Quoted from Aurich:This topic has come up a lot over the years, and we always rehash the same arguments.
My fundamental feeling is you can't compare games. Even the same machine can play differently from week to week. Dirty and needs a shop vs freshly waxed alone is gonna play differently.
I understand the appeal, but to me at least if you want to compete with someone you gotta be there, on the same game, playing at the same time. Anything else just introduces so many variables that kills the legitimacy of the competition for me. You want to do it for fun and don't care? Hey cool. But it seems somewhat pointless to me really.
But maybe I'm missing different possibilities, I'm open to learning more. Just feels like that basic "compete over the internet" part is built upon a shaky foundation, whether it's my machine vs your machine, or me vs you on the same game on location but at different times.
I think there is room for both. I surely love to play against people on location but I’m not always able to. When it comes to home games I tend to think people take care of them and maintain them well. The incentive of beating others can also be a good drive to wax and clean and put the best chances on your side.
For locations, it also triggers my excitement as I’ve always wanted to confront my skills with a wider group than my local peeps.
The best analogy I can find is Street Fighter 2, I thought I was really good at it, used to beat pretty much everyone at my local arcade. Then Capcom brought it online and started worldwide tournaments, I took a huge slap (well my ego surely did) playing against people in Japan and went back to training sessions in a (somewhat desperate) hope to beat them.
All together there is a new spark in pinball and I see initiatives like the Scorbitron as a good way to spread our passion and make pinball great again.