I get it, people like achievements and badges...even though I love video games, I have never given a F about these things. To me, playing the game is the reward. If I want to feel an "achievement" for bashing Sparky, I'd start the Battery mode, where bashing him is actually the purpose.

I'm going to lose my mind trying to get the TMNT achievements. I love the game. But I am absolutely terrible at it.

I'm also curious if they'll put restrictions on achievements. Like for you to get them you need to have the game on default settings. No extra balls and longer ball saves.

Well said Bro. Let’s Play F-14!

Well you're in luck, the first achievement is to actually play your game instead of bedazzling it!
Anything that could possibly get people to play more and put down the glue around here is fine by me.

I think that's why you get the full points or gamerscore or whatever they're calling it here maybe experience points if you do it on location and half the points at home. You could unlock the achievement at home but if you want the other half of the points you hafta leave your basement and try to do it again. Definitely something for completionist here

I assume that the hardware has some sort of TPM module and Stern will have to change the structure of their code builds and perhaps sign the code. For sure this is the end for pinball browser unless someone does a mod chip (or other) hack to the Stern software boot. If the hardware doesn't have TPM or improved code structure and signed code it will be ten seconds of scripts to make all the achievements.

If I was still routing I wouldn't give two shits about this and as a pinball player and owner I still don't give two shits about it, so for that reason I don't really think it will catch on.

I remember playing Doom at the ISP I helped found in 1993 and one of the partners said that was a fad and online gaming would never take off. I remind him regularly of how wrong he was.

I hope Stern make their system have an open API so that those of us with Scorbit and who run tournaments with games made by other organisations (including pre Spike Stern games). We just ran a tournament here in the UK with Scorbit doing all the scoring - it was a breeze to run!

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Neil.

Sorry dude, that's a cool flex and all but pinball is physical and so is the comrodery in it. I just don't see people being excited about it. When I was playing Golden tee at bars and stuff with friends it was still just me versus my friends that were there. I never cared about who had some crazy stroke score on the server it was connected to. If it catches on then cool but I just don't see it happening with pinball. And I certainly don't see operators buying this for the Sterns.

Um, it’s going to be on every (stern) game from here forward, so pretty sure Everyone is buying this.

Ima get my player QR code tattooed on my Johnson for this.

Um, for any game sitting at a bar compatible now.

Depends on if it bumps the cash box. Most operators are smart enough to adopt anything that will…

I agree, but I just don't think it will bump it enough. Some players have a hard enough time finding the start button, and we've all seen that lol

The achievment/trophy stuff is lame. That appeals to the pre-teen video game/app market and i doubt it will have any impact on the current or even future pinball market.

But the whole connected idea has huge potential (well, it's really just a pre-requisite for ANY object these days) - heads up, co-op, and tech for operators is invaluable etc. As a marketing/data tool it's great for Stern, but that all depends on whether they can engage the customer with it. Achievements wont be enough. Kind of odd to launch with the worst selling point.

I don't think any of the settings or physical elements will matter. It'll just compare different players achievements on the exact same machine. so it won't matter if we played on a forgiving table or a brutally difficult one, as long as we played on the same one.

also worth noting, different locations will eventually have the ability to market awards/rewards specifically to their game selection and customer base. i.e. (completely as an example pulled out of thin air) say at Jackbar, I can set up a challenge where, achieve a specific goal on each of the Stern machines w/ Connect enabled, get a free T-shirt, or Gift Certificate. It will do all the tracking for me, alert me to who won, keep records of past winners, etc..

What I've seen so far doesn't include anything I care about having but I'm curious to see what happens with it over the next couple years. My predictions aren't very positive but it's fun to be wrong. I suspect people will find ways to (ab)use it that Stern doesn't intend and maybe even come up with a use case that's worthwhile. Maybe it will evolve into something else. Maybe it will follow the CueCat. If it adds something to your life, by all means enjoy it. If it doesn't, it doesn't. MSRP was going up regardless. I'll play my game my way and respect you to play yours.

Even though Pinside has trophies and achievements and most people here have probably seen them and checked them out at a minimum?
If you have ever done that you will probably at least play around with this stuff a little to check it out.
I have barely looked at the Pinside ones at all, like once (maybe twice after this post just because, ha!) but I am sure lots around here like them.
For this to work it needs to remain free, stern can make the money off selling these on every game, but if they try to charge users or operators it could fade quickly.

In the video game world, I mainly like achievements/trophies in order to compare my performance to that of other players. On Steam, when you unlock an achievement, it will tell you what percentage of players have also unlocked said achievement.

So it feels nice to see that say, only 5% of players have also unlocked the achievement you earned. And games usually have achievements for progressing into the game/story, so it's always fun to see how many players actually finish the games they start. Sometimes it's only like 25 or 30% of people that start a game actually finish it to the end.

So that kind of analytics and comparison stuff is what I really find interesting about trophy systems. I hope that Stern puts something like that in.

Im sure this will either have a cost or start off free but then charge for features. Also Stern will have the potential to know how much money a game makes on location.

That being said with the upcoming price hikes on their next games and the shortage of parts that this will be a way for them to roll out new gameplay and make money and offset the production shortages.

So is everybody rockin out with their Stern insider connected?

Why wouldnt people NOT post their Qr code and let others pay to bump your achievements up? Every play gives you a boost somehow... and Stern couldn't stop you from doing it except to cancel any account where the Qr caode has been published?
And what if your account unlocks features... people play your code, get farther into game, you reap achievements... seems like a crack in the armor...

I bet people are lickin their lips to do that

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Tie the QR code to some sort of personal data so people don’t do that. It would be the same as putting your gamer tag and password on a forum to have people boost your video game achievements. No one would since you can buy games, etc.

You guys are all crazy. This is not the olympics. It is all for personal entertainment and enjoyment. If you cheat the system, you are only cheating yourself.

Because, none of us really care that much - it's just pinball
but I guess some of you in high school paid others to take the SAT for you...

I think OP's point was, not to do it just for bragging rights, but Gomez was hinting at "swag" being offered (hats, shirts, etc.) from Stern as well as offers (free games, free burger, etc.) from the operators. I mean while you say none of us really care that much, I think most people wouldn't mind a free Stern t-shirt or a free burger at their local pinball place, and all that would be required is sharing your barcode with a buddy who happens to be really good at a certain game.

Again. If someone wants to do that and get all the burgers and shirts, I say let em. It doesn’t matter. These features sound fun and I’m glad they are being implemented.

Anyone know how you get a location verified by Stern?

Sounds like from the video that all location stern games are verified. Might just be as simple as stern being able to see the machine and where it’s located via wifi.

If I have some of my Stern games set up in the garage with the neighbors swinging by to play them and grab a beer, it this a location? I mean I made my house a verified location using Foursquare…

Nope. Has to be a public location. All they are trying to do is eliminate the possibility of glass off play. Only having public location games count as verified is an easy way to do that.

Exactly...it's more of the "Bad food / small portions" whining that will never end with this.

Go to the Silverball Museum...you want to get your "High Score" on the placard? Just tell the 19 year old kid working the counter and he'll give you a grease pencil. There's not exactly a vigorous verification process.

Who cares? It's for fun. As all the 50-year olds wittily say all the time...Lighten Up Francis!

The amount of effort they are putting in to this whole verification and log in is so odd. It's like they are trying to solve problems that don't exist. People just do not care. In gaming no one cares if you cheat achievements and it super easy to do. There will never be financial incentive to do this for a player. General online play means nothing, ranking should only be used to help keep it fun for everyone. The hard core guys will get separated into their own pool so fast and they will know everyone. The vast majority of the users are never going to be above kids on the playground level competition. Why are people acting like this is a serious thing?

Verification has nothing to do with actually verifying the glass is on. It is just an incentive to get people to play on location. All of this is about incentive to engage. They needed a way to justify operators paying for the kit so they created some incentive for people that play at home to drop quarters on location. You guys are taking this way to seriously, it's just marketing.

Shame no easy way to verify glass off play so can use at home but seems fun. I'm in.

Until you are the guy buying all that swag and see the leaky bucket you didn't expect...

Or follow existing models like IGT does where the operators register with their business and location info...

I like to make fun of pinball for being in the dark ages more than the next guy but lets be serious. There will never be a prize that is not accounted for in the marketing budget. I think even Stern has figured out how to do a simple promotion and has actual accountants on the pay role.

You think Stern is gonna be the one providing all the prizes for operator ran promotions? buahahaha

Stern gives out swag... but a drop at a time.

The platform here is enabling operators to run their own promotions/events/redemptions. That's what we are talking about.

This will be no different than any other promotion being run at any pub or location. They get free promotional shit and they give it away. If your a location and you haven't been able to figure out a promotion this is not for you.

How many routes are you running?

How is that relevant but I am happy to tell you the answer is zero. This is simple a tool to help operators create engagement on their route. This is not some kind of groundbreaking new thing, this is really simple shit. Do you honestly believe no one thought it might make sense to be able to specify the number of prizes or the value before you start the promotion?

You will be able to enjoy this at home. They will just give you a little incentive to enjoy this on location. It may take Stern a little time to figure it out but they will learn that you never ever do pay to win. So they will quickly understand that if have anything that can only be achieved by dropping extra money your fan base will turn on you. They will make it so you can do everything at home you may just get just slightly different vanity on location.

Because you are talking as if you know how all locations and operators interact, what they have access to, and how they fund operations. To which, you are taking some examples and falsely extrapolating to everyone. Because you don't actually know.

None of this is mandatory, if you don't want this on your route don't do it. I can confirm if you never run a promotion you do not have to worry about losing money buying prizes. I didn't realize this was a difficult concept.

The idea you don't have to use the feature doesn't have anything to do with the point raised.

The platform is targeting use cases that involve real money/value... not just digital stamps... and falsehoods like 'its just marketing money' do not negate the concern. Discussion of the system being open to be gamed to the level of being impractical is a practical concern if the feature is to be viable.

It's similar to TOPS - you don't have to use it - but it's never used anymore because it had inherent weaknesses and didn't do enough to address them.... so it died.

This platform has targeted exchange of real goods - goods that are not free - so balancing how those promotions work and are controlled very much is a real design concern. The more stakes you put in play, the larger the concern.

Can you tell us what are the weaknesses of the tournament system?

There will never be an exchange of real goods. You think pinball wants to just invite all the hassle they have been trying to avoid for decades by messing with gambling. This is never going to pay out of real money or goods to a player. There is no design concern over a basic promotional event which is all this is. Your never going to agree with anything I post so I'm happy to just let this one go.

If a location sets up an achievement to give away free games, tokens, cash or merchandise then it can and will. I have no problem doing this at my location.