I've played it on three occasions. About a year and a half ago I played a early or pre-production game at Jersey Jack's open house. There was a long line and it was a quick in and out. A couple months ago I had the chance to play a few games at a collector's house. And just before Thanksgiving an old buddy of mine took delivery of his, and I've played a fair number of games on that since.

I've been looking to move my Monopoly for a more playable game (in the sense that I'm not a casual player, but one that works at mastering machines).

Given the current code and gameplay, I find LOTR to be a much, much more enjoyable experience to actually play. The big video board and small mini-screen and strike plate button are just things to distract you into losing balls. With LOTR, I know exactly what I need to do based on the callouts, playfield, and where I am. I am not there with The Hobbit. It's not as clear - from the playfield and audio what I need to do to build towards long term objectives. I don't mean to be too critical. From the three machines I've played, I've seen a progression of the rule set. But then it also calls into question just how long it is taking to build out the basic functionality of the game as opposed to just fixing bugs or tweaking gameplay. We may not really be able to tell how good The Hobbit is or will be for a couple years at this point, and that's not normal for pinball machines.

As a spectator, the game is phenomenal. The video screen is glorious. But I definitely hope they continue to develop things. The mini-screen seems underutilized.

Right now if someone said they needed space and wanted to park a machine at my house for a year and I could choose between The Hobbit and a 13 year-old Lord of the Rings, I'd take LOTR. But check back in a year - assuming they keep developing the software.