I see no problem with pointing out obvious design faults and offering constructive criticism towards existing manufacturers or addressing elephant in the room issues regarding repeated delays and extraneous excuses from new startups which on OTHER forums the rank and file members are either too shitscared to raise or have been browbeaten into subservient compliance by the existing arbitrary hierarchy.
That is how companies learn from their mistakes and evolve with better processes, not by surrounding themselves with slavish grovellers who fawn over anything Stern (or anyone in a position of quasi-authority) posts online. How does a printed spelling error located 5cm above the flippers make it past pre-production quality control onto the playfield of a production machine anyway? You would have spent weeks if not more staring at that playfield design on a screen prior to it reaching production and yet first video uploaded of a machine onsite and there is the error in all it's glory.
It is obvious that Stern has little idea how to market a pinball machine to appeal to a wider demographic, so they choose to go down one of two paths with every single release - have the in house "marketing manager" walk around the offices/factory floor at regular intervals and film something on an Iphone to upload so that the faithful can add their inane commentary to it (and block any comments which are critical of the machine) or deliberately leaking information to a selec few disciples on pinside in the hope of generating speculative chatter and free limited publicity.
Neither of these methods gets their product salience beyond the existing consumer base.
