How Pinball Became My Third Place
Found Community I've been searching for.
For a long time, I’ve been searching for a community to be able to have a good time with. It felt particularly difficult finding that for some reason or another. I live fairly far away from The major cities in my state, and I don’t currently have the funds to move closer.
When I was at a local gaming convention, there was a group that brought Pinball machines. I gave one of them a try, thought it was pretty fun, took their card, and then left.
I thought about it for a little bit, and realized that maybe Pinball would be the place. Pinball was fun enough, I didn’t know anything about it, but I could learn.
I’m not sure I could’ve found something as perfect for me as this particular Pinball group. I didn’t really think I’d ever get into Pinball, nor did I necessarily think I would stay with the group for as long as I did. I thought it might be something I do once a month. Now it’s something I look forward to weekly and even practice daily.
Reason one: Pinball’s really fun when you get better at it
I remember the first machine I played was the Addams family. I remembered not at all understanding how the game worked as a kid. I would maybe get two minutes of playtime, and then I would need another $.50 for a new game. I occasionally played other pinball machines as I grew up, but never really for that long.
Even when I started the group, I wasn’t particularly good. I was usually a little higher than last place, but more often than not that was where I stayed. It felt like every ball would just drain, and I just couldn’t figure out how to improve.
So I started really diving into how to improve it Pinball. I installed virtual Pinball X and downloaded every table. I could find at the Pinball location. I learned the rule set of each table, I learned how to handle flippers more appropriately, I learned how to nudge the table.
Last week, I placed third in the group.
Pinball has become so much more fun now that I understand what I’m attempting to do. Learning the simplest way to get multi ball to rack up points or learning the major objective of each table has become so much easier now. Tables that I would be done within two minutes can now take five or even eight per ball. I have earned more extra balls and replays at the arcade, so the machines that once used to suck up all my quarters are now giving me free games.
Reason two: surprisingly amazing for networking
I work IT. And apparently, so does everyone else at the Pinball group.
Some work government, some work private. Some travel farther than I do for this. And there is a shared camaraderie in having to deal with computers all day. Pinball and arcades are a really fascinating extension of that.
It legitimately impresses me how many people own their own Pinball and arcade machines. I’ve been told there’s two categories of Pinball fans: the people that want to play Pinball, and the people that want to fix and make the machines. Before joining this group, it would’ve never clicked that the people fixing computers all day would love fixing Pinball and arcade cabinets at night, but now it makes perfect sense to me.
Reason three: Third Place reasons
There are community of people that I get to do something fun with. There’s no expectations of me other than to show up and play. Whether I succeed or fail, doesn’t really matter. I’ve never received judgment for playing poorly, I only received one Schneid remark when I conceited a game. Most of them just want a socialize and have fun while doing so.
This group does way more events further up north, and maybe if I move closer that way, I’ll join those events too. For now, Wednesday night Pinball has become my favorite friends social activity. If you ever have a chance, consider giving it a try yourself!