The Shunning

Cary Hardy·video·19m 43s·analyzed·Jul 8, 2020

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Cary Hardy defends his critical stance on Stern games and clarifies access issues after community controversy.

Summary

Cary Hardy responds to community backlash following his previous video about Stern Pinball allegedly restricting his access to film the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles machine at a location. He clarifies that the website owner issue was resolved amicably through direct communication, explains his reasoning for visiting the location, and addresses accusations that Stern is deliberately blocking him due to his critical reviews. Hardy argues he provides honest, fair criticism rather than unfounded negativity, cites his accurate track record on game predictions (Black Knight, Jurassic Park, Stranger Things), and positions himself as a potential market influencer whose opinions may concern Stern.

Key Claims

Hardy spoke with the website owner and resolved the situation amicably; the owner was caught off guard by the controversy
high confidence · Direct statement from Hardy about messaging with the website owner and resolving the ordeal
Either the store owner or Stern itself requested no filming at the location
high confidence · Hardy received a message stating 'based off of your previous videos they [Stern] as well as us request no taping at our establishment'
Hardy's track record on game predictions is accurate, citing Black Knight, Jurassic Park, and Stranger Things as examples where his initial impressions proved correct
medium confidence · Hardy's subjective assessment of his own prediction accuracy across multiple games
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has complete code at version 1.0 at release
high confidence · Hardy states 'the only thing we've got from here on out are some bug fixes and some maybe upgrades like that but as far as the code it's already at 1.0 at release'
Hardy suspects Stern may be viewing him as a market influencer whose opinions could affect sales
medium confidence · Hardy speculates 'I wonder if they're already starting to see me as a market influencer to where my opinions can actually sway the market'
Stranger Things LE inventory is high and readily available at distributors
medium confidence · Hardy states 'You can find an LE by tripping over it, by walking around a distributor's place more than likely'
Hardy plans to get Turtles footage from alternative locations, including someone's private home
high confidence · Hardy states he can 'get in touch with someone with this machine at their house and get all the footage I need that way'
Hardy has not had issues with CiderCade location for filming
high confidence · Hardy states 'I haven't had any issues with cidercade yet'

Notable Quotes

“I'm guessing the guy that owns the location is in the stern army there's perks that go along with that but also certain requirements that need to be met it would be a bad look for him to have somebody filming his location bashing a Stern product. He's probably just covering his butt.”
Community commenter (quoted by Cary Hardy)@ 6:26 — Summarizes the likely business reasoning behind the location owner's request, which Hardy found persuasive
“It's okay to be critical of them, but there's nothing wrong with that. But then you can't be surprised when they don't want you associated with their products in a public forum. From a business standpoint, it makes sense for them. It's the price you'll have to pay for having unfiltered opinions. The only alternative is being a shill.”
Community commenter (quoted by Cary Hardy)@ 7:39 — Articulates the trade-off between critical credibility and access, which Hardy endorses as thoughtful commentary
“I'm not just here to shit on your product. I just see things how they are to me. I never tell anybody here what they should do with their money if people want to buy a Stranger Things they can buy it I don't care but if they bring one over to my house and force me to play it at gunpoint that's what they're going to have to do and I will definitely complain about that.”
Cary Hardy@ 17:42 — Hardy's core defense of his critical stance and assertion that he provides honest feedback without telling people what to buy
“Whenever a manufacturer grabs somebody that is unbiased to give their honest feedback to the public, that says more about the company than anything else almost.”
Cary Hardy@ 18:52 — Hardy's implicit criticism of Stern by contrasting it with another manufacturer's openness to his feedback
“I don't want to be known as the guy that just does negative, negative, negative and talks trash about stuff. No, I, as anybody else that truly has a passion for this hobby, I feel that they obviously want honesty. They also want to hear the good and the bad on things.”

Entities

Cary HardypersonStern PinballcompanyTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesgame Stranger Thingsgame Black Knightgame Jurassic Parkgame Pinsideorganization

Signals

?
business_signal: Stern appears to be restricting access to content creators with history of critical reviews, potentially to control narrative around product launches
medium · Hardy received message that Stern and location owner request 'no taping' and suspects Stern assumed he would 'immediately shoot it down and talk crap about it'
~
sentiment_shift: Pinside community discussion of Hardy's previous video generated significant commentary supporting his critical approach and understanding of business reasons for location owner's restrictions
high · Hardy references multiple supportive comments on Pinside defending his position and analyzing the Stern Army dynamics
?
competitive_signal: Hardy positions himself as unbiased critical voice and interprets manufacturer openness to feedback as indicator of company confidence and health
medium · Hardy argues 'Whenever a manufacturer grabs somebody that is unbiased to give their honest feedback to the public, that says more about the company than anything else'
?
design_philosophy: Hardy's criticism of Stranger Things layout and code design has become part of broader community assessment; he believes code issues cannot be fixed by updates
medium · Hardy states 'I don't know how code can fix layout' regarding Stranger Things, suggesting fundamental design flaws
$
market_signal: Stranger Things LE is widely available at distributors, suggesting poor market demand or overproduction
high · Hardy states 'You can find an LE by tripping over it, by walking around a distributor's place more than likely'

Topics

Stern Pinball access restrictions and content creator relationshipsprimaryCritical reviews and market influence in pinball content creationprimaryTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game evaluation and featuresprimaryHardy's track record on game predictions and analysissecondaryStranger Things game reception and inventory issuessecondaryCooperative gameplay as emerging trend in pinball designsecondaryCommunity response and Pinside forum dynamicsmentionedManufacturer openness to critical feedbackmentioned

Sentiment

mixed(0.45)— Hardy is defensive but measured in tone. He expresses frustration with Stern's apparent restrictions while being analytical about the business reasoning. He is optimistic about TMNT but slightly exasperated by the broader situation. The opening reference to 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' satirical conspiracy suggests he's adopting a somewhat tongue-in-cheek tone about the controversy, indicating he may not be taking Stern's actions entirely seriously, even while defending himself.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.059

I've stumbled onto a major company conspiracy, Mac. How about that for stress? But aside from possibility, like I said, a lot of this is speculation, guys. None of this is hardcore facts. A Barney, he's the guy who tipped me off to Pepe Silvia. Barney? Who the hell is Barney? You don't seem to... Oh, shit. Where the hell are they? You've lost your mind. You've lost your goddamn mind, Charlie. What's up guys and welcome back to my channel where I talk and do everything pinball. So if that sounds interesting to you then hit that subscribe button down below. It seems that I really need to do a follow up to my previous video. I've been getting all kinds of messages, emails, DMs, PMs, Instagram messaging, but I haven't been getting any phone calls. Because who the hell does that anymore? I get up this morning and my phone obviously has some messages that I need to respond to, so I take care of those, as well as check out, I guess, the pin-side thread that was started about the whole thing. And I even made a brief little statement to hopefully, you know, settle any possible curiosity to make sure that in case those didn't pay attention in the video, that maybe that might help, you know, put out the flames a little bit on the whole thing. So that was done. And then I went about my day doing my yard work, which took plenty of time. And then I was like, all right, done with all that. Chores are all done. time for me to sit down and get on Pennside and catch up on things to see how things are going get to Pennside go to the thread are you kidding me things have gotten way out of proportion about this whole ordeal so I feel like I'm gonna give out some More Brewing Company information here guys and we can discuss it further if need be or hopefully this can put some of this to rest first of all the discussion with the questioned website on my previous video all of that has been resolved i spoke with the website owner today we went back and forth via messages and everything and by all means he was caught way off guard and by surprise about this whole ordeal and i'm really shocked that i would even possibly even assume that there would be such an attitude towards me from him so And trust me, that is exactly why I didn't pinpoint who and what and whatever, and that's what this person was doing. It was More Brewing Company of like, I'm curious if that is what's going on. And I definitely told him that, yes, in hindsight, I really should have messaged you. I even put it in the video that I should message you just to get the information before I even put it out there. So I do apologize if there was any kind of drama or questions around said website and the owner. I'm still keeping it completely anonymous because it seems More Brewing Company the focus is obviously on this Stern topic anyways. But the website ordeal should be laid to rest and forgotten about. It's done. Nothing happened. It was all speculation anyways. It's all good. So let's dive further into Stern Pinball Inc. thing. Let me get out these messages again. I've gotten messaged so much it's way down here. Okay. Alright, here's the thing. What does this go back to? Alright, so that morning I message this person. I'm like, alright, so you said you have a TMT, right? You have a Turtles game, right? Yes, we do. um but uh this person wasn't going to be in today at that point in time so but he was going to be in tomorrow and i was like okay well like do you have to be in there for me to try it out i mean i don't have the kids today so i was really wanting to take advantage of the situation well he's like no not at all you can come by anytime um i'm just saying if you wanted to visit then we can't get to it today but feel free to check it out like sweet i'll be sure to give the The Place a spotlight in the video and he's like i hope it's a positive video i'm like lol if there is negative it won't be towards your business and the thing is this whole thing when it comes to like a spotlight and everything i done the same thing with uh another location in a previous video whenever I did my final impressions for Black Knight It was you know a quick little snippet but by all means it shows off the establishment and what all they have and i recommend people go there this was going to be the same ordeal so no matter my thoughts on the machine that was there it didn't matter because i still talked up the The Place that had the machine that's all that should really matter i can understand if i go on there and i'm like yeah this game sucks but you know what's even worse the The Place that it's in i can understand why he'd be a little bit like uh yeah i don't want you doing any recording or anything like that in here and so by that time i was already on the road i had my camera and equipment everything in the car headed that way and that's when i get the message that you heard in the previous video but like but i have spoken with stern and based off of your previous videos they as well as us request no taping at our establishment. So, and like I said, my response was understandable because my initial thoughts were exactly what has been pinpointed out by quite a few of you, whether it be on my YouTube comments or even on Penn side. And I'm going to bring up this particular comment. And I know he's not the only one guys that has brought up something like this, but I want to pinpoint out this particular comment because I felt like you know it was articulated very well and I don't know why there's More Brewing Company not More Brewing Company likes on it but essentially it reads I'm guessing the guy that owns the location is in Stern Pinball Inc. army there's perks that go along with that but also certain requirements that need to be met it would be a bad look for him to have somebody filming his location bashing a Stern product. He's probably just covering his butt. And with just that first sentence, I'm like, yeah, that was why my completely like, okay, I understand kind of thing. Then he states, I'm a big fan of Stern. I buy almost every new game that comes out, but there are also quality control issues about them that bug me. It's just one of those things where you take the good with the bad. You've been Papa Duke outspoken about how bad some of titles have been lately particularly stranger things the decline and interest for this game is quite evident the thread for stranger things on pin side has the ebb and flow of what i can only parallel to as basically the remission and relapse of cancer i'm sure people stood up and took notice not saying it's right or wrong but people have thin skin these days and nobody can any kind of criticism, including Stern. It's okay to be critical of them, but there's nothing wrong with that. But then you can't be surprised when they don't want you associated with their products in a public forum. From a business standpoint, it makes sense for them. It's the price you'll have to pay for having unfiltered opinions. The only alternative is being a corporate endorsement or biased promotion. And I'm like, golf clap. I mean, like, yeah, and I don't think I disagree with any of that. I mean, like, yes, I was particularly kind of hard on Stranger Things because I was – I wasn't mad. I was just disappointed. I feel like I'm talking to my kids or something like that. But, like, by all means, guys, thank you for all the feedback and comments. I'd say over 90-some-odd percent of them were good and stuff like that. it seemed like there was a little bit of firing back and forth between comments with certain people. Part of me doesn't want to look at Pinside again, but I'm eventually going to, but I'm not going to bring it up now. And yes, a lot of good valid points were brought up that basically parallel with what that particular comment states. And so yeah, that's what I was like, okay, I get it. He's protecting his business. I understand. But it's kind of But it's one of those things where I felt like, man, it sucks because I really wanted to give you guys footage of me playing the title like I have with Black Knight, like I have with Stranger Things. Whenever I put out my first impressions or initial impressions or something like that is when the game is revealed or even leaked for that matter. I give my initial impressions of the product just to see how I feel about what I'm seeing on my screen. And then I obviously will play the game and give my final pressurize. I've never actually done a full-fledged review of a title because I don't feel like I should be able to give a full-fledged review on a game until I've put a lot of time into it. And even the code being complete for it to be a fair review That my Opinion Brewing Company So a lot of the times for these videos and they negative or whatever yeah i just spotting out what you know what Innovative Concepts (ICE) and how it is at that point in time so for all i know stranger things has probably gotten Bob Betor i don't know how code can fix layout but you know it it's it it's whatever i'm gonna i'm not gonna i'm not gonna i will not talk about stranger things i will not talk about stranger things that's another thing that i'm excited about with turtles and what was a good selling point for me is that the code is complete i mean the only thing we've got from here on out are some you know bug fixes and some maybe upgrades like that but as far as the code it's already at 1.0 at release that's awesome guys so that means when i get the title get it all up and playing and i play the hell out of it and really learn it and go through it, then I should be able to give you a full-fledged, in-depth walkthrough slash review, whatever. And I would hope that that would be a fair thing to a lot of you that say that I'm unfair to these certain titles. I don't want to be known as the guy that just does negative, negative, negative and talks trash about stuff. No, I, as anybody else that truly has a passion for this hobby, I feel that they obviously want honesty. They also want to hear the good and the bad on things. And there are obviously going to be certain items and products that are going to have More Brewing Company bad than good. But even then, it's all up to personal preference. Maybe I'm starting to get noticed because my track record is starting to be Papa Duke on point when it comes to what I think about certain games and how they're going to do in the market. So we can go all the way back to, I believe, my first game where I started doing impressions and it was Black Knight. My initial first thought when I saw the trailer was like, oh, this game is going to be awesome. I'm going to sell one of my games so I can get this game. And then I watched the stream for it. And then immediately I had concerns and was really debating on just backing out. it didn't seem like it was going to be a good title for me. I had a lot of pros about it. I love the music. I love the art. And the gameplay overall was good. But if you want to know More Brewing Company opinions about it, then go watch the video. But even then, it wasn't like a game that I felt was going to be, you know, Game of the Year or anything like that. And then we go on to their next title. Jurassic The Park came out. I was like, this game is going to be Game of the Year. And it was. Stranger Things has come out. and I was like, I don't know. I've had my doubts. I don't think so, and it's not looking too good, but I'll play it. Then I played it, completely just don't like it, and guess what? You can find an LE by tripping over it, by walking around a distributor's The Place More Brewing Company than likely. But that's the thing, and now we're seeing Teenage Mutant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), and I'm seeing a lot of good things going this way for this particular title. There's a lot of things that I believe is going to be a new selling point for a lot of upcoming titles. I think we're going to see a lot More Brewing Company cooperative games embedded in the code because that's a lot of people's selling point for this game, including myself, is having the ability to do cooperative. So it wouldn't surprise me that a lot of games are going to start incorporating the ability to do co-op mode. I'm getting completely off topic here at the hand, but when it comes to is Stern actually doing this, or was this the store like you know person basically just speaking for stern and then i don't know i really do not know it's one of those things where either way Innovative Concepts (ICE) the reasons behind it if it is just the store owner and they basically don't want to basically have any kind of ripped between them and stern okay Innovative Concepts (ICE) it i get it but if it is the other factor that stern is telling them not to allow me let alone me to record any kind of video and i'm going to assume that like i state in my previous video that they i guess assumed that i was going to immediately shoot it down and talk crap about it and be all negative Nancy. And I wonder if they're already starting to see me as a market influencer to where my opinions can actually sway the market. That would be the only way I feel that they need to start bringing down the hammer on certain people is if they feel that, you know what, their thoughts and opinions are actually affecting our market So that I mean if you just you know some little guy on a pin side thread or whatever or you not Kaneda (pinball podcaster's name/show name) whatever then they probably not as focused on you but whenever you start getting More Brewing Company in the spotlight and they see that maybe you are affecting their market then i feel that yeah there's probably going to start being some actions towards that to basically keep things in check. But like I stated, even if I was going to go there, I was really on the fence, but leaning More Brewing Company towards buying Turtles already, because I already liked the way it played and the way it looked, and I haven't been that excited about a game since Jurassic The Park. So going there, I wanted to play the game to really decide for a fact if I wanted to purchase it. That's the reason why I went there mainly, guys. the footage that I was going to take was just going to be a little cherry on the top for putting it into the video as well. But my main reason for going there was to play the game and get a feel for it and feel like it needs to have a The Place in my home. And I made that decision while playing that. I was like, okay, I think this is a game that I'm really going to enjoy learning to play Bob Betor at my house. So that really helped me. That did good. and just because I'm playing a game I don't think they should automatically assume that I'm going to shit on it I mean I guess that just shows how ill faith they have in their product or how poorly they think of my Opinion Brewing Company either way that's how it is so in a nutshell guys because I feel like this video is going to go on a lot longer than it needs to when this is how it is. If I'm not able to film or record at a certain location, then by all means, especially where I'm located, I can get in touch with someone with this machine at their house and get all the footage I need that way but i think i should be just fine at another location i will see maybe uh in the upcoming week or so and we should be good and then i should be able to get any kind of footage to to show you guys on the le for that i haven't had any issues with cidercade yet so um we'll see if that changes if it does change then by all means you're going to hear about it so my message to stern as this. If you don't like the negative feedback that I have to say about your certain titles, then take it as a learning process. Because I feel that a lot of the feedback I give is fair. I'm not just here to shit on your product. I just see things how they are to me. I never tell anybody here what they should do with their mate/man if people want to buy a Stranger Things they can buy it I don't care but if they bring one over to my house and force me to play it at gunpoint that's what they're going to have to do and I will definitely complain about that if you do good then I'll give you praises for it but if you do poorly then I'm going to comment on it I'm not here to be negative Nancy I'm just here to speak the truth So you've got one manufacturer That is supposedly Blacklisting me and blocking me from doing certain things The Meanwhile you've got another manufacturer That has invited me To their The Place There's no official date yet But they have invited me there So that, I think, says More Brewing Company than anything. Whenever a manufacturer grabs somebody that is unbiased to give their honest feedback to the public, that says More Brewing Company about the company than anything else almost. I really hope Raza (alternate title or abbreviation for Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland) does not suck. I really don't. I really don't. I mean, fingers crossed. Fingers crossed.