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The Pinball Show Ep 120 Part 3: The Ice Cream Sundae

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·42m 47s·analyzed·Jan 4, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Pinball Awards rebranded with expanded judging, live January 28th ceremony, and public voting component.

Summary

The Pinball Show hosts discuss the Twippies awards season and announce major changes to the Pinball Industry Awards (now renamed the Pinball Awards/Crystals). The hosts reflect on award philosophy, announce a live ceremony on January 28th in Evansville, Indiana, introduce public voting (10% of final vote), expand judge eligibility to top 100 IFPA players, and highlight the Pinball Network's growing podcast audience approaching 1 million downloads.

Key Claims

  • The Pinball Show made the Twippies top-10 finalists write-in list for favorite YouTube/streaming content

    high confidence · Host states: 'We made it into their write-in list, which is really a drop-down list of the top ten contenders, finalists, to vote for their final prize in March.'

  • The Pinball Network is approaching 1 million all-time podcast downloads

    high confidence · Host states: 'each and every month our listens continue to rise to the point that here soon we are going to be celebrating one million all-time downloads for podcasts'

  • The Pinball Awards is renaming from 'Pinball Industry Awards' to simply 'Pinball Awards'

    high confidence · Host states: 'we're renaming the awards. It's still going to be the Crystals...rather than Pinball Industry Awards, we're just going to flat out rename it to the Pinball Awards.'

  • Judge eligibility is expanding from top 50 IFPA players to top 100 (both overall and women's rankings)

    high confidence · Host states: 'We don't want to limit it to top 50. We're going to move it this year to top 100...if you're ranked in the top 100 IFPA overall or the top 100 women's rankings...you are eligible to be a judge.'

  • Public voting will comprise 10% of final Pinball Awards votes (same as Game Awards model)

    high confidence · Host states: 'Same as the Game Awards, 10 percent of the vote will be made up of the public voting pool.'

  • The 2024 Pinball Awards ceremony will be held January 28th at the Flippin' Out Theater in Evansville, Indiana

    high confidence · Host states: 'It's going to be at the Flippin' Out Theater. Pinbarn? Pin Barn Fitment Facility...it's going to be in Evansville, Indiana...January 28th'

  • Application deadline for judge and public ballots is January 5th

    high confidence · Host states: 'January 5th, I won't give the specific deadline time there, but we want the that's not the deadline to vote. This is the deadline to ask for a ballot.'

  • The Pinball Show currently receives 4,000-5,000 listens per episode

Notable Quotes

  • “I don't really want to be attached to anything that rewards somebody for harming other people in this industry. I know that's dramatic, I know that's conflictual, but you know that's where I'm at this year.”

    Host @ mid-episode — Expresses concern about Kaneda's repeated Twippies wins and implications about industry conflict; indicates hosts' values around award legitimacy

  • “We're still going to be hosting the show. We're going to have other people maybe presenting awards with us...it's going to be at the Flippin' Out Theater...We're going to have a freaking party is what we're going to have come January 28th in Evansville, Indiana.”

    Zach (presumed) @ late-episode — Announces major shift to live ceremony format at Flippin' Out venue with in-person gathering component

  • “If I'm doing all that I can and I like what I'm producing and creating and editing and the feedback I receive quantitatively tells me that we're doing something right, that's really all I need.”

    Host @ mid-episode — Philosophical stance on podcast success metrics independent of awards validation

  • “Listening is the thank you. So I thank the audience because the audience chooses to listen. And that's the part I appreciate.”

    Dennis @ mid-episode — Frames audience engagement as the true measure of podcast success over awards

  • “The Game Awards is huge. It's ginormous...why not us as pinball? Why not us?”

    Dennis @ mid-episode — Articulates the inspiration for Pinball Awards structural changes modeled on Game Awards

  • “I want the public to be heard as well. I want their votes to count too...anyone is allowed to do the public voting as long as they are not also voting as a judge.”

    Zach (presumed) @ mid-episode — Justifies addition of public voting component to Pinball Awards structure

  • “It's super simple to sign up. We're going to have links everywhere. You just click on a link, fill it out, and then once you're authorized to be a judge, we send you a link of the ballot and you just fill it out and make your votes.”

Entities

The Pinball ShowmediaThe Pinball NetworkorganizationPinball Awards (formerly Pinball Industry Awards)eventTwippieseventZachpersonDennispersonStraight Down the Middlemedia

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Pinball Network podcast approaching 1 million all-time downloads; monthly listens continuing to rise; The Pinball Show at 4,000-5,000 listens per episode

    high · Host states: 'each and every month our listens continue to rise to the point that here soon we are going to be celebrating one million all-time downloads...We're up to 4,000 to 5,000 listens an episode now'

  • ?

    community_signal: Host expresses concern about Kaneda winning Twippies award five years running despite allegations of harming others in industry; indicates media conflicts and interpersonal politics affecting award credibility

    medium · Host states: 'Kaneda's won that Twippy five years in a row...I don't really want to be attached to anything that rewards somebody for harming other people in this industry...I've had a tough year of just media freaking conflicts crap'

  • ?

    community_signal: Expansion of Pinball Awards judging pool to top 100 IFPA players (both overall and women's) and introduction of public voting component signals effort to broaden legitimacy and participation

    high · Host states: 'We don't want to limit it to top 50. We're going to move it this year to top 100...and a public voting component...10 percent of the vote will be made up of the public voting pool'

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Awards live ceremony on January 28th at Flippin' Out Theater in Evansville, Indiana with in-person gathering, streaming, and giveaways

    high · Host announces: 'January 28th in Evansville, Indiana...it's going to be at the Flippin' Out Theater...We're going to have a freaking party...we're going to be doing live giveaways throughout the ceremony'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.128

0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised.
0:11
The Pinball Network is online. Launching The Pinball Show. Welcome back to The Pinball Show, your favorite pinball podcast. I return you now to the conclusion of episode 120 in part 3 of the Pinball Show. Let's roll.
0:37
Well, how about that? We are back. It's almost like we never left, but we did actually. We took a little break. I'm a day older. I watched the Aretha Franklin documentary yesterday. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Yes, they, of course, had to have that song. Well, it's the only one I really know, I think. Well, it is like her calling card. Speaking of calling cards, it's that time of the year. We've had Christmas. We've had New Year's. Next big event. President's Day. The press. Where we are.
1:09
The best of the year. We're the best. You must celebrate us. Have you seen my coif? I've got the most regal coif. No, it's pinball awards season. Oh, that's right. Yeah. This last week, the Twippies kicked off where their voting opens up January 1st. So people are voting on the Twippies. Congratulations to yourself and myself for the pinball show. We made it into their write-in list, which is really a drop-down list of the top ten contenders, finalists, to vote for their final prize in March. So the pinball show. Woo! How about that? Hmm. Very cool. Alongside favorite YouTube, straight down the middle. so we're in the contention for that as well there's only nine of those so I think maybe by default we got in there straight down the middle as a reminder we got a couple new episodes out there really are only nine? yeah I think there's only nine interesting where do you think video is in the past? streaming is harder than podcasting of course so where does pre-recorded video fall? is that harder because of the editing? or is it easier because you don't have to think of everything on the fly. Oh, yes, that's true. I don't know. I think it's my preferred medium. But you like editing, so I'm not surprised at that. I'm not surprised. It's very difficult, but it's like everything, though, because there's plenty of YouTube videos out there on pinball. They just stick a yam cam up and call it a video. if I could create videos to the level that we did in our garage five years ago for Straight Down the Middle shit, it would be a cakewalk but the level of editing now that we do yeah, it's pretty arduous also of note, Dennis, not only the Pinball Show made that top list for the Twippies I want to give a congratulations to other TPN, Pinball Network podcasts, including Triple Drain Pinball podcast, the newcomers I think that was deserved. It's a really good podcast. Final Round Pinball podcast with the veterans over there. Very nicely done. Silver Ball Chronicles. Our own David Dennis and Ron Hallett. That's a very well, objectively, very well done podcast. I listen to all of these. Yeah, I do as well. So congratulations to those. I would have maybe thrown a little nod to Pinball Party because although early, it's really good. I don't remember the and I apologize I didn't vote in the twippies so I don't remember the number of episodes or was that a barrier maybe for that I don't know I don't remember how many that you have to have out when it comes to streamers flipping out pinball I'm going to pat myself on the back but especially Joel Engelberth, BD and the gang over there making it into the final voting category for favorite pinball streamer flipping out pinball that's awesome Other streaming finalists from TPN, Fox City's Pinball. Very popular for competitive streaming. Absolutely. Yeah, the place for competitive pinball streaming. I was surprised to see less TPN people like George Fisher. Surprised to not see him up there. Hub Challenge. There's a lot of people. Here's the biggest one, though. The biggest snub of all time here, the Pinball Network Dedicated Stream Channel. In the top ten? Really? How the hell does that even happen? Again, you know, I don't. The largest, most frequent pinball streaming channel in the industry. I haven't really looked at the streaming analytics this year for quite a while, at least. But, I mean, the people who participated on it, I think, should be pleased. The viewer count was good. Like, whenever I would stop in, the viewer count. And, of course, we fragmented that. Well, fragment is not the right word. We multicast it. So it was on Facebook and YouTube and Twitch, which at least from the chat logs I could see it looked like there was – especially with YouTube, there were a lot of people that were – Twitch was the biggest audience. We were up there streaming as much as freaking LaserLos. I mean come on.

high confidence · Host states: 'We're up to 4,000 to 5,000 listens an episode now. People love the show.'

  • Host expresses concern about Kaneda (presumed Twippies host/winner) winning award five years in a row despite alleged industry harm

    medium confidence · Host states: 'Kaneda's won that Twippy five years in a row he'll win it six years in a row and my thought is I don't really want to be attached to anything that rewards somebody for harming other people in this industry'

  • The Pinball Network Dedicated Stream Channel was omitted from Twippies top-10 despite high viewership and frequency

    medium confidence · Host states: 'The largest, most frequent pinball streaming channel in the industry' was not in top ten, and 'The Pinball Network Dedicated Stream Channel. In the top ten? Really? How the hell does that even happen?'

    • Host @ late-episode — Explains streamlined application process to encourage broad judge participation

  • “Each and every year it's going to be bigger, better, bolder, and more voluptuous.”

    Zach (presumed) @ late-episode — Expresses commitment to growing and evolving the Pinball Awards ceremony annually

    • Flippin' Out Theater / Pin Barn
    venue
    Flippin' Out Pinballmedia
    Game Awardsevent
    Silver Ball Chroniclesmedia
    Final Round Pinball Podcastmedia
    Triple Drain Pinball Podcastmedia
    Kanedaperson
    Gregperson
    Joel Engelberth / Flipping Out Pinballperson/media
    Fox City Pinballvenue/media
    IFPAorganization
    Pinball Party Podcastmedia
    This Week in Pinball (TWIP)organization

    community_signal: Pinball Network Dedicated Stream Channel reportedly omitted from Twippies top-10 despite being described as 'largest, most frequent pinball streaming channel' with strong viewership metrics

    medium · Host questions: 'The Pinball Network Dedicated Stream Channel. In the top ten? Really? How the hell does that even happen?' and notes it 'was on damn near every day' with good viewer counts

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Hosts adopting Game Awards structure as inspiration for Pinball Awards: judging pool of industry experts + 10% public voting rather than pure popularity contest model

    high · Dennis states: 'We've really been looking towards the Game Awards...they do a mix of things...we're going to flat out rename it to the Pinball Awards'

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Awards judge and public voting application deadline is January 5th; voting window approximately one week; results announced January 28th before February

    high · Host states: 'January 5th...that's the deadline to ask for a ballot...we're going to use survey monkey...about a week...January 28th...we're going to give the results and do the ceremony before february'

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball Network media portfolio (podcasts, YouTube, streaming) showing growth trajectory and competitive positioning against established outlets like Twippies for community mindshare

    medium · Multiple TPN shows (The Pinball Show, Straight Down the Middle, Silver Ball Chronicles, Final Round Pinball) made Twippies finalists; hosts note approaching 1M downloads milestone

  • $

    market_signal: Hosts positioning Pinball Awards ceremony as major pinball community celebration with premium event elements (live streaming, in-person party, giveaways, VIP tickets, possible expense-paid invites)

    high · Host announces: 'We're going to have a freaking party...live giveaways throughout the ceremony...golden ticket, your VIP ticket to come hang out, party with us. Some of those tickets may be expenses paid, too'

  • ?

    community_signal: Dennis characterized as voice of skepticism/reason on podcast, historically concerned with award structures and willing to walk away from award validation; Zach positioned as more celebratory and event-focused

    medium · Dennis states he prefers listener engagement over awards: 'I'd rather people listen than give me a vote'; Zach drives event planning and public engagement philosophy

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Hosts expressing discomfort with current Twippies award structure and skepticism about popularity-based voting models; moving to create alternative award framework

    high · Dennis states: 'I don't like people's choice...I don't believe in that model at all'; hosts developing Pinball Awards as alternative with judging pool + 10% public vote

  • ?

    technology_signal: Hosts implementing anti-manipulation safeguards for Pinball Awards public voting including application process, individual links, Survey Monkey routing, and duplicate vote prevention measures

    high · Host states: 'we've put in some provisions...we're doing an application process for both...everyone's going to get their own individual link...we're keeping this a very low percentage...try and make it as rigorous as possible'

    • 5:19
    TP was on damn near every day. The numbers were – that I saw of people who were using that as a – it was an experiment. I thought it was an interesting experiment to try out. and it looked like, at least for audience purposes, it was well viewed. So I would – I'm again – I don't get hung up on award stuff. If anyone was feeling down, I would say don't feel down the audience numbers. The metrics speak for themselves, so be pleased with your performance. It's kind of a mess anyway because TPN just coincidentally wasn't part of the drop-down slash write-in. Oh, yeah, that's right. The write-ins are dropped. Okay, well, people can see it to choose it. That's why that doesn't work. Is there – yeah, I mean, because – okay, no, I get it. Yeah. That's – honestly, I don't want to be presumptuous because obviously adding something in means I have to undercut something that is currently in the list. And I'm too ignorant of it to want to do that. But that not having something in the visible list would put you at a disadvantage. Yes. I mean, just by default. That's how it works. So nice to say it that way. Fuck yes, it does. people have asked me before we get into their stuff people have asked me like hey um how do you feel about the twippies and your podcast do you want people voting for you know and we're one podcast it doesn't you know we just don't place that value of that award uh high enough up for us to ask or beg for votes or anything like that so i'm in a place the last two years especially because i used to get hung up on this stuff last two years especially dennis as long as I'm doing what I can to create a podcast or a video show, if I'm doing all that I can and I like what I'm producing and creating and editing and the feedback I receive quantitatively tells me that we're doing something right, that's really all I need. We're up to 4,000 to 5,000 listens an episode now. People love the show. I do think I'm biased. I'm the most biased source here. I listen to pretty much all the pinball podcasts. I think our show is the best. And that's because if it wasn't, I would do everything I need to to make sure we get it to where I think it's the best. That's really all I need personally. Yeah, my views are similar. I want to be a little careful. I'm not going to say – I'm not going to flat out say I don't care because I still remember from years ago when Head to Head said that. and a lot of people that really wanted, I guess, wanted to support them felt almost upset. Oh, I get that. Yeah, I get that. And so here's how I'll – I'd rather people listen than give me a vote is what I'm saying. Here's how I'll phrase it. And it's easy enough for me. Like my other podcast has never been up for a Twippy. It's never been nominated. So it's obviously never been a motivating factor for me, and I've never been concerned with whether or not I'm going to get some sort of award for podcasting. The reason I do podcasts, both this one and the other one, is because I enjoy doing them. That's really the only motivation why. Now, part of it is, of course, just being able to have that sort of dialogue. But obviously, you like to have an audience that's also listening and participating. That's the fun part. That's why you go to the extra steps of the editing and recording. So listening is the thank you. So I thank the audience because the audience chooses to listen. And that's the part I appreciate. So I don't care about an award. I care that people get some sort of enjoyment, whether it's to disagree with everything I said and just that that's the entertainment of it and that that's what they like. They like to listen and be like, God, that Dennis, he's just not right. He just doesn't have that passion Zach has for pinball. It's just it's it's wrong. And I want to hear what wrong thing he says next. That's that's part of that. That's part of the fun. It's so nice to have Dennis there as a voice of reason. And when you're, yeah. So, so that's, so for me, it's like, that's why I was, I guess I kind of get it. I was a little surprised when you said you used to get, you know, really, I guess sort of worked up about wanting to get an award. Yeah. Because I, I like the idea, I like the idea of awards in the, like, it's, it's almost more fun to give them though. It's like presents. Absolutely. That's why I was part of the Twippies initially. That's why I was a part of the industry awards. And I knew that part was big for you because celebrating the hobby, it means a lot to you. It meant a lot to you before you had Flippin' Out. It means a lot to you now. And I like the idea of recognizing and celebrating things in this hobby that I enjoy. But I don't care so much if you're doing stuff to celebrate what I do in the hobby. I don't need that part to be. The only celebration part that I want is for the audience to enjoy the show. And, of course, if they don't, some people just need to listen to other shows because not every show is going to appeal to every person. That's right. And last year, that was a big one for us last year for me personally was we got an industry award. And that was from individuals that I know voted based on consuming the product or the content and the majority of them came outside of TPN So our media peers that was big I like that because their listens don pile up enough quantitatively so we can see From the listeners here, we get 5,000 listens an episode, and we're like, okay, yeah, people like it. People really like it. So that's our feedback there. and at the end of the day I've had a tough year of just media freaking conflicts crap and Kaneda's won that Twippy five years in a row he'll win it six years in a row and my thought is I don't really want to be attached to anything that rewards somebody for harming other people in this industry I know that's dramatic I know that's conflictual but you know that's where I'm at this year I've made that public and that's where I'll continue to be at. It's just fucking gross. So if that's what you value, then I don't want to be a part of any of that shit because it affects me, my daily life. So that's a good thing that we have Dennis Creasel to bring us back to the promised land. For people like yourself and I, it's more important to honor, to celebrate those creators in pinball, whether it is media providers or those who are actually doing the game stuff, which is why we're interested in running an award show kind of thing. Yeah, I mean, I like the celebration aspect of it. And as you know, because I was always pretty blunt about it, even back while you were working on the Twippies, I just I don't like people's choice. I don't I I always point to that in other industries. We don't see that as a primary means of celebration because it's so there's just so many things that can be done, you know, that can be manipulated. Yeah, we don't know what we're measuring, really. Well, yeah, because it's as the public would commonly say, it's a popularity contest, which is true. But then if you take that to its natural conclusion, the proper way to do a popularity contest would be to measure objectively. In theory, you could measure objectively. Like if all the pinball companies told us their sales, we would know what the most popular pinball machine of the year is. It would be whatever sold the most. Mathematically, that's the right answer. So that's why I always – and that's why you see things in movies, video games and such. They might do a mix of things, and of course we're going to be discussing that here. We'll talk about that. But rather than diving into an analysis of what types of awards I think are structured better than others, what I thought was important for my part at least was to kind of put my money or I guess more accurately my time where my mouth is instead of just saying, you know, I don't like people's choice as a structure, but I'm not going to do anything about it.
    13:14
    I mean, it's fair enough. It's fair enough to armchair quarterback, but it's kind of like, you know what? You know, if I really think it, maybe I should actually help with something that does something along the lines of what I'm thinking is more useful. That's why you're so respected in this industry. Well, I don't know about that, but it's just sort of like, you know what? It's easy enough to complain. I have two podcasts where I complain about things all the time. So in regards to helping with an award process that I think can incorporate things that I believe are more meaningful based off of what we've seen other industries do, I'm not above copying. I love copying. Why reinvent? Especially if it's working. Yes. So, yes, as you've been leading into, we've got some pretty significant modifications to what was called the Pinball Industry Awards. Yeah, you're right, Dennis. The 2022 crystals are launching.
    14:13
    Did you think we'd make it three years? You know, I didn't think that far ahead. I didn't either. It's a, you know, let's pull a Samwise from Return of the King and do a whole, you know, Master Frodo, let's just focus on getting down the hill first.
    14:31
    The ring is getting heavy. Don't look at how far away Mount Doom is. Don't lament that the eagles aren't just flying you all the way there. Just focus on getting down the hill.
    14:42
    You're absolutely right. huge changes to the awards this year. So much so we're trying to grow every year, make this the best damn celebration and honoring pinball that we can. And the committee has come together in some really big changes, but what people need to know is they need to mark their calendar for January 28th. You've got to do that because that's when this event takes place. Dennis, you want to tell them one of the big changes that have taking place this year? Yeah, I will. And I'll go ahead because I think anyone who's got feet in both rounds, and we've discussed this, I think, even on this podcast a bit. But again, as I noted, I'm big on not reinventing the wheel. We look at what other award ceremonies do. And I know in the hobby, people are going to instinctively think they thought when we launched, you know, Twippies. They're going to think Twippies. That's not what we're looking towards, though. We've really been looking towards the Game Awards, which is probably the biggest video game celebration. Obviously, it's a much bigger industry. There's a lot of different things that happen there that cannot currently or do not currently happen in pinball. We see it as a path that we would... It's like, why not us? Why not us as pinball? The Game Awards is huge. It's ginormous. It is. And because of some of the other tweaks that we're doing to this, I'd say one of the big changes is we're renaming the awards. It's still going to be the Crystals. We're still going to have the crystals. Still the same basic award, but rather than Pinball Industry Awards, we're just going to flat out rename it to the Pinball Awards. That's perfection. I like that. It makes sense. It's the Pinball Awards.
    16:21
    And so, you know, originally we went with industry in part because of the initial judging pool was very media focused, but that has broadened. And in fact, we're going to talk a little bit more. But even last year, we broadened it to a lot other sort of hobbyist engagement. The judging pool has always been very targeted to people that we think have a lot of exposure to all of the current games to be assessed. Experience, yep. Right, right. So they either cover the hobby like podcasters do. A lot of streamers have a lot of familiarity because – Writers. Right. Writers, of course, covering the industry. But also like we added competitive players last year. Yeah, that's a big one. We added top women and top overall because a lot of those really high-level players, they end up having to play all this stuff. So, again, it's not perfect, but we're doing the best that we can to try and find proxies to serve as that judging pool. But, Dennis, we even expanded that, though, didn't we? We did. The committee got together, and we tried to figure out what we could do to maybe broaden that up more because we want as many eligible judges as possible to be able to participate. But we also need to take categories that we know we can easily vet. So I can say the committee debated, for example, adding operators, and we did not expand into that because there is no good way to know whether or not the operators coming in operate locations that run the current games or routing 90s value. We're still looking into it. Right, right. I bring it up because that one came up publicly as one for us to look at last year. One that also came up last year that we did that we've decided to expand this year is those top players. We don't want to limit it to top 50. We're going to move it this year to top 100. Oh, yeah. And that remains overall and women's. Yeah. So now for this year, if you're ranked in the top 100 IFPA overall or the top 100 women's rankings, and that can either be the open tournaments list or the women's tournaments list, you are eligible to be a judge. Yeah. Right. As long as you don't fall under one of our, you know, we have our conflict of interest exclusion clause, of course, that's still in place. So you guys are in. That's going to be a nice big addition to who's voting on these, you know, the most prestigious award in the industry. But not only that, we're expanding it even more.
    18:45
    Yes, I know this is one that that Zach has felt very strongly about for a long period of time. And again, looking to the Game Awards, even though they do a judging pool somewhat akin to what we do, they do it actually by entity rather than by individual, which is interesting. But we don't have things like that. We don't have a bunch of media empires that cover the field. But a public voting component.
    19:12
    Now, we've always been, obviously, because I'm not huge on public voting. I never went there's already a a public voting style award in pinball it's twippies and I have zero interest in because I don't believe in that model at all in terms of selection uh much less you know there's no reason for there to be two of such awards however as Zach had really pushed uh you know pointing to the game awards that there are a lot of people that will be interested in having a say on these sort of awards that aren't going to meet our judging criteria but could still be quite knowledgeable about these games. Yeah, I want the public to be heard as well. I want their votes to count too. And so we will – anyone – there's no conflict of interest exclusion clause on the public vote. Anyone is allowed to do the public voting as long as they are not also voting as a judge. That's the one condition. And, of course, we have provisions for you're not allowed to vote multiple times, penalty – Yeah, we're – Yeah, we got – And you'll let people buy votes and shit. Right. And we've put in some provisions like we're doing an application process for both. We've always done it for the judges, but we're going to do it for the public voting as well so that people have to request the ballot. And then we're going to route the ballots through. Everyone's going to get their own individual link. And again, this is to help control for any even though we're keeping this a very low percentage. Again, same as the Game Awards, 10 percent of the vote will be made up of the public voting pool. But we still want to take it very, very seriously and try and make it as rigorous as possible. So we've agreed upon a process that we think will allow us to be able to best catch shenanigans, so to speak. So shenanigan-free zone. As best as we can.
    20:55
    So yes. Did you hear that, listener? You get to apply to be a judge now for the Pinball Awards. That's phenomenal. You better sign up, damn it. Don't make me look bad. Yeah, I'm wondering. I'm like, there'll be five people. Oh, no. And then I can go back to arguing that we don't really need this. It's super simple to sign up. We're going to have links everywhere. We're going to be advertising everywhere. You just click on a link fill it out and then once you authorized to be a judge then we send you a link of the ballot and you just fill it out and make your votes and be heard this January 28th But that's not it. We've got more stuff. No, no, more, more, more. Okay, so we're going to change up the ceremony process. Yeah, it's been great the last two years, very highly produced. Greg and I were the hosts. It's been very well done. but I've always wanted it at like a banquet.
    21:51
    You've been big on banquets. You're very 1980s in that way. Yeah, I want hors d'oeuvres and I want everybody dressed. I want it to be a nice formal event, hang out, have fun in Chicago or something but this year, jumping into that would be a little much but we're still going to take our stab, listener, at trying to run a live ceremony. Truly live. Streaming live likely from YouTube, I would guess, from the Pinball Network YouTube. But we'll look into that. Maybe we'll multicast it to Twitter. I don't know. But we're doing it live. But it's not going to be formal. Not going to be as formal. Anyway, Greg and I will probably still dress up. We're still going to be hosting the show. We're going to have other people maybe presenting awards with us. How are we going to do that? It's not going to be in Chicago. It's going to be at the Flippin' Out Theater.
    22:43
    Pinbarn? Pin Barn Fitment Facility. That's quite an upgraded name. We in the industry call it the Pin Barn. We're going to have a freaking party is what we're going to have come January 28th in Evansville, Indiana. I've got big space for it. We're going to be able to invite certain individuals to come, hang out, have a blast, be the audience. We're going to be presenting awards, and after that goes down, we're going to party our ass off all night long into the next day. It's going to be like a pinball slumber party. So that's happening January 28th, and I felt like if we're going to do it live, we're going to do a ceremony at my place. That's a lot to take on, a live event like that. So if it messes up, push comes to shove, we'll just all get drunk and have fun. But you're going to want to be there, and we're going to have special invites, special ways that you can actually travel to Evansville, Indiana, and to be part of this show if you want to come hang out. I can't have 1,000 people coming to my place, but stay tuned because that was an opportunity for invite if you were to guess the Deadpool premium that Dennis got or an alternate prize if that didn't work out for you. But we're going to have some ways that you can come. So that's going to be super exciting. I'm pumped about that. But even if you're not live in person to hang out with us, you're going to want to make sure to be participating in that live chat, that live event on the stream. Why is that, Dennis? Giveaways. That's another thing we're going to do this year. We're going to be doing live giveaways throughout the ceremony.
    24:19
    Like, legit giveaways. Sure, some of them might be t-shirts and stickers, but damn it. We're going to be giving away shooter rods, insider connected kits, maybe even toppers.
    24:31
    And who knows what else may be coming from the pinball awards that you can win this year. That's a no-brainer. We're celebrating pinball and people are about to get free shit. Come on.
    24:46
    So we've got an expanded, new approach, growing, evolving. Every year we want to uphold the nicest, most representative event in the industry. And we want it to mean something when these individual designers, coders, artists, when they earn these designated awards. That's why the things weigh five pounds and can impale you. This stuff is serious to us. It is our lives. And the best way for us to represent how important it is to us to celebrate these individuals is to put on a show such as this. So this is the Pinball Network's yet another way of giving back to this community. And we hope that you all will be a part of it as well. And we'll continue to support it for years and years to come. because each and every year it's going to be bigger, better, bolder, and more voluptuous. Is it going to be more voluptuous, Dennis, each year? I mean, that depends on the skill of our surgeons. She's got legs.
    25:49
    Giveaways, people. You're going to win a topper. I'd say the main thing for people interested in participating in the voting process, especially now that it's opened up for them to be aware of, is the application window is very tight. Deadlines. Yeah, we got deadlines. Because all of these changes took quite a bit of time for us to obviously implement on the back end. So normally we would have already done the application process on the tail end of December, but we were still hammering everything out and how we were going to do this, you know, keeping these these pools, how to do the 90 10 and all of that. So January 5th, I won't give the specific deadline time there, but we want the that's not the deadline to vote. This is the deadline to ask for a ballot. Yeah. So obviously that's just a few days. we'll probably have the voting through about a week we're going to use survey monkey so everyone's gonna you have to be able to receive a survey monkey link it takes five seconds to sign up yeah yeah no no it's it's super bad the public the public ballot is like type your name type your email address it's all good like submit it's it's so we don't think we need a long window of time here but one of the things that the pinball awards are back when it was the pinball industry awards has always stuck with since its beginning is we have always really worked to say that we are going to give the results and do the ceremony before february because people move people move on with their lives we're celebrating 2022 we're going to do so by the month after 2022 come on right and we were we weren't in a position to do full-on you know the game awards does their thing the same year of the awards they obviously they do a more aggressive cut off than our kind of our december 1st but uh again we really look to them for a lot of inspiration and uh that's something that we thought was really important. That's why we're marking the calendars for January 28th. Be aware. Once you're seeing all this stuff, go and try and click the application. Get that in before the end of January 5th. Just do it right now. It's super fast. And who knows? Maybe we only do the giveaways to people who are voting in. I don't know. I don't think so, but who knows? You know, I wouldn't. I would keep it open to the full audience. I was trying to get them to sign up. I know, but I think people... People want to choose stuff. So that's been your theory. That's been your theory for why there should be a public voting component. So we'll put that to the test. And pending any bad weather, Dennis Creasel, our very own Dennis Creasel, is going to be live there as well. Right, Dennis? Yeah, it will be my plan. I will drive to Evansville. I'm like the Greg Bone of Kansas. I don't like to travel like that. But I will make an exception in order to celebrate the hobby. Oh, my gosh. All of TPN's invited. Those individuals in media, if you're interested in coming, reach out to us at thepinballnetwork at gmail.com. We'll see what we can do and the limits on the building and everything and how many people we can invite. And many of you follow, watch the Pinball Network, the Pinball Show, straight down the middle, flip out. Watch all of those things on social media to see how you can get your golden ticket, your VIP ticket to come hang out, party with us. Some of those tickets may be expenses paid, too. I don't know. Let's get crazy, dude. I want to get crazy for pinball.
    28:59
    Have you ever danced with the devil on the pale moonlight? Or something? Crazy. Where is Nordman? Maybe we'll invite Nordman.
    29:10
    He's on the back of underwear now. You have forsaken him. You have turned him into nothing but boxer briefs. He's on the toucher. I was supposed to be doing galactic tank force, not galactic spank force.
    29:25
    Ladies and gentlemen, that is the pinball awards. And we can't run this episode without giving you a little slice, a little dice of pinball market trends.
    29:42
    2022 edition. Here's what we're going to do this week on pinball market trends. It's a special one. I'm going to give you what's up, what's down for the entirety of the year. What are the big highlights this year? What was the major uptrend this year as well as the major downtrend? this year. Let's hit them with a bang, baby. Training up this week is the Pinball Network. You biased asshole, you. Biased asshole numbers don't lie. I only report the facts, people. Don't kill the messenger. And the fact of the matter is that looking at analytics of the Pinball Network, especially the podcasting sector, each and every month our listens continue to rise to the point that here soon we are going to be celebrating one million all-time downloads for podcasts. We've got to give ourselves a round of applause for that.
    30:25
    rewind the tape three years ago before the pinball network was around hell right when we launched we were outraged they were angry this attempt to bring people together for the common love of pinball where are we at now some of the greatest content in the industry and the industry's history is coming from this collaborative group effort it's a positive way supportive way to consume your favorite hobby. It's not hurting anyone. It's not costing you anything. It is highly respected by the manufacturers. And guess what? Having the respect of people creating the things we love isn't a bad thing. We're proud of that. And if people want to use that to target us, fuck them. I'm telling you, life is too short. Do what makes you happy. Minimize that that doesn't. If it wasn't for TPN, you wouldn't be hearing from a lot of these people that you've come to love and admire and respect, whether they're doing streams, podcasts, videos. They're now part of your love for pinball. And that's because of TPN's work and effort as a team approach, working together and doing stuff that doesn't just help our individual selves. Truly sticking a hand out and helping a pinhead peer. You can always accomplish more by working together. also training up this week is the pinball show oh you son of a bitch you're the worst sack you're the worst well i may be the worst but i'm proud to dennis and i have dumped so much time and love into this silly podcast damn it we proud of it each and every week that we do this we receive tons of feedback Thank you for that We receive so much support Thank you Thank you for that Real talk, no bullshit, from the deepest innards of my heart. Thank you. It makes a lot of it worthwhile. My goal for this show is to produce and create the most entertaining, informative piece of pinball media on a consistent basis. My other goal is to make the personality in someone such as a Dennis Creasel laugh. And it's a hell of a great show when I can get him to not be able to control his chuckles. And I stand here as your friend proud with a smile on my face because I think we're fucking nailing it. Also trending up in 2022 is Godzilla Premium. Come on. Probably trending up in the 2020s. we'll see at the end of the decade if it can hold its own but godzilla premium is the darling of this year it will be the darling of next year and it was the darling of 2021 until someone knocks it off the pedestal it just is what it is i'm also going to trend up this year specifically cactus canyon remake le you heard it earlier you probably watched it all straight down the middle my thoughts about the overall product machine game that is the cactus canyon remake the lore associated with it. The build quality, the lighting, the sound, the rules, the storytelling.
    33:31
    It doesn't get much better. It's just a solid, solid pinball product that we don't get all the time. Also training up this year, Stern Insider Connected. You did it, Stern. Nicely done. Staining ovation for you. You took something that I didn't care anything about, that is hooking my pinball machine up to the Internet, and you made it a requirement, an obsessive requirement in my head that I have to scan before I play. Otherwise, I'm just failing at something. I don't know what it is, but I'm failing at it. So nicely done. The list of possibilities with this working operation system that is Insider Connected is very long, and we haven't reached a lot of it yet. That excites the hell out of me. But for what it was in 2022, Stern Pinball, especially George Gomez and team, you should be unbelievably proud of what you've created.
    34:23
    2022 wasn't all peaches, though, and I've got to do some dirty work here. Get them stanky drawers. It's time to throw them in the washer because trending down this year is the price increases. Dios mio. This is the year of the price increases. I know there's supply chain issues. I get it. You know, pinball's hard. I understand that things cost more. but it's a fine line between paying more for parts and paying for FOMO. Dealers shouldn't say this. I'm one that shoots it straight, and the fact of the matter is, there's some nasty price increases. Some have flown back and kind of smacked the manufacturer in the face. I hope it woke them up, but for some it still sticks. I don't see this changing anytime soon in 2023. I'm sorry. Also trending down this week, goes along with it, supply chain issues. We've dealt with this since 2021, 2022. It's going to go on this year and probably into next year, 2024. It's going to have a residual effect on everything that comes out. If we thought we were in the clear on price increases, I wouldn't hold your breath. These games are still going to be just as difficult to make this year as they were last year. And with companies like Stern Pinball cutting one of their product lines for a year, you think about it. If three cornerstones, if they're cutting another one out this year, the catalog of game gets more desirable. Those releases get more desirable. You're not going to see any prices going down or desirability going down. What about the market, Zach? The market's stripped. Oh, God. It's damn doom and gloom. Go listen to a different podcast if you want that bullshit. We deal with facts here. The fact is that, yes, the market has been going down for, what, eight months now. Expenditures going down. People aren't spending as much willy-nilly as they used to two years ago. But does that mean that pinball dies? Nope, sure doesn't. It's one of the last things to go whenever the market crashes like this. Usually, oddly, it's hobbies that bring purpose to people, that create joy and entertainment to get their mind off of the mess going on around us. So yeah, they're still going to make pinball. They're still going to create the coolest pinball machines each and every year. And we're still going to have to pay for them. Sucks. That's pinball, baby. Also trending down this year is just the low blow to FOMO. That's what I'm going to call that. And fear of missing out is a strong old beast. Makes me itch my neck. I'm guilty of falling for it. Like this Elwynn game, I want it. I don't even know what it looks like. I don't know how much it is. I want it. They tell me anything back to the future. I want it. I'm a victim of the FOMO. But 2022 has dealt an uppercut to FOMO.
    36:58
    Manufacturers are wisening up, finding a way to cut out that scalper. I think ultimately it's a mixed thing. There are some good parts about it, bad parts about it as well. having a free market and all that. But the FOMO's not as strong. That's true. Market's softening up a little bit. FOMO's not as strong. But it doesn't mean that you should cash in and never buy a pinball machine again. Oh, God. Sure, if you don't like pinball, yeah, do that. If you don't like pinball, the hell are you doing listening to this podcast? If you're listening to this podcast, you love this shit way too much, just like me. You're going to keep buying pinball. You're going to keep playing pinball because that's what brings you joy in your life. Don't feel guilty about that. Embrace it. life is a fucked up thing and if you can find something that takes your mind off of it or creates joy and creates a community for you and friends and stuff like that embrace it be okay with it don't be embarrassed by it be embarrassed for anybody that would take time to try to create unhappiness within you because they are miserable pieces of shit hell yes training up is you and as always look i'm here just to report the facts because numbers don't lie and neither do i on 2022 pinball market trends
    38:06
    All right, let's shut it down. Dennis, where can people catch you? They can reach out to me at eclecticgamerspodcast at gmail.com. You can also go to facebook.com slash eclecticgamerspodcast and use the messenger tool, and I check those pretty regularly. How can they mess up at Patreon? Yeah, you can't mess up Patreon. Patreon.com slash eclectic underscore gamers. We've got three different tiers. They all basically get the same stuff, too. And by basically, I mean they get exactly the same stuff. Yeah, go support a great show and a great fellow there with Patreon. You reach me at straightdownthemiddle.sdtmpinball at gmail.com. Go follow, watch, subscribe to Straight Down the Middle video series for Pinball. A lot of fun stuff, a lot of new episodes out right now. We go through 2022 and tell you what the best was, what the worst was, as well as give you sneak peeks behind the curtain of the dirty little stanky little secrets behind pinball and what's to come in 2023.
    39:00
    Click bait much? Sponsor of the pinball show is Flippin' Out Pinball, product showcase this week is the Alien LV. Yeah, we actually have two left still. Buy, buy, buy! Buy, buy, buy on that. James Bond 007 Pro and Premium Pre-orders taking a list for the L one as well. We'll see what happens whenever those come out on Tuesday. Jurassic Park Home Edition, Star Wars Home Editions in stock, ready to go. Oktoberfest Deluxe in stock, ready to go. Check out the Flippin' Out Vault. There's a lot of things that have gone, gone, gone, but new things are coming every day. Toy Story 4 LE and CEs are in stock. Get you one today. Halloween Queen, Ultraman, new in box, ready to go. I do have an Iron Maiden Pro pre-owned, a Hobbit L.E. pre-owned. Bye, bye, bye. Texas Canyon Remakes SE in stock, and we're still taking pre-orders for the SE Plus with that topper. Turtles Pros and Premiums, Mando Pros and Premiums, Rush Pros, Star Wars Pros Premiums, Led Zeppelin Pro Premiums, Insider Connected Kids GNRs, Queen pre-orders, you name it. We've probably got a Golden Tees, PGA Golden Tees. You want some, you can have some. Banners. Bye, bye, bye. You can have it. We've got some accessories as well. Shooter Rods Armor, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. out of Stern Shaker Motors right now. We do have CGC Shaker Motors. Escalera turnaround still a while, but might as well put your name and order in because you're going to want one. Buy, buy, buy! My bat can attest. TPN, last week, this past weekend, there was a New Year's Eve Classics tournament on Fox City's Pinball streaming channel. Go watch that VOD. Past weekend, we also had Frisco Pinball revealing a new pin that he added to his lineup and one he'd been waiting a while for. So go tune into some Frisco action. The Aussie Pinball Podcast, Episode 12, of the Goat Shed was released this last week alongside the Just Another Pinball Podcast episode 35, Catching Up with George Gomez. We had the video VOD on flipping out, but the audio is dedicated here to TPN's very own Final Round Pinball Podcast episode 64 called Slosh, where Martin Robbins was drunk as shit. He was a little intoxicated. Oh, that was good stuff. Good nuggets came out of that, though. Triple Dream Pinball Podcast. 20 piece. Another favorite over here exclusively on the Pinball Network, episode 28, Let's Unmask the Scooby-Doo Reveal. Almost two weeks ago, so check that out. TPN, this week we probably get a free play pinball podcast. I know we're going to get a pinball party podcast. Woo-hoo! Hooray! Figure it out! Figure it out. And until two weeks from now, probably, and we're getting closer to the awards show, my ass is going to be tired, but I'll still have all of the energy and love to bear for one single man, and his name is Dennis Kreisel. And always remember that you can't even remember that Deadpool is on the production line, maybe don't even guess at all.
    41:36
    Just saying. Or else you might be a non-winner. Am I going to see you January 28th, thanks? I will try to make it. As long as weather's permitting, I do plan to come. And always practice safe pinball. Yeah, and crystal up.
    41:49
    Right now, sign up, people. It's easy, it's quick. You want some giveaways? January 28th, mark your calendar. Let's do this damn thing. Yay!
    42:01
    I still want to rip somebody's fucking face off. And I don't know how non-smokers don't smoke cigarettes. I have no clue. I don't know what the fuck you guys look forward to in life. That's a secret. We don't know what we're missing. I have no clue what the hell you guys live for, but we'll try.
    42:21
    I'm just picturing Forrest Gump in that bar with Lieutenant Dan when the clock strikes midnight. And they got the two hookers.
    42:31
    For the sake of olden times.