It is normal, not right, but normal.

Rankings are absolutely meaningless. Yet it seems 25% of threads on pinside are about what's ranked where. Pay no attention to them, play pins with an open mind and no preconceived notion. You will discover what you like. Ignore the masses.

Ratings can be a joke sometimes.

I agree with most of this. That may sound strange, but I do. The rankings are an indication, a tool. Compare it to the music charts. Who here likes Justin Bieber? He's in all the top 100 charts, he must be good right? Of course not! (Sorry Bieber fans)

Look at the rankings as a way to organize machines. I'm gonna be adding some new features to the machine ratings and to the rankings list but ideas are still brewing. In the meantime, do discuss the rankings - it's a great topic to talk about - but realize that your opinion (or what you consider to be the common opinion) is not always what everyone else has in mind. I for one think it's blasphemy that a great game like Mousin' Around is beyond #100.

Rankings are not meaningless, but they're in no way set in stone. It's the average opinion after all. If everyone would agree to the Top 100 list, that would mean everyone feels the same, pretty boring if you ask me.

I think you got to look at it this way. A machine will end up where it belongs in time. If people see a machine and think it's too high on the list, they will vote it down. Same goes the other way around. So given enough time and a high enough sample rate a machine will settle at the spot it belongs.

And because Pinside compiles a list only every week, this process goes in steps. People see a machine rated too high, lots of people will vote it down. The result is that next week it will be too low, so other people will vote it up. Given time the sample rate will go up, meaning that the steps will be smaller each week (because individual votes don't influence the score so much anymore). I don't think this necessarily is a bad thing, like most things in life it just takes some time for a machine to find its rightful place. In the end it will...

I agree with Gweempose however (other topic), that if a machine has received below a certain amount of ratings, it should been shown somewhere that it's new, so that its rating should be taken with a grain of salt (as all ratings really, but that's another discussion).

This is exactly right. Ratings are a good general guide for older machines. New stuff ranks high just because people are fired up about it.
Play whatever you can. Make up your own mind. Use the ratings as a general guide to what other people think.
You may love a low rated game and hate a high rated one.

Rankings are an indicator or a tool like Robin states. However, like any tool or data if compiled or used incorrectly it becomes damaging. In business we have a saying "bad data is worse than no data because we make decisions off of information". Now, it would be great if everyone could play all the games before they buy, I agree with this notion, but unfortunately that may not always be the case. So rankings and reviews play a role. I for one would like to see a requirement that a machine must get a minimum number of reviews to help weight the rankings before a new pin can make the top 10. It simply will help directional learning. Ratings will never be perfect but they are directionally helpful - if guidelines support them.

Time will tell.Although rankings are arbitrary,I always jibbed with the Pinside list.At the end of the day,to each his own,especially the experienced players/collectors on here.Scott

Ratings are fun for me and pinside is the best system but not perfect.Keep up the good work Robin and maybe the trolls will grow up.

Any ratings system is only as credible as its users. Unfortunately there appear to be plenty of users here that abuse the ratings system. You have people actually admitting that they rated a pin lower than they actually think it should be rated simply to bring the overall rating down/closer to what they think it should be.

In other words if a pin is rated an 8.7, and they think it should be rated a 7, they will rate it a 4 or 5 in an attempt to skew the results towards their opinion.

Don't worry. Once people actually start playing Tron, you'll see it drop like a stone in the rankings.

I personally think that there should just be one ranking for Tron, AC/DC, Transformers, etc... Most people who play one on location (the few out there these days) will have no idea which version they play. To me it is like having a different 'Taxi', one with Marilyn on the backglass or Lola on the backglass. It's still the same game. Or ranking a 1967 Mustang on the list twice, one GT versus one that is non GT. I don't know, just my opinion. I am sure most people on here would disagree with that thought, but to me it makes the rankings not make any sense. Eventually the top 10 would just be 2 Transformers, 2 Trons, 2 AC DCs, 2 WOZ.... I don't know, seems crazy.

People using their time wisely and putting their opinions in the rating system, not so much the forums. Just sayin'.

TF...??? Really Yeah I see how that could rate higher than TOTAN......

I totally agree with the doctor on this one. I couldn't care less where my collection ranks on the list. Of course if I'm selling a pin, a high ranking couldn't hurt.

I think it's pretty simple. For the most part as newer games are released (say Tron and AC/DC), they have a captive audience...their owners. There's no way in hell someone that just shelled out $8500 for a Tron LE or 9k for a NIB BIBLE would rank the game anything but super high marks...even if they hated it. As these games get played more..and they change hands...the ranking will come around.

I know I'm a video guy before pins. The Tron arcade is one of my favorites and I really liked the movies. I was so pumped when I found out they were making a pin I couldn't wait to get one.

I went to the Playdium Store to buy one with cash in hand....played 10-20 games there and was completely bored. Tried it again at a locals...still did nothing for me. Put on another dozen games at PAPAs...still nothing. I REALLY tried and wanted to like it...it was a complete snoozer for me.

Minus the art package this game did absolutely nothing for me..and it was as close to my grail theme as could be made.

Just giving an example, my pinball friend, of what I think the ratings will become, not that I agree. No matter what though, not everyone will be happy no matter what they say.

It's all good, that is why I used the smilies insert.

The Pinball Republic makes it's ratings of systems in the long run, their shall be bumps of inconsistencies but during the long run the ratings are quite judicial.

you also cant rate a machine the has not been updated with the complete code.....

But when can people say the code is done . . . unless Stern (or another manufacturer, as the case may be) officially announces the code is incomplete and will be updated then who is to say . . . wasn't SM's last code update done in the person's free time? That isn't even an official code update, one could argue.

It will be interesting to see what the rankings are this coming Monday.

Yeah well SM and TDK would be the same as well...