I just want to say to the thread starter, dood, I sympathize with you, I really do. In fact, I empathize with you, as clearly you're righteously incensed about this, and that is a feel I know all too well. But in terms of "F1GHT DA P0WAH", I have to agree with the majority saying this is an ineffective, probably even counterproductive way to go about it. The underlying attributes of society at large, of which the instance that has you incensed is frankly only symptomatic of, are rooted far too well for something like this to even treat the symptom, much less the cause unless it goes viral, which evidently it hasn't.
F1GHT1NG DA P0WAH properly is a darned tricky business, m8. I'm sorry things aren't working out with the effort you're championing here.
Really, we had #Amayastars trending on twitter,and this thread was on top of this forum all day yesterday without me bumping it.
That's all I was seeking to do; thanks to everyone who helped!!!
Firstly we need the community to know about the changes; that is the first step of any movement....
As far as Stars being the "cheapest" place to play poker, this isn't true strictly speaking as SCW is much cheaper. Also, the value a site offers has more facets than simply the level of the rake. Considering rake levels without rakeback/givebacks available to the playing public is like looking at MSRP on a car-completely useless. Furthermore, it is acknowledged that the competition levels at Stars is higher than at smaller mostly Euro facing sites and has been for some time now. Therefore, to the consumer to experience equal value there needs to be economy of scale that work to offer lower rake or higher amounts of value in other areas like promos/guarantees (which they do to their credit) and other elements that provide value.
This isn't a movement just against these most recent steps; I personally would be happy as a clam in a shell IF Amayastars stopped here and maybe made some logical movement to shift promos towards providing more value to beginning players and away from huge volume grinders (steps a lot of people at 2p2 the so-called "pros" would be hugely against) and vowed no more changes for awhile to see how things were going. The issue isn't JUST the changes in question, it is more a change in orientation that seems to possibly have occurred at Amayastars, one away from poker as a skill game with winners and losers and an equilibrium that has to be found and more towards poker being just another
gambling game where all the money can/should eventually be absorbed by the gaming provider.
I am against this idea. I would hope others are likewise against this, but perhaps I was hasty in assuming most poker players would like there to be a possibility of profit in the long run....who knows.
The most important thing is we as a community are talking and watching and conscious of Amayastars' changes to the structure of poker on what I would agree is a de facto poker provider in most of the world at this point. That is something I am very glad to see even if a lot of people on this particular forum seem a bit myopic in their view of the changes from my point of view.
I would also add that people seem to have a short memory when it comes to the poker industry, and maybe that is a function of turnover within the community. When I was coming up (2004/2005) there were several dominant players in the market that simply do not exist anymore- UB/AP, Paradise, Planet Poker..etc. Also, the top site back then ,
partypoker, rose and at one point had a relatively huge market cap at one point before falling again based on inferior product design, software, and bad strategic decision making. Those who think Amayastars has a stranglehold in perpetuity on the non-Usa market have not learned the lessons of history; in this constantly evolving market with comparative information available about each provider we can expect lots of changes some easily seen and other not so easily foreseen.
Thank you for thinking about the issue,
Zach
