At least you guys in the US have some form of etiquette.
Here in Germany people seem to think they own a machine as long as they are playing it.

I was at PAPA with a friend playing Aerosmith and having a really good game too. The tilt was liberal, outlanes manageable and extra balls were turned on, so wait times could get a little long.

I plunged the extra ball I earned on ball 3, because there was a line behind me and my game had already run longer than most.

I HAVE seen that here in the US, as well. Maybe not as *common* as over there, but it exists here too.

Bummer. I wished we'd share the experience of playing pinball a bit more.
I usually offer people waiting in line (or just looking interested) to join in.

The Dutch pinball museum has a policy I'm very fond of. It basically says, after your game is over, take a look over your shoulder. If somebody is waiting, he is next in line to play.

Oh heck yeah. I have a lot more fun playing with/against someone anyways!

Excellent policy. I always look over my shoulder and if there's anyone even eying the machine from a few over I'll always ask if they're waiting to play. Let's face it, everyone who's played on location for a while knows how to hover without standing on top of the guy playing and conversely you can tell when your playing if someone's waiting to play even if they're not standing behind you.

I was at a pay-per-hour place not long ago and this guy was playing Tron, game after game after game. They'd just gotten it and I wanted a go so I hung out nearby for a while, even played a couple games of whatever machine was next to him but he wasn't picking any of it up so finally I stuck a quarter on the lockdown bar like we all used to do back in the day. He got a big attitude about it once his game was over, telling me he was just trying to get better at it or something. Not a kid either, guy looked 30-ish. I just shrugged and told him to figure it out, my days of escalating issues are over but jesus some faces are so punchable.

Lol great line !! So true!

That's a great policy.

Mine is slightly different. It's something like this.

Look over your shoulder after your next game. If someone is standing there invite them to play.

Rinse and repeat, fill the 4 players, if possible.

Growing up in the 80s arcades I think we were just all cool to each other. It became the norm.

I do tend to skip playing pins on location when there are a lot of kids around. But I've been know to drop quarters in for the kids I won't play with. I have even gone so far as to explain a small bit to them about pins, if they ask. But I am more likely to just quarter them up.

For me it's all about the venue. When there are a lot of family's around, I won't even try to play games unless they are empty. Just personal preference.

Last time I played location pinball I was behind this hipster kid on BSD. After he started his 3rd game I got all Judge Reinhold close and said despite what you think I'm not standing here admiring your skills, I got next game. And just stood there. When he walked away I yelled WTF and snarled at him. Good times at the PinVault.

A perfect example presented herself at Pinfest around 6pm on Saturday. There was a Gottlieb Mario Andretti in freeplay and I'd never played one so I had been wandering past it every so often. Getting late though so I figured I'd better make it happen. When I walked up there were three little girls playing a 3 player game with a mom/babysitter watching over their shoulders. NBD, I stood back and waited. The girls were starting to lose interest mid ball 2 and the Black Hole beside them had just opened up, so mom shoo'ed the kids over to Black Hole and started them a 3 player game on it, then finished their game on MA. Then she started a one player game and played through it, had a decent score too. By this time I was standing behind her and a bit to the right, watching but unmistakably waiting for the game. Without a glance (her body language said she was well aware of me, but..) she went ahead and started another game. I said, "Excuse me, I believe it's my turn."

Fire from the mountain top! She started coughing and sputtering like an old lawnmower with water in the gas, finally got out: "I've only played one game." I responded, "And I've played no games, this is how sharing works." "But I want to play another one!" I started to tell her I wouldn't be long but she interrupted a few times with non sequiturs until she finally exploded and screamed in my face, "You are the RUDEST person I have EVER met!" To which I calmly replied, "You must live a very blessed life if that is true." I then turned away from the mushroom cloud forming and plunged my ball. She ripped those three girls off the Black Hole and dragged them off into the crowd, never to be seen again.

Lol emkay that's fantastic! From the Michigan show this weekend - my fav was a guy that just creamed it on the hobbit playing an epic 45+ min game, beating it, and putting up a massive gc score while people waited to play behind him. To be fair - it was totally ok for him to stay on but the harlarious part was his obliviousness to people waiting -- he would get super excited at points and seemed to believe everyone else behind him was just as excited for him as he narrated what he was going to do next, what mode was coming up, and how he just needed to shoot this hole or whatever for an extra ball - after which he would proceed to hit it and flash a surfer hand sign and turn around and be like "yeeeeah" while others in line rolled their eyes behind his back and put their fingers up to their foreheads and pulled the invisible triggers.

Luckily I was waiting for dialed in next to it but was so so tempted to casually pull the power plug and walk out of the bldg as all chaos ensued.

Or you could have offered her to share a game. What is it in this topic with rushing into extremes?

Well she could have offered.. just totally rude to hog it with someone waiting behind. Don't think it was extreme to ask for his turn

I often share games with strangers but I feel confident in this instance that would not at all have been amenable to her. If you think it's extreme for me to ask for a turn after waiting patiently through four games, then I suppose I am an extremist.

To my eyes she was an angry, miserable person taking it out on everyone around her and I wouldn't be at all surprised if a great many of her interactions with people follow this general pattern.

I also had an interesting situation at Allentown. I was walking through the rows and saw a Hook. I thought, "I have a Hook. I wonder what I can do to this one." So I got in line behind the guy that was playing. It was crowded on the machines on both sides but I looked around for a few seconds before easing behind the guy to wait.

Suddenly this tiny lady appears at my side. It's almost as if she's trying to get in front of me. I find these situations humorous so I just stand there in silence to see if she will say anything.

The guy in front gets done and nods to the tiny lady like he knows her but I go ahead and play. Nothing else happened but I just thought it was funny and weird she stood so uncomfortably close.

The game on Hook was interesting. I drain two balls barely getting a million. I ended up with a long ball 3 and getting a decent score. It was redeeming.

I have a method with a 97% success rate. If I'm at a location (quarters, timed play, doesn't really matter) and I'd like to play a certain game, I'll hang back. If the player credits up again without checking over their shoulder, I'll ask (between plunges, so I'm not interrupting too much) "Hey there. Mind if I play next after this game?" The response is almost always "Oh, uh, sure, ok."

Most of the time it's someone who either isn't up on pinball etiquette or is sorta not paying attention to their surroundings. Once in awhile a person is just being a jerk on purpose, but I never get yelled at/cursed at, etc. Just a friendly request to play later on, after they are done. Many people are just a little clueless at times (I know I am) and this seems to go over better than saying 'its my turn to play right now' or quietly fuming until I vent out my verbal frustration.

Hmm.. I don't think I've ever been queued on location .. nor have I queued, is that normal? Usually there's always something open to play.

True- queuing isn't super normal. Like you say, usually there is plenty to play. But sometimes you're really there to play Safecracker, but everytime you've peeked over, the same person is on it.

Also, customers of my retro arcade sometimes ask us to help them with someone who's been hogging a machine. I've tested out a number of ways to do it, but asking the variant- "Hey there. Mind if he/she plays next after this game?" seems to be the best way to ensure neither person ends up with a bruised ego =)

Location pinball is not normal around here so if I travel somewhere to play, I usually want to try everything.

I'm spoiled, location pinball here is STRONG. This weekend one of the local places is having a funk/fusion band play from 7:30-midnight, free play and BYOB. Hell yes I will bring a cooler and play your 60+ games for $12.50 a ticket!

I've always been one for etiquette, if there's a queue behind me I play 1 game and walk away. I remember though being utterly infuriated waiting to play a SS at a show, I walked up behind a girl who was playing single player but had put 4 games on the machine, I decided to wait behind her as you do.

She finally finished her 4th game (honestly she was pretty rubbish as most of her balls were lasting about 20 seconds, or coming back with the ball save) and she actually looked around, saw me standing there, and then put 4 more credits on and continued to play! Talk about ignorance of your surroundings. I gave up and played the game next to her until she finished. I didn't have the patience to say anything then but I would now.

A sad, lonely person who starts a four player game probably thinks they are being pretty clever, oblivious to how pathetic the tactic really is.

A funny way to confront them might be to calmly ask them, "Excuse me, did you pay for four admission tickets today?"

Violent pacification works well too.

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I generally like to enter the arcade with a flying double roundhouse kick to the doors. Sets the tone.

I prefer "The Crane" my self, as an homage to The Karate Kid.

I sweep the leg of the pinball machine after every drain.

LOL.