In recent years we have viewed an overcrowding or flooding of aspects of the entertainment industry. It seems that as soon as one idea or method becomes popularized by an individual/company that there are five or more people waiting in the wings to replace the king of the mountain. This is what helps to define capitalism but is also what helps to create a marketplace where users are unsure of where to put their hard earned dollars towards because of the over-exposure of a certain market. Let’s take a look at some of these over saturated industries and take a look at what’s wrong with them.

Poker

There must be something exciting about poker if it can get higher ratings on television than a Stanley Cup Playoff game. ESPN got the ball rolling when their World Series of Poker series became a huge hit and thanks to modern technology; we were able to view the player’s hands in real-time and be able to tell whether a player was just bluffing or actually had a decent set of cards worthy to win it all. Unfortunately, the concept of the World Series of Poker is exactly what was wrong about poker. It was a show where anybody could sit down in front of a table and with a little bit of luck on their side be able to win a million dollar prize. Once somebody had won it all, there was no need for that person to be loyal to ESPN.After all, it was the casinos that ran the poker business and not ESPN. It was then a competition between online and regular casinos to swap up these winners and get them to promote their casinos for exposure. Some players even got wise enough to create their own companies to help promote themselves. Each casino would then try to sway each player with bigger prize money and more lucrative deals if they showed up to their events. We now have a problem where every network now showcases some different type of poker show. Maybe poker people know which ones are better but we have no idea what separates The World Series of Poker from NBC’s Late Night Poker,the World Poker Tour, Ultimate Poker Challenge, Poker Royale and others.

MMA (Mixed Martial Arts)

It was only a few years ago that MMA company UFC declared bankruptcy. Thanks to a cleanup of the sport and strong marketing partnerships; companies like UFC are now one of the leading sports among the popular male 18-49 demographic. We were expecting some strong competition to UFC in this field much like how the wrestling industry’s WWE had to fend off competitors like WCW and ECW. We were a little bit surprised how fast some of the UFC’s competition has been at giving contracts to companies with little or no exposure whatsoever. Cable companies like Showtime were the first to jump at the chance to get MMA on their network after the successful partnership between UFC and the Spike TV network.Sports networks who once bashed the MMA environment and wouldn’t show it on their networks suddenly had a change of heart thanks to advertising dollars and started to showcase MMA on their networks. You had networks like the Fox Sports Network even turning MMA into a league environment with teams competing for MMA championships. How could the UFC prevented this increase in competition from happening? There’s no real definite answer to that question but part of the UFC’s success in marketing has also been its own internal headache. The entertainment aspect of the company has been top-notch but at the end of the day; the UFC is still a sport and loyalists will go to where the highest brand of fighters will be. If fights are over hyped and don’t deliver a big payoff then fans will turn towards a competitor that will offer them a good fight regardless of who is fighting in the ring. UFC now has plenty of competition to battle with them in the form of Elite XC, International Fight League, World Combat League, King of the Cage, Pride Fighting and to a certain extent kick boxing shows like K-1. (more…)

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This year marked the first year that the E3 Expo would be in Santa Monica and not at the Los Angeles convention center in LA. The switch came at the request of game publishers and developers who felt that they were devoting too much of their time and money trying to one-up each other at each event and not spending nearly as much time focusing on finishing the development of their games. This year’s event would mark the first of many future events which would be more subdued and not as flashy or spectacular as in year’s past. This would mean no booth babes, no flashy lights or loud noises and tighter restrictions on who would be allowed to attend the event. Based on the compilation of opinions that we’ve read from insiders in the gaming industry; they felt that this year’s event was better for publishers and developers to market their games which were a little more polished than in previous years but were annoyed about having to walk long distances to get from game booth to game booth which were separated between a Santa Monica airplane hangar and the hotels surrounding it nearby.Others still wish that the event went back to its roots and kept all the things that were mentioned above which made the event such a success. Of course, games will always be the focus at an E3 Event and this year was no exception with some truly groundbreaking games. If you read our 2006 recap, you will have already noticed that a lot of the games from last year returned again this year in an almost completed format then what we saw from them before. Rather than repeat ourselves, we’ll show you a few of the games that weren’t previously shown on the floor from last year’s event and give you our opinion on what we’ve thought about those games so far (This year’s list is in no particular order).

Killzone 2

-We included Killzone 2 in our 2006 list but didn’t talk much about the game since all we had was a movie trailer to speak of. Well, that movie trailer was no movie and from all indications is the actual game play footage which is looking pretty sweet at the moment. The opening demo level features the same game play footage that was featured in the trailer where you and some army buddies get thrown into a hot zone to start the game off with explosions and killings all around you. It seems that weather will be a big focus in this year’s game with either rain/snow playing a factor during game play but we still don’t have many details to go on just yet. Seeing as this is one of Sony’s big titles we expect big things from this game when it finally makes its way to the PS3.

Starcraft 2

-It’s taken nearly a decade for a sequel to this game to finally be in development. We don’t think that the fans will mind at all since they’re still loving the original with millions of fans lining up to play the original at Blizzcon every year. The game features human Terrans, the Zerg aliens, and the Protoss in a battle for space supremacy. Many fans consider this to be the greatest Real-Time Strategy game of all time and while the stakes to repeat that success are pretty high; we feel that the game will meet the fans expectations as Blizzard has yet to pull a stinker with one of their famed franchises so far. (more…)

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Have you ever been watching a sporting event and were simply disgusted with your favorite team’s lack of fashion sense? Better yet, have you actually considered going into fashion just so that you could learn how to create better uniforms to replace the old ones? It doesn’t matter whether your favorite sports team is good on or off the field of play when it comes to fashion sense. Marketing departments have tried desperately over the years to come up with new uniforms that will either appeal to a new market or simply to stir up some controversy. Here are some of our choices for some of the worst sporting uniforms on the face of this planet.

Vancouver Canucks – 1978 – 1985

These jerseys were supposed to be used to scare the opposing team but instead scared anybody who paid to see this team play with these awful jerseys. It seemed like Halloween was everyday of the week for the Canucks and unfortunately it was. This jersey has become the standard in how not to design a jersey and how to think more carefully when deciding to mix colors together without thinking. The truly sad part is that the Vancouver Canucks still haven’t decided on a true jersey for this franchise ever since these jerseys existed but every year that the marketing team comes up with a new jersey that gets blasted by the media and the fans at least they can say, “Well, at least it wasn’t as bad as these jerseys!”

Denver Nuggets Road Jersey 1976 – 1998

The Denver Nuggets thought it would be a good idea to have a jersey that stood out from the rest of the teams in the NBA. Not only did this jersey help to identify the team on the court; it also helped to usher in a whole new lifestyle and community to NBA events. The rainbow colored jersey has now become a symbol for the gay & lesbian community. The team has since changed their jersey but the jersey still lives on and can be seen at many gay & lesbian parades still to this day.

Chicago White Sox Home Jersey – 1976

Man, what is it with the 1970s and bad jerseys? I sense a theme here. It’s pretty hard to mess up a baseball jersey. It’s a simple layout. Hat – buttoned shirt – pants. If you keep this combination you shouldn’t have many problems. Well, in 1976, the Chicago White Sox decided to ditch the pants and go with shorts instead. Not only was the team the laughing stock of the league but they also ended up being one of the worst White Sox teams to ever take the field. The shorts incident only lasted one game of a double header and the very next game they decided to put back the old pants and forget the incident ever took place. (more…)

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Josie Maran is an American Supermodel. She began her modeling career early at the age of 12 when a modeling agent discovered her outside of a barbecue restaurant. She began to take modeling more seriously at the age of 17 but her height was too small for runway modeling and thus she was featured in many editorial/print modeling campaigns. She signed with Elite modeling agency and had her first cover for Glamour magazine in 1998. Her big breakthrough came when she was featured in the music video “Backstreet’s Back” for the popular boy band the Backstreet Boys. She soon moved to New York City to join up with Elite modeling’s New York division to get more entertainment and employment opportunities in New York. Once established in New York City, she signed a multi-year deal with Maybelline Cosmetics.

She would also appear in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition for three consecutive years (2000-2002). She would also be active in the arts such as learning to play the violin or sing in a band. She was featured in a short stint in a band with actress Nicole Richie. She would also get small guest roles in large films like “Van Helsing” and “The Aviator”. In 2007, Josie has gone on to create her own cosmetics line called “Josie Maran Cosmetics” and also successfully landed a role on the hit ABC Reality TV show “Dancing with the Stars”. Unfortunately, she and her partner were the first couple eliminated from the show. You can visit Josie at her official website JosieMaran.com

“You can see more of Josie Maran at AskMen.com”

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Petra Nemcová is a fashion supermodel. She currently models for Victoria’s Secret and has appeared in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition multiple times. She is now the host of the television show “A Model’s Life” that is aired on the TLC network. She is also a spokesperson for HP Computers and can be seen in many of their recent ad campaigns. In 2004, she was injured in Thailand by a tsunami resulting from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake; her then-fiancé, Simon Atlee, was killed in the tsunami.

Nemcová suffered a broken pelvis and serious internal injuries, but she managed to hold onto the top of a palm tree, reportedly for eight hours, until she was rescued by Thai civilians and airlifted to an inland hospital nearby. Petra spent three weeks in a Thai hospital, and then flew home to the Czech Republic, where she spent an additional three weeks in the hospital. She went on to write Always Petra– a biography about her early life living in communist Czechoslovakia, her rise to stardom as a supermodel and the ordeal she went through in the 2004 Tsunami. She was recently seen as a presenter at the American Live Earth event and has since spent a tremendous amount of time with various benefits and charities to better aid our environment.

“You can see more of Petra Nemcová at AskMen.com”

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