Welcome and enjoy!
What will #2 be? It's just a matter of time

Congrats on your first machine purchase! It truly is a fun hobby. Just know that these damned things have a tendency to multiply.

The best advice I could give is get a sugar daddy or mama depending on your preference to pay for these crazy expensive light up boxes lol.

In all seriousness just play and have fun. The skills will come over time

Here's one of my walls of pins.

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The multiplication effect is so accurate. I started collecting less than a year ago with just one pin. Since, I've purchased a total of six! Three of them I've sold. It's such a fun hobby.

15 year old Danielle Peck [currently ranked 269th in the world, 15th among women, by the IFPA], pictured with reigning PAPA world champion Escher Lefkoff, 14, just days before she would go on to win the womens division at INDISC 2018.

perhaps some good advice for a new female player is to ...

... play like a girl.

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Run run far away before it's too late.

I actually agree with the post you made after this. I am a guy and would be wary of posting too much on the internet.

However, your ad hominem attack that I assume is about me is entertaining. I know you were speaking metaphorically but I hate Cheetos, chips and similar junk. I have a wonderful wife, five healthy and amazing young children and a social and challenging career. I have everything emotionally, intellectually and material that a person could want. If I am a "sad sack" of humanity that is wonderful because that means that the majority of humans are living a damn good life.

Say goodbye to your 401k. I can see it's too late to save you. Enjoy the ride.

Variety is the spice of life. Go for a machine that is different from the one you already possess, you would find Metallica is too similar.

Look for something like a Star Trek Pro to pair with your GOTG.

Game #2 should be TWD

I dunno, she will only have two machines...does she (a) want two machines by the same company and same game designer, and (b) does she want to have an LCD display game next to a DMD game (some people say it is off putting to them, which of course would make my ST idea a bad one for her as well).

Depending on what her cash threshold points are, perhaps she should consider a JJP game like Dialed In or Pirates...or sit tight and see what Sterns next offering or two may be (Iron Maiden and Deadpool seem to be the most often repeated rumors)...or look into TNA.

After I started playing in a league the pool of machines I like playing expanded a lot. Use Pinball Arcade to try out games you don't own, some of the rules and tables are really interesting and fun.

Both titles were programmed by Lyman Sheats. He also coded ACDC, The Walking Dead and is currently working on Batman 66.

My top three favs of all time are Walking Dead, ACDC, and Metallica.
Not sure how far down the rabbit hole you are just yet but if you have rules figured out on your guardians pin, you should watch some tutorial videos to see some of the code genius that is in these games.

https://papa.org/learning-center/videos/?target=tutorials

Oh and don't forget the sun screen. That Guardians looks hell a bright.

I think the single most important thing you can do that will improve your skills is play with really good players.
Watching someone better play, you just pick up some nuances about ball control, nudging, flipper technique, just about everything. And very quickly. Videos are ok, but not nearly as good.
Once you see some things that give you ideas, practice, practice , practice.
Then go play with good players again, get more ideas.
This is where/how tournaments will improve your game.
Warning: once you start beating some better players, they get pissy! This just means you're doing it right.

I don't often agree with DNO, but when I do, it's for the lulz. And this has always been LULZ to me. If you see me at a tournament looking like someone just murdered my dog right in front of me, it's because I'm pissed off at myself or a quirk of a specific machine. I'm not playing other people (Well, okay, I'll make a small allowance for games that have shared ball lock stealing!), but playing the machine.

I think my favorite phrase of all time in competitive pinball is either "I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO FLIP IT!" or "NOT LIKE THIS!"

Thanks for mentioning Danni. (I’m best known these days as “Danni’s Dad” lol) She’s actually 6th on the IFPA Woman’s main list.

I was gonna say, Danni and I were both in San Diego a few weeks back, and if I were you I would head along to the Harbortown Pub on Tuesday night. They have league every Tuesday, and there’s some good players there, including Anne Bush who is a killer player. The other guys there like Ron will help you out with the game rules. They have a GOTG there too.

https://www.meetup.com/sdpinball/events/ntwfhpyxdbjb/

NOTHING will improve your playing quicker than playing (and watching!) good players. You’ll learn more in one night at Harbortown than you will in a year of watching YouTube.

If you want to see some woman’s pinball action, here’s the final of INDISC in Banning CA a few weeks ago. Fast forward to 5:25:00 to see the 3 game Woman’s final.

rd

The proof of the pudding is the tasting thereof.

Pretty is as pretty does.

etc

Play for money that always makes it a swim or sink situation and makes you better. I personally enjoy playing for the fun of discovery and not knowing the rules and best way to get big points. But that's just me and there is something for everybody in pinball. Hope you get what your looking for.

Good for you, once you put the first one behind you the rest will get better as you become more comfortable with the tournament style of play.

Yeah they play different when you don't have socks stuffed in them. Congratulations your probably better than you think.

It's been a while since you posted @lucysuros. Are you still as enthusiastic about pinball?

Out of curiosity, did any hat eating ever occur?

The addiction continues. Now there are two pinball machines so great!

AFMr is an awesome choice, I cant get enough of my LE, I play it every day. It will force you to become a better player.
I generally play a 2 player game to keep the rhythm up as the games can be short and brutal.
Pinballgoddess loves her WOZ but also enjoys the MM.
GOTG is on our list down the road but after TPF2018 we decided on Houdini, it was a close call though.
I love the theme and soundtrack of GOTG !

So glad you're loving Pinball! You now have 2 games, up from 1 just months ago. Will be interesting to see how many you have in the coming years.

The specific terms of eating a hat were never met so no eating of a hat occurred.

Regardless, I admit that it is likely that Lucy Suros is actually a beautiful and successful person who loves pinball. I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again.

While that may be technically true, the spirit of your comment was that this person didn't exist or look like her picture and I think it's been proven that she's real and she owns the pinball machine she was asking about.

You really should have eaten some form of a hat (pastry or otherwise) just to show you're a good sport when proven wrong. So while she didn't technically meet your conditions, you didn't technically eat a hat. I think that would be fair.

How goes your enjoyment of the hobby after six months Lucy? Which advice did you take in the end on practicing?

Next time you have the glass off one of your pins play it and catch the ball before drains and place it back on the flipper to see what it takes to make that shot that seems impossible. For instance it is easier for me to hold the ball on the inside of the right flipper on Dialed In and then slowly release the ball but almost instantly gently flip it into the cell phone. Practice these over and over again till you can achieve that shot almost every time and by doing it with the glass off you don't have to wait till the ball reloads every time and by doing that and also like finding a better way to obtain sim cards and I bet the that nobody could beat you on your own machines. Ball control to me is what makes an average player a top playing and try to keep the ball speed down and 2nd to that would be nudging the keep the ball from draining either in the middle or on side exits.

There are Pros and cons to that method, but with the glass off you never learn important recovery skills that you would need to do well in tournaments.

She can do the recovery skills after putting the glass back on but just practice difficult shots when she takes the glass off for something else like when doing maintenance like waxing etc. Not asking her to always play with the glass off. Point is to speed up practicing.

I have had both and both are great choices. If I had to pick one I would choose the AFMRLE....its pretty amazing

Those are 2 great choices.
AFMr is a classic. Mine's not going anywhere soon.
Can't wait for my houdini to get here!

That's great to hear.
IMDN and AFMr make a great line-up!

You learn a lot from AFMR. It's brutal but rewarding, but it makes you a better player.

Good choice!!