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Does anyone else rate pins on Pinside?

VeeMonroe

VeeMonroe

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Joined
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I'm lucky enough to live in London where we now have lots of pins on location, both in pubs and at pinball clubs. As such, since I got into pinball and we left lockdown, I've been on a minor mission to travel around playing as many different pinball machines as possible. When I've played a pin enough to form an opinion, I tend to rate it on Pinside (as an aide-memoire).

I realised this morning that I'd rated (and commented) on 94 pins! Not sure if that's some kind of (very sad & dorky) record...

Pinsider: Veemonroe » Ratings | Pinside Community

pinside.com pinside.com

I wondered whether anyone else rated pins on Pinside? And how you use the ratings/ranking system? I changed the weights on my rankings very early on because I realised I care much more about gameplay than theme, music or art.

If anyone wants to argue the merits (or demerits) of my ratings or comments, please do so - it's great to talk about games :) Most are 'walk up and play' impressions based on a few plays and I imagine, if I was better at pinball and owned some of them, I might form a different opinion.
 
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More importantly (IMHO) do people go back and change their ratings after they have had long play on a game, or when new games are released?

When TZ (or any other game of your choice) came out it must have got high ratings because it had stuff on it that had never been seen before, compare that now to a modern game and the sound, lighting, rules, etc. look decidedly 'of their age'.

I also changed the weightings because I don't care what the cabinet looks like, for example. It's all about longevity and game play for me.

My ratings do actually line up with if I was to rate the games in my preference just on feel.
 
Wayne J said:
More importantly (IMHO) do people go back and change their ratings after they have had long play on a game, or when new games are released?

When TZ (or any other game of your choice) came out it must have got high ratings because it had stuff on it that had never been seen before, compare that now to a modern game and the sound, lighting, rules, etc. look decidedly 'of their age'.
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I have been changing my ratings. Sometimes I go to a venue, play a couple of bad games on a pin, have an instant 'meh' reaction and like it more with further plays. A:IQ is a pin that has really grown on me as I've understood the rules.

TZ is a really strange one for me. I've played it loads of times to try to understand where the love comes from, and I just don't gel with it. I can't work out if I'm not good enough to appreciate it, whether I don't like the non-flow-y playstyle, or whether it's what you say - it just doesn't stand up in a room with modern Sterns and JJPs.

As someone who got into pinball during the pandemic, I've noticed that the older pins whose reputation depends on gameplay and not lighting/sound effects/gadgets, do seem to stand the test of time pretty well. Fun games are just fun games, I guess.
 
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VeeMonroe said:
I'm lucky enough to live in London where we now have lots of pins on location, both in pubs and at pinball clubs. As such, since I got into pinball and we left lockdown, I've been on a minor mission to travel around playing as many different pinball machines as possible. When I've played a pin enough to form an opinion, I tend to rate it on Pinside (as an aide-memoire).

I realised this morning that I'd rated (and commented) on 94 pins! Not sure if that's some kind of (very sad & dorky) record...

Pinsider: Veemonroe » Ratings | Pinside Community

pinside.com pinside.com

I wondered whether anyone else rated pins on Pinside? And how you use the ratings/ranking system? I changed the weights on my rankings very early on because I realised I care much more about gameplay than theme, music or art.

If anyone wants to argue the merits (or demerits) of my ratings or comments, please do so - it's great to talk about games :) Most are 'walk up and play' impressions based on a few plays and I imagine, if I was better at pinball and owned some of them, I might form a different opinion.
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Rating a game based on just a few plays in the wild is pointless imo.

Mind you I don’t really pay too much attention to ratings ,Popeye being the finest example of that 😎 - see my epic thread on the merits of the spinach guzzler.
 
Yes but you feel folks rate games they own very highly which skews the results towards the more common and newer games
 
Yeah I've done a few. It's all pinch of salt stuff really but is approximately right I guess. Creech should be higher and GB lower.

Screenshot_20220918-165415.png
 
Seems I have sold 3 of my top 4 and I love Black Knight more than the others. I have updated my scores over time . Funny, using a likert scale is good for comparison of apples and apples, but can't capture the je ne sais quoi and emotional impact a game has. For this reason, the score is not an exact science and flawed for anything other than a basic comparison.


Screenshot_20220918-171032.png
 
Doggard said:
Just for fun really, and personally I like to see everyone’s different tastes
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Yes, this :) I like seeing what different people like. I like finding different pins to play - a bit like collecting Pokemon.

I like discussing my different ratings with my husband, who likes different pins from me.

Also, it helps me to decide what to get as we're swapping pins out because I just look down my list!
 
I find that only certain aspects can be rated on location, mainly art & shots. Music & callouts usually can't be heard. Code you're probably not going to get deep into unless it's an older, simpler game.

IMHO to really rate a pin one needs to own it for a while.
 
Screenshot_20220919-071507_Samsung Internet.jpg

And for balance

Screenshot_20220919-070527_Samsung Internet.jpg


FWIW, I only rate games that I know inside outland have out extensive gametime on in a home environment.
 
You’re a braver man than me. I didn’t post my lowest ratings (you always worry you’ll get roasted by fans of specific pins) ;)

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Fubar said:
I find that only certain aspects can be rated on location, mainly art & shots. Music & callouts usually can't be heard. Code you're probably not going to get deep into unless it's an older, simpler game.

IMHO to really rate a pin one needs to own it for a while.
Click to expand...

The main reason I’m *relatively* confident rating off art & shots (for my own benefit, at least) is because:
a) I’m a classics fan, and;
b) We turn the music down on our pins because we live in a mid-terrace.
And this is standing up to home play, as well - we currently have three pins, and I actually play Flash Gordon the most. The non-Godzilla pin with complex code left first because I got bored by the shots… :)
 
Who cares what anybody else thinks of your ratings?
They're your personal opinion, as mine are mine.

Although seeing someone else rate Hook and Black Rose so low makes me smile.

I also rarely post in threads when people say that a particular machine is the best ever when I think it's a waste of spare parts.
 
Wayne J said:
Who cares what anybody else thinks of your ratings?
They're your personal opinion, as mine are mine.
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Some people on Pinside, apparently. I've been negatively flagged for several of my rating comments, which are frank but not spammy/outrageous (and I always try to say where I played and how long I played for - to make clear it's a matter of experience/opinion). And one guy actually private messaged me to verbally abuse me over my rating of Houdini :oops:

I guess mega-fans gotta mega-fan...

Wayne J said:
Although seeing someone else rate Hook and Black Rose so low makes me smile.
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Yeah, I noticed we shared opinions about those two :)
 
6742E18D-E2E5-4F6D-B84A-EE6A9FD7C671.jpeg
Admittedly haven’t played tons of games for long enough to rate them so have omitted a few- Really wanted to like Iron Man but the example I played was badly levelled. BTDK would be in there above WPT and so would GOT Premium but have stopped reviewing on pinside. Biggest disappointments were Stranger Things and IJ4- not my cup of tea. Godzilla shoots amazing and unlike a lot of you, I love GB!
 
Wayne J said:
More importantly (IMHO) do people go back and change their ratings after they have had long play on a game, or when new games are released?

When TZ (or any other game of your choice) came out it must have got high ratings because it had stuff on it that had never been seen before, compare that now to a modern game and the sound, lighting, rules, etc. look decidedly 'of their age'.

I also changed the weightings because I don't care what the cabinet looks like, for example. It's all about longevity and game play for me.

My ratings do actually line up with if I was to rate the games in my preference just on feel.
Click to expand...
TZ was way before pinside, so the opinions on TZ from the impression that poeple had after 2 decades of playing. Funny though, if the rating were around then they would have been bad. TZ was kind of a dud when it came out, it was a dog on route. The popularity came later.
 
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