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Good Game (TV program)

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Good Game
File:GGIntro.png
Good Game
Created byJanet Carr
Presented byStephanie Bendixsen
Steven O'Donnell
Country of origin Australia
No. of seasons5
No. of episodes110 As of 2 November 2009
Production
ProducerJennifer Collins
Running time30 minutes
Original release
NetworkABC2
ReleaseSeptember 19, 2006 –
present

Good Game is an Australian television programme broadcast on ABC1 and ABC2, created by Janet Carr, premiered on September 19, 2006.[1] The program, currently hosted by Stephanie Bendixsen ("Hex") and Steven O'Donnell ("Bajo"), looks at gaming reviews and news.

Good Game airs every Monday at 8:30 p.m. on ABC2 and since the commencement of the third season, can also be seen on ABC1 late Friday evenings. Prior to the fourth season, the program was broadcast every Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. on ABC2 with repeats shown at 12:45 a.m. on Thursday nights, and 10:30 p.m. on Saturdays. The 100th episode of Good Game was aired on ABC2 on 24 August 2009. The program is also available through ABC Online via a vodcast, with episodes available shortly before its broadcast on ABC2.[1][2]

Presenters

Current

  • Steven O'Donnell "Bajo": following the resignation of Mike Makowski, auditions were held to find a replacement host for the new season. On the 9th of March 2007 the new host Steven O'Donnell was announced.
  • Tracey Lien "Rei" was first introduced in Season 5, Episode 3 as the show's field reporter. She was already a practicing journalist and games writer prior to taking up the role of field reporter,[3] and currently contributes stories on gaming culture to the show.
  • Stephanie "Hex" Bendixsen: The new host of Good Game as of 26 October 2009. Also the host of ABC 3,[4] Bendixsen was originally thought to be hosting Good Game: Spawn Point but instead replaced Ray as host of Good Game.[4]

Past

  • Mike Makowski "Kapowski" (Season 1): On February 14, 2007 series one presenter, Mike Makowski, announced his resignation from the Good Game team. This was announced on the program's online forum.
  • P_Nutz (Season 1): P_Nutz was a yellow puppet introduced during Good Game's pilot episode in May 2006. Although it acted as a fourth presenter throughout the first season, it drew a lot of criticism and debate from viewers.[citation needed] Some were of the view that P_Nutz was not suitable for the program as it seemed to be aimed at children. [citation needed] Some likened it to a monkey modeled on Agro of Agro's Cartoon Connection. Some believed P_Nutz's presence would prevent the show from being taken seriously, and others were simply annoyed by its presence. [citation needed] A poll was conducted on the official Good Game website regarding the appropriateness of P_Nutz in the program. The results proved that P_Nutz was inappropriate, and it was decided that he should die while defusing a bomb in the popular online game Counter Strike. A Flash animation was made by community member "RubberRoss" (Ross O'Donovan, better known as RubberNinja by the Newgrounds community) and was aired in the final episode of season one. He has still remained on the show as a running gag, such as in the reviews of Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, Killing Floor and Ghostbusters: The Video Game.
  • Miles Tulett "Dr. Daneel" (Season 1-2): Dr. Daneel had computer segments on Good Game. He left the show to pursue his studies at university and because he felt that his segment was no longer hardware-oriented.
  • Matthew Lee "Aiyiah": Aiyiah ran the So You Think You Can Game segment on Good Game. As of season 3, he is now a researcher for the team.
  • Sheridan Leanda "Lux" had segments on Good Game such as cyber bullying & Girls in Gaming.
  • Jeremy Ray "Junglist": Co-host of Good Game from season 1 to season 5.

Segments

All seasons

  • Gamer News: A segment presented at the start of each episode on gaming news. The section focuses on game announcements, major updates and patches as well as developer and publisher actions.
  • Name this game: Retro game trivia segment. A clip of a retro game is shown to the viewers with the challenge of naming the game. Each game is named at the end of the show.
  • Industry Interviews: Interviews with people related to the game industry.
  • Backwards compatibility: Goes over the best and worst of gaming history, and how this has helped shape the future of gaming.

Cross seasons

  • Gamer Tonight: A fictional flash animated talk show starring Richard Farkas from the "Win the Beast" entry "The Pitch". It interviews a different genre of gamer each episode. It's animated by Ross "Rubber Ninja" O'Donovan, who came to this position after years of animation experience on online sources such as Newgrounds, and features the voice talents of Arin "Egoraptor" Hanson, Faye Mata and Kira Buckland.

Season One only

  • The Team - Machinima: An Australian machinima video segment was shown each episode. This was highly criticized by fans on the forums.[citation needed] In season 2 this was replaced by Gamer Tonight.
  • Build a Machine: In each episode of season 1, Dr Daneel looked each aspect of a computer, showing what parts to choose and how to install them among other things. This was tied in with the competition to win a computer that ran through the season.

Season Two only

  • MeatSpace: A Lego stop pause animation created by community member Blunty (Nate Burr). It revolves around two friends and their gaming related incidents.
  • Ask the Doc: A new segment in season 2 to replace the Build a Computer segment, Daneel helps people who have a fairly common technical computer problem. However, he also looked at how the Wii sensor bar works.
  • Ultimate Showdown: A 'best of' style segment related to games. The segment looks at specific features of games such as the boss fights and opening sequences, and asks forum members to post their opinions on which game has the best one (e.g., which game has the best boss). The thoughts of the forum members are then mentioned while showing footage of the games.
  • So you think you can game?: Segment presented by Aiyiah based on hints and tips for specific games. At the end he also gives a challenge for the featured game.

Season Three only

  • Quarter Circle + A: A series of primarily animated video game parodies created by Rob Moffett and Benjamin Baker. Replacing Gamer Tonight and MeatSpace, The show's presentation is varied each week with formats ranging from machinima, fictional in-game footage, satirical video game reviews to lampooning 1950 educational films.

Season Four only

  • Good Game "Game": Was a competition for season 4. Viewers were asked to give suggestions and ideas for a playable game prototype. It was be developed by the Australian Film Commission and ABC TV. The game is called Office Wars. The prototype of Office Wars is available on the ‘’Good Game’’ website.
  • A Cartridge Affair: A spin on the show A Current Affair, this segment is a humorous news spin-off about a different game subject each week.
  • Fatal Rage of Conflict: This segment is an animation set in a 2D side-scrolling fighting game.

Season Five only

  • WTF? (What Were They Thinking?): This new segment talks about one game where either O’Donnell or Ray criticize a game and question why that game was made in the first place.
  • Good Game "Serious Game": With the Good Game game, Office Wars released, O’Donnell and Ray announced on episode 4 of season 5 that a serious game (a game designed for a purpose rather than amusement) would be developed. The game is in its early pre-development stages.
  • Great Gaming Moments: This segment displays a moment in a particular game where something happens that is dubbed as 'classic' or a moment that has been long-awaited, such as where in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time the character draws the 'Master Sword' from the stone, which turned the young character into an adult and unlocked a whole new way of playing.
  • Ask Good Game: A segment where Good Game are asked questions from the Good Game community

Awards

At the 2008 IT Journalism awards Good Game was awarded with a "Lizzie" for Best Multimedia Coverage of 2007 and also the biggest award of the night, the Gold "Lizzie" for Best Title of 2007. Special mention was made that Good Game won the Gold "Lizzie" by the most votes in the awards history. Good Game was also commended in the Best Gaming Title of 2007 category and Good Game's researcher Maurice Branscombe was also highly commended in the Best Gaming Journalist of 2007 category.

Good game also picked up a "Lizzie" in 2009, for "Best Video Production".

As of 31 October 2009 The Good Game Forum is the largest ABC television forum with 9209 contibuters, 142 topics and 280,433 messages.[15]

Controversy

In 2009 Good Game and the ABC decided to run competitions and auditions for a new host for the ABC 3 in Australia. The winner, Stephanie "Hex" Bendixsen was announced with other hosts for ABC 3, and was thought to be hosting Good Game: Spawn Point on the ABC 3.[4] However it was revealed on the show's official forum that Bendixsen would in fact be replacing existing host Jeremy Ray entirely on both the original and new program.[16]

Ray claimed the dismissal was because "they wanted a girl on the show", and stated that "'Mass appeal' was a direct quote from that meeting."[16] Ray has also alleged that the ABC wanted game testing, reviewing and program shooting to occur on the same day,[17] whilst he believed that this would be too little time for some games.[17] The network, on the other hand, has categorically dismissed Ray's assertion with the statement: "The reason for replacing Jeremy Ray was ongoing behind the scenes performance based issues."[16][17] Message board members discovered that some statements written by team members had been adjusted after the time of writing, changing the information to only that which supported the press releases.<ref name=abc>

The replacement of Ray has surprised and angered many fans whose input has been actively encouraged by the ABC,[17] with some fans concerned that the show has sold out to reach a more mainstream audience.[17] Non-disclosure agreements have prevented both the ABC and Ray from making further comments.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b Jenkins, Chris (2006-09-05). "Gamers go prime-time on ABC". Australian IT. Retrieved 2006-09-27.
  2. ^ Field, David (2006-09-14). "Good Game". Atomic Maximum Power Computing (atomicmpc). Retrieved 2006-09-27.
  3. ^ "Good Game - Rei". ABC tv. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  4. ^ a b c Bodey, Michael (2009-10-22). "ABC to launch new kids digital TV channel ABC3". The Australian. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  5. ^ Ray 10/10, Makowski 9/10 (2006-11-21). "Guitar Hero II Review". Season 1. Episode 10. ABC Television. {{cite episode}}: External link in |transcripturl= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help); Unknown parameter |transcripturl= ignored (|transcript-url= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ O'Donnell 10/10, Ray 9/10 (2007-11-13). "Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice Review". Season 3. Episode 8. ABC Television. {{cite episode}}: External link in |transcripturl= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help); Unknown parameter |transcripturl= ignored (|transcript-url= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Ray 10/10, O'Donnell 9.5/10 (2007-11-06). "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Review". Season 3. Episode 7. ABC Television. {{cite episode}}: External link in |transcripturl= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help); Unknown parameter |transcripturl= ignored (|transcript-url= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ O'Donnell 10/10, Ray 9/10 (2008-03-24). "God of War: Chains of Olympus Review". Season 4. Episode 7. ABC Television. {{cite episode}}: External link in |transcripturl= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help); Unknown parameter |transcripturl= ignored (|transcript-url= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ O'Donnell 10/10, Ray 9.5/10 (2008-05-05). "Grand Theft Auto IV Review". Season 4. Episode 13. ABC Television. {{cite episode}}: External link in |transcripturl= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help); Unknown parameter |transcripturl= ignored (|transcript-url= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Ray 10/10,O'Donnell 9/10 (2008-08-18). "Braid Review". Season 4. Episode 18. ABC Television. {{cite episode}}: External link in |transcripturl= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help); Unknown parameter |transcripturl= ignored (|transcript-url= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ O'Donnell 10/10, Ray 9.5/10 (2007-11-27). "Super Mario Galaxy Review". Season 3. Episode 10. ABC Television. {{cite episode}}: External link in |transcripturl= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help); Unknown parameter |transcripturl= ignored (|transcript-url= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ O'Donnell 10/10, Ray 9/10 (2008-10-13). "Saints Row 2 Review". Season 4. Episode 26. ABC Television. {{cite episode}}: External link in |transcripturl= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help); Unknown parameter |transcripturl= ignored (|transcript-url= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ O'Donnell 10/10, Ray 10/10 (2009-06-08). "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Review". Season 5. Episode 18. ABC Television. {{cite episode}}: External link in |transcripturl= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help); Unknown parameter |transcripturl= ignored (|transcript-url= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ O'Donnell 10/10, Ray 9.5/10 (2009-10-12). "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review". Season 5. Episode 36. ABC Television. {{cite episode}}: External link in |transcripturl= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help); Unknown parameter |transcripturl= ignored (|transcript-url= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ "ABC Message Board". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
  16. ^ a b c Collerton, Sarah (2009-10-31). "ABC bites back over Good Game sacking". ABC News. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  17. ^ a b c d e f Moses, Asher (2009-10-30). "Good Game presenter claims ABC gender bias after axing". Sydney Morning Herald online. Retrieved 2009-10-30.

External links

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