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Television Media The Media Entertainment Games

G4 Drops TechTV Name 498

Posted by Zonk from the *headdesk*-*headdesk*-*headdesk*-*headdesk* dept.
MrM writes "According to the latest press release from G4techTV, G4 will drop the TechTV name in mid-February 2005. This comes as a major step to the old TechTV viewers, as the focused content has become gaming-oriented once more. G4 also released a copy of their "redesigned" logo, but quickly pulled it off the web after release." The article also includes details of "two new series, "Formula D" and "Girls Gone Wired." Formula D appears to be coverage of Drift Racing (because obviously gamers love that), and unfortunately Girls Gone Wired appears to be exactly what you'd expect: Guys ogling video game characters in a beauty pageant.
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G4 Drops TechTV Name More

G4 Drops TechTV Name

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  • Hmm... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by xaqar ( 112761 )
    "Nothing for you to see here, move along."

    How appropriate...

  • SOB.... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Cyberglich ( 525256 ) *
    I miss tech tv :( G4 is the devil.

    • Re:SOB.... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by spac3manspiff ( 839454 ) <spac3manspiff@gmail.com> on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:02AM (#11335736) Journal
      I miss techTV too, but glad they dropped the name. G4 only a disgrace to the TechTV name in the first place..
    • AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

      Comcast should have bought TTV and kept them as seperate channels. Merging them was idiotic. They fired half the TTV cast and replaced them with rabid gamers.

      Just look at the Screen Savers! Half the cast is gone (Leo ruled) and has been replaced with these wacky game-obsessed nuts.
      • Game obsessed? All the hosts on the G4 shows are TV personality wannabes, but without the whole personality thing going for them. I'm sure they play video games, but I'm sure that they got the job by agreeing to work for peanuts.

    • Re:SOB.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by elecngnr ( 843285 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:29AM (#11336108)

      I too am glad they dropped the TechTV name. I had stopped watching TechTV when they started getting rid of people who knew what the hell they were talking about or would bring people on who knew the what they were talking about. Replacing these true techies with rejects from 'The OC' was a bad move. And, not surprisingly, with these rejects you started to see a younger client base that wanted more game crap.

      I was not aware how bad it was until a few weeks when I switched in on and it was all gaming stuff. That was enough for me. Sorry to see the old TechTV go, it was pretty cool having a station like that--although my wife appreciated it much less than I did.

    • Re:SOB.... (Score:2, Funny)

      by 99x ( 848946 )
      what was comcast's intent in consolidating the 2 channels in the first place? within a couple months tech tv was barely recognizable ? what's left...TSS, Anime Unleashed and X-Play. I think the head of Comcast is a Morgan Webb fanboy and is hoping to get lucky.

  • another step in the wrong direction (Score:4, Interesting)

    by lightdarkness ( 791960 ) * on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:46AM (#11335482) Homepage Journal
    Obviously G4 didn't learn anything when they lost most of their fan base. G4 buying Tech TV was the worst thing to happen in ages.

    Now they are going further away from the right thing. Getting rid of more shows, and adding lame ones.

    It's still my hope that the old TechTV crew will start their own network, that would be awesome. G4 has ruined everything they ever made me believe in (TechTV that is).

    • Worse thing in ages... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by eSavior ( 767078 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:58AM (#11335676)
      G4 buying Tech TV was the worst thing to happen in ages.
      Damn... I wish I lived in that universe. :(
      • Yeah, forget the tsunami: Several of my favorite shows have been cancelled or changed!

        • Limited domain (Score:3, Insightful)

          by blorg ( 726186 )
          Yeah, forget the tsunami: Several of my favorite shows have been cancelled or changed!

          Funny (maybe), but not insightful: I think it's implied that the original poster was using 'worst thing that happened in ages' in a limited domain. It's not like just because something really bad happens, we immediately stop considering other, lesser bad things that might be happening - although many governments would like you to (I'm thinking War on Terror vs civil liberties here.)

    • " Obviously G4 didn't learn anything when they lost most of their fan base. G4 buying Tech TV was the worst thing to happen in ages."

      It must be Comcast's belief that the potential audience of gamers is greater than the audience of "technology enthusiasts" [for lack of a better term]. I think this may just be correct but the question is whether the gaming audience will show up.

      "Now they are going further away from the right thing."

      Keep in mind that it is the right thing according to you and you are one p

      • ...I think this may just be correct but the question is whether the gaming audience will show up.

        Yeah. I think that most "Gamers" would rather be playing games than watching them most of the time.

        Keep in mind that it is the right thing according to you and you are one person. Comcast is not going to cater individually to your interests and they must believe that the gaming audience is larger or a more compelling demographic for advertisers than the old audience was. Can you argue otherwise?

         Of cours
        • what I wouldn't give for a network for real computer geeks. Some Linux shows, watching people write code and secure systems. Fun for all ages! But they probably won't create a show for 5 people to watch. Oh well.

          Sure they will, they'll just air it as a 'torrent stream instead of a commercial broadcast. When do you want to begin production of episode 1?

      • Keep in mind that it is the right thing according to you and you are one person. Comcast is not going to cater individually to your interests and they must believe that the gaming audience is larger or a more compelling demographic for advertisers than the old audience was. Can you argue otherwise?



        It doesn't take a keen business sense to figure out that when someone's playing a game on their console game system, they're not watching TV.

    • Re:another step in the wrong direction (Score:4, Insightful)

      by beckerbuns ( 528884 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:14AM (#11335882) Homepage
      After G4TechTV (or whatever it's going to be called) ruined the Screen Savers by getting rid of everyone who was entertaining and had actual knowledge, and replacing them with a bunch of good-looking young know-nothings, I stopped watching.

      It is really too bad that they've ruined a perfectly good channel. There was so much potential to make it better but they just keep making it worse.
      • Amen. The point at which I completely dumped Screen Savers and removed it from TiVo's to do list was the day they were discussing static electricity and computer components. I kid you not, they thought "new" components were not sensitive to static anymore. To prove this, they shocked a couple sticks of RAM using a Vandergraph generator and then a STUN GUN and were genuinely surprised when the ram didn't function anymore.

    • It's all about market penetration (Score:4, Informative)

      by BobPaul ( 710574 ) * on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:46AM (#11336354) Journal
      Now they are going further away from the right thing. Getting rid of more shows, and adding lame ones.

      G4 never intended to carry the TechTV shows. As an astute commenter correctly predicted [slashdot.org] in response to the /. article Inside TechTV [slashdot.org] all G4 wanted was to get their channel aired on more cable networks. They bought TechTV for the market penetration it had spent years acquiring it and for nothing else.
    • "Now they are going further away from the right thing."

      While I personally agree with you, and can't even watch the channel anymore because of how disgusting its become, part of me wonders if we're just being fanboys.

      I mean, while these seem like obviously dumb business moves to most of the /. crowd, I wonder if since they are targeting a much more mainstream audience, they are in fact making more money than Tech TV used to. Is viewership in fact up? Perhaps someone with more time than me can post their r

  • Not that this really suprises me teh whole network has gotten terrible. I guess just a guarantee they will never get my viewership back
  • Anyone have a cached copy of the new (lamer) logo?

    Damn I hate comcast.

  • "Girls Gone Wired" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anita Coney ( 648748 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:47AM (#11335495) Homepage
    Oh my friggin god, you weren't kidding. It's really about a virtual beauty pageant! I was under some asinine impression that it'd be about women who are into technology.

    • That's because there's more virtual women than there are ACTUAL women that are into technology.

      • And virtual girls tend to look better too. Here are some p [ati.com] i [ati.com] c [ati.com] s [ati.com]

        of ATI's virtual girl Ruby. Here are some real women [ziffdavisinternet.com] ATI made to look like Ruby. This proves once again that the virtual world is better than the real one.

    • Can't be much worse than the "Who's Your Daddy?" reality show on Fox (look it up).

    • Are you kidding?? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Wow, you must be over 14 dude. In other words, outside of G4's demographic. ;-)

      The big problem with G4's management is I think they rely too much on ONLINE demographic data such as the average age of game related message forum users, etc. Teens have the most time to waste and are the most fanatical, which makes them APPEAR to be the core demographic, but they're not.

    • Re:"Girls Gone Wired" (Score:2, Insightful)

      by yasth ( 203461 )
      Yeah I can't believe they used the title without dripping irony. You know a discussion about how stereotyping and harrasment is preventing women moving into computers and gaming. Ah well.

      I somehow don't see it as lasting long. (I mean selling low grade softcore porn is probably not the best way to get viewers post internet.) Though I never understood the centerfolds in gaming mags that they occasionally put in.
      • Exactly!!! Without the irony it's just stupid! In fact, without the irony, G4 is opening itself up to a trademark lawsuit from the Girls Gone Wild guys. With the irony, the shows would be different so there would be no likelihood of confusion. Without the irony, and since the shows are similar, there could be.

        If the show survives, which I doubt it will, I expect a name change real soon.

  • Uh oh... (Score:5, Funny)

    by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:48AM (#11335515) Homepage Journal

    The dumbing down of G4 starts.

    Soon you'll have "Trading CPUs" where neighbours trade machines for a day and soup them up and "What Not to Warez" where a couple of leet kids go through your hard disk and erase downloaded software.

  • words fail me (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RobertTaylor ( 444958 ) <roberttaylor1234.gmail@com> on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:49AM (#11335519) Homepage Journal
    "The network also presented TCA critics with "Girls Gone Wired," a digital beauty pageant featuring the hottest 2D and 3D women on the planet"

    Thats just sad...

  • Comcast should be sued ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by adzoox ( 615327 ) * on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:49AM (#11335529) Journal
    This was a ploy by Comcast to get on satellite and on charter and Time Warner cable systems.

    I have noticed (although have to admit I watch the channel maybe 15 minutes a week now) that Comcast is advertising.

    Charter Communications has a large hub in my area and from what the "higher ups" have told me - they are quite angry.

    I haven't understood why the former employees and show hosts don't ban together for a class action lawsuit for wrongful termination.

    I also don't understand why us geeks (who don't want mindless gaming shows 24/7 and miss the older content) can't ban together and find an attorney that will sue Comcast for collusion and misrepresentation.

    It's obvious (especially with this move) that Comcast had NO INTENTION to keep TechTv or any of it's content.

    It's a shame Leo Laporte moved to TechTV in Canada!
    • Eh, Comcast will likely learn their lesson in a couple years when G4 fails miserably (Really, I don't even know any hardcore gamers who like their programming.) and someone else comes out with a TechTV-like channel that ends up being rather successful.

      I, for one, would love to see a channel that runs documentaries on stuff like the life of Babbage and the development of the IBM 360. I'd even buy digitcal cable for it.

  • Not a huge surprise (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gbulmash ( 688770 ) * <semi_famous&yahoo,com> on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:50AM (#11335546) Homepage Journal
    Does this really come as a surprise to anyone? The gradual dismantling of Tech TV has been going on for years. Pure tech is too hard to translate into a full channel, and if you dumb it down to reach a wider audience, the core people who would watch a pure tech channel can't stand the content. Tech TV struck a pretty good balance between accessibility and intelligence, but it was always a tough row to hoe.

    How about /.TV? 24 hour news and information for nerds? Fellas?

    • How about /.TV? 24 hour news and information for nerds? Fellas?

      Imagine if there's a slashdot show with people calling in... we'll have people trolling "FIRST CALL!", "Props to the GNAA!", etc.

      Thankfully, it's pretty hard to do a phone/audio rendition of the goatse.

    • Re:Not a huge surprise (Score:5, Funny)

      by Punk Walrus ( 582794 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:24AM (#11336036) Journal
      Pure tech is too hard to translate into a full channel, and if you dumb it down to reach a wider audience, the core people who would watch a pure tech channel can't stand the content.

      One fix may be daytime "4 n00bs" programming, and then after, say, 8pm, when those people are watching CSI or some reality TV, have more hardcore stuff.

      8am: Anime for the jobless
      9am: Anime for the stoners
      10am: TechVision presents: Gadgets for the kitchen
      11am: Alton Brown
      12nn: Squared Foot gardening: Gardening for people in apartments
      1pm: Shojo anime
      2pm: Anime for stoners: repeat (they won't know)
      3pm: Anime for teens
      4pm: Anime for preteens who want to be teens
      5pm: Anime for kids who want to be preteens
      6pm: Robots that fight with each other
      7pm: "Call for Help" - for newbies
      8pm: New Gadgets
      9pm: Gamer's Hour
      10pm: "Call for Help" - for case modders/tweakers
      11pm: "Call for Help" - Linux/BSD (this may need to be 2 hours)
      12mid: "Disclaimer" - Hacks for Hackers on the Edge of legality
      1am: "Look what we found on Bittorrents!
      2am: "Don't do this at home"
      3am: Anime for stoners: repeat (they won't know)
    • How about /.TV? 24 hour news and information for nerds? Fellas?

      At least they'll have an excuse for all the dupes: Reruns

  • Remember the Golden Days (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sir_mud_the_hairless ( 847595 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:50AM (#11335548) Homepage
    When Patrick wore his utilikilt and the network actually taught people about computers.

    • Re:Remember the Golden Days (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mopslik ( 688435 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:58AM (#11335688)

      ...or when TLC meant "The Learning Channel" rather than "Monster $OBJECT" and "$TRENDY_HOUSE_DECORATING_SHOW"?

      • My 4-year-old enjoys watching Monster Garage, and I must say that it's encouraged her to look at things in different ways. She gets to see other people tearing cars apart and building new "things" out of the pieces - so daddy's not so strange after all (daddy races with SCCA [scca.org].)

        While it's pandering to the "great unwashed masses," it's still better than Disney's "All Product Marketing, All The Time" Channel.
      • Does anyone else fear that the golden age for technology or science channels in the mainstream is over?

        I know it's not the same but at least the History Channel hasn't gone to the least common denominator yet.

  • Well Duh. (Score:5, Funny)

    by allenw ( 33234 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:50AM (#11335550) Homepage Journal
    They are obviously trying to steal "back" the viewership from Spike TV. That whole Video Game Awards thing means war!
  • 1. Merge with well respected company with original content.
    2. Destroy all original content and replace with mindless crap.
    3. Disassociate yourself with merged company.
    4. Profit??

    I really miss the Tech TV of old. I was very suprised to see what G4 did to the Screensavers and all the other programming on the network.

    So what exactly was the point with merging with Tech TV in the first place? Was it just to gut it from within?
    • I noted that they were starting to give more coverage to the Linux side of the table before the gutting took place. Maybe Comcast got paid by some software monopolist to take it over and defang the menace. We couldn't have a network that's informing the peasants that there's a choice in operating systems, could we?
      • Maybe Comcast got paid by some software monopolist to take it over and defang the menace.

        Comcast isn't that smart and Bill Gates isn't that dumb. I have a feeling that Comcast is going to become a black hole model for media providers. Let's just hope it collapses on itself soon.
    • 1. Merge with well respected company with original content.
      2. Destroy all original content and replace with mindless crap.
      3. Disassociate yourself with merged company.
      4. Profit??

      That's pretty much it, except for the "profit" part.

      The whole merger was basically so G4 could gain marketshare, since many cable/satellite systems carried TechTV, but few carried G4. Mission accomplished, but it won't last long. Who actually watches this crap (I loved TechTV when it actually had an ounce of "tech")

      If the peopl

  • This blows for TechTV fans (Score:3, Interesting)

    by AwesomeJT ( 525759 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:51AM (#11335560) Homepage
    I have watched less of TechTV since G4 took over. That's all they seem to focus on. Little of any "real" value. Way back in the day when Leo and Patrick hosted the ScreenSavers -- I got actual advice I could use with the occasional game-oriented segments. They still have game-only shows, but TechTV focused on the computer as a whole -- not just gaming. I think this is a disservice to all loyal fans of TechTV. If you want an exclusive gaming channel -- that's fine -- go do that -- but don't ruin a decent technology channel with much broader spectrum and appeal.

    I think my days of watching G4/TechTV or whatever they call themselves has come to an end. GAME OVER!

    • Way back in the day when Leo and Patrick hosted the ScreenSavers -- I got actual advice I could use with the occasional game-oriented segments.

      Back during the day when TSS would dedicate an entire hour (or 90 minutes.... back in the really old days) to motherboards and ram, or to obscure photoshop tips.
      I can only hope that Ziff Davis, or some other company comes up with a new TechTV like network... that will hopefully lure back some of TechTV's old talent.
      I knew that the G4 didn't care about TechTV
  • "Our audience interacts with digital girls as much as real girls and we're tapping into that fantasy," ...ah 'fantasy'. Could be true then ;)

    They have fantasy 'real girls'!
    • There is a very very slim chance that you may one day bang Angelina Jolie. But you will never ever bang Lara Croft.

      Still a big difference between fantasy real girls and fantasy fake girls.
  • Does anybody even watch this channel? After I saw that emo chick's tits watching the actual programming became pointless.

    G4/(TechTV or not) has about as much to do with actual geeks or gamers as the Outdoor Life Network (you know, because we never go outside, uh huh huh).

    Besides, if they were real gamers they'd be too busy playing WoW to make television shows.
  • This is almost heart breaking. TechTV was like the last bastion of smart, quirky technology reporting mixing older and younger opinions and experiences. Now the only smart parts have been evicerated and the only things that are left are the craptacularly poorly produced G4 game shows. What a shame. Terrible terrible shame.

  • So when... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) * on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:52AM (#11335587)
    ...will some other station buy XPlay so I can stop watching G4 altogether?

    I think the most disturbing TV image ever created by man is the Shadow Watermelon Carrier crafted to advertise the "G-Spot" (that term alone tells you where the minds of the stations owners lie).

  • I tried.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by wickedj ( 652189 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:54AM (#11335615) Homepage
    I tried to like it, I really did. But then, no one likes to watch someone else play a game. Sure, a game review might be nice once in a while but I'm not going to watch a television show for about 30 minutes where it's just a bunch of guys playing a game and not really saying anything of worth such as, "Suck it, punk b*tch!" to each other. Why watch them play a game when you could turn on your own machine and play.

    At least with TechTV, they had decent shows like the ScreenSavers.

  • G4 bought TechTV for one reason ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HP-UX'er ( 211124 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:55AM (#11335630)
    ... to get their crappy programming into millions of more homes by 'buying' TechTV's slot in most Cable Companies lineup. I mean really, no one would give them a whole freaking channel otherwise. Any clown can see their current (not original TechTV shows) shows are total shit. /rant

    • Re:G4 bought TechTV for one reason ... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by numbski ( 515011 ) * <numbski@@@hksilver...net> on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:13AM (#11335873) Homepage Journal
      I really wish you were wrong.

      Unfortunately, you're right. What they've done is unforgivable. They destoryed the channel, and the shows the kept, save X-Play (which was already far superior to any of the gaming shows G4 already had), they mangled beyond recognition. The Screen Savers is no longer even worth watching.

      Call For Help? Gone.
      Fresh Gear? Gone.
      Unscrewed? Gone.
      Tech Live? Gone.

      I could go on and on and on. Ugh...it SUCKS.

      I sincerely hope someone steps up and resurrects some of this content. It used to be some of the smallest amount of worthwhile content on TV.
  • Formula D is obviously capitalizing off of popular anime Initial D [geocities.com]. The manga version of which is sold at Radio Shack next to the RC cars. So there's plenty of geek interest there.

    As for Girls Gone Wired... that's just another example of how patheticly detached from reality our culture has become. It'll be boring though.

    (Side note: In terms of which anime is appropriate for kids to watch and which aren't, Initial D is #1 on my list for teens not too watch. That last thing you need is for them to displ

  • The network also presented TCA critics with "Girls Gone Wired," a digital beauty pageant featuring the hottest 2D and 3D women on the planet, which is set to premiere in May. Comedian, actor and avid gamer Hal Sparks, who currently stars on Showtime's hit series "Queer as Folk," is slated to host. Sparks, along with a panel of celebrity and industry commentators, will guide viewers in G4's quest to crown the hottest video game vixen. Finalists will be announced online and G4 viewers will vote for the pagean

  • I used to enjoy some of the shows on TechTV. Since the Comcast acquisition and the change to G4 and the shift of programming to more gaming-oriented shows, it's lost all appeal to me at all. Looks like it's time to remove it from the Favorites programming on my cablebox.

  • And the verdict is out! (Score:3, Funny)

    by ZeeExSixAre ( 790130 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:59AM (#11335703)
    Girls Gone Wired appears to be exactly what you'd expect: Guys ogling video game characters in a beauty pageant.

    "She's not even real!"
    "But she's hot..."
    "But SHE'S NOT REAL!!!"

  • Writings on the wall (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mrpuffypants ( 444598 ) * <{mrpuffypants} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:01AM (#11335719)
    Anybody who didn't see this coming is...well....dumb enough to watch G4.

    TechTV is dead. Long live TechTV.

  • I'm glad I stopped watching TV (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Apreche ( 239272 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:02AM (#11335732) Homepage Journal
    Completely ceasing all TV watching was the best thing I ever did. Although I do like drift racing, I doubt that show will be very good.

    You know, since there isn't any TV or radio for nerds like us, you think we would have made some already? I mean, just have people create video and audio content in an open source fashion. Collect it and place it in categories. Then by using a combination of RSS and BitTorrent, which is an idea everyone and their mother is implementing, voila nerd tv and radio. When someone doesn't make software we like, we make it ourselves. But when someone doesn't make television we like we whine and complain. Lets make it ourselves!
  • ...unfortunately Girls Gone Wired appears to be exactly what you'd expect: Guys ogling video game characters in a beauty pageant

    Well that's super lame.

    I had actually expected it would be a show about the rising use of video games, and personal electronics among women. Hopefuly with an emphasis on software/hardware that would be more appealing to a female audience (sims, iPod minis, Pink iPods/GBAs, new cell phone features, web cams, etc).

    My wife would have loved a show like that.
  • Maybe it's just me, but the novelty of TechTV quickly wore off and it felt like I had not left work.

    I have not watched TechTV for a long, long time for that reason alone.
  • The way I found out about TechTV was back when it was still ZDTV and this was from a 55 year old phone company tech. The guy was soon to be retired and just got a home-built PC from a coworker. In fiddling around with it he was told about ZDTV and soon became addicted to Screen Savers.

    Now I've never really been to big into TechTV (I watch a little X-Play but when Morgan showed up... ugh) but the fact that it could reach a novice end user (one at an age where you "aren't supposed to be learning new things
  • TechTV was an excellent product after the name change from ZDTV. The shows were great, albeit repeated often, but interesting.

    Why can't someone try again with a similar format?

    Though I'm convinced most of G4's acquisition of TechTV was for the sake of employing Morgan Webb's breasts to supply to the SpikeTV crowd - people were watching TechTV, finding it useful, and it appeared that they had no problems finding advertisers.

    Leo LaPorte was great. Here's a guy who put up with any and every end user quest

  • comcast board meeting transcript: (Score:3, Funny)

    by Packet Fish ( 450451 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:11AM (#11335846)
    comcast board meeting transcript (spring 2004):

    TechTV guy: No, I think our game content is fine the way it is. Plus our rating have never been higher.

    Comcast G4 guy: Fine, I didn't want to own your network anyway. I'll just go start my own network with my own shows, with black-jack, and hookers. Infact, forget the shows.

  • This is GREAT NEWS!!! (Score:3, Funny)

    by bman08 ( 239376 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:12AM (#11335866)
    Finally, an opportunity to get my knitting show aired. If anyone from G4 is reading this; it's a show about knitting... FOR GAMERS. The needles are sharp, and so is the humor. This is a match made in heaven. G4 CONTACT ME!!! I've got other shows too that'll be perfect for the gamers; including an English Lit project that... it's just a fit. I know it.

  • Next up... (Score:2, Funny)

    by bill^2 ( 164100 )
    ... the merger with Yahoo, creating G4Y! network.

    Geeks everywhere nod in agreement.

    /bev/null... need more beer
  • In the line-up of standard cable channels, real educational channels have been usurped by revenue-generating, reality tv. With the exception of the History channel, which to this day, still airs great material, every other channel has gone down this path.

    TLC: WTF happened to that channel?
    Discovery: Unless you have the extendend package, the only thing that airs anymore are these assinine motorcycle shows which have absolutely no relevance. In no way do these shows give any real insight into mechanics o
  • ....was so bad I cant remember the name.

    It was some guy and his magical computer where they do these weird REd vs. blue like skits with MMORPG avatars. It aired late night, and every joke fell flat. You almost felt sorry for the host.

    It aired late at night when most kids have turned off the station. Didn't G4 originally have about 5 hours of original programming per day and just a ton of Pringles ads?

    Come to think of it, I think Pringles was their only major sponsor.
  • What this coffin needs is more nails.
  • Oh well, it's not like G4 was ever any good to begin with and TechTV should have had a "For Dummies" logo attched to it somewhere... Let's move on.

  • X-Play: the only thing worth watching on G4. (Score:4, Informative)

    by 2Flower ( 216318 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:32AM (#11336150) Homepage
    I used to watch Judgment Day for my video game reviews (beats forking money over to gamespot...) until I realized how boring and biased it can be. X-Play makes the whole "self-effacing sarcastic gamer culture game reviews" gimmick work without being as stupid as the other shows on G4 where the cast and writers clearly don't understand games.

    What I'm wondering now is: When G4 folds and dies (which WILL happen, and this announcement only speeds the process) will X-Play be able to pack up and move to another channel, like Spike? Or are they directly funded by the channel rather than simply a company contracted to produce a show?
  • I see two main things.. a loss of it's #1 competitor and the name and shows. The name is now gone, the TechTV people are gone, and while some of the shows remain the content is mostly different. But at least with G4 I now know how many ways you can frag someone.
  • A graphic that is said to be the redesigned logo is on this thread [g4techtv.com] in G4's "The Screen Savers" forum. I can understand why they'd pull that... it looks like a really bad 60's era logo/test pattern, right down to the blur.

  • At Liest be Good at what you Do! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Reapy ( 688651 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:48AM (#11336385)
    If g4 is for gamers, why is it so lame? I understand techTV is dead and phased out and it is all about games, but the shows are still incredibly bad.

    I haven't cought them all since I don't watch tv too often and I can only stomach G4 for so long at a time. But the review show is terrable. There is one guy who actually makes sense on it, but he keeps getting talked over by his annoying co-host who yells out things like "YEEE HAWWWWWW". I am sure he's told to act like a jack ass, but I want to hear about the game they are reviewing, not all the guys stupid comments and bad jokes.

    Why don't they give gamers what they want? We don't want to watch some no names play video games against each other. They showed some people playing Call of Duty and SOCOM against each other. I don't know the games, so all I see are random people killing eachother at unknown points in an unknown map.

    But they can fix this so easily. First off, go talk to the major "pro leagues" for gaming, go to the cpl, go over to korea, whatever, get the people actually out there winning money to play games, who you know are really good. Now, film them playing.

    Except, for the big final games, give me the whole experience. I don't want a 30 second recap of watching someone die. I want to see the whole match, how he set up, where he moved. I want an announcer to point out to me the clever things he did to get where he is, and how he set that guy up for the kill. How close was he to dieing. So show me the whole game, not a meaningless string of people shooting each other.

    So this pro show is great, because you can probably cover a match in 30 minutes, and there are lots of pros in lots of important matches in a variety of games. Call it "Pro MatchX" (X for extreeM!!!)

    Next they need a show about teaching you to play games better. Take a multiplayer game, they hang around longer then singleplayer ones, so the show can get out while people are still playing the game. Then, get to showing me how to win pub servers. I didn't get what was going on in call of duty. So, pick a map, show me where I spawn in on a map, show me where to go for choke points. You can go one of these three routs to the other guys flags. When you run this rout, bad guys start appearing at these sections. The stairs here are a choke point. Show me these things, from start to finish. Show me where people camp. Show me great places to plant mines to trick people.

    So there are two shows I'd watch. Ones that tell me how to get better at a multiplayer game, and run through some maps. Another showing me the worlds best playing games, with real coverage of the game and not just some joe schmoe at the point of the kill message. Create some suspence for the kills at liest and do it half a second before it happens.

    I don't think these shows would be any more difficult to create then what they already have, and would make a lot better gamer television.

  • It's not for us. Not for any of us. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mbourgon ( 186257 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @12:20PM (#11336857) Homepage
    One thing that seems consistent, down to the new logo - they're not just going after gamers, but specifically console gamers. After all, Halo 2 made more than a Hollywood blockbuster, so there's tons of people just waiting to watch console game stuff, right? That's my bet - they'll keep dumbing it down (which is sad - Call4Help and TSS were, depending, already fairly dumbed down) further, so the 15-year-olds with a PS2 can be happy. That's where the money is.

    I wonder if I can call Charter and ask that they drop G4 and put on something else instead?

  • Appealing to the Mainstream (Score:3, Interesting)

    by superultra ( 670002 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @01:37PM (#11337986) Homepage
    I am clueless on sports, and when I watch ESPN I feel even more clueless. The deluge of statistics, rules, various sports overwhelms me. Yet, how many ESPN channels are there? Like 20, each more categorically detailed than its parent channel? ESPN is unarguably difficult to "get" into. If you don't know sports, ESPN is a morass of numbers and names and terms you know nothing about.

    Kind of like video games and computing. Video games and computing on TV have more in common with TV sports than any other form of entertainment. There is something of a learning curve for video games and computing, and like sports they have generally appealed to a specific demographic. But what G4 is doing is the exact opposite of ESPN. They're trying to be more mainstream, instead of appealing to the niche like ESPN does. The fact is that ESPN makes the niche look so cool, and they do it so well, that the niche becomes mainstream. G4 is trying to be mainstream without appealing to the specific demographic of people who love - really love - video games and technology.

    I guess one could ask why the hell they're parading "the best of 2D and 3D girls" if they're trying to go mainstream. But it's like the kid in high school wearing the Walmart Wranglers jeans and knockoff brand jacket trying to fit into the cool clique. It's obvious that G4 is trying too hard. X-Play is the only thing they have going for them. Adam and Morgan* appeal to the niche, but at the same time they do it so well that it becomes cool. Friends who have no love of video games love to watch X-Play.

    G4 should be modeling ESPN, not Fox. The channel should cater to the people who love video games and technology, not shun them by canceling their favorite shows.

    * Ok, plus, Morgan is hot. But what she is not is a "2D or 3D girl." How lame.

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