G4...Gaming Television?

Just like last year, I got sucked into watching E3 on G4 for several days. Watching E3 always gets me really excited about games, new and old. One might think that I might get tired of watching shows about games after three days of straight gaming television, but it just makes me want more. So, of course G4 would help satiate my cravings, right? Wrong.

G4 is a television network that is all about video games. The show, "X-Play", gives viewers previews and reviews of the latest games along with tips and tricks and interviews from people in the industry. One of the things I love about "X-Play" is that they do reviews for the Wii separately from the others. Which helps players decide which games to buy for which platforms. The hosts, Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb, also make their reviews fairly humorous. So, even if they are reviewing a game a viewer has zero interest in, the review is still entertaining and funny.

"Attack of the Show" is another of G4's exclusive shows. AotS is more about tech stuff than gaming giving a nice balance to the network. This is not to say that it avoids gaming altogether, but it does feature a lot of the things that gamers care about such as gadgets, internet apps, and a segment called "Women of the Web." And, for those who are into that kind of thing, one of the hosts, Olivia Munn, was on the cover of a recent issue of Playboy.

While G4 has two shows that I personally find interesting, it really only fills up an hour of my day, meaning weekday. That is about it. Yes, there are some other shows like "The International Sexy Lady Show" and "Ninja warrior," but most of the other hours of the day are filled up with reruns from other networks. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE "Lost" and "Heroes," but I don't need to watch the reruns on my "gaming" network.

It seems to me that the powers at be over at G4 could find some more original gaming, that doesn't involve half naked women playing with hula hoops. Yes, sex sells, but lets be a little more creative. Why not do a reality-based show about some organization in the gaming industry? Or how about invent the "Scrubs" of the gaming world? How about an original show, reality or fiction, about a group of female gamers? In an age where networks are constantly trying to reinvent themselves, like Sci-fi changing to Sy-Fy (WTF?), it just seems to me that the G4 network could try a little harder to actually have programming involving video games.