I thought it was a great article. I especially appreciated that he's shown to have some issues/challenges. Who among us can say that's not the case?
I would probably not have claimed to be responsible for the Chinese Democracy release or the Dr Pepper give-away even if they are true. I would expect both of those things took more than 1 person to complete.
Anyway, good on ya Kaneda for the article and for doing what you love best.
As we can all attest, once pins get in your life, it's quite the addiction.
Now go sell some of those vids and get more pins. I suggest an ACDC next!

Woah, that was a depressing article.

Sad story. But comeon man how arrogant sounding is it to even begin to believe you influenced Axle Rose to release an album... I highly doubt Dr Pepper had anything to do with that... Maybe that was meant to not sound literal?

That is a nice looking LOTR as least from the single pic taken from a distance.

Good luck on finding balance in your life!

To hell with the haters and play more pinball...

In before the Lock?

lol. I quit reading after 1/2 of the first paragraph.

Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But something got him off is @$$ to finally produce it. He was only writing it for what, 10 years? At any rate, I am not sure I would brag about that anyway. That is like saying you got the Jamaicans to start a bobsled team. OK, not that bad.

Yeah but he didn't write the article....the author was merely trying give us a visual as to the person she was writing about. And why would it be different because of age?? Because of how the relationship ended up? Sometimes they just don't work out.....it doesn't matter what age you are. It's not like he was supposed to be married by this time.....there is no rule book.

I enjoyed the article and it's great to see people put themselves out there for the general public to read about.....I'd visit his arcade if I was ever in the area.

Anyone angry about this guys life or feeling "sad" for him need to get there own. Sure he's still trying to find 100% his own happiness.....but he found some of it through his childhood enjoyment that he reconstructed. The other will come in due time

Kaneda congrats on being highlighted in Wired. Simply, very cool.

On the GNR claim, I believe him. I'm not sure if many of you are aware how some of these things happen "behind the scenes". A passionate PR or Advertising exec absolutely can and has motivated unique releases, appearances, and highly publicized charitable events. It starts with an "idea" and someone who is relentless with their passion to keep pitching it to make it happen. And you know what? Behind the scenes, sometimes all it takes is an artist/celebrity a little push and the promise of $$$ and exposure with a major brand and bam - magic is created.

Now could others have been involved once Dr Pepper agreed to the concept sure. But the idea man is ok taking credit. He's also a VP over there not an analyst. I'm jealous he met Axel but I ain't gonna piss on his leg and call bs because the man accomplished something.

(reference what Jarod did with his Epic party. Many thought he was BSing at first too. And he delivered an epic party).

Bravo Kaneda.

The article they are discussing is not the article you are thinking about. The one you are thinking of is about competitive pinball and the Sharpe brothers. That article has not been released on the web yet, it is only in the magazine. I'm sure at some point in the next few weeks we'll be able to read it online.

It didn't, it is just a featured article right now at wired.com. This is the cover story for this month's Wired Magazine:

http://www.wired.com/2014/05/oculus-rift-4/

That makes more sense.

Man, I had a real good buddy early in college, and we kind of got involved in different things and drifted a bit. He went on to co-found Wired, and I became a pinball dork blogging about the merits of AVLE and struggling with an urge to price police.

Finally read the article. I guess I have to admit to being the wrong wrongedy wrongest I've ever been.

This guy can grate on some threads, no doubt, but when I look back to dates of a lot of the posts that rubbed me the wrong way, not to mention when he reached out to me in a PM that really "convinced" me this was one of HoP's personas that I never answered? In and around March when his woman dumped him.

Slack. That's what I'll be cutting the dude for a while.

Sweet arcade, Kaneda.

HOP will be back after boating season likely. Make sure you store up some irritation for this fall.

+1 Kaneda.... Great article & wish you the best! That was one of the most interesting reads from pinside in quite a while.

Wow Kaneda was permanently banned from KLOV for personally threating a bunch of members. Peace and love - isn't that your new saying Kaneda???

i hear getting banned on klov is a right of passage

The Dr. Pepper/GNR thing did happen. I don't know who set it up, but they absolutely did do the bet on Chinese Democracy release.

I don't think anyone said that part didn't happen. The question was whether the contest had any impact on the release of the album. And, I guess, whether Kaneda had any impact on the contest.

and did the butterfly have an impact on kaneda...

I seem to remember that Axel's record company sued Dr Pepper 2 days after the record was released, so I don't think Dr Pepper was too big a part of the release decision.

Every fan of GnR already had downloaded Chinese Democracy probably 5 years before the album officially came out.

Seeing what he posted over there pisses me off.

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showpost.php?p=2784896&postcount=224

He claimed he was trying to warn the world about the evils of collecting coin op games. Bullshit. He's got bigger issues that have absolutely nothing to do with video games or pinball machines.

Wired running a story like this isn't surprising. They and others look for guys like this. I know of people within the pinball community that have been approached by these people. They never want to meet at a neutral location. They want inside your house. For them, that's where the story is. This 'story' is a perfect example of this. Flashy pictures and not much more.

Axel's lawyers said to Dr Pepper:

"As we all now know, Dr. Pepper created an expansive and highly-publicized advertising campaign based solely on the exploitation of my clients’ legendary reputation and their eagerly awaited album “Chinese Democracy.” In and of itself this campaign brazenly violated our clients’ rights in numerous respects.

Had you wished to engage in a commercial tie-in with our clients, you should have negotiated a legitimate arrangement instead of hijacking their rights without payment. … Rest assured, this misappropriation will not be free. … Govern yourself accordingly. "

I agree. Moral of the story = You reap what you sow

Now I have to go read all those posts...... This is getting juicy!

Gamer Forever...

Who gives a shit if people find this game room thing eccentric. We can't be all things to all people, always be yourself. I myself see the value of paying more to have the best possible example of an arcade or pinball you love. Quality over quantity, in everything.

... BTW, the KLOV website looks like ass. Stick to Pinside, we are a classier bunch~

For those that have been following the KLOV mess, Kaneda and I have yet to reach a resolution. I'm assuming that the recent KLOV ban took a toll as I still haven't heard back from him. He can either finish paying for it or return it for a refund. I don't have many options left that would handle this nicely.

This isn't a personal attack, but I feel like we need to state the obvious here. The guy and the article keeps referring to "his arcade." 6 arcade games and a pinball isn't an arcade, it's a small room with a few games.

Does this mean I don't have an arcade!?

crying-indian-tear.jpg

If the dude works for Weber Shandwick, it's totally possible. Weber is owned by IPG, which owns a ton of agencies, including Jack Morton, where I worked for three years. These agencies work with big brands and come up with marketing ideas for them. A quick google search shows Weber has rep'd Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

Anyways, My take on this article: I can't say I'd be offering congratulations. I'm not sure how to interview went but the tone was negative. I'm not sure if the 'your hobbies can ruin your life' angle was what was pitched to Kaneda in the first place.

I don't want to crap on the guy (even though being a VP at Weber is asking for it!) but there's a lot of stuff going on here and its not like we can figure it out from a small article.

Interesting story and article. Glass houses Pinsders, glass houses.

Yeah, I get it. I get too into hobbies. My wife gets pissy when I find some new obsession. But I recognize it, pull back, and realize it will pass like all the rest. I luckily have a nice big game room in our house, in a state where you can get 3000 sq ft for the rental price of a Manhattan closet. My room, my games. Plenty of room for normal people shit in the rest of the house. But my game room is just materialization of my borderline obsessive personality in the grand scheme of things.

So typical how an article changes people views. What a bunch of lemmings who flock to the popular.

All the Pinside "big karma" regulars hated on him because he didn't act like they thought he should when he came on here.

I disagreed with this bashing behavior of the "big karmas" because it was clearly BS.

Now an article gets published and everything is normal. Figures.

The worst part about Pinside. Totally agree, a bunch of BS.

The funny thing is that Kaneda says at the end of the piece that Pinside is such a "positive community".

Hang in there man, terrible story about the breakup!

And let me say that I don't know any of the details with Pinballsmith so hopefully that all gets worked out.

The article screams of needing attention, the fact this drama is still continuing is worse. Personally, Id go get your game, shows exactly the person he really is.

Kaneda has a small, reasonable collection that is probably below average in size for this forum. He can afford to use 180 square feet in a New York home as an arcade. His arcade has been featured in a major electronics publication.

Only reason some of you are calling this "sad" is because he got dumped.

Nah, only reason they are calling it sad is because it is his dirty laundry on the public wire.

Tonight I'm thinking he's dancing with Mr. Brownstone and couldn't give two shits what anyone on the internets thinks

Yeah, he is probably really having a torrid whirlwind of a night with fat Axl and Buckethead.

I agree, but who hasn't had a break up. There are millions of girls out there, he'll land on his feet. Even though it is cliched, millions of guys get dumped daily, and million of guys find true love daily. The next girl he meets will know up front about his hobby.

From a magazine stand point, I don't see the story:

1. Guy is engaged, and during the engagement gets into a hobby.

2. Girl doesn't like hobby, or how much he is into it, and dumps him. (I am sure that is only a sliver of the problem.) I'm also sure having it posted in an article doesn't help any chance for a reconciliation.

3. Gets banned from an internet site because of price arguments. (Obviously more than that because price police arguments are the norm in arcade forums.)

Again, how is this a story?

That stuff always made me tired & itchy

Wait, he owes you money?

I'm not even convinced he ever had a girlfriend.

People sometimes just invent sad stories to make themselves seem human.

Announcement of the Dr. Pepper giveaway with Kaneda's name all over it: http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?/topic/127321-heres-how-you-get-your-free-dr-pepper/

Kaneda got such a bad rap on KLOV because of the numerous egotistical and braggy posts like this. It eventually led to his permanent ban because when all the flaming started coming out of the woodwork, he threatened several people over PM, including a mod. Fact of the matter is the majority of us didn't truly care about the size of his arcade or the price he paid for his games, but the attitude he brought with them put a bad taste in nearly everyone's mouth, and nobody likes a showoff.

Screen Shot 2014-05-31 at 10.02.06 AM-733.png

Wait...He shoots Heroin too. This is getting serious.

Seems like the title should be -

Pinsider kaneda featured in WEIRD cover story??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism

Wonder what he threatened via PM? ass kicking? LMFAO. Did he threaten to hack their online presence or steal their identity? Well that would be a crime. Did he threaten to sue? That would be revealed by now.

In the end I am in the "that is sad, we should not be adding rocks to this guys load" camp. $32,000 is not that much when diving into some new hobbies but with pinball we are used to still having the $32,000 when you are done. If NASCAR was his hobby and he spent $2,000 a race to do it up right, 16 races. No Donkey Kong left over at the end.

He needs to have some children...then he would get the whole "it's not about you" thing.

I don't understand the criticism personally. No matter what he spends on his home arcade is up to him and him alone.
Same with his personal life. Take the article with a grain of salt. They threw a twist on that aspect as it likely made for a better story in their opinion. Maybe there's much more to what happened than just a few games.
Either way, it's none of our business.

This isn't a forum to dump on someone. This isn't a forum to criticize the price tag of someone's collection.
It's a forum for the love of the pinball hobby.
One of our brethren was featured in Wired magazine.

Very cool.

LOL.

Did you miss the part about him agreeing/wanting a magazine article written about his "arcade" and personal life?

The working title of the piece was "Look at Me, Look at Me, Look at Me!"

Note to Kaneda:
You messed up the order of your project a bit.
1. You lockdown girlfriend/wife/etc
2. You spend a bunch of "personal time" with them
3. When they start to crave their OWN personal time/space, you build mancave.
4. Proceed to stealthily dump thousands into said mancave

An interesting read. Cant help but feeling sorry for the dude though...

Borderline?