Hey 'Killa! I know why they did it but I still say something was lost. A little while ago the news talked about a planet that was like Earth. They could tell it was there and the size and distance because it caused the star to wobble a certain amount, a feed back. If it was 2 planets the same distance , same size and opposite from each other in orbit around that star, then they wouldn't have that wobble. I think I miss the wobble 'Killa . Hey, we need to have food for thought don't we? Besides, I think I could be right.
The beauty is, with Fireball and the prospect of customizing our own rods we can check all these theories out, how sweet is that?
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OM,
I'd just say, if you have a table... experiment with grips and stances and takeoffs (pitches)... Do that and you'll find out what players have found out over decades of play... how to shoot with feel. I've played since the greentop TS and Deutscher-Meister days.. Mayhap I've been lucky that the cities and countries I was playing in happened to have one or more amiable pros willing to teach and give tips to save me thousands of man-hours of wasted improper play. I still can't believe you'd need unbalanced men to get back to some sort of "feel" from the feedback, unless you're beginning to suffer some kind of metacarpal effects like some of my foos buddies over the years who didn't get the chance to figure out the correct technical ways... but those same pros... I first met Todd back in 78 in Cleveland, if memory serves.. I was drinking with Tony Gwynn and he happened to sit at our table. His pull has been the same, technically correct (prolly close to perfect) for 3+ decades over so many table variants... no loss of feel ... that should give you the clue.
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I would never feel the need for changing the playing field (and simply cope when it does change)... I'd "figger it out!" A lot of people even today get thrown by, for ex., having to play on old grey or brown marbles without the upgrade kit... wall passes and bounces all get screwed up ... but once they bear down and figure out the difference, they adjust to it (at least most of them do.. there are a few who decide the table was royally screwed up even if they did play those marbles or earlier for decades and use it as the reason they lost)..
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In fact, one of the things I do like about tables changing in characteristic over the years is it gives oneself a reset. Can one adjust back to normal play quickly enough? And it kinda brings me back again and again to when I first started foosing.. it was suddenly new again! I may be unlike many, but I enjoyed it immensely when the browntop cokecan handles appeared, to screw up so many players used to the greentop/bluetop/DM's.. I didn't like the flimsy Dynamo's when they first appeared but I made myself like the new rubberized handles.. and I was thrown by the new Tornado's in 88 when I'd been used to playing the glasstop Tornado's and Hurricanes,,, but IT WAS LIKE STARTING OVER AGAIN! It was and continues to be FUN! Kinda like if a computer guy was a DOS God... why not enjoy throwing all that away and learnign the Mac and Windows? It's your choice, brother... Comfy with your ole Blackberry or other smartphone? Ditch em and go IPhone or Droid.. it's like being a kid again, and again, and again!