• Anarcho-Bolshevik@lemmygrad.ml
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    3 days ago

    Is it just me, or is pinball an overpriced hobby?

    Doing a brief search online, it looks like the average pinball table is more than twice the cost of a gaming PC, and even simulators like Pinball XF and Pinball Arcade have DLC that is overpriced for what you get: typically $10 for a handful of tables, which sounds trivial until you notice that purchasing the entire DLC library can cost hundreds of dollars, which is just obscene for one computer game.

    I guess that somebody can excuse the physical tables by saying that they’re made for establishments in mind, not ordinary households. I can accept that. Although you have to travel pretty far if there are specific tables that you want to try, and public tables can come with other inconveniences such as waiting for your turn.

    There are some low-budget alternatives besides simulators and public tables, such as portable pinball tables (I had one based on Small Soldiers when I was little), though I am guessing that those are unpopular with adults. In any case, it’s hard for me to imagine a low-income person being passionate about pinball in general. Even collecting LEGO sets would be a cheaper hobby.

    • -6-6-6-@lemmygrad.ml
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      2 days ago

      Slightly related but my father was always a “pinball wizard” (70s teen). He picked up Pinball FX, played it for two months and got in the top 30 leaderboard and just dropped it.

      Still think about that sometimes, what a madlad. Didn’t even buy any DLC.

    • star (she)@lemmygrad.ml
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      2 days ago

      I love to play pinball at the arcades. I have a couple of tables Im pretty good at, but yeah I would never buy them for myself.