How so? I'm not disagreeing with you, just curious what type of harm you mean?

technology in pinball should serve gameplay. Toys and fancy DMDs and Video screens that interrupt gameplay flow are tedious gimmicks for overgrown children that quickly get old, break easily, and mostly serve to increase profits for manufacturers. Real men play pro.

Fact!

How else can I watch the movie the game is themed after while I play pinball?

dup..ignore

Tournaments reduce play to finding the quickest way to score like playing Space Shuttle and only shooting for the drops and spinner. Some games get neutered or hacked to adhere to some arbitrary idea of what is best for competition. There is a fairly steep learning curve that requires specific game knowledge which becomes as important as good general playing skills. This learning curve, IMO, is a barrier to getting more people interested. Poor sportsmanlike behavior and complaints from people that have no idea what it takes to maintain a lineup of games also get on my nerves. For me, the extensive rules and egos suck the fun out of it..sometimes. In general, I'd prefer to play with friends with an occasional wager.

It's also saddening that most tournaments do not include EM games except for a few from the 70's. It often feels like it's the same 8 to 10 modern games. I'd love to see a tournament where the players come in expecting modern Sterns but instead get a lineup that includes a bunch of 50's and 60's EM's, cocktail pins and a few obscure system 80's....and Future Spa..lol

Fox Cities has exactly that kind of line-up.

I'm as guilty as anyone, I suppose, since my technique for our local Space Shuttle is catch ball, hit spinner, repeat.
That being said, I agree: gaming the system to get as many IFPA points as possible, getting emotional and flipping out when you don't perform well, rage-tilting, etc can all take the fun out of it. Very poor way of attracting newer people, as well.
Another pet peeve is people who say "x is a bad game because it's a poor tournament game." Who cares, as long as it's fun? More devalued games for me, I guess.

Perhaps it's different for different markets, but I see a lot fewer EMs come up for sale in my area, thus they come up less in tournaments. I do agree that they should be included in tournaments whenever possible, though. Also, I don't know any EM collectors, so any opportunity to play some EMs is welcome.

This is probably the worst aspect: it seems like there's so much reliance on ball save for some players. "I hate x because it has no ball save." Just disappointing. Maybe it's a rude thing to say, but if you don't want the ball to drain, don't let it: careful nudging, slap-saves, etc can save just about everything besides STDM drains. If it still drains, well, that's pinball. There's plenty of video game communities around for those who are bothered by pinball's mechanical aspects.
Also, aren't tournament directors always looking for ways to keep game times down on tournament games? Easiest way: bring on the classics!

I bet they're glad we have global warming !

709a09d2-879a-11ed-a75d-100e23d7ea4d (resized).jpeg

Literally chuckling out loud at people getting worked up about a pinball awards youtube show.

Like, you REALLY care at all?

And the organizers making a big deal about it with a "press release"

Speaking of awards. How did the Pinball show receive the best podcast award? Talk about an inside job lol.

It never fails, each and every time I decide to give it a listen, when I’ve exhausted my other podcasts, I hear so much childish bullshit.

The latest podcast was Zach acting gay towards pinball machines and den den. Talking about how pinball machines give him orgasms. What the fuck kind of shit is this?

IFPA is broken and discourages new players from participating.
Weekly Tournaments are a way of gatekeeping and doesn't provide a fun environment for newer or curious players.

Can you elaborate?
For example, I thought the whole idea of getting points based more on how often you play rather than how well you play was supposed to encourage people who aren't as good to keep attending.

Would love to hear any feedback on how to fix this.

We review our 'new player' stats every year worrying about whether we're hitting that wall of having found everyone out there that wants to play competitive pinball.

For 2022, 45% of the players that participated in an IFPA sanctioned event were first-timers. This is the second highest percentage over the last 10 years (2018 was slightly better at 47% first-timers).

That hasn't been my experience at all. Weekly tournaments and weekly leagues are the absolute best ways for newer players to dip a toe in the competitive pool. Less people, less competition and less pressure than larger events. As mentioned, please share what you're seeing. What is going on in your area?

Foo Fighters is a very bland band to my ears. Seems like there's no nuance to their music, just a wall of undiscernible guitars with vocals too melodic for me. Like it's heavy metal for moms.

And I hate any song about "Learning to Fly". Such a fucking lame cliche. That means you too Tom Petty and Gilmour's Pink Floyd.

that sapphire totan looks god awful

Emily Ratajkowski is overrated.

I don't know who that is.

The use of bill of materials within the community. First off, BOM is an acronym not an initialism, so if you’re gonna use it, say the word. More importantly, a BOM contains all raw materials of an end product, and therefore not a great product to describe the cost or amount of coils/mechs/toys/etc… A large BOM could simply be full of fasteners… rant over

Every time I hear a Podcaster say "BOM", my brain hears "bomb" and wonder WTF they're talking about.

Exactly

I'd rather quit pinball than be forced to own the TOTAN Saphire or NGG 2.0

The work of Tournament Directors and the pinball techs for shows and venues should be celebrated way more.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is not a "brutal" game like I've heard a lot of complaints about. I think it's just complaints from shitty players.

Most of the time, even they don’t know what they’re talking about.

rd

While I like what I see with the new JJP The Godfather pin, I think the movie is highly overrated (and the second two are borderline not good at all).

That Roger Sharp pinball movie has been available on Torrents for a few days now. Watching it later while I work.

Guys around here are uptight about torrents.

I watched about a half hour of it so far. It’s a chick flick with a single mom who starts to date again. I can’t stay interested watching it by myself.

Hollywood or wherever they produce movies hasn’t made one worth watching in 40 years. It’s all crap.

F14

A true turd to play - never mind the sucky warmongering theme.

DE Guns & Roses is SO much better than JJP GnR.

I thought that was the popular opinion.

I used to really like Fleetwood Mac music. I feel the music has not aged well and I’m pretty tired of them now. Enough to the point that if they come in the radio, I often change the station.

Here’s one even more unpopular. I downright hate The Rolling Stones music and always have. I guess Mic’s voice just doesn’t do it for me. There is one single song by them I like, and I admit I like it a lot, Hang Fire. And no, I don’t like what I’ve heard of the new album either.

Joe

I too could not care less about the Stones, but add to the list the Beatles, Elvis, and most of all Bruce Springsteen.

The internet was better when it was mostly nerds using it. I'm not quite graybeard enough to remember Usenet's Eternal September, but *do* remember when little fansites run by random enthusiasts were the norm and there were no juggernaut corporations like Facebook running everything.

FTP rules, HTTP drools!

I enjoy the smell of cow manure.

I root for the end of humanity

I used to be a lot more sympathetic and empathetic to mankind as a whole before my Boomer family got on Facebook.

Now, I care about maybe 3 people outside of my immediate family.

I am sick of Travis Kelce, Jason Kelce, old lady Kelce, their damn soup commercials, on and on. Please, just play football and spare me your presence in any other realm. I don't mind sports people doing a few commercials and being in the media as regards their performance and related items. But enough is enough, there's a saturation point. I can't turn on my TV, even to programming not pertaining to sports, without seeing these yahoos. And up until recently I was neutral on Taylor Swift, didn't listen to her music but figured if she could get rich doing what she did, more power to her. Now I'm sick of her too. So what do they do? Combine forces in some sort of unholy cabal of over-exposed simpletons.

I sorta agree except I never really liked Fleetwood Mac music except when Peter Green was a member. Even worse was Stevie Nicks solo stuff.

You can't turn on the TV, radio, or go online without being reminded of the Travis Kelce/Taylor Swift relationship. I didn't care if they are dating, I just don't need to be reminded about it every 15 minutes.

I have a buddy who goes on n on about Elon Musk, and AI. I told him that Musk is obviously his man crush, and robots will not take over skilled trades in the construction industry anytime soon. There’s no fn way that we’re ready for everyone to have an electrical vehicle that drives itself/charges on what we have today..