Jim Sterling / James "Stephanie" Sterling / James Stanton/Sexton & in memoriam TotalBiscuit (John Bain) - One Gaming Lolcow Thread

[Beard_Chan]

I've never heard anyone say AAAA before Jim, in this video. Hell, I hardly ever hear people say AAA anymore, unless they're talking about indie games and need a term to distinguish. Jim is screaming at ghosts living rent-free in his head.

ETA: Against my better judgement I watched the video --or at least the 3 and a half minutes I could manage before audibly shouting 'oh shut the fuck up, Jim'-- and it really is mountains out of molehills.

Who gives a fuck what companies think AAA means? It's just a useful term to categorise different scales of games; everything beyond that is you projecting, Jim, you bitter little wretch.

There was a much more accepting bigger audience for anything gaming related in the 2010s, where the angry gamer/reviewer schick could work with almost anyone doing it. Up until that point we really only had G4TV for game related content, so there was a lot of demand for the new medium that could cover everyones favorite games.

These days the schick is old, and I think a lot of people are tired of these youtubers whos whole channel was just complaining about everything. Its even more infantile and pathetic to make such a stink over video games like Jim does. Each video is the same bitching with a slight spin depending on the currently trending negative thing going on in the industry.

I really am happy to see these 100% negative content channels falling off. Its fine to be honest about a game not being good, but I just hate this culture of tearing everything down today. Its very hard to create something, anything, and put it out there. Do it with some tact and move on I guess. Same thing with Angry Joe to a degree, guy spergs out about everything.

Its just wild to me how inflated their egos are and how delusional they are about their importance. You give half-baked opinions on video games and bitch and complain, you're nothing special.

 

[Muppetstudios]

Was just enjoying the latest Red Letter Media video and was thinking how Jim's Patreon promise of delivering a new episode every week has ruined his content (beside trooning out). Rather than put out a video when he has an interesting take or something to say he's forced by the clock to produce 25mins of waffle every week. I imagine he finishes the latest video relieved he's secured his Patreon money for another week.

It's the old adage quality over quantity

 

[ShoFuKan]

It's the old adage quality over quantity

RLM might have the occasional episode I'm not interested in or something that's just kinda flat like a few of the half in the bags but I'd never call their content boring. Nerd crew is steeped in irony and when rich tore up that signed posted I was laughing, their hour long best of star treks, Best of the Worst of Rem Lezar, Surviving Edge Weapons, Ryan's Babe, Osteoporosis video. These are all good moments I can go back to or stumble upon again if I forget about them.
What does Jim have? Tranny Time and no games every week he needs to do otherwise he's losing that paycheck. But what memorable moments over his half decade career could you point at as a positive highlight that people would want to watch again? His interview with randy pitchford? His feud with Digital Homicide? Constantly going after Bobby Kotick because he had a former hard on for this guy? Lack of actual memorable content like that is why people are leaving him.
Bobby also just got subpoenaed in an SEC investigation so expect a vid from Jim on that with the news a week old already.

 

[None Drunk Username]

Was just enjoying the latest Red Letter Media video and was thinking how Jim's Patreon promise of delivering a new episode every week has ruined his content (beside trooning out). Rather than put out a video when he has an interesting take or something to say he's forced by the clock to produce 25mins of waffle every week. I imagine he finishes the latest video relieved he's secured his Patreon money for another week.

It's the old adage quality over quantity

The reason he released a weekly Jimquisition is because when he worked for the escapist they had a different creator release a video for every day of the week and Jim's was Monday. When Jim left the escapist unexpectedly like the baby he is, he made a big deal about how he's free from the demands of a corporation and he can do whatever he wants now, except for some reason he kept the same weekly schedule on Monday for years because...???

It's honestly baffling.

 

[AngryTreeRat]

There was a much more accepting bigger audience for anything gaming related in the 2010s, where the angry gamer/reviewer schick could work with almost anyone doing it. Up until that point we really only had G4TV for game related content, so there was a lot of demand for the new medium that could cover everyones favorite games.

These days the schick is old, and I think a lot of people are tired of these youtubers whos whole channel was just complaining about everything. Its even more infantile and pathetic to make such a stink over video games like Jim does. Each video is the same bitching with a slight spin depending on the currently trending negative thing going on in the industry.

I really am happy to see these 100% negative content channels falling off. Its fine to be honest about a game not being good, but I just hate this culture of tearing everything down today. Its very hard to create something, anything, and put it out there. Do it with some tact and move on I guess. Same thing with Angry Joe to a degree, guy spergs out about everything.

Its just wild to me how inflated their egos are and how delusional they are about their importance. You give half-baked opinions on video games and bitch and complain, you're nothing special.

You know the interesting thing is, I still watch a lot of video game content, and a lot of it is still pretty negative at times. Except now days I put on a few news videos while I go through my morning routine and check emails, then when I want to watch someone with thoughts and ideas I watch the reviews from the people I trust to cover a game well for the games I care about, if none of them made a video for it I got a long list of genre specialists to keep an eye on. If I am not looking for reviews I watch 45 minute or longer retrospectives on series I've spent the decades playing, or long video essays on the design of a genre or franchise. What does Jim offer? Hot takes on the news? Complaints about the industry? His takes aren't even hot, they are room temperature. If I want to listen to someone bitch about the industry I can talk to coworkers or watch someone who decided to do some research and made a good meaty, lengthy video that is actually informative and worth my time, even if it is six times longer, it will be a better use of my time than watching Jim at double speed and skipping all the extraneous bits on a topic.

 

[Oliver Onions]

There was a much more accepting bigger audience for anything gaming related in the 2010s, where the angry gamer/reviewer schick could work with almost anyone doing it. Up until that point we really only had G4TV for game related content, so there was a lot of demand for the new medium that could cover everyones favorite games.

These days the schick is old, and I think a lot of people are tired of these youtubers whos whole channel was just complaining about everything. Its even more infantile and pathetic to make such a stink over video games like Jim does. Each video is the same bitching with a slight spin depending on the currently trending negative thing going on in the industry.

I really am happy to see these 100% negative content channels falling off. Its fine to be honest about a game not being good, but I just hate this culture of tearing everything down today. Its very hard to create something, anything, and put it out there. Do it with some tact and move on I guess. Same thing with Angry Joe to a degree, guy spergs out about everything.

Its just wild to me how inflated their egos are and how delusional they are about their importance. You give half-baked opinions on video games and bitch and complain, you're nothing special.

I agree, and like to use Yahtzee as a comparison to Jim, as the both have a similar acerbic humour and came up at the same time.

Yahtzee is still doing the same thing he always has been, the difference is he's still funny and won't shit on a game just because. Even with games he hates he'll often point out a few things he liked, and even when he's complaining about live-service/gacha stuff he still frames it in the context of jokes, as opposed to Jim who is genuinely angry.

I think that's the real kicker with Jim, on top of Angry Gamer Man schtick being obsolete: You could always tell that AVGN, Nostalgia Critic and all their clones were faking or exaggerating the anger for entertainment purposes, because that's what an entertainer does, but watching a grown man (dressed as a woman) get actually Mad Online and seethe about something as utterly unimportant as video games is just pathetic.

TL;DR Jim's modern videos give me the same vibe as those grown-ass men who recorded themselves unironically crying over Star Wars trailers.

 

[Corn Flakes]

I agree, and like to use Yahtzee as a comparison to Jim, as the both have a similar acerbic humour and came up at the same time.

Yahtzee is still doing the same thing he always has been, the difference is he's still funny and won't shit on a game just because. Even with games he hates he'll often point out a few things he liked, and even when he's complaining about live-service/gacha stuff he still frames it in the context of jokes, as opposed to Jim who is genuinely angry.

I think that's the real kicker with Jim, on top of Angry Gamer Man schtick being obsolete: You could always tell that AVGN, Nostalgia Critic and all their clones were faking or exaggerating the anger for entertainment purposes, because that's what an entertainer does, but watching a grown man (dressed as a woman) get actually Mad Online and seethe about something as utterly unimportant as video games is just pathetic.

TL;DR Jim's modern videos give me the same vibe as those grown-ass men who recorded themselves unironically crying over Star Wars trailers.

Yahtzee also moves with the times. The subjects of his jokes change as time goes on, he's not permanently locked on a single type or joke, or a single target. I mentioned before in this thread: Zero Punctuation episodes are a time capsule of the gaming zeitgeist from when they were made. Jim was making fun of brown shooters when they were all over the place. He was making fun of generic military shooters when we had a dozen of them a year. He was making fun of MMOs when everybody was trying their hardest to unseat World of Warcraft. He was making fun of zombie games when every. single. game. either had a zombie mode or was an outright zombie game (remember how Fortnite started as a zombie defense game?). And now he's making fun of everything being a battle royale.

Jim's videos for the past couple of years, though? You could not tell when they were made, because half the time they aren't really talking about the games or gaming trends. They are either meta-commentary on developers being jerks, capitalism baaaaaaad, or identity politics shit.

 

[Emperor Percival Tachyon]

I have just a random aside, and an anecdote that yet again shows Jimbo has grown to outright hate videogames. So Toby Fox dropped the second chapter of Deltarune last weekend, and the expected corners of indie gaming fans have been going nuts for it (I quite liked it myself but that's beside the point) Back in 2018, when Toby dropped the first chapter out of nowhere, Jim immediately played it and released a video the very next day, though he actually removed and later reuploaded it out of respect to to Toby's (IMO kind of futile) request to not cover it for another 24 hours to allow people to experience it for themselves or something. He seemed like he genuinely enjoyed the game and was excited to see where it would go in the future. I just remember that quite well for some reason.

Anyways, it's been several days, and Toby, probably having seen it was pointless last time, did not bother with any such request to content creators. But still no video from Jim. He'll probably never make a video on the new chapter, because he doesn't play or even care about actual video games any more, not even an indie game that is free of any of the AAA bullshit that he loves to hate. His whole raison d'etre is to just complain about social justice issues and anything bad that happens in the industry. He can't stop the complaining long enough to play a game, or even pretend to enjoy one for a video. It's just kind of sad to me. Oh well. No point in being too sad for this guy. He chose this sad lonely path for himself.

 

[Emperor Julian]

So week one of what jim talks about vs gaming.

Week 1
Events in gaming-sex negative backlash in blizzard, to cover up their shameful treatment of women irl. Blizzard have started purging sexual elements from games. Seems like a natural topic for woke sex positive jim.

What jim talked about-how much he hates triple a again, nothing new was covered.

I'll be creating a revised version weekly to see how bad jim has gotten.

 

[The Cunting Death]

TD;DW: Ten minutes of Jim going triple AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYLMAO

One of the main reasons I unsubbed him for the brief time I was subbed to him

He literally couldn't stop doing that and it got so goddamn annoying.

 

[The Penultimate Warrior]

One of the main reasons I unsubbed him for the brief time I was subbed to him

He literally couldn't stop doing that and it got so goddamn annoying.

Because it's one of his catchphrases, so of course he'll run it into the ground.

 

[SaltyFanta]

Not 100% filled in on my Jim lore, but has Jim ever tried to make a game. I'd love to see him give it a go, not even that I don't think he couldn't make something.

I've realised how much Jim is useless. He's doesn't build anything or offer any unique criticism. He just rags on stuff gamers already dislike. He's the DSP of games journalism. He offers nothing, and just subsists off of others content. Atleast DSP has the fun of watching him fail.

 

[Dumpster dived waifu]

Not 100% filled in on my Jim lore, but has Jim ever tried to make a game. I'd love to see him give it a go, not even that I don't think he couldn't make something.

I've realised how much Jim is useless. He's doesn't build anything or offer any unique criticism. He just rags on stuff gamers already dislike. He's the DSP of games journalism. He offers nothing, and just subsists off of others content. Atleast DSP has the fun of watching him fail.

No, because he knows nobody would play a game about collecting boglins and eating skittles has no useful skills outside of "TRIPLE AAAAAAAAY" ranting.

 

[Burning Fanatic]

I've never heard anyone say AAAA before Jim, in this video. Hell, I hardly ever hear people say AAA anymore, unless they're talking about indie games and need a term to distinguish. Jim is screaming at ghosts living rent-free in his head.

ETA: Against my better judgement I watched the video --or at least the 3 and a half minutes I could manage before audibly shouting 'oh shut the fuck up, Jim'-- and it really is mountains out of molehills.

Who gives a fuck what companies think AAA means? It's just a useful term to categorise different scales of games; everything beyond that is you projecting, Jim, you bitter little wretch.

>Why does everyone keep unsubscribing?
>It must be because I came out as trans all those months ago.

 

[UzumakiLeaf]

No, because he knows nobody would play a game about collecting boglins and eating skittles has no useful skills outside of "TRIPLE AAAAAAAAY" ranting.

Any game he makes would make Revolution 60 and Gone Home look like masterpieces.

 

[Antichamber]

There was a much more accepting bigger audience for anything gaming related in the 2010s, where the angry gamer/reviewer schick could work with almost anyone doing it. Up until that point we really only had G4TV for game related content, so there was a lot of demand for the new medium that could cover everyones favorite games.

These days the schick is old, and I think a lot of people are tired of these youtubers whos whole channel was just complaining about everything. Its even more infantile and pathetic to make such a stink over video games like Jim does. Each video is the same bitching with a slight spin depending on the currently trending negative thing going on in the industry.

I really am happy to see these 100% negative content channels falling off. Its fine to be honest about a game not being good, but I just hate this culture of tearing everything down today. Its very hard to create something, anything, and put it out there. Do it with some tact and move on I guess. Same thing with Angry Joe to a degree, guy spergs out about everything.

Its just wild to me how inflated their egos are and how delusional they are about their importance. You give half-baked opinions on video games and bitch and complain, you're nothing special.

Those 1-4 hour long critic videos are the new angry gamer. Spend hours talking about the textures and story so you look like a deep critic and you get loads of subs.

Was just enjoying the latest Red Letter Media video and was thinking how Jim's Patreon promise of delivering a new episode every week has ruined his content (beside trooning out). Rather than put out a video when he has an interesting take or something to say he's forced by the clock to produce 25mins of waffle every week. I imagine he finishes the latest video relieved he's secured his Patreon money for another week.

It's the old adage quality over quantity

There's not a factory in the world capable of making a waffle Jim couldn't eat in 25 minutes.

RLM might have the occasional episode I'm not interested in or something that's just kinda flat like a few of the half in the bags but I'd never call their content boring. Nerd crew is steeped in irony and when rich tore up that signed posted I was laughing, their hour long best of star treks, Best of the Worst of Rem Lezar, Surviving Edge Weapons, Ryan's Babe, Osteoporosis video. These are all good moments I can go back to or stumble upon again if I forget about them.
What does Jim have? Tranny Time and no games every week he needs to do otherwise he's losing that paycheck. But what memorable moments over his half decade career could you point at as a positive highlight that people would want to watch again? His interview with randy pitchford? His feud with Digital Homicide? Constantly going after Bobby Kotick because he had a former hard on for this guy? Lack of actual memorable content like that is why people are leaving him.
Bobby also just got subpoenaed in an SEC investigation so expect a vid from Jim on that with the news a week old already.

Jim was never popular. People thought he was an annoying asshole and for some reason he got into the journalist circles which made people subscribe to him. How many of his subscribers are real?

You know the interesting thing is, I still watch a lot of video game content, and a lot of it is still pretty negative at times. Except now days I put on a few news videos while I go through my morning routine and check emails, then when I want to watch someone with thoughts and ideas I watch the reviews from the people I trust to cover a game well for the games I care about, if none of them made a video for it I got a long list of genre specialists to keep an eye on. If I am not looking for reviews I watch 45 minute or longer retrospectives on series I've spent the decades playing, or long video essays on the design of a genre or franchise. What does Jim offer? Hot takes on the news? Complaints about the industry? His takes aren't even hot, they are room temperature. If I want to listen to someone bitch about the industry I can talk to coworkers or watch someone who decided to do some research and made a good meaty, lengthy video that is actually informative and worth my time, even if it is six times longer, it will be a better use of my time than watching Jim at double speed and skipping all the extraneous bits on a topic.

What game content do you find to watch? Youtube recommends me only channels I already watch regularly.

 

[Dubu Kimchi]

I took a glance at the JimSterling reddit, and even the people there weren't happy with the deviant Podquisition episode. However the three comments on the Patreon posting were all positive. Weird people.


On the topic of 'AAAA' being used, I have seen that to describe the level of play of baseball in Japan and Korea. Of course that's nothing to do with video games, but I am too much of a sperg to not mention it.

 

[Oliver Onions]

Jim was never popular. People thought he was an annoying asshole and for some reason he got into the journalist circles which made people subscribe to him. How many of his subscribers are real?

I don't think that's entirely accurate. Jim was popular for a few very specific reasons --mainly his Digital Homicide lawsuit-- which brought in the majority of his subs who then stopped watching but never bothered to unsub (yet).

I've done it many times myself: Subbed to a channel that popped up in the sidebar recommendations and then never watched a single other video they uploaded.

 

[Sheep King]

I agree, and like to use Yahtzee as a comparison to Jim, as the both have a similar acerbic humour and came up at the same time.

Yahtzee is still doing the same thing he always has been, the difference is he's still funny and won't shit on a game just because. Even with games he hates he'll often point out a few things he liked, and even when he's complaining about live-service/gacha stuff he still frames it in the context of jokes, as opposed to Jim who is genuinely angry.

I think that's the real kicker with Jim, on top of Angry Gamer Man schtick being obsolete: You could always tell that AVGN, Nostalgia Critic and all their clones were faking or exaggerating the anger for entertainment purposes, because that's what an entertainer does, but watching a grown man (dressed as a woman) get actually Mad Online and seethe about something as utterly unimportant as video games is just pathetic.

TL;DR Jim's modern videos give me the same vibe as those grown-ass men who recorded themselves unironically crying over Star Wars trailers.

Another sobering difference between Jim and Yahtzee: Jim claims these days that his videos on YouTube are an obligation to bring in new viewers, not something he enjoys. Watching Yahtz, I recently had the realisation that the reason he's been so evergreen is that he's always treated Zero Punctuation as an obligation and a side project even though it's what got him big. He himself has said it's one of the many things he threw at the wall when he was just starting out and it's run consistently alongside adventure games, his blogs, books and extra video series on the Escapist. Whereas the Jimquisition is clearly a soapbox, all of Jim's other content is low-effort podcasts, articles and tweeting.
He tries to claim now that he wants to divert effort towards other projects ie. wrestling but it's painfully obvious he just wants to sit on his ass and play with toys. Jim should've diversified into real content much earlier before he got miserable and burnt out on taking YouTube seriously, now he's so entrenched in the internet mindset that he'll probably never go back to making anything that makes him happy.

 

[Oliver Onions]

Watching Yahtz, I recently had the realisation that the reason he's been so evergreen is that he's always treated Zero Punctuation as an obligation and a side project even though it's what got him big. He himself has said it's one of the many things he threw at the wall when he was just starting out and it's run consistently alongside adventure games, his blogs, books and extra video series on the Escapist. Whereas the Jimquisition is clearly a soapbox, all of Jim's other content is low-effort podcasts, articles and tweeting.

Yeah it's always been clear that Yahtzee treats ZP as exactly what it is and made sure to keep irons in many lucrative fires --I was surprised and delighted to hear he'd actually got writing work for Ubisoft recently on Watchdogs Legion-- but more important than that he has maintained a firm separation between his online persona and his real life. At any point Ben could drop off the internet and leave nothing much in his wake but a bunch of funny videos.

Meanwhile Jim has become increasingly more Terminally Online, can no longer separate his work from the miserable husk he's become and has accrued years and years of the kind of TAHXIC baggage that would turn any future employer's hair white (not that he has the transferable skills to apply for anything other than fast food or shelf-stacking, anyway).

ETA: If you want to know the worth of a man and his works, one of the best metrics is how much he tweets.