The Threshold of Tedious

[yespage]

I was curious about different pinball tables and the point where playing become tedious. And I'm talking about playing, not grinding with trapping all the time.

I was playing Scared Stiff and broke to about 133 million, which was about 90 million better than my previous high score. Obviously, this high score is no where near impressive on the Leaderboard, ranking in the 4000s. By my fourth or fifth extra ball (on my second ball), I was really starting to get board and wondered what drives people to score much much higher in that game (or many other games). Honestly, I always chuckle at the stiff-o-meter (I know, grow up!), but the repetition was getting to me, even though I was killing (in my own way) the table.

I recently broke 30 billion on Attack from Mars, and I'm not certain if I could ever get tired of that table. The rule set is too "easy" to get tired of it. There is always something to re-achieve. I think Monster Bash would fall under the same category.

I think I broke 100 or 200 million on Harley Davidson and I was ready to break my PS3!

 

[shutyertrap]

For me it becomes when you are just doing the same shot over and over or when the rules run out. Example would be Hurricane, where it just becomes wash, rinse, repeat, or something like Junkyard where there's little to do after you accomplish the wizard mode.

 

[ZRXMike]

Nice problem to have yespage!

 

[rehtroboi40]

I was curious about different pinball tables and the point where playing become tedious. And I'm talking about playing, not grinding with trapping all the time.

I was playing Scared Stiff and broke to about 133 million, which was about 90 million better than my previous high score. Obviously, this high score is no where near impressive on the Leaderboard, ranking in the 4000s. By my fourth or fifth extra ball (on my second ball), I was really starting to get board and wondered what drives people to score much much higher in that game (or many other games). Honestly, I always chuckle at the stiff-o-meter (I know, grow up!), but the repetition was getting to me, even though I was killing (in my own way) the table.

I recently broke 30 billion on Attack from Mars, and I'm not certain if I could ever get tired of that table. The rule set is too "easy" to get tired of it. There is always something to re-achieve. I think Monster Bash would fall under the same category.

I think I broke 100 or 200 million on Harley Davidson and I was ready to break my PS3!

You're right on about SS and JY-but SS does have the advantage of going for spider multiball. Other than that, you're right. Not much to do beyond that but keep playing tables that are set too easy.

Nothing is more tedious, IMO, than Safe Cracker. There are folks on the boards who have played more than 1,000 games and have 24/26 unique tokens, and probably have since the first 300 games they've played. If you want the wizard goal, you can have all the skill it takes to get the tokens, and you'll still get duplicates. Having to play it so repetitively is what makes SC so tedious, and easily the most tedious table on TPA. And that's saying a lot, considering some of the choices.

 

[弹珠台]

you should make a try on Dinner

 

[yespage]

you should make a try on Dinner

The question isn't whether it gets tedious, but when and why. Harley Davidson is a decent table rule wise but... And a game like Diner, at what point do you start pondering letting the balls drain?

For Scared Stiff at about 90 million I was getting bored. I haven't hit that with MM or AFM. But games like Black Hole, Big Shot, heck maybe all of them, they have a threshold where playing it becomes tedious and work, not fun.

 

[Heretic]

i dont consider such things a fault of rulesets or design on most tables irl the average player will loose the game before hitting the threshold, the short comings of a rule or design just stick out on tpas extended game times. for example while bop may be a one shot game in real life i could hit that thing all day..even with that bad boob job(god bless python) good soup!

 

[EccentricFlower]

I can't play any table long enough for it to get tedious

My longest play time on my best table (No Good Gofers) is maybe twenty-five, thirty minutes. And there's still plenty to do on that table - for all the fun I have with it, I've never finished all nine holes, for example. Most "wizard modes" on most tables are out of reach for me*, so there's always something to strive for. (I can get all the monsters in Monster Bash with reasonable regularity but I'm still working on getting all their instruments.)

The hidden benefit of being a duffer, I guess!

*Oh yeah, and I can get to the Stiff-O-Meter mode in Scared Stiff usually. Those are about the only ones.

 

[MIK]

Compared to the real iron, the TPA version of Scared Stiff plays like the table isn't slanted at the correct level. Gravity effecting the ball is much lighter than it is on the real thing. With a ball that acts lighter it changes the dynamics of the table design and why this and as well as some others are overly easy to play.

 

[Joelpbafan]

It gets to a point you play and play then you get to where you can play blind folded