Slashdot Mirror
On Videogaming TV Shows And Vitriol
Thanks to GameSpy for their 'Sole Food' editorial discussing the vitriol directed against videogame-themed television programs, or, more specifically, the game-themed digital cable/satellite channel G4. The writer laments: "You'd think that people that enjoy the gaming lifestyle would be all over the only channel dedicated to their passion. Sadly, that's not the case", and goes on to suggest "there's been an enormous amount of improvement" in the channel, and comment: "my favorite thing about [G4] is that it will bring new people into the [videogaming] fold." Are there any game-related TV shows, either on G4 or elsewhere, that you think are being done just right?
XPlay on TechTV is good.
Yes, Its on TechTV.
Yes, Its on at odd times, and they move it around a bit. Just set your TiVo.
Yes, Its got a horrid announcer voice, just use your TiVo to skip it.
Yes, Its got lots of inane banter, just use your TiVo to skip it.
Whats left is about 12 minutes of great, objective, intelligent, wide-ranging game reviews.
Steve
I don't know, maybe watching video games being played is just boring, especially if it is only segments; one after another.
Besides, the information provided on the shows is borderline useless. If I wanted to know how to beat a certain game, I would think that it is just easier to look it up on the internet instead of waiting until 7:30 to see it on the tv.
It did have one show that I found somewhat interesting though. I believe it was called Filter (correct me if I'm wrong), and every week they created a top 15(?) list of video games in certain categories. That was pretty cool.
-Magiluke
Earl Grey, Hot.
- Gaming is interactive; television is not. For most gamers, watching people play games is like watching people eat food. They're more interested in the participation.
- Gamers don't really need a heads-up about what's new. They largely play sequels or the latest tired iteration of the first-person shooter/RTS genres, or whatever their favorite magazine tells them to get for their consoles. Reviews all lie anyway.
- Gamers aren't going to bother sitting in front of a TV for hours when they can sit in front of a computer for hours. The biggest decision for many is whether to camp in a plane in BF1942 or bitch in the public forums.
Game channels/shows don't succeed because even if they were firing on all cylinders the hardcore gamer is on the computer and nobody else really cares to watch them. It's the poker tournament dilemma with electronics.Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
I refuse to watch the channel that screwed Wil.
You'd think that people that enjoy the gaming lifestyle would be all over the only channel dedicated to their passion. Sadly, that's not the case
Then perhaps the reason they don't like your channel is because it's bad?
Like G4, X-Play has more problems than this comments section can handle. Read my rant here.
The gaming world is something that changes day by day. Through the internet, people are used to getting news and information hours after it's published, or finding info they need with google. Things move faster than most tv programming can keep up with.
What is there really to put on any kind of 'gamer's tv' that isn't easier to get at through an internet connection?
No hardcore gamer would use a G4!
The hosts and the reviewers (if you can even call them that) are trying too hard to be hip and actually excited about these games that they are reviewing.. so excited in fact it comes off as being really forced and annoying.. for another example of "annoying" check out any N-gage paper ad.
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
I be hatin' the editorial writing style of that GameSpy article! Peace!
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I support spreading santorum
The World Cyber Games had some kick ass gamer TV. I don't know what G4 shows, but WCG had video coverage of competitive Starcraft/Warcraft/Halo. The players were skilled, the audience was into it, the camera work was decent, the video quality (I as watching an Internet feed, though it's broadcast on Korea on TV) was not bad. I'll admit still not as physically compelling as meatspace sports, but good gamer TV.
By the way if you like gamer tourament coverage you should definitely visit Team Sports Network. They do shoutcast coverage of competitive online gaming. You can browse ahead to see when coverage of your favorite games will be using the little callendar thingy.
Sorry no Tux Racer coverage in the queue
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I support spreading santorum
Look at the posts by the "g@merz" on Slashdot. Look at how they react to ANYTHING. "OMFG! U SUXOR! FAG!"
This, on a board that is NOT purely a gamer board. Now, consider the effect of something that attracts only gamers - the result will be to concentrate the "g@merz" to the strength of Alien blood.
I do not find it surprising that there is vitriol directed at a gaming channel. I find it surprising that anybody else is surprised.
Nota Bene - I draw a clear distinction between "gamer" - "a person who plays games" and "g@merz" - "a collection of immature morons".
www.eFax.com are spammers
I'm sorry, but I honestly can't tell the difference between the shows and the commercials on G4.
I think your rant was very well written and made some good observations, but I think you side-tracked a bit and missed what actually happened to the show. Primarily, I think you give Morgan Webb too little credit. You go off on her part in the show before you get back to Adam Sessler, who's case would actually show the core of the problem more than anything Morgan Webb could've done for the show.
If you look at Adam Sessler alone, and then look at Morgan Webb (who often has insightful commentary, yet gets 'sidetracked' almost every time she speaks), you see that at the core the show was changed and they were told to do these stupid bits. Shortening 'Extended' to 'X' wasn't just a change of name, or even co-hosts, but also a shortening of the attention span they expect from their viewers, and nothing gets the teenage geeks like Morgan Webb saying 'Bawls'. Adam Sessler turned into a spaz because that's what the producers wanted from him. Morgan Webb went on a tangent about 'Bawls' because that's what the producers wanted (and it was convenient).
The interludes, gags, and bad jokes can be tiring, but the core of the show is still very solid. I would be very happy if they could tone down the BS and provide more content, but I'll take X-Play over my other options for TV coverage of video games (although, for the most part, those other options are about none). At least the reviews, when they aren't sidetracked for long-running gags, are still fairly straightforward and tell me what I want to know (and since they aired a show a couple weeks ago explaining their review scores in a bit more detail I've realised that their scores are pretty consistent, which is more than I can say for most game reviewers).
-PainKilleR-[CE]
Judgement Day is pretty good. If a game sucks, they tell you, man, WITH BELLS ON. No shame here, nosirree. Icons is cool, especially when they do old-school stuff like the history of Activision. Cheat would be more fun if I had some of the games they cover, and Filter's fun, even if the number one choice is always wrong. Mostly, G4 impresses me with its even-handedness. This is a network that has every reason to just be fanboy infomercials 24/7 and it isn't. If they neglect anything, it's PC gaming, and even then, they're just spending more time on the markets that pay.
Now, having said that, TechTV has really gone into the toilet over the last year. XPlay is still watchable, but Microsoft is running infomercials in the middle of prime-time, Unscrewed is a vulgar disaster, and don't even bring up that abominable sex technology show whose name I cannot remember. Generally they just seem to be angling toward purient and vulgar lately, which is NOT good tech.
Where the hell are the shows explaining SMTP mail server maintenance? Where is the infrastructure lecture series about firewalls, routing and network design? Where is the "Slashdot TV Open Source Report" daily newscast about what's going on in open source software? So much opportunity squandered by so little effort.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
Theres a new BBC show called Time COmmanders that doesn't actually focus on video games but uses a game engine as a method to allow contestants to
re-enact historic battles. The BBC don't have a page on it (figures , battle isn't politically correct so the vegan lentil eaters who do their
web site wouldn't be seen dead writing about it) but there is a page run by the company who did the software:
Total War
Not sure if I will be lynched for this (I have a friend working in the industry that hates the show), but I am very partial to Electric Playground.
The skits are usually funny (yes, sometimes they are dumb, especially in the older shows, but they've gotten a lot better), but more importantly, the reviews are no-holds barred. If they hate a game, they have no qualms about giving it a 2/10 and ripping the shit out of it point by point.
Mechanik
When I want to watch a soap opera, I'll watch days of our lives. I dont want to watch a soap opera using one of the MMOG's that does not highlight the game. Their show about MMOG is lame, I sat with my brother in law hoping to show him some of the newer ones and we get a very badly written soap opera. wtf?
Show games, talk about games, just dont talk over games.
Its like watching a network that had its shows written by IGN writers. Its really bad.
When the average age of viewers is probably about 16 and the average age of the posters "hatin'" is probably about 13, what do you expect them to say? I never met a 13 yr old boy who liked things because he appreciated their potential.
However, a lot of the criticisms are totally valid too for the current state of affairs.
- Ronilyn on Pulse could be a blowup doll considering the mechanical way she reads the teleprompter.
- Diane Mizota does a better job, and is hotter, but it is pretty clear she never touched a computer game in her life before getting her gig on Filter.
- What's with all the freakin' one word show titles? Pulse, Portal, Filter, Arena, Blister, Sweat, Cheat, . People should watch Judgement Day just to show G4 we can handle two word titles of shows.
- What kind of budget does this channel really have for making shows? Arena must cost them about $8 per show to film, and they've only made about 25 shows in 3 years. They should do that one like Wheel of Fortune and shoot 10 a day. It would also be much better if they actually bracketed the teams and made true champion each season instead of "win 3 shows and join the Hall of Champions".
- I would probably nominate Portal as the worst show on TV, on any channel in existence. Anyone have a worse one?
The two shows that are at least making an effort to be fun and informative are Judgement Day and G4TV.com. Pulse is ok if you can ignore how Ronilyn reads and just focus on her "assets". Arena is worth watching if nothing else is on just to hear all the nicknames for Stacy Barcelata. Other than that, you'll have more fun and learn more watching the gold necklace show on QVC than anything on G4.
"The difference between theory and practice is small in theory and large in practice..."
Excuse my ignorance, but does G4 play trailers? If not, they should, and they should do it "en masse". Rather than downloading these big motha trailers off the net, I'd much rather see em on my television, at television quality. Trailer after trailer... that's what they should air.
As for XPlay... cripes, I'm on the fence. Sometimes it's good and entertaining, but whenever that tall goofy looking chick with the small head is doing the voice-over, it just sucks. First it doesn't even sound like she plays games, and second she can't even pronounce words like "limbs" (she pronounced it "leems" during one game review). And I also really hate their sarcasm. There is so much sarcasm and making FUN of parts of games that they end up sounding like they don't even like video games, so why the fuck are they reviewing them?!
WHenever I put it on it always seems to be hosted by people who don't really care about games. Like that show with the two girls on the couch who just bs. They never seem to know what they're talking about. The problem is that the pretty faces that belong on TV are not hardcore gamers, and the hardcore gamers who really have good insight are goofy, geeky guys that no network exec would ever dream of putting in front of a camera.
If I'm flipping through my favorite channels and see 'pulse' I stop to check of Ronylyn and her breasts are on...
1) Your analysis is based on bad assumptions so your result is way off. 2) You're a sick bastard for fucking a horse.
Is live television coverage of a Counterstrike tournament or something. The "camera people" can be people sitting at computers with video outputs and connected to HLTV, and they can have instant replays of cool kills at the end of the round. Imagine the color commentary:
"Now, it looks like 1337_k1ll4r is going with the MP5 this round"
"That's right Bob, he just didn't have enough money this round for the AWP."
"Well, let's see how well he does with this weapon...Here comes pwnz0rz_j00 with an AK..."
"Oooh, that was not pretty, Bob, looks like k1ll4r needs to focus on his non-AWP-whoring skills."
Make me a friend and I'll mod you up
When I first got digital cable, all I watched was G4, but then quickly migrated to VH1 Classic.
Why? Some of the shows, like that one with the host and his digital avatar buddy(some show about MMORPHGs), are just plain unwatchable. Judgement day is okay, but a little too MTV-like. There just isn't enough programming on the channel though to keep me interested. You can only watch the same Pringles commercial(are they their only sponsor?) over and over and over again.
Does anyone remember from several years ago the show with videogame championships for some "blockade runner" like game? It was some dedicated arcade game where you race ships down the tunnel against other ships. The people competing on that were THE biggest, most stereotypical nerds. I believe it was on Sci Fi. Completely unwatchable.
I do love the Starcade reruns though. More of that, please.
... were "Games Master" (all hail Patrick Moore!!) and "Bits".
Each had their own certain class and style but have yet to be beaten over here.
How can you say that civilisation's do not advance... in every war we invent new ways to kill you.
Challenge TV on Sky Digital are reshowing old Gamesmasters from the very first episode... heaven. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6.30. Set the vid!
Woot! and much Huzzah! thats made the my 13 hour shift seem actually worth while... I have hope again!
How can you say that civilisation's do not advance... in every war we invent new ways to kill you.
Here are some responses to some of the posts here:
I would probably nominate Portal as the worst show on TV, on any channel in existence. Anyone have a worse one?
I'd say Portal is an aquired taste - some people are fanatical fanboys of it, and some don't get it. There is a lot of good humor in it, it makes fun of itself and of the MMORPG game genre. If nothing else, it's unique and creative and there is nothing like it out there. Isn't that what people ask for when they say how bad modern TV is?
Excuse my ignorance, but does G4 play trailers? If not, they should, and they should do it "en masse". Rather than downloading these big motha trailers off the net, I'd much rather see em on my television, at television quality. Trailer after trailer... that's what they should air.
One of our shows, Cinematech is only trailers and game footage. Since this show doesn't have hosts, it's all about the editing of the footage - and the editor that works on this show is really talented.
There just isn't enough programming on the channel though to keep me interested. You can only watch the same Pringles commercial(are they their only sponsor?) over and over and over again
You must have watched the channel when we just launched. We had a very limited inventory of episodes to air from, and only a few sponsors have signed up. Things have changed significantly since then.
Besides, the information provided on the shows is borderline useless. If I wanted to know how to beat a certain game, I would think that it is just easier to look it up on the internet instead of waiting until 7:30 to see it on the tv.
Some of the shows are targetted more at the casual gamer, or even the wanna-be casual gamer. Being online over-exposes you to the hard-core gamer, but joe six-pack sitting at home playing Madden 2004 on his PS2 never heard of Slashdot or the Gamespys and the IGNs for that matter. And the proof for that is that our show CHEAT is one of the most popular shows, even though you can easily get cheats online.
Over in the UK, we have channels dedicated to gaming. However, these channels consist of constant, interminable footage of two year old games streaming non-stop, with maybe someone speaking incredibly boring-talk in a bad accent, but usually just some hideous dance music.
Oh, and users can text in and get their message on the bottom of the screen. Excellent.
You used to throw "Electronic Playground" into that mix before the show got bought by G4. All I have to say about G4 is they really need to stop being too frightened (or too cheap) to air the actual audio of games they are reviewing. I don't know how many times I've heard the exact same cheap techno-dance beats being played over the gameplay of Game X. It's called "fair use" folks.
Extended Play/X-Play has its own charm... namely Adam and the staffers that back him up. These folks really do know what they're talking about, and one can get bored with Electronic Playground (or its original G4 clone, Judgement Day). There's only so many times Tommy can piss on a game before I begin to get the feeling the man just isn't happy about life.
Admittedly, video games on TV are about as interesting as watching your friends play... which is either lots of fun or boring as hell. YMMV.
No penguins were harmed in the making of this post.
I used to watch G4, but towards the end I was just watching Cinematech and Electric Playground/Judgement Day once a week, and most of all, Starcade. Starcade has to be their best show, but they keep showing the same 5 episodes all the time. I know there weren't too many, but there were more than that. I stopped watching though. Why? Digital Cable is way, way, way too expensive, especially considering I still watch tv on my 1986 RCA. If Comcast didn't make me pay extra for TechTV (which has gone downhill anyway) I might think about it.
I also agree with whoever said this first. They needed Wil Wheaton way more than he needed them. He's exactly the type of Quasi-Celebrity geek that they need. How hard could it have been to fix whatever problems he had? He was/is the only person they ever had that people know from outside the channel. And Arena would be better with a bracket system. Just do what Battlebots did - setup a tournament and tape the whole thing on a weekend.
I think that in order to be more successful, they are going to have to get to all mediums. I still can't get G4 on satelite, and that prevents me from seeing it. The other gaming shows I watch just don't cover what I play. I play competitive games, and I follow the teams, events, and whole community. I listen to shoutcasts, and online radio stations. If I could get a television station to cover more of what I watch it would get more attention from me. I am just like many other people, I DO NOT PLAY CONSOLE. I know there are tons of great games out there, but I play a "few" games quite alot, and I only enjoy competitive multi-player games. Those games get my time, attention, and devotion. I spend enough money on my PC, and events that I can't justify spending more money on a console that is to me boring. Thats just me though.
Dave and Steve's Video Game Explosion. Best thing I've ever seen in my life. Funniest video game reviews in existance.
They were on the now debunked Burly Bear college network.
Ah, Final Fantasy X and Sobe Lizz Blizz... You will have a spot in my heart forever.