Updated Title: Themes to make Pinball More Inclusive

Explain to me how anything in my collection is old, white, misogynistic etc.
I imagine I am like many pinsiders, not enough room or money to buy all the machines that appeal to my individual tastes.

You want the hobby to continue or grow? I do.
Here are some possible avenues I will suggest you address while indulging your creativity.
1) Can you make replacement parts more readily availabile and less expensive?
2) Can you make machines more user friendly to repair and adjust?
3) Can you find ways to get the price of new machines down to a level most can afford?

We love pinball. However the machines weigh a ton, take up a lot of space, can be rather noisy and are expensive to buy and maintain

Any theme that appeals to me may not to you and vice versa.

Rant time; Leave the finger pointing millennial mentality out of the hobby.

Identity politics.....enough already.

Why is this even a topic?...good grief. Don't we have enough division due to our current political climate (Left and Right)?..please keep the SJW stuff out of pinball.

WOZ, Circus, and Theater has a female protagonist, so that's cool, but count how many "damsel in distress" characters are in your collection - I count 6. Hey, I love those games too and would love to own them, but that's right on the surface. I'm not judging you for it though.

I think you make a good point Above.

For the sake of continued discussion....non pinball fans that visit play any and all of my games. One after the other, their games last 3-4 minutes.
Theme varies but ease of play is key to their happiness.

Least popular is Phantom (where the villain is a white male...)
Who Dunnit seems very popular with female players. Drama, murder mystery and gambling themes appeal to that demographic (characters in this game story are stereotypes)

Revenge from Mars? "This is weird, why is it so dark? Is this a video game?" Is the common opinion.

Kids love destroying the castle on MM, but honestly they just play my arcade games or skeeball machine for 10 minutes before going back to their phones and tablets.

I stayed clear of this thread for awhile, but after reading some of the replies I had a mixed feelings. Pinside wants us to leave political debate out of this. I tried but...
The whole premise of this thread wreaks of it.

Paraphrasing, the OP suggests identity politics is a label used by republicans.
Cringe worthy to read that sort of thing.

Another user says "I judge people by their individual behavior". Hallelujah.

Roffels, thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts above. You have added what I see as an objective and thoughtful response to this thread.

asking people to vote here is like asking a bunch of 10 year olds who they like better.
ac dc, led zeplin, elvis, aerosmith or ariana grande.

the votes here do not matter. wrong target market for home and location.

home market vs location market are also 2 different things.

Certainly not Cirqus Voltaire or TOTAN. Those are about as feminine as can be. As is much of your collection.

Make new games that don't mainly appeal to pinball's core demographic?

Gee, what a solid business idea...

Yes, businesses market to people outside their core demographic all the time. It helps their business stay relevant.

Plus as their main audience becomes more old and feeble, and find they have other expenses like hip replacements and senior care, and don't have the extra cash to spend anymore, it helps them to actually stay in business.

A thought came to me based on your comment. If I look to the teens of today as the future marked to replace "old and feeble", what are my son and his friends spending their cash on? The majority of it is hardcore computer gaming. I'm not savvy on marketing, but if I was designing I wouldn't be targeting the audience that isn't likely to to spend cash on pinball tech. I'd be targeting the deepest pockets of what is primarily young white males.

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I'm going to market Pin Pants... You put them on the front legs of any machine, then pull them halfway down to show off Pin Underwear.
It instantly makes ANY any old white honkey themed machine appeal to the people pinball needs most... the big thinkers that make these intelligent fashion decisions.

Don't tell anyone, but my follow up products are a baseball hat topper that you can put on sideways and a neck tattoo for the side of the backbox.

If they wanted to appeal to a younger generation the Stern Star Wars pro would have featured the younger heroes of the latest films, which they don't.

Or they probably shouldn't have done another Star Wars at all.

I am so sick of hearing of nothing but racial issues on TV that I pretty much stopped watching the news on TV.

I never thought someone on pinside would open up a thread pointing to a racial divide in the marketplace. What happened to our country being mixed race? Why do we have to put wedges between the races like this?

best one yet by far.

I see nothing racist about old white themes as long as all the parts for these games are made in China.

Asking what themes would have crossover appeal to include other demographics besides the core target market isn’t a wedge between the races but moreso a bridge.

How about non-binary, gender neutral callouts? My wife always jokes about "He shoots! He Scores!" in World Cup Soccer and NBA Fastbreak when we play against each other. I explain that it's not women's World Cup soccer or WNBA themes. And that the 90s were a different time.

"They shoot! They scored!"??

The original post felt intentionally divisive. The success of the superhero movies prove they already appeal to every race and age as pinball themes.
The thing that doesn't appeal to every race and age is pinball. Trying to force it isn't gonna work, Stern survived by not listening to fools.

Having alternative themes isn't going to produce a rainbow full of pinheads.

Expanding the hobby isn't that simple.

Most people, of all colours, just don't care about pinball. If people want to find it, they will. Just like all of us.

I've never thought of Pinball as "Exclusive."

If you want to broaden the player base all you need to do is introduce it to new people. Take a friend, relative, etc. to a pinball show, barcade, invite them to play your games at home. . . if it clicks (and sometimes it wont) then you have a new person interested in the hobby. While theme can be important it is only part of the pinball experience. I know my nephews can be a little rough on the machines (they tend to be rapid fire flipper button pushers) and the buttons can be a little sticky after they play (I try not to think about the source) but they have fun playing the games and its the first thing they want to do when they come over. They usually do not care which game they play either.

My fascination and love of pinball started back when I was their age, it only makes sense that they might get hooked and carry the hobby forward. I am not up to speed with what today's youth do with their free time, but I imagine with all the at home entertainment available arcades and public places to play are not as popular as they were back in my day. Playing pinball is what gets people interested in it -- find a way to get more people to play and you'll find that it is already quite inclusive.

I don't mean to revive an old thread but I got some video from this year's show. This pin is a crowd favorite and there's always a group of people huddled around it playing it and waiting in line to play.

I'll try to get a longer and better video when there are less people and it's not as loud.