From G4 TV to the Esquire Channel: A Missed Opportunity for a Video Game Channel

(Note: This post is one of two posts that were originally posted three days prior on The Voice of Heard. I reposted them here as start-up entries and as an attempt to make them accessible to a wider audience with The Escapist's Realm.)

In recent years, the video game industry and community has experienced both good news and bad news. But no bad news is more significant than the recent announcement that G4 TV, a television channel originally geared towards a young gamer audience, is to become the Esquire Network, which is geared toward a more "sophisticated meterosexual male" audience, by late April this year. (Note: the term 'meterosexual' is used to describe an urban modern-day heterosexual man who is mostly concerned [and perhaps even obsessed] with his personal appearance, which is reflected by the amount of time and money spent on the most fashionable clothes, the best beauty treatments, and the most fastidious grooming his money can buy.) In order to paint a clearer picture as to why this is happening, I will give a brief history of G4.

Under the supervision of Comcast, G4 TV was founded and led by Charles Hirschhorn, formerly a movie producer and a president of Walt Disney's Television and Television Animation, on April 2002 as an all-video-game TV network. With its launch of 13 original shows, G4 TV aimed to capitalize on the rapidly growing popularity of video games. As a form of reinforcement of its goal to be the first true video game channel, G4 had multiple meanings in its title:

• 'For games.'
• Four means of distribution for games: PC, consoles, handheld, and wireless.
• Four kinds of gamers: casual gamers, hard-core gamers, developers, and people simply curious about games.
• Four generations of gaming: pixel gaming, vectors gaming, wire frames, and polygonal graphics.

The very idea of a channel devoted entirely to a gamer audience seemed like a very novel one at the time. In March 2004, Comcast bought TechTV, a channel focused on computers and technology, and had it merged with G4, effectively becoming G4techTV. It was once thought that the merger was a good idea giving the fact that video games are the product of computers. Unfortunately, the consequences were far from beneficial. About 250 employees, who worked at TechTV prior to the merger, were terminated, allowing only 80 to transition from their original office in San Francisco to the G4 office in Los Angeles upon agreeing to relocate there. A majority of the TechTV programs were diluted and removed from the channel line-up, with only two of them surviving to become entirely different shows. The Screen Savers, a TechTV program that provided information on the latest technology, was renamed Attack of the Show! after shifting towards pop-culture, gadgets, gossip news, and game previews. Extended Play, which featured game reviews and hints (it was first known as Gamespot TV, the predecessor of the Gamespot website), was renamed X-Play, which still focused on reviews while adding comedy skits. Less than a year later, the letters 'TechTV' were officially dropped from the channel's name. In September 2005, Charles Hirschhorn was replaced by Neal Tiles, who was a senior marketing executive at DirecTV, Fox Sports, and ESPN, as G4's company president. These few changes were among the many others that would haunt G4 and lead it to its ultimate downfall. In time, the once-thought-as-innovative G4 became a competitor of Spike TV, MTV2, and Velocity in attracting the male demographic. As G4's focus shifted from video games to lifestyle, the corporate ownership of the channel shifted from Comcast to NBC Universal. Non-gaming shows like reruns of Fastline, COPS, Lost (the three of which were Fox shows), Heroes (a real-world based superhero show from NBC) and the classic sci-fi phenomena Star Trek, The Man Show, American Ninja Warrior (a sports competition in which professional wrestlers, Olympic athletes, and K-1 fighters go through obstacle courses), and gossip shows like Cheaters and Campus P.D. were being added to the broadcasting schedule. Accusations of being reliant on X-Play and Attack of the Show! were mounting as the two shows witnessed constant changes of their hosts and G4 faced numerous layoffs since 2005. At the end of 2012, X-Play and Attack of the Show! ended and a growing number of reports and rumors suggested that G4 would no longer be a video game channel since all programs related to video games were being killed off. Such rumors were later confirmed in early February of this year as NBC Universal signed a deal with Hearst Magazines, a major mass media company that produces magazines like Popular Mechanics, O, The Oprah Magazine, and Esquire, that would rebrand G4 as the Esquire Network by April 22. The Esquire Network, while sticking to the roots of the 80-year-old men's magazine, would be offering shows featuring cars, politics, world affairs, travel, fashion, and cooking, all aimed at catering to a "more educated, affluent, sophisticated male viewer" rather than the gamers that G4 was originally conceived for. Now that the brief history of G4 was covered, I will go over the two main interconnecting problems that contributed to the channel's brief rise and downward spiral: the corporate owners and the sort of programming the channel offered to TV viewers, let alone an audience of gamers.

1) The Legal Corporate Owners Of G4

"We're going through a change. Guys like to play games, but not necessarily watch a bunch of shows with games on the screen. So what we're doing now is expanding G4 from a network solely defined by video games to one inspired by them" -Neal Tiles, shortly after replacing Charles Hirschhorn as G4's CEO in 2005 

"I do agree with the vision of going after young men more than just going after gaming. Gaming has been demonstrated as being too narrow." -Ted Harbert, chief of the channels E! and Style on Comcast's decision to fold G4 and turn it into a lifestyle channel in 2006 

"Realistically, guys who are into gaming are not necessarily watching television. If this was going to come under my portfolio, I'm a little brand crazy, so I said, let's create a real brand, define a space, understand who we are programming for." -Bonnie Hammer, cable executive of NBC on the deal to change G4 into the Esquire Network

Judging from quotes like these, most businessmen, whether they be owners of G4 or those who paid attention the changes G4 went through as a channel, have limited to no inside experience in the video game business or gaming culture, the latter in which they seem to look upon as inferior and unsophisticated when compared to the metrosexual culture the Esquire Network is targeting. I imagine that they think of gamers as geeky, immature, and unsophisticated boys who dwell in messy dorm rooms, bachelor pads, and the basements of their parents' homes playing games all day with little more than junk food in their diet. On that note, I will have to counter that stereotypical image of gamers with my own understanding and experiences as a gamer. While it is true that most gamers are known to be young men, most gamers are older than 18 and there are also a good number of female gamers out there. According to a recent survey conducted by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), 68% of all gamers are aged 18 or older and 47% of all gamers are women, which are one of the gaming industry's fastest growing demographics. There are gamers who get a kick out of online multiplayer matches with games like Command and Conquer, Team Fortress, Call of Duty, Halo, and World of Warcraft. There are gamers who prefer to play the single player campaigns featured in those games and other games designed specifically for that feature, such as Metal Gear Solid, God of War, and Silent Hill, without the interference of other people, whether it be online or in person. There are gamers who prefer to play the old versions of Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, and Devil May Cry over the more modern sequels and remakes. There are gamers who continue to enjoy playing games from the eras of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), the Sega Genesis, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and even the Atari 2600. There are gamers who continue to enjoy playing while also maintaining a balance with their duties at home, at school, and at work. Some gamers spend less than an hour playing games and others play many more hours. The point I am trying to make here is that the video game community is much more diverse than the owners of G4 seem to realize or even know. It is possible for members of the video game community to come together and provide evidence that supports the argument I have just made and present it to members of the non-gaming community, including business people. But it is doubtful that the business people would be willing to listen due to a deeply held cultural elitism/bias or they just do not have time to hear anything the gaming community has to say because of other business related matters.

2) The Limited Programming

When Ted Herbert said that "gaming is too narrow," he seemed to imply that gaming is merely about play and scoring points. Since gaming has been demonstrated to be increasingly so much more than that, what he should have said when Comcast decided to fold the G4 brand was that "the number of topics relevant to video games and the amount of gaming-based content that G4 has been broadcasting is too narrow." That is especially the case with what the original 13 shows had to offer in the first place besides targeting the young male demographic. The problem with the gaming-based content was that it mostly consisted of showcasing cinematic cutscenes and trailers for various games, viewer-generated top-ten countdowns, multiplayer competitions between two teams of four players (with play-by-play commentary in the style of sports coverage), a head-to-head cross-country competition in search of the very best in games and arcades, and interviews with celebrities in their homes, trailers, tour buses, and locker rooms regarding games which they would be happening to play; personally, I have doubts that gamers would be interested in celebrities or nonsense competitions that provide little to no insight of gaming culture, even if they have time for it. The number of topics they offered were news regarding the video game industry, action/adventure games, sports games, tips, cheat codes, multiplayer online games, and reviews; those topics are already being covered by numerous other media outlets and have been covered by magazines like Game Informer and websites like GameSpot and IGN. With very few exceptions, most of the original shows got cancelled within three years because of the very problems rooted in their topics and content. Game On, the show that hosted the aforementioned cross-country competition, got cancelled after airing only 14 episodes. Had it covered more various video game-related topics and contained more broader content, G4 would may not have had to become a metrosexual lifestyle channel and would have probably lasted even longer as a television channel without having to sacrifice its original intentions for ratings.

What Are the Best Chances of Having A Video Game Channel?

Now that I have gone over the brief history of G4 and examined the factors leading to its rise and demise, I believe I should offer my opinions and ideas as to how creating and managing an exclusive video game channel might be possible. For starters, a pure video game channel may never be possible as a traditional television network because most mainstream networks are faced with tight producer control and fixed broadcasting schedules designed to reach as many homes as possible to acquire a lot of ratings in order for those networks to stay afloat, dictating what television directors (who get hired based on standard credentials set by broadcasting companies) can make and when they can air it. The Internet, on the other hand, offers more flexibility and creative freedom for directors, whether they be casual users, aspiring students, or veteran creators. Should a group of such directors with a passion for video games decide to come together and set up an online channel, the best model to adopt would be the one based on Machinima.com. Launched in 2000, Machinima.com started out as a hub for animated video clips made using video game engines, which led to the coining of the word machinima (a combination of machine and cinema). It has since grown into a network of over 6,000 YouTube channels, making it one of biggest online video producers on the Internet, reaching a combined 23 billion views by December 2012. Although it has recently been shifting to a more mainstream networking model, it has produced, hosted, and featured numerous video game-related shows. Based on Machinima's success, the ideal video game channel could be an online channel that would combine entertainment and education in a sort of yin-yang dualism, the two occasionally overlapping but without the former having to be sacrificed for more of the latter and vice verca.
The online market for the entertainment factor is, to say the least, a gold mine. In fact, there are numerous video game-themed shows being uploaded throughout the Internet since the mid-2000s. The ideal video game channel would feature shows and movies created officially by established franchises and unofficially by fans of those franchises. Existing examples of the former include two of the most popular online shows featured on Machinima. Mortal Kombat: Legacy, a live-action series based on the popular Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise presented by Warner Premiere (an online division of Warner Bros. Entertainment) and directed and produced by Kevin Tancharoen, has garnered a combined 4 billion+ views since launching in April 2011. Another video game-based live action series, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, was launched last year as a promotion for the then-upcoming release of Halo 4, the latest entry of Microsoft's most popular science fiction first-person shooter franchise developed by 343 studios. To date, the number of views for this short series has reached around 70 million. The making of the latter, commonly known as fan films, has been a popular activity as of late. Depending on what YouTube's bandwidth limit allows, these videos vary in length, ranging from as short as three minutes to as lone as an hour and a half. Street Fighter: Legacy, inspired by Capcom's popular fighting game franchise, was posted two years ago and has since gathered around 4 million views. Portal: No Escape, a live-action short fan film created by Dan Trachtenberg last year, has gained around 12 million views. It was inspired by Portal, a first-person puzzle platformer created by Valve, known for the first-person shooter franchises Half-Life and Team Fortress. Speaking of Half-Life, there have been numerous fan films inspired by it. One particular example is Escape from City 17, a two-part Canadian fan film made by the Purchase Brothers and set during the later events of Half-Life 2. By the time they aired on YouTube (Part 1 was released in February 2009 and Part 2 was released in August 2011) and received 1.5 million views, they were made on a $500 budget. The ideal channel could also stream video game-themed original shows that do not necessarily relate to any franchise. One example fitting this description is Code Monkeys, an 8-bit game-styled satire of the video game making business during the 1980s (featuring cameos from well-known developers including David Jaffe, Steve Wozniack, and John Romero) that lasted two seasons since first airing on G4 in 2007. Having shows that target children would also be acceptable. A case in point is last year's hit movie Wreck-it Ralph, which is by far a rare example of a decently made and well-received video game-themed movie since a majority of films in that category have a reputation for being inferior adaptations of video game franchises.

While the entertainment possibilities for the ideal channel are endless, having video game shows that focus on education is a bit of a daunting task since they are not aired often and few of them actually exist (or used to exist) on the Internet and on television, making them considerably less noticeable than gaming entertainment shows. The education shows that do exist generally air episodes that last no longer than ten minutes. It would be premature of me to offer ideas that could remedy those problems. So I will simply highlight examples of video game-shows that educate the gaming audience as a first step. Documentary shows such as Gametrailers' Retrospectives, Machinima's All Your History Are Belong To Us, and G4's Icons cover the history of video game franchises, give background information on gaming companies and significant people in the industry, and sometimes even give interviews to developers. Being one of the original 13 shows that first launched G4 in 2002, Icons was considered to be the best show for doing exactly that with thirty minute episodes for four seasons. Unfortunately, the show shifted from video games to pop culture under the name Game Makers in 2008 as part of the restructuring and was pulled off the air. Shows like Gametrailers' The Science of Games and Gamespot's The What If Machine examine the science featured in select video games (including jetpacks, nanotechnology, cyborg enhancements, and the effects of a nuclear fallout) and compare it to real-world science by consulting experts in various scientific fields. Combat Facts, another one of Gametrailers' shows, consults military experts regarding how guns, firearms technology, and tactics depicted in first person shooters stack up to those in the real world in a fashion similar to Mythbusters, one of the Discovery Channel's most popular shows. Indie Game: The Movie, last year's critically acclaimed documentary, followed aspiring independent game developers in their struggle to create their games and their hope for breakthrough success. While the history of video game development and separating real-world facts from virtual fiction is all good, it is unfortunate that the social and cultural issues surrounding video games are rarely discussed or even brought up. One such issue is the depiction of women in video games. Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, a new video series created and hosted by Anita Sarkeesian, is the first of its kind to bring the issue up, with the first video examining the damsel in distress trope.

Now I believe it is time to offer my suggestions and ideas for the educational aspect to work in the ideal video game channel. It would host different shows that would examine the history of video games, the evolution of gaming technology, and developer biographies in terms of what inspired and influenced their creations. There could also be shows that compare the science depicted in video games to the science of the real world as well as critically examine social issues and cultural controversies that surround the video game community and industry, including how women are traditionally portrayed in games. Another possible show would examine cultures that influenced certain aspects of video games and even the games themselves, like Ancient Greek mythology featured in the God of War franchise. Another show could investigate the history of the various martial arts styles, as well as the many techniques, depicted in various fighting games, including Street Fighter, Tekken, Dead or Alive, and Virtua Fighter.

To make a long answer to the question (what are the best chances of having a video game channel?) short, I say it is possible to have a channel dedicated to video games as long as it remains committed to catering to a gaming audience. An online channel is most likely the best way to go as it offers more flexibility than the traditional cable/satellite television networks. The channel could feature a variety of video game-related shows, made by both fans and professionals, that entertain and educate as long as the latter covers a variety of topics including history, technology, science, sociology, and cultural psychology. Now I will end this entry with another question: what shows would you add to a video game channel and why? Feel free to post any and all suggestions in the comment section below.