a curated selection of thoughts collected within a 1 gb limit
in 1998, television was introduced to ZDTV, a cable network that primarily focused on technology. later known as techTV, it had a sizable audience and brought in a niche that hadn't been filled in the television realm. in 2002, comcast launched G4, which focused primarily on gaming content on television. the channel was sort of softlaunched with a looping game of pong that went on for a good week until they finally got started. it was a novel concept and introduced so many iconic staples, most notably x-play, attack of the show, and their yearly E3 coverage. eventually, they merged with techTV and became G4techTV, before eventually absorbing it altogether and becoming the channel we all know today. G4 was to gaming like what MTV was to music. don't forget that this was pre-youtube as well. this was a big deal at the time as gaming never had a big presence. it seemed as if G4 was taking the gaming landscape by storm. but ultimately, things weren't looking so good. many network providers were starting to drop the channel because of low viewership and eventually, the channel became infested with old reruns. they even resorted to reruns of cops and cheaters. i guess they were bored and threw a dart at the wall. eventually, comcast pulled the plug on G4 in 2014, closing the curtain with one last game of pong. the internet finally took over and G4 was old news. but then in 2020, they struck back.
suddenly, G4 was coming back and they had big plans. this time, TV was secondary. they were gonna take over youtube and twitch like never before. plus, not only were they gonna bring back x-play and attack of the show, but they also had plans for esports and totally new shows as well.
in 2021, they launched B4G4, a series of experimental videos hellbent on announcing all their plans and listening to their viewers along the way. they had a fake CEO mascot played by gus johnson which...wasn't the best choice in hindsight. but still, G4 were humble. they set up the hashtag #G4NeedsTalent and they were looking for young, savvy creators who knew the ins and outs of this weird internet thing. then they announced that they were actually coming BACK to TV with not only their legacy shows, WITH the return of adam sessler and kevin peirera as regular co-hosts respectively, but also reruns of episodes from youtuber scott the woz, making his first ever debut on television. and if that doesn't pull through, they always have pluto TV to fall back on. after all, free TV has become a big market lately even if i only really use it for ass-old anime. even jirard, the completionist, was gonna be a regular host on x-play! things were really looking up for G4. and finally, the network launched on october 12, 2021 and fully relaunched on november 16 to a resounding...meh.
i know, right? this was supposed to be, like, the biggest thing in gaming. they certainly built up a lot of hype. but once they finally returned, they were back down to square one. i don't think i ever really saw people talk about it. and when people were talking about it, it was too late. as i'm writing this, it's been five days since G4 was announced to officially shut down...again. the money wasn't there and nobody took any interest. even their own legacy shows struggled. and just like that, the network was once again doomed to fail. but perhaps i'm being too harsh. this is G4 for the new generation after all, and i somehow happen to be a part of it. now, i never really got into G4. but i've certainly been curious about it. what remains of the old represents a bygone era of TV where presentation and spectacle mattered because people actually watched TV back then. so with this new era of the network dawning before us, there's gotta be something bold and fresh while maintaining the old spirit of things.
well, besides the usual x-play and attack, there's some newcomers in here as well. there's this show called name your price from youtuber austinshow, where people have to guess prices on a bunch of stuff. i think the audience is fake. but with a curtain like that, i think that's the point. surprisingly, it's the only show to consistently get over 100k views on every episode. it's not a lot, but it's a hell of a lot better than, oh i dunno, the legacy shows that the network is known for.
this one i didn't even know about until now. it's called hey donna, and it's one of those call-in programs about a guy who's dressed up as a sassy grandma giving advice. this one gets a good amount of views as well. about 60k to 100k views on average. it's a shame that there was no marketing behind it or else i actually would've remembered it.
what else is there? esports, i guess. i think they partnered with smosh at one point. um...WWE? i guess comcast has that. besides reruns, they had...huh. i suppose they didn't have much.
you call this a comeback? i've seen less anticlimatic revivals from that one time they revived that show cops. yes, i said revived. it was cancelled for like two years and now it's got new episodes on...fox nation? man, they'll really take anything. if only G4 took it. they would've had people talking for at least another month. really, it feels like G4 only hit it big when they announced that they were even coming back at all. their reunion special topped about a million views and that's their most popular video. after that, their views tanked like crazy. nobody really talked about it that much and they didn't do anything that set the world on fire. well, there was that one time.
so there was this streamer named froskurinn who had a segment in x-play about sexism in the gaming community. on the surface, it must be a whatever deal. she'll probably talk about how female gamers should be treated with respect in the community. it won't do anything for society, but i always appreciate that concern. gaming should be for everyone. plain and simple. i mean by itself, the message is harmless. if anything, the whole "i'm sorry if you think i'm not as bangable as the older x-play hosts" angle is actually commendable. and overall it's nice that she was able to talk about how x-play is a team effort consisting of multiple people and nobody should be singled out for really petty reasons. it could've been something cool...but under the right circumstances. this was right after a segment on red dead online and here they drop a bombshell in the middle of nowhere. it just felt awkward. if i were ragging on about a cool movie in the middle of a discussion about pizza pies, i'd stop my tracks in embarrassment. if anything, i'd never talk again. this could've been its own separate video or even a little tweet thread. but this just ain't the way to do it. overall, it's a great message dropped at the wrong time. even worse is the response towards it. you ever see those stupidly exhausting videos that get churned out six times a day and talk about how SJWs and wokeness are bad or whatever? you know, THOSE types of videos. yeah, suddenly that crowd got a hold of that action and bam! there goes G4's legacy. well, whatever's left of it anyway. apparently frosk got thrown under by G4 after all that. is it sexism? is it poor business? is it about reputation? who cares? it's free revenue for all the factory-produced "SJW bad" channels out there. nothing is sacred.
now, you guys can rag on frosk all you want and say that she herself destroyed the network or whatever. but it’s not fair to blame G4 falling down on a few bad apples. after all, i don’t think i ever saw people actually caring about the network until she even made that rant. you can’t go downhill if you’re already down that hill anyway. see, G4 today doesn’t work because the market for independent gaming creators online has already been filled a long time ago. and it seems like they already knew going into the relaunch. because not only do they almost exclusively rely on the internet, but they also had that hashtag campaign to *really* try popping off. it seemed like they could’ve had something by hiring up and coming creators. although, they only ended up hiring creators that were already popular anyway. and when your biggest selling point is airing old reruns of scott the woz on cable, you know you’re desperate for anything.
and that’s the thing. this friggin thing was on cable. it's bad enough that it's being bled dry for what it's worth. but now you have to add in operating costs for cable. guess that explains why they put it on so few providers. surely comcast can't get any money down by putting it on xfinity. so what's gonna hurt putting it on, let's say, two more? well, my family's cable is more local to us and we didn't really have G4. so if you ask me, this whole cable thing felt like an afterthought. at least their programming was somewhat relevant. i can't imagine the hell they'd go through again if they resorted back to reruns of cops and cheaters. guess that's one point for fox nation.
so what do i personally think of G4's actual content? well, it's not impressive. if anything, it seems kind of derivative. as a creator, i'm not just looking for something that'll pique my interest, but also something that i never knew i wanted. i always come up with a list of expectations in my mind without expecting too much out of too many people. the sea of creators is too big to want all of them to be unique. but it's always nice to find that sweet spot to fill that niche you're looking for. you know, there's that meandering voice at the back of my head that's like "this is great, but what else is there?" with gaming channels in particular, same thing. it's always like, "this is great, but what else is there?" again, it's unfair to put that weight on every creator that's out there, especially a new one. but even then, there are those who've put on one hell of a show and suddenly they just start blending in with the crowd.
that's how i feel about the new G4. it just sort of happened. there's just not enough that's enticing or fresh. maybe i have to turn off the artist brain to really get it. but i don't think i'm alone on this either. take a look at the subscriber counts on the G4 youtube channels. now take a look at the average amount of views the videos get and you'll probably start to see what i'm getting at. christ, just looking up G4 on youtube will get you videos from other people that are talking about G4 shutting down. it just keeps going.
speaking of G4 shutting down, you wanna know how i found out about it? through a wario64 tweet. you wanna know how its own employees found out? take a guess. through a wario64 tweet. it's one thing to not tell your employees that they're all fired. but the fact that nearly all of them found out through an account that usually posts gaming discounts is not only disgraceful, but dystopian. this practice should not be a normal thing that regular businesses do. i can't help but feel bad for everyone involved, even frosk to an extent. it's the dirty bastards at comcast who roped these people into this opportunity to help take back the gaming scene only for all of it to fall apart. there's a really great article from the washington post that basically sums up the poor leadership and mismanagement at the company. so it's not just low ratings that tanked their chances. the whole ordeal was basically a sinking ship with an incompetent captain.
and the strangest thing is that comcast is not alone on falling behind in terms of gaming content. back in 2017, and stick with me on this one, DISNEY thought they could seal the deal by putting their gaming content on basic cable. they already dropped maker studios by this time and polaris was basically on its last leg. so they had to innovate somehow. that's where they had the bright idea to put all this cool gaming content on not freeform, not ABC, not ESPN (although they tried doing esports at one point), but disney XD. that's where DXP came into play.
from 9 pm until 3 in the morning, DXP was the one stop shop for gaming content, a lot of them already being on youtube, now on your TV. they had shows like parker plays, player select, the IGN show, and more that i'm probably forgetting. i believe they worked with vice to make some documentaries at one point. ooh, and they had this one show called the attack. it's like attack of the show but instead of kevin pereira, it was co-hosted by alex corea. see, they rhyme! it's basically the same thing! and i guess sometimes pereira would appear...? i dunno, it's weird. oh yeah, i think they did esports on the channel as well. they even had E3 coverage one year! the only problem: it was on disney XD...a kids network. so not only is the target demographic already out of reach, but a lot of the content had to be stripped down and censored. oh and their E3 coverage? anything goes. either they blurred out a lot or they just didn't care and put up a slight disclaimer saying "this might not be appropriate for younger viewers." on one hand, i get it. lots of kids are into games like FNAF and bendy so it makes a bit of sense to capitalize on that. i mean, as much as i appreciate friday night funkin from a design standpoint, i accept that it belongs to the youtube kids now instead of the newgrounds kids. it's survival of the fittest at this point. on the other hand, it's disney XD. at that point, you're stretching yourself too thin already.
eventually, their gaming content was stripped down into two shows until they were fizzled out completely. nobody bought into it and not everyone had disney XD with their cable provider anyway. G4 is sort of like that, but somehow on a lamer scale. give disney some credit. at least they somewhat knew what worked in the end. the only thing G4 had were some decently-known creators, nostalgia that only really caters to 30-year-olds, and the occasional rage click. i think pereira even promoted NFTs at one point. whatever man. this is a mess.
i take it this is where the story ends. no more G4 on youtube, no more G4 on twitch, no more G4 on pluto tv, and no more G4 on regular tv. they could've had a good thing going if they had just adapted and grew up. but alas, it was never meant to be. the internet finally won. but it doesn't make it any less devastating. i've seen my share of old G4 from time to time, mostly from old archive videos online. and if i'm being honest, i think there's something magical about old G4 that my feeble gen Z mind can't wrap around. the presentation was unique and the low budget crap was somewhat endearing. it's why i really appreciate old gaming shows like the angry video game nerd. you could feel that human touch when all the odds are against them. new G4 just feels too hollow for me. it's not inviting for the newer generation and much of the older generation had already moved on. i hope they got their $10 back because i think the end of G4 might be for real this time. let's hope one of those guys wins that pong game one day.