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The TWIPY Awards Will NEVER Be the Same Now...

Cary Hardy·video·25m 35s·analyzed·Dec 15, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Twippies Awards undergo major restructuring after controversy, permanently barring past winners and canceling live ceremony.

Summary

Carrie Hardy reports on an official memo from This Week in Pinball announcing major structural changes to the Twippies Awards: cancellation of the live ceremony at Texas Pinball Festival, consolidation of content creator categories into one 'Favorite Pinball Content Creator' category, and permanent ineligibility for all past award winners. The changes stem from internal conflicts and community backlash, particularly involving Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. Hardy expresses mixed concerns about whether permanent past-winner exclusion diminishes award prestige while acknowledging benefits for new creators.

Key Claims

  • Twippies Awards had over 5,400 unique voters from 50 countries in 2022

    high confidence · Official TWIP memo quoted verbatim in video

  • No live award show will be held at Texas Pinball Festival this year due to internal and external circumstances

    high confidence · Official TWIP memo, primary source

  • All past winners of Twippies Awards content creator categories are permanently ineligible for future voting

    high confidence · Official TWIP memo details permanent exclusion policy

  • Chris Koulouris (Kaneda's Pinball Podcast) was told harassment/threats caused category removal, not eligibility issues

    high confidence · Official memo addresses dispute directly

  • This Week in Pinball and Twippies Awards are now 'completely separate organizations'

    high confidence · Direct statement in official memo

Notable Quotes

  • “The Twippies Awards are no longer what we remember them to be. It's change, and we're just going to have to adjust.”

    Carrie Hardy@ 7:10 — Summarizes Hardy's overarching assessment of the structural shift

  • “If I didn't have the other people to compete against that are usually winners or other top tier people in that particular category...I don't know if I feel like I really won or if I just...it was just my turn.”

    Carrie Hardy@ 9:22 — Core criticism: permanent exclusion diminishes award legitimacy by removing top-tier competition

  • “Do not stop creating and doing things for this hobby because you feel like you're never going to win a trophy. Do it because you love the hobby and you're just having fun with it.”

    Carrie Hardy@ 18:38 — Hardy's direct encouragement to new creators, countering potential discouragement from consolidation

  • “I feel like I'm wording that completely wrong. But like, I don't know if I like it. I am not super excited about it.”

    Carrie Hardy@ 14:00 — Explicit statement of mixed/negative sentiment on policy changes

  • “It was only after the request was ignored that the committee lead, Will Outing, decided to remove the categories.”

    Official TWIP memo (Will Outing)@ 6:06 — Attribution of category removal decision directly to Will Outing in response to unspecified 'lies, harassment, and threats'

  • “This Week in Pinball fully has a right to list and promote any entity they want in any way they see fit.”

    Official TWIP memo — Legal/structural clarification separating TWIP's independent authority from Twippies Awards governance

Entities

This Week in PinballorganizationTwippies AwardseventCarrie HardypersonWill OutingpersonChris KoulourispersonKaneda's Pinball PodcastorganizationGenghispersonTexas Pinball Festivalevent

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Structural changes to permanent past-winner exclusion may fundamentally diminish award legitimacy and competitive meaning

    high · Hardy extensively analyzes that winning by permanent attrition/lasting longest reduces award prestige compared to competing against top-tier creators; compares negatively to her Grand Champion award which had 'stiff competition'

  • ?

    community_signal: Major dispute over Twippies Awards structure involving allegations of harassment/threats; This Week in Pinball separated from awards governance as result

    high · Official memo states Will Outing removed categories after Chris Koulouris ignored requests to stop 'lies, harassment, and threats'; TWIP now 'completely separate organization' from Twippies

  • ?

    community_signal: Kaneda's Pinball Podcast created alternative voting system with transparent real-time vote tracking to address perceived Twippies governance issues

    high · Kaneda states he 'recused myself from this award show' to eliminate bias, created Facebook polls with real-time vote visibility, and established 13+ voting categories across mediums

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Widespread community hurt and uncertainty about Twippies Awards future viability following structural changes

    high · Hardy states 'I think a lot of people are hurt right now, and I don't know if that's something that's going to be easily recoverable from' and questions if 'this could possibly be the last time we have anything in regards to The Twippies Awards'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Consolidation of content creator categories into single 'Favorite Pinball Content Creator' category may disadvantage niche creators (streamers, podcasters, etc.) competing against broader mediums

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.077

0:00
what's up guys and welcome back to my channel where i talk and do everything pinball and today is i don't want to say it's a sad day or anything like that but uh as the time of the release of this video then the official memo will have been released from this week in pinball i have received this in advance so I'm merely getting this recorded and I'm releasing it after they do their memo because I'm not going to have time to do this tomorrow or anything like that. So I'm trying to get it done today. What's going to happen is that I'm going to read it verbatim and then if I feel like I need to go back reread things to give my thoughts and opinions on something I will. So this isn't a video where like oh you need to stare at the screen so if you want to set your phone down or walk away from the monitor and just have the audio going by all means do so. All right so this is the memo. No live show this year. Due to a variety of circumstances both in and outside of our control we will not be performing a live award show this year at the Texas Pinball Festival. We are disappointed that we won't get a chance to celebrate the accomplishments of 2023 together with all of the people who made it possible. However, we still plan to continue with the voting period as planned and release the results on Twippies.com. This way, the pinball community will still be able to vote and show their appreciation for the work that gave us 20 games this year. We believe that the Twippy Pinball Awards provide the best representation of the pinball community with over 5,400 unique voters in 2022 from 50 different countries. Voting is planned to begin Monday, December 18th at twippies.com. New favorite pinball content creator category. We've been disappointed in the reaction to our category changes for pinball content creators. However, we have heard the feedback and recognize the importance of encouraging and promoting those who work hard to spread the love of pinball. Our intent was not to take away the community's voice, but we also don't condone harassment, abuse, threats, spreading lies, or other malicious behavior. After discussions with the committee, as well as an additional group of content creators, we have decided to revise the content creator section of the awards by consolidating them into a single award. This brand new category, Favorite Pinball Content Creator, will help celebrate those who promote pinball while removing some of the issues with the past categories. Favorite Pinball Content Creator will encompass all content creators in pinball no matter what medium they use. In addition, in order to encourage the recognition of new creators in the space, previous winners of any Twippy Media category will not be eligible for winning and will not be listed in this category this year nor in future years. Those who have won creator-specific awards in the past will forever be recognized and celebrated as having made a great contribution to the promotion of pinball broadly, but now we hope to encourage more new and upcoming creators. There will still be a requirement to have produced five pieces of new, substantial pinball content through December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023 time period, but it will cover all mediums the content creator uses. This means that as prior winners of a Content Creator Twippy Award, the following pinball creators will not be eligible for this category for this year and any future years. Straight down the middle of Pinball Show, Deadflip, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Pinside, Pinball Magazine, Papa Pinball, This Week in Pinball, TNT Amusements. Eligibility Facts
@ 5:50

  • “Are The Twippies Awards dead? I don't want to say they're dead, but they have definitely lost a lot of excitement from the public than what they used to have.”

    Carrie Hardy@ 15:34 — Hardy's assessment of community enthusiasm collapse

  • “I think there's still too much in the air to really lay down and say, this is what's going to happen.”

    Carrie Hardy@ 7:53 — Expression of uncertainty about long-term viability and direction

  • “This might be the last time we have anything in regards to The Twippies Awards. I don't know.”

    Carrie Hardy@ 7:40 — Speculation that changes could end the Twippies as currently conceived

  • “Something tells me another type of award show may get developed within the next year.”

    Carrie Hardy@ 20:22 — Prediction of competitor awards emerging to fill the void

    • Straight Down the Middle
    organization
    TNT Amusementsorganization
    Pinball Magazineorganization
    Retro Ralphperson
    Christopher Franchiperson
    Pinsideorganization
    NAP Arcadeorganization
    Kineticistorganization

    high · Hardy argues consolidation puts 'everybody into one giant cesspool' and that 'likeliness of someone that is the top one or two or even three of a pinball streamer may not be in the top two or three' due to more popular mediums like YouTube dominating votes

  • $

    market_signal: Alternative award systems may emerge to replace Twippies Awards as primary community recognition mechanism

    medium · Hardy predicts 'something tells me another type of award show may get developed within the next year' and notes Kaneda's Pinball Podcast has already created competing Facebook-based polls with 12+ categories

  • $

    market_signal: Past Twippies Awards winners permanently excluded from future eligibility, potentially opening space for new creator recognition

    high · Official policy lists 9 permanent exclusions (Straight Down the Middle, Pinball Show, Deadflip, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Pinside, Pinball Magazine, Papa Pinball, This Week in Pinball, TNT Amusements) with no appeal mechanism

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Will Outing identified as committee lead making final decision to remove content creator categories

    high · Official memo directly attributes category removal decision to 'Will Outing' after unspecified harassment/threats escalation

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Significant community enthusiasm collapse for Twippies Awards; Hardy notes 'definitely lost a lot of excitement from the public'

    high · Hardy explicitly states 'they have definitely lost a lot of excitement from the public than what they used to have' and questions whether awards remain viable

    • 4:36
    Point 1. The ranked choice voting we have in place for the Twippies has always been intended to give voters more choice and showing appreciation for their top three favorites. It was never implemented to reduce the likelihood of any individual or entity's ability to win a category. Point number two, there has never been any requirement to have free publicly listed content for any of the pinball media categories. Whether a creator is behind a paywall or not has never been considered in determining eligibility for being on the ballot. Please review all of our eligibility documents since we have posted them each year since 2020. Point number three, it was always our intention to include Kaneda's Pinball podcast in all associated media categories this year. Even after This Week in Pinball removed his entry in the TWIP promoter's database, we made it clear to Chris Koulouris that he was still on the ballot. TWIP is now a completely separate organization from the TWIPPY Pinball Awards. TWIP fully has a right to list and promote any entity they want in any way they see fit. Chris was told the above facts and was asked personally to stop the lies, harassment, and threats. It was only after the request was ignored that the committee lead, Will Outing, decided to remove the categories. The Twippies have always strived to provide unbiased opportunity for all pinball manufacturers locations content creators events mod makers and custom game creators to be listed and available for the public to vote for So there is the memo in its entirety, and I think a lot of the commotion is a word I'm going to use in regards to everything that's going on is that there's been change. Some of the change was pretty drastic May not have been the best move But needless to say, it's change and a lot of us do not like it So going forward, we all just need to realize and come to the understanding That this week in pinball is no longer what we remember it to be The Twippy Awards are no longer what we remember them to be. It's change, and we're just going to have to adjust.
    7:22
    It's one of those where, in the end, the public will decide, even in their new scenario, when it comes to voting and stuff like that, this whole thing, how it plays out.
    7:40
    Who knows? They may revert, they may not. Or this could be possibly the last time we have anything in regards to Twippy Awards.
    7:53
    I don't know. I think there's still too much in the air to really lay down a concrete, this is what's going to happen kind of thing. So what we're getting out of this is that with these changes, we're removing all previous winners of Twippies.
    8:12
    So anybody that has won a Twippy award in the past is not going to be eligible for an award ever again. You get it, you're in a hall of fame of sorts, and then it's up to the next person that's able to get one kind of thing. So that eliminates the possibility of the awards being won by the same person every year. So it does bring in more change, more variety.
    8:49
    But does it diminish the award? I mean that's something that I have to sit here and kind of fester about because I feel if I will just put me as the subject here let's say for instance favorite content creator category comes up or whatever and lo and behold i win it and it's like if i didn't have the other people to compete against that are usually winners or other top tier people in that particular category or whatever it's like i don't know if i feel like i really won or if i just you know it was just my turn kind of thing so that's where I struggle I'm like I don't I don't know if I like the idea of just never being able to win ever again like maybe you can't win it two times in a row maybe something to that nature but just never being able to win ever again I don't know I mean because a part of me is like yes that should hopefully encourage a lot of you newly starting content creators or small content creators that are just getting their feet wet or whatever to maybe give you a little bit more motivation to improve and grow and stuff like that. I mean, because using myself in this matter, the Twippies have been going for six, seven years. I have been creating content since 2018-ish, late 2018. And so I have been eligible for a Twippy since then. But I'd say for the first year or two, at least, I wasn't even on the top list. I think maybe top 10, but at the time there was probably maybe 10 YouTubers for pinball. But it hasn't even been until the last two or three years where I've been in the top three. So I have grown over the years. and uh but it's one of those things where i personally feel that the award would mean more to me if i was still competing against those that have won it in the past and i guess that's partly why hold on that's partly why this award my grand champion award I feel like is one of my most precious awards and I felt so emotional about it when I won it because the competition was very stiff. There's a lot of people out there with so much talent that I'm competing against and a lot of them are my friends at that.
    12:03
    And it's not public voting. You've got, what, four individual judges that are scrutinizing your every drop of paint, every sticker, everything that you have done to a particular machine and judging you on it.
    12:22
    It's not a favoritism award. We're talking like high-end just judging. Not like we like your personality or whatever. It's just like what have you done? We're judging it on you. and to go against all of the individuals out there with all their skill sets. And I strived worked my ass off to get this award and I won it and it meant so much when i won it but if i was to win that award knowing that basically i just kind of like lasted long enough to where everyone else that was obviously better than me just couldn't win it anymore it would diminish it Now, granted, you can't win that award two years in a row. That's basically the only big rule, is that you can't win Grand Champion two years in a row. That's just a rule that they have, and it's just been going.
    13:26
    But even with the person that won the year before me, there was still a lot of stiff competition out there. So two different awards, but I'm just saying that I feel that the award might be a little diminished in what it represents due to the nature of just the whittling down of the previous winners to eventually be the top of the totem pole. I feel like I'm wording that completely wrong but like I don't know if I like it I am not super excited about it I think this is going to hinder a lot of these smaller content creators the ones that are already in a niche portion of the hobby and are just getting started and now you're putting everybody into one giant I don't want to use the word cesspool, but that's what I'm going to use. One giant cesspool that is now all being voted on together in one single category instead of separating everybody out like it used to be. So the likeliness of someone that is the top one or two or even three of a pinball streamer may not be in the top two or three of the favorite pinball content creator. because maybe YouTube is more popular. Maybe podcasting is more popular. Maybe websites and stuff like that is more popular.
    15:08
    So it automatically just kind of lowers you down because you have all the other categories or genres in the hobby for content creation that are just more favorable.
    15:23
    I got to try not to get too excited or talk too much. The puppies get too excited. I was hoping this was going to be a short video. I'm probably going to edit the hell out of this so it can still remain a somewhat short video. But are the Twippies dead?
    15:38
    I don't want to say they're dead, but they had definitely lost a lot of excitement from the public than what they used to have. And I think that's what made the Twippies what they were, was the people. and I think a lot of people are hurt right now and I don't know if that's something that's going to be easily recoverable from. So voting opens up in a few days.
    16:10
    I think whether you want to vote and be involved in that process and everything is strictly, completely up to you. I'm not telling you what you should or should not do. If you want to vote, by all means do so.
    16:24
    I'm just kind of curious of where things go from here. I know I've stated this in my previous video in regards to Twippy and the Twippy Awards, but for you smaller content creators that feel like you're just not ever going to win this award, once again, if you are creating content for this hobby and your primary goal is just to get that little piece of plastic trophy, stop creating content. content you're doing it for the wrong reasons if you want a little trophy just to be recognized and everything and make you feel better about what you're doing you're never gonna make it you should be doing whatever you're doing in the hobby whether it be streaming podcasting me doing my YouTube or anything if I didn't enjoy this at all I wouldn't be doing it I damn sure don't do it for an award because I never win the damn thing but that is definitely not my goal either is to win a Twippy award if I ever if I once again if I was to win it cool I don't think it's gonna change the way I create my content or why I do it but But just don't be discouraged by when I talk about putting everybody into one giant pool.
    17:59
    I think definitely a lot of you smaller content creators, those that are just starting out, it's nice to have a little bit of recognition. To see your name up on a webpage or something like that or eventually into some sort of montage video promoting that you did something and that everybody can recognize you. I think that's definitely going to be a nice feeling for a lot of you that have never received that kind of thing. So maybe whenever it comes down to showing all the people that are involved in making the content creation, maybe you'll at least be on a website or something like that. But do not stop creating and doing things for this hobby because you feel like you're never going to win a trophy. do it because you love the hobby and you're just having fun with it and just keep doing that and if you grow and things get better and people enjoy what you're doing and maybe eventually you'll get that little trophy but then you'll find that little bitty trophy is like all right it sits there now what don do it for a trophy do it for the love of the hobby do it for the love of the people in the hobby so with that being said about the twippy awards and what's going on there are other options i say options but as of right now there is a definite option for those that still would like to vote for all the subcategories that were in the Twippies.
    19:39
    Kaneda at Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, if you go to his Facebook page, he has basically a bunch of polls that go down, and you can vote. It's all public voting. It is what it is. I mean, I could go into further details about it, but I'm honestly getting tired. It's already getting late, so I'm just going to import a portion of Retro Jinko's video with him, and they can tell you what's going on. So this is merely another way to kind of like publicly, you know, poll for People's Choice Awards and stuff like that. Feel free to go contribute. I believe it's going on for a week. And who knows, with my feelers out there in the hobby, something tells me another type of award show may get developed within the next year. We'll see. I don't know. Chances are a different type of award show will step into the light within the next year, and the Twippy Awards will be the Twippy Awards promoting all the machines and everybody in the industry, plus the new favorite pinball content creator category. So with TWiPS changes, they're still giving the public a voice. You're still able to vote for the machines and vote for a content creator. You're just not getting the ability to vote in a particular category to help that person's odds kind of thing. so in the end the public is still getting a voice and opinion in the matter the people that have won an award they've won their awards and they're done that's pretty much it guys attrition that's the damn word i was looking for earlier basically you would just win by attrition like overtime eventually if you just last the longest you will eventually get a trophy that's what i was trying to think of son of a yeah here's how it's going to work very simple um i'm going to put up on facebook uh all the different categories i'll go through them now and it's going to be polling so you're going to be able to vote everyone gets one vote per category and it and you're going to see in real time this is where it's different and some people like it some people don't but we're going to be able to see in real time when the votes come in, who voted for what, and how many votes each game is getting. And the reason I like that, right, all the speculation is Canada buying votes in Brazil. Are we cheating to get these trophies? And here's the good news for everybody. I recused myself from this award show, so I won't be in it. There will not be any bias. It's going to be all about the best in pinball. I'm taking myself out of it because we all know who's number one. You know, We don't have to vote on Canada anymore. But, Cengiz, should we go through the categories so we can tell everybody what they're going to be voting for? Yeah, yeah. So no one can vote on you. So you can't go up and say, yeah, I'm the best. Yeah, no, no. We're not going to listen to you. And, you know, I don't need to give myself an award. And, you know, but, you know, we're going to have podcaster categories and media represented. So I'll go through. These are the categories, ladies and gentlemen. You will be able to vote for favorite homebrew, favorite new mod of 2023, the best theme in pinball, the best pinball website for news, rumors, and speculation. This is different. You know, Pinside always wins. You know, it's a forum. I get it. But I think we should recognize the other websites out there. And those are going to be Naps Arcade, Kineticist, and This Week in Pinball are the three, I think, you know, news websites for pinball. Best music and sound package. Best call-outs. Favorite pinball streamer. Best rule set. Best toys and mechs in a game. Favorite YouTube channel. Jengis, you're on there.
    23:43
    Actually, I have to add. You're on there. Best new pinball content creator. What I did there was I consolidated who's new in the pinball content space and let people vote on that. That way we're not doing streamer, podcaster. Let's just throw them all in. I think I got most of them. And what I'm going to do for some of these categories is people can add a category if they, you know, if I've missed something. And I just shared this with everybody today. So if I've missed anything, let me know. Best animations and display. Best art package. Christopher Franchi is listed like 18,000 times here. Best topper. Best game design. Favorite pinball podcast. Game of the year. So it's, and there's a lot of names on this, right? So everyone's going to hopefully feel they've been represented. Everybody gets an equal vote. There's no bias. It's not just going to be, you know, hopefully we share this link around. Anyone can jump on the Canada Facebook page and vote. There is no paywall. There is no, no one's getting blocked. Nothing like just vote, have fun. And then Jengis and I will regroup and read who wins. And the voting will start, Jengis, on Friday tomorrow. And it'll last one week. So December 15th through the 22nd. And then we will, at the 22nd, we will do a show right around there. And I think we will, you know, maybe we do it that Saturday morning. We just, we do a recap. We have some fun. We talk about where the votes fell and we end the year. And I think, I think what we come up with, Genghis, will be exactly where the trippy votes fall come end of March. So we're going to, you know, some of this is where we might spoil their, their thunder a little bit. But, you know, such is life when you decide to remove Kaneda from the award show.