G4TechTV Sucks!

[Villano]

And isnt it in some way a conflict of interest for Tommy Tellarico to review games? His freakin company does so much work for the industry, so why is he reveiwing?

I hate G4.

The fact he's in the industry is the only reason why he's hosting a show. Haven't you noticed he also does the music for all the shows on the channel? I don't think he has anything intelligent to contribute to reviews or interviews.

If you're looking for objectivity on the network, just remember the "we were paid to hype nothing but GTA and Halo 2" days. I also think EB Games is an inverstor in the network since Filter and Judgement Day films segments there and you can't go 10 minutes without a commercial for their stores

What does G4 stand for?

*snip*

Does anyone know why G4 decided to do what they did? Do they have any happy fans?

From what I gather from the commercials, G4 stands for "Games, Gear, Gadgets, and Gigabytes". Of course, considering that cancelled any shows with the last 3 "G"s in them, shouldn't they change the name to G1? :\

As for happy fans? Well, there are some quite frankly insane ones on the boards. Here are a couple of my favorite posts concerning the current situation:

Really, TTV was in decline for years, and I imagine [the TTV owner] just got tired of it eventually and decided to get rid of it and stop worrying about having to shut it down.

The owner got something in the neighborhood of 200 or 300 million for TTV. Also, TTV was doing great in the ratings (the reason why G4 wanted it...duh!).

I've explained this a dozen times and I'll explain it a thousand times more. G4 is not the evil fat cat organinaztion you guys cut it out to be, It's a television network not unlike TTV. G4 does not control TTV, vice-versa, Comcast controls both. To put it simply, it is irrational to think that G4 or Comcast is an evil coporation out to get TTV viewers, If it were it certainly wouldn't get far bussiness wise. I did read the entire blog and personally I think its BS. Why would the camera man be angry at the uprising of TTV fans, He's just a camera man, It's not like he cares about G4 or TTV, He's just doing his job. Come this january, if G4TTV becomes G4TV as you foretold. I will apologize. But for now your opinion matters to me as much as PETA. In a sense this whole G4TTV ordeal is truly a fictional modern day Dr. Strangelove.

So...the people who said they were fired are lying? And the whole thing is some fictional, Dr. Strangelove scenerio? Ooookay.

And now my favorite one:

G4 media is not a secret shadow company pulling the strings behind G4 and TTV its G4tv itself. G4 media is just the name of G4's company. Do you have any proof that G4 controls the channel. The channels merged meaning they have equal custody of the channels programming.

Wow. G4 and TechTV have joint custody like in a divorce?

 

[Pants]

By the by, I hate Judgment Day or whatever the show is called. The two hosts seem more intrested in having face time and speak of the shows in thumbnails. They do too many developers intrviews instead of showing us the games and..well I hate it. And isnt it in some way a conflict of interst for Tommy Tellarico to review games? His freakin company does so much work for the industry, so why is he reveiwing?

I hate G4.

Judgement Day is, seriously, the worst show on the network. The hosts suck, the content sucks, the reviews suck, the reviewing process itself sucks, pretty much everything about the show sucks. And I seriously dislike both of the hosts. Tellarico is an obnoxious idiot and the other guy... is just boring.

Sessler can be a bit annoying and nerdy at times, but usually it ends up humorous and it always seems like Webb and Sessler are having fun.

TSS did resemble a pseudo-cable access show at points, but it was still fun to watch, especially when Leo and Patrick were on. Kevin and Alex were still fine hosts though.

 

[jasamcarl]

Actually its funny..I liked Portal too

Anyways, my rant:

I havent watched much of the channel since the merger. I used to watch Screen Savers everyday since youd get some bit of info, but no more. TSS wasnt perfect,(it sometimes resembled a cable access show) but it was a nice computer geek destination.

I do like the emphasis on gaming but it seems like overkill. G4TV.com is a talk show about games, they have 2 review shows.. I mean then channel is killing off shows and they barely have enough content for 12 hours of the day. But it seems like G4 is firing all the older employees and men, while retaining the gamer babes-Tina, Morgan Webb, etc..The channel needs to get an identity and run with it.

The only thing I watch now is X Play, and even that seems to have a different vibe. I always like Xplay because the emphasis of that show was the games, not the hosts. The little skits were kept to a minimum and both hosts are gamers who like games, a great difference from almost any other game review show that has ever been. But now the humor seems forced on the show, and I fear it going to change in a bad way.

By the by, I hate Judgment Day or whatever the show is called. The two hosts seem more intrested in having face time and speak of the shows in thumbnails. They do too many developers intrviews instead of showing us the games and..well I hate it. And isnt it in some way a conflict of interst for Tommy Tellarico to review games? His freakin company does so much work for the industry, so why is he reveiwing?

I hate G4.

X-play was going in the skit direction before the merger. It has never really been funny on a proffessional level, but on an ironic level. The unfunny-ness made the hosts look more human. And because of the elaborate allusions, it also made them look geeky smart and had a life outside of gaming. Lately, they've been getting more elaborate, which kills the irony and makes it more grating the sit through. The reviews still work though, so it will remain the only thing work watching post merger (TSS was killed after Leo and Patrick left and pretty much resigned the entire network to a younger demographic).

 

[driver8]

The fact he's in the industry is the only reason why he's hosting a show. Haven't you noticed he also does the music for all the shows on the channel? I don't think he has anything intelligent to contribute to reviews or interviews.

If you're looking for objectivity on the network, just remember the "we were paid to hype nothing but GTA and Halo 2" days. I also think EB Games is an inverstor in the network since Filter and Judgement Day films segments there and you can't go 10 minutes without a commercial for their stores

I dont know if Eb games is an owner, but they are a major sponsor agreed. I really dont mind the network doing theme days for the big games San Andreas, Halo 2 and Half Life, since many of the shows are reruns that are just tangentially related to the game of the day. After all this is a video game network, not CNN

I guess I wouldnt mind Tomy T so much if the show actually had content instead of him and Victor yammering on and on.

 

[John Crichton]

Does G4 suck? I have no idea.

What I do know is that TechTV (with the exception of a few shows, most notably the Screen Savers) had very little programming that was truly interesting. I don't know about pre-merger G4 as DirecTV didn't carry it.

EBgames being a sponsor? Duh.

I am upset to hear that Unscrewed was cancelled as it was an entertaining show that was certainly different.

As for the rest of the current and planned programming, I really don't know what to think. Some of the shows are flat-out stupid (Portal), others are mildly entertaining (Fresh Gear) and some are keepers (X-Play). I'm not a big fan of all the youth-movement type stuff but then again, I don't hate it. Being the only network around that actually covers the industy I'm not going to complain even though it sounds like they have treated some people badly.

It's hard medium to cover, really. Considering that the major appeal of videogames is that they are interactive the options are somewhat limited. I can understand why they have Anime but I never watch it (not a big fan). That alone shows that they are lacking in proper/good programming. Unscrewed was actually a good late-night early morning show to have on for the network because at least it featured things that gamers would be interested in.

If I had better ideas for shows to air about gaming then I would be more critical. But since I don't I'll just sit back and see what they put on.

 

[Sado]

I was a fan of G4 before the merger. It would be on in the background at my house all day. And I was never at all interested in TechTV. But it sure seems like someone did TTV wrong, or at least made some goofy business decisions.

I think that because gamers are often nerdy, and techies are often nerdy, they thought that shows about either would appeal to both. But those are two different breeds of nerds. I like games a lot, but I barely know a mother board from a modem. The TTV fans were turned off by G4TV shows and vice versa. I don't watch anymore because the G4 shows I like are never on when I'm home (I think I've seen my favorite show, G4tv, once since the merger).

I am getting tired of all the TTV people saying that X-Play is better than any of the G4 game shows, though. It's a good show, and some of G4's shows do suck (Sweat anyone? Arena?), but G4 has plenty of shows on par with it, like G4tv, Pulse, and Electric Playground (the most comparable G4 show to X-Play).

 

[jasper]

Unscrewed cancelled? About time someone tighten down that nut. Never like the show. 2 viewings were 1 too many.
Classy you want class from a Tv studio after all the years of regular shows being cancelled like that. I occasionally watch x Play (don't know why they changed it from extended play) and nerd nation. But even before the buy out the whole channel was becoming I bored and need background noise as I work channel.

 

[Villano]

Unscrewed was an acquired taste, I admit. There were some parts of it even I couldn't stand (like Joey the Intern). Still, no one deserves to be forced to move to keep their job only to be canned 2 months later.

Unscrewed actually reminded me of that series that Sci-Fi had when it debuted. What was that called? The host was a "professor" or "doctor" (I don't know if he actually was or not) and he did stories on aliens living at the center of the Earth and things like that. Unscrewed and that show cover the same topics (albeit, Unscrewed doesn't take them seriously).

Plus, Unscrewed introduced some pretty funny new segments recently: Laura Swisher's Dear Blog and the Mysteries Of Science...Explained!

The Mysteries segment was the best. It was set up like one of those old '50s school science films that MST3K liked to air on their show. There was one episode in which the question was something like "What causes rainbows?" or "Why is the sky blue?", and the scientist concluded that modern science will never be able to answer that question.

BTW, does anyone know where to find ratings for all these shows? I've only been able to find sites that list the top few shows or list rating for entire networks.

The official line at G4 is that they cancelled all the TechTV shows due to low ratings. However, people have also said that the TechTV shows are the highest rated on the network. Obviously, the "low ratings" thing is just G4's excuse. They never had any intention of keeping the shows once they acquired the network. I just want to see what the real numbers are.

 

[Mystery Man]

I remember when it was called ZDTV. Leo Laport is the Norm Abram of the computer world. Hope he does well somewhere.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I remember when it was called ZDTV. Leo Laport is the Norm Abram of the computer world. Hope he does well somewhere.

He's hosting a radio tech show here in LA, and he's also the host of the Canadian G4 "Call for Help" (someone else mentioned that version of the show, but wasn't sure who hosted it). He's got a website you can go to for tech questions and just to keep up. I'd say he's doing pretty well, still.