I am not in this flow at all. I've owned two pinballs of which only one I brought back to full glory, a Judge Dredd. I liked it a lot, but after about a year it bored me more and more, cause in my feeling there are only so many shots/targets and consequently only so many paths the ball follows. It isn't really any more (or less) random than a videogame.
I sold it, I was glad as I actually earned something from restoring a machine for a change, I miss it only very rarely.
I agree, I go the opposite route as well. I have played pins throughout the years, but they all seemed basically the same. Hit the steel ball when it gets to the flippers..... rack up points.... that is it.... The themes change, but the idea does not. Different sounds, different play fields, but for the most part you are still using two flippers to hit a steel ball over and over again. I understand the thought that every time you play a pin it is a different game, and that is true, to an extent. But the machine cannot change that much from game to game. Slight alterations in the physics between the flippers and contact with the ball perhaps. And different trajectories of the ball against the various obstacles on the play field. But that pretty much sums up all of the difference that can exists from one pin game to another on the same machine.
Whereas I feel every vid has a completely different identity. Different joystick movements and combinations of buttons do drastically different things on each game. One of the things I enjoy with one player vids for instance is the mastering. Knowing there are particular strategies for beating every stage, boss, or level. Beating a game on one quarter. Being better than anyone you know and holding the highest scores.
As for a different play with every game on a particular machine, I think that vids have just as much to offer, if not more, than pins. When you think about fighting games, for instance, no two fights are identical. Nor are any two matches the same with sports games. I have at least 500 games logged on my NBA Jam and none of those games were the same. It all depends on your opponent. When your opponent changes, the entire makeup of the game changes. However, with a pin, it is always player vs play field and the play field never changes.
There are those who are very good at pins and I am not one of them. And I do not wish to take anything away from anyone who is good a pins, or even prefers them to vids. I am one man with one opinion but I just never got into them myself. There is so much variety in vids that when I get bored with one, lets say a side-scrolling shooter, I switch and play a fighter, or a sports game, or a vertical shooter. The possibilities are endless with vids.
Regardless, as more and more guys switch from vids to pins, the more vids go up for sale, and that is just fine with me.