Quoted from gprotein:Thanks for the email. As I mentioned before I have been battling the “pinside” group for months now (since the DP downfall began in public) and it has done the most damage to my work, apart from anything I have missed or do poorly as a business owner. In many cases people (many not owners) have severley damaged my business, reputation and exploding my customer base with their public statements, rants and “toxic” posts. Also been harrased by phone, computer, email, text or incited by posters online, which is a criminal offence today.
We do have some “viable” negotiations still ongoing (all documented in emails and legally – not fluff) to partner and/or get more funding to keep the company strong and moving ahead. As the “pinside” wave has helped to cause many of my customers to stop support, except for a few and actually has halted some other investors or big orders coming in for new game sales for open games. I feel pinside and a lot of the posters (many in an NDA – many behind fake names) are all liable in some form. Obviously I cannot discuss openly any deals until it’s news, and choose not to bait people with false hopes. There are a few owners that know “all” and I trust them for feedback. Some I thought i could trust but was used. We recently had to “no-reply” to a awful pinball deal (in works for months and looked promissing) that came our way. My attorney and I were genuinely sad and dissapointed. Some of the discussions are now very amazing and all would benefit, but sadly nothing is fast or signed. Luckily since the beginning of the project we have a long trail of development to refer to as record, and the work is really far along and looks good. Been as open, honest, sincere as I can in this now “crowded” and “competitive” pinball world. But yes I am not done, and I “suck” at being on “internet time” for communication. Not new news, I have been told this and agree. My brain is just wired differently as an artist, and i am no social network maven.
I have tried my best to not say to much on this fiasco that is Jpop's projects. After hearing Jpops deflections I can no longer resist. Please understand I'm speaking for myself here I am in no way speaking for Pinside or any of it's staff.
Jpop the only person to blame for the damage to your business, reputation and lose of customer base is yourself. Saying otherwise suggests that there is some serious delusion and perhaps other issues going on with you personally. You sold pre-order spots for 3 different pins and after 3-4 years and you are not close to delivering a single pin? And it is Pinside's fault?? Really? Are the investors/pre-order pinheads that voiced concerns on Pinside also at fault? The only thing you are doing by deflecting blame is losing any remaining confidence your companies investors have in you.
Look I know as well as anyone we all make mistakes and sometimes fail despite our best efforts. However, the right thing to do when this happens is to man up and admit it is your fault. Take responsibility. Do you really think any possible future partners/investers really want to hear you blame the online community for your inability to bring your ideas together to make one fully functioning prototype? All that does is show you to be inept and clueless that you are inept. This would lead a rational person to conclude that your involvement in the process moving forward would doom the project in the end.
It's time for those that are taking advantage of the pinball community to be highlighted. We can't have the rejuvenation of the pinball hobby be brought down by a few bad seeds that are taking advantage. It is important that the pinball community be made aware of projects like this and Predator so they know to be more careful about investing in someones start-up pinball company. You want to take a nice salary for 3-4 years of work with no fully functioning prototype to show for it and blame investers and Pinside then go right ahead. Just know that your BS is not going to get you out of the hot water you have put yourself in. This is the real world not just some fantasy your in. You took a TON of money from many in the Pinball community years ago and have failed to deliver a single pin to a customer. Which in turn took money away from the new machines that are actually getting built. I think as a community we should be focusing on purchasing new machines from companies that have proven they can actually deliver pinball machines to paying customers.
Northern California, CA
