Having fun, watching the ball do cool things, and objectives. I don't care about score. Playing an exploit to get a large score has zero desire to me....

Score matters not, unless you are in a tourney. I want to get to the progress through the game.

I am an average player, and once I recognized that and stopped getting so frustrated with every ball drain pinball became exponentionally more fun. I like to work on certain objectives, work on my shots etc., and just enjoy the creativity and engineering that went into these great works of art.

If it's a game I've never played before I want to see what all the toys do and make all the shots . Score means nothing .

A colored screen is more important since I look up very often while playing.

If I'm playing in the arcade, it's all about the extra ball, maximizing play time, and trying to place my initials in a high score slot (there's nothing better than smugly walking away from a game with the high score music playing, and your initials flashing).

At home, it's all about progressing as deeply into the rules as possible. Getting extra balls and specials are nice, but since there's no "risk" in losing out on a buck or two, I just want to complete as many objectives as possible.

I just work toward "beating" the game, getting to the last mode, etc. If high scores happen, sweet, if not coin up again!

My goal is to beat the machine.

It depends. If I step up to a game that has a high score that I know I can't beat in the time I have to spend at that location, I ignore it and just progress through the game. If it's within striking distance, I'll go for it for sure and that's all I care about. If it get it, then I go and just try and beat the game.

On location? Earning a free game. Depending on the scores, maybe to crack the top 5 too.

Wizard mode or bust... Pre wizard mode, is multiball and jackpots.

I like to rack up the Super Bonus and the bonus multipliers on the old Bally games. On newer games I'm happy to get a few multiballs and figure out what the heck to do. Beating the current high score (even if it's one of mine) never gets old.

This ^^