How to unify silverball geeks with the other ones

The pinball community is one of the most welcoming crowds I’ve ever come across. It just works out: You leave your home and go outside but will never become anxious, bored or annoyed because if nothing else, you’ll hang out with at least one pinball machine. But you are also always in a social situation and can meet and talk to other players, either in your own hometown or in so many cities around the world. In terms of playing the game, there is no intimidation: We all know that it is as easy as pressing two buttons and see what happens. We all started there and always go back there again when we approach a new machine. People are mostly friendly and down to earth. And even if obviously not everyone agrees on everything, all pinheads will always acknowledge that they like pinball a lot.

Yet there is, of course, a gap between pinball people and those who don’t play the game at all or only very casually. The good thing is the easy onboarding which makes it so that it’s not hard to get a non-pinhead to play with you — at least for a few games. My go-to motivational speech is always the claim that everybody can always win against everybody else. Sure, the chances of winning are lower with a newbie than with a seasoned player. But it is way more likely this happens in pinball than in any conventional sports like Basketball or at a videogame. But whether your non-nerd friends believe this or not, they often only play to treat you and then steer away after a while. But what if you level the playing field and make the enjoyment equal for everyone? That’s where the cards come in!

Spatulas and balloons

Last weekend, a good friend and fellow pinhead was celebrating his birthday in a local pinball venue in Vienna. He was scratching his head around the question on how to bring pinfriends and non-players together by taming the skill barrier. He did his research and came up with debuffs and anti-perks which are printed (or in his case: written — see above) on cards. To remove all doubts on who is supposed to be in which group and thus eligible for receiving a card or not, the simple question “Who knows what an IFPA number is?” thrown into the crowd did suffice.

What followed was a delightfully creative and communicative way of playing pinball together. Those who knew how to play were eager to talk about the basics of play and the rules of the respective machine at hand. Each card, once activated by a pinball newcomer, made it so that the better player now had to perform one-handed or with their hands crossed. Or they needed to press the buttons with spatulas or balloons. Sometimes the scores or playfields were hidden, or the starting positions were swapped in-game. But my most favorite card was the one with the magnetic dice. At first I thought this would be really strong magnets that could manipulate the pinball. Alas, it was only little magnetic cubes that were part of a children’s puzzle. You had to put them correctly together while playing your ball though.

The evening was a blast. Everyone liked it, people were curious about other people and the machines. Cards were played, exchanged, and, of course, properly executed. If you ever thought about bringing your liked and loved ones who don’t play pinball into your hobby, I can recommend this method wholeheartedly.

Cool pinbally things:

• Pinball documentary for newcomers: Talking about new players, there is an increasing number of people who get into pinball recently, whether they come in from videogames or are just curious about the growing number of machines out in the wilds. Frank Howley of noclip 2 did an about half-an-hour long introductory video piece on the magic of pinball, featuring veteran designer Steve Ritchie amongst others. It’s just a bit strange that only guys are blabbering on about it, so someone please make another mini documentary where only female pinheads talk!

• Pinball book “A Quest for Mastery”: Tasker Smith, engineering laboratory manager at Boston University, wrote an extensive book on how to tackle professional pinball play. The book emcompasses the physical skill set as well as psychological aspects. Very interesting! Hopefully this can also be ordered outside the US soon. Kineticist published an interview with the author.

• The history of The Addams Family: The 1992 machine is still one of the most liked pinball game of all time. Online games culture magazine Design Room published a longform article about how it came to be (behind a paywall).

• Licencing in pinball: A second new piece by Design Room focuses on pinball licencing. Also, Kineticist has two (non-paywall) articles about this topic, one about Stern, one about American Pinball.

• Microflipping (Is it AI?): New Zealand arcade Ye Olde Pinball Shoppe made some waves a few weeks ago with their microflipping and tap pass reel on Instagram. Startled and astonished users flocked in, some of them surmising that AI was to blame. So they did another video to prove those human skills. He likes to do a cupping hand.