You have two insanely deep games. While I love great deep rules, I actually found that faster simpler games like Iron Man & Tron made me a better player, as you have to really play on the fly...it becomes all about quickly acclimating to the geometry and just making shot after shot. You’ll soon see some muscle memory forming and you won’t have to overthink how to handle certain tricky situations.

Interesting take. My first pin was High Speed, so maybe there’s something to your idea. It definitely taught me how to hit orbits and the Ritchie loop-style shots.

Not a great player myself. The only way I can get good scores is by playing and playing and playing the same game over and over again.
But I just enjoy it no matter how bad I am. I’ve only ever made wizard mode on two games. Most of the new games I have no clue what I’m doing so just battling away. What keeps me playing is, there is always that one good killer game where you’re hitting everything and the ball just never seems to drain.

I tend to think that pinball is more fun when you're not that good.

I watch things like PAPA, and I just don't know that I could play a game for that long without getting bored. Luckily, I won't have to worry about that.

I don't get epic games very often...drinking and playing pinball is a lot like fishing in my case, either way it if doesn't work out that day..doesn't matter. I still feel good.

I'm going to have to check with all the guys in Victoria next time I'm down there and get back to you......

How to enjoy pinball when you suck at pinball?

Don’t suck at it.

I suck but I still enjoy it. Sucking probably helps me to continue to have the one more game thoughts

I like sucking at pinball. I see posts here on Pinside from people bitching that their games are too easy. I don't want to be that good. I don't want to be bored with the games I have.

Just pretend you’re playing golf, where everyone sucks!

It’s easy just hit the reset button on that shitty game. The next game has to be better, and if it’s not guess what? Hit the reset again and again and again. Eventually you will get better.

I used to hold in the star button on my games if I had a shitty first or second ball. I turned the feature off. Things can turn around with just one ball. After I did that, and started thinking that I only need one ball to do something great, my skills has improved.

100% agree. After about 200 games on LOTR I finally got to Destroy the ring. Was so happy, thought I beat the game. LOL, not even close. I'll never get to Valinor even with 50 balls. I don't think I've met a game that is too easy yet.

Play a certain machine ALOT. They told me Klondike was a random game you could never control. After several hundred games instinct takes over and your brain remembers patterns / response through the flippers. We always sought to get good at a certain machine, the cool one.

i know many collectors or techs who don't really play pinball.
i know some collectors who cant fix anything.
i know some A+ players who don't own machines.
I know some operators who don't play pinball but have a bunch on location (usually the ones not in best shape though
lots and lots of variables.
Some people buy games, install purple and blue led's and think it looks great. Most of them can't play or don't play pinball, so they don't understand its hard to actually track the ball and the colors bleed all over (girl on back glass who was caucasian skin toned is suddenly green)..lol.
it is, what it is..

Get a simpler game to practice on, like a Bally SBM. Good shots on that game. Once you get the horseshoe shot down, rip it and trap the ball on the opposite flipper. My personal best was 12 times in a row. Also High Hand with 16 drop targets would hone flipper skills.

Headphones and some music that you can't help but groove to.

Had a bad soundcard in a local Fish Tales I used to play and the Music would sometimes not be there.

Man, I could kill it on those games. And I knew nothing about rules and shots back then. But that little difference made it easier to relax and hit the ramps and orbits, not the drain shots.

it's subtle, but the hurry-up music is there for a reason. They really weren't designing pins to give you the max for your quarter / credit, I don't think.

I felt like I got better just from watching a few of Bowen Kerins' instructional videos.

I should watch more of them!

You could close up the outlane opening sizes to the minimum spacing.

First off, to be an excellent player, you have to have great hand-eye coordination. An F-16 pilot would make a great pinball player.

But, because I suck, I usually do this. I play a couple of single player games to warm up. Then I start all 4 players. After the first two balls, usually one or two players are well ahead of the others. Then with the third ball, for the players that are lagging behind, I use that third ball and any extras as practice balls and try to make specific shots and not necessarily to score a lot of points. I then play the leader(s) to score points and to try and get my initials on the display. If one game keeps kicking your ass, try another one, it just may not be your day for the first one. An excellent reason to have more than one. Re: The Disease.

I also lower all the High Scores To Date to the minimums. That way I am competing against someone of the same playing ability (me) and not some default guy (Tex) or some rotten devil (like Mike Frasca ) who has posted a High Score that I couldn't beat with the glass off.

So practice if you like or just bang 'em around and have fun. Pinball isn't real life, it's pinball.

Just dropping in to say I appreciate some of the advice and tips you guys have offered. Not hijacking the OP, but its certainly been a good read for me. Thanks

I still suck but I learned to be a lot better when I started resisting the urge to swat the ball every time it got close to the flipper and started learning basic stuff like drop catch, bounce pass, tip pass.

Played a lot of games just practicing ball control instead of going for a high score.