Quoted from Pinballmike217:Wow, you drive from New Hampshire to Mass and expect to take your lady out on a date and show her a good time in the big city for $20.00!?!?!?! Seriously are you a student or employed or what? You can't go to a friggin movie today for $20.
Wow, Mike, wow. 1) Both - I work and she's a student. 2) I clearly mentioned in the quote you quoted that I was removing my date from the examples and was providing single person scenarios. 3) When you met my GF and I at A4cade this summer, I hope you learned we aren't exactly the penny pinching type, but also not idiots either.
If a game is $1 and is just basically taking dollars from us because it tilts when a fly lands on the machine next to it, we get tired of donating money for 1 plunge, 2 flips, and a tilt. I'm also the guy who introduced you the thread about Stern cabinets cracking, and then months later passed on the AS for sale at FTJ's because both corners are cracked. AND we're potentially about to buy a great game at a fair price from a Pinsider/coworker so he can offset his GOTG purchase he just made from you. Basically, we have some cash, but whether it's $1/play or $4K+ for a used machine, we always analyze what we're getting in return when we spend.
BTW - I also gave you guys a referral yesterday, so please take the following as constructive. And hopefully you also remember from this summer that neither my GF nor I are rough players. So continuing on my last post...
Real World Example D:
We go out to The Automatic on Tuesday night, have a fantastic $70 dinner and decide to go across the street to one of your two local locations, because the lineup never fails to impress, and the staff is great should an issue arise with one of the games.
We get $20 in singles and go right to the new AFMr. Tilt out of 1 of my 3 balls. Next game, 2 out of my 3. She tilts on a ball as well. We were disappointed with AFMr as we didn't feel like we even got to play it. Next - AS. Unfortunately the same thing. $8 down, only two 3-ball games have occurred without a tilt. Over to GOT and TWD, more of the same. Finally TAF, and I decided to stop playing after the first game. She scored a replay and played alone.
We simply quit and ended up leaving borderline upset. We didn't even spend the full $20, let alone re-up, so the location only received $9/person + I had a few beers, but we planned to spend HOURS there. If a ball is bouncing around an outlane, I should be able to gently nudge back into play... at least get a warning. But almost every time, it was nudge-->warning-->warning-->TILT. There was virtually no middle ground. At some point it feels less like pinball and more of a donation.
We almost called it a night, but because it was still so early, on a quick whim went next door to State Park - a place that (last time we were there) had a beat AFM w/ no rear GI and a very dim T3... but they were $0.50/play and at least shot ok.
They changed the lineup to an ok players TSPP and a gorgeous MET Pro LED... both on $0.50/play, with very generous tilts. We ended up staying 2 more hours than we expected, I bought a good amount of drinks from the establishment, and even met some guy there who was so into pinball, we just started paying for his games to join in with us. I can't even speak to how TSPP was because we just kept feeding MET.
My GF still thinks you guys are great, and I still even followed up the next day with the guy looking to buy to give him your full Pinside and BPA contact...but the GF said she strictly wants to go to State Park next time we go in because the contrast in what she saw for value. I think her words were "It's like having my hands tied behind my back. Am I supposed to just allow a game to take $1 from me and then drain without ANY attempt at save from me?". I don't disagree with her.
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