I am in this group; with the caveat I did "restart" my JP a few times to test out the raptor lock mechanism.

So NEVER during play, if needed during testing, sure. That should be obvious but some people are super literal.

To me I am stepping up to play a pinball GAME. 3 balls, maybe more. Part of that game is having a rough ball or two maybe. Doing what you can with the rest. Other opinions are valid, but I don't know why I would choose to rob myself of setting a new grand champion score on a single ball or whatever; some of my best games only have 1-2 real played balls. That's pinball baby

Depends if you are trying to "test" your skill and ability to bounce back from a bad ball, or just get coddled with constant do-overs. If you have fun only playing "good" games, do that. If you want a reality check that "sometimes you suck, and you should work to get better" that is fine too.

If all I did in life was press reset button every time I screwed up, I would be much less careful and probably not be as good at a lot of things. No consequences etc. I think there was a Rick and Morty episode about that...

Is life (or pinball ) without consequences meaningless? Up to you to decide...

You seem to be the one talking crap here my man.

How about this; if you can't take a bad ball, would you accept pressing a button combination to add say 20 million to your score on modern Sterns so you could "feel better and have fun"? Or would that be "dumb and pointless"?

Alternatives could be giving yourself a stupid long ball saver, setting the game to extra easy etc. , all of those are equally valid options if you really can't stand that the universe could somehow give you a lousy ball now and then.

But if you can't accept this happening to you, I doubt you are a "better player than me" on at least a few metrics...

Fair, but I think as is often the case it is a matter of perspective.

Being able to have fun and walk away from a "bad" game is the definition of not taking it seriously IMO. Feeling an anxious rage ball because you are not always awesome seems like a person is "taking it seriously".

So I really can't see what side of the coin you are on here, aside from "have fun", which is really the right side in all of this! Well done.

I don't think many people here are getting hot under the collar. It is okay for two similar minded groups to discuss something and not 100% agree. And sometimes people bring up interesting points like...

If you are high score chasing and trying to be efficient, I can see doing this. Still not my bag, but I understand.

If you can't understand what he is saying, stop and reread it. It is okay if you disagree with it, but it makes more sense to me than resetting a game because somehow the fact your first ball wasn't amazing riled you up.