I don't think it worked in a TV format. These three are fantastic on their podcast bit but this just didn't work for me. I think it is the fact they had to actually perform for the camera as well as do their things with the games. It distracted them from what they are really good at.

Twas a good show in places. Maybe scale it down to 20 minutes instead, and you've got a winner. Did anybody else have problems sending an email to the mailbag? I tried sending one, but it just kept bouncing back for some reason...

I liked it and I would love to see it as a TV show.

Yahtzee was good in this, I'm not a big fan of Zero Punctuation but I liked him in this, he seemed more.. Controlled.. Rather then talking really fast for 4 minutes.

I hope it picks up on TV rather then a website.

Plus its always good to see aussie content, specially about video games

Ohh fun fact: I walk past the buildings he was standing in front of when he was doing the physics engine every morning.

Phht who cares

It was OK I guess. I might keep watching it.

gigastrike:

So my question's are:
1: What do you think of it? Is it something that you would be interested in?
2: Did you think that Yahtzee was slightly more socially awkward than you thought?
3: What do you think candy has to do with gaming, if it has anything to do with it at all?

I thought the show was pretty good. I'm not sure if I'm going to get into it, but I'm willing to watch a few episodes to give it a fair chance.

1. I liked the humor bits a lot better then I liked the article type stuff. I won't spoil them because they are riotously funny. The parts on the couch seemed a bit forced though.

2. I didn't think he really came across as socially awkward as much as he was a smarmy jackass, which is really what he is known for being anyway. If he seems socially awkward to you it's probably because all gamers suffer this to some degree.

3. Candy is like any other mid-gaming snack. You eat it to keep you going when doing those late night raids, all night frag-fests and rock banding to the break of dawn.

It has potentual, but there are several aspects that need serious improvement.
Most notably the couch scene. They might as well start off with a cameraman who isn't drunk or totally disinterested. Matt would be talking, and the camera would be focused on Yahtzee, and then just as Matt would finish, it would turn to him and Yahtzee would start talking...
That and I think they needed more visuals on the games they were reviewing, just so you weren't looking at their... umm... beautiful faces all the time :p
And, as you would in a pilot, they all seemed kind of uncomfortable.

It's alright, I think what people have said is 'uncomfortable-ness' is deliberate on Yahtzee's part. It was overly long, the Metal Gear jokes didn't really work, and there was one sketch group too many. Other than that though, it was good.

Well i liked it but mostly because I'm already a fan of Yahtzee, Yug & Matt's.

Their podcasts on the Australian gamer website are quite good entertaining stuff, just three guys talking about what they love and generally goofing off and having fun (like a warmhearted sitcom almost, just not g rated.) I hope to see more of this sort of thing in live action and so hope GameDamage delivers.

On that note i can see why not many are having good first impressions (the folk at YouTube are ripping it to piece but then again it's YouTube so...) give it a chance i say, it has tremendous potential.

Why is Matt the only one with a normal name?

Its ok. though no one would watch it if it weren't for yathzee

Here we go

1. i dont know if yahtzee will read this one even though i mailed it to them but, firstly this show is already being done and better
(See Good Game: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/)

secondly the jokes were good but overplayed, like the master chief was a giggle then turned to bore the second time around. MGS was good, duke was about 6/10, good but not great.

thirdly, for a show about games there was very little depth of the gaming segments, it was more like 3 dudes having a chat rather then reviewing or previewing.

finally the MMORPG bit is gonna get old quick, all MMORPGs have very very similar control and layout and such its just gonna be that dude saying every week "well the controls and looks are very similar to WOW"

2. I actually thought yahtzee to be the most charismatic of the 3, mind you he was spewing liquid hate like he usually does, but even if i hadnt seen him in ZP i would remember him. The other 2 are easily forgotton because they have no outstanding traits. It's as if i and one of them are having a conversation on a bus cause he happened to sit in the seat next to me where they talk and i listen, no real depth just trying to fend off boredom.

3. damned if i knew... well? chicks seem to like candy yeh? well sometimes? use it as an enticement to get them to play video games or something.

Anyway another gaming show would be great but this one isnt looking promising for a network to pick up.

Everyone loves Yahtzee. He's only so much better in person, live.

"My love is deranged and strange..."

More interesting than Russ Pitts repeating the word 'The Escapist Show, only on The Escapist!' for 11 minutes.

*token first post dance*
Eh, there's some potential, but the fact that this was a pilot was painfully evident. If they're going to keep talking I'm assuming there will be more footage of them doing something interesting, or game footage, because the three of them sitting around on the sofa was starting to drag more than the skits. (Though the Halo guy made me smile inwardly)
The idea is great, the execution, not so much. This can improve with experience/corporate sponsorship. Also, it worked better when they were quoting from a script (yahtzee's speech on adventure games) than when they improvised (Matt's wincingly painful straying off topic).
I do think think this needs work, but that's more than can be said for most pilots.

With the exception of the Duke Nukum forever bit, the skits weren't really any good. If Yahtzee invested half as much time in this as he did in Zero Punctuation, then it would obviously be something very special. There were some good bits. The casual chit-chat was an awful lot like the Australian Gamer podcasts, which are brilliant. They all obviously need to loosen up on camera.

They need to stop making this look so much like a typical generic tv show. Television sucks. Thats why I'm on the Internet. I have seen uncountable gaming tv shows that look just like this, wither and die after one or two seasons. And they had much more writers and much higher production values than Game Damage.

There is frankly no chance of this surviving on a mainstream television network. Maybe they could secure the 2am slot on channel five, but that would be the height of their success. The most important thing that Yahtzee needs to learn is that his target audience does not watch television. Every moderatley hardcore gamer I know spends at most 20 minutes every day watching television. The rest of the time is spent either browsing the internet or playing games. The people who habitually watch televison are generally bored, overweight, middle aged men who come home from work at 6pm and have nothing better to do than slump in front of the television. That and pre-pubescent school kids. Name one gaming related show thats been around for the last 2 years. Case and point. If Pure Pwnage, Zero Punctuation or any of the other internet classics were released on television, they would flop miserabley.

Cut out the lame skits, the toned down conversations, the oh-so-generic blue screen couch combination, relax, and most importantly; stop trying to emulate crappy tv shows. Release it on the internet, after all that's where your audience is. This boils down to a choice between a decent Internet show that I imagine would garner as much attention as Pure Pwnage, or a shitty late night TV show that will die after the Zero Puntuation fanboys stop pretending to like it. Harsh but true.

1: I think it's great, and I've already bookmarked it. (meaning I'm going to watch the new episode as well)
2: He stared into the camera a lot, so I guess he wanted to intimidate us like a big bad grizzly bear, OR he was kinda nervous, since he usually doesn't show his face on Zero Punctuation. The latter is more likely to be true I think.

I think this show had potential. Kind of reminds me of clean version of mega64 as far the skits go. They do need to get more comfortable in front of the camera cause it comes off alittle to forced instead natural.

Yahtzee seemed to just sulk in the corner whilst the other two guys were quite a good duo and they actually talked over Yahtzee at some points. The whole show was a bit meh but I did like it and hopefully if there is more it will be better.

At 9:20 They are repeating it over and over watch the terroist in the backgroun. I didn't really enjoy it. It was quite boring and i figured that if yahtzee was in it it would actualy be funny.

This pretty much sums it up.

Ya. So far it's looking that way. I really hope it turns around.

I liked it, and Yahtzee's cynicism in contrast to the other two guys was pretty damn hilarious. I like how it didn't take itself too seriously and I would absolutely like to see more :D

I liked it.

i think ive got a fangirl crush on yahtzee now, i forgot about his sweet hat X3
i thought it was pretty funny, i dont see why people are saying yahtzee seems awkward, its entertaining and perhaps he's a little camera shy? :P

MrBrightside919:
It has it's moments like the Duke Nukem Forever Design Team (hilarious imho), but it just isn't as polished as it could be.

I think i'm gonna stick with Zero Punctuation for now.

I know, that bit with the design team is really funny, and he's got a point. Why is DNF taking so long to be made?

1: What do you think of it? Is it something that you would be interested in?

The skits were standard video-game TV show fair (Metal Gear codec jokes, Master Chief roaming the streets, Duke Nukem Forever dev team jokes, which I'd like to add De-Rez did SO much better). But it is the first show. I give a show about 4-5 episodes to get better before I judge it too deeply unless it's truly good or bad

2: Did you think that Yahtzee was slightly more socially awkward than you thought?

Well how could we not? He's usually behind a headset with a script that he can go back and re record his lines rather than seemingly ad-libbing in front of a camera.

3: What do you think candy has to do with gaming, if it has anything to do with it at all?

Candy = Sugar, Sugar = Energy, Energy = Grinding to Level 20 in Fallout in one day of gaming.

Goldeneye103X2:

MrBrightside919:
It has it's moments like the Duke Nukem Forever Design Team (hilarious imho), but it just isn't as polished as it could be.

I think i'm gonna stick with Zero Punctuation for now.

I know, that bit with the design team is really funny, and he's got a point. Why is DNF taking so long to be made?

He's not the first one to make this point. In fact, every nerd from here to jupiter and back has been making this point for about a decade.

I thought the pilot was bloody awful and beyond awkward it was like watching a cripple get pummeled to death by sausages. It was mildly amusing because it was strange and awkward but in the end it was boring and a waste of time.

1. I think it was very good. Most of the problems seem to lie in "polish" (ie, it looks semi-amateurish, things seem out of place, awkwardness). I think most of this would fall away once the series is picked up and funded. I would suggest that they cut it to 15 mins and show game play when reviewing games.

2. I don't think he's "socially awkward" as much as that's his persona, the sarcastic, someone irritable guy w/ the funky hat. It works for him, and balances out the more fun-loving Yug and Matt

3. Yes

Maybe the Escapist should pick it up?!

1. i think ill keep up with it, i liked it
2. i thought yahtzee came off as a bit of a jerk during the video since he only made negative comments that sort of came off badly to me :\
3. i think candy is a good way to avoid giving out a prize your first day with no funding and a good way to make a funny, dry joke

*My comment taken from the other topic*

Meh. I didn't care for Yahtzee, the other two were much better in my opinion. Yahtzee was just being an asshole, not a funny one, just the ones you want to have NOTHING to do with.

Huh...Yahtzee is less interesting when not talking like an auctioneer.

Edit:

Okay... I really don't like Yug and the only one who has anything interesting to say is Matt.
Also the skits are kinda... stupid.

zeldakong64:

2. i thought yahtzee came off as a bit of a jerk during the video since he only made negative comments that sort of came off badly to me :\

Actually I think in that little segment where he talked about what happened to Adventure games was informative and not at all jerky in tone, save for the dig at LucasArts.

Gah, it was so bad I couldn't finish watching it. I like Yahtzee and all but those three do not shoot well on video. They have no charisma in front of the camera and that set is as sterile as a hospital. They need to film it in someone's actual basement or anyplace that looks like a real place, with dark lighting so people can't see their faces so well. The thing which really killed in for me was them giggling at their own jokes. How lame can you get? The only good part was the title sequence and it was all downhill from there.