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Walt walks and talks new XMen and John Wick code..is @sternpinballinc babying our games? #pinball

Walt Wood Pinball·video·25m 4s·analyzed·Jul 4, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.024

TL;DR

Walt Wood criticizes Stern for dumbing down John Wick and X-Men code updates to appease casual home owners.

Summary

Walt Wood criticizes recent code updates to John Wick and X-Men pinball machines from Stern, arguing that simplified rules and added assistance features (ball saves, lighter difficulty, shot multipliers) make games easier but less fun and rewarding. He contrasts this with his experience playing classic machines without such safety nets and attributes the changes to complaints from home owners rather than location players or competitive communities.

Key Claims

  • John Wick's Winston lock spelling was changed from requiring a difficult sequence (spell Winston, shoot lock, spell Winston again) to simply spelling Winston once with all locks automatically lit afterward

    high confidence · Walt Wood, direct experience playing John Wick the night before recording

  • John Wick's enemies mechanic was changed so enemies no longer block shots, instead serving as shot multipliers via blue dots

    high confidence · Walt Wood, gameplay observation

  • John Wick's lights-out mode now allows players to push a button to light up shots mid-mode instead of maintaining darkness throughout

    high confidence · Walt Wood, gameplay observation

  • X-Men now automatically grants a ball save when entering the Jack Danger room after the initial ball save expires

    medium confidence · Walt Wood, gameplay observation (uncertain if this was first-time occurrence or standard feature)

  • The code changes are primarily driven by complaints from home game owners rather than location players or competitive communities

    medium confidence · Walt Wood, inference from his observations: 'I don't hear people on location bitching'

Notable Quotes

  • “I like the difficulty of Wick, and now you fucking took it out, you took his balls away again, this, they took his balls away one day, Barnyard taking all the guns away, that was the first step”

    Walt Wood@ 9:08 — Connects John Wick code changes to a broader pattern Walt perceives of Stern simplifying games (also references Barnyard, likely John Wick 007 or similar title changes)

  • “Like, dude, if you don't like the difficulty, just practice, dude, you're not gonna figure this out overnight... there's no excuse why you can't lock yourself in a room and get better”

    Walt Wood@ 10:21 — Core argument: player responsibility to improve rather than manufacturers catering to casual players

  • “It just felt like out of the box, I should have to be like, have to do some shit to get to play for longer, you know what I mean, like not like out of the box, you just giving me the fucking ball save... reminded me of, like, training wheels on my bike”

    Walt Wood@ 14:16 — Encapsulates Walt's frustration: default assists feel unearned and patronizing

  • “I grew up on Gottliebs, there wasn't hardly any fucking ball save, early Harry Williams 90s games, Funhouse, Banzai Run, no ball saves, big guns, no fucking ball saves, bro, do you understand that, and now you got like what, middle aged dudes, these guys who own all these games, bitching at Sam Stern”

    Walt Wood@ 20:02 — Historical context: Walt emphasizes that earlier pinball generations had no safety nets and players adapted

  • “Sam Stern is confused with that like they feel like oh well you get to play for longer so how is it not more fun... I could be over there working on a fucking jigsaw puzzle for a fucking an extra hour that doesn't make it more fun you know”

    Walt Wood — Directly critiques manufacturer philosophy: duration ≠ fun

Entities

Walt WoodpersonSam SternpersonStern PinballcompanyJohn WickgameX-MengameJersey Jack PinballcompanyThe Wizard of OzgamePapa Dukeorganization

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern appears to be catering code updates to home game owner complaints rather than location operators or competitive players, potentially damaging game depth

    medium · Walt states 'I don't hear people on location bitching, so it must be the people who own the games' and argues owners should practice instead of requesting nerfs

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Tension between competitive, highly-practiced players and casual home owners; competitive players being viewed negatively for their intensity at tournaments

    medium · Walt describes getting 'looks from people left and right' at tournaments for being too competitive and intense

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Code changes may be artificially inflating scores across machines (shot multipliers, easier modes) making it easier for casual players to reach high scores without skill investment

    medium · Walt: 'I was barely trying... 50% of effort... getting normal scores and then some' and mentions score bloat as probable design change

  • ?

    design_philosophy: John Wick lights-out mode compromised by button-press mechanic that allows mid-mode lighting of shots, contradicting the mode's conceptual commitment

    high · Walt criticizes lights-out mode for allowing hints via button presses, citing Jersey Jack's The Wizard of Oz as better example of design commitment

  • ?

    design_philosophy: John Wick Winston lock sequence oversimplified in recent code update: changed from complex spell-lock-spell-lock pattern to simple spell-with-all-locks-lit, reducing skill requirement and player engagement

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.075

0:00
What is going on? It's your boy, Walter. Hopefully you guys can hear me alright. I'm walking to the store.
0:13
It's pretty busy now. I just, man, I had some things I wanted to talk about with, uh, Pinball lately. He gonna say, Walt, you're such a piece of shit. Just fucking be happy people are making games and shut the fuck up already. You can say that,
0:33
but that's not good enough for me. You know? It's not. And now, I notice they're, like, changing all the rules of these games.
0:48
That's what I noticed when I was playing Wick last night. bro, they're going back and, like, changing rules and shit now, I think I can run across the street real quick, hold on, I'm gonna run across the very street I got hit, if this fucking car would hurry the fuck up, good lord, look at this, look at this guy,
1:16
look at that fucking guy, lollygagging, alright, we made it, yeah, bro, I'm just saying, I played the fucking Wick last night, I played Wick and, uh, X-Men, and both games were just, like, tremendously easier, but didn't feel,
@ 17:25

  • “Both those games felt, like, way easier... I was barely trying, like, I was going at, like, 50% of, of, of, like, the effort I would usually expend, and I was getting normal, like, my normal scores, and then some”

    Walt Wood@ 18:08 — Quantifies perceived difficulty reduction with concrete gameplay example

    • Funhouse
    game
    Banzai Rungame
    Gottliebcompany
    Barnyardgame
    Dungeons & Dragonsgame

    high · Walt describes playing both versions and notes the change in difficulty and engagement

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Stern appears to be adopting philosophy that longer play duration equals more fun, which Walt rejects as fundamentally flawed logic

    medium · Walt: 'Sam Stern is confused with that... I could be working on a jigsaw puzzle for an extra hour, that doesn't make it more fun'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Broader industry pattern across video games and pinball toward accessibility and lowered skill ceilings; Walt attributes this to 'together we all win' and participation trophy mentality

    low · Walt generalizes about video game companies and references GTA 6 delays as parallel example of this trend

  • ?

    product_strategy: X-Men received automatic ball save in Jack Danger room, providing second chance assistance that Walt perceives as undermining skill-based consequences

    medium · Walt describes surprise at unexpected ball save activation mid-mode and compares it to training wheels

  • ?

    product_concern: John Wick enemies mechanic redesigned to remove blocking behavior in favor of shot multipliers; Walt sees this as weakening a core game mechanic

    high · Walt observed enemy behavior changed and blue dots now serve as shot multipliers; he preferred original blocking mechanic

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Walt's assessment of John Wick has become significantly more negative after recent code updates; game now feels unearned and patronizing rather than challenging

    high · Walt contrasts his appreciation for original Winston mechanic difficulty with disappointment in new simplified version

    • 1:42
    they didn't feel, like, that much more fun or engaging, it just felt, like, tremendously easier, like, fucking John Wick, all I had to do was spell Winston, and then all my locks are lit, there's a green arrow, I like the green arrow now, like, now there's a green arrow up the middle when your lock is lit, that's cool, but, dude, I like, I don't know, it was kind of tough, like, when you had to fucking do donuts, that's cool, I remember my first beer, yeah, fucking, like, I kind of like the fact, uh, you had to spell Winston, and then shoot the lock, okay, and then you gotta go spell Winston again, like, I fucking like that, it was harder, like, dude, it's hard to spell Winston, and then you fucking,
    2:51
    ah, dude, I don't know what the fuck they're doing, bro, like, they're fucking doing this with all the fucking game, like, it puts the fucking ball, like, I like that, because you gotta fucking field the ball every time you hit the captive Winston, the Winston captive ball, just get a letter, you gotta field it back, and do that, just fucking, to spell out Winston, I like that, dude, because you don't know what you're gonna get when the ball comes back from the captive ball, like, it's gonna hit, sometimes it hits that right sling and just goes right the fuck out, we see that a lot, the fucking wall of death, somebody called it the stern wall of death, I can't remember, it was like a tournament player, I can't remember who it was, fucking legend, I never forgot it, but fucking I like that, but now it's, you just spell Winston, and then just go, like, shoot the ramp three times, and you're in multi-ball, like, what the fuck, so what happened, did people bitch, and Cern was like, all right, fine, just spell Winston, and then fucking have a good day, and leave us the fuck alone, like, this, I don't know, why did they change that, that's fucking weird to me, like, that's one of the parts I liked about Wick, now it's changed, they took the enemies off the shots, so now, but I was, I don't understand that, like, because yesterday, I was playing, I played the fuck out of it yesterday, that's why I'm making this video now, because I'm just, I'm going off of, like, the updates that I had from last night, this is, like, the updates I had last night, so, they took they like they didn't make the enemies like not block the shot anymore which is fine but then like i entered something where it was like shoot 10 enemies and then i had to shoot 10 enemies but it was like nothing else was lit i'm like i don't understand but I kind of liked it before how they blocked the shot, like, there was an arrow, and then you gotta get the enemy out of the way, and then you can, but now, I guess it's like a shot multiplier, it must be, because I came out, dude, I, I was in one mode, and I came out, it was like 220 million,
    5:15
    I was like, what the fuck, I don't know what the fuck that was, gunshot or something, fucking, no, it was fireworks, fucking, I'm like, what the fuck is, 220 million, it's one mode, I don't know what the fuck I did, I must have been hitting, like, because the blue dots, I guess, now are shot multipliers, so everybody can, like, run around and be like, I got 500 million on fucking Dargy Dargy, like, what the fuck, I just don't get it, I liked it the way it was dude like Wick wasn't perfect but the things that were cool about it they fucking took out or changed it to make it easier I don't fucking get it what else is different about Wick it just like felt easier and then like when I was in the lights mode I could fucking It was like every Every like other second dude I could hit the button and it's like, bing-bang! And it tells me, like, where to shoot. I'm like, yo, isn't the point of the lights-out, like, so the whole play feels dark? Why do you keep, like, letting me light it back up? Like, this is fucking stupid. Like, I thought it was supposed to be... Like, dude, you gotta fucking commit. If you're gonna do a mode that's lights off, then don't fucking turn the lights on during it. You know what I mean? Like, fuck.
    6:50
    That's one thing Jersey Jack did well with fucking Wizard of Oz. Like, I know Wizard of Oz gets a lot of shit, and trust me, I'm not a big fan either. But goddammit, when they say lights out mode, it's lights out mode, motherfucker. They commit to it. It's not lights out mode with a button you can push to light up a shot. Like, fuck you, dude. It's lights out or it's lights on. fucking pick one, get in the boat, or get out of the boat, are you in the boat, or not,
    7:17
    that, like, I don't know, irritates me, I mean, I guess some people could think, like, oh, I get a hint, but again, you're making the lights out easier, because you're giving me a fucking hint, why do I need a hint, I'm supposed to, it's up to me to remember what mode I'm in, and what shots I need the fuckers on, like, if I'm in Winston Multiball, and, um, I fucking get lights out, it's like, all right, well, I know I gotta shoot some arrows, and then I gotta hit the captive ball eventually, and then my super is at the fucking middle ramp, fucking hell, dude, like, what the fuck is, are people just bitching, dude, and then to stern, it's like yo this is your fault like the player dude you gotta get better if like fucking it's not up to Stern to make the game easier cause now we all suffer dude now like all the players suffer we all get a like a worse game out of it the bombs are going off ah yeah you gotta practice especially these motherfuckers that own the game there's no excuse you own the fucking game like what's the when I got a family and I gotta pick my fucking wife up from crochet or whatever I don't give a damn I don't give a fuck about your stupid kids then don't play pinball, like, I don't know what to fucking tell you, you don't have enough time, then fucking maybe this isn't the thing for you, you know, shit, because now we all suffer, dude, I like the difficulty of Wick, and now you fucking took it out, you took his balls away again, this, they took his balls away day one by taking all the guns away, that was the first step, and here we are like a year or whatever later, and they're still taking his nuts away by making the game so easy, like, it never ends with these fuckers, dude, they won't stop until they get them in a fucking bib and a fucking sucker, dude, on the fucking front, can I play daddy, just like that, they want a can I play daddy mode from, like, Wolf 3D, can I play daddy, yo, especially these motherfuckers who own, who buy the games and own the games and if they're the ones bitching the most, bro, I'm telling you right now, because I don't hear people on location bitching, so it must be the people who own the games, like, people I play with, like, we might bitch, but it's only when we lose a ball and shit, we're not bitching at CERN to make grand changes, like, Jesus Christ, you literally change the whole game, but my advice is, like, just practice, dude, you're not gonna figure this out overnight, I think that's the problem, like, most people wanna figure this out overnight, like, I bought the pinball machine, I played it for a month, and I still suck, dear Stern, change your shit, like, no, it takes more than a month, unfortunately, to get it dialed in, like, dude, you have, you own the game, there's no excuse why you can't lock yourself in a room, yeah, dude, like, here, like, put a fucking score lock on there, and you can't exit the fucking room until you get, like, 500 million or whatever.
    11:13
    Or just wait for the next Stern update and then they'll just put an 8x score multiplier on there. So you can get your 500 million and then you'll exit the fucking room that way.
    11:26
    That's another thing, bro. If you don't like, and this is the part I don't know. If you don't like the Stern update, can you roll it back to an old one? or are you fucked because everybody wants to be like the first to have their game like running the latest code and whatever like if if they put a code on there and you don't like it can you roll it back i don't think you can i don't know if you can dude you might be able to fucking edit it but i don't know i don't even think you can edit that Winston shit in the fucking settings, dude. Like, I like the Winston the way it was. I think we're fucked. And then what else did I play? I played X-Men. And then the game starts and I get like I go in the danger room Like I plunge a ball right And then I shoot I shoot the shot the skill shot over there
    12:37
    The game starts, I'm shooting around a little bit. And then I shoot the shot to go to the danger room. And the ball save comes on.
    12:48
    Like, instantly. Like, it came on automatically. I was like, what the fuck is this? That never happened before. like, I'm in the danger room, getting dangerous, and this is after my fucking initial ball save ran out, and I get in there, and then the ball save comes on, I'm like, what the fuck, dude, like, sometimes you get burned in the danger room, it just fucking happens, but now I get a fucking free ball save, what the fuck is this, I don't know if it was, like, the first time, or what, but I was like so taken back by that I'm like what the fuck did I get a ball save in here this is fucking weird like I've been burned by the danger room a bunch of times man that's just the way it goes you just kind of fucking take it with a grain of salt you know but to like get an instant ball save that was just weird I just felt like I didn't deserve it thanks for taking a walk with me to the store discussing pinball rules i'm telling you i'm disappointed you say well the game's easier you should be happy you get to play for longer yeah but dude like i don't feel like i deserve it like you're just letting me play for longer like out of the box, I should have to be like, have to do some shit to get to play for longer, you know what I mean, like not like out of the box, you just giving me the fucking ball save, and then I'm like, okay, whatever, I guess I get a fucking ball save in there, whatever, it reminded me of, like, training wheels on my bike, like, you can use the training wheels again, like, I think I'm all right, dude, I think I could take it if my fucking, it's up to me to get it out of the danger room, okay, I don't need insurance policy, dude, I don't need the training wheels, the, the, the automatic ball save seems like the fucking training wheels or something, you know, and then I started a mode and it's like okay I finished the mode and then I'm instantly in the future like I'm instantly there and it's like kill six sentinels so I did it and then it's like oh great congratulations now you unlock some guy, or, or wait, no, first I beat them out, and it's like, okay, go save some dickhead in the future, you gotta go save this asshole in the future, so I was like, all right, whatever, so then I go to, I guess I'm in the future, and then,
    15:54
    like, I don't understand going to the future to save someone, wouldn't you have to go to the past to save somebody?
    16:00
    Have you never seen Back to the Future? They had to go back and get the book, the almanac, in 1955 in order for Biff's Casino to not work. They couldn't go to the future to defeat Biff in the future. That's what Doc said. He said we can't go to the future now because if we go to the future now, it's the future of this point in time. An alternate universe where Biff is evil and corrupt and rules the police.
    16:39
    So why am I going to the future to defeat the guy? To save the guy? I don't get it. Shouldn't I go to the past to save the guy? I guess logically that part doesn't make sense to me. But fucking, that doesn't really bother me so much. The future's still boring. It's like six shoots, beat six sentinels, yada, yada, yada. Have a great fucking day.
    17:01
    And then if you do, it's like you get some perk, but it's like really vague about what the perk is. They just tell you you unlock some dude's perk, but they don't tell you like what the fucking perk was. I'm so confused. And the game doesn't feel any more fun. It just feels easier, but not more fun. like just being able to play longer doesn't make the game more fun dude I feel like Stern is confused with that like they feel like oh well you get to play for longer so how is it not more fun you're over there longer doesn't that mean more fun I mean dude I could be over there working on a fucking jigsaw puzzle for a fucking an extra hour that doesn't make it more fun you know I don't get this am I am I lost I don't know maybe there's someone missing I don't understand, but both those games felt, like, way easier, I haven't played those games in a few months, and they both felt, like, tremendously easier, dude, to get through, like, I was, I was barely trying, like, I was going at, like, 50% of, of, of, like, the effort I would usually expend, and I was getting normal, like, my normal scores, and then some in, like, tournaments and shit, I'm like, this is ridiculous, so they must have upped all the scores to make everybody feel better, bloat the scores, could give everybody ball saves, make everybody feel like heroes, and then we all suffer, that's what it sounds like to me, I mean that the vibe I got over the last both those ones that the vibe I got it was like easier especially with the fucking John Wick light in the locks dude I was so surprised and then I got dude, I got to the multiball, like, three times, because it doesn't, it still just spell Winston, and then they're all lit, like, that's, so I figured the second time around, it would be harder, so I, you know, like, how it was before, you spell, get the lock, spell Winston, get the lock lit, get the lock, and then spell Winston again, but no, it was still, I spell Winston, and all my locks are lit, and the third time, it was the same way, I'm like, you motherfucker, they didn't change it, so it's just that way, guys, it's just that way from here on in, I don't know what to tell you, I don't know what the future is looking like for pinball, it's looking like they're catering more to like making like baby games dude and honestly i've been playing pinball on location since i was like six years old i never had to yo bro i never had to have shit like this happen in my whole life like to beg companies to make your games easier like we just dealt with it when i was a kid i just dealt with it dude and i would grow up on day to east and shit, I grew up on Gottliebs, there wasn't hardly any fucking ball save, early Williams 90s games, Funhouse, Bonsai Run, no ball saves, big guns, no fucking ball saves, bro, do you understand that, and now you got like what, middle aged dudes, these guys who own all these games, bitching at Stern, that you can't fucking do whatever the fuck you can do on these modern wicks and shit with ball saves in them, bro, just get better, I'm here to tell you, get better, play your fucking games more and get better, dude, this is ridiculous, because now we all suffer, now I suffer, dude, because you guys aren't as good, now I suffer, this sucks, oh, and Wick just got worse, man, this fucking was, like, what other games are they gonna change now, you know, like, what other games are they gonna go in and fucking change, like, I'm just so curious about the whole thing, and I'm just so nervous about the future of pinball, guys, fucking hell, I really don't know what's gonna happen, man, this is fucking, but I guess that's all I gotta say, I just wanted to talk about it for a little bit, sorry, it's kind of hard to hear me, I've just been walking down the road, walking to the store, but, yeah, man, I don't know, dude, I just don't know what the future is gonna hold, I mean, goddamn, you know, like, I play, Dungeons and Dragons is boring,
    21:46
    I mean, like, do I go to a city, do I play the modes in the city, am I trying to go, like, I don't understand, bro, and it's just boring, just like the fucking game, dude, it's just boring, bro, pinball, man, I don't know about the future of pinball right now, honestly, it's not looking good, even fucking video games across the board are not looking good right now, dude it's just there's this mentality of like together we all win like if you're really good you need to calm down a little bit and and let somebody else who's a little better like try get a shot at it like that's kind of the mentality right now dude and like i don't agree with it most people i talk to don't agree with it it's like you just gotta practice and get better dude you can't cater to the fucking people who don't want to try to hard to practice and get good, but it seems like a lot of companies are doing that right now, you know, and, and then the people like us who are really competitive and good, it's like, we get looked at like fucking evil, because it's like we practice so much, you know, it's like you're damned if we do, damned if we don't, you know, yeah, man, it's like the people who are really competitive, I was in a tournament the other day, and I'm getting looks from people left and right, because I'm so competitive, and I'm so into it, and, you know, this and that one, and the other thing, and I'm just like, you know, fuck it, dude, like, I'm, I'm not casual, but, like, dude, I, I want, I'm here, I'm competitive, I'm in the tournament, I'm ready to go, you know what, you want me to, like, calm down, because so, Joe Schmo isn't fired up, fuck that, dude, I don't agree with all that.
    23:45
    so I don't know guys, I don't know about the future, I don't know about the future of video games in general, man, I mean, why do you think GTA 6 is so delayed, we've seen the gameplay, it's ready to go, it's the script, they're so worried about the script, is it woke enough, is it not woke enough, do we represent these people, did we do X, Y, and Z, we check all these boxes, that's the reason why you're not getting GTA 6, and if you don't believe me, you can go, you can go fuck yourself, because it's the truth, they don't want to tell you that, oh, we're still working the bugs out, yeah, whatever, fucking kiss my ass, we see, the league, the gameplay leaked a year and a half ago, we've seen it, fucking bullshit, and Stern's doing the same thing, just babying up their games, bro, all across the board, all video game companies, all across the board are doing this, dude, and Stern is no different, because together we all win, and you guys don't have to try so hard, because eventually we'll just lower the bar, and then we all get a participation trophy, and on that note, guys, I hope you have a good one, happy 4th, and much love, everybody, much love.