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#39 - My First Impression of American Pinball's First Impression

A Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·15m 35s·analyzed·Jan 25, 2021
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Host criticizes American Pinball exec's dismissal of pre-play opinions as bad marketing and insulting to community.

Summary

A Pinball Podcast host criticizes American Pinball's director of operations and marketing (David Fix) for dismissing content creator opinions on unreleased games in a recent Super Awesome Pinball Show interview. The host argues Fix's stance—that critics must play a game before forming opinions—is fundamentally flawed for a marketing executive, illogical given the industry standard of LE/CE pre-orders selling before consumers can play, and dismissive of the broader online community that has grown the hobby. The host's enthusiasm for American Pinball's direction has been dampened by what he perceives as poor PR and elitist company culture.

Key Claims

  • David Fix stated that if someone hasn't played a game, their critique shouldn't be considered valid

    high confidence · Host paraphrasing Fix's comments from Super Awesome Pinball Show interview: 'if somebody's looking at pictures of a game, but they haven't played it much, he doesn't take their consideration of their critique'

  • American Pinball's official stance is that you cannot have early opinions of products unless you were active in the community in the early 2000s buying games for $200-500

    medium confidence · Host's interpretation of Fix's comments about his personal history and the implication that older collectors' opinions have more validity

  • 99.9% of LE/CE buyers do not have the chance to play a pinball machine before purchasing

    high confidence · Host states as industry fact: 'LEs and CEs sell out day one. and 99.9% of those buyers do not have the chance to actually flip that pin'

  • Stern and Jersey Jack release reveal trailers that sell out LE/CE machines day one without customers having prior play experience

    high confidence · Host references standard industry practice: 'Stern, right, they released their reveal trailers, and they sell out of LEs day one. Jersey Jack, they release a trailer, right? Sell out of their CEs day one'

  • The host's hype for American Pinball's direction has been eliminated by this interview

    high confidence · Host states directly: 'any hype I had built up in my head for American Pinball and where they were moving forward... it's such an off-putting take that honestly, any hype I had built up for the direction of American Pinball is gone. It's flat out gone.'

Notable Quotes

  • “if somebody's looking at pictures of a game, but they haven't played it much, he doesn't take their consideration of their critique”

    A Pinball Podcast host (paraphrasing David Fix) @ early section — Core of the controversy—David Fix allegedly dismissing opinions from those without hands-on play

  • “A first impression is literally that a first impression and a review is literally that a review”

    A Pinball Podcast host @ central argument — Host's core counter-argument: Fix confused the concepts of first impressions vs. reviews

  • “LEs and CEs sell out day one. and 99.9% of those buyers do not have the chance to actually flip that pin. That's a fact.”

    A Pinball Podcast host @ middle section — Industry standard fact that undermines Fix's position on the necessity of play-before-opinion

  • “It's his job to ensure that the majority of people's first impressions are positive because a positive first impression often leads to a sell”

    A Pinball Podcast host @ middle section — Defines the marketing role and explains why dismissing pre-play opinions is a job failure

  • “When you start to say that people cannot have an opinion on your product unless they've actually just used your product, that's, I mean, we can't go that direction”

    A Pinball Podcast host @ early-middle section — Host's fundamental objection to Fix's gatekeeping of opinion validity

  • “one of the great things that I feel like has really helped grow it is online content creators... It's ways that you can get people that are interested in the pinball hobby that look up pinball online and they find us”

    A Pinball Podcast host @ late section — Argues content creators are essential to hobby growth, contradicting Fix's dismissal

  • “I don't like it, straight up. I don't like it. Even if you're trying to go after one particular podcaster and claim that they don't know what they're talking about, still don't like it”

    A Pinball Podcast host — Host's emotional response to what he sees as targeting specific creators while pretending to make general points

Entities

American Pinball Inc.companyDavid FixpersonChris FranchipersonDennis NordmanpersonA Pinball PodcastorganizationSuper Awesome Pinball ShoworganizationStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyZach Sharpperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball's director of operations and marketing criticized for making public statements that could damage brand perception among online community and content creators

    high · Host's reaction to David Fix's Super Awesome Pinball Show appearance represents clear reputational damage: 'any hype I had built up for the direction of American Pinball is gone. It's flat out gone.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Host emphasizes online content creators and forum participation as critical growth mechanism for pinball hobby, contradicting American Pinball's apparent gatekeeping stance

    high · 'one of the great things that I feel like has really helped grow it is online content creators... I can't tell you how many people have contacted me that don't own a pinball machine... they are consuming content actively across the board'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Host's hype for American Pinball's direction has significantly declined due to perceived dismissal of content creator and casual player opinions

    high · Host explicitly states enthusiasm was eliminated: 'it's such an off-putting take that honestly, any hype I had built up for the direction of American Pinball is gone'

  • $

    market_signal: American Pinball executive's statements suggest fundamental misunderstanding of luxury product marketing where pre-purchase play is impossible for majority of buyers

    high · '99.9% of those buyers do not have the chance to actually flip that pin... Stern, right, they released their reveal trailers, and they sell out of LEs day one'

  • ?

    community_signal: American Pinball's marketing approach appears to target specific content creators publicly while framing criticism as general industry observation

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.047

0:00
All right, guys, I have been asked this question multiple times this week, and that question is, what do I think about American Pinball? And specifically, what do I think about American Pinball's interview on the Super Awesome Pinball Show? And this is very much pertaining to what their new director of operations and marketing said about what appeared to be a very specific content creator, but essentially was just a commentary on the industry as a whole, I felt. And we're going to talk about this a little bit. And this interview, I was very excited about it just because I was excited at the thought of Dennis Nordman, you know, getting over to American Pinball and being able to design. I was excited about hearing their new direction that they were planning on going. I was excited to hear what David Fix's plan was to help turn the company around. And all those things really piqued my interest. But eventually the interview started really going out into left field. And to give people a perspective of this conversation, we're not going to play it, but to give a perspective of this, it basically shifted towards the fact that people are buying games for their homes a lot more during 2020 for obvious reasons. And David Fix goes on to say that a lot of people obviously are trying to buy games for their homes, but then he tells a Christmas story about someone wanting to buy Hot Wheels. And he pointed out that this guy saw the pin on the Internet and then he had to go play it. And he ended up going ahead and buying it, I guess, a couple of days later. But he also points out that no shows have really hampered the sales of Hot Wheels because people can't put their hands on it and get time to play on it. Fair enough. However, this is when, in my opinion, a very bizarre shift happens. It starts to happen right here. It starts to happen. We're not at its full form yet, but it has definitely started to take shape.
2:03
He goes on to ask, if a podcaster is reviewing a game, did they play it first? And that's a fair question. If you're reviewing a game, it is very fair to ask, did you actually play this game? Because obviously it's a pinball machine. A big part of it is actually playing it, getting hands-on time with it. but then the shift goes into high gear towards Bizarro World, to where he said something to the extent that if somebody's looking at pictures of a game, but they haven't played it much, he doesn't take their consideration of their critique. He doesn't take it into consideration is what I'm saying.
@ late section

  • “Everybody's opinion out there is valid. It doesn't mean that we have to listen to it. It doesn't mean that we have to agree. but everybody deserves to have an opinion”

    A Pinball Podcast host @ final section — Host's closing philosophical stance on community inclusivity

    • Hot Wheels
    game

    high · Host interprets Fix's comments as 'actively going after one particular podcaster' while making generalizations about the entire online community

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball appears to be adopting an exclusionary content strategy that prioritizes collector credentials over market accessibility

    medium · Host's interpretation of Fix's comment about buying machines in early 2000s for $200-500: 'justifying why other people's opinions aren't relevant today'

    • 2:45
    And again, it's kind of fair in a way. It's kind of strange, though. It's a strange take. And then Chris Franchi goes on to say that this is disguised as a first impression. And David Fix immediately agrees to this, and that's when we are at full bizarre form. We have reached it at this point. And for me personally, there's a couple of reasons why I think that this is just an absolutely bizarre take. All right. So one, the number one reason is because it literally appeared that they had somehow got a first impression and a review confused as if they thought that that's the same thing.
    3:30
    And I don't know about you guys, but in my opinion, a first impression is literally that a first impression and a review is literally that a review. A review happens much later down the line when you actually get hands-on time with a product whereas a first impression well we all know what that means All right So that kind of a bizarre take to me too This is the director of operations and marketing stating out loud that if you haven played their game he going to automatically dismiss your opinion. And yes, I understand in his train of thought, he was actively going after one particular podcaster, but what he doesn't realize essentially all that was done is an extreme generalization of the entire active online community. When you start to say that people cannot have an opinion on your product unless they've actually just used your product, that's, I mean, we can't go that direction. And the reason why we cannot go that direction, guys, because in the pinball industry, right, in the pinball industry, LEs and CEs sell out day one. and 99.9% of those buyers do not have the chance to actually flip that pin. They don't have a chance to play it. That's a fact. And so the reason why this becomes such a bizarre take to me, because it's literally his job to ensure that you as the consumer get a positive vibe off their gameplay reveal or off their trailer reveal. It's his job to ensure that the majority of people's first impressions are positive because a positive first impression often leads to a sell. And that's the whole point. The whole point is for American Pinball or for any pinball company, right, to try to move as many units as possible day one. Well, how do you do that when nobody has played your game yet? So, therefore, the take, it just doesn't make any sense to me. It doesn't make any sense to me. And last time we checked, Stern, right, they released their reveal trailers, and they sell out of LEs day one. Jersey Jack, they release a trailer, right? Sell out of their CEs day one. And again, last I checked, no one gets a chance to play those before buying. And buyers are having to contend with non-refundable deposits more and more these days. Had to happen with Rick and Morty, and that came out, what, last December or December of 2019?
    6:04
    So it's just, again, weird take, weird take. So unless American Pinball is now in the business of letting all potential customers take a pinball machine for a test drive before they buy this, fundamentally, it just absolutely makes no sense. And I don't think he was misspeaking either because he clearly stated at one point during this whole thing that, and I quote, Chris and I had this discussion earlier. Right. And then he goes on to do just this weird flex about his history of buying pinball machines for $200 or $500 in the early 2000s. And I felt like what he was getting at was justifying why other people's opinions aren't relevant today.
    6:52
    That's the way it felt. And that's just really weird. So the conclusion that I draw as a consumer is that because this is the director of operations and marketing representing American Pinball on a podcast, that American Pinball's official stance is that you can't have an early opinion of any of their products unless you were active in the community in the early 2000s to buy a game for $200, $300, $400, $500. Again, fundamentally makes no sense, does it? And I don't think I'm jumping to an illogical conclusion there because it, again, when you are bashing on people and you're trying to dismiss their opinion and you're giving an example of why your opinion means more than theirs. That's the way it comes off. So nothing says modern pinball in 2021 by discounting people opinions today because they hadn discovered the hobby 20 years ago It just such a crappy take I don't agree with it at all. At all. I mean, am I supposed to say to all you guys, my opinion means so much more than anybody else out there because I have bought pinball machines? Like, really? It's up to you to decide whether my opinion is valid or not and whether you think it is. But that doesn't mean that it's not valid. You know what I mean? It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to hear the opinion. But that's just us being normies. This isn't us. We don't get paid by a pinball company. If I'm paid by a pinball company, you bet your ass everybody's opinion is going to matter to me because that's the market. That is the market.
    8:35
    And how does this not become a PR blunder? It's such an off-putting take that honestly, any hype I had built up in my head for American Pinball and where they were moving forward, because I bought a Hot Wheels. I bought a Hot Wheels, and I've spoken very positive of it since I've bought it. And I, because I feel like it's a decent player. It's a fun game for what it is. I don't like the theme, but I think it's a fun game. But it's such an off-putting take that honestly, any hype I had built up for the direction of American Pinball is gone. It's flat out gone. If that's their take, if that's the company culture, that you can't form an opinion on their game until you've played it, that's just crazy. That's crazy talk. But that appears that that's the line of thought that is taking place right here.
    9:28
    And he finishes up by saying, hey, you've got to put the time in the trenches, you've got to do your research, get the facts right. And he says something to the extent to go on and give your first impressions is wrong. I think that's what he said. I'm pretty sure. It was hard to tell. But I think that's what he said. If that's not what he said, I would like some clarity what that last word was when he said to give your first impressions is I think it was wrong. But literally, less than a minute later, he goes on to say that a reveal is very important.
    10:07
    Why is that? Why is a reveal very important? Is it because positive first impressions of the consumer or potential consumers is important? I don't know. Maybe it is. But again, I'm all over the place with it. My thoughts on this is just, again, it's such a bizarre take because their job, anybody's job as a marketer, is to get the consumer, right? Or to get somebody that's interested in your product to be further interested in your product, to become invested in it emotionally to where they want to actually buy this product. And you have to do that even more. Like Zach Sharp's job at Stern is difficult. Whoever's in charge of the marketing over at Jersey Jack, their job is difficult. Sorry, I'm drawing a blank right now, but their job is difficult. Anybody's job is difficult. When you're having to push sales on an expensive product, this isn't like somebody pushing sales on a $20 product that you'll find at Walmart. No, this is a $5,000 to $15,000 luxury item that you have to push.
    11:26
    And to tell people that you're so casual that you can't have an opinion, that's just wrong. I'm sorry. I'm never going to agree with that. I never am. And again I don know if that just a misspeaking I don know and I don think it is just because he said he talked about it earlier but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth guys It really does. When I think about this industry in general, one of the great things that I feel like has really helped grow it is online content creators. And that doesn't mean that all of a sudden they have helped people just buy a bunch of machines. No, I'm talking about growing the hobby in general, getting it noticed more, whether it's the streamers or whether it's the podcasters or whether it's the YouTubers or whether it's just people actually investing time into a message board or a forum. It's ways that you can get people that are interested in the pinball hobby that look up pinball online and they find us. They go down this rabbit hole. I can't tell you how many people have contacted me that don't own a pinball machine, have only played a handful of times in their life, and they are consuming content actively across the board. So to discount the fact that us as the consumers outside of these manufacturers are actively in conversation together, you can't do that. You can't do that. And I just don't like it. But we'll see. Again, my hype is gone. What do you guys think? I mean, are you still hyped up? Do you not care? Are you just like, oh, you were never hyped before? You know, I'd like to know. Outside of that, though, that's all I got to say on this, and that's pretty much all I am going to say on this. I don't think I'm going to bother covering anything anymore from that. I don't know what it's worth if they are concerned about first impressions. I don't know. because again, it's just for me, when I look at a game personally, and here's why I feel like everybody can have a first impression of a game, right? I'm gonna circle back around before finishing this up. Here's why I really think people can have a first impression of a game. It's because you are actively in the community, right? And a pinball machine isn't just about playing the game. A lot of people look at the art. That's the first impression they get. A lot of people enjoy hearing the sounds. A lot of people enjoy looking at the back glass. A lot of people enjoy debating about the color schemes of everything. A lot of people are really capable of looking at a layout and deciding whether or not they like that layout or not.
    14:16
    They are. It's like saying you go car shopping, right? Why do you test drive a car? Because you like the look of it, right? So why would you even try to play a pinball machine from the very beginning? Because you like the look of it. You're interested in it. So the discount first impressions, I don't like it. I don't like it, straight up. I don't like it. Even if you're trying to go after one particular podcaster and claim that they don't know what they're talking about, still don't like it. Still don't like it. Everybody's opinion out there is valid. It doesn't mean that we have to listen to it. It doesn't mean that we have to agree. but everybody deserves to have an opinion. Whether you are a Oklahoma State champion, whether you're a world-class pinball player, whether you are just a collector, or whether you're just somebody that loves playing visual pinball or virtual pinball, or you've only played a couple of times, your opinion still matters and your thoughts still matter on something. That's just the way I feel about it. I'm done. I'm good, guys. I'm going to head out of town for a little while, but I will be back Monday. I appreciate it guys thank you guys so much for listening watching commenting doing whatever it is you guys do that's all I got you guys have a great weekend I'll talk to you guys soon later guys