We have a few local collectors with around 20 games set up. Occasionally we have pinball parties or gatherings just for fun. It has been more competitive here too, which is sad; sometimes you just want to hang out with friends and have a few beers while playing some pinball.

Yep. Unfortunately I'm the guy that organizes league and tourneys (that nobody shows up for except the hardcore lol), I'd love to just hang out but don't have the space or time to organize a "party" all that often, and the local "casual" players in our area NEVER DO IT ANYMORE. Heck, lots of our local collectors haven't ever had anything at their place. The guys that did had to sell a bunch of their games a while back.. it's been dead since then. Somone needs to pick up the slack...

My own conclusions is that without a competitive angle, the casual type meetups don't happen regularly. The competition keeps things interesting and people motivated. May not be for everyone, but remove the competition and you get what you are talking about, which is a lack of meetups.

Best to adopt "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", and show up for leagues and competitions, not expect to win anything, but enjoy the casual aspect of being there.

Competition does not need to be hardcore or time consuming. It can be fun and it can incorporate varied levels of skill.

What we do in our local club is have a variety of unique tourneys. They are not the standard fare, no WPPR points or money, and by mixing the formats up with a bit of randomness it allows people of varied skill levels to compete and feel like they have a chance to win.

Here is an example of one of the unique formats I developed which people have enjoyed. I came up with the idea about a year ago when I was tasked with trying to accommodate 32 players in about a 3 hour time frame with a handful of machines.

Feel free to use or modify as desired.

FORMAT 7: Drag Racing

TD WORK REQUIRED: Moderate to Involved; need to keep track of time also need to have a tiebreaker format.

PLAYERS NEEDED: Any even amount. Powers of 2 best, but not strictly required.

GAMES NEEDED: 2 for the drag race, and optimally, 1 more to settle ties.

TIME: As fast as desired. Works well with a 1-minute /1 ball format.

SUMMARY: Players are competing head to head in a timed match.

DESCRIPTION: Randomly pair an even amount of players. Two games will be run concurrently. Player 1 starts a 2-player game on his machine, Player 2 starts a 2 player game on his machine.

Both players are “racing” in lane one. This is a TIMED round. Players have 1 minute to score as high as possible in LANE 1. If the player loses the ball before the 1 minute mark, they have crashed and just step away and the score is as stands. If the player is playing at the end of 1 minute, the player just stops playing when TIME is called. The ball(s) drain and bonus is counted. Both Players now have a score in LANE 1.

The Players now switch machines and are racing in LANE 2 (player 2 slot). Same format.

At the end of the next minute the scores are compared. If one player won both races they advance. If there is a tie, then the tiebreaker is decided by the qualifying result with the higher qualifier advancing. The loser forfeits his title or PINK slip.

Process can be repeated to halve the field each time.

SUGGESTIONS: Have a predetermined way to settle ties that helps advance rounds. This can be accomplished by having racers play a single pre-qualifying game to rank scores or ties can be settled afterwards on a single game. With a pre-qualifying result ahead of time, this settles drag racing ties faster, but the lower ranked player will feel he is already at a disadvantage having to win 2 games.

Using a timed game after the races to settle ties moves the races along faster.

MODIFIED OPTION FOR DRAG RACING:

4 games used per round. This allows for 2 groups of 2 players to be lined up across 4 machines. Line up Players 1 2 3 4 on Games A B C D. Player 1 is racing against Player 2 on Games A and B, Player 3 is racing against Player 4 on Games C and D. Two races are running at once to help move the tourney along.

At the end of the (2) 1-minute rounds, the scores are compared on each machine and tallied.

Have each group now switch.

At the end there will be a Win-Loss result based on the 4 games played. Have a method available to settle ties.

Just to be clear, I'm the freaking president of my local league, and I'm regularly in the bottom half of the players. I love being part of the league because it is how I spend my Monday nights. I'd say 1/3rd are players who care about their IFPA standings, the other 2/3 are there because they love pinball. We get about 2 dozen out every Monday.

So competition and casual are not mutually exclusive.

I agree that competitive pinball is on the rise. I've started entering some tournaments, local and regional, mainly do to the State Championship Series that IFPA started up last year. However, I really just enjoy getting together with friends and other pinball fans to visit and have fun playing pinball.

I've been to large pinball shows such as:
* Southern Fried Gameroom Expo in Atlanta, GA
* Houston Arcade and Pinball Expo in Houston, TX (x2)
* Texas Pinball Festival in Dallas, TX (x3)
Usually I don't enter the tournaments or just enter one portion of these large tournaments.
I try to check out most all aspects of these expos/festivals such as: guest speaker presentations, checking out what the vendors are selling, Sat morning swap meet, hanging out with friends, and of course playing pinball on many different machines.

I go to the local monthly tourneys mainly to hang out. The tournament is something to do between beers.

That is kind of the approach we take. We do an official IFPA event every other month. They are pretty relaxed and quite a bit of talking and casual playing going on. Separate from that we meet up in smaller groups just for fun. If the big meets are getting too competitive just invite some of the same people around for a some drinks and pinball. I don't really care where I do ranking wise as long as I have fun and don't suck too bad.

I'm a member of DHPL (die hard pinball league)... a bunch of local guys get together once a month to play some pins. It usually isn't about competing except for the odd time. It's kind of up to the host for that month. It is nice to add structure every once in a while.

It has been a great way to meet other pinheads and try out games that you would otherwise not get the chance to play. (Especially with the total lack of pins on location here)

Big thanks to bcrage88, a fellow pinsider who is the main driving force behind our get-togethers.

They all come over to my house, get drunk and destroy my screen door. Good clean fun.

Yeah man. That's what screen doors are for. Walking through.

rd.

That's certainly the way I approach it too. Living in Pukekohe, the monthly Auckland meets are the only time I see the other pin guys. So it's good to catch up and have some beers, a feed, and listen to them gossip.

The comp is a vital part of the evening though. As others said above, I think the comp gives the meetings some "point" ... If it was just a chit chat I don't think 20 people would show up every month.

Plus the level of playing has really increased in the last two years we've been having the meets too. Which has got to be good for everyone.

rd.

Maybe you should start your own league? You could model it after any of the American or Canadian ones.

Our league meets every Monday night. $30 per season (15 weeks) that goes to the league and a $10 nightly host fee to cover machine wear and some snacks.

Each monday, players get put into groups of 4 and play on 4 machines. There is also warm up and free play following the league portion.

At the end of the season is an all-day playoff tournament.

Some leagues meet once a month. I like our weekly league though, would be similar to a bowling league, just becomes what you do on that day of the week.

Good luck.

I have noticed this as well. Players who consider themselves strictly casual are stepping up their game from playing more regularly with the players who play more competitively. Our events encourage groupings of all skill levels to interact.

People are trying all sorts of flipper techniques and thinking about scoring strategies over the just keeping the ball in play approach.

I think this is terrific.

Yeah, ironically, i think the fact I ran our league as free this year really screwed us over. Nobody had any financial impetus to show up, so all the people that promised that they would show up for meets just treated it as a disposable commitment, because it was. They had no financial reason to show up, they don't care about points, and apparently don't care about meeting up with locals so...........if I do it again, there will be a fee. If you don't want to show up after paying the fee, fine, but we will benefit from your money and reward the people that do show up with lavish prizes and trophies.

I'm one of the founding members of ToPL, the Toronto league that frolic now runs.

When it started in the 90s, it was very casual - there were only 3-4 people who would show up on a regular basis. Some nights, only me and two others would show up at a location! Most of the time we would get a rotating group of 8 or so people on a Monday night and then we'd go out for dinner. It was basically an excuse to hang out with friends.

There were a couple of very good players but there was no IFPA points, no Pinburgh, and there were a half dozen arcade locations we could play at downtown plus three or four people with four games at home to host the league. It was easy to keep it casual and friendly.

I quit the league in the mid-2000s when the last downtown arcade closed and all the league nights moved to people's homes exclusively, and no one lived downtown - anyone with the room for games lived out in the 'burbs and I wasn't interested in driving an hour each way. I had been considering quitting prior to that due to some new members I didn't really care for.

Fast forward 7 years and I recently came out to a league night to discover it had converted to a full-on arms race for IFPA points, with a group of scarily serious players who "weren't there to make friends". Also, it was at least two dozen people, too loud and crowded to really chat much. Plus a lot of the people are what I would refer to as "bros", not the slightly nerdy group I left behind. My naive thought of hosting a league night now that my five machines are out of storage was blown out of the water - the minimum number of machines to host is *eight!* It was quite the rude awakening about the state of competitive pinball today.

I don't think it's a bad thing that pinball as a competitive sport is growing in popularity - it certainly hasn't hurt the value of my collection! - but I do miss the more casual league that was basically an excuse to get out of the house and hang out with friends.

That long preamble notwithstanding, I think that the solution to your problem is to just start your own casual league. That's what I'm considering doing. The popularity of pinball means there's way more demand for league nights than there ever was 10 years ago.

I am president of the MCPL(Magic City Pinball League). Our league is fairly laid back. It's 10 weeks plus finals night. Cost is $5/week. Tuesday nights works great for us. There are a handful of total novices. The bulk of the players are what I would call "strong casual players". And there are a handful like myself who are into WPPR points, traveling to other tourneys, collecting pins, etc.

We run 3 seasons a year. That way, we usually have about 6 weeks off between seasons, so nobody seems to get burned out. Actually the opposite is true. Seems like after the break, most players are chomping at the bit to get back to it. I forgot to mention that we have an AWESOME location to play at called BumperNets. It is located in a mall and they have around 30 pins.

As far as totally casual pin gatherings, some of the local collectors including myself will usually host something about once a year.

We have had a Pinball group here since 2007...Cincy Midweek Pinball...We started out with 12 to 15 people, and we would send out an email and say come on over on X day at X time and play. We used to do our little parties on Wed. (hence the Mid-Week) but lately we have pretty much moved them to Sat. so more folks can participate. Our group has GROWN way bigger than any of us ever imagined...we have a group site now and I believe there are close to 60 folks in the group. Which is unfortunately WAY more than some hosts can accommodate space and game wise. Some of us don't have this issue (Last Summer we had a party, and had over 50 folks here at our place, but we pretty much have pins in every room and space for folks to spread out a bit) and will just throw a post out on the group and everyone can show up for our Pinball party. (We just had one last night we were partying till almost 4am.) There is one guy who has a Summer party every year, and sometimes folks from MI show up, it is usually a pretty big party, then there is another that has a 4th of July party every year...and another couple that has a Halloween party complete with costume party, last year they also had a Christmas party with a pinball related gift exchange. We have a pretty diverse group with lots of different pins depending on which hosts you are going to. But we always have great times with good friends, and of course LOTS of Pinball!!
We started a Cincy Pinball League we just started our 2nd full season (I am president), and we have a group of 30 of the Cincy Pinball folks in the league, and we are IFPA registered so we get points and such. Our league is more social, than competitive so to speak. We have several folks that host for league, and have food, but everyone usually brings snacks or a dish to share. We enjoy the camaraderie of our group...Unfortunately without the league, we wouldn't be able to keep going...so to speak because there were just too many folks in the group for some hosts to handle space wise. We have a great group of folks, and we have met some of our best friends through pinball!!
I would suggest that if there are others in your area just start out like we did, and you might be pleasantly surprised by how quickly it grows!

Phoebe

I think people enjoy competing, multiplayer pinball games encourage that anyway. Gotllieb even coined the iconic phrase we know and love.

But again, it does not need to be hardcore. There are plenty of regional events one can find on the IFPA calendar to fill that niche.

What I have learned over the past 4 years or so is that if the tourney is casual but a little competitive even without WPPR points and not strictly a typical IFPA format it will still draw out the hard core players. With the uniqueness of some of our tourneys, the casual player feels they have a chance to beat the top players.

On the other hand once a tourney leans toward the serious side offering WPPR points or money etc., the casual players want little to do with it.

One of the larger concerns that comes up is the waiting to play. Some of our events have timed rounds or games. (See the drag racing idea as an extreme time limit example). There have been times where each player was allowed anywhere from 3-7 minutes max for a game. (The time is chosen based on the overall time allowed and how many players are competing).

It is amusing to hear the grumblings of the restriction and then watch how many games are over before the allotted time. Try it sometime.

What this does is control the length of the event and keep people engaged. In something like a 7 minute game on say Spider-Man, a good player can put up a hefty score. The disadvantage of a timed game of course is for the player on the verge of a breakout game, but the idea here for the diehard competitor is to maximize the points in the time allowed.

Another benefit is the casual player does not feel like he has to wait for someone to cradle balls and time out modes for 30 minutes. The casual player knows everyone is under the same constraint.

This format has also has been popular at our events.

We also have some traditional events here and there so every event does not have the same flavor.

We had our own version of the zombie apocalypse called the Flipping Dead, where losers turned into zombies to attack the survivors. Zombies sometimes lost arms etc and had to play one handed. Or a zombie herd came in to attack a survivor (two zombies played split flipper against a survivor). Just fun alternative competitions.

So I feel our club is successful by offering competition, and simultaneously steering away from the serious components of the competitive world.

It's like anything in life, people give away "free" services all the time to try and promote something, and they get treated as such. Better to put a value on it.

Our league fees pay for trophies, club expenses, and we spring for free food during the playoffs. Any leftover money is paid out in a prize pool.

Players like myself will never go to PAPA or Pinburgh, but there is a camaraderie and we take pride in how our league members do representing the league.

From the responses in this thread, there is a common theme about leagues being the "glue" that keep a regular pinball event going, so I hope the OP tries something, whatever the format.

I try to have friends over for friendly open play, good food and laughs at least once a month if not twice. It would be a shame if all local gatherings started using IFPA points. It changes the whole atmosphere. I commend Pinballcorpse and FLiPS for staying as friendly events and not going to IFPA points. I have been to a few events and they are a lot of fun. That is what it is all about. There are plenty of tournaments available in the given year that do off IFPA points. No need for all of them too.

We here in the MPLS/STP in Minnesota area are lucky to have a local Pinsider (MNHotRod) that puts on the BBQ Pinball Party every year at his house. The 2015 party next year will be the 3rd and we have alot of fun. Tee shirts, BBQ roast pig, raffle prizes and a small competition. He has 4 pins and others bring pins, I think we had 24 this year, I brought Space Station. I think we had 60 people attend this year. Everyone had a great time. Sounds like you guys need something like this.