I still can’t believe how many people want to take the side that is against someone providing their criticism of a game.
He wasn’t disrespecting the location or saying anything at all about it (Does he even mention where he plays? I’m sure one could figure it out)
All he did was talk about how he didn’t like that game. And honestly, saying Stranger Things isn’t among Stern’s recent best isn’t even that hot of a take.
Maybe some people play that particular game less at that particular location. But really how many people who watch Cary and will go to this location?
Maybe it’ll affect other locations with the same game. That could be more detrimental. Of course the kind of people who watch Cary probably want to play every new title regardless and simply enjoy talking about and evaluating games 24/7.
And really, Cary is arguably doing a service to operators by letting them know that a game like Stranger Things has issues out of the box and that hardcore pin heads might have a very cool reception to it.
Cary making videos calling out Stern’s afterthought UV kit and extremely expensive for what you get JP topper is simply being a consumer watchdog.
Hell Cary does more than most of you to get more and new people engaged with this hobby.
Some think it’s people like Cary that cause Stranger Things to sell poorly. I can’t argue with that because it’s simply not grounded in reality with how much pull someone like Cary has on a company that sells around 12,000+ units a year. (As an aside it is amusing Stern is including a random chance to win bunch of free swag to goose Stranger Things sales)
I do feel bad for someone like Zombie Yeti when his hard work doesn’t get shown off in the best way in a leak. It’s a less than stellar first impression to some of the most ardent pinball fans. But I stand by saying that what Cary does should be consider fair use in discussing newsworthy topics in this hobby.
I do sympathize with Stern for wanting to show off their products in the best light, to not have to deal with constant trolling and negativity, to not look foolish in front of their business partners, and for trying to find the best way to deliver value to the consumer and profit to their private equity vampiric overlords
But get your shit together Stern. The leaks, the mediocre games in between the great games, and the thin skin when it comes to dealing with valid criticism from your biggest supporters.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk