Thunderbird's Rants: G4's Reporting Skills

Hello everybody, I’m Thunderbird, and I actually have something to rant about today! So I was away this week visiting friends at the Jersey Shore, and at one point in the week I was sitting around watching Ninja Warrior on G4, and during one of the commercial breaks, there was some woman talking about the new Metroid game. Now before I start talking about what she was saying, let me say that this was a fairly attractive woman, actually more like a very attractive woman, and probably in her mid 20’s. Now before I get a lot of angry comments, trust me, this detail is important when I explain why this little thing made me so frustrated. She started talking about Metroid: The Other M, and the people developing it, Team Ninja.

So I’m sitting on the couch thinking, “Oh, I never really knew anything about this new Metroid, other than it looks incredibly different than all the others. I wonder what they’ll say”. Now before I go on, let me again go off on a tangent and say that Metroid is a very peculiar franchise for me. I don’t like any of the games, but its reputation keeps me interested to the point where I continue to try Metroid games. So back to the story. I’m thinking that this woman is going to be talking about something concerning the game, maybe the switch from 1st person to 3rd person, maybe the switch in developers, and contrast it to the prior switch in developers that occurred before Metroid Prime, or maybe if The Other M will borrow anything from Team Ninja’s arguably biggest franchise, the new Ninja Gaiden games. But no. This mid-20’s, attractive woman starts talking about how Samus and the original Metroid changed gaming by having a female protagonist instead of a male. At this point, I’m a little disappointed, because we, as gamers (the only people who care about what they’re talking about), know that by now, and we don’t need to be reminded. But then this little broadcast thing makes a complete shift in discussion and starts talking about Team Ninja. Once again, at this point, I’m fine, because maybe they’ll start talking about Ninja Gaiden and the gameplay mechanics. But once again, I was left disappointed because the only thing that this woman acknowledged that Team Ninja made was: Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball.

Come on!!! This is just ridiculous! Why not even discuss the best thing about The Other M, which is in my mind, the infusing of possible Ninja Gaiden gameplay into the Metroid system to create something new and wonderful? But this woman, who mind you, WORKS AT G4 TALKING ABOUT VIDEO GAMES PROFESSIONALLY, starts saying that nobody wants Samus to be essentially turned into someone from Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball. And the messed up thing was that she sounded generally pissed, as if that would ever possibly happen. Tell me, do any male gamers out there actually want to see Samus turn into Ivy from Soul Calibur? I know I don’t, and I don’t even play the Metroid games. Just look at the two characters back to back and tell me which one seems more realistic, believable, and like a better role model:

Samus:

or Ivy:

Despite having a robot suit that implement technology that is “I have no idea how many years” away, Samus still wins in the realistic contest, and well as every other field. And why? Because when it comes to the main characters of the A-list games, gamers don’t want someone like Ivy, whose computer-generated breasts are so absurdly large that I don’t even have to try to make a joke. That’s how ridiculous it is. To me, it’s almost like a running joke at this point; every time there’s a new Soul Calibur, it’s fun to guess how much clothing the designers took off of Ivy. So for this “reporter” to insinuate that all male gamers are total perverts that would just jump at the chance to see Samus with “certain” Ivy-Sized characteristics, to me is not only bad reporting, it’s just downright offensive. And the worst part for me is that this woman who is reporting this sorry excuse for a story is completely contradicting herself. By the network keeping her on as a “reporter” even though she “reports” these horrible stories, it just shows that she is only seen as sex appeal. It’s like people watching G4 see this 20 something, pretty attractive woman talking about games, and they are so captivated by the mythical “hot female gamer” (And I know they exist, I’m making a joke here, please nobody get offended), that they listen to the incredibly offensive comments being made about gamers.

In short, this woman made me very mad. So I wanted to talk about it and get the readers opinions. I for one think that this “reporting” shows also that G4 does not care about gamers. They just care about making money. And I know it’s a business, but this is ridiculous. There has got to be at least one guy at G4 who knew that what this girl was saying was just terrible “reporting” and was just offensive to gamers. That’s all I have to say, but I’d appreciate any feedback you have. I’m Thunderbird, and that’s my rant on reporting, or lack thereof, by females at G4.