| 18 August 2010
The second season of the "reality competition" show WCG Ultimate Gamer is set to premiere this Thursday on Syfy. Since I'm a sucker for videogames crossing over into other media, I tuned into Season 1 last year, but with a great deal of trepidation. The only other videogame-themed reality show I had seen at that point was ESPN's Madden Nation, and that didn't inspire me with a whole lot of confidence. The show was about 90% gimmick and 10% actual games being played, and I hoped Ultimate Gamer would be better. Alas, the show proved that TV producers still think there's nothing more boring than watching someone else play a videogame, which is kind of a problem when your show is called WCG Ultimate Gamer.
The first season of WCG Ultimate Gamer showed that certain problems arise when you try to merge the worlds of videogames and reality television. And as much as I hope to be proven wrong, I expect the second season to fall for many of the same pitfalls. Here are some things to be wary of as you watch this season of WCG Ultimate Gamer:
1. Real-life challenges that barely relate to their accompanying game.
The premise of the show is that you take gamers and throw them into real-world situations related to the games they'll be playing. So in Season 1, we had people learning to play guitar for Rock Band 2, playing paintball for Halo 3, and so on. (The question of how this determines who is actually the "ultimate gamer" remains sadly unanswered) The flaw in the premise, however, is that these real-life challenges were all based on activities that existed in the real world long before they were in videogames. If you want to have people take videogames into real life, you need to go all out. Like this.
2. Players getting eliminated because their games of choice are not represented
On Season 1, every single game was played on the Xbox 360, which may not have been a huge deal for most of the competitors, but some of them just got screwed. Unluckiest of all was Geoff "iNcontrol" Robinson, who was deemed worthy to be on the show because of his StarCraft skills. Fat lot of good that did him, and he ultimately got eliminated on the fourth episode, where the game was Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3. The teaser for Season 2 hinted that there would be multiple consoles this time around, so perhaps this will be less of an issue this time around. Unfortunately, there's still no indication that there will be any PC games.
3. Joel Gourdin's painfully basic play-by-play commentary
WCG Ultimate Gamer wants to have as wide an appeal as possible. They want gamers and non-gamers alike to share in the joy. And to help all the non-gamers understand what exactly is going on in all these crazy vidya-games with their flashy lights and hip-hop music, we have co-host Joel Gourdin to break it down for you. Unfortunately, based on Joel's commentary, you'd think he's addressing people who have literally never played a videogame before. I could understand explaining what "frame advantage" or "option select" is during a Super Street Fighter IV match, but Joel literally had to explain what a "kill" was during the Halo 3 competition from Season 1. Seriously. Try to respect the audience's intelligence a little bit more this time around, guys.
4. Typical reality show drama to tug at the heartstrings
The inescapable fact is that WCG Ultimate Gamer is a reality show first and foremost. That means we're destined to see alliances formed and broken, people getting emotional over stupid bullshit, and the contestants generally portrayed as if they're human powder kegs full of hormones and tears. Expect fights and secret confessions. Expect whirlwind romances. Most of all, expect not to give a crap. It happened in Season 1, and I'll wager a copy of The Last Blade 2 (in box with manual) that it'll happen this season. It just wouldn't be a reality show without it, and that is the ugly truth.
The really shameful part is that there are so many small things WCG Ultimate Gamer could do to vastly improve itself. Get rid of the confession booth. Have the players compete against each other instead of the computer. Ditch the real-world challenges altogether. In short, the "reality" is getting in the way of the competition, and until they address this problem, I don't see how the show could possibly live up to the title of WCG Ultimate Gamer.
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Follow Brian Rubinow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/brubinow.
