Episode 53 – The 2017 Pinburgh Preview Spectacular

TL;DR

Slam Tilt Episode 53: 2017 Pinburgh preview with focus on Star Wars complexity critique.

Summary

Key Claims

• Tim Sexton is restricted to A division at Pinburgh due to finishing in B division finals at Papa and top 50 IFPA ranking

  high confidence · Tim Sexton stated directly on the podcast that he is 'restricted to A division for two reasons. one of them is the B division finals which guaranteed I was in A division for at least one year and then also the top 50 IFPA restriction guarantees I'm in A division as long as that holds true'

• Stern's Star Wars pinball has a shot multiplier that goes up to 40x and requires constant manual management via button presses

  high confidence · Tim Sexton detailed the multiplier mechanic extensively: 'Shot multipliers start at 2x and can be toggled on or off with the action button... Hitting any three banked target increases the shot multiplier by one up to a maximum of 20x. The overall multiplier can be doubled, making a maximum shot multiplier of 40x.'

• The Star Wars multiplier rule is more important to competitive play than actual pinball skill, elevating knowledge/metagame over flipper skill

  high confidence · Tim Sexton: 'This is not a pinball skill. This is entirely a knowledge and rule set skill. This is not a flipper skill. This is not a nudge skill. this is not a flip or catch, entirely game knowledge. And game knowledge that actually dominates the entire game.'

• Pinburgh 2017 features 72 banks of machines with categories: DMD or later, EM, late solid state/early DMD, and early solid state

  high confidence · Bruce Nightingale confirmed: 'There is a DMD, an EM, a late solid state or early DMD, and an early solid state.'

• Tim Sexton scored 100-200 million without using the multiplier on Star Wars, but over 1 billion with it

  high confidence · Tim Sexton: 'without using the multiplier, my game would be like 100 to 200 million. With the multiplier, I'm always over a billion.'

• Pinburgh check-in will be available at Pittsburgh Pinball League headquarters on Wednesday or at ReplayFX on tournament morning

  high confidence · Discussed email from ReplayFX: 'you can check in at some Pittsburgh Pinball League headquarters or something somewhere, and you can do that Wednesday, or at ReplayFX the morning of the show'

Notable Quotes

• “I believe that the metagame has reached a point where it is more important than the regular game. And the reason I think this is because I believe that it is now impossible to win a stern pinball game against someone who knows what they are doing, no matter how different in play you are.”

  Tim Sexton @ ~middle of episode — Core thesis of Tim's critique on Stern rule complexity

• “This is not a pinball skill. This is entirely a knowledge and rule set skill. This is not a flipper skill. This is not a nudge skill. this is not a flip or catch, entirely game knowledge. And game knowledge that actually dominates the entire game.”

  Tim Sexton @ ~middle of episode — Tim distinguishing between game knowledge and fundamental pinball mechanics

• “without using the multiplier, my game would be like 100 to 200 million. With the multiplier, I'm always over a billion. Like that's the difference in scores you have just by knowing about this multiplier and bothering with it.”

  Tim Sexton @ ~middle of episode — Quantifying the impact of the multiplier rule on scoring

• “They took, like, an awesome theme that I've been totally into and have, like, ruled it. Just whatever.”

  Tim Sexton @ ~middle of episode — Tim's frustration with Star Wars' rule complexity despite liking the theme

• “I'm too stupid to play pinball now George. I need simple games. Thanks a lot George. Thanks a lot.”

  Tim Sexton @ ~middle of episode — Sarcastic lament about modern Stern complexity (referencing George Gomez)

• “You will get at most 10 of these 72 banks. Yes.”

  Bruce Nightingale / Ron Hallett @ ~tournament discussion — Clarifying Pinburgh's scale—72 banks but limited exposure per player

• “I don't think they have Wi-Fi, so you better have cellular. Yep, save your data.”

  Tim Sexton / Ron Hallett @ ~late in episode — Practical advice for Pinburgh attendees regarding connectivity

Entities

Signals

• ?

  code_update: Tim Sexton speculates that Star Wars multiplier rule may be rebalanced in future code updates based on past experience with Stern making adjustments to controversial rules

  medium · Tim stated: 'maybe this will change with code updates I know sometimes I get in a lot of trouble because I'll complain about code and I'll complain about a game and how it exists and people go like oh no but I'm in the know and there's code coming and they're going to fix it'

• ?

  gameplay_signal: Pinball designers, particularly Stern, are pushing rule set complexity to a point where metagame knowledge dominates over fundamental flipper and nudge skills

  high · Tim's detailed analysis: 'the metagame has reached a point where it is more important than the regular game... it is now impossible to win a stern pinball game against someone who knows what they are doing, no matter how different in play you are'

• ?

  design_philosophy: Star Wars multiplier rule exemplifies design decision to elevate game knowledge over fundamental pinball mechanics, creating high barrier to competitive entry

  high · Tim: 'This is not a pinball skill. This is entirely a knowledge and rule set skill... entirely game knowledge. And game knowledge that actually dominates the entire game.'

• ?

  competitive_signal: Pinburgh 2017 features 72 banks of machines organized by era (EM, early SS, late SS/early DMD, DMD+), with players experiencing ~10 banks over 3 days

  high · Bruce: 'There is a DMD, an EM, a late solid state or early DMD, and an early solid state... You will get at most 10 of these 72 banks'

• ?