TIP Number of Plays means nothing

[AlexRogan84]

Honestly I like buying games that have been played regularly and enjoyed by someone who cares. It probably means all the issues have been dealt with and the game is dialed in nicely. Plug and play!

Same here. And the same with old cars for sale... tell me you drive it for an hour every Sunday. The odometer reading means nothing if you don't actually drive the car or play the game. And no offense to anyone that has to call a tech to get their games looked after, but I'd much rather get a game from someone who does it themselves. There's so much obliviousness out there and it shows up in the games and in the ads. 100% LED'd you say... no shit? Because I have a big bag of dusty old incandescents that I pulled out of YOUR game after I got it, lol. Batteries? What batteries?

 

[Corrie]

It also means nothing if someone gets annoyed at a shitty ball 1, and restarts a lot. Or they maintain their game properly.

You can have a game with 1000 plays and it's in terrible condition. Or a game with 15000 plays in stunning condition.

Bingo. I suck at pinball, I put something like 2000 plays on my iron maiden within the first few months of having it and the average ball time was like 12 seconds lol. I got into a habit of restarting if my first ball was bad and even if I didn't do that I never once made it to the end game or pulled a 45 minute game like those pros can do. My best games last maybe 10 minutes at most and those are few and far between.

Maybe play count + average ball time gives you a indication of how long the game has actually been played but it still doesn't mean that much. One person could have played it a lot but cleaned and waxed after every play, another may have played it a lot less but did zero maintenance meaning way more potential damage to the PF.

 

[AlexRogan84]

Bingo. I suck at pinball, I put something like 2000 plays on my iron maiden within the first few months of having it and the average ball time was like 12 seconds lol. I got into a habit of restarting if my first ball was bad and even if I didn't do that I never once made it to the end game or pulled a 45 minute game like those pros can do. My best games last maybe 10 minutes at most and those are few and far between.

Maybe play count + average ball time gives you a indication of how long the game has actually been played but it still doesn't mean that much. One person could have played it a lot but cleaned and waxed after every play, another may have played it a lot less but did zero maintenance meaning way more potential damage to the PF.

This hasn't happened very often to me, but a couple times I've caught a piece of plastic or nut/washer come loose during game play. I immediately stop playing and remove the piece and figure out where it came from and fix whatever the problem is. Whether at home or on route, if someone just keeps playing because they don't see a piece loose like that or don't care, it can make a mess of your playfield. One flip with a screw or something caught under the flipper will gouge the surface. No thanks. My keys stay hanging on the coin door for a reason.

 

[Lva39]

# of plays only truly shows the amount of play on the current CPU.
If you start having power on issues, game freezing, resets.
Then suddenly a new CPU and I am 'minty'
Look at everything, don't assume low plays means anything other than less use if the CPU board.

I bought an Aerosmith that said 60 plays and was in excellent condition. After the most recent Stern update the lifetime plays jumped to approx. 2,700 while the total plays said approx 560 (which is accurate). I’ve reached out to stern to inquire how that happens, but haven’t heard back. The only thing I could note was that it wasn’t the original SD card. Has anyone ever experienced that?