Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't try to have more tiers of stupid. Spend money to let you spend more money! Are people really that gaga for Stern?

I hope that $30 gets you a shirt and that it's a nice shirt. At that point you're just slightly overpaying for a t-shirt and to get an email 5 minutes before the info shows up here.

It's marketing talk for we sell stuff with our brand on it besides our core product. Think of Harley Davidson's apparel division being a substantial amount of their annual revenue.

Stern wants to get into selling more branded t-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, etc because of the insane profit margin.

Stern has been leaving money on the table for years. They could have justified branded apparel and swag for years, but finally start to come around to it when there's a dozen other companies vying for mindshare in the market. It's the same people that still can't figure out how to ship a brand new game with a multitude of optional accessories ready to buy day one at exorbanate prices.

Can't buy the Munsters? Well instead, how about you buy this $35 t-shirt and walk around as a billboard for our game.

Mild progress...

Ugh. But respect for colored sleeves.

What, you don't like that sausage look of their arm flab being squeezed at the end of the sleeve? It's better than seeing it wobble while they play.

It's pretty skeevy if this is all about charging people for the right to pre-pre-order

Yeah but it's $30 vs $240 for a year.

It was a joke third item because it seems like a dated thing that Stern would pursue. Although I bet there is some overlap in the pinball buying demographic and people who are into novelty mouse pads...

Marketing and game development are different departments doing different things. This has no effect on the other

I'd actually argue that they're trying to cater to home buyers more now than ever. The code on many games is much deeper than it used to be which is primarily for home collectors. The games are less complicated from a mechanical standpoint which makes it easier for home buyers that can't even rebuild a flipper (And yes, operators get games that are generally more reliable with less failure points. But operators are going to regularly buy whatever Stern makes because they have to change up their lineups for their customers and maximize returns on buying/routing/selling/trading games)

How "fawking" hard is it to click the support button on the top of their website and slightly scroll down?

Scroll down

You might be shocked, SHOCKED, to learn you've been missing out on a ton of content on the internet.

I had forgotten about this until my renew receipt and an email from Stern saying to expect a box soon.

I hope the shirt is better than the last one (assuming that’s what it is). I honestly wouldn’t mind overpaying for this program if the shirt was decent. But it was a waste this last year

I’m sure Stern would refund me if I asked, but whatever.

I do care, because I enjoy the inside baseball of the industry. The interviews with creative team members, some various design photos and whitewood stage photos, and some other random tidbits.

I was dissatisfied with the amount of content produced though. 7 pods, 3 whatever videos, and barely any photos over this past year. Hell, they couldn't even send the Insiders the teaser and announcement trailers since Black Knight. I know this stuff shows up on pinside almost immediately, but it's the gesture of putting some sort of good faith effort to make this more than a cash grab. Instead, all I really get is a bunch of emails telling me about code updates for games I don't even own

They put up a pod this morning with the team discussing Avengers

Great listen.

Well, I feel like I know a lot more about Avengers than most people on pinside after that pod. I'm going to enjoy my brief insider knowledge of Keith saying what his proudest achievement at Stern has been, some of the general scoring features and wizard mode features (interesting limited flip mode that is different than any other implementation I've heard of), and how they came up with some of the designs.

I still think Insider is expensive for what you get, but this pod being ready for reveal day was great considering how relatively little is known now and Dead Flip isn't streaming it for another week.

Well fuck-a-doodle-do if I didn't have to pay for that pod

Anyhow, Stern does have the sort of insiders you're talking about. They're just few and it's mostly beta testers. Stern can get all the free opinions about what they're doing wrong and what people want that they can handle on Pinside.

And even if there was a NDA, there would still be leaks. The bigger you make a secretive group, the more likely it is to fail.

Hey I forgot I was subscribed to this again. Anyways, I looked up this years box

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Insider-Red 21.5” Bandana (Limited to 500 pieces) Designed by Tavi Veraldi *Chicago, IL*
16 oz Glow-In-The-Dark Stadium Cup Designed by Erik Lundquist *Chicago, IL*
3D Sticker Pack Designed by Brad Albright *Dallas, TX*
Black Vinyl Arcade Companion (Coin Purse) Designed by Tavi Veraldi *Chicago, IL*

I was hoping for something like a Zombie Yeti art print or something. I do like Brad Albright's artwork, but the rest is so-so.

I wish it was an actual durag. Then I could go around the house annoying my wife while I sing