we're up to 10. Oh yeah. Yeah, sure. That's, that's what the number is. Right.
    55:48
    I'd be happy if it was just 10 at this point. Holy crap. But, uh, no, thank you. Thank you for the support. Thank you for all the kind words. Everyone is awesome. Thank you. Thanks again, everybody.
    56:00
    And I guess we'll see you two weeks. Maybe soon. Shut up and sit down. Outro Music