121 episodes tracked since 2023 about →
Episode 102 - Community Building
PodcastAnalysis updated 2d ago48 min listen
Highlights
- Pinball is microscopically niche with very few players or enthusiasts globally
- Community building is the single most important factor in pinball's future viability
- Operators are more motivated by full coin boxes and earner performance than by specific game selection
- New players should not directly compete against experienced players during introduction to pinball
- Older solid-state and EM machines equalize skill levels better than modern games for introducing new players
- Wedgehead bar in Portland was created seven years ago by Alan and operator Chris Rhodes
- The podcast is moving to a biweekly release schedule due to burnout after 100+ episodes over two years
- Befriending operators requires patience, respect, and understanding their time constraints
Notable quotes
“Pinball is not the kind of game that you just spend fifty thousand dollars on a few machines plunk them in somewhere don't tell anybody about them and then magically they earn a bunch of money.”
“You can even convince people that games like Popeyes are fun. It's crazy what you can do when you're kind of... You need to be a Svengali type. You need to bamboozle people.”
“don't mistake us promoting non-ifpa formats us saying that ifpa shit's always bad it's very much not.”
“All it takes is just being like, hey, you want to meet up? What if we went to this spot? You want to play a little pinball?”
“as you get better at pinball it gets harder and harder for you to be the one that introduces a total noob to pinball... the new player still is going to be terrible.”
“if you are playing, like, a little bit longer, like a DMD game or something, a longer playing game, I think it helps having three people. So two people always get to hang out and talk.”
“prioritize the vibe of the spot if you're introducing people versus the quality of the games.”
“the pinball community is not actively growing, this hobby is just going to die out eventually, which would be a shame.”
Entities
- IFPA· organization
- Marco Specialties· organization
- Pin Wiki· organization
- Pinball Life· organization
- Pinball Map· organization
- Pinside· organization
- Tilt Forums· organization
- Wedgehead· organization
- Wedgehead Pinball Podcast· organization
- Alan· person
- Alex (The Waterboy)· person
- Casey Gardner· person
- Chris Hibler Pinball· person
- Chris Rhodes· person
- Craig· person
- Joe Cambric· person
- Mappin' Around with Scott and Ryan· person
- Robin Seaver· person
- Clay's Guide· product
