Quoted from beelzeboob:I don't know...I watched the Gomez video, and while I hate to sound like the boomer I almost am, I like just playing pinball by myself or with a friend. I have the same reaction I did when JJP introduced flipping Dialed In with your phone: Just put the f**king phone down already, play some pinball, and enjoy the company of good friends. I love technology...but only up to a certain point.
Looking at this from the perspective of the achievement tracking (which is the part I'm personally most interested in):
There's a lot of negative focus on the "phone" involvement in this thread. I don't think the mission statement is to get all the information specifically to your phone and draw your attention away from the physical machine (or the friends you're playing with), but to give you a convenient way to "log in" that didn't require you having to spend 90 seconds typing your username and password in using the flipper buttons.
The phone involvement, per Gomez, was to give you a way to identify yourself quickly to the machine and track your progress. That's the cool part-- the progress tracking, not the phone. He did indicate that if you really wanted you could just print off a QR code and carry it in your wallet.
I also got the impression that you could log in via your computer and check all your stats/progression that way, if you wanted. Since everybody in this thread clearly cares enough about pinball to contribute to a pinball forum online, the following seems like a reasonable use case for the phone averse:
1) Sign up, Print out QR Code
2) Walk up to Machine (location or home); scan printed QR code. Or don't, whatever.
3) Play pinball like you always have
4) Periodically, as often as you care to, log on and check your progress and stats.
^No phone required.