Why isn't WoOz used in tournaments?

[PinballLizard (Mark Wyda)]

Maybe it is, but I haven't seen them. Star Trek and Metallica were everywhere as soon as they dropped, but I've yet to see Wizard of Oz in any of the papa.tv circuit tourneys. Why is that?

 

[stevevt]

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/when-will-we-see-woz-in-a-papa-circuit-event

 

[DanBradford]

interesting pinside thread.

the simple answer i'd have given is that it's a load of old bollocks and loads of people don't like it. in the UK at least i know this to be the general consensus from reading the UK pinball forum and UK yahoo pinball group.

i for one am really hoping Jack doesn't drip drip drip feed us info on the Hobbit, but instead just releases it finished (ok probably with coding to complete) like Stern does. i was so hopeful for WOZ but i just think however stunning it looks and sturdy it's built, it's just boring to play. and all these people saying it's like TZ are kind of missing the point.

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

From what I can get from there, there are three reasons why Wizard of Oz is not used in tournaments, at least with the 2.0 code:
1. It was impossible to turn off extra balls.
2. Ball locks were physical, allowing other players to "steal" them. (Personally, this should be a valid mechanic, but hey, their tournaments, their rules.)
3. There are a lot of randomized things on the table.

In other words, until the 3.0 patch came out, there was no tournament setting for Wizard of Oz and no guarantee every player could play on an even field. The quality of the table is irrelevant, as Tee'd Off, which I get the impression is not exactly the most well-liked table on these forums, was used for It Never Drains in Southern California. (Notice that The Simpsons Pinball Party, which IS a well-liked table, is rarely ever used in competitions for the same three reasons.)

I had actually previously thought it was because Wizard of Oz's monitor makes it difficult to stream properly with PAPA's current video layout.

I'd also be interested in what people don't like about Wizard of Oz in the UK. I've never played it myself, and I don't think it would be one of my favorites, but I like to hear opinions about it.

 

[Espy]

Some tables do have physical ball locks but still keep an electronic counter of how many balls a player has locked. For example, Monopoly and I think LotR. If player 1 has locked two balls, when player 2 locks a ball no ball will physically lock but the game will remember that he has locked one ball. Some goes if a player has locked more balls than are trapped. Balls will just be fired from the launcher.

 

[vikingerik]

Yes, Twilight Zone does that too. The physical balls trapped can get out of sync with a player's lock credits in many ways, like if any player starts any other multiball, all balls are released from the lock because they're needed in play. But the game perfectly remembers everyone's lock credit and launches whatever's needed for any multiball. This requires an auto-plunger, so some games like Whitewater, TOM, TOTAN can't do it and require the player to re-lock any missing balls before starting multiball.

Some games intentionally allow stealing another player's locked balls. Pinbot is probably the most notorious.

It worries me a bit that JJP isn't cognizant of such things that have been already figured out by other pinball designers, but hopefully they will learn.

 

[Carl Spiby]

Pinbot doesn't allow stealing of locked balls. It releases the locked ball back into play when you drain out of 2 ball multiball.