Insider Connect, worth it?

[Halfwasted]

I was just thinking how much extra cost insider connected adds to a cost of a pin. With pin prices only increasing at retail it seems, is insider connected worth the extra money you inevitably pay for it's development.

Personally I didn't really find much use for Insider Connect and online pin functionality.

What's your opinion?

 

[ritewhereiwant2b]

I like it. I'd say it's worth it when it already comes with the machine...

 

[BMHouze]

I personally think it is worth the $
Almost half my (private) sales go to people that are connected to location pins.
The badges have me turning on my dog with IC just to get the badge.
Now I am getting a second IC pin as some of the badges require more than one pin, or are not available to my title.

My 2 cents
And yes, the new title already has IC, but it is on my top 3 mods with HD glass and Shaker.

 

[MrMikeman]

Had to add it separately to SW and JP as they were built before IC. No regrets. It makes my wife play more as well when there are badges or events going on. The “race” over Dec/January made my wife play like never before. She made it to the top 100 of the top tier by the last week of it. That alone was priceless

 

[Smokezz]

I like IC a lot. It's a great feature.

 

[Chris Bardon]

It's fun, and now that it's built into the games, I don't think it's adding a huge amount to the cost. I have a feeling that the cost of a NIB machine would still be the same with or without IC. The upgrade kits were marked up a ridiculous amount (which is why I hacked my own scanner sharing for IM and AIQ off of GZ), but now that it's just part of the baseline build, the service operation/development costs get spread across a really wide base, and the hardware BOM isn't going to be a huge increase. I suppose there might be a little less for a designer to work with in a target BOM given the IC inclusion, but that's math we'll likely never see. I have a suspicion that the margins on new games are thinner than before, but that accessories like toppers are making up for some of that.

It's worth having on new games just to be able to get code updates online though. I can't remember the last time I needed to update a game over USB.

 

[ngcprk]

it's a great incentive for players to watch their own progress, and encourages repeat usage.

also, seeing leaderboards at locations is cool too, and encourages some healthy competition.

 

[a.stebel]

If you have a game with level up, where your progress is saved, like TMNT.

Until home leaderboards are added it just fluff.

 

[BMHouze]

I can really see how it is worth it for operators.
It made it easy to find pins in Vegas.
I could see in the future that you checking into my arcade could identify you as an owner of a connected machine.
Tip off the retailers when owners are in house.
I've like to see IC code just for shows to do tourneys.

 

[kool1]

Love IC.

For operators it drives business.

For individuals it drives engagement in the games.

 

[Jbed13]

I really enjoy IC! I remember playing more of the game when video game achievements were introduce back in the day. Same goes now with for my home pins when achievements are needed to be achieved during certain months or holidays. My family also enjoys getting certain badges and achievements which is a bonus to get them down to the basement to play. Keeping stats and automatic updates are a bonus as well.

 

[Ced's Atomic Dustbin]

it's a great incentive for players to watch their own progress, and encourages repeat usage.

also, seeing leaderboards at locations is cool too, and encourages some healthy competition.

I agree. I think it adds a lot on location, You see players checking the leaderboard when they walk in or after they (or someone else) puts up a good score on one of their favourite machines, and a lot of conversations are struck up because of the leaderboard. Ottawa Pinball Arcade added a D & D about 10 days ago, and there's been a lot of people have come in to play it that are infrequent or new visitors to the arcade. I'm sure IC must have been how many of them found out it was there. I've also visited a couple of one or two-table venues purely because I saw they had an IC machine I'd never played. So I think it must be added value for operators.

I've definitely found that it sometimes influences which machine I play at an arcade (eg If I've dropped down the leaderboard a few spots, but I know that the scores above me still below my best ever, or there is a new leaderboard up for the month or the quarter and I want to put a score on the board.)

I liked the achievements on Foo Fighters and Bond, and they helped me to improve on those games by learning a bit more about the rules for specific aspects of the games. Most of the games since Jaws onwards seem a bit light in achievements compared to those two, which is a shame.

The badges don't resonate with me as much, they seem a bit random, but I think in general IC is a great tool for keeping track of your scores and progress on games.

 

[pinballjah]

Three of my games have IC, have never used it once. I am probably missing a lot but I suck at pinball so likely make me worse if I had to focus on something else when playing

 

[AlexRogan84]

I had a TMNT without it and now I have a Mandaorian with it. I would not pursue a new Stern (resale) that doesn't have IC. I enjoy using the achievements feature and looking at leader boards when I'm out somewhere playing. Badges, yea, a little meh. Trying to get a lot or all of the achievements certainly adds new life to these games. Mando has 83 achievements and I have earned 79 of them. They get harder big time towards the end! I won't get them all because one of the Mando achievements is tied to the topper ($2k USD) and I don't have it.

What I find is they encourage you to "play" in different ways then you might have otherwise. Like guys on a basketball court playing HORSE or playing a game of card pool with your buddies instead of just a game of regular 8-ball. The new Sterns all have deep, deep rules and wizard modes that can be borderline impossible to get to. So they aren't short on variety for things to do or trying different approaches when you play. The achievements I find just advance this even further.

 

[Joker19]

I had a TMNT without it and now I have a Mandaorian with it. I would not pursue a new Stern (resale) that doesn't have IC. I enjoy using the achievements feature and looking at leader boards when I'm out somewhere playing. Badges, yea, a little meh. Trying to get a lot or all of the achievements certainly adds new life to these games. Mando has 83 achievements and I have earned 79 of them. They get harder big time towards the end! I won't get them all because one of the Mando achievements is tied to the topper ($2k USD) and I don't have it.

What I find is they encourage you to "play" in different ways then you might have otherwise. Like guys on a basketball court playing HORSE or playing a game of card pool with your buddies instead of just a game of regular 8-ball. The new Sterns all have deep, deep rules and wizard modes that can be borderline impossible to get to. So they aren't short on variety for things to do or trying different approaches when you play. The achievements I find just advance this even further.

Agree with the fun aspect and making you play differently and trying to catch new achievements and badges.

However, would I not pursue a Stern Spike 2 that doesn't have IC on the used market... if the price is right, no. You can always add IC to any Stern Spike 2 machines that were manufactured pre IC.

 

[pinballjah]

I will have to give it a try on my Rush or FF. Just haven't bother as I do modify some of the code on my games to customize music, etc., so I was worried it might cause some issues if I was connected to the Stern server and they could identify some code adjustments.

 

[Smokezz]

I will have to give it a try on my Rush or FF. Just haven't bother as I do modify some of the code on my games to customize music, etc., so I was worried it might cause some issues if I was connected to the Stern server and they could identify some code adjustments.

Make sure you turn off auto updates if you have customized stuff and you'll be fine.

 

[Chris Bardon]

They're actually doing something kind of interesting this month. There's a specific challenge for every IC machine, and a limited number of badges for each one of them:


Yeah, they're reasonably meaningless, but it was enough of a nudge to try to grab them on all of my games this morning. Would I have played anyway-probably, but this was an excuse to try to go for something specific. I like that they're trying new stuff with the system.

 

[Honey Badger]

I could care less about IC

 

[Chris Bardon]

They're actually doing something kind of interesting this month. There's a specific challenge for every IC machine, and a limited number of badges for each one of them:

The week 2 challenges went up on Saturday morning, and they're a little harder, but still all achievable. It's a little like playing pingolf with objectives, or playing a gauntlet challenge, except without the timer. It looks like others are playing along too-there are a bunch of games where 1000 people have already claimed the badge. Godzilla doesn't surprise me, but Maiden does, since there aren't as many games that came with IC, so it means people have probably added it:


The FF objective took a couple of tries because it's something I almost never bother with, and you only really get one shot at it in-game. Having the UFO button built up beforehand helped.