2017 'Worst' in Pinball results

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#1 6 years ago

OP

RYC

FalconPunch

Pinside member

Melbourne

9y 106K 1,816

Started a thread a couple of weeks ago to get votes for the 'TWERPYS'. Which is an anti TWIPYS where I wanted to try and get people to vote for the stuff they don't like Versus what they like. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-twerpy-awards-vote-for-the-worst-things-in-pinball
Bit of a mixed response to the idea. Some people saw it as negative (all pinball is good pinball etc), some people saw it as a way for companies to improve.

Started off as a little joke but 110 people voted and there is some interesting results. I wish there was a way to get MORE voters so that the results are more accurate but there is no way anyone is going to promote something where you vote for the worst of stuff!

Here are the results for the first half, I will post the second half tomorrow after we announce them on the podcast - www.head2headpinball.com (shameless plug)

1. Worst Theme of the Year (Based on Theme only)

Total Nuclear Annihilation has done really well here compared to the other 2 original themes (Dialed in and Lexy).

Screenshot 2018-01-07 19.35.01 (resized).png

2. Worst Theme Integration

The 3 original theme have the 3 lowest amount of votes. Which I guess proves that original themes set high expectations that cannot always be met.

Screenshot 2018-01-07 19.38.23 (resized).png

3. Worst Sound/Callouts

Bit of a blow out here with GOTG still being in its BETA phase and bobalee boo boo being so damn funny.

Screenshot 2018-01-07 19.42.56 (resized).png

4. Worst Artwork (Playfield and Cabinet)

Art is pretty personal. Well I guess everything about a pinball machine is!
The result which stood out the most for me is that 10.9% of people thought that Aerosmith has the 'worst' art?! No idea why? Maybe they hate the band? I have heard lots of people use the phrase 'its too busy' so maybe that is their reason.
Christopher Franchi absolutey smashed it out of the park with the least offensives art! 2 pins combined and he has about 6% of the vote. This guy is competing against himself to take out the best art in the TWIPYs

Screenshot 2018-01-07 19.48.49 (resized).png

5. Worst Rules/Code

GOTG is new, so going to get a lot more heat than older games with more mature code, but it is being sold at full price so I guess its fair game. Batman 66 still cannot shake off its 'no code' stigma even though there are a lot of good updates coming through.
Dialed In! amazingly received 0 votes. Which I believe is the only machine in ANY category to receive none.

Screenshot 2018-01-07 20.04.21 (resized).png

I will be back tomorrow with the rest!

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#2 6 years ago

OP

RYC

FalconPunch

Pinside member

Reserved.

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#3 6 years ago

TOM

SLAMT1LT

Inactive member

14y 67,550 1,097

This didn't have to be the worst, just having people vote for the best would still show the same results I would say. The least popular (worst) would still show at the bottom of the pile.

Most pinball companies think they know everything and don't do enough market research in my opinion. You guys are buying these things so they should ask you directly. It's good business to know what your consumers want, and bad business to guess what they want.

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#4 6 years ago

OP

RYC

FalconPunch

Pinside member

Melbourne

9y 106K 1,816

TWIP is announce their results in less than 2 weeks, so we will see if they match up! Just to be clear I would have loved to do a BEST OF vote but the TWIPYS are already covering that.
I'm not sure if they will release any other results besides the winner though.

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#5 6 years ago

DIA

mrossman5

Pinside+ Frequent

Warren, PA

6y 197K 3,185 7 253

Wow, I’m surprised at some of these results.

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#6 6 years ago

SBS

o-din

Pinside+ Addict

11y 158K 58,799

Most were pretty bad for sure. Here's to ringing in a new year!

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#7 6 years ago

JPF

jfre81

Inactive member

Chicago, IL

6y 41,650 328

So apparently DI has a bad theme but integrates it well with a good rule set.

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#8 6 years ago

DAN

GLSP3022

Pinside member

9y 82,550 1,727

No mention of 'Magic Girl?'

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#9 6 years ago

OP

RYC

FalconPunch

Pinside member

Melbourne

9y 106K 1,816

We copied the TWIPY entries. No AFMr!

6. Worst Lightshow

I haven't watched enough Jetsons to say anything meaningful about this one!

Screenshot 2018-01-08 23.49.32 (resized).png

7. Worst Toys/Gimmicks

Expectation probably play a huge part in this one with Star Wars getting so much of the vote.

Screenshot 2018-01-08 23.49.36 (resized).png

8. Worst Playfield Layout and Gameplay

Screenshot 2018-01-08 23.49.41 (resized).png

9. Worst Display/Animations

Lots of competition now with everyone moving to LCD. Pretty surprised that Aerosmith scored so high.

Screenshot 2018-01-08 23.49.44 (resized).png

10. Most Unreliable Game (hardware wise)

This is the only one that we added extra, and it was a massive blow out with Alien taking more than half the votes.

Screenshot 2018-01-08 23.49.47 (resized).png

11. Worst Game of the Year

Worst game = most disappointing with expectations I am guessing again for this one. I think at the start of 2017 if you where you give people a list of these pins and tell them to guess which one would be voted the 'worst' game of the year no one would have chosen Star Wars.

Screenshot 2018-01-08 23.49.51 (resized).png

TOTALS:

Amazingly the 3 machines with the least number of votes are the 3 original themes. People are way more harsh with IP they know. Does that translate to sales? Probably not!
Congrats to TNA who received the smallest amount of votes across all categories.
Congrats to Franchi for receiving the smallest amount for art despite having 2 entries in the same category.

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#10 6 years ago

STK

flynnibus

Pinside+ Frequent

11y 134K 13,234

Alas I think these polls represent most common BELIEF rather than necessarily informed opinions.

I know for myself, my opinion of GOTG changed after getting some good time on it this past week... and I've been warming up to Star Wars too. Star Wars art especially looks much better in person IMO.

The only game on this list of candidates I've not had any sizable amount of playtime on is Jetsons. I'd rate my time with Lexi low.. and none since they started shipping.

I think companies in general are handling LAUNCHES of games very poorly, and the pinside community is so hungry for games they react so quickly and stigmas are built and re-enforced with posting volume. There are literally THOUSANDS of posts about games from hundreds of people who have never even played the game, but maybe seen some photos and watched some video.

In short... I hope people have an open mind until they get their own serious time with these games before they parrot other people's conclusions as gospel.

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#11 6 years ago

PSW

Psw757

Pinside+ Frequent

11y 117K 7,226 13 48 4

110 votes is a rather small sampling even in the small pinball world.

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#12 6 years ago

OP

RYC

FalconPunch

Pinside member

Melbourne

9y 106K 1,816

Quoted from flynnibus:
Alas I think these polls represent most common BELIEF rather than necessarily informed opinions.
I know for myself, my opinion of GOTG changed after getting some good time on it this past week... and I've been warming up to Star Wars too. Star Wars art especially looks much better in person IMO.
The only game on this list of candidates I've not had any sizable amount of playtime on is Jetsons. I'd rate my time with Lexi low.. and none since they started shipping.
I think companies in general are handling LAUNCHES of games very poorly, and the pinside community is so hungry for games they react so quickly and stigmas are built and re-enforced with posting volume. There are literally THOUSANDS of posts about games from hundreds of people who have never even played the game, but maybe seen some photos and watched some video.
In short... I hope people have an open mind until they get their own serious time with these games before they parrot other people's conclusions as gospel.

I agree.
But I have found that these 'BELIEFS' are sometimes are meaningful or as damaging as the actual truth. When people started canceling Star Wars LE orders in Australia is was like a domino effect. I had close to 10 people I knew, including myself going in on the machine. In the end only 3 kept their order.
Someone tells their friend that pinball machine X sucks because of this and that, and the person potentially doesn't buy it. He tells his friend, etc etc etc. You can never please everyone but I think first impressions are so important now with so much choice out there.

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#13 6 years ago

???

jgentry

Pinside member

10y 137K 5,229

I think it's very likely based on the results that half of the votes or more have never seen or played what they were even voting on.

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#14 6 years ago

OP

RYC

FalconPunch

Pinside member

Melbourne

9y 106K 1,816

Quoted from Psw757:
110 votes is a rather small sampling even in the small pinball world.

OP
Quoted from FalconPunch:
I wish there was a way to get MORE voters so that the results are more accurate but there is no way anyone is going to promote something where you vote for the worst of stuff!

Yep! If people find it somewhat useful and want me to do it again next year I am happy to do it and hopefully get more votes. Lots of people saw it as promoting negativity but all of this exists in almost every thread. Its really just trying to make sense of that and turn it into meaningful data.

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#15 6 years ago

N_W

Neal_W

Pinside member

9y 99,550 3,442

Thanks, this was fun. Bar charts would have been much more useful than pie charts!

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#16 6 years ago

OP

RYC

FalconPunch

Pinside member

Melbourne

9y 106K 1,816

For sure!
Unfortunately I was just screenshoting the pie charts that Google forms automatically creates.
Next time I will export to excel and do Bars!

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#17 6 years ago

ROB

Rob_G

Pinside member

Regina, SK

9y 99,300 5,334 3 6

There's obviously a lot a negative bias towards SW in the poll questions. Haters just gotta continue to hate.......

Rob

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#18 6 years ago

MDM

Black_Knight

Vertigo

Blue Ridge, GA

9y 115K 3,065 109 33

This is fake news.

No way is SW the worst game of the year. I just put an hour on one to prove it.

Like you said, haters gonna hate.

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#19 6 years ago

ARG

spinal

Pinside member

7y 69,150 1,537

It's not necessarily the case that the loser of a most-hated poll is the same as the winner would be of a "best" poll.

When asked about who is the worst, anyone answering that question will put on their "hate goggles" and look for things to hate. This is very different than asking for which games have best qualities. DI is almost universally loved amongst players as one of the best playing games now yet in one other factor... not so much still.

So I would say don't use these results to see who is best but rather who is worst because that's what it's biased towards (and I'm glad for it as it's fun so thanks). If you want to find the best, then have a "best poll".

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#20 6 years ago

SDG

T-800

Pinside member

Saint Paul, MN

12y 98,050 1,665 14 35

The poll results in this thread is sorta like ranking the Miss America contestants by ugliness... They're all still beautiful just like all pinball is great. I realize a best of poll by definition will result in the worst of, but it completely changes your frame of mind when voting for things you like versus things you dont.

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#21 6 years ago

DWG

dgoett

Pinside member

Clark, MO

11y 95,650 2,418 14 26

As the co-designer of Jetsons, when can I expect my award/plaque/trophy? Sorry ya'll hate it.

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#22 6 years ago

ZEN

Pinside member

Waverly, NE

11y 73,550 1,159 12 23

Quoted from jgentry:
I think it's very likely based on the results that half of the votes or more have never seen or played what they were even voting on.

This. 12 people thought Aerosmith was the worst art. I can throw out the significance of this poll based on that.

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#23 6 years ago

BTC

twenty84

chromecandy.com

10y 134K 1,701 1

For me it is a very rare game that isn't enjoyable at some level. One thing I've noticed about this forum is that some members seem to enjoy hating games much more than playing them. I think polls like this do nothing to serve our community which includes many people involved creating these games. If you like something celebrate it. If you have some constructive criticism fine. If it isn't your taste move on to something that is.

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#24 6 years ago

TOM

Crile1

Pinside+ Frequent

Elizabethtown, KY

7y 99,800 2,090 14 31 1

Quoted from jgentry:
I think it's very likely based on the results that half of the votes or more have never seen or played what they were even voting on.

I agree. However, there are a lot of people who purchase before they play. So, kinda nullifies that statement. Of course people say play before you buy (or comment) and I agree...however, many buy before playing and that is just the way it is.

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#25 6 years ago

SMK

TheLaw

Pinside+ Addict

Ann Arbor, MI

12y 162K 48,066 19 30 1

Quoted from dgoett:
As the co-designer of Jetsons, when can I expect my award/plaque/trophy? Sorry ya'll hate it.

Can't please everyone

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#26 6 years ago

DMB

PismoArcade

Pinside+ Frequent

St. George, UT

12y 143K 4,103 3 134

Quoted from dgoett:
As the co-designer of Jetsons, when can I expect my award/plaque/trophy? Sorry ya'll hate it.

"Hate" is pretty strong. "Disappointed" is probably a better choice of words.

Love the theme, though.

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#27 6 years ago

SBS

o-din

Pinside+ Addict

11y 158K 58,799

Quoted from ZEN:
12 people thought Aerosmith was the worst art. I can throw out the significance of this poll based on that.

Make it 13 then. But at least they didn't sugarcoat it and try to make those old men look young again.

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#28 6 years ago

JAR

jar155

Pinside member

North Salt Lake, UT

14y 114K 6,220 9 141

After finally getting a long amount of time on Guardians, that game earned every single vote against its sound package. I've never wanted a pinball machine to shut up so badly in all my life. It's just noise. Lots and lots of noise. Nonsensical and indicative of nothing. Noise! I don't understand how any other game could have earned a vote with Guardians in the mix.

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#29 6 years ago

ZEN

Pinside member

Waverly, NE

11y 73,550 1,159 12 23

Quoted from o-din:
Make it 13 then. But at least they didn't sugarcoat it and try to make those old men look young again.

13 people thought Aerosmith was the worst art. I can throw out the significance of this poll based on that.

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#30 6 years ago

SMK

TheLaw

Pinside+ Addict

Ann Arbor, MI

12y 162K 48,066 19 30 1

Quoted from ZEN:
13 people thought Aerosmith was the worst art. I can throw out the significance of this poll based on that.

We heard you the first time. People don't like the same art, that shouldn't be that amazing.

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#31 6 years ago

SBS

o-din

Pinside+ Addict

11y 158K 58,799

Quoted from TheLaw:
We heard you the first time. People don't like the same art, that shouldn't be that amazing.

No the first time he said 12.

I believe the people that think the artwork is terrible probably runs in at least the thousands so yes there isn't much significance to this poll.

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#32 6 years ago

JAR

jar155

Pinside member

North Salt Lake, UT

14y 114K 6,220 9 141

I thought Aerosmith had fantastic art, even if I don't like Aerosmith or their brand look much. The playfield and cabinet look amazing.

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#33 6 years ago

OP

RYC

FalconPunch

Pinside member

Melbourne

9y 106K 1,816

Quoted from dgoett:
As the co-designer of Jetsons, when can I expect my award/plaque/trophy? Sorry ya'll hate it.

We are too cheap to make anything!
No sponsors so we are on a $0 budget here.

I believe Charlie said something like....the machine isn't designed for the hardcore pinhead. I am guessing these are the people that took time to answer the poll.

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#34 6 years ago

SMK

TheLaw

Pinside+ Addict

Ann Arbor, MI

12y 162K 48,066 19 30 1

Quoted from jar155:
I thought Aerosmith had fantastic art, even if I don't like Aerosmith or their brand look much. The playfield and cabinet look amazing.

Agreed, can you fathom how someone wouldn't like it?
1. Yes - Welcome to humanity
2. No - Welcome to Pinside.

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#35 6 years ago

SBS

o-din

Pinside+ Addict

11y 158K 58,799

Welcome to the human race

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#36 6 years ago

POP

SuperPinball

Pinside member

Richmond Hill, ON

9y 96,050 1,686 25 17

I think AS artwork is nice but the only problem is the 4 geezers smack dab in the middle of the playfield. I just wish there was a "Luci" version of that game that had beautiful hand drawn women on it instead.

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#37 6 years ago

SBS

o-din

Pinside+ Addict

11y 158K 58,799

Quoted from SuperPinball:
the 4 geezers smack dab in the middle of the playfield. I just wish there was a "Luci" version of that game that had beautiful hand drawn women on it instead.

I'm creating a mod sticker you can put over those geezers. You like it?

download (1) (resized).jpg

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#38 6 years ago

JAR

jar155

Pinside member

North Salt Lake, UT

14y 114K 6,220 9 141

Quoted from TheLaw:
Agreed, can you fathom how someone wouldn't like it?
1. Yes - Welcome to humanity
2. No - Welcome to Pinside.

Oh, yeah, I get it. I mean, there are people out there that actually like the art on Flash. I just think Aerosmith looks nice, but it's such a thick style that it's not going to be universally loved. Ghostbusters' art on the other hand, if you don't like it, you're soulless.

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#39 6 years ago

GUL

pinsanity

Pinside member

12y 75,350 1,559

Well since I couldn't see it in the options.

I haven't read a single positive review pertaining to the gameplay of Thunderbirds since its debut at Pinfest Newcastle months ago and every piece of feedback mentions it needing a radical change in design/layout (more than just adding a couple of outlane posts) to make it even remotely playable.

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#40 6 years ago

???

jgentry

Pinside member

10y 137K 5,229

Quoted from jar155:
Oh, yeah, I get it. I mean, there are people out there that actually like the art on Flash. I just think Aerosmith looks nice, but it's such a thick style that it's not going to be universally loved. Ghostbusters' art on the other hand, if you don't like it, you're soulless.

I don't hate it but I'm not a huge fan of the goofy cartoon faces and the constant green, pink, and purple color tones. Still nicely done, just not my style. I greatly prefer all of DD work. Met is nice, AS is stunning, and pbrcc is probably my favorite.

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#41 6 years ago

TWP

pin2d

Silverball Swag

Indianapolis, IN

9y 123K 1,710

OP
Quoted from FalconPunch:
No sponsors so we are on a $0 budget here.

Well there is something that the TWIPYs and TWERPYs have in common!

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#42 6 years ago

SMK

TheLaw

Pinside+ Addict

Ann Arbor, MI

12y 162K 48,066 19 30 1

Quoted from pin2d:
Well there is something that the TWIPYs and TWERPYs have in common!

Sounds legit.

Name the Game – Monthly Giveaway
January 10, 2018 pin2d

pin2d

Silverball Swag

Indianapolis, IN

9y 123K 1,710

Those are the sponsors for the giveaways, and unfortunately I'm not getting a dime from that and my name hasn't been drawn yet as a winner (thought that might look suspicious)

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#44 6 years ago

SBS

o-din

Pinside+ Addict

11y 158K 58,799

Quoted from jar155:
Ghostbusters' art on the other hand, if you don't like it, you're soulless.

What if somebody doesn't like anything about Ghostbusters at all, including the movies?

I guess that would make me the devil himself.

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#45 6 years ago

JAR

jar155

Pinside member

North Salt Lake, UT

14y 114K 6,220 9 141

Quoted from o-din:
What if somebody doesn't like anything about Ghostbusters at all, including the movies?
I guess that would make me the devil himself.

That would make you the devil, yes.

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#46 6 years ago

SBS

o-din

Pinside+ Addict

11y 158K 58,799

Call me El Diablo then.

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#47 6 years ago

JAZ

jardine

Pinside member

Mt Martha

12y 53,550 919 9 16

OP
Quoted from FalconPunch:
For sure!
Unfortunately I was just screenshoting the pie charts that Google forms automatically creates.
Next time I will export to excel and do Bars!

Yep! Gotta like a good bar

By FalconPunch

6 years ago

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