What's new
Pinball info

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Machine popularity rankings - snapshot Dec 2015

cooldan

cooldan

i like pizza
Joined
Jul 21, 2011
Messages
6,456
Location
Ealing, London
hey guys. ok we all know it's meaningless, but it's still fascinating (to me anyway). i ignored all the multiple versions of newer games and just used the most popular one - usually the LE but not always. some newer games like FTh and Kiss and GOT have yet to get enough votes to feature on the lists.

file attached plus the top 100 posted below as an image. pinches of salt needed as always. these don't reflect anyone's opinion (nor mine), they're just what the communities on ipdb and pinside have done, as a snapshot in time in December 2015. this will change next month and every month but i'm not doing it again til next year.

i was bored ok. nice candlestick effect in the middle there, mid sixties.

top 100.png
 

Attachments

  • Pinball Machine Ranking Dec 2015.xlsx
    28.1 KB · Views: 13
Last edited:
Interesting reading, I'm glad to see that my pin makes it into the top 100!

I'm sure that a lot of people are finding things to be surprised by but one that stands out to me is that Indiana Jones comes in at number 4, from what I've read I thought that this was a disliked game, not that I've had much time on it.
 
The obvious point of note here is that despite the passing of twenty five years, the folk who contribute to these indices still rate the best wpc games as better than the best modern Stern games.

Now had you looked at this list in 1995, I can't imagine electro-mechanical games or early solid state games being ranked more highly than the wpc ones.

Not only are the top 5 all wpc, Stern only secures one spot in the top 10. I think that this is quite damning of Stern really.

But for Stern fans out there, recent ones like Lord of the Rings, ACDC, Star Trek are at least contenders now

I can't think of too many tech/ engineering based areas of consumer/ leisure type products where the stuff 20 years ago (think tv, camera, cars, phones, games consoles, music systems, video recorders, bicycles, clothing .....) was so much better rated than the modern ones.

Certainly the proper Mercedes, VW etc of 30 years ago were much better built than today, but the modern ones are faster, more fuel efficient, better suspension etc etc
 
While a lot of machines seem to rank similarly on both charts, it looks like newer Sterns get a lot more loving in the Pinside chart than they do on ipdb.

Is that just down to the way the rankings are calculated or is there some kind of "cultural bias" between the different sites user bases? One only uses reviews from a recent period vs the other using reviews back to the start of the site or something?

Interestingly WOZ gets the same rank on both sites (19) which seems to break the above pattern. Maybe Stern employees have a greater voting weight on pinside? :p (edit: Just noticed ST:ID gets ranked 16th on both charts too. My bad.)
 
Last edited:
It's worth noting that IPDB's ratings have only 4 categories - Art, Audio, Playfield, Gameplay, whereas Pinside uses 16 categories which can be weighted by the user. I weigh my ratings towards gameplay and sound, as these are the most important to me. I think a lot of other Pinsiders must do too, which is why Sterns rate higher on Pinside.

The 25% rating for art on IPDB drags Stern down, if only they would ditch the photoshopping then they would rank higher. Games like AC/DC are never going to rank very high on IPDB with so much weighting on artwork, which is a shame, as it's a great player.

I say for a more realistic view, take more note of the Pinside chart rather than the IPDB one.
 
We should do our own U.K. chart.
Not sure how ? Maybe send in your top 10 machines ?
Now who always seems to have plenty of spare time on his hands? @cooldan gets my vote.
 
We should do our own U.K. chart.
Not sure how ? Maybe send in your top 10 machines ?
Now who always seems to have plenty of spare time on his hands? @cooldan gets my vote.
 
I would be interested to know how many times people have played a game when they vote
 
RGV said:
Can you do Robert Frost?

Bonus points if anyone (at all) recognises that obscure reference ;)
Click to expand...
I have only just got this now after starting to play the remastered version last night... That is, assuming you are referring to Grim Fandango!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom