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

[Gloria The Glorious]

And as always, the biggest issue is that FromSoft fanboys remain insufferable as ever and refuse to even entertain the possibility that one of their games could be anything less than perfection.

I think the devs operated on the idea that people would try something else when what you normally do isn't working and that people would talk to each other about how to do it. Unfortunately, Dark Souls 2 (and 3 to a lesser extent) conditioned players that sometimes these games just want to kill you and your skill isn't the issue, and as you said, the fans no longer try to help people learn the mechanics.

I just can't be bothered to give a damn about Soul-likes anymore. I'd be way more excited for a company to try their own Zelda game, but that's too normal and not mainstream enough (despite being a literal system seller) so fuck it Let's just make another hot pepper wing challenge game.

If you're a Jim Sterling OG, you remember that being a joke he made on how Dark Souls 3 was when the series turned into a parody of itself in terms of marketing.

 

[Oliver Onions]

I think the devs operated on the idea that people would try something else when what you normally do isn't working and that people would talk to each other about how to do it.

It was definitely clear the devs designed bosses to fuck with people who were used to the tried and true 'dodge behind and attack' method because so many bosses (and even regular enemies) in ER have moves specifically to punish that behaviour, but didn't do a great job of communicating how they did want players to fight. Glad I stuck with Elden Ring til the end but I don't think I'd have been nearly as miserable in some fights if I'd known how powerful charged heavies were.

I just can't be bothered to give a damn about Soul-likes anymore.

I still keep an ear out for good ones. I got burned with Wukong which I personally thought fucking sucked, but there's a couple AA ones making waves that I'm interested in. I just wish the devs who tried to copy FromSoft would actually take the time to learn what makes their games good, instead of assuming a boss that takes half your life off with a single attack that has zero tells is what people want.

 

[femboy fart huffer]

I just can't be bothered to give a damn about Soul-likes anymore

There's a lot of the same going on with survivour likes too. There's so many games that exist to just be 'x popular game but in y setting', just people shitting out games with that childlike mindset of 'what if spiderman and superman teamed up that would be really cool they should make a movie about it' without thinking about what that would actually mean.

I think soulslike as a genre is fucking retarded and meaningless anyway, botw has stamina and dodges so is that a soulslike? Why not? The original starwars battlefront games have stamina and dodge rolls and that game also loves generic guys in armour that drop everything they're doing just to try kill you. Cod on the highest difficulty has shitty copypaste enemies that spam the same one hit move against you; is that a ds2 sotfs dlc like? What is the difference between a soulslike and just an action adventure game? Pretty much every good game that gets called a soulslike doesn't market itself as a soulslike, they market themselves as something separate because they can stand on their own feet unlike the hordes of soulslike that only exist on the crutches of an actually talented game dev company. The only exception I could find is lies of p. If a game has the word soulslike in the little short description it's probably going to be mid at best.

 

[Gloria The Glorious]

There's a lot of the same going on with survivour likes too. There's so many games that exist to just be 'x popular game but in y setting', just people shitting out games with that childlike mindset of 'what if spiderman and superman teamed up that would be really cool they should make a movie about it' without thinking about what that would actually mean.

That'd at least make a decent fighting game.

 

[What can I say?]

You know what's interesting? A video on how Dark Souls' difficulty became a parody of itself would be interesting. How enemy combos kept getting longer, how your health bar may was well be the ghost n golbins armor from DS2 onward, how they overemphasize combat while actual dungeon crawling became less important, etc.

I love the modern souls titles like Elden Ring but I can't help but agree with this. While I do enjoy the combat and bosses of the newer games alot, it's definitely a far far cry from what Demon souls/Dark souls initially started out as, and while I don't view this as a bad thing, I absolutely understand why some people loathe the modern state of Fromsoft games.

Also I'd really like some more boss variety. While I do find most of the bosses different in their own ways that make them enjoyable, the truth of the matter is almost all of them play the same. Learn the patterns, learn the parts where the boss eases off, punish. I think the addition of the jump and the expanded weapon art system of ER helped breathe new life into the game and I personally enjoyed those additions alot, but I think having more bosses like Rom or Micolash would help keep things fresh and creative, there's plenty of potential there.

 

[Oliver Onions]

Channel review for the month of April 2025:
Videos Uploaded: 4

• Jimquisition ('Nintendo's $80 Games Give Greed A Green Light', 95k views)
• Jimquisition ('Exhibiting Value: How Two Point Museum Is What Games Should Be', 72k views)
• Jimquisition ('Some Games Look Worse Because They Look Better' 75k views)
• Jimquisition ('The Case For The Filter Demo aka Whining About Sucking At Clair Obscur', 64k views)

Subs Lost: 2k
Subs Left Til 700k: 33k
Patrons: 4,698 (-49)
Monthly Income: $7,977 (-$112)
Monthly Channel Views: 554k (+42k)
New Video Views: 306k (+3k)
Average Views Per New Video: 77k (+1k)
Bluesky Followers: 27k (+1k)

Spoiler: Notes

A lot of green for Jim this month! Sadly the red remains in the most important area: his money.

 

[There Is Light At The End]

ER have moves specifically to punish that behaviour

I died too many times to delayed swings that I would like to admit. And knights of the crucible with shield bash can go fuck themselves. It does punish those who got too comfortable with dark souls gameplay. Jumping itself incorporated into countering bosses movesets, to which I had to adapt with a lot of pain. And I doesn't mentioned bullshit DLC bosses

 

[Oliver Onions]

I died too many times to delayed swings that I would like to admit.

The delayed swings is probably my most hated mechanic to combat veteran Souls players, because it never, ever feels natural. Why would a boss rear their weapon then just stand there for 5 seconds doing nothing?

At least have some extra animations in between to justify the delay, otherwise it's obvious you're doing it purely to fuck with people's instincts/muscle memory.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Channel review for the month of April 2025:
Videos Uploaded: 4

• Jimquisition ('Nintendo's $80 Games Give Greed A Green Light', 95k views)
• Jimquisition ('Exhibiting Value: How Two Point Museum Is What Games Should Be', 72k views)
• Jimquisition ('Some Games Look Worse Because They Look Better' 75k views)
• Jimquisition ('The Case For The Filter Demo aka Whining About Sucking At Clair Obscur', 64k views)

Subs Lost: 2k
Subs Left Til 700k: 33k
Patrons: 4,698 (-49)
Monthly Income: $7,977 (-$112)
Monthly Channel Views: 554k (+42k)
New Video Views: 306k (+3k)
Average Views Per New Video: 77k (+1k)
Bluesky Followers: 27k (+1k)

Spoiler: Notes

A lot of green for Jim this month! Sadly the red remains in the most important area: his money.

He's still in decline in the important areas. He lost 1k last month, so average it out to 1.5k loss a month, that's just shy of 2 years before we see him under 700k. But maybe he'll flip out before then and drive a bunch of people away.

I was expecting it to have happened by now at the rate he used to drop subs but then it evened out.

 

[Oliver Onions]

But maybe he'll flip out before then and drive a bunch of people away.

That seems less and less likely given how his videos just keep getting worse and more low-effort. I think a cancellation is more likely, probably on trumped up charges but when has that ever stopped loony troons in the past.

Either way we should gird ourselves for a long wait to that next milestone.

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

I think a cancellation is more likely

Nah, I don't really see Jim being cancelled unless there's a radical anti-troon or anti-gooner realignment in the internet sphere. He's simply become too irrelevant for even a sudden new controversial statement from him to meaningfully spread, it'd take an outside effort targeting him for what he's already done to get much results.

And while I think those realignments are not impossible, I do think its more likely he just retires/quits before they really get up to speed. He's already in his 40's, Polygon just imploded and the rest of the malingering games journalist sphere aren't far behind. He's got no parachute, no upwards trajectory because there's nothing left above youtube now. More likely he just quietly crashes out and quits, maxes out his disability benefits in the UK and coasts as another council parasite.

 

[Oliver Onions]

He's simply become too irrelevant for even a sudden new controversial statement from him to meaningfully spread, it'd take an outside effort targeting him for what he's already done to get much results.

I'm not suggesting the cancellation would be warranted, but it's been proven repeatedly how readily troons turn on others for some perceived (often completely imaginary) gain. The fact Jim's star has faded so hard makes him an even better candidate because there's going to be virtually no one to stand by him.

Having said that, I still put the odds of it happening at maybe 10% max, I just think it's more likely than him creating a controversy himself with another meltdown because all his videos are so generic and toothless now. If the UK Supreme Court declaring YWNBAW didn't prompt it I really can't think what would happen to make Jim spiral hard enough to have any real impact on his channel.

 

[femboy fart huffer]

I really can't think what would happen to make Jim spiral hard enough to have any real impact on his channel.

If it happens it'll be some really retarded shit like him calling the newest mid troon game mid or something like that.

 

[huesofmercury]

 

[Oliver Onions]

Why do you keep posting old Jim videos with no commentary?

 

[JustiriserX]

If it wasn't for the Digital Homicide debacle Jim Sterling would have Laura Kate Dale levels of low viewership. But since he got a big view for that crap he was able to keep going spreading his awful takes to a large audience that finally woke up and realized what a manchild he is.

 

[Moja Zemlja]

I never expected Jim to go to bat for big video game journo sites after being burnt working The Escapist considering that the issues he had there almost certainly happen at every other site too.

 

[Lou's Sentient Backfat]

His take on it is so stupid too. The reason it's happening is because no one is visiting the sites. Most people find a few YouTubers who are interested in the same games as them and will watch them instead mainly because the YouTuber won't spend most of the review calling their audience "worse than Hitler". I'm honestly more surprised that Jim didn't spend most of that screed going on about "capitalism bad". I guess if he has nothing else to talk about tomorrow we might get a JQ about the various gaming news sites laying people off and how it's all our fault.

 

[femboy fart huffer]

'deliberate disassembly'? Jim it's because no one gives a shit about what they post, you of all people should know that sentiment like the back of your hand.

 

[Oliver Onions]

His take on it is so stupid too. The reason it's happening is because no one is visiting the sites.

I never expected Jim to go to bat for big video game journo sites after being burnt working The Escapist considering that the issues he had there almost certainly happen at every other site too.

It's kind of consistent in a way because Jim walked out on The Escapist after they refused to censor discussion about GamerGate and so he assumes it was similar chuds ruining all these websites and the games industry as a whole.

Also consistent is Jim's inability to realise that he's the other side of the coin killing the industry. Pursuing profits above all else has definitely caused games to get worse, but so has the endless screeching of losers like Jim who demand games be watered down and smoothed out to appeal to absolutely everybody, then crying foul of the bigots who don't want to pay $80 for these shitty design-by-committee slop games.

TL;DR Jim and his fellow journoscum poisoned the well and are now indignant they can't drink from it any more.