Working Title 10.04.07: G4TV is AWESOME

Posted by Jordan Williams on 10.04.2007

G4TV. You either love it, or hate it. Ironically, most gamers tend to hate it. Time for me to tell them why it's AWESOME.

Welcome to the #1 Column to just pull this weeks idea out of his ass during a slightly drunken gaming session, WORKING TITLE!

After a bit of a break last week for my coverage of the Geekiest Tailgate Party Ever, I am back on track with my current series of horrible video game ideas that I find the good in. If you read the column last week, you'll remember me saying that I had originally wanted the next column to be about the Sega Saturn. I tried it again and the column just didn't come together right.

So I decided to go with plan B...or should I say Plan G?

G4 to be exact.

Yes, G4: TV for Gamers is indeed awesome. Although many of the gaming public are quick to jump all over it's balls for selling out and ruining the far superior Tech TV in the process. There is still much good to be found on G4 if you look hard enough. Sure, they cancelled awesome shows like Arena, Portal and Blister, but I assure you that there is good to be found. I assure you that...


G4TV is AWESOME

G4TV, for some it was one of the best ideas ever used by mainstream entertainment to try to tap into the video game market. By others it was one of the biggest video game sell outs in history. When G4 started it marketed itself as TV for gamers. All of its shows were Gamer-centric and all had to do with video games, or in some cases were MADE with video games. G4 eventually begin to take off and they acquired Tech TV, which was the only other 'geek' channel on cable at the moment. Together they formed to create G4TechTV...in which G4 just pretty much ate Tech TV, fired everyone else, took X-play and spit out the rest.

Then it went back to the G4 we know and love today. After that, G4 lost a lot of the focus it used to have on video games and went to a wider spectrum of all things 'geek'. The channel line up featured shows like Star Trek, Cops, Imported Anime, as well as the video game staples like X-play and Cheat. But the channel definitely wasn't about video games anymore.

Okay, that's enough with the history; I just wanted to tell people who don't have G4 what it was all about. Soon many people began to turn on the new TG, claiming it was nothing but Spike TV Lite. In many cases it was...but is G4 really not TV for gamers anymore? Is G4 something that's lame and played out? Quite the opposite...G4TV is AWESOME.

Now let me tell you why.



Gamers with other Interests!?

One of the biggest gripes many people have about G4 is that its programming shifted away from being all videogames, all the time. Now it features other aspects of geek culture such as movies, comic books, music, and science fiction. While this DOES make them look like the very popular Spike TV, I don't think this is a bad thing. Unless you search the deepest of the deepest hardcore gaming dens, you aren't going to find someone who just eats, sleeps, breathes and shits video games 24/7. Odds are the gamer that is that hardcore into one thing, is usually that hardcore into another thing. While I do think that 100% video game channel IS needed. I don't think gamers are nearly as hardcore as they think they are...and the ones that are, there's really not enough of them to warrant a whole channel for it.


Gaming: Serious Business

So, although it might sound like I'm defending G4, why do I think this is awesome? Because simply, no matter how you cut it...G4 is still a unique channel. Name another channel on television in America that brings you live feed and updates from E3, TGS, and Comic-Con? Name another channel that actually brings you live feeds of these things SERIOUSLY, and not in the condescending tone that other channels (Namely, Spike) tend to view such things like video games and comics? For far too long all of the things represented on G4 have been pretty much taboos in the media. After all, only kids play videogames, read comics, or anything of the sort. It always ends up being the butt of many jokes on other networks. So I think G4 is awesome for being one of the few channels (and to my knowledge the only one in the US) that takes this seriously.

Well, most of the time. They tend to poke fun at themselves, too.


G-Phoria

Yes, don't freak out...you are about to hear someone actually PRAISE G-PHORIA.

Well, the last two versions anyway.

But yes, as many people know Spike TV used to have an abortion called the VGAs, the Video Game Awards. It was horrible? How horrible? Well, just read Vincent's Hall of Shame article on it from last week HERE.

For the first couple of times G4 tried it, G-Phoria was just as a bad as the VGAs. It didn't poke as much fun at gamers as the VGA's did, but it was horribly biased in it's voting, and really just seemed to pander to whomever gave them the most advertisements during it's many commercial breaks. Then somewhere down the line, someone at the G4 offices realized that just wasn't working. They then went and retooled G-Phoria to still be an awards show, but it would be presented more like a TV Ceremony rather than the over the top loud MTV-Styled award show it originally was.

This helped A LOT.

Sure, the awards are still sort of biased and the categories make little to no sense. But it gave the show the more serious feel that it needed. Also, the voting was left completely up to the viewers, and you could tell. I've never seen an award show where the hosts/presenters openly disagree with the choices made, and that is exactly what happens here. If a game wins that was supposed to win, it's all fine and dandy, however if the hosts think it's a fluke, they will not hesitate to let anyone know it.

I don't think there will ever be a 'serious' gaming award show anytime soon. But I think that G4 is AWESOME for figuring out that we don't need a loud and over-the-top award show for an already loud and over-the-top business.

Kristin Holt

Sure, she probably doesn't know much of what she's talking about...but seriously. Kristin Holt.



Awesome.

Geek Coverage

Again, say what you want about G4. But outside of the internet, there is really no other channel that will derail a weeks worth of programming to simply give everyone E3 coverage. It's not all entirely live feed, but they do stream all of the stuff you care about. You always get the press conferences from the big three as well as all of the new preview movies that sometimes look crappy or don't load right on the computer.

They bring you all of the stuff from Tokyo Game Show and Comic-Con as well. As many will tell you the channel may night be exactly as gaming-centric as it was, but I think it's moved on from that and encompasses more of the lifestyle that usually comes with gaming. Sort of how MTV is no longer about music videos, but the lifestyle that comes with the music.

Hm, that was a bad example...but I hope you get my point.

The Bottom Line of why it's Awesome

I know this column came off more as me trying to defend something rather than point out its bright spots. But that's because just like with the Virtual Boy, I think G4 is something that didn't get as much of a fair shake as it should have.

It stopped being a hardcore gaming channel but evolved into something else that still works. Sure, you don't get Judgment Day or Portal anymore. But you still get all of the gaming news you needed, as well as news about things outside of gaming that you may still care about. G4 is awesome almost in the same way that the Wii is. G4 knew that a hardcore gaming channel just wasn't going to work in a place where gaming hasn't been embraced as a true hobbie or profession seriously. So it decided to go the more casual route and focus on other things, while still staying true to the gaming.

For that, G4 is AWESOME

Working Feedback

Got a bit of feedback about the Geekiest Tailgate Party Ever, figured I'd share it. The first one is from Michael Mack:


I just got finished reading your "Working Title" column about the Halo 3 tail gate party at the local Wal-Mart. I have to admit, like you, I think Halo is a very overrated game. The 3rd installment is no better. It just seemed to me that the developers half assed this one. I mean no massive delays like the 2nd one. The release date just popped up in front of us. It was like, "Wow, Halo 3 comes out tomorrow? I thought they were still working on it." Anyway, I was at my local Wal-Mart (Tallahassee) to get my copy the game. This wasn't at 3 in the morning but around a little later after the game released (12:15 or so). The shocking part about arriving there was, NO ONE WAS THERE. I stayed in line no more than 5 minutes waiting for the old lady in front of me to pay for her cordless phone. I mean come on! This was supposed to be one of the most anticipated game releases of 07 and it was as if no one cared. It wasn't the great shebang of the last release where I had to get a ticket number just to get the game. Anyway, just giving ya feedback on your column. Keep up the good work.

Yeah, I've gotten sort of a split in these e-mails. Some people (California, Texas, and New York) have said that outside of Wal-Mart (or its equal) there have been lines and gatherings. Yet in some other places (Miami, Oregon) there's been little to no reaction at all. It's sort of weird. I really didn't expect the camp out to be as huge as it was here to be honest. I live right near USF so I figured it must've just been the college crowd finding an excuse to party.

And yeah, from what I've played so far of Halo 3, I'm not entirely impressed.


Our next feedback is from Jeff Copeland:

finally another person who does not buy into all the HALO hype. It is a mediocre game at best. I would definitely like to see you finish the sega saturn column seeing as how I still own one.

You'd be surprised how many people don't really buy into the Halo hype. I'd LOVE to finish the Sega Saturn column, but truth be told I only owned a Sega Saturn for about 6 months before it broke and I really didn't spend enough time with it to form a really great opinion on it. I'm trying to find one currently right now so at some point in the future I may be able to finish it.

Next week...

Really don't know what's going to be going on next week. I just started a new job at Busch Gardens for the month as someone who gets to sit in a gory room and scare people by using the fact that I am a very large black man. So my time is rapidly getting sapped from me. There might be a column next week, there might not.

Either way, this weekend there will be a review for Megaman Star Force: Pegasus up. At first I was all ready to blast this game...but I must say I am pleasantly surprised.

Until next week, I'm Jordan Williams...and this column doesn't have a name just like Britney doesn't have her kids! OOOOOOH SNAP!