PUHOLINO:
Choppography:
It's an interesting thought for sure. However, it's just like a poker/casino site. The "rake" is generated by the fish. The site doesn't care if the top earners stay or go. It only cares about drawing in more fish.
Sit at a poker table with 9 other top earners and you are the fish......YOU pay the rake for the table. The casino only cares that there are a few of you at each table. The winners will be the winners, and if they leave someone else will step up and take their place.
You need recreational players that come back again and again for whatever reason. (Not a perfect analogy, but not bad.)
I like your analogy a lot. But imagine this. How many more little fish would come out and play if there were only a few schools of fish only twice or 3 times their size around, instead of facing 200 sharks every time they pop their head out of hiding?
One only needs to look at the internal, recreational destruction of the online poker industry to predict WGT's future. It's happening right before your eyes. The fish get chewed up faster because there are no longer enough fish to balance anything out. As the shark to fish ratio drops, the cannibalism picks up speed........and momentum/excitement grinds to a halt.
Hmmmmmmmm.
I remember playing poker in 2003.....the MoneyMaker era. I started off with a bang and was profitable. It didn't take much. Read a few quick articles, and off you went. As the game grew, so did the online forums (hmmmm), and all the available advice for FREE (double hmmmm). As a result, ALL the newer players got better. As a few egomaniacs learned even more of the science of poker, they gave the advice away for free again. The fish got better. After 5-6 years, you find that the brand newest fish sits with a table full of MUCH better players and doesn't stand a chance.
I started by playing $25 games. I moved and was playing $100 games in a year or two (slow by anyone's standards). But, because of other factors, not the least of which is the overall skill level of regular players, I can't beat a $5 game. There is software out there to help analyze another player, and many others have put in far more work to the game than I ever could.....hence, they are better.....much better. Hmmmmmmmm.
I find it funny that we see the same thing here at WGT with all the free advice and the scores in RGs dropping and the creations of a tier like TourLegend. I also find it funny that WGT keeps giving us solutions to make the poor players get better faster (MAX gimmick). And, of course, I find it funny that WGT is trying to take credits off the table by increasing their limits and prices, thereby increasing their "take."
It's a self-perpetuating cycle that leads in only one direction..............down. Sadly, WGT is either too greedy or too stupid (jury still out) to see it for themselves.