The First Opinion (or is it?), (Serious and not-so serious opinions within) Options

[CRAIG]

Your post scares me.

Although, in general, a table's not a terrible idea but may give the show a "Oh, I didn't see you there, viewer" feel, which is never a good thing.

[Joos]

...Haven't noticed anything worth marking down yet, except maybe Yahtzee dissing the cosplay people at Supanova. ...

Didn't notice any dissing, more Ben handing the mic over the the chic in pink to go masturbate over her impressive rack. Nothing new under the sun.

[namco]

I guess that's why Gameswipe only got one episode. Hopefully the executives will start to see that they will get viewers out of these things

Despite the fact that Gameswipe outdid both Newswipe and Screenwipe in terms of viewing figures. It got 361,000 viewers - which is pretty good for BBC4!!

Gamesmaster was an expectional program back in the day, with games challenges etc (although I was more of a Bad Influence person....Violet Berlin....)

[retloc]

Got a couple thoughts on the changes between this trailer and the original pilot.

To start, some of the ideas are better, the fact that they have a set now is much better, and whoever edited the trailer has some good ideas about pacing and highlighting.

I'd say the major problems that Game Damage will run into are basically with the writing and onscreen presence of the stars. So that's only two things, eh?

With the writing, though it's hard to tell from here, some of the skits seem to need a bit more of a point to them, a bit more punch, whereas they seem to peter out before reaching an appreciable end. The Fantasy skit, case in point.
I'd recommend two things:

1- Just write some things, scripted all the way through, of situations and ideas you think are funny.
Alternately,

2- Hire some writers. That doesn't need to put the funny or the ideas all the way out of your hands, but having another set of minds in the area to edit, people with experience getting written words to sound good on air, can really help turn your ideas into professional sounding skits and so forth.

As for the stars, I'm sure you guys got a lot of flak for your presence before, but I'd like to say some constructive things for once.
For starters, yes, we know Yahtzee looks nervous onscreen, is a bit stopped up. To be honest, all of the stars suffer from that a little bit, during skits, so on. I've worked with actors and news anchors from the start of their careers, and honestly, all that it takes is practice. It takes getting used to being onscreen, understanding what dead air means, how to avoid it, and most of all how to feel comfortable enough to enjoy oneself.
To get yourselves comfortable without risking the quality of your whole episode, I'd recommend scripting out a few sketches you may like at some point or other, topical or not (I'm thinking the NPC bootcamp as opposed to one about a specific game,) and filming those first.
Do you have your director listed somewhere? I'd like to look that up.

Now, I'm sure that the Mana Bar experience is probably helping Yug and Yahtzee feel a little more comfortable in front of crowds, but I'd still recommend working out a few put-anywhere skits for the experience and fun.
Last things- Sending this in since I'm really hoping you can work this out, would love to see a show with the ideas you've got up on the net, or on air. Hope to see it in the States!
-Second, wishful thinking, really, but I wonder if any of you have seen Noah Antwiler?
This isn't me representing him, but he's been looking for a way to do a fun game-centric show as well, and he is hilarious onscreen. Great improv, great writing, etc. His site is www.spoonyexperiment.com
I hope you check him out and shoot him a line. Having him as even a guest spot or segment on your show would be a real dream come true. (PS, many of his recent videos aren't about games, so look up his archives, poke around.)

I'll see if I can dig up some contact information to send this to someone directly, but in lieu of that, here you are!