The first episode of The Controller hit the web last Friday, and marked the beginning of a bold new experiment for us here at GameSpot. For a while now, we've spent a lot of time talking to all of you (and folks like you,) and thinking of new ways to approach content about video games. We've been slipping some of these initiatives out very quietly, as we adapt the content we make to the way you consume it (leading with video reviews on the homepage, rather than the written review for example) but this one had to be a big, loud noisy launch. GameSpot has dabbled with reality show-style content in the past, and it's certainly not the first time that anyone has played around with the format in the video game space before (love it or loathe it, The Tester has been pretty successful for Sony) but this was something that we felt could be pretty huge. It brings together a franchise with a lot of buzz around it in the shape of Battlefield 3, an area of gaming culture that is growing in significance at a phenomenal rate (pro gaming,) a modern take on celebrity culture by tapping YouTube personalities (FreddieW has been a wonderful partner in this) and mashes it all together into a media melange that is hopefully both unexpected and entertaining. Of course we realize that not everyone is going to love it, but we hope that it gets people thinking about the kind of content that can be produced that's supplemental to the news, reviews, and walkthroughs that you expect from a video games website. I'm far too old and grey to believe the we could ever produce something that will be universally loved, but it's always nice if a bunch of people like it.

So far, things seem to be going pretty well. As of this writing, 390,000 have watched the video, and it's showing no signs of slowing down. Hopefully everyone that watched the first episode will want to check out epsiode two this coming Friday.

The whole project got off the ground in an unexpected way; it began with a lunch between old friends at an Italian restaurant in San Francisco back in July, and to be completely honest, it was never intended to be on the agenda for discussion. It actually came about when the conversation turned to the notion of games media trying new things and approaching content more like the way a TV network would. It was quite literally busted out as "well, if you want to try something really different, how about this..." Originally dubbed "The Teaching Game," the idea took a number of weeks to gestate before everyone concerned felt comfortable with the concept and the way that we'd distribute it

Creatively, the show owes its existence to the creativity of the folks at Electronic Arts and Bunim/Murray Productions (the folks behind Project Runway, Real World, Keeping up with the Kardashians, and many other shows that lots of us pretend not to watch, but secretly do) who worked incredibly hard to pull everything together in a very short space of time. The treatment for the show - that's the document that outlines everything that will happen over the eight-epsiode run - was pulled together in mid-September, and production began in late September/early October. Homer and Ryan from our team traveled to the Blue Cloud Ranch just north of Los Angeles during filming to capture behind the scenes footage, and filmed more than 17 hours worth of "extras" that are being edited and posted every day during the show's run.

Episodes of The Controller will hit every Friday at 11am PST until December 9. Each week the challenges will get a little crazier, and the drama a little more dramatic. I really hope you enjoy it, and get into it enough to start rooting for specific contestants, and sharing your thoughts on the site, on YouTube, and on Twitter or Facebook. If the show continues to perform as well as it seems to be doing already, it will certainly embolden us to be more experimental with our content as we move into next year.

Let me know what you think - and also, if you have suggestions for shows that you'd like to see, post them here or on Fuse. We're interested in anything and everything right now.