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Quoted from KingNine:I just wrote a letter to Stern yesterday advocating a Minecraft theme.
…and I'm happy that they will ignore you.
Minecraft is the ugliest visual vomit I've seen in gaming….there are more appealing all-ages themes to base a pinball machine on. 
Quoted from KingNine:I'm sorry you feel that way but 54 million people disagree
Edit: You are right that they will ignore me. At least they won't act like they read it or considered it due to their secretive nature.
Just because something is "popular" doesn't mean it's a good pinball theme…see Wheel of Fortune & CSI. The people who like Minecraft like Minecraft because it's Minecraft…they like building things and sharing them or whatever it is you do in that game. Minecraft pinball would be pinball with ugly art. Themes that do well are ones with some kind of inherent nostalgia/collectibility factor - that's why music/comics/movie themes generally do well. IMO, the only videogame theme that would do well today is a Nintendo theme (if done right)- the nostalgia is strong with Nintendo fans.
Quoted from benheck:I agree completely, and feel that "popular does not equal good pin" could apply to Walking Dead as well.
But theme is king and boy, do people love their Minecraft. I agree anything NES / 8-bit would be huge but good luck getting the license.
Nintendo licenses to companies who make toys, candy, belt buckles, RC cars, etc etc etc…they let Gottlieb do Mario pin back in the day.
Walking Dead is interesting…not sure it will be a mega-hit, as the horror theme will alienate family buyers/players….but - it does have a passionate fanbase - moreso than CSI/24, which I'd call a 'pasive' fanbase. Walking Dead fans already buy comics, shirts, toys, etc - so they're in that "collector" zone already. It has also been like 20 years since a horror themed pin has been released - and horror fans are collector types as well. I think it will sell respectably….it has enough of the right factors going for it.
Quoted from Baiter:Minecraft is a fantastic testament to the point that games don't have to be visually appealing to be awesome. We've gone through many years of video games focused on amazing visuals, only to realize that a pretty skin on a boring game is still a boring game. Minecraft has far higher replayability than 99% of video games created, which is the only important stat.
I love artsy games and "old school" pixel style graphics…I prefer interesting and stylized art direction over the "realistic Ken dolls with guns" that most games have become…but Minecraft is just visually inept. It's like they said "lets make a 3D world that looks 8-bit" without understanding why 8-bit graphics can look so awesome.
I'm gonna fire up my 3DS and play Paper Mario.
Quoted from skquinn:As best I can tell, Stern never really quit making games. Or am I mistaken, and there was a period where none or almost none were made?
It pretty much went right from DE to Sega, then Sega to Stern.
Quoted from scott_freeman:Speaking of toys/games that crossed over to pinball machines,
I thought Roller Coaster Tycoon and Transformers would be successful.
Transformers could have been….but had many broken promises and production issues that gave it a bad rep that it never recovered from. Better rules & toys could have made that game an insane hit.
Quoted from KingNine:This is a little off topic but it is a spur off my previous post so lets go with it. Just because WOF and CSI weren't great machines doesn't mean they were bad concepts for a pinball. Just poorly executed.
Hold on....WOF and CSI are actually COOL machines! WOF was executed very well...extremely unique layout. They're just not themes that resonate with location players OR collectors.
Quoted from KingNine:Just because Minecraft doesn't have flashy graphics doesn't mean a pinball machine would have to be ugly. I think it could be done fairly well. I'm guessing you don't play the game with the assumptions you've made.
Minecraft's art is horrendous. If the pin was based on the game, it would look like the game.
Quoted from KingNine:IMO I don't think an old Nintendo theme would do anything to bring in today's players. Halo or Call of Duty would though. (I don't play either of those two but they are huge as well and current)
Dude, Nintendo is current. 3DS and Wii U exist...I'm not talking about NES 8-Bit. Mario Kart 8 just sold like crazy. Mario is more recognizable than Mickey Mouse...he's a worldwide icon. When Smash Bros. comes out for 3DS and Wii U soon - they will sell like crazy. People are WAAAY more emotionally attached to Nintendo & their characters than Halo or Call of Duty.
Quoted from Baiter:Technically Minecraft has no art. It's like Legos where the player is the designer. While it is block based, zoom out on a more massive scale and you get very interesting Minecraft landscapes or Lego sculptures. It's really up to the pinball designer to come up with a great theme... didn't they recently make an entire movie based on Legos?
minecraft.jpg 38 KB
lego-sculpture-nathan-sawayas-ad... 44 KB
Most pinball machines feature characters - whenever I see Minecraft characters they look like this:
minecraft-download-skinsminecraft-skins-download-free-minecraft-skinsdownload-minecrafts-eikdxxzz.jpg
Ugh. Lego characters are cute and appealing.
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