More tables coming...

[Captain B. Zarre]

So when is this releasing?

[BarbieBobomb]

So when is this releasing?

I'll post when we have a release date.

[ALH2012]

So when is this releasing?

Who knows?Ìt's a crapshoot.

I don't get it.For example Marvel Studios just announced their entire upcoming film slate, many years in advance.Don't think it is too much to ask for Zen to announce their plans for the next quarter year.Doesn't have to be exact dates, roundabouts will do just fine.Just a general overview.I find it irritating to feel the need to check every other week as to what is going on.

[Rafie]

To be honest, I kind of like the suspense and surprise. Sure when there's a drought, we all are anxious to know what's coming next. Zen makes such great tables, it's hard not wanting to know what's in the pipeline. To be fair though they have been very consistent with releasing tables this year. Some that came at a huge surprise. TWD and South Park were surprises out of no where! I liked it a lot.

Still I can understand wanting a schedule. Maybe the reason why they don't do schedules of releases is because they don't want to disappoint anyone when that said date comes and the tables isn't ready. Remember what happened with Zen Pinball 2? Had to wait a few more months before we got it in September 2 years ago when a spring date was projected. This isn't me talking facts. I'm just speculating here. *Sigh* I hope in the next year or 2 we get a Hanna Barbera license though. I want a Scooby Doo and/or FlintStones table so badly. Hahaha That's just my dream tables there that I want.

[ALH2012]

To be honest, I kind of like the suspense and surprise. Sure when there's a drought, we all are anxious to know what's coming next. Zen makes such great tables, it's hard not wanting to know what's in the pipeline. To be fair though they have been very consistent with releasing tables this year. Some that came at a huge surprise. TWD and South Park were surprises out of no where! I liked it a lot.

Still I can understand wanting a schedule. Maybe the reason why they don't do schedules of releases is because they don't want to disappoint anyone when that said date comes and the tables isn't ready. Remember what happened with Zen Pinball 2? Had to wait a few more months before we got it in September 2 years ago when a spring date was projected. This isn't me talking facts. I'm just speculating here. *Sigh* I hope in the next year or 2 we get a Hanna Barbera license though. I want a Scooby Doo and/or FlintStones table so badly. Hahaha That's just my dream tables there that I want.

Zen Pinball 2 was a new platform of sorts.There is more behind that and i wouldn't compare it to the release of individual tables.Personally if you project a release early on and stick within a month of the projected timeframe then that's fine with me.
As always to each their own.If you like complete surprises that's cool.I'd rather have a rough 4 month overview.For example South Park was a surprise but for me not an entirely positive one.Thematically just doesn't do much for me and it is even neutered for the kids.That to me is a negative surprise.I would have been better of knowing this in advance which would limited my expectations.

[Rafie]

Zen Pinball 2 was a new platform of sorts.There is more behind that and i wouldn't compare it to the release of individual tables.Personally if you project a release early on and stick within a month of the projected timeframe then that's fine with me.
As always to each their own.If you like complete surprises that's cool.I'd rather have a rough 4 month overview.For example South Park was a surprise but for me not an entirely positive one.Thematically just doesn't do much for me and it is even neutered for the kids.That to me is a negative surprise.I would have been better of knowing this in advance which would limited my expectations.

So let me ask you. Would you not buy the tables had you known ahead of time that they were coming? I guess what I'm trying to get at is does telling you about upcoming projects influence your purchase of any future tables? If so, then what's the difference between that and just ignoring an outright purchase when you see it in the store?! You see what I mean? I'm not ragging on ya about it. I'm just confused about the difference it would make. Now let me say this as well. I don't mind at all knowing what's coming ahead. A better answer from me should have been "it doesn't matter if I'm told or not". It makes no difference to me. I'll purchase any and every Zen table. Just like I would for Pinball Arcade. Even if the table is terrible. The completionist in me will have to have the table. Hahaha

I understand where you're coming from. Had you known about the South Park tables being E rated before instead of M rated, then your expectations would have been warm to what's coming. I personally find the South Park tables amazing without all of the dark humor and inappropriate innuendos. Like you said though, to each their own.

[ALH2012]

So let me ask you. Would you not buy the tables had you known ahead of time that they were coming? I guess what I'm trying to get at is does telling you about upcoming projects influence your purchase of any future tables? If so, then what's the difference between that and just ignoring an outright purchase when you see it in the store?! You see what I mean? I'm not ragging on ya about it. I'm just confused about the difference it would make. Now let me say this as well. I don't mind at all knowing what's coming ahead. A better answer from me should have been "it doesn't matter if I'm told or not". It makes no difference to me. I'll purchase any and every Zen table. Just like I would for Pinball Arcade. Even if the table is terrible. The completionist in me will have to have the table. Hahaha

I understand where you're coming from. Had you known about the South Park tables being E rated before instead of M rated, then your expectations would have been warm to what's coming. I personally find the South Park tables amazing without all of the dark humor and inappropriate innuendos. Like you said though, to each their own.

Maybe i shouldn't say this(because sometimes a boycott is the only way to get a point across...for example if i was consequent i should boycott Walking Dead, Deadpool and South Park because those should be Mature rated tables that are somewhat rendered pointless by being kid friendly) but i own all Zen and all TPA tables and fully intend on supporting them in the future.

More customer friendly release information policy or not i picked up South Park and will do so with future tables.But lack of information leaves extreme room for speculation on my behave which leads me thinking towards all sorts of cool table ideas like for example a Tron table.Anything Disney seems fair game speculation wise given Zens connection to that company.

One is left in the dark and in my case dissapointed when something like South Park shows up.Despite being well designed and fun tables on their own(judging from the little i've played them) the theme just does little for me.And table theme is very important for me.
As said i would feel more comfortable with lets say a 4months headsup or so and then i wouldn't feel the need to check here every other week wanting to know what the heck is going on.

Don't get me wrong, i dig Zen tables a lot.But i don't like their release information policy(btw FarSight they have whole lot more release issues of their own, that is a whole different battlefield) and them doing mature tables in kid friendly fashion.Wasted resources imo.So many great kid friendly franchises out there.Zen should focus on those.

[BarbieBobomb]

Maybe i shouldn't say this(because sometimes a boycott is the only way to get a point across...for example if i was consequent i should boycott Walking Dead, Deadpool and South Park because those should be Mature rated tables that are somewhat rendered pointless by being kid friendly) but i own all Zen and all TPA tables and fully intend on supporting them in the future.

More customer friendly release information policy or not i picked up South Park and will do so with future tables.But lack of information leaves extreme room for speculation on my behave which leads me thinking towards all sorts of cool table ideas like for example a Tron table.Anything Disney seems fair game speculation wise given Zens connection to that company.

One is left in the dark and in my case dissapointed when something like South Park shows up.Despite being well designed and fun tables on their own(judging from the little i've played them) the theme just does little for me.And table theme is very important for me.
As said i would feel more comfortable with lets say a 4months headsup or so and then i wouldn't feel the need to check here every other week wanting to know what the heck is going on.

Don't get me wrong, i dig Zen tables a lot.But i don't like their release information policy(btw FarSight they have whole lot more release issues of their own, that is a whole different battlefield) and them doing mature tables in kid friendly fashion.Wasted resources imo.So many great kid friendly franchises out there.Zen should focus on those.

We can't announce things too far in advance, not only for the reasons mentioned above, but because we have to be respectful of our licensing partners and contracts. Sometimes we get a few weeks of lead up before the release to get everyone excited, other times we only get a short amount of time. Also, I'm not understanding why you would feel obligated to purchase the game the day it comes out. Why not wait and see what reviewers or others on the forums say before purchasing? Nothing wrong with that. If a theme we do just isn't for you, that's fine. That is exactly why we don't just do only one license or one theme for every table.

Also keep in mind we cannot do M-rated DLC for a game that is rated E. We'd have to make a separate M-rated game to do that (and we have no current plans to do so). We want to keep pinball accessible to everyone, that was our original point of making pinball games, so that people of all ages can enjoy pinball even though pinball machines are getting harder and harder to find in real life.

[ALH2012]

We can't announce things too far in advance, not only for the reasons mentioned above, but because we have to be respectful of our licensing partners and contracts. Sometimes we get a few weeks of lead up before the release to get everyone excited, other times we only get a short amount of time. Also, I'm not understanding why you would feel obligated to purchase the game the day it comes out. Why not wait and see what reviewers or others on the forums say before purchasing? Nothing wrong with that. If a theme we do just isn't for you, that's fine. That is exactly why we don't just do only one license or one theme for every table.

Also keep in mind we cannot do M-rated DLC for a game that is rated E. We'd have to make a separate M-rated game to do that (and we have no current plans to do so). We want to keep pinball accessible to everyone, that was our original point of making pinball games, so that people of all ages can enjoy pinball even though pinball machines are getting harder and harder to find in real life.

Not every theme is for me and i wouldn't expect that.I don't feel obligated at all to buy every table but i do enjoy supporting the company.In other words if i don't particularly like a table today i still enjoy supporting the company in hope of a table i will like more tomorrow.But maybe you're right.Maybe that policy is worth reconsidering.

If Zen is truly by default bound by contract to keep their customers in the dark then those are contracts worth reconsidering.Anything can be changed if there is the will to do so.

More importantly if there is no will to create a M-rated platform then M-rated franchises should not be selected.It is noble to create Pinball for all ages but the Walking Dead, Deadpool and South Park are not meant for all ages.Far from it.

[BarbieBobomb]

Not every theme is for me and i wouldn't expect that.I don't feel obligated at all to buy every table but i do enjoy supporting the company.In other words if i don't particularly like a table today i still enjoy supporting the company in hope of a table i will like more tomorrow.But maybe you're right.Maybe that policy is worth reconsidering.

If Zen is truly by default bound by contract to keep their customers in the dark then those are contracts worth reconsidering.Anything can be changed if there is the will to do so.

More importantly if there is no will to create a M-rated platform then M-rated franchises should not be selected.It is noble to create Pinball for all ages but the Walking Dead, Deadpool and South Park are not meant for all ages.Far from it.

Another thing with licensed content is that we like to give each license it's own time to be in the spotlight - for example, if we had a huge license coming after a not-so-huge license, and we announced them at the same time, the smaller license might get overlooked or overshadowed. Not really fair to them, right? We've been doing licensed stuff for a long time, and this seems to be the most fair way to handle it. We release a lot of content throughout the year, so having a specified time slot for each one makes it more organized (and certainly helps me keep my sanity). Having this many IPs on this many platforms keeps us all crazy busy.

As for the M-rated stuff you mentioned above. What is it about Walking Dead/Deadpool/South Park tables that make them not worthy of being selected for this type of game? Was there something in particular that didn't work with these tables as far as the rating goes?

[ALH2012]

Another thing with licensed content is that we like to give each license it's own time to be in the spotlight - for example, if we had a huge license coming after a not-so-huge license, and we announced them at the same time, the smaller license might get overlooked or overshadowed. Not really fair to them, right? We've been doing licensed stuff for a long time, and this seems to be the most fair way to handle it. We release a lot of content throughout the year, so having a specified time slot for each one makes it more organized (and certainly helps me keep my sanity). Having this many IPs on this many platforms keeps us all crazy busy.

As for the M-rated stuff you mentioned above. What is it about Walking Dead/Deadpool/South Park tables that make them not worthy of being selected for this type of game? Was there something in particular that didn't work with these tables as far as the rating goes?

Well the Spotlight argument makes more sense than the Contract argument and is probably closer to the truth.While there doesn't have to be an official announcement i still don't see why there can't be some sort of hint.Oh well.

Walking Dead needs proper gore.Headshots galore and beyond!
Deadpool and South Park desperately need profanity.Gore and profanity are inherent and essential to the respective franchises.
Concerning horror/suspense there are many titles out there that would be more appropriate for an E-rating.For example Jaws, Gremlins or Fright Night.

[BarbieBobomb]

Well the Spotlight argument makes more sense than the Contract argument and is probably closer to the truth.While there doesn't have to be an official announcement i still don't see why there can't be some sort of hint.Oh well.

Ok - what? Are you implying that I'm just pulling this stuff out of my butt? Why bother asking questions if you don't believe anything I say?

Also - we hint at stuff all the time - you just have to be vigilant

[ALH2012]

Ok - what? Are you implying that I'm just pulling this stuff out of my butt? Why bother asking questions if you don't believe anything I say?

Also - we hint at stuff all the time - you just have to be vigilant

I didn't really ask anything.I stated my view on things concerning release information politics and M-rated tables.

Whether the Spotlight argument or the Contract argument is closer to the truth is not really important.That is just me speculating.Important is that the bottom line remains that there is no general overview concerning the upcoming 3,4 months.Why....Contract, Spotlight or whatever....i don't really care why i just wish it was different.

I don't want to be vigilant, i'd rather be informed.

[BarbieBobomb]

I don't want to be vigilant, i'd rather be informed.

Then keep an eye on these forums. Or facebook, twitter, our blog, google plus, etc

[ALH2012]

Then keep an eye on these forums. Or facebook, twitter, our blog, google plus, etc

Since there is no overview on what's to come i am sorta forced to keep an eye on these forums but that is already the max time i am going to invest concerning upcoming tables.I'm not remotely going to scavenger hunt for some potential hint.If that is Zens information policy so be it but i don't have to approve.