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Message: <blockquote data-quote="StarDust4Ever" data-source="post: 84868" data-attributes="member: 3033">Basically, the whole point of a Pinball machine (or any arcade game) is not to entertain you but to steal your quarters. Thing is, people are more likely to spend money on a machine that provides some form of entertainment. Without hazards such as outlanes and cheap SDTM shots, even a novice player could potentially make his/her quarter last forever. There has to be some incentive to insert more quarters into the machine. They do this by providing goals to achieve and high scores to beat. "Almost" achieving a goal or a top score is an incentive to chink additional quarters into the machine. It's really a balancing act with the manufacturers. If the balls drain too quickly, the player will feel cheated and spend his/her money elsewhere. If the balls don't drain often enough, the player will hog the table forever on a single credit. However, if the manufacturer can strike the right balance, they will see a player dropping quarters into the same machine again and again. This is what earns profit and allows an arcade game to keep it's spot in the arcade. Tables/video games that do not earn money are quietly removed.I used to hate outlanes with a passion, but now that I have a deeper appreciation for pinball, I respect them and understand their purpose. There is only one table on The Pinball Arcade that I truly consider unfair: Central Park. It has two outlanes on either side of the playfield (no inlanes to speak of). Additionally, there is a massively wide gap between the table's stubby 2 inch flippers. This gap includes two separate center lanes through which to drain your ball. In fact, I believe your actually more likely to lose a ball through one of the six "drain lanes" than to save your ball with the flippers. I urge you to play Central Park a few times and then honestly say that the other tables in the collection "drain" too much. Google EM pinball tables and study their layouts. You will find that many of them have massively large drain areas for you to lose your balls in. That said, EM pinball tables have a charm all their own, and I wish TPA would release more of them.</blockquote>

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