Whether or not you like him, chances are you at least know who Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw is. Famous for his Zero Punctuation reviews over at The Escapist, the charming British-born resident of Australia has made quite a move at becoming one of the most recognized names in online gaming journalism/entertainment/whatever you want to call it.
So what would you do if you found yourself famous for talking about games, and loved the industry? If you’re like Yahtzee and his pals from Australian Gamer, Guy “Yug” Blomberg and Matt Burgess, you’d record a pilot for a new half-hour gaming show called Game Damage, throw it on the Internet, and hope to get noticed by a station who would pick it up.
Unfortunately, while I love Yahtzee and he’s a nice guy, he’s just not charismatic enough on-camera to be the main name of a half-hour show. Matt and Yug are entertaining in their own way, but much like Yahtzee, they need a lot of work if they want to be on camera every week. The writing and commentary are there, but it’s how it’s presented that counts.
And speaking of writing, while I thought most of the skits were well-written and funny (to a degree), I just can’t imagine them coming up with that many each and every week. I don’t know if TV shows in Australia only have 2 minutes of commercials or if they over-shot the pilot, but they would definitely benefit from the American standard of a 2:1 ratio of show and commercials.
As someone with some experience in television, I will say this: if the group can present themselves better and learn how to create a better on-screen presence (and for God’s sake, Ben, lose the monotone act), and if gaming really is popular enough in Australia to warrant another half-hour gaming show, then there’s a chance. Otherwise (and most likely), enjoy the show for the half-hour it is, put a face to some of those Aussie game journalists you may enjoy, and go back to paying attention to what they do best: voiceovers and writing.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Umm Brendon he is BRITISH!
Quoted from the bottom of each of his videos.
Yahtzee is a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder. When he isn't talking very fast into a headset mic he also designs freeware adventure games and writes the back page column for PC Gamer, who are too important to mention us. His personal site is http://www.fullyramblomatic.com.
December 19th, 2008 at 12:22 am
True. He's British born, but he now lives in Australia. I guess I just tend to go by where people live and not where they're from.
December 19th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Some of it was fun. Some of it was just "oh, must say stuff for demographic x, like nostalgic Sega Dreamcast fans", you know?