Noobs Thoughts

[Vecna]

Removed

[Dazz]

On 4/19/2023 at 11:46 AM, TheBackglassGuy said:

Hello community of pinballers, I just felt like sharing my experience regarding this hobby being a new member in my collecting tables and backglasses and how ive found the experience so far. I've noticed that alot of media is being uploaded to the discord in single files with a few big links and then getting lost to the news feed of discord. So I opened a mega account hastily and started to import links now at 400gb. After looking into the hobby I realised that vp7 is not progressing very much in terms of fresh content. (is this all really dying out?) Or are people just not really caring anymore. My conclusion is that 10 years ago I reckon you could of made a badass pinball cabinet with ease, files were plenty and the land was happy. (and then all these youtubers, drive sellers and everything happened and everybody went on lockdown. And anything now day is so hard to collect going to 8 different locations becoming a premium member (which i take pride in) just to complete a single table set. It's a real shame that this hobby is not only very difficult to obtain now i dont see a future at all for the comminity and thats me just reading and its really sad. Do you actually realise that if this site and vpforums goes down, all this information is gone forever in the minds of a few masterclass piballers. Other than this site and vpforums there is just 2 eggs in a dozen carton left. People's arrogance, politics, greed really did devide and f××k everything up. And I actually think that if people flooded the community rather than holding back the people doing what they do wouldn't have the recourses and power they did and do in the first place. A gold eggs only valuable because there is one. Put them all on the street everyone has a gold egg and yours is worthless. I think that this community if they actually give a dam should pull together for a ftp. One that is open for a 10 Yr life span. And paid. So at least 1 more generation of pinballers can fix the mess this generation of selfish individuals done. 25 years of piname and pinball can not end with 2 sites left. Start a go fund me page raise funds and rebuild this community. I read a table man called loserman passed away. He done all the older tables? What about salas over at vpforums? These are a good community of people. I would donate $100 dollars right now for this community. And if 500 members donated that. That would be $50,000 dollars. And I know you people have got money because half of you can't resist showing us your cabs with the man cave backdrops. I took 2 monitors and pinup and I made a pinball machine. I sat there and put a table together and nearly wept in joy. And stared for 1hr at it flashing with the lights. And I thought what a great mind we all have and great things we can do together. And ain't it a dam shame sometimes... when this site goes so does all the great information. The files the love and joy just like vpinball. When vpforums goes so does bigus and salas and all the rest.... this is suppose to be fun, and it's got really sad. 10 people doing tables left and 5 on backglasses. Bless you all really. Do you think we could do a central download area. Even if not for tables just art work at least. I know archive org has loads of stuff and there is things around if the worst storm hits.

 

 

This is just one big wall of text and difficult to read, but to answer your question....

This site is going on 10 years.  VPForums is going on 20+ years.  Neither of these sites are going anywhere anytime soon, unless some major legal actions are taking.  I've been in this hobby for over 25 years, I was creating and sharing save files with Pinball Construction Kit. I can't speak on behalf of Paul/Noah at VPForums, but I am very passionate about this hobby.  I created this site because of my passion with the hobby and was created for my enjoyment.  I've probably dropped $15,000-20,000 from my personal pocket to keep this site running. I never expected the site to get as big or as popular as it is.

The files from VPinball were lost simply due to the owner of the site not willing to work with anyone else... I tried talking the owner into merging the content with VPUniverse as well as offered to keep that site online in an archive state with new content going to VPUniverse.  I personally hated that it was going away, but hated it more because we would be without that content for a while. I understand where he was coming from, but it could have been handled several different ways instead of the route that he took.  Thankfully, most of the content from that site has been re-uploaded by the original authors.  There is very little content from VPinball that is no longer around.  If you don't have it... you really aren't missing it and most of it would be grossly outdated compared to todays standards.  

This hobby IS NOT a simple ROM collecting hobby like MAME... With MAME or old game consoles everything can be combined into central download areas such as the Pleasuredome torrents.  With those files it's just a matter of someone dumping that specific ROM. I have personally dumped and provided hundreds of ROMs from boards and carts that I had access to. With those systems it's just a simple ROM file... THERE IS MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE INVOLVED IN PINBALL SIMULATION. 

A "Central download area" is not possible... it goes against all community standards. This hobby has been running for 25+ years. THIS HOBBY IS RUN BY THE PEOPLE THAT CREATE THE CONTENT.  People that create the content enjoy the feedback and community that sites like this are able to provide.  If there are no sites like this; there are no people to create the wonderful content. 

People don't realize the amount of work that is done in order to release a single re-creation... These files are not created by a single person. Many of these re-creations take a team of many people working on different aspects of each game.  It can take a single game release hundreds of hours of work.  Why should something that's taken hundreds of hours to create be packaged with something that took someone 10 minutes that only changed a light?  These creations all deserve to be individual downloads. Authors deserve the credit that their creations deserve.

Do things need to change? YES.  I have an ultimate goal and something that I think would be perfect for this hobby.  Unfortunately, it takes more talent to build than I have and way more $$$$.  This is a free hobby; making just enough to cover the costs to keep this site open is a grind. 

Todays society...
... want it ALL.
... want it NOW.
... want it FREE.
... not wiling to put in any WORK to get it.  

 

[Vecna]

I hope this community is around a long time

 

You summed up not only pinball but life

 

Todays society...
... want it ALL
... want it NOW
... want it FREE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Vecna]

Removed

[Dazz]

43 minutes ago, TheBackglassGuy said:

if I was you id drastically reduce the 25 files per day limit to 1 or 5

 

Set a

Bronze

Gold

Platinum for server cost and troubles

This is pretty much already in place.  I personally think that 1-5 files is not enough.  Considering that for a single table you have at the least 3 files.  Table, Backglass, ROM.  I think that 25 is very fair and enough per day for a new user to learn the ropes.  New users shouldn't be downloading hundreds of files immediately anyway. It's best to work on getting 1 table working at a time.  Download only those files necessary to keep from being confused.  

 

1 hour ago, TheBackglassGuy said:

You asked what your front page should be.

 

Exactly what you just wrote. A bio of your thoughts your contributions. Your journey and the respect that should be given. A news feed, and table wishlists.

This site isn't about me.. It's ALL about the community and WE THE PEOPLE that make this hobby.  No one cares to hear my thoughts enough to be front page news.  I do have an idea for the front page, but need to find the time to get it setup right.

[Vecna]

Removed

[Vecna]

My thought as a newb anyway. I'm not against anything just people's lack of and everyone suffers