Woooo, that one is gonna leave a mark. I had a great time getting to play Barrels of Fun's brand new Labyrinth pinball machine this weekend, but that was sandwiched between a couple of industry people giving me a really hard time about my work on this site. I always try to be as nice as possible here and typically refuse to get sucked into drama so I addressed it privately rather than publicly, but they took a toll on my well-being that's for sure.
Rather than sulk, let's hop right back on this bike and try to talk about something that isn't controversial. I stumbled across an interesting interview with Stern Pinball's CEO Seth Davis this morning. Something from the interview that I haven't heard before is that apparently Stern is working on building a public game room / arcade space at its new factory that it is planning on using while giving more regular group tours of the facility, starting in 2024. From the article:
"Davis: We’re, we’re working on our game room and arcade space and putting that together so that people can have a fun time when they’re here and get to play a number of the games. We’re still sort of building that out.
We’re also doing some work on the outside of the building. The outside will look a little bit more fun as well.
It’s our intention to start having real tours and really put that together. We’ve historically always done some amount of tours for people, when they call and ask. A lot of that obviously subsided during the pandemic era, but we’re eager to bring that all back and welcome people in...
I think probably going into next year, we’ll probably have something put together where people can come visit us and see how pinball’s made, because no matter how many times you give the tour or go on the tour, it’s just a lot of fun."
That's pretty interesting. Sounds like fun!
The article also touched upon whether Stern will ever do virtual pinball again and other topics. It's definitely worth a read.
Interview: Stern Pinball CEO Discusses Tables and Insider Connected
It's all good bro take the haters as a sign you're doing well my man, that's one thing I learned doing competitive pinball and cruising up the ranks quickly, you get haters, people who really don't understand you at all, and people who really don't deserve your attention or time in the first place because they don't even know you. One thing I'll say buddy, if you got some industry haters as you say my man then you're on the right road because success = haters and after all at the end of the day you know what? screw em and what they think, they're not important enough to warrant your time --> keep doing what you do brother, you're…
Just what I like on Monday mornings, a little pinball in my drama.
I remember reading about this when step dad Seth came on but nothing in a while. Glad to hear its back on the roadmap. Yea this weekend was a drama doozy.
Definitely don't get sucked into the drama or weighed down by critics. There will always be haters and they always get louder in tandem with success. Appreciate you Jason, and the incredible job you do at keeping all of us updated! Thanks so much!
Wonder if they are going to implement a program similar to the Corvette Museum/Factory (and I assume others)? See your pin being built, maybe put on a couple of parts, be there when they test it or you get to turn it on for the first time, then take it home when done. For a charge of course.