Does the player's value coincide with his record?

[fosforo]

Probably each of us play Pinball with the main objective to improve his records in each table, but the record itself is too much situational to be a real player skill indicator.

For example I'm totally stucked on Eldorado because I'm not able to obtain the "3 special" wizard goal; I've made hundreds of games and only one time I went over two millions (my record is almost 2.3M); 99% of time, my score is between 1M and 1.4 M, so this is my real level at Eldorado, regardless the fact that the leaderboards say that I'm a player able to score 2.3M.

So my proposal is to have a new game mode where is possible to start a session of 3 (5?) matches; after the conclusion of the last match, the player obtain his average score between all 3 (5?) matches, then with this average score he feeds an alternative leaderboard based solely on average scores.

The average leaderboards express better the real skill of the player and then for the hackers I think that is more boring to hack three scores in a row instead of just one, so I hope that we can have lesser shenanigans.

What are your opinions about that?

 

[Heretic]

personally? FIGJAM!

 

[Gorgar]

Idk. You would probably be able to cheat by restarting a bad game before the score registers.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Not exactly what you're asking, fosforo, but I think you'll find it an interesting read:

Lost in the Zone: Why You Don't Achieve at Least Half Your High Score at Least Half the Time

 

[fosforo]

Not exactly what you're asking, fosforo, but I think you'll find it an interesting read:

Lost in the Zone: Why You Don't Achieve at Least Half Your High Score at Least Half the Time

Thanks Sean, very very interesting.

 

[fosforo]

Idk. You would probably be able to cheat by restarting a bad game before the score registers.

Probably, but this is happens also in the normal mode; therefore if our session is -for example- 3 games in a row and you've made a very good first match, probably you don't want to restart after a mediocre second match, because you have yet the chance to obtain a good average score.
The average mode can't solve entirely the issue but in my opinion it can help lot.

 

[MadScience2006]

I speak only for myself here but personally, I play to have fun with the table/game. If I get a high score, it's just icing on the cake. If I happen to achieve a particular table goal, throw more icing on the cake and have it run down the sides. I nearly never set out to do something specific on a table. I have enough specifics to deal with in real life.

 

[Heretic]

i should be more officous

 

[MontanaFrank]

I speak only for myself here but personally, I play to have fun with the table/game. If I get a high score, it's just icing on the cake. If I happen to achieve a particular table goal, throw more icing on the cake and have it run down the sides. I nearly never set out to do something specific on a table. I have enough specifics to deal with in real life.

That's the way I feel about playing a table. I'm doing it for fun and sooner or later I will have one of those fantastic games. I'm not a pinball player who will hold a ball on the flipper in Multi-ball, for me, it's just not fun doing that. I want to juggle them all as long as I can.

 

[vikingerik]

One game takes long enough, now you want me to play five 12-hour games in a row for a Twilight Zone leaderboard slot?

I want to juggle them all as long as I can.

Thing is, trying to juggle them will keep them in play less long. This is a fundamental fallacy for novice players, all the type who say "I just want to keep the ball in play". Whacking at the ball is worse for keeping it in play than controlled catches and shots.

 

[fosforo]

One game takes long enough, now you want me to play five 12-hour games in a row for a Twilight Zone leaderboard slot?

In my vision, the session can be interrupted and continued exactly as it happens in challenge mode.

When you finish a game, for example the first one of the session your score is saved in the session but no average score is computed yet; when you want, you can continue the session, playing game two and three in the same or different time as said above.

Only when you have finished all the games of the session, the system will compute your average score and post it to the leaderboards.

 

[fosforo]

That's the way I feel about playing a table. I'm doing it for fun and sooner or later I will have one of those fantastic games. I'm not a pinball player who will hold a ball on the flipper in Multi-ball, for me, it's just not fun doing that. I want to juggle them all as long as I can.

Thanks for your contribution, but what you say in my opinion has validity in modern Pinball where you can have a solid theme, a lot of mission to do, a wizard mode to win and so on, hence you have a narrative dimension to explore.

In a old Pinball like ElDorarado that has a very simple and repetitive gameplay (for example when you hit 2xrows of Yellow and Green Target, obtaining the extra ball, you don't have literally nothing do do more) the pursuit of the record is the only goal.

Regarding this, the wizard goals are very very significant and they are a great addition that allow to mantain the player motivated as long as he can obtain all the wizard goals.

 

[Mark Miwurdz]

One game takes long enough, now you want me to play five 12-hour games in a row for a Twilight Zone leaderboard slot?



Thing is, trying to juggle them will keep them in play less long. This is a fundamental fallacy for novice players, all the type who say "I just want to keep the ball in play". Whacking at the ball is worse for keeping it in play than controlled catches and shots.

Of course. I often get asked 'how come the ball spends less time (on average) heading down the middle or to the outlanes on your games than mine'? Simple. I'm trapping the ball, using nudge effectively and making the ramps/targets. Flapping at the ball is the recipe for a crap game.