Modern Pinball Design

"There was an interesting post on Pinside about how modern pinball machines are becoming too complex, that you lose track of the ball too often, that the shots are too difficult, that the code is too deep"

Modern pinball games are becoming too complex and confusing

"When the. Magnet grabs the ball and moves it across the playfield that is still cooler than any use of a magnet. I've seen since then the last 15 years with all the money and all the stuff we've spent on pinball people."

Modern pinball lacks mechanical innovation and magical moments compared to classic games

"I think spending too many hours playing pinball is kind of not a great use of time. I don't think pinball was designed to be something that should be 30 minute games 40 minute games."

Modern pinball game length philosophy

"what people love about pinball, it's what you love about pinball, it's what I love about pinball. It's analog. It's fully analog. And the more we see the digital world sort of infiltrate this analog game we love"

Modern pinball relies too heavily on digital elements in an analog hobby

"Too much modern pinball is overly complex. The rulesets are ridiculous. I don't want to know or need to know all of this stuff to enjoy the game to its fullest."

Modern pinball is too complex with overly complicated rulesets

"Can someone explain to me why an analog game is now so digital and everything is on the screen and we've removed the physical magic?"

Modern pinball has lost physical magic in favor of digital screens

"I am not spending seven to thirteen thousand dollars on audio video integration do you guys not understand this like you don't see any of those clips when you're playing a pinball machine this damn LCD screen has become the crutch for having empty barren games"

Modern pinball relies too heavily on video clips instead of mechanical innovation

"And I think everybody now knows that these designers stood on top of those engineers. And it's those engineers that made these designers great."

Williams engineers made designers great, not the other way around

"I'm getting a little nervous with this because if we go down this road where pinball is no longer a three ball, five to seven minute experience... I don't want pinball to go down this road... Pinball Machine is not a video game. And I think we're starting to see those lines blurred a little bit"

Pinball machines are becoming too much like video games with complex rule sets and required memberships

"This is the biggest problem in pinball today. There is too much of an emphasis on scoring and the people that are making these games are tournament players who love scoring and so much of the game is designed around the rule set"

Pinball focuses too much on scoring instead of magical moments

"I can't tell you how disappointed I am that when we pop the playfield on a modern game and there's barely anything underneath it, how there are so many apologists in the pinball world who will say something silly like, well, it just looks really clean now."

Modern games with empty playfields underneath are disappointing and apologists are wrong

"I think almost every modern pinball machine that I've seen over the last five years would benefit if the designer would simply lose one of the shots. Lose one of the shots, open up some of the shots and give the player a chance to have a little bit more room to breathe with the game."

Modern pinball designers should lose one shot to open up gameplay

"I think sometimes like when you pull more stuff out of the game... it's a pinball machine, right?"

Too much emphasis on screens versus physical playfield elements

"some of these machines are requiring a level of knowledge that has never been required in the history of pinball"

Modern pinball requires too much studying before you can enjoy it

"I think most modern Pinball games cannot be enjoyed by 99.9% of the public. Don't fool yourself. You really need to study these games and understand their rule sets to enjoy them."

Most modern pinball games are too complex for 99.9% of the public to enjoy

"I just don't think a pinball machine should require a half hour tutorial on how to play the game. There's just too much going on."

Modern pinball games are becoming too complex for casual players

"my head was spinning when they were talking about how the rules and the scoring to this game works... Good luck putting these kinds of pinball machines on location and getting people to figure out what to do"

Modern pinball rule complexity is becoming overwhelming and bad for locations

"I think it's fair to say that I mean from a from a design and mechanism and a creativity standpoint we haven't made games better than those in almost 30 years 30 years of technology innovation and the reason why it's like the same dudes making the games we need new blood and pinball"

Modern pinball lacks creativity compared to classics from 30 years ago

"pinball has become way too complex, way too hard for people to jump on and have immediate fun with. And I think that's a huge, huge problem. The diehards expect so much in terms of deep code and complexity. But majority people who want to play pinball and have fun don't really care about that."

Pinball is too complex and intimidating for casual players and children

"I really want to see in the new games that come out in 2016 and I want to see more magic I want to see more toys that make the ball do interesting things"

Modern pinball needs more magic and wow shots like older games had

"I think that for the casual person that even walks up to a pinball machine, it is impossible to figure out what to do with these new machines"

Modern pinball games are too complex for casual players without proper tutorials

"this is not a flow game that all the other competitors keep force feeding down with family outs and and everything else"

Raza is designed as a precision game for intermediate to advanced players, not beginners

"it's amazing to me how pinball went from being such a universally like easy to understand game that gave joy to millions of people to becoming what it is today, which is just an overly complex intimidating fucking game"

Modern pinball has become too complex and intimidating for casual players

"The whole operator market has completely moved away from pinball because it is no longer for casuals. People don't fucking get this. They have no idea what the fuck to do and your first pinball game is going to suck because you will suck."

Modern pinball is too complex for casual operators and players

"I mean look at modern pinball machines. You stand over them and you have no idea what to do. And a lot of these new games, they're so overly complex. There's all these complex rule sets of stacking this and stacking that. It's like trying to figure out calculus to play a pinball machine."

Modern pinball games are overly complex compared to Lyman's accessible design philosophy