Why G4 Bites (and other useful things)

It's the biggest gaming event of the year, and what's on TV? Unbeatable Banzuke. Texas Governor Rick Perry just gave his keynote speech, but all they're showing is Unbeatable Banzuke (and well, Cops was on earlier). In fact, a quick glance at their TV schedule for today shows nothing but Unbeatable Banzuke until later tonight around 6 pm, when they'll do a wrap up of the day's announcements and show some demos. That's it.

The only conferences they've aired on TV are the big 3: Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. No Activision, no EA, no Ubisoft or even Square-Enix or Bungie. Now, at first I thought "Well, maybe they're not allowed to film them." But they are. On their website they have videos of the other conferences, so I don't understand why they won't air them. They're supposed to be the "Network for Gamers," so where is their gaming programing? Why is more than half their programming taken up by shows like Ninja Warrior (which makes a little bit of sense, as it's a Japanese show) and Cops (which makes NO sense)? The only game shows (or show, honestly) they have are Attack of the Show and X-Play. Everything else got consolidated into one of the two. They barely show gaming history stuff anymore.

X-Play...isn't that great. And I really don't like Adam much at all (he's always so ridiculously wired). Morgan is tolerable; at least she thinks about the same as I do regarding the Mii60s (hint: she hates them). I abhor Attack of the Show; it's less about games and much more about Internet culture and...sex. Seriously, it's just sex. And occasionally some tech gadgets. I'm convinced Olivia is on there only because she has a nice rack. And I like Kevin even less than I like Adam.
The whole channel has really gone downhill.

Now that my rant is out of the way, Governor Rick Perry (my governor, btw) gave the keynote speech at E3 earlier today. I don't know why they picked him. Or well, I do. Last year he signed some tax break incentive bill that would give tax breaks to movies and video games (etc) being developed in Texas. However there are strings attached to this seemingly remarkable deal. Game companies are only eligible for up to $250,000 in grants (which hardly covers anything, but hey, it's something I guess). The catch though is that the grant cannot be received by companies creating violent games. The state can pick and choose, eliminating games perceived as too violent, obscene, or have "inappropriate content." Whatever that means. It's not really censorship, but it is saying "If we don't like what you're doing, you don't get the cash." Which is fair, I suppose.

It's nice to see such a high profile politician speak, but...Perry? As a Texan I feel the need to say that the only reason he's still governor is because in the last election he went up against a racist ex-country singer and some lady running with the image of the grandmother of Texas or something. He's generally pretty useless, much like his predecessor. It would be nice to see someone smarter and more competent up there, although I know such people are hard to find among politicians these days.

Kotaku has some highlights from the speech here.

I want to make it clear that I'm complaining about G4 in general, and not just their E3 coverage. Because honestly, there's like 10 websites I can go to and get all the information I need. It's the principle of the thing, I guess. It's a network for GAMERS, but there's no gaming programming.
Anyway, gonna see what I can see/read about the other conferences now.