As with you, I found a large portion of their programming to be boring and oft repeated, but found some good items as well.
Filter, which is a top-10 list show, with different categories being ranked, is not too bad. Can give you good ideas for what game you might want next.
Cinematech, showing the various CG movies and screenshots from various games, also can be interesting, as well as, again, give you ideas on what game you might next want to buy.
Then there's Portal. It's a kind of Soap Opera, using just characters from the various MMORPGs as it's actors. It's ok at times, boring at others.
One last that I find interesting sometimes is Starcade, an arcade game challenge show from the 80s, as it's interesting from what games in the 80s we don't even remember today.
In my opinion, most of the shows go downhill from there....
It may be just me, but it always seemed to me that, in general, the gaming industry audience tended to skew a bit more immature than the general population at large. Thus, anything that tries to cater to the audience of gamers might expect a higher degree of ridicule than a non-gaming target audience. (This site seems to be a pleasant exception most of the time)
Found it kind of funny actually. Everywhere I went, I felt like I was in a virtual simulation of a tourist trap, where the only point was to buy items, and for vendors to take your money away.
Thinking along these lines reminds me of the thinking of several other games.
Remember back when Everquest was just about to come out, a lot of UO players said it would solve every problem UO had..... It didn't.
Then Dark Age of Camelot was suposed to sweep us all off our feet..... It also had it's own problems.
During this time, Shadowbane was supposed to fix all of our problems......it didn't.
Then Star Wars Galaxies was going to be the perfect game, fixing all problems in MMORPGs we'd seen to date.....It didn't.
Now Worlds of Warcraft is supposed to solve all our problems....Somehow I doubt it will.
And then people will be off looking to the next game release to give us satisfaction.
Each MMORPG incarnation is learning from the past and trying to make things better, but I think we are still several games away from a design that will really last for a large majority of people.
(Sorry if this seems rambling. It's my first post ever on slashdot.)
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As with you, I found a large portion of their programming to be boring and oft repeated, but found some good items as well. Filter, which is a top-10 list show, with different categories being ranked, is not too bad. Can give you good ideas for what game you might want next. Cinematech, showing the various CG movies and screenshots from various games, also can be interesting, as well as, again, give you ideas on what game you might next want to buy. Then there's Portal. It's a kind of Soap Opera, using just characters from the various MMORPGs as it's actors. It's ok at times, boring at others. One last that I find interesting sometimes is Starcade, an arcade game challenge show from the 80s, as it's interesting from what games in the 80s we don't even remember today. In my opinion, most of the shows go downhill from there.... It may be just me, but it always seemed to me that, in general, the gaming industry audience tended to skew a bit more immature than the general population at large. Thus, anything that tries to cater to the audience of gamers might expect a higher degree of ridicule than a non-gaming target audience. (This site seems to be a pleasant exception most of the time)
Found it kind of funny actually. Everywhere I went, I felt like I was in a virtual simulation of a tourist trap, where the only point was to buy items, and for vendors to take your money away.
Thinking along these lines reminds me of the thinking of several other games. Remember back when Everquest was just about to come out, a lot of UO players said it would solve every problem UO had..... It didn't. Then Dark Age of Camelot was suposed to sweep us all off our feet..... It also had it's own problems. During this time, Shadowbane was supposed to fix all of our problems......it didn't. Then Star Wars Galaxies was going to be the perfect game, fixing all problems in MMORPGs we'd seen to date.....It didn't. Now Worlds of Warcraft is supposed to solve all our problems....Somehow I doubt it will. And then people will be off looking to the next game release to give us satisfaction. Each MMORPG incarnation is learning from the past and trying to make things better, but I think we are still several games away from a design that will really last for a large majority of people. (Sorry if this seems rambling. It's my first post ever on slashdot.)