I like ALL pinball but given the choice of ownership, Sterns continue to be on the bottom of the list.

As my tastes continue to grow I find I like GTB games more than most and would often prefer an obscure D title to most that I can fix up and appreciate rather than what I find to be cheap and very similar feel of most Sterns. I find that most new Sterns games offer very little variety in overall gameplay or general equation of what they think 'makes' a pinball. In conjunction I disliek the majority of the Stern themes.

If anything I would say I am the opposite and the more I work on pins and fix them up, the more I appreciate some of the ingenuity of older games and am disappoint in how little Stern has pushed the limits to make something novel.

I will say that the new hardware and very interesting design of WWE seems to be a huge leap forward and I am more excited about that game (design and layout) then pretty much every other Stern.

I can lend the opinion of now operating pins on location for 8 months. So far when comparing all B/W or GTB or DE which I have gone through and torn down completely and rebuilt before going on route, vs our now 3 new Sterns, the Sterns have had more rock solid boards (likely due to age alone) but have by far mechanically been poorly designed and the most mechanical hassles.

Ball trough issues, drop target issues, posts constantly getting loose, and cheaply built stand up stacks are all par for the course on Stern route games compared to the older stuff.

Even when getting similar play, the B/W and GTB stuff seems to hold up MUCH better under normal route play conditions than the Stern stuff.