Quote:
Originally Posted by awkwardepiphany
I feel like poker could have a legitimate chance of separating itself from all the rest of that other bull**** you mention. But, like everyone else, we are doing it wrong. The appeal of poker (and that which is conveyed to the public) should come from the fundamentals of the game, the psychology, the math, the competition, the fun, etc. Instead what is capitalized on is all the bull**** imagery marketers think creates the most profitable culture. I never said it was any different from anything else, any worse that is.
The reason I did not bring up my disdain for all that other stuff you've mentioned in your post is because this is a poker forum. Poker...forum.
It is unlikely that poker would separate itself because then there wouldn't be as many ways for non-poker players and theorists to make money. Capitalized, as in capitalism, is exactly the right word. Take anything and someone who otherwise had nothing invested will try to make money from it. Just look at what has happened to mainstream rap music. The same can be said of sports and music. Team owners, shoe companies, etc. make tons and tons of money off the players without so much as ever going for a jog much less playing in a game or even understanding all the aspects of the game. If you look at how much players make and how much the people that sign their checks make it is a joke, especially when considering how much damage is done to the body of the players and what their average life span is. I just don't see any point whatsoever in complaining about the same consumerism of poker in a capitalist society unless you are knocking capitalism itself (by all means do so if that is what you are doing).
It has nothing to do with how it
should be in your opinion, and everything to do with how people can find a way to make money. If it exists someone will try to make money from it, even if it means undermining the principles of the game. Even religion has become a brand (megachurches, t-shirts, bracelets, retreats, cds, books, etc.). Because poker exists and shows the possibility of appealing to people, bs marketers will fall out of the woodwork to capitalize on it by any means possible. And if that means manufacturing and playing up a certain image they will not hesitate to do it.
Even if poker players wanted to counteract the image there is not a whole lot they could do about it. The image does not have to be grounded in reality and producers and PR people would simply find sub-standard poker players willing to play along and play the part of a "pro" as the marketers want them to be seen. Again, look at rap. There are tons of great artists but if you talk about anything of substance that doesn't fit a certain image there is little chance of being signed to a major label. It doesn't actually matter how
we do it, they don't even need us to create and sell an image, so coming on a poker forum and complaining about how poker is marketed as though the opinions of most players actually matters seems unproductive, especially when how poker is marketed is up to the players anymore than how rap is marketed is up to most rappers (or maybe it is just to let off steam or express a view in keeping with the title of the forum). If you are particularly talking to/about the players who do get involved with pushing this image, even if they were to cease to do so it wouldn't matter a whole lot. The industry would find a way to go on without them. In other words, poker has no chance of separating itself. People within poker can separate themselves, but as an entity that marketers will create and sell, poker is in a sense not in control of the way it is sold. Regardless of what players do if execs want to sell poker they will manufacture a false image and sell that as poker to mostly non-poker players. SO even if we all separate ourselves, there will still be a manufactured "poker" that is put out for consumption.
And also, the penguins apparently have something to do with it.