there's a lot of reasons for this but one of them is that when you're talking to someone and just casually hanging out and then suddenly they stop talking mid sentence as their attention completely shifts off you and onto the machine so they can grab it and jerk it around as hard as they can because their "ball in wrong hole" mental sensor went off?

It's cute as fuck

• thinks "if I just keep hitting the flippers as fast as possible the ball will never go down"
• hits both flippers at once every time instead of only the one that should be hit
• knows how to catch the ball in a flipper
• cannot imagine playing a machine without ball save. You'd end up playing for what, 2 minutes per machine?
• can hear a machine go SHOOT THE RAMP FOR VIDEO MULTIBALL and have an idea of what they should do and what they means
• knows what "wizard mode" is
• has an opinion on Stern as a company (I'm about here)
• knows what vpin is and has tried to setup a home machine to play more regularly
• can and does shake the machine to avoid losing a ball
• has obtained "wizard mode" on some table
• when asked if a table is fun, immediately thinks of it not for casual players but in "well the only strategy for a high core is the tornado multiball combo and that's not great, so i'd say no" terms
• enjoys machines from the 70s unironically for their design choices
• can recognize individual pinball designers by looking at the layout of a table
• has an instinctive angry reaction when you mention a specific pinball shot on some table.
• dangerous to give a quarter to as they might be playing for 20-30 minutes on any given machine and will not talk to you while playing.
• all skills beyond this enter into a realm I cannot understand. A professional could tell the difference between a top tier player and someone who knows what they're doing, but to me anyone who can sit for 30 minutes at one machine and get multiple multiballs and have Indiana Jones go YOU FOUND THE TREASURE or whatever is a top tier player to me. At this tier, go ask someone smarter then me like @arborelia

most pinball tables will have little mini goals on the table that lead to short challenge modes; hit 3 balls into the chute to start a multiball, hit the target 5 times to start a special mode where you get extra points by going up a ramp mode.

Usually, on completing these little mini goals you'll light something up in the middle of the field

and if you complete ALL of them you get a special mode where you get TONS of points, and that's called wizard mode

For example, the famous ADDAMS FAMILY pinball machine (pictured above) has a bunch of lights at the bottom for rooms in the house. Each time you hit a specific target and do a thing you light them up and get the labelled reward. Light up all the 12 bottom rooms, and you get the TOUR THE MANSION mode, which is this table's wizard mode

want to look like you know what you're doing?

simply say "dang, they don't make em like they used to. these modern machines are nice, but there's nothing like the 90s Bally Williams machines"

everyone will nod along and go "eyup". it's like saying "shame about dale" to nascar fans it just always works. everyone will think you know things. that's all it takes