Simple formula when looking at rankings == CTS == consider the source.

If the ranking is from someone you trust, then trust that person's rank. Otherwise, ignore it.

There may be too much worry that newbies won't have this information (they don't know anyone here yet). The solution is to stick around and lurk for a bit. Then, they can make a better decision based on rankings + CTS.

Maybe a simple feature could be to remove all your ignored posters from the rankings of a particular game you're looking at and have that be an "adjusted" score you see. Also maybe when reading the ranking thread, have the option to remove a person's ranking right there and recalculate a ranking just for you.

To be fair, I own a White Water and I still hate it. That's allowed

Whirlwind should probably be higher... not sure why it's so low. I also am taking delivery of TSPP soon... so it will probably rise in the rankings.

Flippers in TPA in general just seem much more "accurate" than they could possibly be on a real physical machine, too. If you "flip" anywhere near accurate, it seems the software assumes your aim was good and will make an accurate shot. The hyper-inflated scores of TPA are not impressive in the slightest... I actually enjoy it when people from TPA come to play real pinball and get an education (humbled usually!)

Definitely see kickouts behaving differently even from one ball to another on many machines. Kickouts from scoops seem entirely too friendly on TPA most of the time. Anybody can score huge if they get consistent feeds.

For me it's even simpler... MM is a nice game, but overrated (it's top 20; just not #1). I don't need some top 100 list to tell me what my favorite games should be

Wise words.

I feel like (and people may disagree--strongly, even) video games (in a sort of parallel) took a major left turn around 1995. This is approximately when home consoles began offering similar graphics quality to what was in the arcades, and it's also when "Doom" and "Quake" and 3D graphics became the new normal.

Games became more about the simulation of reality rather than an escape from it. Pac Man wasn't a great game because of the graphics. It wouldn't be a better game rendered in awesome 3D--it might look cool, but it wouldn't be more fun. Simulation games always held a very small niche of the video game spectrum in the late 70s to early 80s. There were the guys with their flight simulators, and most of us video gamers secretly made fun of them Seems the sim-ers got their revenge, though. Most new games since about 1995 seem to have gone the "simulation" route, in terms of simulating reality rather than the abstract route--weird, sidescrolling platformers with cartoon type characters.

You could also see a parallel with animated feature movies--with Disney going away from hand drawn features to the 3D CGI movies. Maybe the movies like Toy Story make big bucks--but it's because they're well written. It's certainly not because 3D CGI is a superior look to the beautiful hand drawn animation.

Anyway... this type of "change" is what I'm leery of in pinball. If we go too far, we lose its essence. I feel we've already lost the essence of video games (since '95) and the essence of the long-form animated feature (since about the release of "Toy Story" in the same year).