It was probably debated before but with all the rigged posts as well as real concerns about game integrity, mostly bot and "player farm" related, should we see the faces of our opponents at all times?

I do understand many players bandwidth limitations, especially those on mobile connections, so it should be something that would allow for something more resembling picture slide, i.e. extremely low bitrate if player so wishes.

So what do you think?

your telling me there can't be bots who setup a stream for the video app?, have u not ever watched webcam porn b4?, alot of them are bots.

no, simply because it's impossible to enforce that the person on webcam is really the person behind the screen. it just adds an unneeded layer of complexity.

I know its not a solution in itself, but it does make botters and farmers life harder, allows people to analyze what's on screen and compare it to actual game play when they suspect someone and most importantly reassures recreational players and gives them more in person experience.

The way I see it all positive things.

The whole anonymity issue which is undoubtedly going to be raised, I personally don't see as an issue. Once joining pokerstars game you are entering public domain, same as playing in casino, but you can always wear mask, glasses, hoodie, etc.

I don't understand, will they have live pole dancers? or dealers? what you talking about?

The giant gaping problem that you have here is that a lot of players play poker online because they can do it in private. An invasion of privacy as huge as what you are suggesting probably won't sit well.

It's a necessary layer of security with all the bots. It will make it much, much more difficult for people to bot. For example, if poker stars suspects you of botting, they can reroute their cam to their security team for some quick questions after your hands, and if you can't confirm what you were just doing and who you are, bam.

It will make it much harder for the average person to bot.

It is already impossible for the average person to bot successfully.

It opens up the market to lots of exhibitionists who wouldn't otherwise be interested in playing.

Anyway, I think all people should be filmed at all times in case they might be doing anything illegal, so I fully support this idea.

Possibly the stupidest idea I have ever heard.

No, they shouldn't, its the sort of gimmick that micro sites come up with. When you join pokerstars your screen name is in the public domain. Your real name, address etc. is not in the public domain.

Your line of thinking seems to mesh well with my idea for compulsory password divulgence, where you have to give the passwords to all of your accounts to the police so they can protect you from crime

You seem to think the rather pointless info regarding your privacy that can be gathered from the stream is more of a security concern then the truly valuable info they already got on you like, name, address, date of birth, scanned documents, credit card info, ISP, etc.

This is not so people can be identified, that's why I said wear glasses or whatever, this is so onscreen action corresponds to you actually playing the tables and environment you sit in makes some sort of sense.

This should never happen, their is enough intrusion in our lives we don't need more.
A total paranoid Idea, i never attach my camera to my desktop & there's reason's for that, guess i'm the 1 being para lol.

MAC

I disable all my cameras where I don't need them.
BUT as I said, this is, as I see it public domain and attaching some sort of person in whatever disguise to onscreen name actually makes sense, considering how much money is involved and what the game is all about.
You know players playing each other at the table, not trying to beat some ever improving algorithm that has instant hand history for ALL your games at its disposal.

I used to play lost of FPS games and the one thing I never could understand is what is the point of playing bots online.
Just seemed pointless.
This is how I see poker as well.

I agree with the majority of the thread. Not all innovation is good innovation. This isn't a great idea.

Another interesting aspect if this ever got implemented: Assuming that the main goal of doing something like this is to "be able to look at your opponent" to try to get a read on them...A lot of people like to multi-table. Somebody could be value-betting on one table and bluffing on another table. So if you're trying to get a read on your opponent, when in reality the other player is focusing more on another one of their tables than the table that you are at with them, what good is the video doing?

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Also, the same way sites try to filter the chat (using an automated procedure), they will have to try to filter the videos to prevent nudity/other inappropriate things (I feel like that would be a non-automated procedure that would create a lot more work. Does anyone want to increase the rake so that sites can hire more employees to ensure that only appropriate content is being displayed on the webcam?)

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Edit: On second-thought, if pokerstars decided to have this is an option for their home-games (where you are generally playing with friends) then that could be kinda cool. But again, a ton of work to implement and monitor for something that doesn't really have a lot of value.

Oh & if all the white knights from the all the women only tournaments threw a fit in those threads imagine what will happen when the inevitable sexual harrassment ensues from showcasing the 10 women who play online.