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G4 Drops TechTV Name
MrM writes "According to the latest press release from G4techTV, G4 will drop the TechTV name in mid-February 2005. This comes as a major step to the old TechTV viewers, as the focused content has become gaming-oriented once more. G4 also released a copy of their "redesigned" logo, but quickly pulled it off the web after release." The article also includes details of "two new series, "Formula D" and "Girls Gone Wired." Formula D appears to be coverage of Drift Racing (because obviously gamers love that), and unfortunately Girls Gone Wired appears to be exactly what you'd expect: Guys ogling video game characters in a beauty pageant.
"Nothing for you to see here, move along."
How appropriate...
I miss tech tv :( G4 is the devil.
Obviously G4 didn't learn anything when they lost most of their fan base. G4 buying Tech TV was the worst thing to happen in ages.
Now they are going further away from the right thing. Getting rid of more shows, and adding lame ones.
It's still my hope that the old TechTV crew will start their own network, that would be awesome. G4 has ruined everything they ever made me believe in (TechTV that is).
Not that this really suprises me teh whole network has gotten terrible. I guess just a guarantee they will never get my viewership back
Oh my friggin god, you weren't kidding. It's really about a virtual beauty pageant! I was under some asinine impression that it'd be about women who are into technology.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
The dumbing down of G4 starts.
Soon you'll have "Trading CPUs" where neighbours trade machines for a day and soup them up and "What Not to Warez" where a couple of leet kids go through your hard disk and erase downloaded software.
Trolling is a art,
"The network also presented TCA critics with "Girls Gone Wired," a digital beauty pageant featuring the hottest 2D and 3D women on the planet"
Thats just sad...
This was a ploy by Comcast to get on satellite and on charter and Time Warner cable systems.
I have noticed (although have to admit I watch the channel maybe 15 minutes a week now) that Comcast is advertising.
Charter Communications has a large hub in my area and from what the "higher ups" have told me - they are quite angry.
I haven't understood why the former employees and show hosts don't ban together for a class action lawsuit for wrongful termination.
I also don't understand why us geeks (who don't want mindless gaming shows 24/7 and miss the older content) can't ban together and find an attorney that will sue Comcast for collusion and misrepresentation.
It's obvious (especially with this move) that Comcast had NO INTENTION to keep TechTv or any of it's content.
It's a shame Leo Laporte moved to TechTV in Canada!
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
How about /.TV? 24 hour news and information for nerds? Fellas?
Start a happiness pandemic
When Patrick wore his utilikilt and the network actually taught people about computers.
* "I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer." *
They are obviously trying to steal "back" the viewership from Spike TV. That whole Video Game Awards thing means war!
1. Merge with well respected company with original content.
2. Destroy all original content and replace with mindless crap.
3. Disassociate yourself with merged company.
4. Profit??
I really miss the Tech TV of old. I was very suprised to see what G4 did to the Screensavers and all the other programming on the network.
So what exactly was the point with merging with Tech TV in the first place? Was it just to gut it from within?
Chewie does not get a medal. Come on, George. Can a Wookie get a medal?
I think my days of watching G4/TechTV or whatever they call themselves has come to an end. GAME OVER!
SPAM solution made easy: 1 spammer, 5 cords of rope, 5 hourses, and fireworks. Be creative.
...will some other station buy XPlay so I can stop watching G4 altogether?
I think the most disturbing TV image ever created by man is the Shadow Watermelon Carrier crafted to advertise the "G-Spot" (that term alone tells you where the minds of the stations owners lie).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I tried to like it, I really did. But then, no one likes to watch someone else play a game. Sure, a game review might be nice once in a while but I'm not going to watch a television show for about 30 minutes where it's just a bunch of guys playing a game and not really saying anything of worth such as, "Suck it, punk b*tch!" to each other. Why watch them play a game when you could turn on your own machine and play.
At least with TechTV, they had decent shows like the ScreenSavers.
... to get their crappy programming into millions of more homes by 'buying' TechTV's slot in most Cable Companies lineup. I mean really, no one would give them a whole freaking channel otherwise. Any clown can see their current (not original TechTV shows) shows are total shit. /rant
G4 buying Tech TV was the worst thing to happen in ages. :(
Damn... I wish I lived in that universe.
"She's not even real!"
"But she's hot..."
"But SHE'S NOT REAL!!!"
Wow, you must be over 14 dude. In other words, outside of G4's demographic. ;-)
The big problem with G4's management is I think they rely too much on ONLINE demographic data such as the average age of game related message forum users, etc. Teens have the most time to waste and are the most fanatical, which makes them APPEAR to be the core demographic, but they're not.
Anybody who didn't see this coming is...well....dumb enough to watch G4.
TechTV is dead. Long live TechTV.
Completely ceasing all TV watching was the best thing I ever did. Although I do like drift racing, I doubt that show will be very good.
You know, since there isn't any TV or radio for nerds like us, you think we would have made some already? I mean, just have people create video and audio content in an open source fashion. Collect it and place it in categories. Then by using a combination of RSS and BitTorrent, which is an idea everyone and their mother is implementing, voila nerd tv and radio. When someone doesn't make software we like, we make it ourselves. But when someone doesn't make television we like we whine and complain. Lets make it ourselves!
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Why I'm sure some folks were, given the big change in focus, but its very common in corporate renaming to run both names for a while. Its so people understand "its the same product, new name". Otherwise folks would be calling their cable companies complaining that they want their TechTV channel back, and to dump that new G4 channel.
You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
Don't forget Dan Rather's new TV show on G4 after he leaves CBS. His first show is an expose on Bill Gates' monopolistic tendencies. He uses as evidence Microsoft Office 97 files which Gates filled out with incriminating information in 1977.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
comcast board meeting transcript (spring 2004):
TechTV guy: No, I think our game content is fine the way it is. Plus our rating have never been higher.
Comcast G4 guy: Fine, I didn't want to own your network anyway. I'll just go start my own network with my own shows, with black-jack, and hookers. Infact, forget the shows.
Finally, an opportunity to get my knitting show aired. If anyone from G4 is reading this; it's a show about knitting... FOR GAMERS. The needles are sharp, and so is the humor. This is a match made in heaven. G4 CONTACT ME!!! I've got other shows too that'll be perfect for the gamers; including an English Lit project that... it's just a fit. I know it.
... the merger with Yahoo, creating G4Y! network.
/bev/null... need more beer
Geeks everywhere nod in agreement.
I used to watch Judgment Day for my video game reviews (beats forking money over to gamespot...) until I realized how boring and biased it can be. X-Play makes the whole "self-effacing sarcastic gamer culture game reviews" gimmick work without being as stupid as the other shows on G4 where the cast and writers clearly don't understand games.
What I'm wondering now is: When G4 folds and dies (which WILL happen, and this announcement only speeds the process) will X-Play be able to pack up and move to another channel, like Spike? Or are they directly funded by the channel rather than simply a company contracted to produce a show?
Now they are going further away from the right thing. Getting rid of more shows, and adding lame ones.
/. article Inside TechTV all G4 wanted was to get their channel aired on more cable networks. They bought TechTV for the market penetration it had spent years acquiring it and for nothing else.
G4 never intended to carry the TechTV shows. As an astute commenter correctly predicted in response to the
If g4 is for gamers, why is it so lame? I understand techTV is dead and phased out and it is all about games, but the shows are still incredibly bad.
I haven't cought them all since I don't watch tv too often and I can only stomach G4 for so long at a time. But the review show is terrable. There is one guy who actually makes sense on it, but he keeps getting talked over by his annoying co-host who yells out things like "YEEE HAWWWWWW". I am sure he's told to act like a jack ass, but I want to hear about the game they are reviewing, not all the guys stupid comments and bad jokes.
Why don't they give gamers what they want? We don't want to watch some no names play video games against each other. They showed some people playing Call of Duty and SOCOM against each other. I don't know the games, so all I see are random people killing eachother at unknown points in an unknown map.
But they can fix this so easily. First off, go talk to the major "pro leagues" for gaming, go to the cpl, go over to korea, whatever, get the people actually out there winning money to play games, who you know are really good. Now, film them playing.
Except, for the big final games, give me the whole experience. I don't want a 30 second recap of watching someone die. I want to see the whole match, how he set up, where he moved. I want an announcer to point out to me the clever things he did to get where he is, and how he set that guy up for the kill. How close was he to dieing. So show me the whole game, not a meaningless string of people shooting each other.
So this pro show is great, because you can probably cover a match in 30 minutes, and there are lots of pros in lots of important matches in a variety of games. Call it "Pro MatchX" (X for extreeM!!!)
Next they need a show about teaching you to play games better. Take a multiplayer game, they hang around longer then singleplayer ones, so the show can get out while people are still playing the game. Then, get to showing me how to win pub servers. I didn't get what was going on in call of duty. So, pick a map, show me where I spawn in on a map, show me where to go for choke points. You can go one of these three routs to the other guys flags. When you run this rout, bad guys start appearing at these sections. The stairs here are a choke point. Show me these things, from start to finish. Show me where people camp. Show me great places to plant mines to trick people.
So there are two shows I'd watch. Ones that tell me how to get better at a multiplayer game, and run through some maps. Another showing me the worlds best playing games, with real coverage of the game and not just some joe schmoe at the point of the kill message. Create some suspence for the kills at liest and do it half a second before it happens.
I don't think these shows would be any more difficult to create then what they already have, and would make a lot better gamer television.
Oh how much I agree. I'm not really a console gamer, but the casual entertaining way that he presented what was largely console games made for a very enjoyable watch, and when nothing better was on (most always) my wife and I would watch it. We can't stomach the new, hipper version.
A week or so back I commented on how much the show has gone downhill, and in return was scored -1 Flamebait for it -- apparently I offended the sensibilities of the sort of sad little nerd that thinks any "untouchable" girl is "H0t!". That Morgan is, and this is obviously subjective personal opinion, a paper-bagger, and she certainly wouldn't get attention in any food court across the land. Make her inaccessible, and thus a convenient substitute for real female companionship, and suddenly she's the hottest thing around to dungeon nerds across the land. Screensavers a couple of years back had a host who was entirely plain - she wasn't ugly but at a bar she'd be the cute girl's ugly friend - and she commented several times about how people need to stop sending proposals. Give me a break...
One thing that seems consistent, down to the new logo - they're not just going after gamers, but specifically console gamers. After all, Halo 2 made more than a Hollywood blockbuster, so there's tons of people just waiting to watch console game stuff, right? That's my bet - they'll keep dumbing it down (which is sad - Call4Help and TSS were, depending, already fairly dumbed down) further, so the 15-year-olds with a PS2 can be happy. That's where the money is.
I wonder if I can call Charter and ask that they drop G4 and put on something else instead?
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
Yeah, forget the tsunami: Several of my favorite shows have been cancelled or changed!
Funny (maybe), but not insightful: I think it's implied that the original poster was using 'worst thing that happened in ages' in a limited domain. It's not like just because something really bad happens, we immediately stop considering other, lesser bad things that might be happening - although many governments would like you to (I'm thinking War on Terror vs civil liberties here.)
I was going to tell Comcast to drop dead, but clearly they're trying to commit commercial suicide and don't need my encouragement.
I am clueless on sports, and when I watch ESPN I feel even more clueless. The deluge of statistics, rules, various sports overwhelms me. Yet, how many ESPN channels are there? Like 20, each more categorically detailed than its parent channel? ESPN is unarguably difficult to "get" into. If you don't know sports, ESPN is a morass of numbers and names and terms you know nothing about.
Kind of like video games and computing. Video games and computing on TV have more in common with TV sports than any other form of entertainment. There is something of a learning curve for video games and computing, and like sports they have generally appealed to a specific demographic. But what G4 is doing is the exact opposite of ESPN. They're trying to be more mainstream, instead of appealing to the niche like ESPN does. The fact is that ESPN makes the niche look so cool, and they do it so well, that the niche becomes mainstream. G4 is trying to be mainstream without appealing to the specific demographic of people who love - really love - video games and technology.
I guess one could ask why the hell they're parading "the best of 2D and 3D girls" if they're trying to go mainstream. But it's like the kid in high school wearing the Walmart Wranglers jeans and knockoff brand jacket trying to fit into the cool clique. It's obvious that G4 is trying too hard. X-Play is the only thing they have going for them. Adam and Morgan* appeal to the niche, but at the same time they do it so well that it becomes cool. Friends who have no love of video games love to watch X-Play.
G4 should be modeling ESPN, not Fox. The channel should cater to the people who love video games and technology, not shun them by canceling their favorite shows.
* Ok, plus, Morgan is hot. But what she is not is a "2D or 3D girl." How lame.
Dude. You really need to get a life.
Life is more than a game. Do something new. Take your wife or girlfriend friend on a date. You might like it.