Not so much a lead, but something that this all reminded me of: Pinball by Haruki Murakami.

I remembered suddenly that this was one of the things that set off my obsession with pinball in the first place. I flicked through my copy just now and came to this bit:

“While you’re playing yourself out in lonesome dissipation in front of a pinball machine, someone else might be reading through Proust. Still another might be engaged in heavy petting with a girlfriend at a drive-in theater showing of Paths of Courage. The one could well become a writer, witness to the age; the others, a happily married couple. Pinball machines, however, won’t lead you anywhere.

Just the replay light. Replay, replay, replay...”

A cautionary tale for us maybe...