G4 nostalgia.

Dimetrodon said:
Yeah, I think people are forgetting that from 2001-2004, a lot of pre-YouTube video streaming content started to appear online. Plenty of sites let you watch music videos and GameSpot, among others, hosted video reviews and E3 coverage. Fuck, I remember in 2002 watching full episodes of different anime series on the Toonami Reactor and on Manga.com.

Really, it's just weird how so many people act like video streaming didn't exist in the early 2000s. It was a lot more limited, sure, but it was there.
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My guess is that these sites were pretty catered to a specific niche or genre. Youtube on the other hand was one that managed to showcase more than one specialized genre along with being lucky to get off the ground and eventually being absorbed by Google. That along with the fact that by then, you had more people going online by the time Youtube was a thing than when they did back in the early 2000's.
 
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I forgot to mention I really enjoyed when G4 aired that British show Brainiac, which was sort of like a British version of Mythbusters.

When they first started airing reruns it was weird and interesting stuff like that before it became stuff like Cops and Cheaters.

Dimetrodon said:
Yeah, I think people are forgetting that from 2001-2004, a lot of pre-YouTube video streaming content started to appear online. Plenty of sites let you watch music videos and GameSpot, among others, hosted video reviews and E3 coverage. Fuck, I remember in 2002 watching full episodes of different anime series on the Toonami Reactor and on Manga.com.

Really, it's just weird how so many people act like video streaming didn't exist in the early 2000s. It was a lot more limited, sure, but it was there.
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Yeah, the internet was already giving TV a run for its money even in the 2000s.

But the thing is brands like G4 could have evolved into online only content, there was still value to the brand, but short sighted suits just don't get it.
 
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Dom Cruise said:
I forgot to mention I really enjoyed when G4 aired that British show Brainiac, which was sort of like a British version of Mythbusters.

When they started airing reruns it was weird and interesting stuff like that, before it became stuff like Cops and Cheaters.



Yeah, the internet was already giving TV a run for its money even in the 2000s.

But the thing is brands like G4 could have evolved into online only content, there was still value to the brand, but short sighted suits just don't get it.
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The suits didn't realize the value in doing online only content and streaming it. Hell, online porn would of given them one idea in how you could cut out tv as a middle man for people that needed something to watch for their own pleasure. Then again, maybe the price of internet wasn't viable for everyone though I'll admit I know jackshit about the internet in the early 2000's due to being young shit back then that didn't know anything about it beyond knowing that internet through a phone line would fuck up in connections if someone tried to call.
 
c-no said:
My guess is that these sites were pretty catered to a specific niche or genre. Youtube on the other hand was one that managed to showcase more than one specialized genre along with being lucky to get off the ground and eventually being absorbed by Google. That along with the fact that by then, you had more people going online by the time Youtube was a thing than when they did back in the early 2000's.
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This, more or less.

YouTube's success was pretty much lightning in a bottle and had Google not bought it when the iron was at its hottest, they would've likely went under.

Ironically, YouTube's draconian content policies in its later years coupled with Google's near-monopoly of the market may ultimately doom it in the long run.

G4 and MTV are the kind of things that probably would've been killed by YouTube and streaming media in the long term, but the worst part is that they had both abandoned their formats long before that, with MTV in particular seen as the poster child of channel drift/network decay.

History Channel's the same thing, to where the excessive coverage of WWII in the mid-2000's that was once widely mocked is now longed for with wistful nostalgia, since that was at least actual history. Even the joke of "aliens and conspiracies" is more of a late 2000's/early 2010's thing. Now it's all just reality shows, with Ancient Aliens as more of a relic than anything else.
 
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Only good thing about G4 was Morgan Webb.
Morgan-s-FHM-Pages-morgan-webb-621230_1000_1380.jpg
 
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c-no said:
My guess is that these sites were pretty catered to a specific niche or genre. Youtube on the other hand was one that managed to showcase more than one specialized genre along with being lucky to get off the ground and eventually being absorbed by Google. That along with the fact that by then, you had more people going online by the time Youtube was a thing than when they did back in the early 2000's.
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The Wikipedia page, for what it's worth, for streaming media says that it was around 2002 that companies began to embrace a single platform, Flash, for streaming, which was around the time I personally started watching videos in the browser. So really, some sort of monolithic site was going to come around sooner or later. Given how fast paced the internet world was even back then, I'm not surprised that it was around three years later that it happened.
 
Dom Cruise said:
Does anyone remember a machinima show they had that would use games like Second Life and WoW? I think it was called Portal, that one seems to be forgotten.
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Portal was great. I remember they switched around through Everquest, the Sims, Second Life, Star Wars Galaxies. There was a lot of great classic games they used to convey the show. I remember the Drifter in the show being voiced by the same dude who voices the Colonel in Metal Gear Solid. It was a good time.

I think G4's biggest problem was like as I stated before the concept was EXTREMELY ahead of it's time. It came out at the best time when internet was still not the best it can be but it allowed people to watch it to get actual gameplay for games instead of just reading them in like tips and tricks. Seeing video gameplay of all these different games especially through Cinematech, Blister(The action game show), and even Cheat! (With that fucking nerd Cory Rouse), was enough to get you interested in games since you were seeing them play out in front of you.

You look at a show like G4TV.com, that basically plays out as a podcast. They have a recorded conversation with a caller, they sometimes have guests like Tommy Tallarico, the hosts were great (Laura Foy was fucking hot), and the conversations they had were genuine. Now we have all these different podcasts and the closest I feel to capture that atmosphere is Giant Bomb, since they can just meme on each other.

Also I'm shocked you guys haven't brought up Judgement Day. Victor Lucas is such a cuck when talking about certain games, but Tommy Tallarico just fucking tells it as it is. I love that dude, and his infamous High Heat Major League Baseball 2003 review
 
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Only thing I really know or care to know about G4 is that they had an awards show called Gphoria, and it was some incredible cringe. DingdongVG and RockCock64 did some streams watching them. I think you can find it on DingDong's Twitch.

 
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Overcooked Raccoon said:
Portal was great. I remember they switched around through Everquest, the Sims, Second Life, Star Wars Galaxies. There was a lot of great classic games they used to convey the show. I remember the Drifter in the show being voiced by the same dude who voices the Colonel in Metal Gear Solid. It was a good time.

I think G4's biggest problem was like as I stated before the concept was EXTREMELY ahead of it's time. It came out at the best time when internet was still not the best it can be but it allowed people to watch it to get actual gameplay for games instead of just reading them in like tips and tricks. Seeing video gameplay of all these different games especially through Cinematech, Blister(The action game show), and even Cheat! (With that fucking nerd Cory Rouse), was enough to get you interested in games since you were seeing them play out in front of you.

You look at a show like G4TV.com, that basically plays out as a podcast. They have a recorded conversation with a caller, they sometimes have guests like Tommy Tallarico, the hosts were great (Laura Foy was fucking hot), and the conversations they had were genuine. Now we have all these different podcasts and the closest I feel to capture that atmosphere is Giant Bomb, since they can just meme on each other.

Also I'm shocked you guys haven't brought up Judgement Day. Victor Lucas is such a cuck when talking about certain games, but Tommy Tallarico just fucking tells it as it is. I love that dude, and his infamous High Heat Major League Baseball 2003 review
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Did you ever see that video on one of Official US Playstation Magazine's demo discs that was a tour of Tommy Tallarico's house circa 2002? (That can probably be found on Youtube)

deadtube said:
Only thing I really know or care to know about G4 is that they had an awards show called Gphoria, and it was some incredible cringe. DingdongVG and RockCock64 did some streams watching them. I think you can find it on DingDong's Twitch.

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Was this the awards show that once a rapper named Jadakiss sing "why did Bush knock down the towers?"?

That might have been Spike TV's VGAs.
 
Disrespected Pronouns said:
Fuck G4 for ruining TechTV (although TechTV also did a fair amount of ruining itself)
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I shared the same sentiment until a few years ago.

TechTV’s spiritual successor is TWiT.tv, Leo Laporte’s podcast network. It‘s pretty bad, just mostly a gigantic “let’s suck off Silicon Valley” shitfest. If that’s the way TechTV was heading, they had it coming.

Also, bring back Unscrewed with Martin Sargent.
 
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Dom Cruise said:
Never forget that Blockbuster once had the chance to buy Netflix and turned it down.

the suits are often short sighted.
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But do you think Blockbuster would have allowed Netflix to explore streaming and original content had they purchased the company in 2000? It’s not as if they turned down the chance to buy a thriving company that was changing the way people consume media. Netflix was just a delivery service back then. Blockbuster was plenty shortsighted, but they’d have to be psychics to have known in 2000 what Netflix would become.
 
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Drakonnan said:
I wonder why most G4 shows did not continue on Youtube. Shows like Xplay could easily be a Youtube show.
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I'd assume for the higher profile ones like X-play it was probably licensing and profitability. By the time X-play wrapped up lots of big outlets were on the rise like Polygon, Kotaku, Destructoid, Giant Bomb etc. They'd have star power behind it but I don't think it would do much in the face of them.

Sessler did join Rev 3 Gaming to try and keep that momentum, and I know he had a big hand in the Friday the 13th game (The multiplayer one that came out a couple of years ago).

Now I'd assume whoever owns the rights (Esquire maybe?), would be willing to sell it. I think the smarter call would be to get some of the people in the industry back and make their own variation of their original G4 shows.

I know on youtube at least someone a couple of years ago was attempting to recreate Cinematech using the same style as the G4TechTV version (with the really ugly presentation cutins). I don't think it's still being made, but kudos to them for trying to revive the show I feel has the most potential as a showcase for games.

I know Icons was talked about earlier but that show was also fantastic. I remember watching the Yuji Naka and Nolan Bushnell ones very often when they were on. I think even the Megaman Anniv Collection on Ps2 had the Megaman Icons episode.
 
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SteelPlatedHeart said:
I mostly remember G4 for playing the weirder less-mainstream anime late at night, like Boogiepop Phantom, R.O.D TV, Gad Guard, ect.
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And Serial Experiments Lain, Rahxephon, Colorful (a show literally about panties), Cromartie High School.

But they had stopped airing anime by 2006, which was a while before the bubble really burst in the US, I wonder why?
 
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Pissmaster said:
Icons was a pretty good show
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Especially when it was just vidya people, not b-list celebrities.

Judgment Day gave my autistic ass rage over the Guilty Gear X2 review. Tommy Telorico was a bit of a big headed ass (see review of REmake) but something about his hate for GGX2 was weird. You'd think a musician and cousin of Steven Tyler would of at least get the music and name thing but idk.

It was clear the first host of Cheat was a drug addict lol

Cinemascope was hype whenever they showed E3 footage.

Arena was gay but I just dont care to watch esports. Didnt know who Wil Wheaton was at the time nor minded him iirc.

Starcade was lol but that Lupin game they played a lot looked cool.

I really enjoyed Portal since it was the closet to mmos I could get because console faggotry and the story was fun.

Shame about the truth with the Sess. X-Play's stupid skits were funny, loved the Fear and Loathing episode. Is Webb doing anything at all anymore?
 
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