Stern Announces - Game Of Thrones

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Yeah, play the game, THEN judge it

[oldskool1969]

Yeah, play the game, THEN judge it

where is the fun in that? 

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Yeah, play the game, THEN judge it

where is the fun in that? 

Supposedly, every one is entitled to an opinion

But I don't understand why some people feel the need to expresstat same opinion dday after day

I think KISS look something a 15yo fanboi would come up with for a school project
But postin my opinion 100 time will not fix the art or layout

[pinsanity]

Yeah, play the game, THEN judge it

where is the fun in that?  

Supposedly, every one is entitled to an opinion

But I don't understand why some people feel the need to expresstat same opinion dday after day

I think KISS look something a 15yo fanboi would come up with for a school project
But postin my opinion 100 time will not fix the art or layout

There is no doubt that Stern reads forums and reacts when the negative feedback from one of the primary legs of their consumer base reaches critical. Maybe not on the domestic Aussie forums as we just don't have the numbers down here for any sort of global clout, but certainly on places like pinside where the userbase is far more reaching and the US/Euro Stern distributors tend to congregate and take cliff notes.

Does the ACDC Angus face debacle ring a bell? Do you want the flames of hell or Angus' ugly mug staring at you? Pinside spoke and Stern grudgingly reacted.

In cases like this voicing public disapproval can change artwork at least (even if Stern will never admit that is the case).

Any competent business owner doesn't want to surround themselves with lapdogs who spam them with gratuitous emails containing meaningless superlatives and hoping to be thrown some bone of useless inane information in return. They should be wanting critiques instead, so they can improve and build on what as Retropin so aptly described as being just another run of the mill Stern game.

Then again, this is the company that have turned censoring their Facebook page into an art form so obviously lapdoggery is what they want, even if it simply leads to more mediocrity.

[pinnies4me]

..... turned censoring their Facebook page into an art form ...

So that is where the artistic efforts are going instead? 

[andypinboy]

What has happened to the universe?  Die hard Stern fans turning on GOT, and Stern bashers coming to GOT's defence!
This event was a prophesy being one of the seven signs of the end of the word!



Yes, gameplay is the most important thing.  I still look at Tron and think that it looks like a boring playfield, yet it is a fun playing 'flow' game.

Ha ha ha..just when you thought the world was in order...

my point really is that its a normal run of the mill Stern game... why anyone expects anything else is beyond me

Game is excellent n Stern hits nother home run. Every machine Stern makes is awesume. I cn say this cause SR told me on facebook n he would never lie to his number one facebook friend.

Nyone who says otherwise is just a hater who just cant afford nice things and deffinately duzzent work hard enough like me. LOL.

Haters need to wash there mouth and tounge out with soap or sum other solevant like spray n wipe for speaking such saccraledge against all that is Stern holey.

Go team Stern. Exciting end times ahead.

ROFL    I think the universe is safe after all.

Tron is a good eg though - I hate it to look at, pixilated printed crap - but it plays great. So maybe GOT will play okay. Definitely can't see many Aussies paying $8k upwards for one given current looks.

[Caveoftreasures]

Well. Andypinboy and Pinsanitys last posts I have to agree with.
It's a Guiness World record moment being the first time ever but they are correct.

Stern does need people to professionally critique games.
A hater just bags but a professional critic offers a list of problems then a list of suggested fixes.

I know a lot about pinball but not enough on the critique side of things other than just to say the LE artwork on everything is barely good enough to make it to PRO model level and the current Pro model artwork on everything just isn't good enough to be called satisfactory or up to par.

Personally, I reckon Stern shld scrap both models full artwork n start again.
I think that talented pinball enthusiasts who can use photoshop could send in versions of what they think the Game of Thrones translite a n cabinet art shld look like and we would have a better outcome.

When u sit the last ten titles all side by side and look at the overall packages, they flow well and impress, but at the end of the line we have GOT and it doesn't look like the same company even designed it.
And admittedly, the playfield art is very very hard to get used to cause it instantly makes u scratch your head, well it did in my case.

If Sterns biggest fan (me) thinks the entire GOT packages are no where near visually good enough, then it's hard to see who is going to like it ?

The other thing that sucks the life out of you right now is our terrible Aussie dollar compared to the greenback $.

Just when the world of pinball is ramping right up and there are so many great titles to chose from, our Aussie dollar takes it in the ass big time which is just a real bummer, pardon the pun.

In a perfect world, GOT will get pulled, fully reworked, the Aussie dollar will climb like a missile and we can all enjoy better priced brand new pinball imports. How is JJP and Heighway Pinball going to survive when their cheapest machines are close to $11,500 plus plus.

Surely they won't be able to compete with Stern.
After all the great work Stern did getting a new factory and doing Vault editions n KISS n TWDead plus more runs of Star Trek etc etc, they go and release GOT in a package that begs belief.
Just when I thought things were finally turning same in the pinball industry, it all goes back to the head scratch days.

If anyone hears of any GOT artwork or package changes, I would love to see it get posted on here.

[delarge]

Well. Andypinboy and Pinsanitys last posts I have to agree with.
It's a Guiness World record moment being the first time ever but they are correct.

Stern does need people to professionally critique games.
A hater just bags but a professional critic offers a list of problems then a list of suggested fixes.

I know a lot about pinball but not enough on the critique side of things other than just to say the LE artwork on everything is barely good enough to make it to PRO model level and the current Pro model artwork on everything just isn't good enough to be called satisfactory or up to par.

Personally, I reckon Stern shld scrap both models full artwork n start again.
I think that talented pinball enthusiasts who can use photoshop could send in versions of what they think the Game of Thrones translite a n cabinet art shld look like and we would have a better outcome.

When u sit the last ten titles all side by side and look at the overall packages, they flow well and impress, but at the end of the line we have GOT and it doesn't look like the same company even designed it.
And admittedly, the playfield art is very very hard to get used to cause it instantly makes u scratch your head, well it did in my case.

If Sterns biggest fan (me) thinks the entire GOT packages are no where near visually good enough, then it's hard to see who is going to like it ?

The other thing that sucks the life out of you right now is our terrible Aussie dollar compared to the greenback $.

Just when the world of pinball is ramping right up and there are so many great titles to chose from, our Aussie dollar takes it in the ass big time which is just a real bummer, pardon the pun.

In a perfect world, GOT will get pulled, fully reworked, the Aussie dollar will climb like a missile and we can all enjoy better priced brand new pinball imports. How is JJP and Heighway Pinball going to survive when their cheapest machines are close to $11,500 plus plus.

Surely they won't be able to compete with Stern.
After all the great work Stern did getting a new factory and doing Vault editions n KISS n TWDead plus more runs of Star Trek etc etc, they go and release GOT in a package that begs belief.
Just when I thought things were finally turning same in the pinball industry, it all goes back to the head scratch days.

If anyone hears of any GOT artwork or package changes, I would love to see it get posted on here.

As Stern put out titles at lightning speed, I'm not sure that artwork changes at this late stage could be possible? Strange that we haven't seen any photos of physical photos yet, so who knows how Stern can address this? My guess is soldier on and ignore criticism on this particular title. They seem to throw in hand drawn art to appease the masses every so often and then go back to business as usual.

At the end of the day, in 12 months time the gameplay will probably be a hit and people will overlook the artwork. Looking back at their games over the past 15 years, it's not like they haven't released a dodgy looking art package before.

In regards to pricing, it will want to be a title that knocks it out of the park for me to buy new in box at the moment. Maybe Stern will need to start having region specific pricing like the auto industry for their distributors?

[pinsanity]

delarge is spot n.  

Going nto left field here but ny competent business person should know that Stern won't be able to just scrap all the artwork n start again as they will be bound by the contractual terms n stipulations as set by HBO the licensor regarding artwork approval.

If nything a resubmission of artwork to HBO from Stern's existing design team will simply slow down Stern's production process to what they have already advertised n nternational n domestic shipping timetable.

Vica versa it begs belief to the suggestion that the general public nstead submit their own artwork versions to Stern as n alternative just doesn't make practical business sense either for a company that has a planned release schedule set out months n advance and it will simply fill up their email nboxes with even more irrelevant correspondence than what they currently get.

Regarding pricing, perhaps they could price machines n a currency that has a bit more clout than our current Aussie dollar has say the Vietnameese dong?  

At least that way the US will no longer be the cowboy at the bar walking around like a rooster.

Food n malapropisms for thought.

[Caveoftreasures]

Stern just did a Facebook press release saying that they have now included a Iron Throne on the Pro because of customer complaints that it wasn't included and it should have been so the identical one from the LE now will also be on the Pro.

It makes sense to halt a release and redo or modify artwork and capture a lot more sales than to be on time and sell only small numbers.
If Stern does release ontime with the current LE and Pro, it wouldn't surprise me if the Premium comes out quicker than later and the Pro and LE start coming out with extras and some changes.
Just like the auto industry, if the first release of a new model fails to impress, you quickly see Series 2 models come out with multiple changes and extras and price cuts.

Stern are copping more complaints/requested changes on Game of Thrones I am told by the USA than any previous model for many years.
The addition of the Iron Throne to the Pro I think will be the first of several additions and changes.
I also predict an alternate translite for both the Pro and LE.
I also predict vastly better and different cabinet artwork for the Premium.

Stern may well end up selling n pushing the Premium model with more success than the Pro and perhaps the LE May get a run of say 350 upfront instead of the full 700 so Stern aren't caught with excess LE stock. 700 LE may be the max number for LE, but it doesn't mean the full run will get done before they build some Pro and Premium.

Just hard to imagine this title getting Sold out quickly cause the public at this stage doesn't seem to be rushing in or hyped up like recent titles.
I may well be totally wrong, but I haven't seen Stern start adding key features like the Iron throne to a model so fast after such a short time and openly say they have listened to customer feedback.
It is great they have listened and acted so fast.
Let's see what else they add n change on the LE and Pro.

People are becoming very picky these days with BNIB and people are always asking for more n more for their money.

As for people sending in artwork ideas to Stern, it costs Stern nothing to read n look at email ideas and HBO also has a vested interest in promoting their licence and product. HBO would jump at modifications without any worries if they thought a restyled or better/improved package would be more successful.
Flexibility in business and acting quickly on customer feedback and demand is what makes for a profitable licence/product. I can't see Stern or HBO being stuck on any version.

A lot of the story for the TV series GOT is chosen from die hard fan send ins I would think.
The public usually gets what the public asks for in this commercial social media savy era.

[swinks]

good that they are doing something but disagree in your comment - that people are being picky and asking for more for their money. Look at the Kiss Pro compared to the GoT pro, huge difference and think they took too much out. How can a Kiss pro have almost everything that a LE does less a few things that don't greatly change the game play / layout compared to GoT where a second playfield, castle walls etc and taken away - huge difference. Yes they are trying to force Premium and LE sales but with the world dollar that isn't going to happen and reckon the LE will take a while to sell out. You know when a game is a hit as when the LE's sell in a few days. I think people are simply stating "we would buy it if it was better in a few ways" so even though it could of been a great seller Stern have been taught that game title alone won't sell a crap load of games, Stern have to still maintain a high level of quality and design with every game. So we have hit a point of people are talking with their wallets and being keyboard cammando's.

The recent C2C thread where Terissa was asked what she thought of the game was interesting as she is a fan of pinball, read almost all the GoT books and watched every show episode and she was not a fan of this game and reckons they got the feel all wrong. Just look at the gears, as only used mainly in the intro that isn't really a focus of the show and it's characters yet there must be over 50 of the buggers on there.

Also the dollar difference is killing sales and even Canada which is only a border away from the US is asking $12k for a LE - think the bubble might be at it's limit. Will be interesting at the end of the week as it is predicted that the US will raise interest rates - I don't know enough about economics but sure this will have some effect on currency's and possibly Stern's pricing...  maybe the new Iron Chair will mean a price rise....

here are 2 renderings of the proposed improvement - fills a empty void I guess and back panel has changed as well

[pinsanity]

swinks is spot n.  

Nything Stern adds to the machine from this point n to nhance the perception of it will just be window dressing with no real effect on the machine itself.

You can't polish n 12k turd n Stern just rn't savy enough at this point to stop the sunami n save this debacle apart from deleting ngative facebook posts.

Nly illiterate Stern fanbois r going to fall for this kind of spin doctoring.

[Brunswick Brawler]

Is Stern trying to keep the price of Pro models down, and expecting them to be location only pins?  Thought from a earnings perspective it makes sense, there is an impact or resale value, but if a machine is operated for 10 years, resale would not be an issue. 

Is the Pro an attempt to remain cost competitive with a soon to be released Homepin (Hankin?) machines?


...I'm really curious to see what Sterns next machine is like, to see if they again release a very cut down Pro.

[swinks]

on Pinside they were saying that designers like John Borg designs a pro and then adds features for a LE so tends to be a fairly full game and Steve Ritchie tends to design a LE and strip it back - in this case stripping out the playfield turns this game into a whole different game - would of preferred taking out the ram, some lighting features and some inserts.

Also they were saying on the C2C podcast that the rules and gameplay is a little different as it is believed that you use collected gold coins to upgrade weapons and possibly cause more damage / more points / game progression hence the apron button on all 3 game levels - cool new innovative feature

[pinsanity]

Stern machines make so little return n most sites that resale does become a problem even if they sit n location for 10 years cause their build quality n QC issues doesn't lead to them staying n a playable condition.

Of course, this doesn't take nto account sites like Time Zone Gold Coast where I personally witnessed n ACDC get played n at least 12,000 times per week, yet management for some reason didn't have the acumen to buy n site nother machine to alleviate what would have been from opening to closing time n constant line of players waiting for a game with n average game time of ~30 seconds.

Or maybe as the name implies they live n some sort of alternate reality where the owners control time itself for their own benefit. Much like a temporal causality loop acts n Star Trek n you condemn someone to experiencing the same self-indulgent shite ad nauseum.

A real head scratcher that one.....