Great interview! Finaly someone who asked the things we want to know. I am realy dissappointed about guys like the one from the pinball magazin that just want to promote new pins or celebrate old ones but avoids to ask about real problems. Perhaps he is to afraid that he won't get interviews in the future.

Only if you remind them about the things they do wrong they can do better.

But i just don' t get why it's so hard for Gary to admit that they are working on the Metallica code?

Great post!

Wow, Gary should have gone into politics

Stern have someone manically deleting facebook posts all day long and yet they can't give code updates....

Would be nice if they could even give a month time frame at the least...like we should be able to release new code in February or if they are going to miss it, let people know...like OP said. Communication is such a big key in keeping people happy/informed.....it's too bad Stern is trying to improve this.

Stern needs to acknowledge their business has changed once the LEs were added to their lineup. Home owners need more care and communication.

Thanks so much for doing this! He needs to know how upset people are and that, as you said, communication must improve through all of the social media outlets available these days.

"Be patient my friend be patient" ... LMFAO

Stay thirsty my friend....that's what he meant to say.

I'm glad someone put Gary's feet to the fire. He is at a lot of shows, he needs to hear this more.

100% agree...anyone know his adddress...I have a couple torches and pitchforks I can donate to the cause

Appreciate this, but after reading this I feel that Stern is not working on the code. If they truly were he would have admitted it more freely. It's like he felt that you were not going to take "no" for an answer so he just said what you wanted to hear so he could get away.

Wrong. Lyman has been working on Metallica, that is a fact. He's a master tournament player, and you can bet that he's making sure everything works well together and feels organic, fun, and has strategy. Remember - there's more to these games than just the code. Being licensed, sometimes they have to go back and forth with the licensor for approvals. It's quite possible that the code IS "done" ...but they need to go back and forth with Metallica on some details before they can release it. At this point it'll be here sooner than later.

ALL of this is forgivable if they would just TELL US. Instead we're left guessing.

Sure he wants to make it very balanced, so you can't exploit a code weakness like some other games.

http://papa.org/2012/12/03/kings-of-steel-tutorial/

Totally. I really wonder what IS the psychology behind the push back on more communication and even "vague" updates. Everyone would like vague updates just fine if they aren't comfortable with specifics. All they have to say is "Hey guys, we hear your concerns and are truly sorry Metallica's code update hasn't been released yet - we're shooting for Q1 '14, stay tuned". Gary was in the room (George's presentation) when I brought this up concerning X-Men & TF at the PPE show a few years ago. Plenty of other people have brought it up at shows and via Email. So, they're not unaware that this is a huge problem with home buyers.

Keep in mind, they might have been hearing it from a few folks here and there, but then you look at the sales #s and they were still selling the machines so that's kind of conflicting data. Maybe now they are realizing that it is important and is/potentially affecting future sales.

I def hope their communications improves - think it would do a LOT to make folks happy even if there are inevitable delays.

Good job Poi. I couldn't make it this year, but would have liked to have asked the exact same things. Whether I'd have had the nerve to is a different matter, so well done fella.

Lloyd

Gary is just the figurehead at Stern.

He does not know when the code is going to be finished, or what problems even exist with it.

=

It would be the same as asking Bill Ford when will the new Sync software will be out for your car because your 160g ipod does not completely index. He would not know.

Thats a really good observation, however Ford is a much larger company than Stern, so I would imagine that Gary would be a little closer to the status of what is going on day to day at his company, but then again, maybe not!

Well, they sort of do.

If you think about it, the Premium & LE is similar to Jack's Standard and LE. Same exact gameplay features - LE's got a bit more bling.

Plenty of people are happy with having a lower cost alternative with the Pro model. That price is way more palatable for most ops and collectors….and from buyer reviews, plenty of people love their Pro models of Metallica, Star Trek, etc….some people even prefer the Pro models! Stern offering 3 choices has really worked out for their business & customer satisfaction.

Yes, this is a good analogy. JJP does not have a matching model to the Pro, and if they did you know it would be severely changed, so we can't jump on Stern too much about maintaining a $5k price point that has changes.

I've talked to him many times.

He is a super nice guy, but you can instantly tell he does not know any technical details.

Thanks for the feedback.

Any reason why Heighway pinball did not show up? Zero information on their website.

3 legged stool?

Good interview man, thanks for taking the time to do it.

Keep on doing this who ever will meet gary from now on. Ask him face to face, over and over again about the code.

Finaly not a brown nose interview. Well done.

Great post!! Gary needs to learn how to be a straight shooter and communicate in the year 2014. You brought up so many good points and I appreciate you hammering those points to Gary. The expectation for communication has increased due to the existence of social media. Companies can no longer do what they have done for years. Companies can now have an intimate relationship with their customers and welcome feedback in a way that they never could. For those company's who except it, it will be very positive, for those who refuse it, they will get loaded with hate mail and posts.

Yeah, real bummer they didn't make it. I know they had planned on it to debut the final prototype of Full Throttle and the show is in their backyard. Obviously something didn't come together as planned and they had to torpedo the whole show. Hopefully we'll get an update sooner than later.

Bummer, their website hasn't even been updated since November.