Its a very valid point thats being made here... i dont have any DMD games in my collection, i just dont enjoy them that much.Very few actually grab me when i play them as i find them all to convaluted and complicated. I dont really want to be told that i have to get to this part of the pinball in order to progress to another level where ill more than likely have to do pretty much the same process over again.
LOL- when i played ACDC it took me a whole game before i realised i was meant to hit the centre FIRE button when the ball is in the cannon... when i did work it out, i didnt like having to take my hand off the flipper in order to do it... after 3 games, the machine had lost me.. and thats me.. a pinball collector who will give the machine several plays to see if i can grasp the machine or not.. i couldnt and i wasnt really interested in studying it to find out.
Now some kid in an arcade is going to insert a coin or swipe a card.. attempt to play one ball and by what weve been told... then walk away!.. why?? For all the reasons above i believe.
Personally, i like pretty simple games where i can knock the ball about... achieve multiball and then go for jackpot. Sometimes when im playing a DMD, i can see that jackpot is lit on the actual DMD but buggered if i can find where to go on the PF while ball is in play.
I know pinball progressed and as technology grew so did memory space etc and it allows for deeper and deeper games, but at the end of the day, the statistics from Pinfest show that the average game lasted only 3 minutes... so why are games structured to be played for much much longer?... thats a lot of features you are missing out on and if a kid doesnt get some kind of bang for his buck within the first game at least, then they are hardly likely to return.
Maybe pinball is like music.... we had prog rock in the 70's that became so complicated and up its own arse that it got blown out of the water by punk rock and the back to basics 3 minute song. Technique was pushed aside by sheer energy.
Theres a lot to be said for a 1970's "just keep the ball alive and hit as much as you can" Williams machine... basic, fast and fun!
