Death saves in Pinball FX3 tournaments., is it fair?

[Franskhotdog]

Hi All!

I´m a pinball noob., so i´m sorry if this is a stupid post

But to my knowlegde a death save is illegal in real life tournaments? Eventhough it doesn´t tilt the machine if done correctly..
I never practice that move because i like to play by the same rules as in real pinball tournaments.

So my guestion is.. Is it fair that people can use this trick/skill in a FX3 tournament?
If you ask about my opinion, i think that move belongs in the same trashcan as all the new power ups

[Cornholio]

In real pinball, I've never been a fan of the no death saves rule. It is a skill you learn just like other pinball skills you learn like trapping etc. In pinball the aim is to keep the ball in play for as long as possible in order to hit your shots. Nudging is a skill used to achieve this. From nudging, players found that they could do death saves to keep the ball in play. They also found that if they did it correctly, they could do it without tilting. This took lots of practice and lots of practice makes perfect.

In real life the rule was made to stop good players from taking hours to finish a game. It's now frowned upon because it looks like the machine's getting beaten as most machines nowadays are bought by collectors, not operators that put them out on site.

Also in the past, real machines were made for industrial use (out on site), and were strong. Nowadays they're made cheap for collectors and can't take the beating they used to take (try nudging a Star Wars LE then try the same nudge on a Twilight Zone! ).

Seeing as these are not 'real machines', the excuse that they can break is moot, so therefore death saves is just another form of nudging that is a skill that you can hone. And no I don't think it's in the same class as power ups.

This debate has been going in since the first death save was made

[DarkKodiaK]

Fair game if you ask me. Keep the ball alive at all costs.

[gaz5021]

Haha. You don’t wanna see my twitter feed. You’d be calling half of it trash.

My personal opinion is that it’s a fantastic mechanic, and a good death save at an important (“clutch”) moment is hard to top in my list of highlights. Such satisfaction.