Some people have reported the moderation issue, but it's unknown why.

If it's being moderated he will likely see it at least. He can pretend that it's "haters" that are challenging him, but these are his customers.

This has been so badly managed. When I compare this with some of the WOZ shit storm threads, or Predator, there has always been a owners vs non-owners battle, but in this case the owners are the ones speaking up, that's how bad it is.

The blog has had that feature for awhile now.. Only thing diff is he doesn't respond to anything

Strange I have never had a post held for moderation

Not strange. I have never had a held up post.

0% chance by end of 2015. 2016 looks doubtful. MG needs to be delivered before RAZA.

And trust me it was the 75 owners all banding together and going vocal and legal(should it really have to get to that for people to really listen) that finally got the mess sorted out here in Australia. Hope you guys can get this sorted. It's a really bad place to be speaking from experience.

The non-owners feel almost as bad as you do over this crap It's your money so I know you feel worse. Just don't know any solution... need to find a way to light a fire under John's tush...

There was a time when I would have been pretty curious about what was hiding behind the NDA, and waiting to see what someone was gonna leak.

Now I'm just here for the dog.

I wanted the first two to be a big success so I could buy AIW with confidence. Now they serve as a warning. Right now I'm just hoping somebody jacks the AIW project and gets it done in the next 10 years. Not like JPop is in a position to defend it. I feel bad for the owners but hopefully an organized effort by them will right the ship.

Riot pinball has a sick sketch of AIW on their website. If they could ever find a way to actually release WOOLY, they'd have a far better chance of producing AIW than Jpop. Not to mention Scott is an infinitely better and more respectable person than John is proving to be.

Perhaps the software flags certain words and marks a post for moderation if they are present? Only word in your comment that would make sense is "effing." Seems weird that that would would do it, but it could be included in a list of words that make moderation required.

your post never made it through. I made the last post asking "when are we getting a time line"?

I think John's name s mud and from here on out it gets more difficult for him as suppliers or contractors will be reticent to deal with him.

Doesn't look good.

I may need to start working on a Hitler video.

Says he's just waiting on a few parts to post working videos in a blog reply I'm told

Ahh, it's clear now. All the delays are someone else's fault. I feel a lot better now.

no blog reply I've seen.

What's stopping him from posting a picture of what he has, besides empty cabinet's which we have seen already.

It's one thing if he was on target and wants to keep some element of surprise, but now we are having full scale revolt and people want to see if he has anything resembling a prototype which he was supposed to have 18 month ago.

I don't care if there are parts missing he needs to show us something that would be called progress not any more art sketches. If he drags his feet any longer he will be showing it in court.

Look again... And nothing's stopping him but his own insecurities

Early in my career, I used to fall into the trap of wanting these big reveal moments. I'll admit, it's hard not to, and I still do it every once in a while.

"We can demo the software in 2 months, let us get some of these other things fixed first....."

I came to learn that people only like the suspense/reveal routine at magic shows, not in business. I'm not saying every prototype along the way has to be shown, but I don't ever recall being told "I wish you would update us less".

I was thinking this as well. It still says awaiting moderation, so I looked for a way to edit my comment to remove the word "effing" but I don't think it's possible (if anyone knows how please PM me).

If it does get deleted, hopefully it is done by jpop himself, so at least I'll know that he saw it.

I generally don't resort to using offensive language to make a point, but man, I'm just so frustrated about this whole situation!

Just remove the effing comment and repost your comment in a new posting.

I just posted this to his blog:

John, here is some tough love.

It's time to concede you are one of the great pinball designers, and one of the worst pinball businessmen.

You've taken people's money, and in exchange they have nothing, and lately not even a response from you.

You apparently love the shop visits and dazzling people with artwork, lights, toys and the fawning that comes with it. But can't even respond to the simplest of requests of "when will I get my game?"

You are on the hook for money. You have a moral responsibility to answer to the same people that entrusted you with their hard earned money if you can't deliver a game within the time table you established.

I get it, things haven't come together the way you wanted. But to just shut off from everyone is bush league behavior, certainly not deserving of you and the reputation you've built in the industry and you are threatening that very reputation you cherish.

There are people who have asked for refunds, because they have:

-no money
-no game
-no promise of a game to be delivered, which is already 1 year overdue.

They literally have nothing to show.

Do you understand the optics of this?

You were cut a lot of slack for a long time, based on your reputation in the industry. That slack basically ran out at expo with the "empty cabinets". You posted a heart felt email shortly after promising change. Well, here we are 3 months later and the only change is things have deteriorated further.

Someone might say in your defense you aren't making a Stern game and quality takes time. I would agree with that. But you've taken people's money, and given them no update on anything and the months pass one after the next.

This is not defensible behavior.

This has gone so far off the rails we're passed the point of (another) apology and some vague promises of hiring a project manager and some muscle. You're going to have to show what you've got and a concrete delivery schedule.

Without being more dramatic than I already am, you are standing on the precipice, and it's going to take a lot to demonstrate you can get yourself down safely.

I've been text messaging john about my refund request, I'd be curious if he is ignoring the blog or not looking at the replies? I would assume he looks at the blog but deliberately is ignoring us.

It's interestig he is responding back and forth with me on text message but he's not really saying anything at least I know he read what I wrote.

He almost seems to be in denial. Like I asked him if will reveal anything and what is the timeline. I also reminded him he's 34 months into a 14 month project. He responded, that he thought I wanted a refund so why was I curious about the progress.

I said, give me the refund and I'll stop asking about the progress but while he has my money, I'm still an owner so I'd like either an answer or my refund.

image-238.jpg

I've been following this train wreck for weeks now and feel bad for you guys who have money out there. You put a lot of trust in jplop and his actions (or lack thereof) as of late have really betrayed that.

I think the most tangible thing that will happen is whatever Ice comes up with. While John may be a great designer and is probably a good guy at heart, he seems to have used up whatever good will he may have had based on his reputation. Sad, because in the right situation and with a proper team of business people and engineers behind him, he probably could have delivered an unbelievable game.

Good luck to you guys. I'll be on the sidelines watching.

He is totally in denial (step 1). The next steps are anger, then bargaining, then depression and finally acceptance.

I think it is a pretty clear case of denial.

He reads the blog for certain, as well as lurks here (Hi John - come on, pull it together already and address your customers in a meaningful way).

Even John's dog is embarrassed

image-256.jpg

JPOP will surely deliver...

bb8.jpg

hey Ice, did you get my PM? I sent a link with some docs.

ice you're a lawyer, would you say John should refund me, if requested based on non-delivery?

This seems relevant...

STEVE: Oh, World Cup. World Cup was taken over.

MARK: It wasn’t a bad pin, it’s still all right, actually we still operate it.

STEVE: In the end it turned out to be pretty Ok, but in the beginning it was handled by a newbie. The game designer was a stubborn newbie, and it had to be taken over by someone else.

MARK: Did this happen very often?

STEVE: Actually it never happened before unless somebody died or got sick.

MARK: Did he abandon the project or did he just get the sack?

STEVE: Neither. He cooperated, learned and latter did Theatre of Magic and some other really good work. But when he first came in he thought he just knew everything about making pinballs and it is just not that kind of thing. You have to live it for a long time, you must have an affinity for mechanicals and you have to be able to work with other people.

MARK: Working with others is essential, unless you are a going it alone.

STEVE: No one could make a great pinball alone. The closest I’ve seen is Brian Eddy on Shadow, I think. I believe he drew the game and then programmed it. It was quite a feat, but he had to learn about mechanicals on that game. It was tough, but I will always admire him for doing that.

I believe John has said there were dozens of engineers to assist at BW. I wonder if he has any engineers at all at Zidware.

Wow - I have been away for a while but reading these posts.

I was originally on for RAZA and talked to John a lot on the phone back then. I forgot how much I had in the game when I decided for a refund but back then John refunded my money pretty quickly. I would think it was somewhere around $3K. I remember thinking to myself when I decided to take my money back that John was more of one who is a perfectionist and not a business man. I really wanted to like the game but I didnt see it getting completed any time soon (and that was back then). I hope it works out for everyone.

Totally relevant! What's that from? Assume the Mark in question is his brother?

I just posted to the blog;

John, I am going to echo the last several posts here.

The journey was a big part of the apeal to me. I now find myself frusterated reading the massive negative posts on Pinside. I'm even more disappointed with your non-responsiveness to owner's questions on this blog. I have read that no one can leave you a message, full voice mail, that you do not answer calls or return e-mails. What would you expect your customers to think? If it is not obvious many owners are beyond frusterated.

You should not count on a big reveal to result in a forgive and forget attitude among the owners. Production is a major concern. Communication from you about the status would be a step in the right direction. Just answer the very polite questions asked of you on this blog.
Respecfully, John

http://www.pinball.com.au/special-products/steve-ritchie-interview-part-1/

The only Ritchie in the interview is Steve.

OK, yet another Hitler video:

http://meemsy.com/v/26799

Very nice.

That's a great interview! He also said pretty much the same in his Topcast interview with Clay. I always wondered why people never talked about this more, as I found it interesting with how highly-lauded Jpop is..

To think, I could have owned a Met pro, and a nice TZ (or IJ) instead of this bag of pop.

Don't know what I was thinking.

John likes to say how hard he works, but does he ask or care about how hard we also work to scratch together money to buy this pin?

I wonder if anyone is paid in full on RAZA. (Cointaker guys?)
Most everyone else paid up to around the $6500 mark?

We were all blinded..each by different things done by the same. The main issue Is even if he showed a working mg in the next few weeks he has to stop the way he's treating his customers and start being more open to them

Coin taker will take the biggest loss of anyone on both games jpop is doing...

image-516.jpg

Like with EATPM - Dennis nordman got in a motorcycle accident, and the other designers pitched in to get what was started to production.
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=782

I almost was. Back on September 29, 2013 I sent the following email to John:

"Hi John.
I was going to be sending you a payment for my machine and want to see if it's ok to just pay in full at this point? I still owe the September $3,000 payment as well as the final payment of $495. Is it ok to send you a check for $3,495 and then I will be fully paid off?
Please let me know.
Thanks!"

I did not get a response. So, 4 days later I sent this:

"Hi John. Did you get my email below? I needed to know about my next payment."

Again, no response. Needless to say, I did not send him any money at that point.

I'm in for 9500

I almost pulled the trigger on the game. Man I am glad I didn't.