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

[Lord Xenu]

It doesn't look like anyone has archived "Come In Here (The Loose Boys)". It's been mentioned a few times and linked to, but I think that's it. So for future reference:

 

[Gloria From Pokemon Sword]

You mention the change in style and animation possibly being because of cost or a different animator but presumably its the same guy because he mentions a Justin the trailer, the guy credited for 'art director' (not animator) in the actual release is also a Justin and I have a feeling that its the same Justin who currently edits his videos today. Something very clearly changed in the almost year between the trailer and actual release but I'm not sure what.

Actually... I wouldn't be surprised if Jim and/or Justin thought that being an art director meant he could figure out animation, it went terribly wrong, and he ended up scrapping and going with a simpler style.

Of course, I also wouldn't be surprised if Jimbo just didn't research the costs of animation.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Why do they always have this smug smile? Look at this person, this blob has not a thing in its life to be smug about, but he imagined his identity without essence and merch he consooms is something to be proud of


Don't you worry, the tacks were disinfected (and he had his shots):
View attachment 2794410
Jim really managed to make wrestling, which is extremely staged and controlled, even more sterile. And why did he decide to share a pic of his elbow? Am I supposed to look at that and be like "Wow, Jim, you worked really hard"?

Keyfabe. What's that?

I remember that time Hardcore Holly and Al Snow ending up fighting in a river, when Raven used to come to the ring with a trolley full of weapons, or the Mankind Taker hell in a cell match. Surely Jim remembers too.

I'd never put my body through that kind of punishment, but Jim breaking keyfabe to fish for pity on Twitter because of this. Why even do hardcore wrestling at all?

 

[Arocyt]

Keyfabe. What's that?

I remember that time Hardcore Holly and Al Snow ending up fighting in a river, when Raven used to come to the ring with a trolley full of weapons, or the Mankind Taker hell in a cell match. Surely Jim remembers too.

I'd never put my body through that kind of punishment, but Jim breaking keyfabe to fish for pity on Twitter because of this. Why even do hardcore wrestling at all?

And almost in the same breath as an attempt at it with the whole "that wasn't the plan" bit about being tossed on his own pile of tacks.
He just doesn't know what he likes more either. Pretending it's real or acknowledging it's fake. Both are fan demographics so I guess he might be trying to play both sides to appease everyone in his twitter feed that gives a shit. I doubt they even have much of a policy one way or another about kayfabe outside of the building,

I remember when the wrestling shit first started coming up on his channel after getting video responses from two wrestlers working in that show and one of the first small clips he showed when he did start getting in the ring in costume was just Jim insulting one of the guys, being slapped, and falling to the mat screaming "you hit me?! you hit me! I can't believe you hit me!" acting like a chickenshit manager cowering away. I thought it worked as a believable and funny one off thing.
But trying to train for anything more and wanting to have a more active part in the shows is a bit much considering Jim being whipped and running across the ring already breaks the illusion to everyone in the room, but I think everyone's in on the joke there anyway.
It is modern wrestling after all.

 

[Just_a_Bored_Guy]

Today, something about a college that encourages programmers to accept crunch.

Well, if it's so highly regarded, how come I've never heard of it?

 

[marisa #]

Today, something about a college that encourages programmers to accept crunch.

Well, if it's so highly regarded, how come I've never heard of it?

That's the same college that Valve scouted the Portal team(s) from. That makes them fairly notable.

 

[Oliver Onions]

Today, something about a college that encourages programmers to accept crunch.

Well, if it's so highly regarded, how come I've never heard of it?

It's pretty obvious that Jim's never had a real job in his life and is totally out of touch, because crunch exists in basically every industry and always will; even something like working retail at Christmas is a form of crunch.

The Bioware tier of working people like a Soviet gulag til they literally collapse from exhaustion/illness is a whole different kettle of fish and obviously shouldn't be encouraged, but as usual Jim is only capable of viewing the world in binary terms of good and bad.

Because the worst examples of crunch are bad all crunch is bad. End of discussion. Jim is very smart.

 

[Leave_Fargut]

how come I've never heard of it?

Really? In my experience it's always been the classic "I'm gonna go to college for gamedev!!1!11!1!!" destination people mention when they hype themselves as The Next Great Ideas Guy

 

[Subtlety]

Well, if it's so highly regarded, how come I've never heard of it?

Because unlike Full Sail and other places, DigiPen is like an actual game development college, at least when I first heard about it in the early to mid 2000s. It's like Juilliard (but obviously not as prestigious), you probably don't know about the school, but you probably know multiple people who went there.

I mean, Jim isn't wrong per se, game development like lots of technical areas rely a lot on crunch time. There's benefits to, say, Lean or Agile, but they also have flaws. Game development is even worse, where there are often deadlines that get cut back by the publisher, which then get cut back by the studio heads, which are then cut back further because various teams need to start work yesterday on stuff. Since studio heads don't want to spend more on keyboard time than absolutely necessary, and publishers want a return on their investment as soon as humanly possible, there's lots of drive to work long hours, which often results in salaried pay versus overtime, blah blah blah. Nasty corp shit sometimes.

DigiPen undoubtedly contributes to that culture because, again, actual game development college. You will go there and work your ass off and learn how to develop games. You aren't farting around with Blender and Unity assets once you're past the first few classes, you're probably tasked with actually doing shit.

Shit, I haven't watched the video but DigiPen is probably worse because who knows if these students are working for studios for free, more than crunch culture. Crunch culture comes from poor time management and unrealistic expectations from executives, not from game development.

 

[Bolo]

Today, something about a college that encourages programmers to accept crunch.

Well, if it's so highly regarded, how come I've never heard of it?

Got Ninja'ed by Marisa, but yeah, this school has some reputation, worked with a few guys that said to have studied there, but I don't recall them saying anything about the school.

But I don't doubt some of these guys are assholes that have that mentality of "weeding out the weak bot camp bullshit", because, in my experience, you see that a lot in game studios, way more so than animation, they see crunch as a badge of honor, and you have to be a "badass" to do this.

And look, there is no way around it, this sort of job you can't 9-5 it, animation, videogames and such they take a lot, a LOT of polish and re-do. You won't nail a enviroment in your first go, the lightning will break in a engine update or any minor change in the code, coding takes a lot of trial and error and no matter how tight the design doc is, when put into action, the design will have to change, and so goes down scores of lines of code, not to mention that games have a lot of moving parts, art, programing, music, sound effects, etc etc, that is why you only get to see a project take shape of the final product in the last few months before ship. Not to mention, you can't delegate shit easly, you can't storyboard a scene and ask another guy to finish up because it is YOUR scene, you are the one envisioning how it ends, otherwise there is no cohersion, same with modeling, light, code, etc You can ask for help, sure, but in the end it is our job to see it delivered.

Point is, crunch is bullshit yes, but there isn't any way around it, as it is right now, and putting blame on management is being ignorant on how the sausage is churned. The heads of the studio will say to Kotaku or any other site that they are against crunch, and they value their employers and blah blah blah, but the art directors, project managers, head seniors and such, they are the ones dealing with the deadlines, and so they have developed this "drill sergeant" mentality, where they need to bark to get shit done, and those who can't take it, theres the door, because otherwise shit won't get done, and there is the people who fall in line and talk the same talk, and then there is the ones who walk and go whine to Kotaku.

Like it or not, that is the nature of the beast, and unless the project is a fuck up of magnitute, like the Cyberpunk game, people will take it, some for pride, some because of the steady paycheck and benefits. I left this crap, because I find to be bullshit to kill myself for this shit, but I don't have wife and kids, and my folks have good insurance, so I have the priviledge to say fuck you to these assholes, if I'm gonna kill myself overworking, at least it will be for myself.

But, in the end, like it or not, crunch culture is a necessity in this type of industry, because as much as we joke it, putting togther a Call of Duty game ain't just a assembly line work where you just do the same shit again and again, and so far no one came up with a solution that will deliver the same polish product and have not have people to be overworked.

And it isn't like money is the problem, if there was a solution to crunch, the big studios would pay that in gold, because turnover of workers cost a lot more, and to be fair, big studios do try to avoid crunch by hiring big teams and outsourcing, but like I said, there is a limit to that because the burden of the deliverable is still on a person, and polish for the final product takes a lot more time than a 9 to 5.

So please Sterling, if you have a solution, we are all ears, just don't say "you need a better management" because these guys don't have the luxury of doing a 15 minute video about a poorly researched subject and padded out with backyard wrestle.

 

[Gloria From Pokemon Sword]

Today, something about a college that encourages programmers to accept crunch.

Well, if it's so highly regarded, how come I've never heard of it?

There's a difference between saying "Crunch should not be encouraged" and "Crunch only ever happens because of mismanagement." Jim combines these two very different arguments together. Intentionally or not, he also effectively has a mindset of where you either agree with him completely, or you fully support them. Another factor to his dwindling audience imo.

 

[Matt Damon]

It's pretty obvious that Jim's never had a real job in his life and is totally out of touch, because crunch exists in basically every industry and always will; even something like working retail at Christmas is a form of crunch.

I was involved in a $100,000,000+ industrial installation that involved three months of seven-day weeks and our group was working 18 hour days by the tail end of it. It really sucked, but I could've quit at any time and gone somewhere else.

You'd think Jim, as both an immigrant and something of an entrepreneur in a novel industry, would be keenly aware of the significant mobility anyone with a skillset has.

 

[The Penultimate Warrior]

I was involved in a $100,000,000+ industrial installation that involved three months of seven-day weeks and our group was working 18 hour days by the tail end of it. It really sucked, but I could've quit at any time and gone somewhere else.

You'd think Jim, as both an immigrant and something of an entrepreneur in a novel industry, would be keenly aware of the significant mobility anyone with a skillset has.

Jim has never been aware of having significant mobility.

 

[Oliver Onions]

You'd think Jim, as both an immigrant and something of an entrepreneur in a novel industry, would be keenly aware of the significant mobility anyone with a skillset has.

Thing is, Jim doesn't have a skillset. Not really. He has one thing he is good at, and even that's a stretch; it was more of a right place at the right time deal and Jim has been coasting on that good fortune ever since.

When he finally sinks the JQ once and for all he will have absolutely nowhere to turn, because he has zero actual qualifications or practical skills to walk into any other job; not to mention his radioactive digital footprint.

 

[Chandler Bing]

The only in joke on his channel ever involving Pokémon was ekans because it's just snake backwards, genuinely have no idea what the other pokemon are referencing other than being similar in color

He should make a t shirt with Abra, Kadabra, and Alakazam on a shirt and then jokes about him being magically troon, trans, or something funny could become of it.

Ekans is fitting though since Jim's a human snake.

P.s. my pokemon knowledge is boomer level nowadays. I'm lucky I even remember these fuckin pokemon names. Gimme the autism idc.

 

[Dumpster dived waifu]

He should make a t shirt with Abra, Kadabra, and Alakazam

See, now that might cause legal trouble, but not from Nintendo. Urie Geller is a fake psychic faggot that gets pissy whenever somebody so much as bends a spoon and doesn't give him 12 trillion dollars.

 

[Millennium Rooster]

Today, something about a college that encourages programmers to accept crunch.

Well, if it's so highly regarded, how come I've never heard of it?

Time stamps

0:00 - Safest chair shot recorded in wrestling history
0:14- Jim tries to put over the match he had this past Saturday
0:40- Jim shits on the video game industry, Ubisoft for using nfts , the game awards, and Peter Molineux
1:30 - Jim says he has something special for this week. He has done some investigation about a video game establishment… Digipen!
2:30 - Jim casts doubt that Digipen is a video game university and says not even the professors knew what it was.
3:30 - says digipen teaches student to accept crunch, and be undervalued and exploited
4:25 - Talks about the difficult schooling grading system. Talks about the lack of grading system ad organization.
5:30 - Talks about the GAM courses and how they force you to create a game engine even before you know how to code.
5:52- Talks about crunch in the game industry
6:16 - Says that Digipen will tell student that if they are comfortable with it that they will not make it in the game industry.
7:10 - Talks about the high dropout rate and how the university was proud of it
8:41 - Shits on Boyan Radakovich as the teacher who calls himself the dragon on top of the mountain who is hard on the students. Talks about how once he gave an PTSD attack by yelling at a student.
12:00 - Talks about how Digipen contributes to crunch culture
15:30 - After an ok episode, Jim ends it in the most Childish way possible…

As someone who once really wanted to enter the game industry, I actually enjoyed this episode

Cringe moment of the week

 

[Product Placement]

What the fuck Jim!
https://twitter.com/JimSterling/status/1469857242543448070
https://archive.ph/p8kWL
View attachment 2794362

For someone that care about health and safety in the game industry sure as hell doesn't practice any himself. He is lucky not of them went in the eyes of that guy.

 

[Gloria From Pokemon Sword]

He should make a t shirt with Abra, Kadabra, and Alakazam on a shirt and then jokes about him being magically troon, trans, or something funny could become of it.

Ekans is fitting though since Jim's a human snake.

P.s. my pokemon knowledge is boomer level nowadays. I'm lucky I even remember these fuckin pokemon names. Gimme the autism idc.

Remembering things is not Autistic tbh.

 

[Matt Damon]

Remembering things is not Autistic tbh.

But Pokemon most certainly is.