- Joined
- Apr 28, 2022
A rare occasion where “No, you!” would‘ve been a wittier retort.
Jim Sterling / James "Stephanie" Sterling / James Stanton/Sexton & in memoriam TotalBiscuit (John Bain) - One Gaming Lolcow Thread
- Thread starter José Mourinho
- Start date
A rare occasion where “No, you!” would‘ve been a wittier retort.
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2021
Jim Sterling used to be a standup comedian before doing the Jimquisition. I'm starting to think there's a reason that never took off.
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2021
Doesn't he have a Patreon and youtube account? How the fuck is he unaware of other subscription-based services?
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2022
Admittedly, having to pay or a mechanical function in your car will be disabled sounds like fucking nonsense. At least say, GPS is dependent on outside infrastructure.
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2013
Some trial services are worse than others but nowadays with most are really easy to cancel, others can be a pain when for some reason you can easily sign up online for a trial but have to get in contact with their support department to cancel or something like that, at worst though it's just a time wasting inconvenience.
But yeah if you're such a consoomer you need to keep signing up to services and then forget to cancel it's really on you, especially since you can just sign up with PayPal and turn off automatic payments.
- Joined
- May 25, 2021
0:00 [Potato Character] I'm not a Potato!
0:09 [James Stephanie Sterling] Cars! I can't say that cars particularly interest me, unless
0:16 they're a transformer of some kind, and even then only like the Decepticon ones,
0:21 like the Stunticons, or whatever, because I find most autobots pretty boring.
0:27 Like Bumblebee.
0:30 Fucking cuck!
0:32 Today, however, we are talking about vehicles, and not with regards to a racing game.
0:39 We are in fact talking about actual, real life, honest to god cars!
0:46 Some of you will know where this is going.
0:49 Because something fucking ridiculous is happening involving them...
0:54 Welcome to hell.
0:56 Welcome to Fucking Hell!
0:58 [Whispered loud and slowly] Cuuuuuuck
1:04 [JSS] As easy as this particular topic is to rant and rave and become righteously enraged about,
1:09 I am struggling to bring myself to it. Because if I have to talk about this,
1:15 I have to accept that it’s real, and not a dystopian parody. If I acknowledge this topic,
1:20 I have to know about this topic, and if I know about this topic, I can’t deny it exists.
1:27 Yet here we are, and all week I was inundated with people showing it to me,
1:33 inundated to such a point that I could not escape the miserable truth that excessive monetization
1:39 has long escaped the realm of videogames and seeped into every pore of modern life.
1:45 So yeah, let us speak the heresy, let us tear our eyes open and face the
1:50 horrifying truth together - they’re charging subscriptions for car seat warmers now.
1:58 Yeah. That’s right. Subscriptions… to make car seats warmer. Jesus fucking Christ.
2:07 While not exactly a videogame related topic, enough viewers told me I had to expose myself
2:14 to this grim capitalistic nightmare that I’m passing the misery onto the rest of you.
2:20 BMW, you see, in all it’s shameless inglory, announced it would start
2:26 selling subscriptions for heated seats that start at fifteen quid a month.
2:31 Fifteen quid! For warm seats?
2:34 For something cars have simply had in the past without the need to pay
2:38 a perpetual fucking stipend to the manufacturer.
2:41 Very much like on-disc DLC, cars will naturally have the ability to heat it’s seats built-in,
2:48 and you’ll be paying to unlock it. Essentially, you’re not paying to have something new added,
2:53 your paying to stop something being withheld from you.
2:56 As with many naked cash grabs lately, the blame has been put on things like
3:01 Covid and the war in Ukraine, as if we’re to believe that corporations haven’t
3:06 had a history of charging for literally anything it could get away with charging,
3:10 and that both the pandemic and the war have been used to excuse so much
3:14 fucking greed and cruelty already that it’s kind of an old fucking routine by this point.
3:19 In another parallel to the game industry, we’re being told that cars are “just too
3:23 expensive to make”, as if the executives in this industry aren’t millionaires and billionaires
3:29 raking in obscene amounts of profits at the expense of an underpaid workforce.
3:34 It’s not just seats, either.
3:36 BMW’s “ConnectedDrive” store offers a suite of what is essentially DLC for real-life vehicles.
3:43 Warming steering wheels, high beams that automatically switch off for incoming traffic,
3:48 all sorts of shit. All sorts of opportunities to give a multi-billion
3:53 dollar company even more money on top of the thousands you've given them already.
3:57 Yes, this all sounds very familiar.
4:00 As videogame audiences, we’re used to seeing companies take the utter
4:03 piss out of our wallets more than most.
4:05 We’re used to expensive videogames offering incremental add-ons, endless spending
4:10 opportunities via microtranstions, in-game gambling systems typified by loots boxes,
4:15 and, of course, subscription services for access to servers,
4:20 extra content, or sometimes just the “right” to play the games already fucking paid for.
4:26 I think we could credit gaming for paving a not-insignificant amount of the road to the
4:31 overmonetized society we find ourselves in. We certainly saw how effectively the gaming industry
4:37 was able to normalize subscription access to things that we never had to pay for before
4:41 when Microsoft successfully paywalled online multiplayer behind Xbox Live.
4:46 Many younger players by now will have grown up with the idea that
4:50 we always paid a subscription to play online Games, but I am ancient
4:55 and decrepit enough to remember when the idea what not only new, but pretty controversial.
5:01 What Microsoft did was disruptive and seen by many at the time as avaricious,
5:06 but after all these years, Microsoft has normalized it
5:09 to the point that nobody questions it anymore - it’s now simply the way it’s always been.
5:15 It's the same process we saw with microtransactions,
5:18 which were always controvertial back in the day, but now only make headlines
5:23 when they're truly exorbitant, like with Diablo Immortal. Slow, grinding,
5:28 ininsistant normalisation is one of the most insideous tools in the pocket of Big Business.
5:35 And we’re seeing this normalizing creep toward subscriptions appear everywhere now.
5:40 Many products have begun moving away from one-time purchases to
5:44 endlessly charging so-called “services.”
5:47 Things that were once straightforward products are now perpetually premium
5:51 scams, such as Adobe moving to an enforced subscription model for no justifiable reason,
5:57 or Microsoft fucking Office of all things.
6:00 Oh, and here's your regular reminder that Piracy... Is Fun!
6:04 Mobile app stores are lousy with this, as things that have no business being
6:09 packaged as “services” are nevertheless sold so,
6:12 because as we always say here, no amount of money is ever e-fucking-nough for these assholes.
6:18 Of course, subscriptions have long been a favorite of companies who want endless
6:22 money for as little as possible. Not only do they mean regular payments that last
6:26 longer and cost more over time than one-off purchases,
6:30 research indicates that a huge number of customers forget to cancel subscriptions
6:35 after they stop using them - this is something that “free trial” periods bank on exploiting.
6:41 Sign up now for 30 Days Free! Just make sure you leave us your credit card details up front,
6:46 and if you forget about us after the 30 days, thank you very much for that 19.99.
6:51 When you consider exactly HOW many subscriptions we’re expected to sign up for these days,
6:56 it only gets harder and harder to keep track of what you use and don’t use.
7:01 In gaming alone you have Xbox Live, PlayStation Network,
7:04 Nintendo Switch Online, each with their own additional services tiers,
7:08 EA Play, Google Play, Apple Arcade, Ubisoft Plus, Nvidia GeForce Now, Prime Gaming,
7:14 and pfft… Google Stadia… hahaha!
7:19 This is on top of individual MMO subscriptions,
7:21 and the slew of battle passes infesting games more and more.
7:26 And the normalizing of a subscription based
7:29 life is starting to really ramp up in all facets of the day to day.
7:32 It's a little gauche to point at something and say "Oooohhh, it's like that Black Mirror episode",
7:37 but so much of it is like that Black Mirror episode, 15 Million Merits.
7:42 The Best One!
7:43 And it’s at times like this, looking at subscription based seat warmers,
7:47 that I remember how many people have gotten mad at me before for pointing out that capitalism
7:52 is the driving force behind all the shit people hate about mainstream game publishing.
7:57 This is such a clear cut example of how everything we discuss weekly involving excessive videogame
8:03 monetization and customer exploitation can be applied to the world outside gaming,
8:08 and should be applied to the world outside gaming, because it's fucking important.
8:13 It's important to understand how much all of you are being taken for a fucking ride.
8:18 This is such a perfect look at exactly how connected everything really is.
8:23 Shit don't happen in a bubble people.
8:25 And on that note, it is with particular disgust that I point out how both in and out of games,
8:31 corporate scum lords have decided NOW is the time to ramp up prices, find extra ways to charge us
8:39 for things, and attempt to swindle us for all we have via cash grab attempts such as NFTs.
8:45 Now, when energy costs have risen far above stagnating wages, when a pandemic
8:51 has brought us to our knees, when the climate is rapidly approaching inhospitability. Now
8:56 is when they charge more, when they fleece us further, when they try to scam us harder than
9:00 ever. Almost... almost as if they know we’re on the verge of fucking societal collapse
9:08 and they’re just strip mining our lives before it’s all over.
9:12 Haha. Google Stadia is still a thing though, haha, lol!
9:17 [Children's character makes nonesense noise]
9:20 [Phoenix] Do you want to hold the tyre, or do you want me to pass you a different tyre?
9:22 [JSS] No, I can lift this tyre. Using my strength.
9:26 [Phoenix] Your strongness?
9:27 [JSS] Using all of my professional wrestler strength.
9:31 [Phoenix] Alright, turn it the other way out. It looks better.
9:33 [JSS] Does it look better the other way?
9:34 [Phoenix] Yeah. It's painted that one. You can tell.
9:39 [JSS] Check this out, right?
9:40 Uuuurrrgggghhhhh. Haha.
9:50 You can see feats of strength like this at some of the wrestling shows that I am at.
9:57 The wrestling dates include
9:59 August 6th in Leicster, at the Y Theater, with Ressurgence Wrestling.
10:04 My arms are aching already.
10:07 August 20th in Newcastle at the Jubilee Club,
10:11 for Avant Garde Wrestling, and I will actually be doing another date,
10:15 earlier that day, in Preston, but I dunno the details on that yet. Uhhh, what is the other one?
10:20 Ummm.....
10:23 [Sound of tyre dropping to the floor]
10:32 Oh my god! OH NO!
10:39 October 1st. In Manchester, Soverign Pro Wrestling. That's with the eight person tag match,
10:47 with Kidd Banditt, elimination match with Kidd Banditt, and Sim... oh god. Urgghhhh.
10:52 I've got OCD, like, genuine,
10:54 like medical grade, this is literally the worst thing that's ever happened to me.
10:59 August... October... 8th... Blackpool.
11:03 Commander Sterling Vs. Simon Miller. The big one.
11:08 I've gotta wash my hands.
11:09 Thank god for me. I've gotta wash my...
11:12 Turn it off. Turn it off.
0:09 [James Stephanie Sterling] Cars! I can't say that cars particularly interest me, unless
0:16 they're a transformer of some kind, and even then only like the Decepticon ones,
0:21 like the Stunticons, or whatever, because I find most autobots pretty boring.
0:27 Like Bumblebee.
0:30 Fucking cuck!
0:32 Today, however, we are talking about vehicles, and not with regards to a racing game.
0:39 We are in fact talking about actual, real life, honest to god cars!
0:46 Some of you will know where this is going.
0:49 Because something fucking ridiculous is happening involving them...
0:54 Welcome to hell.
0:56 Welcome to Fucking Hell!
0:58 [Whispered loud and slowly] Cuuuuuuck
1:04 [JSS] As easy as this particular topic is to rant and rave and become righteously enraged about,
1:09 I am struggling to bring myself to it. Because if I have to talk about this,
1:15 I have to accept that it’s real, and not a dystopian parody. If I acknowledge this topic,
1:20 I have to know about this topic, and if I know about this topic, I can’t deny it exists.
1:27 Yet here we are, and all week I was inundated with people showing it to me,
1:33 inundated to such a point that I could not escape the miserable truth that excessive monetization
1:39 has long escaped the realm of videogames and seeped into every pore of modern life.
1:45 So yeah, let us speak the heresy, let us tear our eyes open and face the
1:50 horrifying truth together - they’re charging subscriptions for car seat warmers now.
1:58 Yeah. That’s right. Subscriptions… to make car seats warmer. Jesus fucking Christ.
2:07 While not exactly a videogame related topic, enough viewers told me I had to expose myself
2:14 to this grim capitalistic nightmare that I’m passing the misery onto the rest of you.
2:20 BMW, you see, in all it’s shameless inglory, announced it would start
2:26 selling subscriptions for heated seats that start at fifteen quid a month.
2:31 Fifteen quid! For warm seats?
2:34 For something cars have simply had in the past without the need to pay
2:38 a perpetual fucking stipend to the manufacturer.
2:41 Very much like on-disc DLC, cars will naturally have the ability to heat it’s seats built-in,
2:48 and you’ll be paying to unlock it. Essentially, you’re not paying to have something new added,
2:53 your paying to stop something being withheld from you.
2:56 As with many naked cash grabs lately, the blame has been put on things like
3:01 Covid and the war in Ukraine, as if we’re to believe that corporations haven’t
3:06 had a history of charging for literally anything it could get away with charging,
3:10 and that both the pandemic and the war have been used to excuse so much
3:14 fucking greed and cruelty already that it’s kind of an old fucking routine by this point.
3:19 In another parallel to the game industry, we’re being told that cars are “just too
3:23 expensive to make”, as if the executives in this industry aren’t millionaires and billionaires
3:29 raking in obscene amounts of profits at the expense of an underpaid workforce.
3:34 It’s not just seats, either.
3:36 BMW’s “ConnectedDrive” store offers a suite of what is essentially DLC for real-life vehicles.
3:43 Warming steering wheels, high beams that automatically switch off for incoming traffic,
3:48 all sorts of shit. All sorts of opportunities to give a multi-billion
3:53 dollar company even more money on top of the thousands you've given them already.
3:57 Yes, this all sounds very familiar.
4:00 As videogame audiences, we’re used to seeing companies take the utter
4:03 piss out of our wallets more than most.
4:05 We’re used to expensive videogames offering incremental add-ons, endless spending
4:10 opportunities via microtranstions, in-game gambling systems typified by loots boxes,
4:15 and, of course, subscription services for access to servers,
4:20 extra content, or sometimes just the “right” to play the games already fucking paid for.
4:26 I think we could credit gaming for paving a not-insignificant amount of the road to the
4:31 overmonetized society we find ourselves in. We certainly saw how effectively the gaming industry
4:37 was able to normalize subscription access to things that we never had to pay for before
4:41 when Microsoft successfully paywalled online multiplayer behind Xbox Live.
4:46 Many younger players by now will have grown up with the idea that
4:50 we always paid a subscription to play online Games, but I am ancient
4:55 and decrepit enough to remember when the idea what not only new, but pretty controversial.
5:01 What Microsoft did was disruptive and seen by many at the time as avaricious,
5:06 but after all these years, Microsoft has normalized it
5:09 to the point that nobody questions it anymore - it’s now simply the way it’s always been.
5:15 It's the same process we saw with microtransactions,
5:18 which were always controvertial back in the day, but now only make headlines
5:23 when they're truly exorbitant, like with Diablo Immortal. Slow, grinding,
5:28 ininsistant normalisation is one of the most insideous tools in the pocket of Big Business.
5:35 And we’re seeing this normalizing creep toward subscriptions appear everywhere now.
5:40 Many products have begun moving away from one-time purchases to
5:44 endlessly charging so-called “services.”
5:47 Things that were once straightforward products are now perpetually premium
5:51 scams, such as Adobe moving to an enforced subscription model for no justifiable reason,
5:57 or Microsoft fucking Office of all things.
6:00 Oh, and here's your regular reminder that Piracy... Is Fun!
6:04 Mobile app stores are lousy with this, as things that have no business being
6:09 packaged as “services” are nevertheless sold so,
6:12 because as we always say here, no amount of money is ever e-fucking-nough for these assholes.
6:18 Of course, subscriptions have long been a favorite of companies who want endless
6:22 money for as little as possible. Not only do they mean regular payments that last
6:26 longer and cost more over time than one-off purchases,
6:30 research indicates that a huge number of customers forget to cancel subscriptions
6:35 after they stop using them - this is something that “free trial” periods bank on exploiting.
6:41 Sign up now for 30 Days Free! Just make sure you leave us your credit card details up front,
6:46 and if you forget about us after the 30 days, thank you very much for that 19.99.
6:51 When you consider exactly HOW many subscriptions we’re expected to sign up for these days,
6:56 it only gets harder and harder to keep track of what you use and don’t use.
7:01 In gaming alone you have Xbox Live, PlayStation Network,
7:04 Nintendo Switch Online, each with their own additional services tiers,
7:08 EA Play, Google Play, Apple Arcade, Ubisoft Plus, Nvidia GeForce Now, Prime Gaming,
7:14 and pfft… Google Stadia… hahaha!
7:19 This is on top of individual MMO subscriptions,
7:21 and the slew of battle passes infesting games more and more.
7:26 And the normalizing of a subscription based
7:29 life is starting to really ramp up in all facets of the day to day.
7:32 It's a little gauche to point at something and say "Oooohhh, it's like that Black Mirror episode",
7:37 but so much of it is like that Black Mirror episode, 15 Million Merits.
7:42 The Best One!
7:43 And it’s at times like this, looking at subscription based seat warmers,
7:47 that I remember how many people have gotten mad at me before for pointing out that capitalism
7:52 is the driving force behind all the shit people hate about mainstream game publishing.
7:57 This is such a clear cut example of how everything we discuss weekly involving excessive videogame
8:03 monetization and customer exploitation can be applied to the world outside gaming,
8:08 and should be applied to the world outside gaming, because it's fucking important.
8:13 It's important to understand how much all of you are being taken for a fucking ride.
8:18 This is such a perfect look at exactly how connected everything really is.
8:23 Shit don't happen in a bubble people.
8:25 And on that note, it is with particular disgust that I point out how both in and out of games,
8:31 corporate scum lords have decided NOW is the time to ramp up prices, find extra ways to charge us
8:39 for things, and attempt to swindle us for all we have via cash grab attempts such as NFTs.
8:45 Now, when energy costs have risen far above stagnating wages, when a pandemic
8:51 has brought us to our knees, when the climate is rapidly approaching inhospitability. Now
8:56 is when they charge more, when they fleece us further, when they try to scam us harder than
9:00 ever. Almost... almost as if they know we’re on the verge of fucking societal collapse
9:08 and they’re just strip mining our lives before it’s all over.
9:12 Haha. Google Stadia is still a thing though, haha, lol!
9:17 [Children's character makes nonesense noise]
9:20 [Phoenix] Do you want to hold the tyre, or do you want me to pass you a different tyre?
9:22 [JSS] No, I can lift this tyre. Using my strength.
9:26 [Phoenix] Your strongness?
9:27 [JSS] Using all of my professional wrestler strength.
9:31 [Phoenix] Alright, turn it the other way out. It looks better.
9:33 [JSS] Does it look better the other way?
9:34 [Phoenix] Yeah. It's painted that one. You can tell.
9:39 [JSS] Check this out, right?
9:40 Uuuurrrgggghhhhh. Haha.
9:50 You can see feats of strength like this at some of the wrestling shows that I am at.
9:57 The wrestling dates include
9:59 August 6th in Leicster, at the Y Theater, with Ressurgence Wrestling.
10:04 My arms are aching already.
10:07 August 20th in Newcastle at the Jubilee Club,
10:11 for Avant Garde Wrestling, and I will actually be doing another date,
10:15 earlier that day, in Preston, but I dunno the details on that yet. Uhhh, what is the other one?
10:20 Ummm.....
10:23 [Sound of tyre dropping to the floor]
10:32 Oh my god! OH NO!
10:39 October 1st. In Manchester, Soverign Pro Wrestling. That's with the eight person tag match,
10:47 with Kidd Banditt, elimination match with Kidd Banditt, and Sim... oh god. Urgghhhh.
10:52 I've got OCD, like, genuine,
10:54 like medical grade, this is literally the worst thing that's ever happened to me.
10:59 August... October... 8th... Blackpool.
11:03 Commander Sterling Vs. Simon Miller. The big one.
11:08 I've gotta wash my hands.
11:09 Thank god for me. I've gotta wash my...
11:12 Turn it off. Turn it off.
Is having OCD something Jim has ever talked about before? I'm having a hard time discerning whether his ending "skit" is serious or not with him acting like a crazy old lady.
"I've got OCD, like, genuine, like medical grade, this is literally the worst thing that's ever happened to me."
"I've gotta wash my hands. Thank god for me. I've gotta wash my... Turn it off. Turn it off."
If this is something he has been having issues with since forever he sure seemed to be keeping it in check better before his transition, unless I'm misremembering and he's acted out like this before.
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2022
From what I’ve seen, “transitioning” permanently drains any mental resilience or energy you previously possessed.
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2021
The only one I've ever had any trouble with is Nord VPN, after they set my subscription to auto-renew at three times the price and you have to click through 4 or 5 confirmation screens to say you're really super sure you want to disable it. Still only took me about 5 minutes to sort, though.
Some companies will definitely make you jump through hoops, but you can still get it done. Nobody is chained to these things forever the way Jim is making out; most of the time people are just lazy.
It's like when people complain about McDonald's 'preying' on obese people. Just put the burgers down you fat pig.
Brother Wind
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2017
You know that reminds me. I am sorry I still kinda vaguely recall this. But, I remember there being an MMO kinda around the WoW era glut of them, that made cancelling a sub fucking obnoxious. Like it had to be borderline illegal. You like had to damn near call during business hours and be put on hold. And the correct phone number wasn't easy to find
I bring this up because I think its funny that it undercuts Jim in that a lot if this shit, by how much has actually been fixed. Especially because I'm not even sure this was just one game. And I know these free trials have all been fucking awful. So, it has actually been just getting worse.
Was it Gametap?
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2020
A lot of these wanton consoomers get into the mindset where they see "Free Trial" and feel like they absolutely have to consume the service - its free, and they'd be stupid to not, right? Its really a peak consumerism complaint right there. But you try to explain to them that its stupid to do so, especially when you're not already in the habit of reviewing subscriptions and such, and they'll rage at you with a bizarre sense of entitlement to this free shit. It really makes you start to realize just why most people have less than a months expenses in the banks these days. Nobody has any modicum of self control anymore.
Cap-tan
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2021
You know what car guys like? Not looking at faggots.
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2022
It's on the same level as the tumblr ball pit.
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2019
I have a feeling Jim is bankrolling these wrestling duds, and thats why he is front and center on all the posters.
He is vanity publishing a wrestling "career."
He is vanity publishing a wrestling "career."
The Fatriarchy
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2018
I watched a little bit of that recent video, and I think I can say a major reason Jim sucks now is that his "jokes" never land and his voice always has whining in it instead of the smug, self-confident attacking voice that people like him are supposed to have.
The based response is "Transylvania"
Bush King
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2022
It is shitty, but as always, it's there for a reason and helps both sides. These vehicles are not cheap. These options are not cheap. People vote for more and more regulations and standards on vehicles every year, and this is going to pay for it, much like how people expect a billion dollars pumped into Battlefield 20 and have servers operate for free for ten years. The cost needs to be eaten somewhere.
When it becomes the norm, you'll see a car company "return to basics" and release cars with free heated seats.
Shotgun Badger
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2018
The thing about Jim is that he's broadly correct about things like this, companies are always trying their damnedest to nickle and dime their customers in the most absurd fucking ways if they feel they can get away with it, and it says something about the state of society that it can happen. But he's always super late on topics like this and has nothing really to add. Like I heard about the subscription warmed seats at least a week ago (and I don't have any interest at all in car culture) and he can't bring anything to the topic because the extent of his contribution is restating the obvious point made everywhere else that this is a ridiculous attempt to squeeze people for money for a feature that should be automatically available for no extra monthly charge in a car that has warmed seats regardless.
Like he can't even connect it to videogames in a particularly meaningful way, all he can say is that its like videogame transactions and that's it, but companies have long sought to attach these sorts of subscription services to their products long before videogames even existed to get a bit of extra dosh from the consumer.
As with everything to do with Jim right now you really have to wonder what's the point? Its a story that really does not relate at all to videogames despite that being what the show is ostensibly about and why his audience is there, and even then he can't give an in-depth examination of this case of gross corporate overreach, its just basically a reaction channel tier commentary. He's not even able to be a good breadtuber, at least with some of the better ones (ie Donoteat or Adam Something) they are capable of talking with some depth of knowledge about a complex topic to bring attention to a wider issue and the underlying reasons why it happens, why it matters and why its a problem. Throw in some reasonably good editing and a clear script and you're away. Jim essentially just reads a short article on Vice and rambles a bit.
What's also funny is that in making this shallow video about a decidedly not videogame related topic, he's slept on a massive controversy to do with Ubisoft slashing online support for a slew of old games that seems to be effecting the ability to play their single player DLC even. That was a huge deal which would still let him shit all over a big multinational shitting all over its customer base and actually be about videogames.
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2021
This was a point I wanted to add in my notes, but I try (emphasis on try) to keep them brief. It's true that more and more subscription services are being pushed these days, but it's also true that most of them are easier than ever to cancel. A lot of them don't even have fixed contracts any more; you can leave any time you want.
I'm not exactly thrilled about the death of ownership, and I'll personally continue to collect physical copies of things I really like, but Jim's attempts to paint this as a dystopian nightmare when it's really just the logical conclusion of the convenience culture we've been building towards for decades --driven by consumer demand, I might add-- is just his usual one-sided, histrionic nonsense.
I don't agree it should be automatically available because it's not vital to the car's operation, but making it a subscription service makes absolutely no sense because it's already in the car and it's never going to do anything different or be updated in any way, so it'd be like subscribing to watch the same season of Friends, forever, instead of just buying the boxset.
It should have been a one-off extra payment if anything, but making it a subscription service can't be justified because it requires absolutely no upkeep or refinement on the manufacturer's part once it's been installed, barring repairs which I'm willing to bet your subscription doesn't cover.
Bush King
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2022
From what I understand in this specific case, they still offer the ability to just pay for it outright. I can imagine this actually being a boon to consumers, at least in the short term- you don't have to produce a car with thirty different options packages, and you also get an income stream from providing the extra options every single unit produced. That means lower costs on the production line at scale, those who don't care for it probably won't be seeing a cost increase, those who want it will pay it for it, and those who are in the middle will be the whales that upkeep the whole operation. I can imagine quite a few people will be thanking car companies that they can now test an option for a month and then decide to buy it without having to go and trade in their car or go in for upgrades or any of that hassle with the risk of even more cash being spent.
It certainly feels shitty, and my gut is shouting "NO", but at the same time I can see the benefits. These things are going to happen regardless. A good consumer advocate, who isn't Jim, would be looking at this and trying to find out how best to use products-as-live-service to their advantage. People complain about subscribing to things all the time now, but then they don't want to spend $350 on getting every single season of the Simpson's on BluRay. Then they'll bitch and moan in ten years that they can't find any episodes with black Smithers or Apu anywhere except by paying someone $1,000 for a hard copy on eBay. $10 says that retard's Jim.
Shotgun Badger
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2018
I mean that's the difference really, having extra options that can be added to a car, or any other product, for an extra charge has been the norm for decades and people generally accept that. But if you buy something with a feature already in built but you need to pay extra to 'unlock' it and it can be shut down again remotely at any time, usually because you didn't pay this month's fee, that's bullshit. You basically don't fully own what you bought at that point, you're kind of renting the product and its features from the company who can always hover their hand over it to intrude on your freedom to use it.
Its an unfortunate feature of our increasing technological sophistication that this is possible, I loathe stuff that penalizes the consumer and makes it hard for them to simply use whatever they bought without the company elbowing back in and remind them that they still have a large degree of control over the car they bought. Its because of stuff like this that I hate Apple's dogged attempts to prevent people from tinkering with their products after sale, for example.
As I said, I think a line has been crossed when the feature is actually present in the car regardless of who its sold to but is intentionally throttled so it can't be used by people who aren't paying the subscription. Preferably they should just make it so that heated seats are on by default for anyone who buys this car since its possible to use it in any of these particular cars they sell.
Jim does point out the obvious solution for a lot of people when it comes to trying to find something like episodes of the Simpsons which were removed from Streaming or DVDs (ie, the Michael Jackson one), they'll probably look into pirating it. Certainly I do. Though that's not really applicable to cars despite what I would have liked to believe watching early 2000s anti-piracy adverts on a Grosse Pointe Blank DVD.
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2021
@Bush King if the option still exists to buy outright then that's fine, but it does still seem kind of bizarre to me to disable a feature that is in the car from the start and presumably can't be removed. I think that's what makes this specific example so weird; other stuff like GPS subscriptions or testing removable extras you don't know you'll want to keep make perfect sense.
Also from what little I understand of motor vehicles, BMWs are a cunt's car any way, mostly driven by yuppies with high disposable income, so it's not as if this is even something the average consumer is going to be dealing with. It's actually pretty bougie of Jim to complain about this when a lot of the people he claims to champion might be struggling just to make payments on the car, itself.
Also from what little I understand of motor vehicles, BMWs are a cunt's car any way, mostly driven by yuppies with high disposable income, so it's not as if this is even something the average consumer is going to be dealing with. It's actually pretty bougie of Jim to complain about this when a lot of the people he claims to champion might be struggling just to make payments on the car, itself.