Everything must evolve - including 865 - so GL with the changes. (OK - that's not quite true. It's clear from our photo's that neither TK nor myself have changed much in the last 230,000,000 years - but everything else must evolve!)
On a serious note - I had a real problem with the 2D display on Sunday and would like to offer some solutions.
The problem is that both the names nd the bet amounts are displayed smaller than they used to be in the "3D" display and I simply could not read them so could not follow the programme.
It's not that I need new glasses; it's because I have to sit farther back from the TV if I'm also playing ... in order to make room for a couple of poker screens. I tried watching it on-line but again the text is much less readable than the old 3D format because the player frame is not adjustable.
Solutions:
1. The easiest solution is simply to zoom in further so that the action fills the whole screen rather than be surrounded by a large dead area of blue. No tech time required.
2. Better would be to transmit with a larger font for names and bets. There is plenty of room because we don't really need these ***** avatars - which is why you ditched them last year in the 3D display. This should take only a few tech hours - mainly for testing before release.
3. For watching on-line, please use a user-adjustable frame your player. (Indeed, this would also be great for your tables though I guess that would need to wait for the download version!!!) This option woul probably require a few days of tech time.
4. Obviously, in the long term it would be great to return to the 3D display because this really added interest to the programming, as it would to any new programmes which might emerge.
Please do something as on Sunday I actually stopped playing in order to watch the show - not an optimal solution!!!!
Metaraptor, although the screen is not adjustable in I.E. it is in Opera,don't know about other browsers,perhaps time for a browser change. Posted by -Dino66-
The 2d/3d doesn't bother me when it comes to graphics, but I think a lot will be lost with the presenter/analyst 'in hand' reactions to how the hand was player/miracle rivers etc.
I think that we need more TV time to in-play tournies. The Primo is the best show of the week IMO. I am mainly a cash player and like Master Cash a lot, but you do see the same players week in week out just hogging the TV time meaning that the 'casual' player who is channel hopping at 9.15 has little chance to be featured. In a 500 runner MTT Mr Joe Bloggs has just as much chance of being on the air as anyone else.
TK you go on about the USP. One of the major reasons why the site has grown was that it had a very simple and easy to remember selling point. 9pm....big guaranteee tournie...with live in play TV coverage. While I understand that it is not financially viable to do this 7/days a week but I think that Friday night should definatly be added to the live TV format.
If you are advertising the Primo, show just the Primo. Don't dip out of it for an hour to show a 500 BH.
Less of the brainless ad breaks. Who cares about a load of poker journos talking about Chris Ferguson when its been repeated 50 times/week for 2 years. And update the infomercials which go on about tournies that you no longer offer. Having TK, who loves a super deep stack slow structure and advertises them on the forum/facebook/the tv channel on a daily basis, 'advertise' a RUSSIAN ROULETTE is frankly embassing. Put that VT in the recylce bin now
More James Hartigan in analyst duties.
As the action is now 2d some Omaha action.
EDIT YES THAT IS AWFUL SPELLING but i aint going thru it again soyou'll just have to deal with it merenovice
I think mine will mirror a lot of other peoples posts on here. The main thing that attracted me to Sky was the main tourney being shown on the TV each night, the chance to have your hand shown and the interaction between anaylst/presenter/guests.
I look fowrard to the changes and will continue to be a Sky regular :-)
This is what I posted on another threat, however, after reading Tikays thoughts on not standing still I hope improoved wrong.
I agree with most of the posts on here, the only reason I joined Sky Poker over any other site was because of the live tournaments shown on TV, and in particualr the 3D studio set up. This is one of the big reasons for watching and joining Sky Poker in the first place. I also enjoy the presenting of Rich Orford and Tikey together (great chemistry) and also LML with anyone. I think Sky are lucky to have her, she is a great presenter and is not just a pretty face, she knows her stuff too, as well as being ammusing with her on screen banter.
In my opinion to lose lots of live tournaments in favour of re runs and repeats, and to lose the unique 3D imaging and how that works with the presenters will be a huge step back for Sky. I understand that the cost might be high for the 3D studio, but how many people will not sign up or even leave Sky Poker because it will just become one of many similar Poker formats.
Keep things the way they are, 3D screen, on screen presenter chemistry and the live tournaments are what sets Sky Poker apart from the rest.
Well written and explained Tikay. Thank you. i do have my own view and hopefully i can put this foreward almost as well as yourself (or not).
The'Dealers choice' show was ok as a magazine type show,but in my opinion should never replace one of the few live tournament shows; we see too little of those anyway! If Sky were to add this to another night, even as a replacement for the Club, i believe it would be a very good and welcome addition.
Personaly, i much prefer the 3D version to the 2D - this may be because it is all i have seen, Imo the fact that we can see not only the cards but the presenters/analysts reactions make for a vastly more enjoyable show, than just having a voice over to a screen that doesn't show anywhere enough detail. As others have said it was the 3Dversion that originaly drew me to the show and is what seperates a 'good' show into a 'brilliant' show.
There can be no argument that the presenters and analysts are anything other than brilliant (even that Orford chap)!! It would be nice if we could see them more often in a live environment and maybe that will happen in the future; i hope so anyway.
I quite agree that the breaks are getting a 'touch' tedious....well OK seriously tedious!! A change would do wonders for the sanity of the viewers!
Many thanks for taking the time to write the blog, which is very informative.
I like the sound of the final table action from the main events early in the week being shown. I think this will encourage people to play. Sure, it's not quite the same as having the live tv show, but at least they won't be forgotten, which has perhaps happened over the last couple of months (I know you used to name check the nightly ME winners on a weekend show, but hasn't happened recently I don't think).
I am also quite enjoying the 2D hand reviews, which I didn't think would be the case to be honest, as I thought some of the interraction may be lost, but as TommyD comments higher up, the reviews seem now to be more card/hand focussed, and it won't be as easy for transgressions to effectively allow occasional hands to be played out in their entirety without any feedback. That isn't to say that the banter isn't great entertainment, but perhaps in 2D it will occur between the hands more and not over the top of them.
If I had one small gripe in the past, it would be to finally see one of your hands from an MTT appear on TV, but the hand may almost have played out before the presenter/analyst banter from the previous hand had finished.
Hi Tikay, I think you forgot one of the most important USP for Sky Poker: you communicate with us. And that is a two-way communication: you tell us what you plan or what you are doing and you listen to feedback. It is a big sign of respect towards us and a good enough reason for me to stay here. Regards, Max Posted by lastpoet22
In Response to Re: The "THAT Show" Blog Feedback Thread. : very definitely +1 Posted by darich
as a new poster and fairly new player to sky i have been amazed by how tikay takes the time to get back to everyone personally and i too wont go nowhere else while he does his best by us.... the campaign for your knighthood sir tikay starts here!!!
I'll try & address all the questions, & where approrpiate, feedback on this thread, now.
Several questions & feedback(s) (can we have plural feedback?) are "repeats", so if I miss an individual, it's because I think I've covered it already.
Meanwhile, I've been overwhelmed with PM's on this matter, too, & am struggling to keep up. ALL PM's to me will be replied to in due course, but in the interim, please bear with me.
Also, I type very slowly, so please try to read slowly, too, or it will be like a 33rpm gramaphone record played at 45rpm.
said already but i'd definitely like to see cash tables being shown with no commentary instead of repeats of shows from ages ago (esp after midnight! saw a repeat of 5-o the other day with kara scott :-/)
Can we please get Series Link on all shows? It's a guaranteed way to make sure people who want to watch the shows don't miss them! Posted by Machka
Hi Aaron.
I am reliably informed, from the horses mouth in fact, that we SHOULD already have "series links". Attila is going to look into this, & will sort it out if it's not already in place.
You must pardon my ignorance in his matter - I have no idea what "series links" is or are, as I almost never watch TV Series or suchlike. In fact, I almost never watch TV, & that's been the case for over 30 years. Its odd that I ended up actually BEING on telly. Hard to explain how these things happen.*
* That's an expression I perhaps use too much, but it just reminds of something. One day I must relate some of the wonderful stories from a really terrific book (& later, an Audio Book) by Garrison Keillor, entitled "Lake Wobegon Days".
In it, some old buffer, 80 years old, goes out for a drive in his car with naggy moany wife of 57 years. He loves her, & she him, but he lives in fear of her, she's a right old nagger, & what is more, she never stops talking. A sort of very old version of LML I suppose.
He stops at a service station for a cup of coffee, & she's got a mood on, & she decides (much to his relief) to stay in the car. He returns 15 minutes later, & resumes the drive.
He's driven another 45 minutes & 23 miles before he suddenly susses that something is not quite right. His Missus is not nagging, moaning, or even talking. He takes a look at her, & she is not......in the car.
She'd decided to go for a leak whilst he was having his cup of coffee, & when he got back in the car, he never noticed her absence. He then tries to find his way back to the Diner, but gets lost, & then the car breaks down. (This was before the days of mobile phones). As you can imagine, he's in a tinsy winsy spot of bother now.
And with beautiful understatement, Garrison ends the chapter with the expression "how do these things happen?"
I've already commented above on a specific problem I'm having with the 2-D graphics but I also want express wider views. In Tikay's blog it says:
"For now, certainly until we move Studios, & quite possibly beyond, we will be 2D, as moving the software across is not really do-able."
As a former ops director of an internet development company, I find that ridiculous and would love to see some technical explanation. As I have said elsewhere, the 3D graphics don't need a new pit dug in the new floor - they are just graphics. All you need is a blue floor and I have set blue rooms up in half a day. It cannot be a long term problem for Sky.
As with many other people, it was the visual quality of the 3D presentations that attracted me to Sky in the first place and unless we can see the presenters' reactions as the hands develop, the shows wont work for me.
As for content, of course it must evolve; but I would add my pleas for having fewer mind-numbingly tedious repeats of interludes and for having as much live poker as the site can afford to produce. Of course these mean paying presenters and crew and the old nightly shows must have been a loss leader - but they are what produced the vibrant growth the site is now enjoying and are what could sustain this growth in the future.
Incidentally, I love the repeats of the Five O. It is great to see the old presenters like Kara and Norman.
(Finally, I would like to agree with Scotty77 (no,really!) when he says that the large field 9pm live tournament was a major attraction of the site. We don't have enough large field tournaments. Sadly, the only way to guarantee a large field is to offer a guaranteed pool, but it doesn't have to be large. If we look at other sites, the biggest fields are produced by guarantees of around £1000 against a buy-in of around £2. It would also work here.)
Comments
Everything must evolve - including 865 - so GL with the changes. (OK - that's not quite true. It's clear from our photo's that neither TK nor myself have changed much in the last 230,000,000 years - but everything else must evolve!)
On a serious note - I had a real problem with the 2D display on Sunday and would like to offer some solutions.
The problem is that both the names nd the bet amounts are displayed smaller than they used to be in the "3D" display and I simply could not read them so could not follow the programme.
It's not that I need new glasses; it's because I have to sit farther back from the TV if I'm also playing ... in order to make room for a couple of poker screens. I tried watching it on-line but again the text is much less readable than the old 3D format because the player frame is not adjustable.
Solutions:
1. The easiest solution is simply to zoom in further so that the action fills the whole screen rather than be surrounded by a large dead area of blue. No tech time required.
2. Better would be to transmit with a larger font for names and bets. There is plenty of room because we don't really need these ***** avatars - which is why you ditched them last year in the 3D display. This should take only a few tech hours - mainly for testing before release.
3. For watching on-line, please use a user-adjustable frame your player. (Indeed, this would also be great for your tables though I guess that would need to wait for the download version!!!) This option woul probably require a few days of tech time.
4. Obviously, in the long term it would be great to return to the 3D display because this really added interest to the programming, as it would to any new programmes which might emerge.
Please do something as on Sunday I actually stopped playing in order to watch the show - not an optimal solution!!!!
The 2d/3d doesn't bother me when it comes to graphics, but I think a lot will be lost with the presenter/analyst 'in hand' reactions to how the hand was player/miracle rivers etc.
I think that we need more TV time to in-play tournies. The Primo is the best show of the week IMO. I am mainly a cash player and like Master Cash a lot, but you do see the same players week in week out just hogging the TV time meaning that the 'casual' player who is channel hopping at 9.15 has little chance to be featured. In a 500 runner MTT Mr Joe Bloggs has just as much chance of being on the air as anyone else.
TK you go on about the USP. One of the major reasons why the site has grown was that it had a very simple and easy to remember selling point. 9pm....big guaranteee tournie...with live in play TV coverage. While I understand that it is not financially viable to do this 7/days a week but I think that Friday night should definatly be added to the live TV format.
If you are advertising the Primo, show just the Primo. Don't dip out of it for an hour to show a 500 BH.
Less of the brainless ad breaks. Who cares about a load of poker journos talking about Chris Ferguson when its been repeated 50 times/week for 2 years. And update the infomercials which go on about tournies that you no longer offer. Having TK, who loves a super deep stack slow structure and advertises them on the forum/facebook/the tv channel on a daily basis, 'advertise' a RUSSIAN ROULETTE is frankly embassing. Put that VT in the recylce bin now
More James Hartigan in analyst duties.
As the action is now 2d some Omaha action.
EDIT YES THAT IS AWFUL SPELLING but i aint going thru it again soyou'll just have to deal with it merenovice
Thanks for the update Tikay..
I think mine will mirror a lot of other peoples posts on here. The main thing that attracted me to Sky was the main tourney being shown on the TV each night, the chance to have your hand shown and the interaction between anaylst/presenter/guests.
I look fowrard to the changes and will continue to be a Sky regular :-)
I agree with most of the posts on here, the only reason I joined Sky Poker over any other site was because of the live tournaments shown on TV, and in particualr the 3D studio set up. This is one of the big reasons for watching and joining Sky Poker in the first place. I also enjoy the presenting of Rich Orford and Tikey together (great chemistry) and also LML with anyone. I think Sky are lucky to have her, she is a great presenter and is not just a pretty face, she knows her stuff too, as well as being ammusing with her on screen banter.
In my opinion to lose lots of live tournaments in favour of re runs and repeats, and to lose the unique 3D imaging and how that works with the presenters will be a huge step back for Sky. I understand that the cost might be high for the 3D studio, but how many people will not sign up or even leave Sky Poker because it will just become one of many similar Poker formats.
Keep things the way they are, 3D screen, on screen presenter chemistry and the live tournaments are what sets Sky Poker apart from the rest.
Well written and explained Tikay. Thank you. i do have my own view and hopefully i can put this foreward almost as well as yourself (or not).
The'Dealers choice' show was ok as a magazine type show,but in my opinion should never replace one of the few live tournament shows; we see too little of those anyway! If Sky were to add this to another night, even as a replacement for the Club, i believe it would be a very good and welcome addition.
Personaly, i much prefer the 3D version to the 2D - this may be because it is all i have seen, Imo the fact that we can see not only the cards but the presenters/analysts reactions make for a vastly more enjoyable show, than just having a voice over to a screen that doesn't show anywhere enough detail. As others have said it was the 3Dversion that originaly drew me to the show and is what seperates a 'good' show into a 'brilliant' show.
There can be no argument that the presenters and analysts are anything other than brilliant (even that Orford chap)!! It would be nice if we could see them more often in a live environment and maybe that will happen in the future; i hope so anyway.
I quite agree that the breaks are getting a 'touch' tedious....well OK seriously tedious!! A change would do wonders for the sanity of the viewers!
Many thanks
Laurie (lozgo)
Hi all,
I'll respond to the questions & comments as soon as I am able. I'm a bit if a busy boy today.
Thank you.
Many thanks for taking the time to write the blog, which is very informative.
I like the sound of the final table action from the main events early in the week being shown. I think this will encourage people to play. Sure, it's not quite the same as having the live tv show, but at least they won't be forgotten, which has perhaps happened over the last couple of months (I know you used to name check the nightly ME winners on a weekend show, but hasn't happened recently I don't think).
I am also quite enjoying the 2D hand reviews, which I didn't think would be the case to be honest, as I thought some of the interraction may be lost, but as TommyD comments higher up, the reviews seem now to be more card/hand focussed, and it won't be as easy for transgressions to effectively allow occasional hands to be played out in their entirety without any feedback. That isn't to say that the banter isn't great entertainment, but perhaps in 2D it will occur between the hands more and not over the top of them.
If I had one small gripe in the past, it would be to finally see one of your hands from an MTT appear on TV, but the hand may almost have played out before the presenter/analyst banter from the previous hand had finished.
Kepp up the excellent work Sky!
bob
Morning.
I'll try & address all the questions, & where approrpiate, feedback on this thread, now.
Several questions & feedback(s) (can we have plural feedback?) are "repeats", so if I miss an individual, it's because I think I've covered it already.
Meanwhile, I've been overwhelmed with PM's on this matter, too, & am struggling to keep up. ALL PM's to me will be replied to in due course, but in the interim, please bear with me.
Also, I type very slowly, so please try to read slowly, too, or it will be like a 33rpm gramaphone record played at 45rpm.
I am reliably informed, from the horses mouth in fact, that we SHOULD already have "series links". Attila is going to look into this, & will sort it out if it's not already in place.
You must pardon my ignorance in his matter - I have no idea what "series links" is or are, as I almost never watch TV Series or suchlike. In fact, I almost never watch TV, & that's been the case for over 30 years. Its odd that I ended up actually BEING on telly. Hard to explain how these things happen.*
* That's an expression I perhaps use too much, but it just reminds of something. One day I must relate some of the wonderful stories from a really terrific book (& later, an Audio Book) by Garrison Keillor, entitled "Lake Wobegon Days".
In it, some old buffer, 80 years old, goes out for a drive in his car with naggy moany wife of 57 years. He loves her, & she him, but he lives in fear of her, she's a right old nagger, & what is more, she never stops talking. A sort of very old version of LML I suppose.
He stops at a service station for a cup of coffee, & she's got a mood on, & she decides (much to his relief) to stay in the car. He returns 15 minutes later, & resumes the drive.
He's driven another 45 minutes & 23 miles before he suddenly susses that something is not quite right. His Missus is not nagging, moaning, or even talking. He takes a look at her, & she is not......in the car.
She'd decided to go for a leak whilst he was having his cup of coffee, & when he got back in the car, he never noticed her absence. He then tries to find his way back to the Diner, but gets lost, & then the car breaks down. (This was before the days of mobile phones). As you can imagine, he's in a tinsy winsy spot of bother now.
And with beautiful understatement, Garrison ends the chapter with the expression "how do these things happen?"
I've already commented above on a specific problem I'm having with the 2-D graphics but I also want express wider views. In Tikay's blog it says:
"For now, certainly until we move Studios, & quite possibly beyond, we will be 2D, as moving the software across is not really do-able."
As a former ops director of an internet development company, I find that ridiculous and would love to see some technical explanation. As I have said elsewhere, the 3D graphics don't need a new pit dug in the new floor - they are just graphics. All you need is a blue floor and I have set blue rooms up in half a day. It cannot be a long term problem for Sky.
As with many other people, it was the visual quality of the 3D presentations that attracted me to Sky in the first place and unless we can see the presenters' reactions as the hands develop, the shows wont work for me.
As for content, of course it must evolve; but I would add my pleas for having fewer mind-numbingly tedious repeats of interludes and for having as much live poker as the site can afford to produce. Of course these mean paying presenters and crew and the old nightly shows must have been a loss leader - but they are what produced the vibrant growth the site is now enjoying and are what could sustain this growth in the future.
Incidentally, I love the repeats of the Five O. It is great to see the old presenters like Kara and Norman.
(Finally, I would like to agree with Scotty77 (no,really!) when he says that the large field 9pm live tournament was a major attraction of the site. We don't have enough large field tournaments. Sadly, the only way to guarantee a large field is to offer a guaranteed pool, but it doesn't have to be large. If we look at other sites, the biggest fields are produced by guarantees of around £1000 against a buy-in of around £2. It would also work here.)