Would they let you pay for a trademark with ill gotten GoFundMe monies?

Perhaps with all that "money" you could buy some leg bolts and flipper rebuild kits? Please tell us you are insured. Good luck.

Guys, he's too busy to care.
I bet he'll tell us again.

He seemed to keep it short once we learned Gameseum is not a registered trademark.

Yeah, now there will be no stopping all those copycat Gameseum locations that open up. Arcade owners have been desperate for use of the name.

I'm shocked.

Several grand per weekend you say? Good! Now get your dog the surgery it needs!

Pinsiders, my sincerest apologies for saying or doing anything to stick up for Steven. There's been a lot of over-the-top, lousy things thrown around in this thread, some of it that I didn't think was right. Well, I no longer feel that way.

Steven, you are an idiot.

You've had guys and gals on this forum willing to bend over backwards to help you (me included). We've sent you money (some people actually sent you money a couple of times), and you did not use it for what you said you were going to use it for (which, by the way, is AGAINST Go-Fund-Me policies. People get sued for that every day). Maybe you are the one that ought to take a great big step back and just pray that nobody here goes after you for that money.

In spite of all of the nasty, vile things you've said and done to people on this forum, there were STILL a lot of people willing to support you, and wish you the best of luck with your new venture. And this is how you respond.

Steven, you are an idiot.

<<shaking my head>>

Bring it on boys. Let the little bastard have it.

And just for the hell of it, I sent my attorney an email this afternoon. I'm having him check first thing in the morning to see of 'Gameseum' is available for trademark. If it isn't, it was worth paying him $60 for 10 minutes of his time. If it is available, Steve, bidding starts at $5,000 for the name. And if you do not own the trademark, my attorney will be contacting you to remove ALL of your signage at your location, along with every single reference to 'Gameseum' on your social media.

You need to take this very very seriously pal.

My achin' ass you are.

Ouch - that sucks Steven. Don't worry I have a name for ya. You can just call it 'The Shitty Arcade'.

Welcome to the dark side Dooskie

There are attorneys that make a living on taking over trademarks that have expired or not been filed properly and then suing those that use them.

If he can’t leg bolts properly on his machines, I doubt he paid or filed for the trademark properly. Also with his history of exaggerating things, I’m buying a shirt from whomever makes it and proudly wearing it at Expo.

I really hope you go through with this. Some people need a hard life lesson.

Like the fact that the federal trademark Dept. Had an error, and it had nothing to do with him

Somebody needs to file it, thats for sure

Is the hyphenated version also trademarked?

Ga-Meseum?

I want a shirt.

Anybody want to share his comments and actions he makes here with his facebook pals or any other business review sites????

I'm sure it won't matter to him; What with his thousands of dollars a weekend.

Screenshot_2019-07-28-17-09-54 (resized).png

New motto should be "Through no fault of our own."

Steven, it's time you learn there are a lot of people out there with far more resources than you'll ever have. You should do a better job choosing which hill you are choosing to die on.

Now I'll let you get back to banning as many people as you can from commenting on your Facebook page.

Lets assume "several thousand a weekend" means AT LEAST 3K.

And, lets call the weekend fri, sat, and sun....ok then, we are already at minum of 40 people per day average paying for all day passes....and even then, that is Gross not net "making" several thousand.

Unless the people funding it all are letting him keep all the money (and/or it is under the table)....kinda like parents spending 20 bucks on supplies for a kid to have a lemonade stand to make 5 bucks.

Well ... I spent the weekend on a Winery Tour & had a blast!

After reading this, tell ya what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna print up 300 shirts on my own dime.
Then I'm gonna to hand out 100 for FREE to Pinsiders at Expo this year.
Then I'm gonna donate/ship the other 200 to the homeless shelter in your town and instruct them to hand them out to any street person in need.

Pinsider smiles will be the only currency I'll accept.

Put me down for one. I also vote on a group photo! Maybe add the group photo to a yelp review.

What are they gonna say?

Gameseum!
Worlds worst "arcade"

Still working on a slogan.
The shirts will have large print on the back and something small on the front left chest. I can do fonts, but if anyone does artwork feel free to PM me.

Ha. Loser. I’m guessing the error is on your part and you forgot to renew Straight from the public records. Dead as of last week.

Everyone file tonight. They’ll all be received tomorrow. Lol.

You can’t even take a joke (I don’t think theoretically conspiring to print and unregistered trademark is any sort of violation) . And you make innacurate legal claims. And apparently it’s not that original a name, since it was previously abandoned by another party.

817F6AB3-4544-4D65-8DB0-AA55FD0D6D4A (resized).jpeg

Well, I WAS going to make a drive down to the “patent pending” arcade in Ephrata. After reading Otaku’s comments I shall instead stay home and do nothing.
Sign me up for a t shirt

Holy shit! I didn’t know that Rick opened an arcade in Ephrata. Here come the cease-and-desist letters.

Steve, if it’s written it’s libel, not slander. Also, see First Amendment:

“Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

In addition, you would have to prove causative factors that demonstrate a substantial economic loss to your business or severe financial detriment, and that the actions of those condoning your business are the sole and proximate cause of any such losses, vis a vis preponderance of the evidence. Oh, and that you didn’t do anything to contribute to those losses yourself.

Just trying to help with your idiopathic foot in the mouth morbidity.

Not to mention, at the time of the “Great Flood Scandal” damaging someone’s expensive Escalera and then openly saying that you dropped it down the steps in another thread. You forgot to point out that it wasn’t your $2500 machine that you broke, and did nothing to make it right.

Also, see PA Criminal Code §3922, as well as the attached:

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/16/713823522/n-j-woman-pleads-guilty-in-homeless-gofundme-hoax-faces-4-years-in-state-prison
980F5E5D-8CD0-4F90-B83F-B7356AA52F33.gif

This thread is a shame.

I'm not here to defend Steve's actions (past or present). But he opened a public arcade - he loves pinball and wants to share it with the world.

I can't get on board with the pinside bashing - even if deserved.

More like to scam them out of money by deceiving them about the quality of his arcade. Not listing his games, deleting unfavorable comments, threatening legal action to his critics and flat out lying to people who do not have knowledge about arcades and pinball machines is just plain wrong.

Your opinion is duly noted. I give him credit for opening an arcade.

I don’t give him credit for grossly misrepresenting his business; misguiding customers; constant condescension; misappropriating funds that were donated for a pending disaster and property damage, and buying machines with that money instead; and his constant bashing of customers and fellow hobbyists.

And that was long before anybody started bashing him on here.

I sold Steven one of his first games. A Devil’s Dare. Gave him a fantastic deal on it given that he was new to the hobby. I thought he was a good kid.

But the way he has taken advantage of and speaks with utter condescension to people is just disgusting. People bash others for much less on this site.

I always hope he learns his lesson, but it appears he never does. Some humility and apologies could go a long way.

If he is making thousands every week, perhaps he should send money back to everybody that donated to him to buy the games that are in his arcade.

Hehe this thread just got 100% better

Colsond3 - Well, I agree with everything you wrote here. I just find it uncomfortable to watch pinheads turning on pinheads. You point out that he turned on (took advantage of) pinheads first - that was tough to watch too. And he deserves criticism for it.

I don't know, maybe its the endless sweatpants and appearance jabs or maybe the glee with which I'm seeing pinside gang up on him. It is not much different from how he was run off of KLOV.

I hope he learns too, for his sake.

So basically his ROI is 1 weekend. Impressive.

How about "Gameseum, It's Immamaculate!!"

He has brought this on himself, a public apology to pinside, and a donation equal to the amount he collected on his gofundmes to charity and maybe a public free day is all it would take to turn alot of us back on his side. But that would require personal growth.

I think this would be a savvy business move. Create good will with the community, and be the ultimate turn-around story. This community has a lot of support to offer to causes it gets behind

The problem is, he is unable to ever admit he made a mistake.

The mantra of a narcissist:

20190728_213201 (resized).jpg

He wasn’t run off of KLOV.
He had a total meltdown and lashed out at people, then went and systematically deleted a bunch of his posts.
The mods issued a temporary ban so he could cool off. He wasn’t booted or run off.
He still has an active account there.

.

OmG. Love that, and it's so true!

Who wants to trademark his companies name? That’s a gofundme I’d support.

Much like Jpop blamed pinside for his failures, Steven will do the same thing. Gameseum will fail, and it will be our fault.

Pinside we know you want to talk pinball but have you seen Galaga.

T shirt for the gameseum “have you played Galaga”

I was thinking of wearing a gameseum shirt for one of these reasons listed below. Stanford Law Review said it would be ok.

In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. ... In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement.Apr 11, 2017

The problem with being 21 is that you actually believe you can make idle threats against people who have a lot more experience, education, and resources than you do. It’s just not a very effective method in trying to influence other people’s behavior, that Otaku will learn in time.

I still wish him well in life. He definitely outkicked his coverage with that Fiancé of his. Gotta give him props for that.

I got started in coin op at 19 years old. Literally have paid city of Pittsburgh licenses for the 17th year in a row this year. I don't get the logic of any of this really but I will add that for my first 10 years in business I grinded out everyday. No thousands of dollars a weekend, no GoFundMe, no fancy attire, nada... I think being reasonable and humble got me where I wanted to be. I do not know Steven and again, zero ill will, starting a business is hard, succeeding in business is even harder. I think the biggest lesson here is that too much help can inflate your perception of yourself because you may just believe you did it "on your own" when in fact it was basically gifted? If I didn't struggle through a learning process and my own mistakes I would be none the wiser. It's that foundation and incremental growth that helped me create a business that can sustain itself.

For the record I'm not trying to preach or be mean. I am trying to have a kid think about his actions and consider that others have a similar experience building a business like myself.

I wasn't expecting to read this whole thread when I logged in to check my tech questions tonight, but here I am. Fascinating.

I ultimately wish Steven the best, but I strongly suggest a few things to you:

1) Undersell your business, don't oversell it. If people arrive expecting 25 arcade games total and you have 40, they'll be happy. If they arrive expecting 50 and you have 40, they won't be. Seems like you already have disappointed some customers that wanted more and based on what I have seen, it's because you're vastly overselling your location at every move. Those customers won't come back and they won't tell their friends to try it. This goes for other things, like stating you have a "proprietary" system for playing the games. Other places have similar stuff, and so I can understand how people may be angry if they are charged more when leaving when they weren't told it was time.

1A) I actually realized this later, so I'm throwing it in here. If you're taking money at the end, that's... crazy. A customer will most remember the last thing they did. If the last thing is getting charged money, perhaps more than they expected, that isn't great. I'd suggest two things, the first is if you're doing the hourly thing, do a one hour pass for $10, or an all day pass for $20. Charge everyone $20 when they walk in, and refund $10 when they are leaving if they made their time. They are going to feel a lot better about getting $10 back at the end then they will getting charged $10 more than they were expecting.

1B) Along with that, offer something for that $10 to entice them to come back again. Maybe instead of $10, they get a pass for two people for an hour for $10. You can use this to keep the money while enticing more people back in.

2) If you have any games that need to have their credits refilled, find a solution to that immediately and implement the same thing everywhere. Inform people how it works. Running around adding credits sucks. Having a customer feel like they need to drop quarters into certain machines after they have paid a door entry sucks more.

3) Don't delete on social media. For me, I have a rule on social media that I delete almost *nothing* on the pages I manage (including 37k+ for the Midwest Gaming Classic). I will hide messages when people say things that are super out of line after I reply to them. Their friends can still see it, and if you're being nice and owning the failings, the people who read that will respect you more. I have banned a grand total of one person between my two pages who kept posting obscene language, although I warned him twice before it. When people start hearing from their friends about how they got banned, word gets out.

4) Along with the above, if you don't like what someone is saying, put yourself in their shoes and think about why. Some people's complaints will be almost impossible for you to solve - I once had someone tell me their favorite part about pinball machines was the sound, and if we wanted to get them back we needed a way to section off the games to hear individual sound. For a large convention, this is basically impossible. But, that doesn't change the fact that the person was requesting something that they wanted. I told them that unfortunately, it wasn't something we could do, but I hoped they found a place they could enjoy the sounds better and I was sorry we couldn't be that place. It doesn't make them wrong - it is just something that I can't solve for them.

5) Final thing, there are three main ways to compete as a business, being better than other businesses, being cheaper than other businesses, or being different than other businesses. Being better is tough because everyone has different thought of what best is, and you aren't competing with Dave and Busters for newer machines, or whatever. Being cheaper is already not the option you seem to be taking, and it sucks too because it usually means that you're saying you're second class. So, focus on what is different about what you do. From what I've seen, the different thing that you do is focus on a variety of game types and eras. From what I can tell, you have a Skee-Ball, old EM pinballs, bunch of arcade videos, console games, and even a random Buzzy Bee. Focus on how you like covering different genres and lean into that.

If I were you, I would toss a few more oddities in there. I'd suggest a kiddie ride (with free play button), something like an Ice Cold Beer, and maybe a couple other old ticket games that actually challenge skill. An Atari Hoop It Up comes to mind. Maybe an actual basketball game (heck, you could get a decent Pop-A-Shot for like $600!)

...

Based on what I've seen, I doubt much if any of this will be taken, but I figure it's worth a shot. There are lots of people here that would like to help, but feel pretty burned by past actions and based on what I'm seeing, I get it. I know multiple businesses like yours that have opened, and I know what makes them succeed long term and what doesn't. Even if you seem to be having a lot of success right now, don't let that success lull you into a sense of self-righteousness. It only gets harder from here, as going from the novelty of a new place to a place that people want to return to over and over again just keeps getting harder.

That's what I'm seeing here too. I don't think you're being mean at all - I have seen many businesses come and go in the hobby over the past 20 years myself, and the ones who have survived are the ones that grind to improve every single week. The ones that coast on their past accolades are the ones that get in trouble.

As you said, starting a business is hard, succeeding is harder.