What is your feeling? Is pinball more like a sport where you keep playing for score and competition toward mastering the playfield or a video game with an ending to complete and then you’re done with it?
Not sure when this mentality of “beating the game” by getting to an end all wizard mode, like we do in video gaming crept in? Pinball has never been that kind of game imo; of getting to the end and then you’re done with it, with no more to do in the game. That thinking should only take place in a $59.95 video game, not a $5k to $10k pinball machine. Always thought pinball was about mastering the table and getting GC score, etc....
Pinball is more in the vain of a sport, than a video game. Gary Stern constantly explains: “it is a bat and ball game, with a regulation size playfield plain and simple”. In the bat and ball games of tennis, baseball, ping pong, cricket, etc. are we just trying to get to the end of a championship and then done with the game after that? Thinking as much as I like the LCD, it might be the LCD era that has been responsible for the sport of pinball, getting to seem like a video game with an ending, even though that might never be the real case.
Do not think pinball is a video game with an end. It compares more to a sport, where we keep score to see how well we are doing in the competition of the game?
What do all of you think and what are your feelings about this subject? (Read all the time here on Pinside, that when someone gets to the so called end of the game, they’re ready to sell and move onto the next title.)
Boca Raton, FL
