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Metadata Mike from FarSight

BlahCade Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·34m 59s·analyzed·Dec 7, 2015
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

FarSight's Mike Lindsey on TPA releases, No Fear de-licensing, studio ops, and console metadata nightmares.

Summary

Mike Lindsey from FarSight Studios discusses Pinball Arcade's monthly release schedule, licensing challenges with No Fear, studio operations in Big Bear, and the complexity of console metadata management. The team faces December release pressures and considers whether to skip a month if approval deadlines aren't met. FarSight is placing machines in local venues to build pinball culture and managing a collection of 85%+ functional machines at their office.

Key Claims

  • FarSight may skip the December table release if approval deadlines aren't met due to programmer holiday timing

    high confidence · Mike Lindsey stated: 'we might, you know, we're really going to try not to, but it could end up happening that we don't have a table release this month if it's how it goes out'

  • The upcoming (unreleased) table being worked on is more complex than usual and involves added factors they cannot discuss publicly yet

    high confidence · Mike: 'this table we're doing isn't going to be the easiest either. It's not that easy of a table. There's some added factors to this particular table.'

  • No Fear required de-licensing of multiple ancillary licenses including pro snowboarder names, water/snowboard companies, NASCAR references, and goggle brands

    high confidence · Mike confirmed: 'with this table you know it was just way too many licenses... there's like goggle companies there's water scale planes... they mention the names of all of the pros that are in there'

  • FarSight has been placing pinball machines in local Big Bear venues including bars and convention centers to build community pinball culture

    high confidence · Mike: 'we've been putting them in local like bars and stuff in the area... there's pinball at the convention center there's pinball at the most popular bar down the street sandy sports bar'

  • Console metadata management is the hardest part of FarSight's role, requiring different processes per platform with strict file size and regional pricing requirements

    high confidence · Mike: 'we have to do metadata for all 60 tables times three... we have to put in pricing for every country as well. It's just ridiculous.'

  • FarSight leaks/lists of upcoming tables circulate almost every year; plans change frequently based on availability and licensing

    high confidence · Mike: 'there's there were tables listed that it took a full two years before we finally even saw them... it's all about availability too... someone suggests another table that we decide is more fitting'

  • Approximately 85% of machines in FarSight's office are currently functional and playable

Notable Quotes

  • “it's kind of a tricky situation this month, the way everything lined up and we might... we could end up happening that we don't have a table release this month if that's how it goes out”

    Mike Lindsey @ early in conversation — Indicates FarSight may break their monthly release streak due to December approval deadline conflicts with programmer holidays

  • “with this table you know it was just way too many licenses... there's like goggle companies there's water scale planes... they mention the names of all of the pros that are in there... we had to take out the names... take out all the art”

    Mike Lindsey @ mid-conversation — Explains specific de-licensing decisions for No Fear, revealing the extensive IP complexity that required removal of athlete names and sponsor references

  • “we're putting it around because yeah because i mean there it's pretty cool kind of trying to get a little pinball culture going on in big bear”

    Mike Lindsey @ mid-conversation — Shows FarSight's community involvement strategy beyond software, placing machines in local venues to foster grassroots pinball culture

  • “For PS4, I actually worked like two 23-hour days, pretty much. I have this couch in my office right over here, and I just went over there, slept for a little bit, get up, started doing metadata again”

    Mike Lindsey @ latter half — Illustrates the extreme labor demands of console metadata management, a recurring pain point for FarSight during platform launches

  • “it's really difficult for the develop like not the developers but the uh the console companies to get it right because it's just a little complex and every time they do it uh it's like you know probably a new person doing it”

    Mike Lindsey @ latter half — Reveals systemic backend inefficiency: console companies manually input FarSight's spreadsheets, causing errors and delays each release cycle

  • “the leaks... it's the worst kept secret ever but you know we're not advertising it if people find it they find it and we will neither confirm nor deny basically”

    Mike Lindsey @ mid-conversation — Demonstrates FarSight's official stance on annual leaks of their development pipeline—disappointed but not alarmed, using plausible deniability

Entities

Mike LindseypersonChris FriebuspersonJared MorganpersonFarSight StudioscompanyPinball ArcadeproductNo FeargameScott HumblepersonNormanpersonZen PinballcompanySpooky Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: FarSight may break its monthly TPA release cadence in December due to approval deadline conflicts with programmer holiday schedule; team attempting to meet approval by specific cutoff date

    high · Mike: 'we might... we could end up happening that we don't have a table release this month if that's how it goes out'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: No Fear required removal of multiple ancillary licenses including pro snowboarder athlete names, water/snow equipment brands, NASCAR trademarks, and goggle company references; raises questions about other tables potentially benefiting from de-licensing

    high · Mike confirmed removal of: 'goggle companies... water scale planes... names of all of the pros... nascar racing' references

  • ?

    community_signal: FarSight actively placing machines in local Big Bear venues (bars, convention centers) to foster pinball culture; machines generate revenue for maintenance while serving community building goals

    high · Mike: 'we've been putting them in local like bars and stuff in the area... there's pinball at the convention center... there's pinball at the most popular bar down the street'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Console metadata processes are severely manual and fragmented; each platform has different requirements (file sizes, spreadsheet formats, regional pricing); console companies manually input FarSight's metadata, causing errors and delays

    high · Mike: 'we have to do metadata for all 60 tables times three... pricing for every country... some platforms make us upload to online forum then spreadsheets... console companies manually plug all information into storefronts'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.105

0:00
You're listening to the Cade Podcast. wizard amusement.com the site to visit for custom pinball shooter rods easy to install totally unique mention blockade podcast for 10 off your order wizard amusement.com sales restoration customization
0:46
You are listening to the Bloggate Podcast. I am your host, Chris Frebus, a.k.a. Shut Your Trap. With me, as always, Jared Morgan. Hello, everybody. I'm caffeinated and ready for action.
1:01
Caffeinated. We're recording a little earlier than we usually do. Normally, we're on Sundays. Today, this is a Wednesday. Why, you may ask, are we doing this earlier than normal? Which, although, by the time you guys listen to it, it'll be the normal time period. But, hey, for us, and for those watching on Blab, it's much earlier. The reason being is we have Mike Lindsey from Farsight Studios. How's it going, everybody? Not too shabby. Hey there, Mike. Hey. So, we're bringing in Mike today because, as everybody knows, there is another table. Go figure. Having dropped on Pinball Arcade, that being no fear.
1:41
Yep. Every month. Without fail. Yeah. It's a little bit, what's that Greek tale where the guy rolls the rock up to the top of the hill only for it to roll back down and start all over again the next day? Yeah. Just like that.
1:58
Well cooked. Yeah. It started on the other table already, the next one. Yeah. Yay, we went gold! Oh, crap, we're back into alpha. Yeah.

medium confidence · Mike stated: 'I would say probably like, you know, in the mid 80%' when asked what percentage are functional vs. in disrepair

  • FarSight's new UI for PC beta has received positive feedback focused on functionality improvements like table sorting and remembering last played table

    medium confidence · Mike: 'From what I hear around the studio, it sounds like people are accepting it pretty well and they like being able to sort the list'

    • Marco Specialties
    company
    Pinball Hall of Famevenue
    Williamscompany
    Ballycompany
    Big Bearvenue
    Blackwatergame

    manufacturing_signal: FarSight's office houses 85%+ functional pinball machines for testing and recreation; collection has grown, with some machines moved to garage and local venues due to space constraints; demonstrates practical limits of hardware testing infrastructure

    medium · Mike: 'mid 80%' of machines functional; 'we've gotten a lot more tables... had to move ones in disrepair down to garage... filled up with more tables in good condition'

  • ?

    product_concern: 3D TV playback on TPA has UI issues: DMD (dot matrix display) window pops to front of screen causing eye strain for players using 3D televisions; needs depth adjustment to background

    medium · Chris Frebus reported: 'the dmd window it pops all the way to the front... if you're flicking your eye up to it it hurts the eye you can't resolve it... can we throw that to the back?'

  • ?

    code_update: New PC UI beta for TPA receiving positive community feedback; functionality improvements include table list sorting and remembering last-played table; visual polish deprioritized due to monthly release constraints

    high · Mike: 'people are accepting it pretty well and they like being able to sort the list... we definitely wanted to improve the functionality... animated stuff... just weren't able to get that in there'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: FarSight's development pipeline leaks almost annually; lists circulate widely but remain unofficial; some leaked tables never materialize, some take 2+ years to release, and some non-listed tables are kept as surprises

    high · Mike: 'there's that list that leaked... it's the worst kept secret ever... we do feel disappointed... tables listed that it took full two years... tables mentioned months back not on list at all'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Mobile UI and visual features lag behind PC/console versions; iOS and Android have different rendering capabilities (iOS has ball reflection effects via Metal GI not yet implemented on Android); mobile UI rollout delayed to new year at minimum

    medium · Mike discussed Metal GI implementation differences: 'mobile can't do dynamic lighting... Metal GI is iOS thing... haven't implemented it in our game yet'; mobile UI rollout 'probably definitely in the new year at the minimum'

  • ?

    operational_signal: New console hardware launches trigger extreme metadata labor: Mike worked 23-hour days for PS4 launch; expects 4-year relief period before next generation console announcement creates new crunch

    high · Mike: 'For PS4, I actually worked like two 23-hour days... slept on couch in office... started doing metadata again because we've got to make it for whatever date'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: No Fear's excessive sponsor branding in original machine created licensing nightmare for digital version; FarSight's de-licensing suggests future releases may avoid heavily sponsored themes or require negotiation strategy changes

    medium · Mike: 'with this table it was just way too many licenses... it would have just been impossible' suggesting licensing scope constrains table selection for TPA

    • 2:09
    Sisyphus. Thank you, Cassania. That's the Sisyphus. That's the name of it. Oh, there you go. So you guys must have a few issues with this last DLC, like the one that we're going to be getting out in December. There must be release constraints for that one. Yeah, we have to meet a certain date to get it approved in time to get it out for Christmas. And if we don't get it approved by that date, then our programmer is going to be gone for the holidays. it's, it's kind of a tricky situation this month, the way everything lined up and we might, you know, we're really going to try not to, but it could end up happening that we, we don't have a table release this month if it, if that's how it goes out, but we're going to do our best. And we're going to really hope to get it out there. Yeah. I've been having a chat to Scott, Scott Humble for everyone who's familiar with the show will be the Android developer. And yeah, he was going, yeah, yeah. we're going to try and push one out sort of as soon as we can, basically. Yeah. It's going to be very stressful. It's going to get pretty hectic. Yeah, for sure. Give it as much slow time as possible. Yeah, and this table we're doing isn't going to be the easiest either. It's not that easy of a table. It's a little bit more complex.
    3:24
    We were. Yeah, there's some added factors to this particular table. We won't mention even though everybody knows what it is based off the clues. Even though we did last couple of days ago. Yeah, but we didn't do it with Mike. We didn't do it by sitting here to confirm, right? So we can still, there's still plausible deniability. That's right.
    3:44
    We were talking with Barbie Bob-omb from Zen a couple of weeks back, and she was mentioning the size of their studio team. I think they have like 40 employees. And I was like, wow, that's like double of what you guys have. I'm curious, is that, with this kind of crunch time you guys have, would that be with a whole bunch more employees, would that solve this kind of issue or is it a case where well the guys that are doing it are kind of have to do it by themselves you know what i mean so it wouldn't necessarily help pushing a table forward um i'm not sure if it if we had more people would make it faster because a lot of the work's done by the emulation engineer um and you know we we only have one of those and we only you know we could only do use one of those at a time i believe so right it's you know part of the time is that we have the emulation getting done um and then the other the other things it could possibly go faster if we had more people but um you know i'm not sure you know because i mean we were saying that it would obviously help with uh being able to do the the side projects you might say being able to do the the ui or eventually do cabinet support or you know any of those those things that aren't the game proper obviously then it wouldn't be taking people away from the regular job to do that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, it's just the, it's just the way we're structured and, uh, and it would be nice to do that, but, um, I don't think it's possible for us to do it. You'd have to, you'd have to get a bigger facility. Too many pinball tables taking up the office space. Yeah, that's true. Yep. We do have a lot of, we actually started putting them in people's offices and it's getting kind of crowded around in some, do you guys still have every single table that has been purchased in the office or have some stuff gone into storage uh some's gone into storage and uh and actually um we've been uh putting them in local uh like bars and stuff in the area oh you have been putting them that's great so big bear has pinball now there's pinball at the convention center there's pinball at the the most popular bar down the street sandy sports bar nice yeah so we're putting it around because yeah because i mean there it's pretty cool kind of trying to get a little pinball culture going on in big bear exactly i mean yeah i mean i think that's part of being you know you guys are part of the community up there obviously and uh you know it just it's kind of giving you the community although you're asking for quarters in return but still it's giving identity yeah well it's good because getting quarters will mean that it takes some of the like it allows you guys to actually keep the machines you have in the studio um up to date as far as tech goes as well you know replacing sleeves and stuff. We're actually going to be using the money that we get from the pinball tables to prepare the pinball tables first. And then we get to have beer money after that. There you go. If you were to get up and go play a machine right now that's in the office, what percentage of those machines are actually functional for playing as opposed to being torn down or in some state of disrepair? I would say most of the tables that we have on the main floor are running right now because we've actually been having a lot of, uh, like get togethers, you know, after work, we'll just go down and play in bulk. I would have a lot of those get togethers personally, but. I'll be having a get together like that every day. Yeah. The percentage is, I would say probably like, uh, you know, in the mid 80%. Oh, well, we've got a pretty good amount of tables out there. There's, you know, there's the ones where we're working on, but for the most part they're all together and running. yeah because i know the last time i'd been up there which was it's been a couple of years um apart from the tables that were in the conference room the all the ones that were in that uh that back area uh that norman kind of lives in now and then it was like oh i really like to play that but nope yeah well since then we've gotten a lot more tables and we've had to move a lot of the ones that were in disrepair down to the garage so now we have that room filled up with more tables that in good condition and they're all playable now and it's actually part of our you know it's part of our pinball room it's our arcade that we got going got any neon slimes going on there oh but i think that we should have some i think it's gonna be absolutely absolutely are you do you guys have a uh uh forgetting parts um obviously you got to order online for all that do you guys have an actual site that you tend to go to or is it multiple Norman's more the guy to ask about this, but I think that he – actually, I don't really know what site he goes to. I think – well, you guys probably know the name. Marco has some stuff. Marco Specialties. Yeah, Marco Specialties. I think we get whatever we can from them, and then I don't know the other sites, but I've seen him shopping for them just from wherever he did it. Sometimes you don't find it on one and you find it on another, you know. I was just watching an article about the rise of the barcades you might say or just arcades in general And it wasn so much pinball but more just your regular video game cabinets And one of the owners was talking about it. He goes, yeah, we try and keep these things in pristine condition as possible. He goes, but we know they're going to break. And unfortunately, there's eventually going to be a time period where there's just no parts to get and into the dumpster they're going to go.
    9:07
    Yeah, it's a sad sight. I think 3D printing is going to kind of solve that for people. You know, it's not going to be licensed, but, you know, we've actually had people come up to us at shows and give us parts for tables that you can't get and just be like, hey, I made this, you know.
    9:23
    That's pretty cool. Interesting. As long as somebody can scan it in digitally and then make the file, yeah, you can print anything. I mean, this is what Spooky Pinball were doing basically for their entire production chain. Everything is 3D printed. so yeah it's the way of the future there you can even 3d print food now oh yeah seriously don't try eating it okay it tastes like rubbish but yeah hey with um with farsight you guys had to do some de-licensing correct yeah on on the last table yeah yeah no fear i said on farsight yeah no fear yeah um has that what you guys have to get approval from for that and who do you ask to get that approval from uh i'm gonna have to get back to you on that question i'm not really sure who we ask for approval or if we need to or not but i'm sure we do i'm sure we have to imagine it had to be some sort of discussion with roger uh sharp about you know what wms expects from you know wms people yeah i'm just curious does that if that opens up more possibilities for other tables i mean other than the obviously you can't get rid of the no fear license because then what is the table but all those ancillary licenses so i'm wondering if that opens up the opportunity for a few other tables uh it actually kind of does for some tables um with this table you know it was just way too many licenses you know what i mean it would have just been impossible because if you look at it there's like there's like goggle companies there's water scale planes yeah there's all kinds of stuff and on that table they mention the names of all of the pros that are in there you know what i mean oh yeah that's right you know they say like oh i don't know the names of them but you say you know john is gonna be you know hitting this now you know what i mean and it's like a big build-up to that pro snowboarder or something that's gonna hit something oh so you guys had to take out the names yeah take out the names gonna have to take out all the you know all the art um and stuff like that and it calls out stuff like nascar as well it says welcome to nascar racing you know so it's just a trademark yeah it's just really trademarked there's something surprised me at all regarding no fear the the brand in general because i mean i remember back in the day it was just like oh my god there's such horrors for stuff yeah it was like if they could slap their name on it they'd slap their name on it so i actually kind of think that turned me off from the pinball table back in the day. I was just like, really? I'm not going to play that. Now I'm back to being excited because we're not inundated with no fear which way you turn. It's sort of like one big advertising package, right? The whole table is just a big marketing ad for everything. Pretty much.
    12:05
    That table, Blackwater 100, I think is the name of it? Yeah, the one that starts on people all the time. it's about the blackwater it was an early or mid mid 80s i think mid 80s uh williams or bally i'm not sure which but anyway it was a motorcycle themed oh and it just got tons of sponsorships all over the thing i mean just ridiculous amount on some tables they get kind of crazy with it you know yeah i wonder it sort of makes me wonder when the um uh when belly williams was actually like doing negotiating the deal for the table they must have gone you know what we can totally like make up a lot of money if we just put sponsor ads in this thing everywhere because you can pretty much guarantee that was like well we don't want to make it so it looks authentic we want to do it so we can save money because think about the time that no fear was being produced it was 95 it was sort of starting to get to the point where pinball was starting to decline so they're probably going, well, hey, look, everyone else is putting sponsorship messages in their stuff. Why shouldn't we? Sometimes it's ridiculous, all the sponsors they put into things. I was watching Survivor yesterday. You know how they advertise like a coony?
    13:23
    They're surviving and they've all lost weight. They haven't eaten anything for 30 days. Right in the middle of their conversation they're all having, they pick up their cell phone and they're like, man, I'm so happy I have this cell phone to take pictures of everyone. And then they keep going.
    13:39
    I've so never had this Sony Ericsson phone or this Apple iPhone. Yeah, it does get ridiculous with those things now and then.
    13:55
    Hey, so there's that list that leaked. Again, we won't go into any of the tables that were mentioned, but I am kind of curious to know, is that one of those because it's happened almost every year it seems is that one of those things where you just kind of go it's the worst kept secret ever but you know we're not advertising it if people find it they find it and we will neither confirm nor deny basically yeah if people find it then you know it's not like we're freaking out over here but it we do feel disappointed because we like to get you know to keep the the surprise happening you know what i mean um uh but yeah changes still happen even i mean obviously some of those lists there's there were tables listed that it took a full two years before we finally even saw them um and i know that there was a table mentioned to me uh a few months back that it's not on the list at all so i'm kind of like oh okay apparently that's either not happening or is being kept as a surprise you know from the list or whatever so i mean it's still in flux you might say yeah it's based on changing list um you know it's kind of our best guess of what we're going to do it's all about also the list could be misleading as well too the list could be misleading yeah and it's all about availability too like i made like it may be that you guys want to do that specific list of tables but you may not be able to find good table like specimens yeah that's sometimes is the case too you know we do that and then we can't find the table or or we just something happens and someone suggests another table that we decide is more going to be more fitting for that release. You know, was that the instance with a zine on you guys rented? Am I correct on that? Was that the end of the case with that where you just plain couldn't find it?
    15:43
    Yeah, I think we couldn't find it. I think that was the case. And the same with going nuts because of its rarity as well. You have to sort of get that from a pimple hall of fame or something like that. I think as well, that might've been before his time. what was the question again sorry the table going nuts that was before my time but I know the story we went I mean we didn't but they went to pinball hall of fame and videotaped it alright they just videotaped the table and one of the stories about it might not be going nuts in particular it could have been a table earlier on but they were trying to record the audio from one of the tables there and there was this kid in the background that just had this really nauseous laugh and he just kept laughing and laughing and laughing for you know probably about an hour while they were trying to record certain stuff and then he would just bust out laughing and they had all this laughing in the track that's the story common always tells oh that must be hell to try and oh yeah this audio grab just then again maybe maybe a kid laughing maniacally on going nuts would help that table yeah um i'm uh uh curious to know i i mentioned it to flippy floppy and i'll mention it to you since you're standing you're sitting here um so i got a 3d tv and i threw in tpa on ps3 right threw in the 3d version and it's insane the level like how much i had to cross my eyes, you might say, in order to resolve it. It was like, oh my God I need a slider on this thing But the main thing that I noticed and this is same thing with uh with zen the dmd window it pops all the way to the front oh yeah it like right here right right which means if you're flicking your eye up to it it hurts the eye you can't resolve it i was like can we throw that to the back please now i know that 3d is about the lowest level priority thing at uh far side but again since you're sitting here i'm throwing that out there yeah well you I can always suggest it when we go and talk at meetings and stuff like that. So, you know, it's good you bring it up to me because I can just go and see what they think. I mean, it made me wonder. I was like, so did anybody sit with a 3D TV and play this?
    18:05
    Yeah, the developer definitely did sit and play with it, you know, and we tested it. But, you know, sometimes you just get, you know, you get used to something and it doesn't seem as bad, I think. And that could have been the case, you know, or, you know, that's just probably what it is. Yeah. Hey, I was going to, you may have wanted to cover this as well, Chris, but I was just wondering how the feedback you received about the new UI is going from the PC beta.
    18:32
    It seems pretty good so far. I haven't really been involved too much at looking at the bug reports or anything like that. But from what I hear around the studio, it sounds like people are accepting it pretty well and they like being able to sort the list and all that stuff. Cool. No, it's like it may not have the visual. Wow, that's, you know, and I don't even know what, like people have commented about it. And I'm kind of like, well, I don't know what you want floating in the background or anything else like that. To me, it's all about functionality. And the functionality of it, I think, is fantastic because then whenever I go back to the, like currently I'm in the old UI. And it's just like, oh, God, I got to scroll through here. Or why can't it remember the last table that I played? it's those little things that you don't think about it until you've actually had it in front of you and then you go oh my god that was great so yeah we definitely wanted to improve the functionality uh and you know uh throwing a whole lot of you know animated stuff in there is cool but we just you know just weren't able to get get that stuff in there but at least we got the functionality and that's really the most important thing it is it is because i mean ultimately that's what you're that's what you're playing with you're not sitting there going yeah look at that yeah our monthly release schedule makes it hard to get big things in there, you know, into the game, but, uh, but yeah, it's definitely a good improvement. Yeah. I'm looking forward to seeing it on, um, thought on the mobile platforms. We don't know when the, the estimated time is for that. And I'm not actually asking you to confirm it either. I'm not really sure we're going to be able to get that out. I think the holidays are going to delay it as well. Yeah. I'd say probably definitely in the new year at the minimum, there's no way it's going to be in this, this, um, next beta coming up but um yeah the thing it's um the thing that i'm really looking forward to the most about the ui on mobile in particular is just the fact that it's going to unify the experience i actually had a look at i introduced someone to tpa the other day on their ipad air first generation i think and i just noticed the the zoom ratio of all the menus and everything is so much bigger and so much more suitable for touch than the Android version. It seems like everything was scaled back on Android, so it's really small. It really surprised me. Really surprised me. The other thing that I found really weird about the difference between iOS and Android is it looks like the iOS has some sort of ball reflection thing going on. Like the ball model. Oh, different than Android? Yeah. It looks like it's actually got some sort of reflection going on. and that surprised me as well i was going oh yeah yeah so i don't know sort of uh different you know gi thing going on in there or something like that i'm not sure yeah mobile can't do um dynamic lighting in any way at all but metal gi is actually supposed to be and it's already out uh and you can actually do metal reflections and stuff in it um but we haven't implemented it in our game yet or i don't know if we are going to but that's something that uh it's pretty cool metal gi metal g is that something that could be put into god i always think was that just an ios thing or an android thing uh i believe it's just an ios thing um yeah i'm sure there's some some library out there on android that could probably do the same thing like with open gl which is the standard on it on android there's like different shaders and stuff that probably scott could look into you know anytime now real soon you know just put into put into the build i love just giving i love to say hey scott let's just put some random stuff in because you know i'm sure he listens to me implicitly about the features that i wanted to put in yeah he's just like oh yeah you know jerry told me dude just gonna it. So Mike, are you guys going to dare do the 12 days of Christmas again? It's rough. It's rough on me, but yeah, I think we're probably going to do it again. I know, sorry to interrupt you there, Chris, but one thing that happened in the past for 12 days of Christmas was some sort of discounts were thrown out there for Christmas. That's where I was going, Jared. Oh, look at that rigid line. Not that you should be confirming anything now, because I'm sure you'd have to speak to the people about that. Yeah, we don't have any decision yet whether we're going to do it or not, but I think that it's likely that we'll put something together. Because I know that people were a little disappointed in this most recent Steam sale because there wasn't any farsighted discounts for it.
    23:19
    Some people would love to see that. Yeah, I think we didn't get on the promoted Steam sale, but I think we did something following that where everything was 50... Well, it was not everything, but we had some stuff 50% off, so it was our version of the summer sale. It just wasn't in line. Right, during their summer sale. Yeah, but that's when everybody looks for it, though. I know, I know. Yeah, that would have been good.
    23:41
    Get a lot of eyeballs going on that way. hey uh you being community manager what's the best part and the hardest part about being community manager i think the best part of being community manager has been the traveling so far uh because you get to go to all the the the events that you guys go to right yeah all of the pinball shows and it's so cool you know they send us the pinball shows uh if they're not all pinball shows sometimes they're comic conventions you know like kamikaze or wonder con or something like that but um i've They'd be fun in themselves as well, right? Like the scene there would be really vibrant and all the cosplay and stuff like that. It'd be awesome. It's very fun. Yeah, it's cool. I think I like the pinball conventions more just because, you know, they stay open all night pretty much. And you just get to play pinball.
    24:28
    And as like a vendor, you'd get like better access in the public as well being like a vendor. So they'd probably like open it up later and have vendor activities. Oh, yeah. You can stick around after they close. Yeah, you can stick around after they close the door. and everything. It's pretty cool.
    24:43
    Yeah, I've gotten to go to Boston, Pittsburgh, Texas, and just other cool places, and it's really cool. I'm grateful to be able to do that and meet the fans out there, too. Yeah.
    24:56
    What's the hardest part? Yeah, snap. I think it's not really a community manager duty, which is the hardest part of my job. I have to do metadata. My team and I actually have to do metadata.
    25:14
    That's just all the information that goes into the stores and just the description and the pictures and videos and all that stuff.
    25:24
    Each of the platforms, they all do it differently. Some platforms are much more difficult than others. It's really strict stuff. When you upload a screenshot to it, it has to be within 100 kilobytes size and it has to be less than 300 kilobytes and it has to be 720p and then you know for another platform uh they'll make us upload to like an online forum and then they'll have us uh also make spreadsheets of everything you know like it's really complex really complex spreadsheets of like every single dlc listing like file locations of where they are on their server and it's seriously really ridiculous. Yeah. That's just mind numbing. Yeah What a trip It not the worst thing just releasing like you know doing our periodic releases you know like when we do like every three or four months on consoles or something like that It when we come out with a new platform and we have to do DLC you know metadata for all 60 Well, it's 60 tables times three because we have basic pro and, you know, pro upgrade. And then we have the season passes and then we have the ball packs and we have to get all the pricing in the spreadsheet. And we have to put in pricing for every country as well. It's just ridiculous. Oh, see, you actually have to split. Because this is the thing that's really interesting, Mike, because being in Australia, we see a different advertised. Actually, we used to see a different advertised price on Android, different to what was actually in the app splash screen for, say, like a season pass.
    27:02
    So where it might be $29.99 US, it would then be $38 here in Australia because of the short exchange rate at the moment.
    27:13
    So you have to actually, that's not actually done by the store. You actually have to declare that price point for each region. On some of them, it's done by the store, but some it's not. And some actually have like a spreadsheet to guide you on what the prices are supposed to be. And then you still have to do it. You know what I mean? So it just depends on the platform. So it's like pricing guidelines that you sort of have to meet for each region. Wow. Well, now I completely understand why we'd rather go to pinball shows then. Yes, totally. Yeah, that's definitely not, that's the worst part. It's terrible. It really is hard. And the other thing too, is, you know, a lot, you know, a lot of times the rules that we do, that we put in there, we're like, you can't purchase the, you know, you can't purchase the pro upgrade because you purchased the pro pack already or something like that, where it like blocks it out for you it's really difficult for the develop like not the developers but the uh the console companies to get it right because it's just a little complex and every time they do it uh it's like you know probably a new person doing it and they're looking at it and they're going like okay so what do they mean like how does this work and they don't understand how much time you get released and things will be all messed up and uh so they physically have to so you deliver the spreadsheet and then someone at Sony then goes, oh, right, now I've got to plug all this information manually into their storefront. So then it... Oh, what a trip. It's insane. There should be robots to do this, man, not like manual people doing it. It's really interesting how the back end of the console companies are really clunky. Very, very clunky. That's polite. I think it's something like It varies. It's something very different.
    29:02
    Wow. No wonder you guys must sweat bullets. Yeah, whenever any... Well, I mean, like right now, you're kind of in the sweet spot of no new consoles being announced for probably another four years. So it's probably like a big sigh of relief. But yeah, when the new consoles come out, you're like, oh, crap.
    29:18
    This is going to be painful. For PS4, I actually worked like two 23-hour days, pretty much. I have this couch in my office right over here, and I just went over there, slept for a little bit, get up, started doing metadata again because we've got to make it for whatever date we're trying to shoot for.
    29:36
    Wow. Because iOS is tough with submissions, but consoles take it to another level, right? Oh, yeah, definitely. Actually, metadata for mobile and for Steam and stuff like that, it's like no problem. It's only really the console companies that make it really hard.
    29:54
    Because why not? I think it's just that they're all they have still legacy systems from their first generation consoles is what it seems like yeah sounds right to me alright well me being in Southern California I know you have no snow up there as of yet so I hope the next time we talk to you there is actually some snow for you guys oh yeah fill that lake back up I'm sure it's water level is pretty low at the moment yeah the water level is still very low yeah yeah and they actually use the water from our lake to uh to put water on the mountain i'll put snow on the mountain oh really so they've at least it melts right back down at the lake yeah not all of it melts a lot of it uh evaporates but evaporates yeah a lot of it does evaporate but uh you know if we get a good winter this uh this winter we have el nino coming so that'll probably fill it up hopefully all right yeah yeah well mike thanks for uh for popping in and uh spreading the the news of what the heck is going on at first sight uh it's good to have these little visits and keep us up to date on what's going on yeah thank you guys for having me it's a lot of fun actually all right we shall uh we shall talk to you after christmas and uh see if there's any presents we can talk about all right sounds good i hope you guys have a good holiday All right. Thank you, Mike. Have a safe break, everyone from Farsight. And we'll see you in the new year. All right. See you guys. Thank you very much. All right.
    31:29
    So that was Mike Lindsay, community manager of Farsight, joining us. And Jared, that's going to wrap up our podcast for this week. Yep, that's right. Yeah, we've got to cut it a bit short because you've got things to do today. However, we can't cut it off yet because we have to mention. No, because we're going to be hearing it from us. T-shirts, baby. T-shirts. Yes, that's right. So if you go to forward slash blockade dash logo dash T-E-E and you can get yourself an awesome shirt. That is right. And I still haven't purchased mine yet, but I will be doing so shortly. And I will say also, folks, and again, we mentioned it last time, But based on the response that we get from this, we might be able to start introducing other colors or styles of things if the demand is there. So that's right. Create the demand and we'll we'll create some more some more gag for you all to purchase. Maybe even mobile phone covers, because we can actually do that. Apparently, Jared really wants the mobile phone cover because you keep on mentioning it. I don't like for all the, for the, all the iFruit owners, you can get a mobile phone cover, but there's none for the devices I have. So they don't have a really lit, but basically it's Samsung phones and iFruits and that's it. So, yeah. But if you have an iFruit, you'll be looking pretty snazzy in a, in a blockade logo. I love the hate that Jared has towards, towards Apple. It's so apparent.
    33:06
    Oh, what hate? I don't know. I'm using a Mac right now. to do this, you know. All right. Well, we'll let you go into your Google Paradise then and wither in that.
    33:22
    Anyway, this has been the Blockade podcast. I have been your host, Shut Your Trap, a.k.a. Chris Frebus, and saying adios to Jared Morgan.
    33:32
    There we go. That was a clunky way of saying it, but I tried to, and then you had to correct me on that. So good on you. We can improve on that. We can, we can, we can. Okay, here, let's, let's try this again.
    33:46
    This has been the blockade podcast. I've been your host, Chris Freebus, AKA shut your trap. And I've been your cohost, Jared Morgan.
    33:55
    Editing required. All right. Talk to y'all later. Bye. Wizard of amusement.com. the West Coast leader in classic pinball. Makers of custom pinball shooter rods and buyer specifications. Swap out your standard ball plunger with something themed to your specific table. Installs in less than five minutes with no custom tools. Even if you don't own a table, it looks great as a pinball memento to admire. Prices start at $39, but mention Blockhead Podcast and receive 10% off your order. WizardAmusement.com. Sales, restoration, customization.
    34:37
    remember to leave a review on itunes or any podcasting channel blockade is distributed through we can't improve unless you tell us how until next time remember i can see my house from here