Bad Frequency
Okay. By know, we should all know that G4TV.com has been killed, and we must bid a fond farewell to Laura Foy, Geoff Keighley and Tina Wood (seen below), as their show will soon be nothing more than a bittersweet Television memory. G4 has chosen press the kill-switch on the only show that was even close to a industry news series, and a perfect outlet for roundtable discussion on things pertaining to video games. While most shows that may *comment* on games every once in a blue moon, G4TV.com covered games exclusively.Why should G4 keep G4TV.com around? A number of reasons. Most of all, they're slowly becoming like MTV, in that they're showing more and more content, that has absolutely *nothing* to do with the reason the channel for in the first place, such as The Man Show, Street Fury, and Fastlane. Now, while I've got no problem with them airing different shows for more variety, I do have a problem when people have trouble staying on point. If you're gonna air regular shows? Pick up something like Dark Angel, or Earth 2; shows that with a tech/sci-fi appeal that would resonate with your geeked out fan base.
Another reason? They cannot afford to start running off their existing fan base. When TechTV and G4 merged, they had an excellent chance to make something beautiful by simply merging the 2 channels together. Both channels had a slight problem of not having enough content to properly fill a week long calendar, and thus, often reran things multiple times a day or through out the week. If the had just combined both line ups, they could have more deeply filled their schedule and ran fewer reruns.
And probably the best reason for keeping G4TV.com around? There's nothing else on that's really like it, and once its gone, unless G4 replaces it, there won't be anything like it, period. Nobody else has a show that goes in depth about what's new in games, or treats them like a serious topic as opposed to treating them like hottest new toy or the device that's polluting the minds of unsupervised children everywhere.
CNN, occasionally, has something on the game industry but only if there's a console launch, E3, or a big scandal such as with the Hot Coffee situation, or the moral short-comings found in games like NARC, but it doesn't have any thing dedicated to the games industry. This, despite the fact that you can watch the ticker at the bottom of the screen scroll with news about celebrities, and the newest iPod, long before seeing updates on the situtation in Iraq.
"What about the media? Other outlets may look at the format and try something similar." Well, the problem with that is, the general media doesn't view video games the way we do, as a means for telling stories, or deeper forms of expression, instead of just "violent, murder simulators." Until they do, you won't see shows like Crossfire or roundtable discussion shows that are centered around video games, you just won't. Even channels like E!, which covers everything in entertainment from Movies, to music, to fashion, to whether or not Tyra Banks has breast implants, doesn't cover video games, even though some games nowadays have launch parties that rival that of the movie industry's premieres.
So, when G4TV.com is gone, that's it. The platform of Video game discussion on Television will be gone, unless AOTS decides to come with a new segment, or G4 decides to introduce a new G4TV.com replacement. Do I believe this will be a bad move for them? Yes. Do I believe that this is indicative of things coming down the line; a possible cancellation of X-Play or even Icons? Hell yes. All that can be said is that at this point, G4 is skating very, very, thin ice.
posted by Teksuo Hikari @ 5:45 PM
3 Comments:
Amen Brotha. Couldn't have said it better myself. And they better not cancel Xplay. I will cry.
I shant merely cry; I shall weep a river of sorrow, that will wash over this land and drown those responsible for the cancelation of my favorite program...!!!
I don't think they'll cancel X-Play, but I bet they will cancel Judgment Day(if it's still even on).
G4 is turning into a steaming pile of shit. Screw old syndicated shows!
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