"On the Spot," Psychonauts on "On the Spot," and other gamer TV

[Moosferatu]

wow, Gamespot Live is painful beyond belief.

[amishler]

wow, Gamespot Live is painful beyond belief.

I rarely watch their video segments for that reason, though I made an exception yesterday. It was worth it, if for no other reason than for this exchange:

GameSpot Guy: I have a question here from Joe Gamer in...MD...is that...Maryland?

Tim: Medical Doctor.

[Moosferatu]

Yeah, I also love Tim's facial expressions throughout. It's pretty obvious that he thinks the show is pretty stupid.

[nsps]

You know you're in the hands of a skilled interviewer when he basically says, "We already talked about this, but I'm gonna read this question anyway so we can go over the same answer."

[netmonkey]

The Gamespot guy talks way too fast. He has no broadcast journalism skill whatsoever, and he also seems to be hyped up about anything.

I had a dream that I found Psychonauts for rent at my local blockbuster but it was for Playstation 2, so I rented it and played it at my friends house. It felt so real that today I'm mad that there's about 17 days left until the game finally comes out...! I blame this dream on reading Mixnmojo late at night.

I may just go buy Official Playstation Magazine and play the demo at my friend's place... hah!

[Intrepid Homoludens]

The Gamespot guy talks way too fast. He has no broadcast journalism skill whatsoever, and he also seems to be hyped up about anything.

I just think it's people like him who help perpetuate the public perception of us gamers as nothing but highly intelligent yet dumb techno sluts who have orgasms looking at screenshots.

[lailoken]

I just think it's people like him who help perpetuate the public perception of us gamers as nothing but highly intelligent yet dumb techno sluts who have orgasms looking at screenshots.

So I take it, that is not what we are?

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Do you think that's what we are?

[Dingo Chavez]

Just watched the Gamespot live show, I figure I'll get over the emotional scarring that it gave me in about a month.

But in the end it was worth it, watching Schafer talk about the game and his life was definitely satisfying, also finally seeing Scott Cambell was nice he's a lot younger than I expected and he said "you know" and "like" about thousand times which was very odd.

I wanna give Tim Schafer a hug.

[lailoken]

Do you think that's what we are?

I think there is no US. There is only a number of individuals sharing a passion for "computer games". Some of those might be just as the stereotype says, some might not. I know that I am not like that, but if I did, I wouldn't care. The important thing is to not be ashamed of who you are and what you like. Obviously there would be more important things than games and to a certain extent we are probably the result of pure decadence but I don't think that is a problem. People have been playing games forever. So... I guess what I am saying is that this type of shtick has been going on forever and if you still manage to get worked up about it, it's probably because it sticks

[Intrepid Homoludens]

What I don't like is the interviewer's lack of professionalism and composure feeding into the stereotype. He is supposed to represent a cross section of us passionate gamers, young and old, multi-faceted. Instead, IMO, he comes across as hyper and just plain annoyingly childish.

[Duncan]

"Area 51, for you... for those of you who don't know, is a very -- ah, can I say kickass on this show?"

"Yes, yes you can call it kickass."

"Is a kickass... shooter, where you get to, wear your hazmat, man, Ethan Cole, you get to run through all these corridors, and just take down aliens, turn into a mutant... all kinds of crazy stuff."

[OftenK]

"... you get to run through all these corridors"

Yes, because if there's one thing today's first person shooters need, its more running through corridors and shooting things.

[Duncan]

I completely fail to understand how 'running through corridors' is such a big draw.

[netmonkey]

What I don't like is the interviewer's lack of professionalism and composure feeding into the stereotype. He is supposed to represent a cross section of us passionate gamers, young and old, multi-faceted. Instead, IMO, he comes across as hyper and just plain annoyingly childish.

Gamespot is kind of odd in that way. Greg Kasavin, the head editor guy, seems to buy a guy who really appreciates everything about games, but then there's other guys who that feel if the game is playable and has great graphics, then they give it at least a score of 9.0. If it has the technical achievement of a new Star Wars movie, then it gets a 9.5, no matter how many times the story and characters have been done, or how ridiculous some of the things are.

If you haven't seen the Play magazine yet, it has a nice photo of all the Double Fine (or Psychonauts) team.

[lailoken]

ok, I don't wanna turn this into a general discussion, just this last bit from me:

There used to be and still is stuff that is a lot worse. The problem appears to be that professional journalistic talent, acceptable tv appearance and enthusiasm about games does not as yet seem to go together. I have yet to see a single example of that. Also I don't think gamespot is supposed to be an organ for the more intelligent and opinionated gamers but rather for the broad fan-boy audience. I really don't see the market for a more sophisticated format, but I could be wrong.

On the Gamespot thing in general:

We should be happy that someone does this stuff. I personally cherish the possibility to hear a designer talk at length about his game. Definitely worth watching. And btw Tim was not that professional in the whole of the interview, did not seem to be at ease and kept on blabbing at times... so yeah, not all as black and white as you guys would like to paint it IMHO. but anyways...

[Intrepid Homoludens]

But then again, Tim is a writer and designer, not a PR man, and definitely does not have a resume of doing broadcast interviews. Not that I'm excusing his lack of professionalism. IMO, it's the host's responsibility to steer the interview (and show) in the best way to maintain smoothness and polish.

[nsps]

Trep is right. While some interview subjects are certainly more talented performers than others, it's not their job, especially if they're not performers, to make the interview go smoothly. The PSP questions were particularly awkward, and should have been covered before bringing the two designers out. I did, however, think there was some interesting stuff in the show.

[amishler]

I completely fail to understand how 'running through corridors' is such a big draw.

I heard Area 51 also incorporates one of the major features of Full Throttle: Hell on Wheels by allowing you to go forwards and backwards, in addition to left and right.

Anyone who's read the Double Fine Action News knows that Tim Schafer is an entertaining personality. Granted, he's probably more comfortable as a writer than a speaker, but I've heard good things from people who have attended his presentations at GDC and the like. I think if the "On the Spot" hosts had a better sense of how to run a broadcast show, Tim could have really gone to town, but there was no sense of rhythm on the show.

I don't think the idea of a video version of GameSpot is an inherently bad one, but they should get some people on board who have a background in broadcast, rather than these guys, who have all the broadcast skills you'd expect of a couple of print journalists.

[lailoken]

yeah, I can totally see tom "the greatest generation" brokaw doing gamespot news *goes away laughing so loud a few houses actually crumble to the ground in his wake*

[amishler]

Whether for comedic effect or not, you've skipped over the many, many steps between the Ryan MacDonalds and the Tom Brokaws of the world. Of course they shouldn't try to hire someone of that stature; Brokaw's salary alone would probably bankrupt Ziff Davis within a year or two.

By the same token, GameSpot doesn't have Bob Woodward writing reviews for them. Still they've managed to put together a staff that's knowledgeable about video games and capable of writing about them in a competent, informative and frequently entertaining manner.

If they're going to go full-tilt into another medium like video, they need to do the same thing. Start recruiting at universities' journalism departments. Get people who know how to work a camera, both in front of and behind it. Basically, put the same effort into the video segments as they do for the written portion of the site, or don't do it at all. Half-assed stuff like "On the Spot" just feeds into the notion of games journalism not being on the same level of "real journalism".

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Half-assed stuff like "On the Spot" just feeds into the notion of games journalism not being on the same level of "real journalism".

That's exactly what I mean. By extenstion it makes the games media, games industry, and us gamers look like dumb, socially inept, non-professional turds.

[Jake]

Considering how it rates against other televised entertainment programs (like Extra, Access Hollywood, etc), I don't really think On The Spot is that bad. It's not a news program, it's an entertainment program. A video magazine. It has low production values and the host isn't mind numbingly awesome, but it's not that bad. At least it's somewhat genuine, unlike the made-up mannequins they have posing as gamers on G4. I suspect On The Spot and other similar programs will get better with time too. That show is, what, less than a year old?

[nsps]

While I just made fun of the guys a couple posts ago, I feel obliged to point out, in some agreement with Jake, that this show is a Webcast. The only people watching it are going to be people already interested in gaming. Those with no knowledge of the gaming world aren't going to go through the trouble of loading the show's super-crappy-res video (they're not gamers, so they don't have the paying subscription, just as I don't) to watch a bunch of clowns trying to manage their amateurish TV show.

So while the show is painful to watch, i don't know how good we should expect a Webcast-only show with no commercial breaks to be. And how many quality shows would spend that much time talking to Tim?

[SoccerDude28]

Me personally I like on the spot. You only appreciate on the spot when you get to watch the G4TV crap. Compared to that, On the spot is an emmy winner. And they have some very decent interviews with a lot of interesting developers. They had Tim over twice, and a few weeks back, they went to Edmenton and had a chat with the Bioware folks. Good stuff! I just wished they wouldn't say "That's crazy!" and "That's awesome" every 2 seconds. But still, when it comes to game shows, I think it is my favorite.