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NFS Regular user 186 Posts |
In a recent post in another thread, it was mentioned that "more and more people are playing cards."
Can anyone support any truth to this? I'd guess the best measure would be to get the USPCC sales to drug stores and gas stations. I don't think online sales would be accurate due to the higher prevalence of magicians and flourishers buying very large quantities for their hobby. In my own personal observation it seems that recreational card playing has declined dramatically over the past few years - being replaced by Angry Birds and Words with Friends, for example. To clarify, I'm speaking about recreational card playing, not necessarily for money, and not casino games. What are your thoughts?
"A gambler without a system is as a ship without a compass."
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silverking Inner circle 4574 Posts |
The Bridge folks state that around 200 million people worldwide play the game of Bridge.
Gin Rummy has around 50 million players in the United States alone, likely 2 or 3 times that amount worldwide. Poker is generally thought to have around 100 million players around the world. .....so there's 350 - 450 million people who play card games. Add in regional and national "family games" worldwide, and the many less popular games......and you would easily pass half a billion card players in the world. I think recreational card playing in 2012 consists of numbers almost beyond the scope of comprehension. |
NFS Regular user 186 Posts |
I totally agree that the amount of card players in the world is pretty staggering, and those figures you provide seem reasonable. However, my question is regarding if you feel there is any change in prevalence.
The greatest contributer to that 350 - 450 million figure are bridge players, which seems to me to be declining in popularity. The population of which it's most popular in are seniors (or so it seems), and I don't see any reason to believe that the younger generation of today are picking it up at a rate fast enough to replace those who are passing (unlike poker). These are all just speculative observations and I'm sure we'll never get a definitive answer, but I think it makes for an interesting discussion. Factor in the recent technological boom in portable and multiplayer entertainment - to me it seems that card playing as a pastime is likely declining.
"A gambler without a system is as a ship without a compass."
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silverking Inner circle 4574 Posts |
I agree that perhaps some of the newer entertainment technologies might impact recreational card games......especially when attracting new, young card players.
I do think that, as a recreational activity, card playing waxes and wanes as years and decades pass, like any recreational pastime does. I think that what ultimately drives card playing is the simple portability, the sometimes incredible mental challenge, the fact that they're $2.50 a pack........and that you don't' need no online internet connection to derive a full evenings entertainment from playing cards! Perhaps the major component though, is that card playing invites face to face, ongoing, and sincere social interaction between the players, something not at all common in todays popular electronic entertainments. |
NFS Regular user 186 Posts |
I completely agree, especially with the fact that there are few activities that can compare to the intellectual depth that some card games provide.
I'm pretty young so bear that in mind. When I hear stories about casual card games being played in the early or mid 20th century, it seems like it was THE thing to do back then whenever there was any downtime. Compared to what I'm seeing now, it's like night and day. I struggle getting poker games started with my colleagues and I was surprised as hell to find someone to play Cribs with. Is my perception way off of how it really was back then?
"A gambler without a system is as a ship without a compass."
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Piqsirpoq Regular user Finland 116 Posts |
To continue silverking's point about new entertainment technologies, nowadays more and more people spend their time online -> people play cards online. There are a lot of poker pros (and amateurs) who only play online.
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LoïcJ. New user France 83 Posts |
Good thread.
I don't know for other culture, but in France, I have the feeling that recreational card playing has declined. There are more and more poker players. The goal is not the same. Before we play family games, parlour games, with a good philosophy : play for fun with friends. Children try to cheat a little with the bank of the Monopoly® board game ! Now, if you play, you play poker in a deadly silence. Poker is very serious. You don't laugh. You have to have sunglasses. You are outraged if your bro bluff you ! Of course you play for $5 buy in... Now my grandmother plays "solitaire" with a laptop ! True story ! |
tommy Eternal Order Devil's Island 16544 Posts |
It seems to me that not so many people play so many card games today as they did when I was kid but for poker.
If there is a single truth about Magic, it is that nothing on earth so efficiently evades it.
Tommy |
LobowolfXXX Inner circle La Famiglia 1196 Posts |
Quote:
On 2012-02-17 17:52, silverking wrote: Adding 'em up like that is only accurate if they're different groups; there's a lot of overlap there. 100 million poker players + 200 million bridge players + 100 million gin players is a lot less than 400 million people.
"Torture doesn't work" lol
Guess they forgot to tell Bill Buckley. "...as we reason and love, we are able to hope. And hope enables us to resist those things that would enslave us." |
silverking Inner circle 4574 Posts |
My numbers ended in looooonnnnng strings of hard zeros (so long that I wrote "million" as a word), indicative of very rough approximations in order to (hopefully) further the discussion.
My point was only that we're talking in the hundreds of millions of total players, and that even variations up or down in numbers of players that ran to single digit millions was still a very small percentage of the overall number of card players. I'm not sure that, for the purpose of the discussion, it matters if it's 300 million or 500 million. I guess if the discussion was one in search of a deadly accurate number of players in each card game, it would matter. But because it was a general discussion about card game "popularity" and how that popularity might change...........I didn't spend a whole lot of time (about 10 minutes actually) refining the totals such that they'd withstand scrutiny beyond the framework I was using them in. How does this work then?............."a crapload of people play cards". |
tommy Eternal Order Devil's Island 16544 Posts |
Not many here.
If there is a single truth about Magic, it is that nothing on earth so efficiently evades it.
Tommy |
The Dowser Special user Canada 763 Posts |
Quote:
On 2012-02-19 00:07, tommy wrote: LOL |
AMcD Inner circle stacking for food! 3078 Posts |
Reading some of your posts, always running down people, making the fun out the posters and so on, I really wonder why some of you guys come here.
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iamslow Inner circle Proffessional Slacker 2001 Posts |
Quote:
On 2012-02-19 08:19, AMcD wrote: I think because they live here....
"Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face" Mike Tyson
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The Dowser Special user Canada 763 Posts |
Quote:
On 2012-02-19 08:19, AMcD wrote: Lol.... Just to be absolutely clear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy064ub4UoA |
AMcD Inner circle stacking for food! 3078 Posts |
Name someone posting here I criticize.
Name someone posting here I run down. |
The Dowser Special user Canada 763 Posts |
That would be anyone who disagrees with anything you say, doesn't thank you profusely for your videos, or who posts videos of their own moves that won't work in the incredibly specific conditions in which you supposedly play. I'm sure I will be next because I responded to your "innocent" shot at a whole group of people:
" I really don't know why some of you guys come here". The kettle is not really interested in arguing with the pot so if you want to be your usual overbearing aggressive self and subdue all challengers then you will have to go it alone. |
AMcD Inner circle stacking for food! 3078 Posts |
If you don't want to watch my videos, just don't. I force no one.
If you don't like them, you can say it either. Everyone is free to give his opinion. If you don't want to say thanks, it's your own right. When I read such hate and disdain, I really wonder why you read me! |
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