I'm planning on driving out. It is only about 2.5 hours for me. I'm not playing in the tourney, but rather just coming out just to play a bunch of pins. My nephew is kind of into it some since I've gotten a couple of pins....so seeing 200+ pins will really blow his mind.

I see a lot of people talking about classifications and qualifications and such, but just wondering... do many folks like myself just come out to play pins and not be in the tournament, but rather just come out to play?

It was my first trip out and my first pingasm if there is such a term. LOL Seeing pictures just does not do it justice. I've only been into pinball for about 1.5 years and have owned 3 pins. Going there really lets you feel out machines to know what might be a potential buyer machine. Typically it seems that I tend to like less popular titles. Not quite sure why. Coming away from the show I learned that IMO I liked the Stern Indiana Jones, Transformers, Austin Powers and the Starwars with the big gun on the left side of the game. I found that I didn't particularly care for the Pinball 2k Starwars, Williams Indiana Jones, The Avengers, and Medieval Madness. I have mixed feelings on a few games like Metallica, ACDC, and Simpson's Pinball Party and Tron. Obviously when you are playing a lot of games which table you have a good or bad game on with limited play can skew your view of a machine. If anyone gave me any of those I'd like it, but when plunking down several thousand that is different. I'd say overall for the price that MM costs there is no chance I'd ever own it...it just didn't do it for me. I actually like LOTR much better. It is true that ratings do only go so far and each person has their own style that does it for them. I own a JM and an Avatar pro and like Avatar more which is ranked far lower than JM.