Can we all just shut up and play pinball.

Couldn't agree more. So ridiculous to think you can just put a woman's face on the backglass and a few pink bows and all the ladies will come running. That kind of thing is just insulting.

Can you ever have a conversation without tossing in an insult?

I'd have no interest in Dolly Parton, that's irrelevant. Who buys pins? People who have a strong nostalgia or love for a pinball's theme. Dolly's fans are extremely passionate.

To say that pinball has always been geared toward men and that there aren't games geared toward women is almost too ignorant to be believed. Much like the way history is taught today in schools (not at all or revisionist history), most people know nothing about the history of pinball. The history of pinball is loaded with games with not only female characters (which literally had females on about 3/4 of the games even if many were designed for men) but female themes as well. The game simply does not appeal to many women. Period. Just look at a few of the themes in just my personal collection and tell me they are not designed for women...

How about C.O.D.... is department store shopping female enough for you?

How about Crossword puzzles? No female ever tries them either, right?

How about Jigsaw puzzles? No females do those either I suppose?

How about Alice in Wonderland? There have been several of those along with many other fairytales...

Don't bother wasting your time telling me that they should try it now and that was a long time ago. Trying female themes went of for decades after the machines I've showed you here were made.

How about a nice pretty peacock from the 40's, real masculine theme... wouldn't you say...?

You can find literally hundreds of games geared toward women in the history of pinball. It's been tried over and over again. It hasn't worked. I suggest doing a little research before coming on here screaming for diversity. You might actually learn something.

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Of course, or I wouldn't have said it.

Everybody loves Dolly. She’s an icon with broad generational and demographic appeal just like the “old man band” themes that always sell.

Also...BOOBS. Boobs sell right?

And I'll take all the cheap, unwanted 70s Dolly pins you can find for me. Always been an easy seller for me, and I like making a profit when I sell pinball machines.

It's a money grab!

"Boogie Nights" or "Dirk Diggler"

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

Sure they used to make some pinball art that was more targeted towards women. They also made more racist art and someone like Dave Christensen was sneaking in nazi references into his art. Pinball art has definitely changed in many ways

But the point is there are very few games like those now. They're generally not on location to play, not easily available for purchase, and are frankly irrelevant to modern audiences.

I love pinball history...but pointing to ancient games does not do a lot for the conversation about what is going on now.

I quoted you because your response was filled with most of the same things that were being ignored. I agree with you! And I’ve had similar experiences with women that play in the league with me.

The biggest thing I found that have pushed women out of the league was this SUPER creepy bastard we all kept trying to kick out. Unfortunately since we don’t own the bar we couldn’t kick him out. His advances and creepy behavior scared away several of the ladies that played in our group. He would do weird stuff like bring this massive DLSR camera and take pictures of only the women playing.
Only the Lord knows what he did with those pictures

It took a lot of complaints and outreach to finally get the bar owner to ban the guy, but by then it’s still too late. The confidence in the scene was eroded. We were building back but covid derailed it pretty good.

That's when you tell the bar owner either the camera goes or he loses a league's worth of players.

You could likely get the dude booted completely with that threat. Bar owners tend to not like creeps running off the patrons. Surprised it took some actual effort to get it done.

The only hitch is that new movies aren't made into new pinball machines.

My wife suggests

Futurama with Leela featured artwork and code

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Barbie parody, the meme of Ken's head in the refrigerator etc.

Coffee and wine

She just threw that in because her friends discuss those two a lot.

How about "Coffee and Cigarettes"? The movie's almost 20 years old so it must be getting close to pinball-theme eligibility, and it's got Bill Murray and Wu-Tang. What's not to love?

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heres another 'table' thats not just for men anymore.

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Seems reasonable to consider targeting the female audience for two reasons. First is they are more often becoming the main breadwinners in the family and are filling higher education levels more often as well, hence implying they will have more disposable income at some point than the typical dude. Second, given how often pinball sales here seem to be canceled due to the "My wife didn't let me" reason I figure if you have machines that target the ladies then who knows, maybe it could lead to more sales.

Realistically though I feel this would need more ladies involved in the design/creation of the machines for this to be successful, just as it did with video games for example. So in the short term it may make more sense to find themes that can target both audiences at once. Personally I'd think an Aggretsuko pin would be rad as it's viewer demographics show it basically gets everyone, guy, girl, young and old. It shouldn't be a stupidly expensive license either like movie ip's can be.

Tampon, the Pin!

Pffft, everyone knows the pinball demographic would only buy Testicular Cancer: The Pin!

More like Ball Sweat: the Pin!

Poor Rarehero...all these years later and still butthurt by everything. Nothing changes on Pinside.

What am I butthurt about? Calling someone out on a shitty joke doesn't involve my anus in any way. I didn't play Prostate Exam: The Pin yet...locations are still closed.

Also...hmmm...someone who was banned with a new handle?

About everything, usually.

Also....hmmmm....Nope.

Keep downvoting me...you're making my point for me.

Well, welcome back and enjoy being obsessed with my anus pain, I guess!

Keep projecting YOUR "butthurt". You can turn off the up/downvotes in your settings if it makes you cry.

It's the least I could do, since you like it so much!

Why thank you, mystery stalker of my bootyhole!

REAL TALK with REAL THREAD EJECTS lol. Seriously I can see a Wonder Woman pin here in the near future, would be stupid for one of the major pin manufacturers not to do one.

My wife said a long time ago at the PHOF that she wanted the AC/DC pin, recently she found out about Wonka and likes that too. My daughters never cared for pinball, they have no interest in it whatsoever. My wife just wants me to keep the games running for her, but she impressed herself by actually using pinball tech buzzwords like "solenoid". Sure this not representative of all females in regards to the hobby, but I'm sure many others experiences are similar.

I am a mid 30s female and I also have 3 female daughters and we don't really need super girly things to enjoy a game. I am all in on the new Alien! Already preordered. My girls think it's too scary, but they love Jurassic park, NBA fastbreak, and party zone. We are all looking forward to playing hot wheels soon. I think manufacturers are becoming more cognizant of artwork and themes that appeal across a range of age groups and genders, and I'm here for it. Though I would say there is a general demographic of pinside users I think the same is not necessarily true of pinball players or buyers anymore. Money talks so give us themes we want to buy.

Yeah when it doesn't warrant an insult. U made a smart alec response, somewhat insulting in itself, eluding I didn't know about the Dolly pin from the 70's and its success even though the post I was responding to said "Updated" Dolly. There's almost zero market for a Dolly pin today. So what's the insult, that u might one? Strange u defend it and yet are offended that I state u might want one. Did that go the way u thought? Nope.

Make the Wonder Woman pinball, and every woman in the world will be lined up to pay $9K for one !!!!!!1

54% of the worlds population is female, so it's a no brainer!!!!!!!1

Single Female: Do I want new countertops or a pinball machine with a 1/2 naked woman on it....?

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OK, you joined about a month ago..... working on your psychology paper, trolling, or just bored beyond belief?

What?

Zeppelin. Maiden. Metallica. Aerosmith. AC/DC Mmmmmm I missing something in my music pin line up. Oh wait I know what I need. "Dolly"

Come on man.

Women have been playing poker for a long time kind sir.

Welcome to Pinside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

When did you buy your first game?

How did you become interested in pinball in the first place?

Do you do your own maintenance, or do you have a tech who visits monthly to keep everything tops?

5 games is a pretty great collection; how did you choose the titles you did?

Any pics of your gameroom??? Guys have the messiest game rooms in the world.

When you get or sell games, do you have a pinball dolly to move them?

Would you be interested in being interviewed on my Pinball Podcast?

Again, welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Ugggg... you know women have been playing professional poker for 5 decades........?

Baywatch’s got The Hoff front n center for the ladies.

Ha thanks! The first game I purchased was actually the Gaucho that I grew up playing at my grandparent's house as a child. I spent some $ having it restored. I do simple maintenance and I know an excellent tech who can help with more difficult repairs. The reason I have a decent collection is because my husband also enjoys pinball so we buy games that we are both interested in. My husband always attempts to make repairs before I pay someone to do it lol. That being said, I recently installed a color DMD on our Metallica without breaking anything. Our game rooms are kind of messy with mostly classic video arcades since that is what my husband really enjoys the most. We both use a dolly and teamwork to move machines. I was on backbox pinball podcast once. What's yours?

Thanks! What's your podcast? I enjoy listening from time to time. The first game I purchased was actually the Gaucho that I grew up playing at my grandparent's house as a child. I spent some $ having it restored. I do simple maintenance and I know an excellent tech who can help with more difficult repairs. The reason I have a decent collection is because my husband also enjoys pinball so we buy games that we are both interested in. My husband always attempts to make repairs before I pay someone to do it lol. That being said, I recently installed a color DMD on our Metallica without breaking anything. Our game rooms are kind of messy with mostly classic video arcades since that is what my husband really enjoys the most. We both use a dolly and teamwork to move machines.

More choices is not a bad thing. Look at Stern they have so many choices, pick the one you like. It is OK if one of them doesn’t interest you.

Someone on this thread mentioned route owners. When I go to the 403 club in KC, my wife and daughter usually accompany me; they play briefly before taking a seat. I see other couples in the same situation. If there was a pin they were interested in they would drop money in to play. I would imagine that the other significant others would do the same. Most of the conversation has been about ownership and not about options at location play.

Are you talking about dudes with B.O.?

Wonder woman would be good , but if we are going for real talk and thinking DC comics, well, I'd rather have an aquaman.

Wait, your wife is 3'2"??

22 years, I think we're pretty good.

I actually think Golden Girls could be a blast. It’s definitely an old show but it has a huuuge ongoing fan base. GG branded stuff is all over places like Etsy. It’d have plenty of great material for funny sound/video clips, a la family guy. And it would be nice to see them try a fresh color palette, capturing that sort of 80’s Miami vibe.

I realize most of these reasons don’t interest the usual pinball audience, but I think that was the point of this discussion. A GG game could definitely attract some new interest.

And how many would sell at $7500?

Interest yet, profitable amount of buyers no.

Good bye.

The trolls have pretty much taken over the thread, so I'm going to post this last one and leave it be.

I had a quick conversation with my wife about this thread. It was argued that men are having this conversation FOR women and it was a point.

Me: So there's this angry conversation on Pinside...
Her: What's wrong with my GnR?!
Me: Nothing! They are discussing which themes women would like to see. What would your top nostalgic childhood theme be?
Her: My Little Pony, of course.
Me: Why do you think the conversation angered so many people?
Her: Because we want cute things and 'cute' angers old men.

Yes, the conversation was that short because it was on the way out the door for work this morning.

They could pair it next to their Wheel of Fortune machine...