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.

[MG-34]

James is the guy who never made a Patreon for years and years. He has no time for sponsorships until Screenwave convinced him to put them in.

Can anyone explain why he was so late to e-begging? I know he took off before patreon but he could have just put a paypal link for donations on his videos and get a steady stream of revenue when he was at peak popularity.

 

[skykiii]

Can anyone explain why he was so late to e-begging? I know he took off before patreon but he could have just put a paypal link for donations on his videos and get a steady stream of revenue when he was at peak popularity.

The sense I get is that he was one of those people who was slow adapting to online trends and new technology and such. There could also have been some lingering old-timey sentiment that begging was beneath his dignity or whatever.

This is all just speculation, and of the two I think the "he just didn't know it was possible/didn't understand how it worked/was confused by the steps necessary to set it up" part is more likely.

 

[Deogracias]

The sense I get is that he was one of those people who was slow adapting to online trends and new technology and such. There could also have been some lingering old-timey sentiment that begging was beneath his dignity or whatever.

This is all just speculation, and of the two I think the "he just didn't know it was possible/didn't understand how it worked/was confused by the steps necessary to set it up" part is more likely.

I always viewed Patreon and Paypal links, if they're not overtly advertised aggressively, as the modern-day tip jars. If they're just there hanging out at the bottom of the video description, they're there if viewers want to support the show. It doesn't count as e-begging in my book unless you're aggressively and constantly asking (or demanding!) donations, like DSP, CWC, or some Twitch streamers do.

 

[skykiii]

I always viewed Patreon and Paypal links, if they're not overtly advertised aggressively, as the modern-day tip jars. If they're just there hanging out at the bottom of the video description, they're there if viewers want to support the show. It doesn't count as e-begging in my book unless you're aggressively and constantly asking (or demanding!) donations, like DSP, CWC, or some Twitch streamers do.

I mean okay, but dude was asking why James doesn't use them.

Unless you're James Rolfe?

 

[pururun]

The sense I get is that he was one of those people who was slow adapting to online trends and new technology and such.

I was just thinking about this the other day when watching the Mike's DVD collection video for the 100th time. Those videos that were just James and Mike messing around or going over stuff they have were pretty ahead of their time in retrospect, reminding me a lot of the casual long form content a lot of youtubers do now. James' lack of connection with the internet has been praised a lot in the past, but if he saw where the internet video-scape was heading he could've slowly phased out the AVGN (or just doing it once in awhile as a special thing) while putting out videos like those every week. In the DVD collection video he says they've been filming for over an hour, the majority of which was left on the cutting room floor at the time. That could easily be a month's worth of content now, and the kind where he could keep the quality consistent easily and have time to spend with his family.

 

[BrunoMattei]

someone streamed (part of) the audiobook on youtube and is offering some commentary too (to avoid being striked)

this dude mentions something about memes being made because of the book, where can i find those?

I liked this.

 

[Stygian Evil]

I liked this.

 

[TVB]

Please keep going, I wanna hear more. They are gold.

 

[Stygian Evil]

Please keep going, I wanna hear more. They are gold.

oh i'm not that dude, but he said tomorrow he'll do another one.

but it's becoming a tour de force: that thing stinks really bad. commentary makes it way easier to listen to.

 

[Duveeelll]

Can anyone explain why he was so late to e-begging? I know he took off before patreon but he could have just put a paypal link for donations on his videos and get a steady stream of revenue when he was at peak popularity.

As for Patreon, Justin had said Cinemassacre doesn't have one because the tiers require a steady stream of content, and Cinemassacre can't guarentee to stick to such a release schedule

 

[MG-34]

The sense I get is that he was one of those people who was slow adapting to online trends and new technology and such. There could also have been some lingering old-timey sentiment that begging was beneath his dignity or whatever.

This is all just speculation, and of the two I think the "he just didn't know it was possible/didn't understand how it worked/was confused by the steps necessary to set it up" part is more likely.

Late reply but that's a good observation. It just seems like James left money on the table seeing how many zoomer youtubers live in McMansions with heaps of disposable income while James is barely living a middle class income and had to sell a portion of his personal game collection to get by. I have a military buddy that made a series of videos for social media and makes a similar income from it to his active duty days. It just seems easy to make a passive income these days once you get a handful of popular content. If I was James I'd hate myself for missing out on that. It must be the same feeling of a lotto player seeing their numbers come up the week they don't buy a ticket.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Late reply but that's a good observation. It just seems like James left money on the table seeing how many zoomer youtubers live in McMansions with heaps of disposable income while James is barely living a middle class income and had to sell a portion of his personal game collection to get by. I have a military buddy that made a series of videos for social media and makes a similar income from it to his active duty days. It just seems easy to make a passive income these days once you get a handful of popular content. If I was James I'd hate myself for missing out on that. It must be the same feeling of a lotto player seeing their numbers come up the week they don't buy a ticket.

First time I ever heard of this. Do you mean when he threw a bunch of props and I think some games on Ebay for charity for that hospital that took care of his daughter?

 

[Saint Agustin]

Late reply but that's a good observation. It just seems like James left money on the table seeing how many zoomer youtubers live in McMansions with heaps of disposable income while James is barely living a middle class income and had to sell a portion of his personal game collection to get by. I have a military buddy that made a series of videos for social media and makes a similar income from it to his active duty days. It just seems easy to make a passive income these days once you get a handful of popular content. If I was James I'd hate myself for missing out on that. It must be the same feeling of a lotto player seeing their numbers come up the week they don't buy a ticket.

Nobody who is a YouTuber lives off YouTube. That's a lie perpetuated by YouTube itself and influencers.

Most youtubers, and I'm talking 95%, are basic bitches that scrapes 100 bucks a week if possible unless they have like a million views in each of their videos ( which most don't)

James or Doug Walker though they would get rich with ad revenue alone and realize it was impossible. If those guys couldn't, what makes you think basic bitches shit tier youtubers make?

 

[MG-34]

First time I ever heard of this. Do you mean when he threw a bunch of props and I think some games on Ebay for charity for that hospital that took care of his daughter?

Was this around the same time he moved? It was a long time ago but I'll have to look back. If I recall correctly he parted with some rarer items in his collection.

Nobody who is a YouTuber lives off YouTube. That's a lie perpetuated by YouTube itself and influencers.

Most youtubers, and I'm talking 95%, are basic bitches that scrapes 100 bucks a week if possible unless they have like a million views in each of their videos ( which most don't)

James or Doug Walker though they would get rich with ad revenue alone and realize it was impossible. If those guys couldn't, what makes you think basic bitches shit tier youtubers make?

I agree most won't make rent money with ad revenue, several can pay the bills with paterons and other similar services, AVGN surely could have netted enough paypigs to make his life easier.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

As for Patreon, Justin had said Cinemassacre doesn't have one because the tiers require a steady stream of content, and Cinemassacre can't guarentee to stick to such a release schedule

Which doesn't make sense since Spoony has one and all he's done for several years is like 1-2 streams a year (if that) and some whining on Twitter, yet somehow he still pockets 300 dollars a month, and occasionally he even gets people resubscribing/upping their donations to him.

Late reply but that's a good observation. It just seems like James left money on the table seeing how many zoomer youtubers live in McMansions with heaps of disposable income while James is barely living a middle class income and had to sell a portion of his personal game collection to get by. I have a military buddy that made a series of videos for social media and makes a similar income from it to his active duty days. It just seems easy to make a passive income these days once you get a handful of popular content. If I was James I'd hate myself for missing out on that. It must be the same feeling of a lotto player seeing their numbers come up the week they don't buy a ticket.

Very likely it was over a million dollars.

 

[demicolon]

- AVGN will go on until it stops making money, and then James will probably just retire.
- Making the AVGN sequel an animated movie sounds like the worst fucking idea in the history of Cinemassacre.

AVGN could go the Trailer Park Boys route and become an animated show. You could even deepfake James' voice. All James has to do is to license the brand.

Can anyone explain why he was so late to e-begging? I know he took off before patreon but he could have just put a paypal link for donations on his videos and get a steady stream of revenue when he was at peak popularity.

Youtube paid nothing when AVGN blew up in 2006. By the time Google acquired Youtube and started monetizing it, James was busy with his stupid movie and even had enough of his own money to sink into it aside from crowdfunding. Pasting Amazon links in video descriptions alone would earn him hundreds of thousands. I guess he'd rather fuck around with his kids or Rex Viper than do that, though.

Which doesn't make sense since Spoony has one and all he's done for several years is like 1-2 streams a year (if that) and some whining on Twitter, yet somehow he still pockets 300 dollars a month, and occasionally he even gets people resubscribing/upping their donations to him.

Don't forget Todd in the Shadows, who would rake respectable money on Patreon from making one review a year.


BTW. I remember a con video where an audience member asked Lloyd Kaufman how did Rolfe got him on AVGN and his response was "He blew me."

 

[TVB]

AVGN could go the Trailer Park Boys route and become an animated show. You could even deepfake James' voice. All James has to do is to license the brand.

That, or a shitty animated direct-to-video/VOD feature like what Kevin Smith did with his Jay & Silent Bob Groovy Movie or what Cheech & Chong did with their own animated movie.

 

[demicolon]

For the Patreon thing: crpgaddict has one where he gets maybe a hundred bucks, and he set it up only because his wife pestered him about wasting time writing about video games. It's literally a holiday fund for his wife and donating gets you nothing.

If people are pulling shit like this I have no idea where Justin got his justification from.

 

[Mr. Duck]

For the Patreon thing: crpgaddict has one where he gets maybe a hundred bucks, and he set it up only because his wife pestered him about wasting time writing about video games. It's literally a holiday fund for his wife and donating gets you nothing.

If people are pulling shit like this I have no idea where Justin got his justification from.

I think the real reason to avoid having a Patreon was for Screenwave to keep as much control of the AVGN/Cinemassacre as possible, a Patreon that goes directly to James would ruin that goal, to the point that i wouldn't be surprised if they lied to Boomer James about how Patreon actually works.

 

[Foltest]

That, or a shitty animated direct-to-video/VOD feature like what Kevin Smith did with his Jay & Silent Bob Groovy Movie .

that just remind me that I saw that one years ago.
One of the worst shit I have seen.
It ends with Jay getting sodomized if I remember.