Real Talk By: KJ

While There’s quality shows available for gamers, none of which are bundled together all in the same place. We need a station that has all the shows that air now or used to, brought together under one banner. Only good can come out of this, but how can it work successfully? How would it fit for daily viewing? With the recent sad news of X-Play and AOTS being dropped from G4TV, the state of the boob tube for gamers is in bad shape. We need a Station for us. It needs to be loaded up with content specifically for this growing demographic. What programing would grace the channel? Our ideas below.

Movies (Good, Bad and Mediocre)

The station would air video game movies that are actually watchable Like Mortal Kombat 1, Hitman, Tekken (its aight), but would air a lot of animated movies. Films such as Street Fighter Alpha, The underrated Fatal Fury anime flicks, Resident Evil CGI films and of course, Advent Children on a constant loop. Movies such As Tron, and Tron Legacy would fit right in, and other films that cater to the demographic would be slipped in too. The Raid Redemption, all of Tony Jaa’s flicks, Expendables, the list goes on. Basically your Bang! Bang! Boom! movies. As you can see, the lineup would be constantly hard-hitting. Maybe even bring in the bad ones, but the commercial breaks would have an amazing Host. The person would acknowledge each films poor quality, and display fun facts (think Pop-Up Video). Charlie Murphy would be our choice. The facts would help us figure out what kush James Yukich was on when he directed the Double Dragon Movie.

Video Game Documentaries

One thing gamers love to do is reminisce. Before DLC and network play, there were plenty of titles that were amazing, and some that were horrid. Regardless of the quality, the gamer would be educated about these ancient games and consoles. People put hard work into these titles, they should never be forgotten. Plus we would get to see legendary designers again. G4 Had a great show like it called “Icons”, it would be great to see it make a comeback. If not, a re-imagining somewhere else could work. Games have clearly come a long way, so lets teach the newbies.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

For one part, we would have the old shows based on games for the kids. They could re-air on this channel. The traditional Saturday morning experience would be back: Captain N: The Game Master, Double Dragon, Kirby Right Back At Ya, Earthworm Jim, Mortal Kombat: Defenders of The Realm, Street fighter, Adventures of Sonic, Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic X, Mega Man, Megaman NT Warrior. Pac-Man, Pokemon (Happy Mo Chocolate?), Viewtiful Joe, and more. Seeing as many of the shows have around 26 episodes a piece, the line up would shuffle. Unless you frequent YouTube, many of these shows have gone AWOL with no places available to watch.

Primetime

Devil May Cry, Street Fighter IIV, Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Power Stone, Gungrave, Virtua Fighter, F-Zero: Legend of Falcon, Street Fighter II V. Basically all the shows ranging from PG and Up. Rotate and shuffle the lineup, even make original cartoon’s built for the channel. Ratchet and Clank: The series, we think so (CGI that!). Bring in live action shows too. An Assassin’s Creed series could rock, but we think a Half Life show would really work. Vex suggests a weekly ODST series, focusing on each soldiers struggle in the battle against the covenant. Mortal Kombat Konquest might be alright for a few laughs.

News & Review Shows

 There would be a daily news shows, that would cover games, and discuss rumors. The broadcast would contain all the modern features we expect. Daily news sliders similar to the way its done in SportsCenter, especially during a commercial break. Leaderboard stats in popular games would be shown. Who’s on top in Call of Duty 2k17? Just look down. What games release today? Hook it up! Also, you would have game Review shows, and insider E3 coverages. This has been done well on other stations, but it should be packaged with the other gaming programing we’ve been requesting in this article.

Reality

Shows such as The Tester have been proven to thrive as digital programing, but what if the channel featured reality competitive shows that were based on video game concepts. The short-lived reality series Cha$e had the right idea, maybe not executed to its full potential, but it had promise. Another season of this on another network might have greatly helped the show. The people running this channel could take this idea, it might be a popular show on this station and the right place to cater to the gamer. Location is key.

Fan Films

Independent films continue to release based on video games. Whether its 15 minute shorts or full length movies, the number and quality of these are growing. We could have 30 minute shows, with the bulk of it going Behind the scenes ultimately leading up to the final project. People could vote. Winner gets an opportunity to make a full length Hollywood/Game publisher funded project. The list of Indie shorts is huge, so there would be enough already to make this a legitimate weekly show. Splinter Cell Extinction, Mega Man, Sleeping Dogs, Metal Gear Philanthropy, Street Fighter Legacy, these shorts continue to impress me on a personal level. These folks make so much happen with so little. Constantly outshining the major Hollywood projects. This would be a great launch pad for up and coming film makers.

While there may be copyright hurdles to get around with gathering all this programing  in one place, the risk would be worth the reward. Hollywood is acting as if the gaming community is too small to turn this project into a profitable station. Numbers don’t lie. Fill the channel with massive amounts of quality gamer content, and people will come. A couple of shows isn’t going to get it. Gamers are bred daily, this group is on the rise. Cash in and do it now! Some body with a fat wallet, step up and make it happen (come on Oprah!) please.

What Gamer Programming would you have on the channel? We want to know.

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