Honestly, if you use the presets and don't mind it wiping your scores, then changing the modes via presets to play a game or two is not that bad.

I consider myself a pretty decent LOTR player, not amazing, but not half bad...even on 5-ball Movie Star can't get to Valinor. I have been one shot off completely finishing TABA twice, problem is it always goes to path of the dead after every ring shot. If it was sucked back to the ramp instead I'd have beaten TABA easy.

I'd just use the presets in the menu, frankly. Otherwise you will be going nuts trying to fiddle with everything back and forth. And make no doubt....if you understand the rules of the game, getting multiballs on LOTR is not a difficult task....no offense to your wife.

LOTR isn't wife, kids... casual player game in my opinion. But if getting the multiball quicker is the goal.. The only way to do it would be what Frax said which is to change the settings back and forth.

Some quick, easy changes are: Put some kind of risers under the front two legs to make the game less steep when she plays and increase it to 5 balls per game when she plays. Then back down to three balls for you. Obviously this doesn't work playing doubles unless you plunge away 2 balls. It gets hard to change the software around much more than that...same goes for changing the outlane posts and other mechanical aspects of it.

Yeah, the tilt settings are usually irrelevent for new players/women/kids as they generally don't nudge. I have the same dilemma as you (skilled vs. unskilled players) but have a semi-big collection so I usually keep a couple games set up easier than the others, and on a few I do what I suggested to you.

I always though it would be cool to have a casual setting on machines with separate hi scores. I'd love for my kids to get some scores on the board.

I find the happy middle ground because I would forget to change settings. since the wife and kids just like to whack a mole. I put the games on 5 ball, when settings get easy for me I slowly up them so I get better and they dont notice ..they get 5 ball whack a mole, beats them starting 4 player games all the time haha.

I also have the high score reset every 25 games, and I just mentally keep track of the approximation of my score (I am not good enough to be showing off anything crazy cool in scores) this way the wife and kids get a chance to "beat dad" as well as visitors.. which makes them feel good.. and I just dont tell them it resets every 25 games keeps them having fun. in the rare event someone notices I just say "I had to work on something and it lost them all"

check out my ^^ post.. I run into this same problem I have like 1.8 billion on RS and my player 4 was 1.1 billion my family and friends wouldnt even try ..they saw billion and instantly got turned off to "beating me"

with 25 game score reset I am bound to have a shitty game and put up like a 300mill as the 4th player which causes people excited to try and kick me. I enjoy others enjoyment more then playing my own games .. personally I am a fixer .. so I love it when others play my games and break them then I have something to fix!

Whatever keeps my wife and girlfriend happen at the same time works for me

Whatever keeps my wife and girlfriend happen at the same time works for me

That would be like Lebron James saying, "Michael Jordan was just too good, I don't want to play basketball".

There is a reason to keep those high scores up there. Harbor greatness

you need to invest in multiball games then. I would also suggest downgrading to get the ghosting effect. if your really lucky you can start some multi player games on each machine. but only if your super talented.

but seriously where do you get the space and money for multiple machines like that? last I checked those go for more then MM ten fold. and if you break one.. shit.

yea.. I make sure to keep #1 score on there I don't allow "a gold medal foe everyone" dad rains champion for sure. But I also see my wife just literally get discouraged she cant make it on the board and not have fun any more. after all she plays like 2 hours a month.. I gotta keep those 2 hours happy so I can continue my hobby financially with out getting in trouble!

Nobody else plays enough to notice/care

in the "start a new trend / girls and pins thread" it was mentioned that a lot of ..uhh, adult films use the uhh.. tilt feature of pinball machines..

you could always bond a different way then manufacture intended use! (if you do this you need to use catch phrases like "I am lord of the ring" or "you shall pass"

if I play multiplayer games with others depending on how hard they try I will over nudge a tilt or 'fail a post transfer' and claim I need more practice with that move, hell then other times I just suck.

I just put my pins on factory settings.

Oh my god...that's horrible LOL.

My wife and I met through online MMO, both paid 300$ each for lifetime subscriptions to Lord of the Rings Online before it launched, and even WE aren't big enough nerds to do crap like that...

My whole point was the wife/gf...you know. Having a wife with a gf on the side...keeping them both happy...

I do similar with my Bally/Williams machines, but the minimum is 250 games on those. They keep the GC score, however, so that's nice. It sounds like you're saying Stern games reset ALL the scores, correct?

Another thing I do is to keep a list of personal best scores on a dry erase board. It works like a high scores list, but a single person can only have a single score on each game.

My thoughts - let them struggle a bit. Like when Jessica first came over, I would let her play on default settings - and she would struggle and get frustrated. Now, before she got so frustrated that she burned out on the games, I'd ask her what was wrong and what was it that was frustrating her. She'd explain the situation to me, and I'd show her some very good starter points.

For example, she did not know about cradling the ball. I showed her that, and I explained to her that now you can re-focus, relax, think things through, and if you want to try for it - line up a shot with that flipper now. I told her first just cradle until she got the hang of it. From there, I told her, ok now try to go for "this" shot or "that" shot. She'd struggle for a bit, but then she'd get the shot. THEN I showed her, "hey....see the artwork on the playfield - notice how THIS part of the artwork was kinda like an indicator for where the ball will go if you hit the ball with the flipper at this moment....isn't that easier than cradling and trying to aim by eye..." - once she saw that, she started getting really good - and way more importantly - she started enjoying herself.

Another good example of helping her along was showing her the in-lanes, and how lighting up all 3 would give her some kind of multiplier. Or with DE games, I'd explain to her how to get the skill shot when first launching the ball, or how to get the skill shot on games like MM or AFM. Those lil' achievements and learning some easy points can be satisfying and boost one's confidence.

I like to think there's a reason why WAY more men participate in things like cars and pinball - women love to play too - sometimes they just need a lil' guidance/direction. Like Jessica, she loves to participate in some things that I like; she just does really well when someone holds her hand and gives her some confidence. There's a fine line between giving her confidence and micro-managing her every single move and shot on a pin, and sometimes - I purposefully let her struggle until she asks for help, or I let her "try to fly" and she soars.

Proof is in the photograph - she nailed Cryptjam on TFTC.

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your correct.. I dont remember anything but 25 in the settings!

If you're finding that when you try to play together that your ball times are too long then why not give yourself a timer that, when it runs out, you must let it drain? Even set the timer to the average ball time of your wife so that you're on an even keel. It would change your strategy to chase quick points rather than the long-haul, but at least you'd be ensuring your wife is enjoying herself rather than getting bored waiting for her turn.

My JP doesn't have the problem of ultra long ball times but I have far longer ball times than my wife. Play sessions tended to boil down to her just watching me 80% of the time.

What I do is let her also be players 2, 3 and 4 so she gets a relatively equal play time to me.

Hard settings, tournament play, wide out lanes, extra ball for special, steep angle, etc.

My wife really enjoys any game with a shaker motor for some reason......

Honestly, I have noticed this trend - every girl I've met seems to love machines with shaker motors.

My wife was not impressed with the shaker in my AFM. She says she was satisfied without it.

+1.

well going against the grain here.. POTC... no shaker.. my wife has a game to play now.. must be that hot dude on the backglass