Any chance to take a crap on Stern. This community should be renamed SternSucks.com

Some of them USED to post on RGP.

Being the power shifted within the company and change with the investors. And the advent of their website and Facebook.

Perhaps their people are encouraged not to post anywhere anymore.

Or they are too busy making games they don't have time to visit the various forums anymore.

I know they still read them.

LTG : )

I am not allowed to post on boards related to the company I work for. I can understand why. It is not my job to act as a critic or a spokesman for them.

IOW, I can do more damage than good even if I "think" I am supporting my company.

For Stern, the negatives would outweigh any benefits from being public on the forums. They can read all the feedback without engaging directly. Why invest the time, take the abuse and legal risk for very little, if any, additional benefit? All of the others are start-ups and need or want this type of direct engagement.

They are here, they read what is posted.

Many companies don't allow their employees to make statements publicly, as that does not allow a "unified front" and can also lead to liabilities for the company.

My contract, for instance, expressly forbids me from making any public posts that state or imply that I work for them.

I am also forbidden from talking to media like newspapers, journals or television programs.

I'm am not the face nor the mouthpiece of my employer.

I agree and I suspect some sort of standard company policy about posting on industry related forums. Many companies have restrictions about internet use during business hours as well.

From seeing the videos, I don't think Stern hires people who likes pinball. They hire "factory workers". This means people with felonys, and...well...people with felonys(tax breaks). I work for a factory. It is quite common.

How in the hell would we know? Why isn't Marilyn Manson on Pinside? Or Ken Griffey Jr.? Why doesn't Pat Lawlor host a webinar here?

Damn dude. Thats a pretty harsh thing to post.

The plural of felony is felonies. If you are going to act superior to someone, at least spell your pejorative correctly.

Yeah, I guess it was kind of blunt. It is true though. Factorys tends to hire people who have hard times being hired by most other jobs. Felons, low educated people, people with bad work ethics.

I work in a factory. You don't find a lot of people with collage educations doing grunt work. Thus, yes, I have bad spelling. Failed english 2 years in high school.
Wasn't trying to ack superior, just speaking as a fellow factory worker.

Well this thread went in a pleasant direction. Can't imagine why Stern doesn't post here

Maybe factories do but to say "From watching the video" Means certain people to you look like a certain demographic. A bit rough. Then to say they hire folks who don't like pinball. You don't know that. And of course despite your impression I still think its not cool to say this particular companies employees are felons without knowledge of such a fact.

Steve Ritchie, George Gomez, Lyman Sheats, Greg Freres, Ronnie Lopp, John Borg.

Seems like some stand up guys to me.

Which ones are you talking about ?

LTG : )

Oh, I was talking about the grunt workers. You know, like the people who scrub the toilets and sweep the floors.

Come on. He's talking about the labor force that turns the screws. They all look Mexican, and thus criminal, to him.

Oh, well that excuses it.

LTG : )

So were we talking about the screw turners, or the higher ups?

Well, I am only presuming. I can't imagine he thinks that Lyman and Borgy are felons.

I think by the time this thread peters out, we'll wonder why they still build pinball machines ?

LTG : )

I don't know. You ever see Lyman play pinball ? And Borgy did that Transformers pin.

LTG : )

I seriously doubt that he was asking why the factory line workers, who have no input or part of design, planning, coding, engineering or development, don't post here. But it gave you a change to step right into the bear trap and pull your pants down, nonetheless.

They all know their is much more to life than pin side.

As a vet of the video game biz I can say that interacting on forums just opens a can of worms most companies don't want to get into. But it is common for employees to lurk around and read posts.

I will say though, that factory work is hard stuff. Hard on the body and the hands. Back to the felons though, some of them are the best workers, they just made some bad choices in the past. Ok no more post for me.

Stern prefers in house corporal punishment.

So by looking at the largely Hispanic workforce at Stern, you have determined that they don't like pinball and are felons?

I don't think that the prerequisite for working at a factory is liking a product or being a felon.

God bless the plain spoken man. They mean what they say and say what they mean.

As a supervisor in a factory I will say that everyone I work with is hard working, honest, and have no prior felonies. Thats why we have extensive background checks and drug testing. Yes, maybe english is not their first language, Maybe they did not go to "collage", but they are some of the hardest working people I have ever met, and their ethics are usually better than the people higher up the ladder than they are.

GM factories are filled to the gills with Ford driving felons. Didn't you know?

I always pay attention to the idea a person presents. Not how they spell it. If you're looking to pick apart a person's input biased on how they say it, it speaks poorly on yourself.

I think you missed the joke.

Good chance. I'm hitting the keg.

Well, so be it. But if I find it funny that someone conveys an air of superiority over someone, yet misspells the insult three times, it may speak even more poorly. This board is riddled with things that speak poorly on me. But I try to do it with eloquence and flair.

You missed it. Gambit is not one to bust on folks for spelling. Most of us don't care about that but in this case it was fitting. At the same time I believe the guy meant no harm. I just hope folks that think they mean no harm yet spray it like a hose catch on.

Felon by your own definition??????????

Or go to a show. Both Gary Stern and Steve Ritchie were at the Seattle show this year. I believe both had a Q&A session. Did you attend?

Those other companies you mentioned have obvious reasons for regularly communicating to their potential customers. When they start selling thousands of games a year, they'll be able to only occasionally respond to their customers like Stern does. Let's hope they all become like Stern in the near future. That would mean that pinball has come back in a big way.

With such intelligent discussion I have no idea why they wouldn't respond...

Of course not posting anything allows you to avoid missed promises, angry spur of the moment rants, etc. they read rgp and pinside. They probably ignore the idiots and consider constructive criticism.

I would also like to add that the company I work for has hired a terrorist in the past. No one knew, but one day a bunch of black FBI cars drove up and surrounded the complex with guns pulled and took him away. It was pretty trippy.

Before anyone types a single other response... Pause and ask yourself...

Does what I'm about to say contribute to the thread title's question, or am I just fanning the flames as this otherwise informative topic gets derailed by some Mexican fugitives lurking on rgp..

You know the answer before you can ever hit "send post". And clearly the Mexicans are the way this should go.

Can I get an O/T political comment on immigration, and an "amen" for old times sake?

-jon

That is the wisest thing you have said on this thread so far.

If it wasn't for immigration, most of us wouldn't be here now. Amen.

LTG : )