Hey guys, welcome back. This is episode, I don't even care. Who cares about episode numbers? I think it's three. I don't even know. But this is episode three of the Flipside podcast and I appreciate all you guys for joining me. Today's topic is going to be do influencers Influencers influence you. But that's going to be the main topic, but I got a bunch of crap to cover before that, and I think you're going to be excited about it because I'm excited about it. And if I'm excited, you're excited. We're all excited because who doesn't get excited to talk about pinball? Anyways, we're going to lower the music and get this show on the road. All right, the first thing I wanted to tell you guys about is last Monday, I did my very first. well it's really my second pinball tournament but we'll call it my first official because the first time I went to a pinball tournament was in Glendale Arizona at Ready Player One Games and it was terrible because I wasn't really good I mean not that I'm good now but I didn't have the fundamentals down so I was just kind of like banging flippers like I really didn't know what I was doing so I don't count that but it was an official tournament so that's cool so I am ranked like 42,000th in the world or something like that. So pretty bad. But anyways, this time I went to Player One Games in Surprise, Arizona. They're a really cool little arcade bar over there. And they got a great lineup of games. And I placed 22nd out of 42. I brought my buddy Rudy with me. I was like, dude, get out of the house, have some fun. And you know what? When we got home, I got a text from him and it said, actually, let me pull it up real quick because I want you to hear the exact text that he sent because it was awesome. He was basically, and it's taken me forever to find it, which is awesome. He said, uh, dude, I'm glad you drug me out of the house. It was a lot of fun. Thanks for that. And that right there made my night because honestly we had so much fun. They got a cool little community out there and this is a six week tournament and I'm committed. I was like, I'm coming again next Monday. So I'm going to go, I'm going to, I'm going to do the whole thing. I don't know what's going to happen, but I was pretty excited because I did okay. There were some games that I played that I owned, which I was disappointed in my results. I have 007. I felt like, man, I'm going to kill it on Bond, and I didn't. The game played a lot different than mine at home, but that's kind of how it goes, right? The games on location sometimes will play very different than the games at your house. But I was disappointed because the game I did the best on, this isn't disappointed, I was excited about this, was Pulp Fiction. And if you remember, if you watch my channel, my YouTube channel, Retro Ralph, I actually played Pulp Fiction last year at Expo and I had an awesome game. I was in the zone, man. But every time I've played it since then, it's been totally terrible. So it was like my retribution game and I went first. I took first on that game. I was pretty excited. If you want to see a very short clip about the tournament, you can go to Retro Ralph, the YouTube channel, and you'll see the clip right there. But anyways, on to the next topic. That was fun. If you get a chance, go find a local tournament in your area. It was so much fun. I can't tell you, I talked to a lot of great people. I met this guy. I know I'm supposed to go on to the next topic, but I met this guy who told me about a cool mod for James Bond, and then we started geeking out about modding, and that's a good segue because the next topic is about modding. I want to know what your guys' thoughts are about modding. I really enjoy modding. It's interesting because in the arcade scene, when you buy an arcade game, a retro arcade game, it's kind of forbidden to do things outside of keeping it original. And so the pinball hobby is completely different, at least from what I've seen, where they encourage you to mod them in a tasteful way. So I've been really enjoying modding them. And in my mind, you know, I get a lot of comments on videos I've made about modding pinball machines specifically where they're like, I don't get it. It seems like a lot of money and it doesn't really enhance the gaming experience. And maybe there's that's partially true. Some of the mods are just mainly aesthetics, but but they can really fill the space and make it a little bit more believable that you're in the world of the theme of that game. Right. There's a term that gets thrown around a lot. You know, it's like a world under glass. And I think when you look at a game that's been modded tastefully, it really can enhance your experience and make you enjoy that game a little bit more. And I love it because you can make it your own. Sure, there's lots of mods out there. Some people will even 3D print their own mods. But I just really love the process, too. Like, it's really fun to do it. And then the outcome's really awesome. Like, you end up standing back and just staring at your game being like, oh, my gosh, it looks so beautiful. You know, the one mod that me and my buddy Nick talk about a lot is the Atomic Godzilla. No offense but Stern put probably the lamest Godzilla character in that back corner The game is awesome I mean Godzilla is a freaking amazing game I feel like you can put almost anyone on that game and they gonna have a good time but that that godzilla like what the heck man you put this little tiny figure so that atomic godzilla just like pops man and when you hit the magna grab and it does that cool thing on this on his spine with the lights it's just epic and it to me that one enhances the experience uh and it actually does some things that like respond to the game, which is pretty cool. So anyway, so that's kind of, that's just something I wanted to cover. I love the modding. I guess there's some people that just don't, or they don't, they see it as like frivolous spending, but pinball is such an expensive hobby that I mean, buying a pinball machine is frivolous spending to begin with. So I don't know. I just think it's really cool and fun. I'm curious if you're, if you're listening to this on a podcast platform and there, and it gives you the option to comment, I'd love to hear from you. And if you're listening to it or, or watching it on YouTube, it'd be cool if you put something in the comments below about what your thoughts are on modding. All right. Next thing is I have a pinball streaming rig and I got to say, I built it out of a coat rack and a coat rack on Amazon that was like 40 bucks. And I got to say, it annoys me. It annoys me because I, I really enjoy capturing pinball footage, but man, is it a pain in the ass to capture pinball footage, but I've been contemplating building a new rig, like something that isn't a coat rack, like a legit one. Like when you go to a legit location and they have a really cool streaming rig, they just, they look neat and they're a lot more functional than my coat rack. I mean, I've got it to work with the coat rack. I have a short of that on my YouTube channel, but it's just kind of like, I'm ready to take the next step. Because I think if I had something that felt more permanent, I would probably stream pinball a bit more. Now keep in mind, if you're going to watch me stream pinball, it's not like watching Jack Danger stream pinball. You're like, oh my gosh, what's he going to do next? How is he so accurate? It's crazy. Yeah, you're going to probably be disappointed if you came with the Jack Danger mentality. You're not going to watch some guy that's going to blow your mind, but I have fun. I have a good time. And I did a lot of streaming in my past on YouTube, so I feel like I'm a fairly entertaining guy. So hopefully if I start doing that a bit more, You guys will come join me over there on my YouTube channel, but we'll see. That's something I've just been contemplating building a streaming rig. I'm not sure if I'm going to do it. A legitimate one. We'll see. Not that there's anything wrong with my co-rec, but it's just, it's just, I want something a little bit more permanent. All right. So next topic, I might have got another machine. I got another pinball machine. I had just got John Wick and I talked about that, but man, the John Wick is an LE. And I was like, you know, there's a game that I got rid of that, of course gets a ton of hate. I've talked about it a bunch of times already, but I freaking love Venom. It is so fun, and I'll give you all the reasons why if you want. To me, all right, the level up system is killer. I like the boss battles. I kind of like the fact that it doesn't have traditional modes, and it's kind of like pathways. I find I follow that a bit better. Sometimes modes can get really confusing, although that is the general way that these pinball machines work. You do something to trigger different modes, and then you try to complete that mode, and you know, there's usually some kind of paths that you have to take where, I don't know. I just like the venom. The fact that your path was sort of like on the play field itself and the lights illuminate as you go through the path and then you meet the objectives that you need to do. I really like it. And I think the shots are fun, but I also like that you can change the play field by picking a different host. I think it's a great game. Brian Eddy did it. I got a chance to talk to Brian Eddy about it when I went to the Stern factory tour. He's such a cool guy, by the way. I believe he'll probably be at Pinball Expo. They usually, a lot of the Stern guys are there walking around. You can talk to him. So anyways, I love the game, but I sold it. And then I was, I regretted it almost instantly after I sold it. And I was like, damn, I want it back. But then I realized the pinball market has gotten a little soft. So I was like, Hmm, you know, it'd be kind of cool to have a Venom LE, right and uh and i'd be getting it for uh i could potentially get it for the price of of a premium uh so i had sold a bunch of things uh to fund this this uh this purchase and so i did get the other day a venom le so now my current lineup is a venom le uh godzilla premium bond pro and a john wick le i'm very happy with the lineup right now i'm having a ton ton of fun now i'm like oh man i don't know what to play john wick's been getting the most of my attention but man is that a low scoring game. I'm really struggling, but I'm still having fun with it. But anyways, yeah, so I got another Venom, except I got the LE. It's pretty cool. I think I'm number like 345 of 1000 or something like that. So that's pretty cool. So that's a little quick update on what I have in the lineup right now. So I wanted to do the main topic now we're going to spend about 10 minutes on it is do influencers influence you. And the reason why I brought this up is because I find that there this like thing that goes on in the pinball hobby where people will say something really really negative or really really bad about a game when it launches and when it comes out And it got me thinking is the pinball community so small that someone with the loudest voice, if it's a negative one, right? Negative meaning like they're overly critical about something and yet they have not played it. They're just responding to a trailer, right? And I don't know about you guys, but I got to spend a lot of time on a pinball machine to say whether I like it. I can't just watch a five minute trailer and be like, yup, that's it. Boom. that's that game is is awesome or boom that game sucks you can see like the shot layouts and stuff maybe you can form a bit of an opinion of if you might may or may not like it but i think ultimately you have to play it right and and that's kind of before you can say something is terrible or that it's good or maybe it's somewhere in between so that's kind of where i'm going with this so let's just say that someone has an overly negative tone towards something that's new within the pinball community it doesn't matter what it is because it happens almost every time does that person's strong negative uh negative opinion affect you like or if there's multiple people like sometimes a piece of negative information goes out into the world no matter what hobby it is right and then people just parrot it oh that sucks it sucks because of this or that and i see it all the time like someone will say something sucks and everyone's like yeah it sucks and then like all of a sudden there's like a slew of people hating on the same thing and you know the majority of them have not played it. They're just like, they trust this resource or this person so much that no matter what they say, it's got to be true. Like it has to be true. He said it sucks. It sucks, right? And so now there's this overall sentiment, this negative sentiment that this game or whatever it is sucks. And it makes me wonder, are there people in the hobby that at that point, they've heard it sucks by so many people? Maybe it's like a handful, right? It's like two or three influencers, would they even do the research or would they just take that person's word for it and not even be interested in the game moving forward, not even explore it, not even pique their curiosity because, oh my gosh, the overall sentiment is it sucks. And the reason why I'm bringing that up is because this hobby is so small. It's so small. And it just makes me wonder if someone is that critical, does it actually affect the overall, maybe even sales reception of that game? I don't know, but I think it's really interesting and it makes me really think about it because, you know, it's not bad to be critical, right? I think it's good to be critical of things. We should be critical of things, right? Like people say that, you know, the people that are just getting to know me now, obviously I own only Stern games. So it's easy for someone to like call me out and be like, you only like Stern. But I'm sure in my future, I will be buying games from other manufacturers there's a lot of really cool games that are on the horizon you know the one i have my eyes or uh you know laser focused on is back to the future right even though i don't know how fast dutch pinball is going to be able to deliver it but if that thing's at expo i'm going to be pretty stoked on that so so my i will expand my horizons as far as games i'm buying i'm sure in the future but it just it really it really piques my curiosity um about it but it's not bad to be critical right and it's good to disagree we should disagree there shouldn't be 100 and that's what's cool about uh all these manufacturers and all these different games because there's going to be things we're going to disagree on i mean someone might just hate a certain property right like oh i don't like um like i'm actually kind of excited about it seems like jersey jack pinball's next game is going to be harry potter right that's that seems to be the current rumor is that it's going to be harry potter that's the one they're going to roll with now i like the Harry Potter movies, but I'm not an ultra super fan. They may, there may be people out there that completely don't like Harry Potter. So I get it. They might just be like, I'm uninterested, right? Just like there's probably people that are like, Hey, I didn't really grow up with John Wick. It's not, I'm not nostalgic for John Wick. It just happens to be an action movie that happened in my adult life. So I'm not interested in that. Just like there may be people that are younger that are like Jaws. I'm not interested, even though Jaws is pretty like wide known and influential. So it's not bad to like dislike something. I just can't get my brain wrapped around hating on something before you've actually experienced it. You know, and I think a lot of that happens in all these little subcultures and these hobbies. But the problem is, is I just wonder, like, does, does, does like extreme negativity in this little niche hobby actually impact people's opinion of something so much so that they won't even go out and do their own research or they won't even like kind of use their own brain to form their opinion. I'm not saying the mass audience does this, but I just wonder, are there people in the community and does that have any effect or does it propagate? Because just like we, you know, you're on X, you know, formally Twitter, right? You see people will pick up pieces of information, just repeat, repeat, repeat. And sometimes when they're retweeting it or, I don't know, sharing it out, the message gets more convoluted and more convoluted and more, more a departure from whatever it was in the beginning And so like the it so easy nowadays to spread misinformation So I just curious like I really really want to know if you guys feel that that the negativity in the hobby impacts you because I tell you this when I was at that tournament the other night, everyone there, I don't know that they even, I don't, I don't ever disclose, like, unless someone asks or knows, I don't usually say, oh, and I have a podcast, or I have a YouTube channel, I just don't, I'm just, I just, I go to these things, and I want to be treated like everyone else. Not that I think I'm going to get some extra special treatment or anything. But I just want I want people to get to know me for for me, not for me, the content creator, although, if you know me really well, it's the same person. There isn't a different persona I take on as as a YouTube personality at all. It's just me. But um, but anyways, I usually don't disclose those kinds of things. Just because I want to talk to people like, you know, not not have them share something knowing that I'm a content creator. But anyways, this is stupid. I don't know what I'm saying. I'm trying to say something and it's coming out all goofy. But that's the problem is I don't I don't really edit these things. So I don't know, whatever. You know what I'm saying? I think the general consensus of what I'm saying is understood. But um, but yeah, I just I got to know everyone, you know, not everyone, but I got to know the people I was playing with. And their, their overall feelings about the hobby are all pretty positive. You know, like everyone was very positive that went there. I think the only I think the only negative thing is funny is the owner of that bar loves Led Zeppelin and he just made an announcement before the tournament started he's like I just want all you guys to know that Led Zeppelin is back up and running and everyone's all like like no one cared no I don't know why I actually actually I kind of I did play Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin's not for me but I do love the band like I love the band so I think if you're a super fan of the band and you just wanted a band inspired pinball machine, that could be cool. But I didn't, I don't have fun playing that. Now, if you want to go the other way, you want a pinball machine that I really like playing that's music focused, then talk about Iron Maiden, the newer Iron Maiden. I never played the old one. So I don't know, maybe the old one is good too. I'm not really sure. But damn, that game is fun. I love that game. Super, super fun. So it really It just depends on what you're into. But I really would love to know, do you feel like this stuff has any impact one way or the other? Or do you just not care? Do you just consider it noise and you're just like, screw it. I don't really give a crap what other people say. I'm going to like what I like. That's how we should be. You should like what you like. I want you to disagree with me. I don't expect you to agree with everything I say. I mean, I'm kind of newer around here, you know, and I have my opinions based on my experiences so far, but by all means, disagree. Let's have some dialogue and conversation because that's way more interesting than everyone just agreeing on the same thing. So anyways, this has been a rather short episode, but I only have limited time right now. So I just wanted to get something out there into the world. And hopefully you guys are really enjoying it. It looks like by the numbers that everyone is consuming it, I only really have the analytics on the YouTube side. It's a little too early to know on the podcast platforms, but this podcast is now available on Apple. It's available on Spotify and it's available on one other platform that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it. I think it's PodCastle. So there's three places that you can enjoy this. So follow it if you like it, tell your friends about it, say there's a new pinball podcast on the block. Also, I was thinking about having a guest soon and someone came forward and said, man, we should collaborate. And it was Don's Pinball Podcast. So I don't know. I haven't I haven't actually said yes or no yet, but he's like, hey, let's do something. I don't know. Maybe we will. Maybe we will. And maybe that would be a fun show because I don't know. I don't think he's been in the hobby for too, too long. So he might have some similar perspectives or maybe some different ones that might be interesting to share. And Don's kind of a fun guy. So I got a chance to meet him at the Stern thing. And Don was I don't like this song at all. Actually, I picked this song. You know, I don't like this song is my exit song. Oh, we're just going to go back to the other one. I like it better. Anyways, I don't know why I don't like that song. I picked it and I was like, what is this? So anyways, guys, hopefully you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for listening. I love doing this. I'm having such a good time. I'm in it to win it on this tournament, man. So I'm going to be back there. I'm going to be back there this Monday. You guys better watch out. I'm coming with the thunder. I'm practicing. I'm going to keep practicing. You know, hey, eventually I'll get good at this pinball stuff. But for right now, I'm going to keep practicing. And I'm going to keep enjoying it. Hopefully, Rudy, if you're listening, you got to come with me, buddy. You have no choice. You got to come. All right, guys. Thanks so much for listening. I appreciate each and every one of you. If you're listening on a podcast platform, consider following it so you can get the latest episodes when I put them out there. And we will see you on the next one. And go out there. Go to Pinball Map. Find a location near you and play some pinball. Get out of your house. It's going to be fun. Trust me. It's going to be fun. All right, guys. Take care.