Good Game

Good Game (also known as "GG") is an Australian video gaming talk show television programme created by Janet Carr and Jeremy Ray currently on ABC2. It premiered on ABC on 19 September 2006.^[1] The programme, currently hosted by Steven O'Donnell ("Bajo") and Stephanie Bendixsen ("Hex"), presents gaming reviews and news.

On December 4, 2010, the ABC renewed the series for a seventh season for 2011.^[2]

Good Games Presenters

Current co-hosts

• Steven O'Donnell "Bajo" (Series 2–present): following the resignation of Mike Makowski, auditions were held to find a replacement host for series 2. On 9 March 2007, it was announced that he would be the new co-host.

• Stephanie Bendixsen "Hex" (Series 5–present): The new host of Good Game as of 26 October 2009. Bendixsen had also auditioned for ABC3, but won the role on Good Game replacing Ray in October 2009.

Former co-hosts

• Jeremy Ray "Junglist" (Series 1–5): Was the co-creator of Good Game and co-hosted the show from 19 September 2006 to 19 October 2009 until he was controversially fired.

• Michael Makowski "Kapowski" (Series 1): Was the inaugural co-host of the show. On 14 February 2007, he announced his resignation from the Good Game team. This was announced on the programme's online forum. He returned for an interview for the 100th episode on 24 August 2009.

Supporting hosts

• Gus Ronald "Goose" (Series 7): The show's current field reporter.

Former supporting hosts

• P_Nutz (Series 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 series, it drew a lot of criticism and debate from viewers. Some were of the view that P_Nutz was not suitable for the programme as it seemed to be aimed at children. 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. A poll was conducted on the official Good Game website regarding the appropriateness of P_Nutz in the programme. 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 series 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" (Series 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. He returned for an interview for the 100th episode on 24 August 2009.

• Matthew Lee "Aiyiah" (Series 2): Aiyiah ran the So You Think You Can Game segment on Good Game. As of series 3, he is now a researcher for the team.

• Sheridan Leanda "Lux"(Series 3): Had segments on Good Game such as cyber bullying & Girls in Gaming.

• Tracey Lien "Rei" (Series 5, 6): She was first introduced in Series 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. On the 2009 Christmas special, she announced she'd be leaving to France to further her studies. Her role was passed down to Ajax in 2010. She returned to do reports from European countries such as Gamescom 2010 in Cologne, Germany. She was also seen during Series 7, Episode 20 in the E3 special.

• Jackson Gothe-Snape "Ajax" (Series 6): A field reporter introduced for the sixth season.

Guest hosts

• Andrew Hansen "Bindi" (Series 6): Guest hosted on 21 June 2010 in Series 6, Episode 19 and on 14 June 2011 in Series 7, Episode 19. He replaced Bajo as he was at E3 2010 and Hex as she was at E3 2011. He originally guest appeared on 6 October 2008 in Series 4, Episode 25.

Segments

All series

• 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 the 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.
• Reviews:

Review segments presented by the two hosts usually placed throughout the show. Each review was primarily conducted by one of the hosts, with the other not required to play the game. In more recent series, both of the hosts equally present the review. Each time a current game is discussed while footage is shown to the viewers. At the end a rubber chicken rating (a number out of 10) is given to the game. So far only Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Portal 2^[4] and Batman: Arkham City ^[5] have been given a 10/10 rubber chicken rating by both of the hosts. In contrast, the lowest rated games reviewed so far are Naughty Bear which was given 1.5 rubber chickens by O'Donnell and a 1 by Bendixsen. The other game was Muscle March^[6] which was given a 1 rubber chicken rating by O'Donnell and a 0 rubber chicken rating by Bendixsen and ET for the Atari 2600, which was given a 1 and 0 rubber chicken rating by O'Donnell and Ray respectively.

• Industry Interviews: Interviews with people related to the game industry.
• Roffle Cup: A multiplayer match of a specific game (past cups have featured Counter-Strike, Age of Empires and even Wii Bowling) with commentary usually done by commentators from gaming SHOUTcast organisation Gamestah.
• Backwards Compatible: Starting in Series 4, it goes over the best and worst of gaming history, and how this has helped shape the future of gaming. This segment was preceded by Series 3's Evolution of a Genre

Cross series

• 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. Six episodes aired in Season 2 with another eight aired in Season 4. Outside of Good Game, a live action episode was released in July 2008 whilst a special episode was made for Machinima.com in December 2010.^[7] The show was created and 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.
• Ask Good Game: A segment where Good Game are asked questions from the Good Game community. First seen from Series Five.
• Pile of Shame: This segment interviews game developers asking what games haven't they completed. First seen from Series Six.

Series 1 (2006)

• The Team – Machinima: An Australian machinima video segment was shown each episode. This was highly criticized by fans on the forums. In series 2 this was replaced by Gamer Tonight.
• Build a Machine: In each episode of series 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 series.

Series 2 (2007)

• 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 series 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.

Series 3 (2007)

• 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.

Series 4 (2008)

• Good Game "Game": Was a competition for series 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 parody of 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.

Series 5 (2009)

• WTF? (What Were They Thinking?): This 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 series 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.

Series 6 (2010)

• 5-Up: This segment counts down the top five gaming related subjects, for example, top five weapons or RTS strategies.

Series 7 (2011)

• The Game Dev. Story: This segment looks at a short history over a particular game developer that produces well known games.
• Fanboys vs Haters: This segment involves debating over a particular game or series. O'Donnell and Bendixsen each play the role of a fanboy and a hater showing what those people's views are about the game. After the show, an online poll is created for viewers to vote whether they are a fanboy, hater or neither, and the best forum posts and video responses are discussed in a later episode.
• Deep Space Discs: Interviews game developers asking what three games they would take with them if they were to go on a deep space adventure.
• My First Love: Interviews game developers asking what was the first game they fell in love with.

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.

In 2009, Good game also picked up a "Lizzie", for "Best Video Production", while Jeremy Ray was highly commended in the Best Gaming Journalist category, and nominated in the Best Reviewer category.

As of 22 March 2010 (2010 -03-22)^[update] The Good Game Forum is the largest ABC television forum with 11217 contibuters, 171 topics and 345,024 messages.^[8] Similar is their facebook page group with a steadily growing number of members.

In 2011, Good Game picked up a "Lizzie", for "Best Video Program".

Controversy

In 2009, the ABC decided to run auditions for new hosts on ABC 3. Stephanie "Hex" Bendixsen was announced with other hosts for ABC 3, and was thought to be hosting Good Game: Spawn Point.^[9] 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 programme.^[10]

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.^[10] However fellow co-creator Janet Carr of the show replied back on that statement saying "Regardless of what Jung might say GG will NOT be dumbed down and I state again, the decision was nothing to do with bringing in a girl… I'm a girl and I started this show - I don’t care about the gender of the presenters - I just care about having the best people working on it,".^[11] The network first claimed Jeremy would stay behind the scenes in a writing capacity, then stated he would not be working on the show due to holiday travel plans that conflicted with the show's schedule. It then made the statement: "The reason for replacing Jeremy Ray was ongoing behind the scenes performance based issues."^[10][12]

Book

In 2009 the book The Good Game Gamer's Guide to Good Gaming (ISBN 978-0-7333-2560-1) was released about the show and the presenters. It featured the descriptions of games which you should play, history about game development in Australia and other general video game related discussions. It was co-written by hosts Steven O'Donnell and Jeremy Ray and show producers Janet Carr and Maurice Branscombe.

See also

• Good Game: Spawn Point

References

Further reading

• The Good Game Gamer's Guide to Good Gaming. HarperCollins Australia. 2009. ISBN 978-0-7333-2560-1. 

External links

• Official Good Game Website
• Official Good Game competitions YouTube channel
• Official Good Game Facebook page
• Good Game on Twitter
• Video on Demand
• Good Game at TV.com
• Good Game at the Internet Movie Database