I was just thinking the same thing.

That's some fantastic amounts of Jedi mindtrickery, my good sir. Well done. I can't eff with that at all.

I'd have been like "yo are these your credits @pinballkim?"

OF COURSE YOU WERE

I feel like I just read a redacted classified document from a federal court case.

I think you beat me at the Quantum at Arcade Expo 3.0. I tried so hard

(i am probably thinking of someone else; if so, my apologies)

So instead of viewing the situation as "Wow I got to play all these awesome pinball machines by myself for hours. That was really cool and fun" you're infuriated that other people who thought it would be fun to play pinball eventually showed up a place that has pinball and started playing pinball without for even a second stopping you from playing pinball. Oh, and the place operates on a time-based, unlimited-play system such that if there were no credits on the other machines they could just use their card to add some.

Hmmm read thru this "conversation", and hadn't even thought of that -- good point. What's the difference if they used the credits or credited up on their own time card? Regardless,

Cornelius I see your side and don't see any reason to bully you, but my opinion is that you are in the wrong so I'll just state that. Pinball etiquette, regardless if your by yourself for hours or on time cards, etc. is to play a game until you're done and move to the next. (And of course try not to hog one machine forever if it seems like people are waiting). Any credits left are no longer yours.
It doesn't matter if you're the only person there, or the other game your playing is "right next" to the one open with credits you left. If you want to do what you did and you're alone, no problem but you should have zero expectation of maintaining any ownership over credits on a machine you are no longer actively engaged in playing should anyone else arrive wanting to play. And I've seen even pinsiders jump on games with credits in a middle of a game - no questions - if it's open and no one is playing it.

It could have been a nice gesture to ask you if they were your credits but most people wouldn't assume you'd been swapping games on all F them for hours racking up credits so you could play beyond your time limit... nice try on cheating the system LOL but you can't get pissed when someone comes in and inadvedantly squashes your plan

A pirate walks into an barcade with a steering wheel coming out of the fly of his pants. The bartender takes a look at him, a look at the steering wheel, and says "Hey buddy, you know you have a steering wheel in your pants?"

The pirate response, "Arrr, it's driving me nuts!"

Though to be honest, we have to assume stealing credits our righteous hero had all but scammed from the arcade for himself fair and square is the only way the disgusting, ENTITLED fat people could afford to play after blowing their welfare checks on cake.

Even though no one else was around, you feel good about reserving a line of pins just for yourself?

I understand the family that walked in started playing the credits, assuming someone that stacked them up just left the floor. Would have done the same thing

Edit: On second thought, most people have been trying to point this out already.

One more question.... If you were so sure that these credits were yours, and that these terrible selfish heathens were stealing your stolen credits, why didn't you say something to them?

they were actually terrible selfish fat glutenous heathens (allegedly)

.

A friend of mine told me an etiquette story once of a guy that started a 4 player game and told the people behind him that he paid his admission and he was going to play that one game as long as he wanted to... If it was me (and I've had enough beer at that point) I'd have told him "Ya, so did I mother fucker!"

-Steve

Next time he should bring a sign

gluten-free (resized).png

Huh, perfect analogy -
If I put money in three parking meters, and then park in one, the others are free-game (no pun intended) for anyone driving up and claiming it. The other person is not going to ask the other cars, "Hey, did you put this money in?".

Thanks for the entertaining read Mr. C!

There's a lot to love. My favorite is his moral indignation at what a spoiled, entitled society we've become that people actually believe it's OK to come to an arcade and play pinball machines he isn't playing using credits he wanted to scam from the business.

I think my favorite part of this whole thing is the amount of people I don't know and haven't really conversed much (if any) with on Pinside coming out of the woodwork to put words into my mouth. Although I feel like I've played with this Blueberry Johnson
gentleman before....

Thanks all for the superior conversation! Really good stuff.

Because....

I'm not a huge fan of confrontation, surprisingly! Plus, I was ROCKING Kiss: all supers going, 3x playfield, about to start my third demon multiball...

If we do again you're welcome to any credits I leave on machines I'm not playing!

I'm just curious to see if you're willing to be as hostile to me in person as you have been online.

Hostile? My goodness. Relax, friend. There's only one person WRITING FULL CAPS SENTENCES and endlessly telling people their opinions are wrong (after asking for their opinions), and it isn't me. There are, however, several responding to that one person with a few snarky comments, and I am one of them.

However, and I mean this genuinely, if such comments really upset you, I'm glad to stop making them. I have no desire to bum anyone out for something as silly as playful ribbing on a pinball message board. We've all got enough stress to deal with in life and I don't want to pile on more for something so trivial.

If I walk up to a machine nobody is playing and there is a credit on there I think hell yea. Just like when I walk away with credits on a machine so someone else can play. They probably think hell yea.

The most annoying thing for me in terms of pinball etiquette is people hovering over the game while you play. I was at a tournament recently where one of the participants, a 13 year old girl, sat a stool next to the game, almost leaned over over it, and literally mocked you when you drained. None of us wanted to say anything because we were from out of town and her father was running the tournament. There were others that stood very close too. It was a smaller place, but there was still enough room to give a player some room to breathe. This may be okay if you're hanging out and playing with your buddies, but certainly not a tournament setting.

I've also had instances where I'll be playing on location and a kid will come up and literally hang on to the glass to watch me play. I'm always hesitant to say anything because I'm just practicing and in a way it helps promote the future of pinball, but it's terribly annoying.

I really wish Hobbit had a buy-in function.

First of all, I thought my original post was simply an amusing little anecdote that was something different than the "where's the code" \ "where's Lebowski" \ "your favorite pinball game sucks" \ "it's only a dollar" conversation that is so prevalent on Pinside. I was not prepared for the hostility that I was subjected to afterwards. You don't think comments like

Or

And then there's the really passive aggressive posts that you added to the thread, @blueberryjohnson. Maybe you don't see them as being hostile, then perhaps you might take a step back and admit that you've really just added to the dogpile?

There have been some snarky comments at my expense in this thread that I'm humble enough to admit I had coming, but then there's other folks that just crossed the line into being straight up mean and yeah, it's upsetting. It doesn't matter if it's "only a message board" or "only the internet", it sucks to get gang banged for sharing your opinion. And the ALL CAPS was for emphasis. I don't write entire posts with my caps lock key jammed down. That's as annoying as signing ones posts.

Typical Cornelius - gets all riled up when people don't agree with him and seems unable to understand why. Also it's everyone else's fault and not his.

Everyone I know agrees - the only credits you own are the ones on the machine you're playing. Anything else is open season. You are literally the only person I've heard of who thinks different.

Nope, this comment isn't even remotely hostile. It's ridiculous of me to think otherwise!

at those upvotes racking up

"You're not punk, and I'm telling everyone. Save your breath, I never was one" - Jawbreaker

I really love the enthusiasm little kids show for the silver ball, but yeah, sometimes you just gotta be like "pardon me lil' fella but could you take your hand off the glass" or "please stop shaking the machine" and if that don't work, be like Louis CK and flip the little bastard off on the sly*.

*THIS WAS A JOKE. DON'T GIVE LITTLE KIDS THE FINGER. THESE WORDS ARE EMPHASISED

I think the proper thing to do in the little girl situation would be to call her dad over and quietly ask him to move her away.

Otherwise do what C says and give her the finger.

Louis flips his daughter off, but behind her back.

During a tournament? Yeesh. When kids bother me while playing I just trap the ball and wait for them to go away.

He also does a bit about this annoying kid in front of him in line that he ends up shooting the bird at, which blows the kids mind and gives the two a moment of understanding, child to adult. Pretty damn funny!

You should've yelled "THAT'S NOT A FREE DONUT BUTTON... BACK THE FUCK UP RICHARD SIMMONS"

Hostile? Hostile would be yelling or calling you names and shit. Your response is a perfect example of what I'm talking about - you totally fly off the handle at even the smallest perceived slight, blow it all up out of proportion, and then cry about the "Pinside cabal conspiring against you".

Maybe it isn't that everyone else is an asshole, and more that you might be misinterpreting things and playing the victim.

Anyway, sorry those "fat people" used the free credits on "your" machines.

What are you adding to the conversation right now jwilson that hasn't been said repeatedly and better throughout the thread?

As fond as you are of calling other people hypocrites, hot damn dude you certainly are one yourself.

29ab8624d75b6851d6549da77ad413ee_planet-of-the-apes-my-memes-planet-of-the-ape-meme_304-380 (resized).jpeg

If it was said repeatedly and better, why hasn't it sunk in yet? I mean, you're still crying foul about how everyone is out to get you. Like those fat people stealing your hard-earned credits. Right bastards.

Hey, maybe you should mention the fat people again. I didn't get it the first, or second, or third, or thousandth time someone said it.

And what's weird is, how on Earth do you know what's sunk in for me and what hasn't, you pompous choad? I feel bad about mentioning their weight (and I'm pretty sure I mentioned that) and I'm pretty convinced that if I'm not standing in front of a game, I no longer have any rights to any credits. Probably would have mentioned that too, but instead I'm having to reply to sycophants such as yourself that are just repeating the same damn thing over and over to win the Pinside popularity contest. If it isn't all about me, who are you having this conversation with?

Get bent, hypocrite.

At this point I'm more talking about the chip on your shoulder and taking cheap pot shots at your original premise. Glad you were able to get that part, but the chip is still there.

Not sure what's hypocritical here? Am I known for thinking everyone is out to get me and over-reacting?

How do these comments relate to one another, I wonder? Or will our audience insist upon remaining aloof in order to draw this stupid conversation out even further?

Guess what? It wasn't empty after all. The other patrons undid it for you, so no problem!

Holy sh!t
I was relieved to get to the bottom of the page and know a stroke wasn't happening.

only dreams now, Metallik. Only dreams.

Thanks for letting me know. Like I said, I have no desire to upset you or anyone else on here, and I'll choose avoiding intentionally doing that over making jokes every time. I hope you have a nice night.

I hope to leave you some credits on a machine too, someday.

Is your alias not Cornelius? I don't get how calling you by name is hypocritical?

Well @jwilson, for reasons I can't disclose at this time, I am not going to respond to you any further. God bless.