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Thoughts on GMVision’s first episode

GMVision released the first episode of their Game Maker TV show earlier today

The first thing mentioned was Dan Eggers’ GMTV.  It gets mentioned far too much – please provide original content not just competitor-bashing under the thinly-disguised veil of ‘news’.

Tor playing with her hair whilst talking about GMTV on episode 1 of GMVisionThe news section with Tor:  How much had she been drinking prior to the filming?  Her smile reminds me of Gordon Brown.  “YoYo games really does care about [gm users]”…  cheesy.

The video interview with the assistant game designer from the GMCG (who incidentally knows nothing about GML), which although clearly filmed on two separate occasions, was interesting as was the three-way cage match which was easily the same quality of those in GMTV.

There are sound level differences in the show and visible reaches to stop and start the camera by Josh but I think overall this was a strong effort and a good start to what will hopefully be a series of shows.

What do you think?

34 Comments

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  1. Very Cool.
    I watched a few episodes, and he does seem very comfortable, it’s almost like he’s talking to you in person 🙂
    [ontopic]
    back on track, I guess we can be more comfortable and I also have ideas for the layout in the next episode that I think will look really cool.

  2. Definitely keep at it, there should be a Game Maker VBlog/Show no matter how many times people cringe 🙂 Just continue to put effort and thought into it (including analyzing successful news stuff) and amaze us with your progress.

  3. A nice looking yard would work fine. An empty parking lot would be original. In the middle of a large city on the sidewalks would work nice. Anyway, that’s just some ideas. Don’t be afraid to film a scene several times.
    -Elmernite

  4. I’m with Elmernite on this. Watch Bytejacker.

    If you can get someone to be that natural and easy going on camera, you’ll be doing great.

  5. Caniac :Lol.
    Actually, Jono is starting on Mini episodes (not the same as GMTV, they will contain more then one thing) but we will STILL do the big episodes, on a regular basis

    Where we meant to be telling people that yet?

  6. Lol.
    Actually, Jono is starting on Mini episodes (not the same as GMTV, they will contain more then one thing) but we will STILL do the big episodes, on a regular basis 😀

  7. Seriously, take a look at bytejacker, it’s got great personalty, maybe you could get some ideas. Filming like they do in a location rather than against a bluescreen should save you some work. (Just pick something original like the roof in bytejacker). I had no problem with tor herself. I imagine that she can speak clear and look at the camera without the whole drunkish thing. (Plus, she is pretty, which, of course, is totally unrelated)
    I personally prefer a shorter show that would come more often. (AKA bytejacker’s 6-10 minute show once a week.) I don’t commonly have the time to watch a longer show.
    Eyas said a lot of what I wanted to but much clearer (and kinder).
    -Elmernite

  8. I thought tor was the best part. She was funny and/or drunk.

    The show was okay. I would rather have a show that comes out with short episodes consistently and has adult hosts and staff members that I can relate to better. Don’t get me wrong, the kids are good, but it lowers the overall seriousness of the show.

  9. Sunnykatt, we are not adults and don’t have any way to grow older any faster :p. I don’t know how many people actually read what I said in the past 24 hors, but I have said it 1000 times, we will work on the news ;).

    I am not sure what type of *real* places I could film, Live. But perhaps I can film live (“real”) coverage, and greenscreen our videos to that.

  10. I think we will keep Tor for another episode and Tor looking into the camera, and acting more normal. Think everyone can live with this?

  11. As has generally been said, improvements in several areas are needed (I don’t have anything else to add and won’t repeat what’s already been said).

    However, GMTV was pretty much at this level when it started, so good luck for future episodes. Also, a congratulations on doing something very rarely seen in the GM world – releasing something on the day you said you would.

  12. I think scoz described it best. It somehow looks awkward/embarrassing; not that its an embarrassing work, absolutely not (its something YOU should be proud of for pulling so far), but those certain moments of stumbling on lines, looking in wrong directions, looking awkward, sounding awkward, or simply trying to be cute (without it working), can actually annoy the reader. That’s why people like elmernite say they couldn’t watch more than 30 seconds.

    I wouldn’t go as far as saying give up on a TV show though; but keep trying, chances are – with time – you all will be more comfortable and natural with the camera. Its something that comes with time, and “embarrassing” first episodes is just a consequence that you have deal with.

    And about referring to GMTV, even though you do wish them best of luck, the whole attitude/tone was done sarcastically and in an obvious manner. You can poke some fun at the competition but it stretched too long. This can be a general representation of the lack of professionalism that is present at first, and I guess this goes away with time.

    All in all, this episode isn’t something that I’d normally want to watch, but I definitely see some promise. And about deadlines, I know people at the GMC seem much into them, but if they will stand against improving the quality of the podcast (@ comment 3), then push the date rather than deliver an unfinished product.

  13. @Hardcoregamer
    Thats ok, GMTV was one of the big news topics to talk about when we filmed it (about 2 weeks ago). Why don’t you make a flamewar post on your blog and start the flamers there?

  14. So you would
    *prefer a normal voice and face for news, without bumbles, and looking more at teh camera did you say?
    *our own, better backgrounds? (sorry about the door, somone else was supposed to do it, and then at the last minute they were not able to do it, so I recorded it at 5:00 am.

    I am glad that people think it shows more promise then GMTV, and that it was better then their episode One, which were two of our largest goals.

    If anyone is really interested, or can contribute those Better backgrounds or better scripts, then we would be happy to have you on our team.

    Hardcore gamer: Please no flame wars. If you want to start one on *your* blog, thats *your* business. I did not start GMVision to start a fight, I started it to end one.

    Nal, thanks for the feedback. I wish I had set the date a little later, but we didn’t, and I knew that it would be Really bad if I did not keep my deadline.

  15. “(who incidentally knows nothing about GML)”

    But yet I’m Lead Designer for the GMCG. Life is full of mysteries.

    Yes, some work should really go into the speaking aspect. You stumbled on some words, and I’m not sure what to say about Tor. I compared it to the first episode of GMTV, watching them one right after another. I must say that I liked this show more than compared to the first episode of GMTV, because the “speaking content” was better. You didn’t just ramble off trying to make a joke. But, you really do need to work on what was previously said by others.

  16. I can’t deny that they’ve tried hard, nor that what they’ve come up with is something to be proud of. However, I think that the video steams of the GM Media are inherently flawed in the sense that they will NEVER be as easy to digest as print media. For me, in both GMTV and this, I am not put at ease, and most of my time is spent actually feeling awkward and embarrassed rather than digesting the content. I can’t help it, whenever someone says something decidedly awkward or stumbles through their lines I go all red. I would MUCH rather read something and look at it for the content than watch something that makes me uncomfortable. Please, PLEASE just go out and write something instead of persisting with this charade of pseudo professionalism.

  17. Ouch!
    I watched thirty seconds in and stopped. If anyone wants to see how to do a good indie review show take some hints from bytejacker. (Just google it, make sure to watch a few episodes. Or try Geekswithissues although They have a little more dough to play around with being an actual show on the air)
    You don’t always have to be up against a digital screen. Please, put some extra work into it, learn your lines before starting and don’t use a teleprompter.
    I understand that you put a lot of work into it, but I have to be honest. I couldn’t watch for more than thirty seconds. It’s not about flash and special effects. It’s about simple interesting content. Yes, delivery is part of it, but simple personality goes a lot farther than flash.
    Sorry. More promise than GMTV though. So best of luck improving! Hope you can see this as honest criticism and not bashing.
    -Elmernite

  18. Sooo,

    * Nobody likes Tor?
    * You don’t like the news site.
    * You don’t like the ‘Death-Match’ and Reviews (Cos there the same).

    Thanks for the feedback.

    “all hells yeah. Lets get the competition going. Flame wars on video! You gotta love.
    gm ww1!”

    No.

  19. “Tor” needs to learn to stay still, stop trying so hard to smile, and not look directly at the teleprompter and they need a few better backgrounds (A door and a curtain?).

    Also, why would I want to watch something like this on the web? As far as I’m concerned if it’s not a podcast it’s useless to me because I don’t want to be tethered to my computer, much less a web browser. Zune for the win.

    Good luck making the show better in the future.

  20. I only watched some of this video. Tor doesn’t really suit the news section, and I agree she moves around a lot. However, that might not be her moving, but the camera moving. Obviously they’re using a blue screen to show the background, so movement of the camera would give that effect. Something really unexpected is when she just disappears at the end. That just removes any flow of the video there.

  21. Sorry about some of the effects, we tried our best, but we have a deadline. it Did come out pretty good though.
    and we did not bash GMTV, we even said we wiished them luck :p. Thanks for the compliments and critiquing, I will certainly do my best to fix all the stuff you noted.

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