Quoted from swampfire:There are 2 kinds of players in pinball. The first walks up to a game and after shooting it a few times, tries to learn how to get the most out of it. “Is this shot better backhand or forehand? If I rip the left orbit, can I backhand the rebound to make the eject shot?” This kind of player tends to like most pins. Instead of bringing their biases to the game, they try to meet the designer where he lives.
The second kind of player mostly wants to be entertained. When a shot makes them feel bad, they blame the designer. This type of player tends to focus on how many toys are on the game, things they don’t like about the art, etc., instead of figuring out what they need to do to get into the flow that the design team intended.
I feel like almost any game can be great if you try to be the first kind of player. I’ve had a lot of fun playing Munsters, Wheel of Fortune, CSI, and other games that some people write off. The only truly “bad” game I’ve ever played was Thunderbirds.
You forgot the third kind - the player who never plays, but turns it on, drinks their 8 IPAs and just looks at their 2k topper and color puked game, color puked powder coating, and sets the ball count to 5. And when they sell it, the game has only 80 plays on it.