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.

[Near]

Ryan types like he copypastes every one of his messages. Guy's such a fake twat.

 

[General Tug Boat]

As much as a long for the days of the old with James channel, I find the shit flinging Reddit throws his way to be somewhat entertaining. That whole break away community really only exists because Cinemassacre through the baby out with the bathwater when James began to get burnt out with his content. I really can't blame the guy, doing this shit for almost two decades is probably not where he envisioned himself being, especially when he wanted to become a film maker initially.

Just to think the same year the AVGN was made heres another little lost gem that makes me crack the fuck up everytime I revisit it:

If we see the difference between the James of then and the James of now, he wasn't locked into doing the same character. Just imagine in bizzaro timeline that Beer Man was the internet sensation, James breaking into half way houses getting fucked up and making a ruckus around recovering alcoholics. Even with that character it would eventually become bland and there just isn't anymore new content that can be generated. The point is that anything that originally was intended as a one off or even a little mini series, that becomes so popular that you have no choice but to try to satisfy everybody, it gets mentally taxing. Plus James really isnt the same person as when he was making these one off skits with his buddies in his twenties.

In regards to Monster Madness going in a horrible direction, it shouldnt be a surprise to anyone that he doesn't write the scripts, or even plays half the games at this point. Hence why we see the difference between scope in most episodes. The C64 is probably the best one we had in a couple of years, because he actually has a point of reference. The thing that made the nerd appealing was it was a simple concept, that utilized some observations with over the top delivery of such observations.

I would rather James just dump the ScreenWave fucks and just make his own content, or find a better team to work with him. Even if the content is slower, then who really cares. He should also just start working on that horror movie he has been wanting to make, once his kids become old enough school age wise. This perpetual cycle of the content creator when someone becomes too invested in the character. James sort of became the character, so the fact he feels stuck in doing the same cliche gag, kind of like the Simpsons episode of when Bart became the, "I didn't do it" kid.

Though James does have a larger scope than the one off thing, if he puts his mind into something, and especially a concept he can make something of considerable quality. If he applied that to an horror film premise of the traditional B-Movie style, it could be interesting to watch. He does have the fundamentals regarding of doing something of that style if he finds the right team of people to help him. He would be better off dumping the current staff he has now, because they clearly fucking suck.

If James is really that sick of it and burnt out and the well has run dry. Well we have almost 200 episodes of content to enjoy.

I think the Reddit spergs have some good points, but they tend to get overly attached to a guy that originally just made YouTube videos as a fuck around thing. He ended up coming at the right time and was able to cement his place in the landscape. It isn't like if he went and did something new, he couldn't gain his audience, hell he probably would win back over a lot of the disenfranchised because of his decision to do something new. I think the memes are funny, but I don't think James really is a cow in my honest opinion.

He still has a lot more time for that, as well he has to have more contempt for his audience. I think he is plenty self aware of the current state of the videos and is doing his best to muster up enough energy to keep the thing going. Though the guy is in his 40's now, he doesn't have the same interests clearly, and that part of the platform has changed a lot over the last half of a decade. He inspired a lot of people to go into the genre and could be considered as a pioneer of the early retro gaming review scene.

Case and point everyone at a certain time needs to move onto newer projects just because of burnout. James I think had the best of intentions, but unfortunately ended up getting stuck in a bad deal. All things considered depending on the scope of whatever contract he signed with ScreenWave, it would be wise that he considers terminating his contact with them. They clearly don't give a shit about his content or even understand his content. If he is just grinning his teeth and reading off of their bad fucked up scripts trusting they will do the job, he should know better, but sometimes things in life never work out as expected. If James wants to go full cow which I really hope he doesn't, he can keep up the low energy, poorly executed scripts, and having a sub tier team do the heavy lifting for him. Either find a new team, or retire the character and move on. Why crush the good will and years of work just to grift on the same concept for longer than required. Bring the nerd back when the world needs him.

I used to religiously watch James videos, now I can't even stand to watch more than 5 minutes at a time.

 

[Trober]

The more i watch Mike Matei on youtube/twitch the more I'm coming to the realization that I think he was the driving force behind the angry videogame nerd. He's so much more knowledgable, The jokes from the show seem to be more his stye, Hell he used to draw the title cards. That's not to say James didn't used to be that way because people do change but I feel more like Mike was the dominant personality that James was always the hanger on to. In a way I feel bad for James because he brought in "the man" to try and make more money and they drove away all his friends and now he's taking the heat. I just don't think he's got the personality to stand up for himself and is now stuck.

 

[José Mourinho]

FIXED versionRank Username UserID GrossEarning1 CriticalRole 229729353 96267 - Pastebin.com

Pastebin.com is the number one paste tool since 2002. Pastebin is a website where you can store text online for a set period of time.

web.archive.org

Since September 2019, Mike Matei has been earning $97k via streaming on Twitch. Actually pretty close to DarkSydePhil, mind you.

 

[Jan Ciągwa]

With all 3 James was either totally silent, or let mike talk for him.

Was Mike a state-approved wrangler for Jimmy or what?

 

[Snakebottom]

Mike Matei is to James Rolfe what Steve Merchant was to Ricky Gervais. Glad it’s coming out. Also Newt is short and weird looking and I would not have sex with him.

 

[Tom Myers]

James can't even play games good. Come back Mike.

 

[Pringles Can]

Was Mike a state-approved wrangler for Jimmy or what?

Pretty much. From what we are learning James wanted to make AVGN more like channel awesome and Mike had to tard wrangle James from doing it. And for the most part before screw attack Mike was the "PR" guy if you will.

 

[Zilortha]

Pretty much. From what we are learning James wanted to make AVGN more like channel awesome and Mike had to tard wrangle James from doing it. And for the most part before screw attack Mike was the "PR" guy if you will.

Wasn't Mike the only reason AVGN wasn't a one-off video from James anyways? He badgered James into making the original "trilogy" of vids, and then uploaded them on Youtube for him, and once they took off, convinced him to make more? I swear I heard that somewhere but I can't recall.
If that's true? That says a lot about their dynamic, right from the start...

 

[Random Internet Person]

Sounds like the documentary YouTubers are looking to have a doozy on their hands when all is said and done.

 

[Travoltron]

This Rex Viper nonsense is going to be death of the channel. Playing rockstar is obviously the only thing James is passionate about now and all his attention is going there. Matei has gone on record saying the focus on the band is what made him leave. Nobody except the most die-hard sycophants like this project.

 

[Zilortha]

Matei has gone on record saying the focus on the band is what made him leave.

Wait really? Any source for that?

 

[Travoltron]

Wait really? Any source for that?

He strongly implies it here. ("I'm not a music guy.")

r/TheCinemassacreTruth - Real Reason Mike Matei Left Cinemasscre

119 votes and 132 comments so far on Reddit

www.reddit.com

 

[Zilortha]

He strongly implies it here. ("I'm not a music guy.")

r/TheCinemassacreTruth - Real Reason Mike Matei Left Cinemasscre

119 votes and 132 comments so far on Reddit

www.reddit.com

Thanks. That's really interesting.
You'd think that given all the projects on the site there would be a way for Mike to stay w/ Cinemassacre even if James was focusing on his band, but if not? It would seem like the band focus is kinda outweighing everything else to the point that Mike felt like he had to leave to do his own thing entirely.
A lot to unpack there. I hope some day he'll talk more about it.

 

[Jozef]

Mike IS AVGN. James is just an actor playing a character based on Mike Matei.

James is a very likeable guy though, but Mike really isn't. If Mike was the one making the videos himself he probably wouldn't have been quite so popular for so long.

 

[Zilortha]

Mike IS AVGN. James is just an actor playing a character based on Mike Matei.

James is a very likeable guy though, but Mike really isn't. If Mike was the one making the videos himself he probably wouldn't have been quite so popular for so long.

Idk. I find Mike likable to an extent. He's abrasive, but he can be really funny sometimes (as long as he isn't talking about brown bricks).

But I think everyone would agree that Mike basically is the real life AVGN whereas James is just the actor/filmmaker (if you want to call it that lol).
Iirc, Mike even used to help write the old scripts and stuff (along with game footage and all sorts of other stuff). So I can't help but think that's why a lot of the newer episodes suck so much more. It isn't that James isn't writing them now and Screenwave is. It's that Mike isn't.

Say what you will about him, like him or hate him, but the guy knows games and loves gaming. He was a huge part of the channel, and I really wonder if a lot of the decline we've seen has to do with his absence.

 

[Travoltron]

Saturday is the big Rex Viper concert. People are wondering how bad it's going to be.

You would think at some point April will put her foot down and end the fantasy.

 

[tehpope]

James should take time making videos. It probably won't make a ton of money, still a lot of it. But channels like Jontron, RLM, Internet Historian, and Down the Rabbit Hole prove that fans are willing to wait for quality content.

 

[Pinochet Was Right]

James should take time making videos. It probably won't make a ton of money, still a lot of it. But channels like Jontron, RLM, Internet Historian, and Down the Rabbit Hole prove that fans are willing to wait for quality content.

But he has NO TIME

 

[Pringles Can]

Say what you will about him, like him or hate him, but the guy knows games and loves gaming. He was a huge part of the channel, and I really wonder if a lot of the decline we've seen has to do with his absence.

Mike is an absolute retard who makes James look like Einstein, but I can't bring myself to hate the dude. Idk what it is about his retarded ass, but I love watching him sperg out over nes games and have a complete chimpout when he dies for no reason.