There’s podcasts and pinstreams, blogs and Bowens. Thanks to the internet we live in an age where you can have pinball discussions and content at your fingertips. If there was some topics or themes that you’d like to see more of or are completely missing, what would they be?
What formats do you like? Videos, blogs, podcasts, streams, and so on.
I have some ideas on what I want to do with some free time in 2018 but I’m split between a few different ideas and would like to talk shop/get some inspiration!
I’d like to see something like a 30-minute post-tournament highlight show, particularly for circuit events. Show some of the great saves, big jackpots, close matches, etc. Maybe an interview with the winner, some strategy discussion from top players, final standings, and how it impacts the circuit points.
I’d love ridiculously in depth discussions of Stern machines. Ever since pinball news stopped doing them, I’ve been totally in the dark and not finding myself enjoying them as much simply because I don’t know all the rules. For example, Stern Trek would be an awesome game if I knew what each of the six modes were, how to get the most points from each of them, what level 2 and 3 is of each of them, how jackpots work in multiball, etc. REALLY get into the weeds. That’s what I’d like
Probably dreaming but I’d love to see a live weekend stream focusing on location play. Preferably hosted at a public location. Other locations around the world could check in via FT, phone or chat. Busy home game rooms could chime in too, but please no video of empty game rooms. I can’t host, but I would definitely check in from a location.
Unlike tournament play, the major focus would be on getting GC scores, not who wins. Death saves and bang backs would be encouraged and applauded (when successful or booed if unsuccessful). Minor or major malfunctions would be exploited whenever possible, rather than getting repaired. Comments from the peanut gallery would be encouraged. No one will be playing for money. Game specific rules would obviously be discussed.
Either that, or any other stream/ podcast/ video/ tutorial /whatever that encourages folks to play while listening.
Along the lines of what Hey Rocker was suggesting, I’d like thoughtful, well researched, pieces that aren’t written from the standpoint of a hobby enthusiast.
Example: http://www.filfre.net/ is one of my very favorite websites, and I’ve read from the hundreds of pieces the historian has posted nearly weekly for years. The blog - The Digital Antiquarian - is an exhaustive history of the evolving form of video game narrative with an eye on research, but often written in entertaining prose with a good sense of how to draw historical characters. A recent favorite was his eight part history of the tangled creation, international intrigue, and legal battles around Tetris (http://www.filfre.net/2017/06/tales-of-the-mirror-world-part-1-calculators-and-cybernetics/).
Of course, creating something similar for pinball would probably require a heavy amount of access to many, many, games, and a ton of free time to do research, interviews, writing, and editing. But, a fella can dream!
Definitely a highlight/review video of shows/tournaments as indicated above.
Would also be good to see a proper refurb/strip down of a machine on video actually showing some of the more common things such as pop bumper, flipper rebuild etc.
A more “skill-appropriate” tutorial for the average player. Bowen’s tutorials are great. But having someone “just get control of the ball and shoot this” is likely beyond the skill of many of the viewers. Maybe focus on, if you need X amount of points go for this (as used to be in the written Bowen tutorials) or if you are an average player best strategy is to shoot for X.
Playing with my partner on TWD the instruction would be keep hitting the well walker, or prison - that’ll get you a multiball for example. (I was going to say on MM keep shooting the castle - until I realised that is pretty much THE strategy for anyone in comp anyway)
Consider the Little Kings Pinball Podcast where we go into a BIAS (Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Strategies) with many games. On our last podcast with special guest Brian Dominy we went over World Cup Soccer '94 AND Full Throttle.
