Chaos on Gamezville :: Misc Other Pages

Hi Everyone,

Hands up to who likes games? Ah yes - a wide bunch of course. Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft or even the old retro machines take a wide selection of games from you fans. Ok, so hands up to who has Sky Digital. Great, who's seen Gamezville - who likes it? Right, I see some hands falling there...

A while back - after appearing on a live gaming television show called Gamerweb TV - I was determined to feel the exciting buzz of appearing on camera once again. I spent several months trying to get into the newly created gaming show named Gamezville that appeared on Sky One. Some people stare at it, mutter some bad words and change the channel. Others spread a poisonous word of it across the world wide web for they plainly don't like the programme. But come month of February, something magical happened. After ages searching - I finally got a reply from the audience researcher of Gamezville, saying that I'd be most welcome to come to Gamezville. With lots of friends, to do a face off. With an even better twist, the trip was set for the day I turned 14 on March the 11th. Amazing. But while there, I of course saw the production go ahead. Yes, I caught everything in my eyes. How hard the presenters work, how long a 5 second clip takes to do, what the G-Team are really like and exactly WHO the Games Guru is. Yes everyone - welcome the Gamezville report to the wide world web. Feturing a hidden behind the scenes look on how the show is made. You'll discover the REAL Gamezville inside out. So what are you waiting for, grab a box of popcorn, a comfy chair and read about what it's like to be inside a real gaming tv studio.

Hope you enjoy it :D

Chaos's note - please be aware, this was written late March 2004, thus - the date of when I appear on TV has already gone by. This was also posted on a forum when I first wrote it, so try to ignore the bits where I say "Thanks for all your comments guys - they're really appreciated" As we're not on a forum. Also please note that this is split into THREE Chapters. And they get longer and detailed - especially the finale. So take breaks between each chapter or your eyes will seriously hurt. Ok, that's about it. Enjoy :)

Recently, I arranged a Gamezville trip for my 14th Birthday - got everything going and then got my parents to take me, with a few friends to give it a birthday party effect. Heck, it was encouraged that I bring friends by the audience researcher.

Anyway, upon getting there - we entered the studios and in seconds, we all felt a massive buzz of fear surge through our systems. Everything was there, the face off zone - mobile mad and every member of the G-Team. All bustling around getting ready for the recording. We were first greeted by the very nice woman who'd organised the trip and we were then told we could do whatever we wanted to for the 10 minutes before the cameras hit record.

It was planned for me to do a face off with my brother on 1080 Avalanche, so we both walked over to the selected part of the studio - where a college student and presenter: Daz both sat playing the game, glued to there screens. I then checked up on a massive screen to see what characters they were playing as, Daz was playing as a snowman... It then hit me, geez... These guys have unlocked every character, they're acctually good...

I talked to a lot of the G-Team within that 10 minutes, they were super kind to me even though they all seemed pretty busy. Not to mention the number of handshakes and "Happy Birthday"'s I got

When we started off with the face off - me and my brother were given a small grude idea to twist around with. A timer told me that our grudge could be "It's my Birthday and I wanna celebrate it by taking out my brother on television - or something like that..." No lines, no scripts. Whatever we wanted to say...

We were also told that the face off was gonna be done all in one, so each round would follow each other.

As the nerves tensed up, I got ready to challenge my brother. The presenter greeted the cameras and then threw the mic to me. "So Ciaran, Happy Birthday." he greeted, "What's the grudge on Gamezville about?"

I then realised the thick tension and fear slice through me. I paused for a second and then came out with a pretty good bunch of words: "Well, it's my Birthday - and what better way to celebrate it than to thrash my brother on national televison"

Looking above, it was quite amazing how the presenters could hold up there confidence in the thick lighting and heavy populated camera areas. I also caught glimpses of there scripts. BLIMEY! These are looong, and yet - they seemed to have packed up memories. They could be found murmering there lines to themselves during tiny breaks... Both the G-Team and presenters were working hard

Anyway, that's all I have time for - I still have loads to post, but I'll leave it for tommorow in part two. Do I get to verse the presenter at 1080 Avalanche? and if so, what were the effects? Who wins, and loses...

How long does it take to record one episode and could the G-Team work possibly any harder??

Sorry if you found this patheticly terrible - but I thought it'd be nice for some people to read about the experience.

You can catch the second part of this topic tommorow probably and the episode on the 6th of April: 1:00pm - Don't miss it, it's one great ep

Cya soon,

Thanks for all of the great comments everyone, they've really been really appreciated. Yeah, the guys work there extremely hard and seem very nice - but if you want to find out more or your just looking for a nice read about the insides and out of Gamezville - then there's no need to look any further. This odd adventure continues right beneath this paragraph

After I'd given out my impressive grudge on the microphone - Daz and Jay threw the mic to my brother who seemed totally scared at the fact of being in the face off Zone. He muttered and stammered a bit when one of the presenters asked him about if he was gonna win. My younger brother finally managed "I'm gonna thrash him"

Next is a little secret of the trade - it was said on this topic by someone else, but I'll repeat it again for all of those who missed the particular post. The Games Guru IS the director. He buzzed around holding one of those television "TAKE ONE!" items while also telling everyone what to do. He might seem a bit silly when playing his usual Games Guru character, but he was really working his hair off - of course, he had a normal voice and a pair of normal clothes. You can't expect him to walk around in a deep voice with dark clothes all the time can you...?

When the actual first match of the face off begun - everyone was encouraged to scream as loud as possible. It did me no favours as it completely terminated any concentration I had of winning. I surged down the hill netherless while capturing a glimpse of my brothers status. I could see him tumbling down the hill with no hope - it looked like I had this in the bag! Yup, and so I did... I whizzed past the finish line, and there was a loud roar of cheers and "YEEEEEEAH!"'s. Jay quickly darted over to me as he said how I'd given my brother no mercy. I grinned and said, "Yup - I told you... no mercy," 3.....2......1......, The director quickly butted in, "Err, Jay - we caught some loud sound from the rustling of your t-shirt in the sound department, can we do that bit again?"

Don't worry - we didn't have to do the match again, all we had to do was use a bit of acting skills and pretend to be playing on the last bit, I had a laugh as I deliberately smashed in all of the buttons so it looked like I wasn't playing at all.

During the quick break - I had a small conversation with the presenter. He asked me which consoles I had and I replied with Xbox, Gamecube and Ps2. He grinned and then said, "Ahh, all multi consoles - like me then "

During the second round - I roared past the finish line first again = massive cheers, as well as a "Wow Ciaran! You didn't give your brother any mercy! How did it feel??" I smiled and then said "Best Birthday present ever!"

The third round was a different story though - as I whizzed through the track, I could feel thick sweat climbing all over my hands - my finger tips losing grips on the controls. I held them as tight as possible, but when I stumbled, the 1080 Avalanche CPU required me to twist the stick in order to regain my balance. But as my thumb hit tips with the GC stick - I realised that all of the sweat on my thumb made me unable to twist it! Ahhh! I tripped, fell - and crashed into some sort of mountain, and remained there. My character was automatically trying to go down hill - but there was this massive mountain in the way. Feeding upon this chance, my brother whizzed past and even though I eventually broke free - he snatched the third round... Or PRIDE as Gamezville like to call it. Netherelss, I WAS the face off champion, and now it was time to test the skill of the Gamezville presenter. I could hardly wait...

Well - I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry to drag this out even longer, but I might have to post the rest tonight or tommorow. There's still some massive questions hovering in the air... Will I BEAT the Gville presenter, is he a tough gamer or a gaming newbie?
To top that - what else appears in a Gamezville studio... and how much work REALLY has to be put in to getting that programme working. Will my friends and brothers be able to handle the pressure of a 4 hour busy slot and what the heck happens when your parents have no choice but to take your 5 year old brother to Gamezville...............
Thanks for reading, and I'll cya soon.

Ok everyone, this is the FINAL chapter to the small little series this topic has been turned in to - it's also the longest. Before I begin though - let me just thank you all for being such great readers, every comment has been massively appreicated. Thanks everyone, anyway - onto the final chapter, enjoy

As my brother still shook from the nervous feeling of being in the face off, I grinned widely knowing I had a deep shot at winning a fantastic elite prize. Wouldn't it make any birthday great? I caught a glimpse of a few G-Team members all on phones and pc's, there was however a few who was watching it with my parents in utter intrest. Jay stepped up to me and shook my hand, "May the best man win" I think he said, I had a wierd joking feeling of wanting to say "I will," but I suddenly started to feel the odd buterfly fluttering around in my stomach. Beats of sweat were still buzzing around on my hand - oh my God, I was nervous - what if I mucked the entire battle up and lost?????????

"Have any of you guys changed the control settings just so as Jay will know?" asked the Guru - "Good idea," I thought - "Errm, no."

Everyone got in there positions in seconds, and we were ready to go. "Right Ciaran," said one of the cameramen, "Do you mind putting on a mean face for the camera as it closens up on you?" I nodded in agreement and then threw off an imitation of Jamie and Daz as they do on camera. I ended up doing the same face 3 times due to cuts, and re-takes. On one occasion, I held up the GC controllers, decided it wouldn't get caught on camera, put em down oddly and threw off a more wierder face... thankfully, this didn't caught caught on camera. There's only so much dignity a kid my age has when it comes to pulling mean faces right up on a camera lens...... Oh boy, I can see my friends from school feasting upon that moment and laughing for days on end...

The recording begun - and Jay forwarded himself to me, "So Ciaran - feeling confident?" I stared at the level we were playing and shook my head, "That's the nastiest level made - it's fulll of incoming deers, big trees and thick powder - This could be a close match!"

"Warmed your fingers up?" laughed Jay,
"Well - they're sweaty to say the least.

I saw the grin on Jays face as he sat down on the other side of the face off screen. I was nervous and he was confident, he knew he could win this. After my brother had decided to root for the presenter - the usual yell of 3,2,1 - LET THE GAMES BEGIN roared on - and the match finally took off.

Immediately, I stabbed down on the L button for an extra boost and spotted a shortcut within the first seconds of the stage. I ran up a steepish hill and perfectly executed a forward flip over a small ditch - and begun sliding accross the ice gaining speed. What a fantastic shortcut, My 2nd position quickly changed into a 1st as I flipped yet again off a massive cliff. Jay however was trying to speed up as he slid through thick powder snow which was a nightmare to go fast in. I avoided bumps and bruises, grinding up shortcuts and whizzing in speed. I could hear the college students behind me saying "You've done this Ciaran - you've thrashed him! You can WALK it and STILL WIN!" YEEEEEEAH! I punched my fist into the air as I stormed past this finish line in utter pride. Mo from the G-Team looked shocked - "That's a REALLY good time" he muttered...

Jay looked a bit embarrassed as he approached me - I'd thrashed the G-Teams best time... sweet "Well Ciaran," he laughed, "That was one sneaky move, I was just snowboarding and you stormed ahead of me - how did you find that shortcut???" he asked as the cameras carried on recording. Ack, what shall I say - think fast think fast I thought, "Errm, it takes TRUE gaming skill..."

Lol - if I could have ever thought of a more humiliating saying - that was it!

I was awarded nicely with a t-shirt, Certificate with an elite stamp - £40 worth of gaming vouchers... and wait, more! Both Daz and Jay gladly handed to me a nice big card with my name on it, "Its got all of the G-TEam members signatures in it" they smiled, "Even the Guru's signed it!" I chuckled but they still had one more thing in there arms. A PRESENT!!
"It's not much" they kindly said, "But it's something from all of us here at Gamezville!"

I was truly lost for words, these guys weren't only hard working - but they were mega kind - it almost made me feel bad for humiliating Jay by saying "It takes TRUE gaming skill" As I struggled to hold every item, all I could say was "Thankyou so much," I was so flattered.

The recording stopped and we all got a nice long break. In fact, a lot of G-Team members approaced me saying, "Well done mate - that was a really good time "

After the face off, me and my parents and one friend went into a room to have something to eat, beneath a TV I saw a Sky Plus Digi Box... These guys are so lucky to work here I thought.

As I walked around the studio, admiring every game on play - one of my friends walked up to me (someone who'd never watched the show) and started flooding me in with questions. "Is that it?" he asked, "No.." "Then what do we do next" "Review and play games," "Am I gonna do a face off?" "No" "Then why are they recording - saying they're gonna do a face off" "Cos they're doing everything in reverse order - they're pretending to have not done the third round yet..." "Oh..."

My friend had an odd flavour of thought - wether HE enjoyed it is beyond me, maybe he just wasn't the gaming person. But there was a wide range of gaming facilities to toy around with , including, 007 - Everything or Nothing, Alias, Capcom vs SNK 2, Deux EX Invisible War (can't remember if that's how its pronounced) 2 Recent Fifa Games as well as a Gamecube Rally game and odd RPG game on the PC. My other friends however seemed to love playing every game to it's fullest, there was even a retro game in the mobile pad on a great big machine, it fetured the classic arcadey controls as well as a 2 player co-op mode. The classic formula of walking around in a 2D world, slashing enemies to bits in the studio was priceless - pure fantastic. As well as this - my were fetured in nearly every scene of the episode, looking tired, happy or intrested. Netherless - playing the games was great.

Now onto my YOUNGER brothers - you know how little brothers can be a pain when it comes to being quiet in selected time slots - well take my two younger brothers, one aged 7 - the other aged 5... uh oh.

In all out honesty, my 7 year old bro wasn't that much trouble - the very nice audience researcher: Fiona Wells, even showed my seven year old brother Cameron the Gurus Lair. It acctually looked pretty realistic lol, with what you see on television. A light green shaded room with fake conwebs and lookalike wires dangling from the ceiling... but no, it wasn't on the top floor of the lift. It was on the same floor, you just had to know where to look. However, when a scene started to flow nicely - my 5 year old brother started to get just a bit bored. Sure, it had been great for him to be in a place he'd seen on TV - but as he started to sit and hang back on chairs, the sound became hearable... even if that's not really a word. Then he started to moan... quietly, and then, before he could yell - my Dad quickly stopped him from screaming. Then he decided to run around like a menace - one of the Gville helpers had no choice but to quietly tap him on the back, but with that - my Brother got such a shock since he'd been tapped on the back from behind... my bro tunred pale faced and ran to my mum in a shot - the humourous laughter of the G-Team broke out

After the gameplay, face off and just about everything else - we were all gathered by the Guru and thanked for coming to the show. We'd done the show in fantastic time and now it was time to leave.... Awwwwwwww, we were all told that the show was filming until August, and it'd be great to have us back during the summer holidays. After this, we all got autographs from the two presenters and guru, spelt in robotic writing on the same cards that the the boyz use when they're on the show - they smelt like coffee... thanks lol.

Yes - so all in all, Gamezville was a very different place to what happens on Television. We were there for 4 hours, but this was without editing, interviews and the G-Team talk. I also noted how happy my friend was to sit right next to Sarah in the mobile pad lol! 4 Friends I brought - 3 who'd never seen the show, 1 who seemed a bit bored, 4 who were very tired on the way back and 1 who fell asleep on the way back.

Both Daz and Jay have to work EXTREMELY hard to get there lines right - the Guru works his head off with bossing about the boyz - Daz and Jay would be swinging about on chairs sometimes and the Guru would have to say: "C'mon Boys.....Stop mucking around" Not to mention all of the hard work that the G-TEam cram in. They're a fantastic group. I plan to go back during the Summer Holidays, so I'll issue a date for that one too. But in case you missed the date, it's the 6th of April for when I appear. I'm the one thrashing the presenter on 1080 Avalanche lol!

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the whole series of this odd story. Cya soon,