OP

Quoted from kpg:

I can't help but think there is significant innovation potential in pinball, right now.
This generation of kids are growing up where single player gameplay has almost completely died off, and multiplayer games rule all. Many video game companies are even releasing multiplayer-only games, focusing development on the multiplayer experience instead of the single player campaigns/stories/etc.
Pinball will always be a great game you can play yourself, or with more people at your house. Nothing will change that, and that nostalgic part of pinball will always mean no matter what happens with technology, a pinball machine with mechanical moving parts will always be a hit when playing together with friends and family.
But - with Stern moving towards an LCD, and also SPIKE 2.0 and JJP's game #3 coming soon, I can't help but speculate we are very close to taking classic pinball and merging it with current technology.
Imagine being able to add fellow Pinside 'friends' to your machines, and having an internet connected pinball tournament at specific dates and times? Maybe even have a webcam on the head of the table for streaming - since pinball streaming is pretty big right now as well. You could get a small video feed image of your group on other people's screens (if you desire of course)
Imagine leader boards, with rankings and other aggregated statistics and information. Of course, there would be "Player" rankings and also "Officially Ranked" leaderboards for those who deviate from original factory settings in software vs people who stick to the tournament play settings. Of course there could be cheating, but thats the case with anything nowadays. I'd like to think the pinball community is much different then some cheating teenage hackers though, but that's a whole other topic for discussion.
So, who thinks this could be coming up - and who would be interested in connecting their pins to the internet and playing multiplayer pinball? It would be cool to set up tournaments with others here on Pinside on certain times/days and go head to head. There are endless ideas and possibilities. One of the biggest benefits though: getting the current generation of kids more involved with pinball, and mixing the physical characteristics of playing pinball but adding the benefit of worldwide connectivity.. kind of like the current Pokemon Go thing, where people are mixing reality with virtual goals and achievements.