I'm likely to get flamed for this but oh well- lol
So I've been in the pinball hobby for all of two months now really enjoy it. Obviously I'm not very good at it but that's OK. A few weeks ago a friend was over and we played a few games of JP to which he usually scored higher. I noticed however that he would often nudge the machine to alter the course of a ball that likely would have drained to which I pointed out was cheating. He said no, that's how everyone plays and I just said that's BS. Well turns out he was right, I've read online about and watched tutorial vids on YouTube, that's apparently how people play.
When I was in high school, we didn't have any pinball machines as we lived in a small town, farm community but what we did have was pool and Foosball. I never was real good at pool, did ok but not great. I was however really good at Foosball. Friends and I wouldn't take a point on a goal shot unless it was clean and never touched the feet of the goalie. To spin the men was a sin and we always called it playing slop, and we never played slop. So fast forward 35 years and I get my first Pin, JP. Roughly a month later a POTC. I think these machines are simply beautiful, they are artwork as well as entertainment. I can only imagine the time spent in design, the artwork, the lights, the ramps, slings, flippers, mech's and outlane drains all flowing together in harmony only to have some ogre body slam game sideways to alter the balls course. This is slop (cheating) with some cool names hung on it. Plain and simple and you'd have a hard time selling me it otherwise. We've got some Menonite families in the area and they live by their own rules. Nobody forces these rules, only themselves. They can't drive a car, but what they can do is go over to the neighbors and ride into town in their Chrysler Pacifica..... What!??? Who are they kidding? They created a work around for a rule they imposed on themselves. Makes no sense!
So I believe that pinball is designed for an element of skill and an element of luck. The skill of course being able to control the ball, pass from flipper to flipper aim and hit shots at different speeds etc. The luck, well that's just luck. sometimes a lucky bounce or other times it ends in the outlane. I don't believe they meant for people to remove the element of luck by altering it. Imagine watching that pool tournament on TV and Minnesota Fats calls the 8 ball in the corner pocket and it's starting to look like it's going a little wide and BAM, he body checks the table, shifting it sideways and sinks it for the win!!... yeah, no. So I'll I'll likely be posting the crazy high scores I see online but now understanding how they were likely achieved I'm a whole lot less impressed. Folks are welcome to stop by if in the area and play a few games but I gotta warn ya that the tilt bobs are adjusted up as tight as they can go cause we don't play slop where I'm from. Hell you gotta sweat pressing the start button...
So I'll ask again, if you play by nudginging, sliding, tipping, slamming, slapping etc. Who ya kidding?