Something’s a-brewing over at G4, and man it ain’t pretty. While you can see just how bad things were getting just by looking at the programming line-up of G4, you just had to feel bad for the only shows left that showed an ounce of G4’s original intent. And then two weeks ago, long-time X-Play host and game content head honcho Adam Sessler announced that he was leaving the network, citing a contract dispute. An obvious sign that Sessler had enough of G4’s bullshit and corporate mismanagement. It became clear that looking at what G4 has become, the network wasn’t for him anymore, and now he’s finally called it quits.
And now two weeks later, Kevin Pereira, long-time co-host of Attack of the Show, is leaving the network as well. Pereira was one of the more hated personalities from G4 fans, largely for his douchiness and overly dry (lack of) humor. Regardless, he was one of the faces of G4 and looked to still fit in with G4’s changing image. And now he’s leaving too? Oh yeah, something’s definitely wrong over at G4. Pereira had taken to his personal blog to address the concerns fans are having over his departure. However, unlike Sessler, he doesn’t state why he’s leaving.
To some, the last veteran left on the network is Morgan Webb. I can’t help but feel like her departure won’t be too far off either.
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I actually never minded Kevin. Sure, he came off as a bit of a dick, but so do we all now and then, and he was entertaining and seemed genuinely enthused with what he did. Sad to see him go.
But ADAM!? THAT is a fatal blow to the whole thing. I know this is pure pipe dream, but I hope he finds a place where he can go back to the wonderful mix of screwball humor and honest game observation that made X-Play such a joy way back. I was with the network back during the days of X-Play, The Screen Savers, Filter, Judgment Day, and (lord help me), Arena. Bonus points for Cinematech and Electric Playground. I would just turn on TechTV (later G4) and OD on games all day. Trailers, lists, previews, reviews, tournaments. For a young teenage nerd who was still a little uncomfortable with his niche place in the world, it was paradise.
And specifically, X-Play was fun! It was a blast to watch! The reviews were generally on-target (although I learned to take Anime game and JRPG reviews with a grain of salt) the caustic writing made baddly-reviewed games just as much an event, and hit and miss as it was, the humor, that weird mix of surrealist character-gags and strange sketch comedy, made it entertainingly different from all the other review sites/shows. I genuinely miss old X-Play.
Whew, that turned into a rant. Anyway, yeah, I think this should signal the death knell for the network. I’m sorry, but they really have lost the mission. They used to be catering to gamers. Then nerds. Now it’s just “the lowest teen denominator”…
Adam Sessler…the man who by himself made EVO 2010 the funniest tournament I have ever seen. I saw him on a web show a week ago and he had the whole beard thing going but he looked happy. We will miss him cuz ITS ALL TIED UP lol
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Err, I think Akismet missed one.
Buuuut this is a real problem. Anyone visiting TWF and noticing our images not loading, it might be our host doing some server-side maintenance. They normally return within the hour.