James Rolfe / James D. Rolfe / Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) / Rex Viper and Cinemassacre / Screenwave - Now with not much grieving about a 41-year old man still making videos on YouTube. We're the balls on the dick.

[RL Steinbeck]

Passion can return to a creative person, but there needs to be a spark for it. Can James find it? Not with those cancerous growths attached to him, but removal may not be the best option for the kind of life he's leading now.

That’s the key thing here: James does not have any ambition any more. He is way past turning the channel (and his career) around at this point. He has figured out a way to collect a paycheck while coasting through life, and anything that demands more effort does not appeal to him anymore, because he’d rather lay around all day with his thumb up his ass.

What’s that? Fans are not okay with this? Just call them assholes and tune them out! It’s not like he engaged with them beforehand anyway.

James needs to retire the channel to save some shred of his former dignity and legacy, but he never will so long as money is still trickling in so he can continue to live the life of leisure he’s become accustomed to.

 

[Nikes_JustDoIt]

James strikes me as shy and meek by nature but talkative about things he enjoys, which is probably why AVGN started since people like Mike Matei thought it was hilarious to see James Rolfe of all people freaking out over Nintendo games. That's why he stayed away from drama because it isn't in his nature to engage in that sort of thing.

But now the scandals keep piling up and people keep bashing him and I think the anxiety is really getting to him like never before. He knows it's costing him money (video views are mostly down this past year) and he knows he's just phoning it in and fans find Screenwave's shit passable at best. Yet he has no idea how to handle it because ditching Screenwave means he'd either need to find the passion again to write better scripts and make videos people actually like or take the time (which he doesn't have) to find someone who can do Screenwave's job but better.

He's very lucky he has Screenwave to act as the main target for everyone pissed at him, since a lot of it is his fault. James should probably just put it all on hiatus at this point, although the damage keeps piling up for his and the Cinemassacre brand. Like I doubt a lot of people would've made fun of Rex Viper if it was some project he did a year or two after he retired, they'd just think "Oh, that guy used to be the Angry Video Game Nerd, look how he plays guitar in a video game-themed cover band, that's kinda funny" and move on (or just enjoy the novelty for a sec) instead of constantly making fun of it.

I think the issue with what's happening to James is that he's a public figure that wants to have a good private life and hiring the wrong people.
I think the anxiety comes from the stress from being an e-celeb ( old and well known one)and being a parent ( there are successful e-celebes that can do both and be very successful without exploiting the kids) and James maybe does not understand time management / streamline the process for a video or just lazy. Or if he is worried about his life may be put agvn on hold and do other jobs or videos to make the money. With the slobs writing most of his scripts and seeing the fewer views and the scandals that came with it and James not firing them or going independent tells he really does not care for his job. The Slobs after being hired showed the lack of passion there was for Cinemassacre without Mike.
Like what other kiwis said getting a new management team can help James, and maybe bring back the passion that the old AGVN had or retire the concept and try something new. (Focus on the band idea and write better songs and music videos)

 

[mlanguishi]

I can't believe he put this on his secondary channel. And it's real suspicious that the actual videos are going on some fairly unknown provider instead of Youtube. This might end up doing a lot of damage to his brand. Actually, it already has.

 

[biscuitscilia]

But now the scandals keep piling up and people keep bashing him and I think the anxiety is really getting to him like never before. He knows it's costing him money (video views are mostly down this past year) and he knows he's just phoning it in and fans find Screenwave's shit passable at best. Yet he has no idea how to handle it because ditching Screenwave means he'd either need to find the passion again to write better scripts and make videos people actually like or take the time (which he doesn't have) to find someone who can do Screenwave's job but better.

He's very lucky he has Screenwave to act as the main target for everyone pissed at him, since a lot of it is his fault. James should probably just put it all on hiatus at this point, although the damage keeps piling up for his and the Cinemassacre brand. Like I doubt a lot of people would've made fun of Rex Viper if it was some project he did a year or two after he retired, they'd just think "Oh, that guy used to be the Angry Video Game Nerd, look how he plays guitar in a video game-themed cover band, that's kinda funny" and move on (or just enjoy the novelty for a sec) instead of constantly making fun of it.

The saddest part about the whole situation is James never got to be a film maker. He only made one film based on his character, but nothing else after. You'd think he'd be able to network and snag connections with people at least in film production. He's not some small creator, he's so well known people in Hollywood have tried to get him to cameo in films. At this point, there are film makers that are James' age and younger that are getting big movie deals like David F. Sandberg, who basically started off the exact same way James did and he's doing Shazam and Warner Bros. movies. I would love to see James make an original movie and just advance his career instead of being held down by Screenwave and forced to do AVGN. If there's any lesson to be learned here, it's that multichannel networks have and always will be cancer and they will drain you down to your soul for money. And that if you have a passion for your work, work on it and build on it until you reach it. Even if it's cheap indie films, you at least made the project you've wanted to work on and can shop that around to show you have talent in that field. John Carpenter, George Romero, and Ingmar Bergman all started out making movies with less of a budget than James had to work with on the AVGN movie and they ended up having long careers.

It's not plagiarism to cite Wikipedia or IMDB, but you have to cite your source as Wikipedia or IMDB. Just say, "according to IMDB" or "according to Wikipedia". Wikipedia I know demands this with their Creative Commons license in that you have to attribute them and their editors as the source.

Wasn't aware of that but I think if you look back at some of his earlier reviews, you might find some trivia straight from IMDB here and there. I think that went unnoticed because James was at least still giving his thoughts on the film or the trivia was such common knowledge that it didn't matter.

 

[marisa #]

I can't believe he put this on his secondary channel. And it's real suspicious that the actual videos are going on some fairly unknown provider instead of Youtube. This might end up doing a lot of damage to his brand. Actually, it already has.

Unlisted, no less. How did you find this anyway? Briefly listed beforehand?

Edit: Literally deflected with "too time consuming". Didn't realize how much he leaned on that excuse. Also @2:45 he mentions that it might have been a "misunderstanding", even though he mentioned prior that "everyone knows that plagerism is bad". How does he square that?

 

[mlanguishi]

Unlisted, no less. How did you find this anyway? Briefly listed beforehand?

For some reason he put it on Twitter. Nowhere else so far.

Edit: He also only says the first video, but was at least 2 and probably 3 so far. Newt has pretty much wrecked James now LOL.

 

[Hazel Motes]

I understood he was sick of AVGN (who wouldn't be?), but Monster Madness is where it hurts. He does this once a year and it was about a topic you think he was still passionate about. He seems so out of it now. I mean, can't he retire and look for a quiet job where his experience will come in handy or does he really want his cake and eat it too?

MM was where I was first introduced to James and it was what got me into watching horror films. I might have missed the past couple of years (slobs are unbearable to listen and muh free time was limited) but I have good memories of it all.

For some reason he put it on Twitter. Nowhere else so far.

Edit: He also only says the first video, but was at least 2 and probably 3 so far. Newt has pretty much wrecked James now LOL.

Keep the response to a minimal audience who already know about it and will be looking for one rather than shooting the gun and letting everyone on the main channel in on his mistake.

 

[marisa #]

Also, to avoid too much thread traffic, a few other thoughts:

• Commenter made a good point on the video: If he admits that he isn't writing these reviews, why even do Monster Madness?
• It seemed like throughout the video that he knew who was responsible, but didn't name him. Maybe he just did it out of respect? I'm hesitant to accuse him of shielding him, but it looks kinda bad.
• As @mlanguishi mentioned, there are accusations of other reviews being plagiarised. This makes him look disorganized having the basic information wrong.

 

[Bob Loblaw Law Blog]

he really want his cake and eat it too?

he definitely wants this.

I mean who wouldn't?

He's mentioned before he made corporate vids...so I'm sure he'd be able to land something like that again...but wouldn't pay out like AVGN would...

as for the apology...it's a shitload of fuck

 

[Cin Red]

And it's real suspicious that the actual videos are going on some fairly unknown provider instead of Youtube. This might end up doing a lot of damage to his brand. Actually, it already has.

Monster Madness episodes are on Odysee instead of YouTube because copyright claims would nuke the channel. They used to be on YouTube, albeit segregated onto a throwaway channels, for that reason. If and when they got yeeted, they'd have to reupload them again. Odysee, while new, isn't going to be subjected to the same automated copyright polling, so they should last longer.

The alternative, and we've seen this in year's past, is to use screen shots instead of clips.

 

[Lucas Silva #4903141]

Well, this is disappointing. James fell into the Irate Gamer territory of plagiarism.
And trying to pass the buck is just lame. If you don't want to do this anymore, then don't. The Screenwave guys have been a mistake for a long time now, but this is a low point.

Remember when the biggest "scandal" was that a friend of his wanted to raise money for a Cheetahmen II "fix"? Which was just a reproduction cart with the game already having the last two levels enabled? Or maybe it was whatever happened with that AVGN movie. I never bothered to look at it tbh, I just remember Mister Metokur mentioning in a stream that some people didn't get paid. Either way, there was so little against AVGN that he was seen as "one of the good ones" as far as gaming Youtubers go.

 

[Pringles Can]

Justin Silverman just confirmed that the script in question was produced by James. If this wasn't confirmation than I don't know what else is.

View attachment 2588662View attachment 2588663

Just saying, this aged like milk. I knew Justin was full of shit when he tried throwing James under the bus.

 

[Auntie Fester]

James is now a lolcow (on Kiwifarms)

Welcome to r/TheCinemassacreTruth, the most active Cinemassacre/AVGN fan community on Reddit!.

old.reddit.com

r/TheCinemassacreTruth talking about the move to this subforum, with some generic talking points about how evil KF is.

The funny thing is, the sub is way more hostile to James than the KF thread. The sub goes into some beyond autistic over-analysing and A-Logging of James, like over his club-foot and the Dragon In My Dreams video. I think both groups agree he's a cow, but if anything, the over-reactions are more from the sub than here.

 

[Friendly Primarina]

James is now a lolcow (on Kiwifarms)

Welcome to r/TheCinemassacreTruth, the most active Cinemassacre/AVGN fan community on Reddit!.

old.reddit.com

r/TheCinemassacreTruth talking about the move to this subforum, with some generic talking points about how evil KF is.

The funny thing is, the sub is way more hostile to James than the KF thread. The sub goes into some beyond autistic over-analysing and A-Logging of James, like over his club-foot and the Dragon In My Dreams video. I think both groups agree he's a cow, but if anything, the over-reactions are more from the sub than here.

I thought you got shadow-banned for so much as mentioning KF. What's the lore on the club foot? That's news to me.

 

[PeriodicTrouble]

I thought you got shadow-banned for so much as mentioning KF. What's the lore on the club foot? That's news to me.

The lore is James walks with his feet to the side is possibly because of either an injury he had from a car accident or James sitting cross legged as a kid. One example is from The Dragon in My Dreams. Another example is at the end of the AVGN for Rocky on the Sega Master System.

 

[Auntie Fester]

I thought you got shadow-banned for so much as mentioning KF. What's the lore on the club foot? That's news to me.

From what I can gather, at least one of James's feet (his right I want to say) angles to the right, and causes his walking to look slightly abnormal.

You can see it about here:

This became a meme on the sub as "the duck walk", and was one of the reasons James put his tripods on the ceiling in his latest set-up so he wouldn't trip over them, but even before the BTS video, the duck walk became a meme on the sub. It's honestly not that significant, but some of the sub get extremely MATI at James for the pettiest shit.

 

[Pickle Dick]

The funny thing is, the sub is way more hostile to James than the KF thread. The sub goes into some beyond autistic over-analysing and A-Logging of James, like over his club-foot and the Dragon In My Dreams video. I think both groups agree he's a cow, but if anything, the over-reactions are more from the sub than here.

It's honestly not that significant, but some of the sub get extremely mad on the internet at James for the pettiest shit.

We're simply frustrated at James's lack of passion and incompetence (on top of him allowing Screenwave to run his operations and leech off his e-fame) compared to the sub's saying what Saddam did in the Gulf War was small potatoes compared to what James has done (at least that's what I've gotten from the subreddit some reading through it)

 

[José Mourinho]

James is now a lolcow (on Kiwifarms)

Welcome to r/TheCinemassacreTruth, the most active Cinemassacre/AVGN fan community on Reddit!.

old.reddit.com

r/TheCinemassacreTruth talking about the move to this subforum, with some generic talking points about how evil KF is.

The funny thing is, the sub is way more hostile to James than the KF thread. The sub goes into some beyond autistic over-analysing and A-Logging of James, like over his club-foot and the Dragon In My Dreams video. I think both groups agree he's a cow, but if anything, the over-reactions are more from the sub than here.

I like how some of the subreddit is thinking we have nothing else better to do than to dox his wife and kids. Sure, there's that guy that doxed Draco but even then he came from Reddit to here to begin with.

Still, if they are expecting us to go on James Rolfe they're gonna be very disappointed.

 

[RiceofSkywalker]

I can't believe he put this on his secondary channel. And it's real suspicious that the actual videos are going on some fairly unknown provider instead of Youtube. This might end up doing a lot of damage to his brand. Actually, it already has.

Why would he still need to figure out the "who, what, when and why" if he already knows the culprit and believes it was a mistake? Overall, it sounds like the corporate version of "we know we did a fucky wucky, now piss off".
Either way, sucks that Monster Madness went from James' passion project to "trivia hunting ghost writers".

 

[mlanguishi]

Why would he still need to figure out the "who, what, when and why" if he already knows the culprit and believes it was a mistake? Overall, it sounds like the corporate version of "we know we did a fucky wucky, now piss off".
Either way, sucks that Monster Madness went from James' passion project to "trivia hunting ghost writers".

Maybe James can be a spokesman for Facebook next.