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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sumez" data-source="post: 57968" data-attributes="member: 1547">I think that's a pretty interesting balance.I think you were one of those people that recently recommended the "TOPcast" podcasts - I just listened through the entirety of the one with Pat Lawlor, which definitely raises some interesting issues on the subject of playability versus moneymaking. From his point of view, he seemed to care a lot more about the amount of money a table could make on site, more than there pure fun quality of the table itself, or the number of tables ordered by distributors.So for Pat Lawlor (and most other pinball designers, judging from various interviews over time), the two most important factors were exactly making the table fun, while still making each play as short as possible.A complicated balance, but a pretty simple equation: replayability / average length of a game = income for the operator. Mess up one of the two factors, and you've failed. He personally considers Twilight Zone a big failure, and that anecdote about the kid throwing up his hands going "I hate this game!" is really interesting. For Pat Lawlor it was more important to cater to the broad public, than to make a table that made the pinball geeks happy.However, it goes deeper than that. Most people who dig arcade games, and I'm especially seeing this on the topics of classic 2D shoot'em ups (another interest of mine) and pinball, really enjoy the "made to make money" tuning that is typically employed in arcade games.Games are shorter, and more difficult, while the best of them are far from impossible. A really well balanced scoring system can extend a game's replayability into the infinite, while each game session might be as short as a few minutes. A perfect recipe for those of us who lead busy lives, but still want to spend a lot of time to really get into their hobby. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />The issue here, that I often see people raise on this forum, is that most of these games were designed to be fun on the premise of the short playing sessions. If you play for an hour every time you pick up a game of Twilight Zone, the game suddenly isn't as fun as it were when you were playing sessions of a few minutes each, which the game was designed for. This really goes for most classic arcade game genres.So while I agree that pinball games made for home "should" be made easier, because they aren't made to make money, it's still doubtful whether it's a good idea to do that on otherwise faithful recreations of games that were originally designed to do exactly that.I'm saying "doubtful" here, because, to be honest, I'm personally enjoying some TPA tables a lot more than the real deal because they are easier. I'm at the point where I can reach wizard modes, but it's far from regularly.If I was better at the game, I would probably feel differently, though. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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