Levi, that was amazing.
Regarding TPA, coming from Appleton, WI, we really didn't have any arcades still running with pinball in the area (that I knew of). My dad and I would compete in TPA during the tournaments and I was addicted. Then...
...I moved to Seattle. After being able to regularly play at a local arcade (Another Castle Arcade Edition) I have quickly given up on most of my TPA playing. I hate that my dad (still back in WI) has nobody to play with anymore, but now that I have the real thing, it's tough to justify going back.
I've realized that TPA is a great approximation of pinball. I learned tons of tables rulesets inside and out and got to appreciate the music, callouts, and artwork of the games in the comfort of my own home. Since playing IRL, I realized the nuance of effective nudging, live and drop catches, post passing, tip passes etc. that cannot be taught in TPA. I dare someone to show me a consistent cradle separation during multiball in TPA. You also can't account for the randomness of weird things like air balls and machine malfunctions when playing virtually.
Bottom line: I love TPA. It got me into pinball in the first place and led me into playing competitively IRL. For a relatively low cost, you can experience about 70% of what these real tables have to offer and play games that I hope to own one day, but probably never will (I'm looking at you AFM, MB, MM etc...) I have had very few issues (glitches) with it, and I admire Farsight for what they have accomplished. That being said, I'm gonna go play at the Castle tonight