We can all wax philosophic about what it means for something to truly "go away", but at the end of the day, Midway/Williams are no longer making pins - and that was, and still is, the real nail in the coffin for the pinball industry at large.
Don't get me wrong, Gottlieb and Stern have had their fair share of well-done pins, but none of them can really hold a candle to WMS during their heyday. WMS were the people that, in my opinion, were really driving the pinball market forward in terms of creativity.
Without them, what have you got? A bunch of cheap, run-of-the-mill pinball tables that recycle standard mechanisms, and have very little which is unique on a per-table basis. Without anyone to really challenge them, Gottlieb have gotten complacent, and it shows in their more recent licensed pinball tables.
If WMS were to announce tomorrow that they're going back into the pinball business, I would happily rescind my criticisms, but seeing as both Midway and Williams are long buried, I doubt it's going to happen.
Again, we can circle-jerk each other off all day long about how amazing it is that the young'ins are getting into pinball tables, but when they're most likely to only ever interact with shitty licensed tables from Gottlieb with little to no custom parts, give me a fucking break.
|
Index 
Flat 
Except it is.
Reply
