24 Hours with G4

Nathan Smart writes "A writer for satire site The Game Rag watches 24 hours of G4TV and lives to tell about it." From the article: "'Cheat' had to evolve into a broader format, which coincidentally no longer involves actual cheating, and became a show about walkthroughs and tips. So right off the bat there's an immediate problem, and it ties back into that internet-thing I said earlier. There is nothing, seriously nothing, you can get from this show that you couldn't find with a simple trip to your local neighborhood Gamefaqs.com. Nothing. And Strike two is the disgustingly cheerful host, Kristin Holt. My assumption is that G4 wanted to hire some attractive women, as that falls under the category of 'things nerds like to look at', but Miss Holt, in my professional opinion, has NEVER SEEN A VIDEO GAME IN HER LIFE." He's already posted the second part of his outing, and G4 has a response to his project on their website.

Comments

Pics

[mobby_6kl]

Be careful when searching the net for pics, or you may end up with this on your monitor.

Re:Pics

[AKAImBatman]

Be careful when searching the net for pics, or you may end up with this on your monitor.

Oh my God. It's a normal looking woman. Run for the hills. The disgust is palpable. I can't believe that anyone would allow photos of real women on the Internet. They must all be super-models that are so skinny they only look right in the warping of a camera lense. Viva la myspace.

*rolls eyes*

What I get a kick out of, is that the "reviewer" (and I use the term loosely) chose to give Ms. Holt a poor score while letting Ms. Webb completely off the hook. Apparently, he has no problem sacrificing journalistic integrity in favor of broadcasting his fantasies about Ms. Webb in the slight hope that she might one day fullfill them. (Which is pretty pathetic when you think about it.)

The truth is that Ms. Webb and Mr. Sessler are painful to watch on the screen. All their jokes are delivered exactly as if they were reading from a script (which they are), they constantly look back and forth between each other and the camera (that's a very distracting movement, and should be minimized), they need to get their damn hands out of their pockets so that they don't look like pretzels, and they really need to loosen up and act more natural. Would it kill them to adlib a bit? Perhaps jump off into unscripted side conversations? Or does G4 believe them to be so void of any intelligence that they can't loosen the leash for even a second?

X-Play could be a decent show. Too bad it's hosts are strangling the life out of it.

Re:Pics

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Not to insult you but she really isn't very good looking. She's slightly below average IMO

As for your rant on stick figure women, well everyone has a weight their body is comftable at, some people it's over weight, some it's under. If you stick to that your body will run at it's best, where as if you fight against it (stick figures) you'll end up very ill and suffer from it.

Give it time and natural selection will nuke the shallow stick girls.

Re:Pics

[niteice]

X-Play was actually a pretty good show before G4 took over.

Re:Pics

[Ykant]

"Natural selection will nuke the shallow stick girls"? Okay, explain Brooke Burke.

Re:Pics

[creepynut]

A lot of TechTV shows were good before G4 took over. Those that are left, that is.

Of course, I have to admit, I rather like the new Call for Help.

Re:Pics

[Gulthek]

Thank you.

Their "camaraderie" is hackneyed, forced, trite, and just awful. It's like they want the witty sarcasm of 'The Daily Show' and the fun delivery of Alton Brown and decided that they didn't have to actually hire talented actors, but could make up for it with scripting every nuance.

As a lifelong gamer, X-Play annoys the hell out of me. This is best we can offer? Really?!

At least there's Gamespot. They're on a thin line, but they do waver slightly more towards the "not sucking" end of the spectrum.

Re:Pics

[Anonymous Coward]

She really isn't very good looking. She's slightly below average IMO

So your point is that anyone who has looks that you consider "below average" is a horrible, psych-scarring eye-sore on par with Goatse.cx, and should be removed from the interweb immediately?

I don't see any other way of reading your post.

Re:Pics

[drsquare]

Oh my God. It's a normal looking woman.

No, it's an unhealthily overweight woman. If being obese is considered normal and acceptable, then society really is going down the shitter. What happened to the days when people looked after their appearance and ate healthily, and exercised now and again?

Re:Pics

[AKAImBatman]

No, it's an unhealthily overweight woman.

Apparently you think that "Mildly Obese" is the same thing as "unhealthily overweight". You must be one of those people who was highly offended by the Dove Soap advertisements? I'm sure you would have just died trying to find a woman skinny enough for your tastes a hundred years ago. Never mind that they were naturally bulkier than the unnaturally skinny women you apparently so covet. Medical science (read: the mob-rule) has decided that bucking nature is again the best bet for fitness!

Honestly, the way guys react towards women these days is disgusting. Unless the women actually are at an unhealthy weight (which is to say, too skinny to survive into their 30's) they're branded as "fat". I see plenty of thin women like that walk down the street here in Chicago, and I just want to puke. They're so skinny that there's practicly no muscle attached to the bone. I've seen some women with arms and legs having a radius of barely 2 inches. 2 INCHES! And I just know that these women aren't going to survive long, or will have to go through serious therapy if they do. And it's all because society keeps telling them that they're too fat. How does it feel to be encouraging women to die from painful conditions like anorexia and bulimia? Hmm?

Is there a problem with obesity in this nation? Yes, but that photograph is NOT IT. Especially if you understand that any photograph automatically makes the subject look heavier. (Why the hell do you think that super-models are so skinny?) As it so happens, she will probably lead a long and healthy life. Unfortunately, it's difficult to say the same for the women in these photos.

Re:Pics

[drsquare]

Apparently you think that "Mildly Obese" is the same thing as "unhealthily overweight".

That's not a few pounds overweight, that's pretty seriously overweight. There's no excuse for having a double chin, it's sick.

I'm sure you would have just died trying to find a woman skinny enough for your tastes a hundred years ago.

People were much skinnier back then. Less food and harder work, not donuts and office jobs, but gruel and the workhouse.

I just love that rant about anorexia, as if it's somehow acceptable to be sit on your armchair all day eating cake, as long as you're not skinny.

Re:Pics

[psu_whammy]

OK, the over/under on the first end-around slam on Morgan Webb was five posts. If you had the under, you win! Collect your prize at the G4-would-die-if-you'd-just-shut-up-about-them cashier window!

duh

[voice_of_all_reason]

There is nothing, seriously nothing, you can get from this show that you couldn't find with a simple trip to your local neighborhood Gamefaqs.com

What kind of blindingly obvious claim is this? "You can get more information from a website with thousands of users contributing information over 10 years in realtime compared to a half-hour television show." Lol, duh?

Both have their uses. I still subscribe to game mags, for example, because they provide a general overview of what's out/coming soon pretty pictures to boot. Once a buy a game, I head over to gamefaqs for in-depth strategy.

Re:duh

[Red Flayer]

Once a buy a game, I head over to gamefaqs for in-depth strategy.

The fun for me is figuring out the strategy myself. If I get really stuck, or if I'm at the point where I've learned almost all I'll learn by myself, then I head over to gamefaqs.

Otherwise, it's just like doing yesterday's crossword with today's paper (and therefore yesterday's completed puzzle) in hand.

Re:duh

[voice_of_all_reason]

I see your point, but it all depends on the game, really. I just got into Diablo 2, and the skill/stat points are a one-time award. It's very possible to back yourself into a corner at the higher difficulties because you made poor choices early on, so this is the type of thing that I like to heavily research before starting. Final Fantasy has also grown notorious for including missable/screwup-able quests that I like to ask about before diving in.

Otherwise, I tend to subscribe to the "beat it once and all bets are all" involving looking up secrets and hidden areas.

Re:duh

[Prod_Deity]

Seriously.... does any one watch this channel still? I was forced to watch G4 once they took over TechTV, and I watched it for a while after. I'll admit that I liked shows like Icon & Cinematech. About a year ago I couldn't stand it anymore.... what it's turned out to be is a rip off of Spike TV. Comcast, I bet (and hope) is losing money hand over fist with this channel.

Re:duh

[Rob T Firefly]

The thing is, game mags are good for their format. The good ones have the right mix of articles, previews, interviews, and other content, while maintaining that somwhat exclusive magazine-readership "feel" to it. You get to know the personalities of the writers, and of the zine as a whole.

I somehow recently clicked my way into getting a free supscription to EGM. Don't ask me how, it was some weird website deal where I filled in a survey with fake info, and as a reward get a magazine addressed to an obvious joke name in my mailbox every month. I wouldn't pay for it these days, but it's good for what it is, and maintains an honored position in my house next to the Charmin, where I can read just the right amount of it at a time for a few minutes a day.

G4, however, tries to take that same amount of info, and stretch it out into a month of nonstop programming. There just isn't enough going on with enough network-friendly demo-gasmic mass appeal to keep something as unidirectional as TV interesting and profitable to the uninterested suits whose money runs the thing. Even the game mags have loaded their websites with bonus content, forums, downloadables, and stuff to involve their readers beyond the one-way "here's what we have to tell you this month, please take no notice of the Internet and its many superior, more focused, specialized news sources tailorable to your own interests" format.

The people behind G4 need to understand that they're not in an MTV situation, where they can flash any old crap at their target audience and expect it to get greedily eaten up. ("My proposal, Mr. Oldguy, is to make the rap kids want to wear hideous sparkly things in their teeth, and make the men want fur coats." "Excellent idea, Mr. Whiteguy! Get Puffy Combs' people on the phone, we'll make this happen by Friday.") Their target audience isn't dominated by empty-headed kids patiently awaiting instructions, they're into interactive-feeling content that doesn't talk down to them or zoom straight past the particular subsets of things they individually like.

Re:duh

[Roody Blashes]

The first thing I thought of when I read that was "Doesn't that logic apply to the entire Food Network?"

They seem to be doing okay though.... that said, I still can't get interested in G4. This guy's blog wasn't really any better though, and watching this rag and G4 battle it out through droll observational "wit" and obtuse, boring insults is pretty much as close to a real life pansy slap fight as you can get on the Internet.

Re:duh

[Anonymous Coward]

I stoped watching it awhile back also. It was good when it first started off and before comcast took over. Then they took over, combined it with techtv and started killing off a lot of the better shows and changing the rest of them that they left on the air.

Re:duh

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

In DII I usually leave about 15-25 points unspent as I level up, to use in an emergency if I find some nice piece of equipment I want to use and suddenly need more points in Dex instead of Str (or whatever DII calls 'em, I forget.)

Wake of fire trapsassin with bowazon sidekick, save all skill tree points for wake of fire and supporting, get to Pindleskin, crank through a hundred times, go to nightmare, crank through to Pindle again, you're level 60, nothing can touch you, you have gold claws that you don't use because your fire trap is phenomenal, and those fire traps you don't use because your bowazon sidekick, "the lawnmower", can handle the entire run with her gold bow.

Re:duh

[Suddenly_Dead]

You can flip through game magazines to the part you want. However, with G4 you're stuck with whatever crappy games they decided to focus on in that episode. And they do cover a lot of crappy games.

Re:duh

[MBGMorden]

I've grown to somewhat hate games where you can get into a no-win situation. Resident Evil Code Veronica did this to me. It was my first RE game. I didn't know you should skip the zombies when possible or use the knife. I'd shoot and kill them. Might as well get rid of them right? If there's a bunch of them? That warrants a grenade or a shotgun shot.

About halfway through this game I realized that not much extra ammo was showing up; I literally could not progress any further because there were areas that I simply couldn't beat because of lack of ammo . . . and you couldn't get the ammo you needed anywhere.

Re:duh

[HTH NE1]

I'll admit that I liked shows like... Cinematech.

So did I, even though it was really a glorified 30 minutes of video game ads. I was more into the bits that just demoed game play than the canned trailers. I started to tire of it when they reused the music accompanyment to the gameplay demos. The final nail was when they would insert snippets from sex games between them instead of the scrolling list of what they're showing this episode (the latter being TiVo-friendly).

X-Play is pretty much the only show I still watch. Though I like Star Trek, now that I have it on DVD, I don't intend to watch any of it with commercials again, and I don't care for their "Star Trek 2.0".

If they came back with new episodes of Anime Unleashed or Robot Wars I'd watch them.

Icons was watchable, but not something I'd set a Season Pass for.

TechTV

[brenddie]

I miss TechTV.

Re:TechTV

[wed128]

We all do. but pre-suck TechTV; when the end came, we all saw it coming.

Re:TechTV

[Synic]

Unscrewed was awful, so you should be ashamed to admit that you liked it.

Re:TechTV

[Broken scope]

I stopped watching it after the first episode of the whip set aired. I went back once and saw fastlane on ,then blocked the channel.

Re:TechTV

[Banner]

Me too!

Re:TechTV

[zentinal]

I too mourned the death of TechTV, but I no longer miss it.

I now watch DL.TV and TWIT.TV, which gives me about 80% of what I got from TechTV.

True, it was convenient to have everything gathered on one cable channel (if you ignored all of the useless repeats), but I'd argue that the natural environment for TechTV's content is the web. Plus, now, using a good RSS feed reader, you can roll your own TechTV. Can't you do that with TIVO and Freevo now?

Now, all we need is for Joshua "Yoshi" DeHerrera to start up a modding video podcast then all will truly be right with the world, with all TechTV goodness gathered on the web, in nicely downloadable / streamable gobbits.

Re:TechTV

[Babbster]

Plus, now, using a good RSS feed reader, you can roll your own TechTV. Can't you do that with TIVO and Freevo now?

This is why G4TV being a bad channel overall doesn't bother me. My Tivo grabs [what I consider] the good show (note the lack of an "s") and I never have to see the rest. If I decide to sample something new (like the awful Star Trek 2.0), I can do so by recording one, watching it later without commercials, and I never have to see it again if it sucks. Meanwhile, Tivo is grabbing the other shows spread all over my satellite subscription that I like, along with its recommendations for filler, and I end up watching only "the good stuff."

I guess things will only turn bad for me if all of my friends and acquaintances start watching TV like I do. At that point, I'll have to work harder at sampling new stuff so I can figure out what to add to my season pass list.

Re:TechTV

[Anonymous Coward]

Unscrewed was horrible. I miss the 90 minutes of The Screen Savers every afternoon with Leo, Pat, Martin, Yoshi, and the rest... even back then it was the only show worth watching. I couldn't stand that "locker gnome" guy.

Re:Pics QWZX

[Anonymous Coward]

But she has a nice personality.

TechTV

[alfrin]

Its a real shame what G4 did to that channel. I learned a lot of my knowledge from the hayday of TechTV with Call for Help and The Screen Savers. Not to say it didn't have entertainment. Did anyone else remember Unscrewed with Martin Sargeant ? It was my favourite channel, now I make sure to skip right past in not to send myself into an emotional fit.

Public access feel missing

[192939495969798999]

The G4 channel is missing the hardware/software hacking stuff big time. They need that public-access feel. Forget that hot girl, get some guy with an spf 3000 tan in front of a wall of machines with a hand scanner securty system in his basement. The opening shot where he says 'Not now mom, I'm on the air! So anyways, check this out...' lets you know you're about to see something incredible.

cooking channel

[spykemail]

This reminds me of the cooking channel for some reason. No matter how much proof I have that the people on the screen are real chefs sometimes I get the impression that they're just some network guy's neice or nephew acting out a script.

Re:cooking channel

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're bored with ordinary cooking shows, try watching Alton Brown's "Good Eats". He's like Bill Nye, but for food.

Re:cooking channel

[wknoxwalker]

Totally agreed. I use his cooking advice on a daily basis, have used his soups, cookies and various techniques to my advantage several times and in general feel as though watching Good Eats has made my life better. For. The. Win.

People still watch G4?

[Anonymous Coward]

I got rid of that channel when they eliminated the rest of the old TechTV programming - I still fail to see the business model behind G4. I probably should've gotten rid of it earlier - it seems the only thing I can remember was how turned off I was on the entire channel. G4 wanted to buy the audience, rather than figure out why, perhaps, that their channel sucked so badly in the first place that it's got very few subscribers. Once the TechTV shows started being infected, well... I can't stand 10 minutes of that channel now, nevermind 24. I think CPAC (Canadian version of C-SPAN) would be more bearable to watch. And G4 Canada was considered the saner channel.

Programming about games done in a style that attracts teens and younger? Who these days use the 'net for the same content? At least TechTV inspired an older generation of people who still rely on "old media" (TV/radio/newspaper/magazines) just as much as "new media" (Internet - web/blogs/etc).

Re:People still watch G4?

[badasscat]

I got rid of that channel when they eliminated the rest of the old TechTV programming

How do you "get rid of" a basic digital cable channel? Did you just ditch cable altogether because you didn't like G4? What do you have now instead? AFAIK all of the satellite companies also carry G4 with their basic service.

I *wish* I could get rid of G4, if only to make a statement. As it stands, they have no tangible way of knowing my dissatisfaction. I used to watch TechTV originally but never watch G4 - unfortunately, they probably have more subscribers now than ever. But it's not by choice; it's because their contracts with the cable MSO's stipulate the packages in which they're carried. It's by default.

Does Nielsen even track them? I've wondered if they're even aware how few people watch them, and how badly they've alienated their audience.

Re:People still watch G4?

[Valthan]

the GP sounds as if he is from Canada, like me, and we don't get it standard on Cable. I had it on my Satellite dish, and when TechTV was switched, I kept G4 for something like 4 months, hated the shit out of it and then got it taken off of my subscribe to list.

hm

[Anonymous Coward]

Notice how they say that G4TV made a response, but there is no link to it.

Blame Comcast

[WatchTheTramCarPleas]

From what I remember, Comcast bought G4 who in turn bought TechTV. Its just one more reason for me to hate that company.

Re:Blame Comcast

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty much. It's sad to say, but G4 now isn't even a shadow of what TechTV was.

Bad Links Abound!

[trogdor8667]

The links on both the article and on G4 are bad...

Here's the second page: http://www.thegamerag.com/archives/2006/07/feature _my_24_hours_with_g4tv_2.php

Did I miss something?

[matt328]

There is nothing, seriously nothing, you can get from this show that you couldn't find with a simple trip to your local neighborhood Gamefaqs.com.

So they have started linking to videos of hot girls reading their FAQ's?

He's spot on

[falcon5768]

Seriously while to most of us its obvious apparently the suit at Comcast still havent realized that G4 is the biggest piece of shit they have ever tried to force down peoples throats.

For one thing, it kept none of the humor (ie it was witty and brainy) that made Tech TV great. Guys I know its hard to understand here but most gamers actually HAVE a brain. Hell most of us are over the age of 21.

Second the reruns SUCK. I flip it on and just about every show on there IS a rerun. At least Tech TV managed to make 12 hours of original content. G4 even after buying Tech TV still hasnt gone past 4 hours of new shows.

Third hot girls who dont have a clue about anything technical is NOT attractive. Likewise there are a whole legion of girl gamers out there too, start bringing them into to it too instead of thinking gaming = guys.

The list could go on, but I think the biggest killer is the fact that, quite frankly there wasnt enough content to keep the TV shows about games going in the 80's-90's why do you think that just because its a few years later there would be enough for a whole fucking channel! There isnt, not unless you get technical which you guys seem to be afraid to do.

In the end though I think the current turnaround for G4 is the most telling... more and more its becoming less about gaming and more about guys, and well we have a non-digital cable channel for all of that (Spike) so why the hell would we watch yours when Spike actually has some decent original shows once in a while.

Re:He's spot on

[Turn-X Alphonse]

There is more than enough content to fill out an entire channel with games content. Look at how many leagues and matchs go on every week with just FPSes. Cover these, infact Game-network in the UK used to cover the major TFC tournaments, I'd happily sit and watch them, it was like a geek's sports channel when they did that.

We have 30-40 years of history worth listening to. Why can't they do content covering the past? What about old game series like Dizzy? Why not do a documentry based on him and his many adventures.

There is more than enough content for a games only channel, the problem is it requires you to think about things and not just do the obvious. Many people make music videos of their games and post them to places like Youtube, why not get these sort of things put on the air?

How about covering the guild wars play offs and showing the best PvP matchs in the top tier clans of the last week for an hour or so?

We live in an era where games are like sports, we could have an entire channel dedicated to nothing but a 24 hour CS server, using interactive TV we could follow any damn player we wanted. If people will watch crpa like big brother why can't we do this shit with CS:S or HL2:DM?

Just because you can't think of anything worth while doesn't mean it's not possible for others.

Re:He's spot on

[NeuroManson]

If you think G4's one of Comcast's worst decisions, then it should be even more evident when you see their Local Spotlight segments. Annoying as Hell, these 30 minute spots are dropped into Headline News broadcasts (seemingly) at random, even in the middle of reports. So if you don't care about CNN's non-news weekends or weekdays, and watch Headline News, you're pretty much screwed (since HN covers most of the news in other time slots). They also killed off most of the more entertaining public access channels, opting for "government broadcasting". I tell you, it's almost as bad as Cox used to be.

To paraphrase Jack Valenti, Comcast is to entertainment what the Boston Strangler is to women.

Hell, I'd be happy if they went for more obscure geek shows like "How did they do that?" from Nickelodeon, or "Starcade". It's like buzzards picking a corpse clean, all they have is the best stuff TechTV had to offer, stuff they managed to get in syndication that's already been around for years, and basically crap that the kids today (basically 18 and under) think they need to see in order to be "edgy".

Re:He's spot on

[falcon5768]

your talking about all hardcore stuff G4 used to have but most people found boring and lame. They do need to make money, not cater to the 5% who make a living out of gaming.

That being said thier Icons show used to be able game history and makers and was actually very nice.... then they started doing shit like interviewing the Suicide Girls -_-. But for most of us there is just not enough game content out there. Most people would rather be playing games, not watching people play them.

I'm not feeling it...

[AP2k]

G4 just doesn't make me feel like going out and smashing one-of-a-kind phonograph cylinders while yelling "sh!t" to everyone like TechTV.

Re:I'm not feeling it...

[DDLKermit007]

Man it took me a minute to think about that. God those are good memories.

Re:I'm not feeling it...

[PaganRitual]

Make sure you fumble it awkwardly as well. That makes it all the more golden.

Martin Sargeant ?

[darkchubs]

"Did anyone else remember Unscrewed with Martin Sargeant ?" my guess is he got caned, as he started to look like Krusty the clown on a meth binge towards the end.

Re:Martin Sargeant ?

[Rob T Firefly]

"Did anyone else remember Unscrewed with Martin Sargeant ?" my guess is he got caned, as he started to look like Krusty the clown on a meth binge towards the end.

As opposed to the beginning, when he just looked like Ronald McDonald on dope.

Re:Heh.

[fullphaser]

Yes but when the concept of the channel is to talk about video games, and you spend 3 hours on cars and cop shows, it can be to say the least annoying, this channel has seriously forgotten its roots, Attack of the show (or whaterver it is) is now more adds than anything, and the sexual inuendos get old at a point, X-play is probably the only thing left watching on there (and thats saying something) because it doesn't care about the network it is sitting on. It is no longer about tech, games, just adverts, and how much money they can suck from their ratings. I love a good looking girl as much as anyone else, but when she is an airhead I tend to ignore her and it becomes a waste of my time

Where did the geek-girls go?

[Jess (geek-chick)]

I used to watch Tech TV, and loved that they had knowledgable geek/gamer females as hosts. When the change over was made, they have gotten rid of them, and instead just have the typical model/bimbo type as hosts. What the hell? Sure we don't make up the majority of the gamer and geek market, but they definitely lost my viewing. My hubby only watches Attack of the Show and some of the "Midnight Spank" shows.

Big example: When Attack of the Show had a contest for a co-host. They had to show how geeky, personable, and well they would do on the show. A guy got the job (I believe only guys made the finals.) When they replaced Sarah Lane, they put some girl who doesn't contribute much. And some skinny British girl to report "The Feed". Why couldn't they hold another contest? They had a lot of geek girls on their "MySpace Girl of the Week", and I'm sure there would be plenty who would love to be a co-host.

It seems the people who decide all that just thought Pretty girls = male viewers, when any geek/gamer could tell you they'd rather see a knowledgeable geek/gamer girl than just eye candy. Plus they'd get the female demographic. Your mileage may vary.

Fuck blogs.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is one of the articles referenced by the summary a blog post about a blog post about a blog post? Can we please stop accepting this sort of third-hand drama as news? When did blogs suddenly become something more respectable than your local guy wandering about town with a megaphone shouting about how important he is and how everyone should listen to him and leave him comments?

Re:Fuck blogs.

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because someone isn't well known by you doesn't make their opinion any less valid.

What's more respectable? Newspapers? Television News? Anyone with a few thousand dollars can make their own papers or television shows and call them 'news'. Blogs just lowered the barriers to entry to mass-market communication and give you easy access to information and opinions that you may not have had otherwise.

24 hours with a Mac

[falzbro]

And I thought this was 24 hours with an older Mac. I would have been more interested in that..

Laura Foy

[Greatmoose]

I was in Seattle at the Pier about a month ago and saw Laura Foy about doing some shopping. She's really nice, we chit-chatted for a moment and then went on. Totally pointless story, but I felt the need to share.

G4 Shows

[MrCopilot]

Attack of the Show, Sometimes good, sometimes painful. The Feed, now very painful. I miss Sarah, but not her husband

XPlay, Good Reviews, and subtle comedy that you have to listen carefully for.

Icons, Reruns that are gaming History related, New ones not so much.

Everything Else, Change the channel.

The Demographic they are trying to zero in on, is not one I would like to be associated with. I mean, I like hot chicks as much as the next guy, but damn, there has to be Content OR Nudity. Content would be preferred we already have Nudity channels. What we don't have are Technical Content. Hardware, Software, Internet, and Geek Culture on tv.

If maybe I hadn't seen every StarTrek and NextGeneration 10 years ago, I might include them as high points.

Re:G4 Shows

[British]

Icons, Reruns that are gaming History related, New ones not so much.

I noticed that Icons had an episode about THE SUICIDE GIRLS. I mean come on, they are not icons to any extent of the imagination. They are just dang good at marketing what would otherwise be a pay adult site. Why would they have them on the same show that would focus on Sid Meier, Romero, etc is beyond me.

Nope, I'm glad I got rid of my digital cable service(went back to basic) with horrible offerings like G4, VH-1 Classic(oh boy did that jump the shark), and "rerun the same show" channels(like Discovery Wings?), etc.

8 billion channels, and still nothing to watch. Hey YouTube, start your own channel. Have a "viral video" hour or something like Web Junk 20.

Re:G4 Shows

[DudemanX]

Yeah, I stopped watching Icons when I saw they had an episode about Michelle Rodriguez.

WTF?!?

Re:G4 Shows

[Dadoo]

Attack of the Show, Sometimes good, sometimes painful.

I used to think that. Then I tuned in one time, maybe a month or two ago, and saw one of the guys shaving his junk.

Never again.

Re:G4 Shows

[LostCluster]

The focus of Icons has changed so dramatically that the original video-game focused episodes that ran under that title have been renammed Game Makers.

LOL

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL @ nerd fight on teh internet

What They Need

[Reapy]

What they need is to cover some online events in a meaningful way.

How about they follow an "uber" mmo guild as they run through content for the first time? Just highlight them killing stuff, or their failuers, or thier discoveries.

TV needs to show us stuff we can't normally see and do. Running at the high end of a game, killing the crap out of people, or being the first one to explore and do things, is things that 80% of us aren't able to do unless we put massive hours in.

So, cover this stuff. Throw it in there. Show us gamers who are talented doing their thing. Show me that guy working on his latest combo in street fighter. Let me see that guy beat ninja gaiden without taking a hit, show me the devil may cry 3 style video, show me a montoge of halo 2 desctruction, play that q3 annihilation video, show me trick shots in whatever latest fps game.

Show me talented people playing a game, not some idiot who sucks at it. I can buy the game and play it like that. Show me what I cant do, and what I can't see.

Show me gaming. They are so caught up in the culture of gaming, they forgot that the whole point of it is games!

When you show NFL you don't want to see some farm teams sucking it up out there (XFL anybody?), no, you want to see guys who work at this thing all week as a job, going out doing stuff you have no way in hell of ever being able to do. So, apply this to gaming. Jeeze people, this doesnt take a genious to accomplish.

Re:What They Need

[Eberlin]

I've got to say I'm with you on this one. The speed runs they occasionally show on Cinematech are pretty cool, but we definitely need more of that.

Developers invented spectator mode for a reason...and it's not to make that bastard of a show "Arena." Show me great deathmatches. Televise all the tricks the ubergods use to pwn everyone. Hell, show me the hardware they run on and the tweaks they do to get top performance out of their machines. THAT would be cool.

The idea of following an MMO did sound kinda cool, too...but in a different way. I'm thinking Red vs. Blue/Bob and Steve type machinima. Imagine a weekly show of a "Crocodile Hunter" type of character running through an MMORPG world stalking creatures, explaining their traits, behaviors, hit points, attacks...in a comedic sense, of course. Heck, I'd attempt it if I had the time and talent. :)

Lastly -- I want videos of someone playing nethack. Get ESR to do it. That'll get the real geeks watching.

Re:What They Need

[Reapy]

Haha, that idea about an mmo red vs blue type thing is great! That could be amazingly hilarious.

Re:Heh.

[robogymnast]

Only a pocket-protector-toting dork would complain about a beautiful woman hosting a video game show, of all things. Poster is probably one of those nitwits still masturbating over his level 98 FFVII character...

Lets see, if I want someone to tell me something interesting about video games, I wonder who would be the better one to ask - the blonde bimbo who can tell me how out of style my shoes are and what Brad and Angelina's schedule next week is, or the pasty nerd who has been playing video games since before he could walk who knows what the hell he is talking about and can make an argument and support it with real experience. When I'm watching a show that I want to learn things from, I want to know that the presenter is personally knowledgeable and excited about the material. If I wanted to see beautiful women read from a script pretend to be care about what they are saying I'll go watch porn.

Ed the Sock's Night Party

[austinpoet]

I have this guilty pleasure watching this show. I don't really know why.

and Cheaters is just another guilty pleasure. The episode where the dude confronts his girlfriend/wife and his best friend (who she'd been fucking) as they came out of the Planned Parenthood was just priceless. She lost the baby too. Fucking Hilarious!

24?

[antdude]

I thought this was about Jack Bauer and the FOX's 24 TV series. :(

Re:24?

[Anonymous Coward]

Before you listen to any more drivel by 'AntDude', take a look at who you're dealing with: http://pbx.mine.nu/antdude.jpg. The abortion in the center is 'AntDude'. I won't even get into discussion about him listing his 'sex' as 'female' on his SHITTY 'blog' (aqfl.net). This faggot has nothing better to do than sit on the internet and spew worthless garbage. He's the new LostCluster when it comes to posting utterly worthless tripe. Not to mention his submitted stories! Every single one of his last 10 or so submissions have been tagged as 'lame' or 'slownewsday'. Why does taco even bother posting his shit. Maybe he gets some tiny deformed chinese cock up his taco ass in exchange for some linkspam with google ads? Do the world a favor and never reply to comments from ANTDUDE and mark him as a FOE.

Re:24?

[Anonymous Coward]

Before you listen to any more drivel by 'AntDude', take a look at who you're dealing with: http://pbx.mine.nu/antdude.jpg. The abortion in the center is 'AntDude'. I won't even get into discussion about him listing his 'sex' as 'female' on his SHITTY 'blog' (aqfl.net). This faggot has nothing better to do than sit on the internet and spew worthless garbage. He's the new LostCluster when it comes to posting utterly worthless tripe. Not to mention his submitted stories! Every single one of his last 10 or so submissions have been tagged as 'lame' or 'slownewsday'. Why does taco even bother posting his shit. Maybe he gets some tiny deformed chinese cock up his taco ass in exchange for some linkspam with google ads? Do the world a favor and never reply to comments from ANTDUDE and mark him as a FOE

G4, the Death of TechTV...

[Anonymous Coward]

G4 sucks, period. It might as well be MTV. I cancelled my satellite subscription once TechTV was gone.

G4 has devolved into SpikeTV

[Anonymous Coward]

G4 used to be good. But now it has devolved from Gaming TV into SpikeTV With Games. What is a program like "The Man Show" doing on a video game channel?

Netwok execs ftl :(

I've tried, but I just can't watch it

[Tetrad_of_doom]

The last time I tried to watch G4 was during E3.

At the biggest event in the gaming industry, the best G4 could come up with was their hosts bringing up random topics and rating them on a scale from "scorching" to "volcanic". After two minutes I decided to get the rest of my information from the internet.

It makes me wonder how many of the producers actually play video games?

24?

[professorfalcon]

The following takes place between GAME and TIME.

I miss G4

[SanityInAnarchy]

I did watch it awhile back, I remember there being a show called "The ScreenSavers" which my whole family would watch. Most of the time, it didn't suck.

I actually got to watch that show go downhill for awhile. It started out doing some relatively techincal stuff, and they understood their medium and their purpose. So you'd get an occasional mention of a download or something you could just find on the Internet, but plenty of other things -- I know they had a Slashdot guy (Taco, I think), they had someone in a full, official Master Chief suit (got to be as intimidating as Darth Vader making an appearance on Oprah, which did happen), as well as just occasional cool tech stuff, like making a cup warmer out of old CPUs, testing a paint that's supposed to keep your wireless from leaking out of your house... They answered questions over the phone, they showed demos of games and tested experimental gaming rigs on the air...

In other words, it was much of what I like about Slashdot, only in a more convenient TV form. When I saw them talking about Firefox, I knew it had gone mainstream, and it was time to ditch IE forever (for web development).

I watched that show die. I especially remember coming back a few months or a year later, and there was a show called Attack of the Show... I'm not sure what happened to everyone I liked from the ScreenSavers, or what happened to the show itself, but I know I can't find anything to watch on G4 anymore. If I wanted cinematech, I'd download game trailers and demoscenes.

So, I'm not at all surprised that it sucks now. It seems they decided to use Xplay as the model, instead of the ScreenSavers. Oh, they had Xplay, and it sucked also, but at least they had one or two decent shows. Now they've butchered the last of it, so as others have said, I'll take SpikeTV any day.