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

[Tovarisz]

Black representation needs to be in my game about medieval Polish mythology.

That's the sarcastic version of the response he essentially got.

I really believe he's pissy about that and has been actively looking for an attack vector against CDPR since but doesn't have an easy one, it's a Polish publisher so they're not as easy to attack with typical SJW Cancel Culture tactics and they're not universally despised by most of the gaming community no matter their politics like EA or Konami.

So he tries to go after them for crunch which isn't even the type of crunch people hear horror stories about (game devs sleeping under their desks, not seeing their families for months leading up to release, subsisting on whatever foodstuffs the rec room vending machine has), just regular, legal overtime that they will get paid for (unless they won't be paid for it, in which case CDPR will get a deserved serving of legal and PR shitstorm).

IMO he should just wait, CDPR went public and every company that goes public will eventually start catering to investors as their only true clientelle so it's a matter of time before they start losing their street cred and making consumer unfriendly decisions. And I'm not at all happy to be saying that.

 

[Brother Wind]

Like weird how he doesn't talk that every professional works overtime. My Dad spends weekends writing for work. My Buddy works 13 hour days in construction, minimum. I have known a lot of nurses and doctors, who sure as fuck are working some hella hours lately. Teachers are underpaid and overworked. But you know what the inverse of that is? Fat fuckers making Youtube videos...

 

[The tired cat]

I'm pretty sure this fatass would die of a heart attack if he had to work 9-5 without a minute of overtime for a full year so I can understand why he believes this is all so horrible.

I also believe he has a hate boner for CDPR because I vaguely remember him bitching about a lack of black represhentayshun in Witcher 3 to which one of the devs basically told him to STFU and GTFO, guess he never really got over that.

Jimbo also got buttmad when CDPR posted on their GoG twitter account a gif of the Dude from Postal 2 pissing on the grave of gaming journalism. Just fo that alone they got called right-wing and Nazi supporters.

 

[bricked]

CD Projekt is mandating almost as much overtime as they're legally allowed. I looked at Polish labor laws and employers are not allowed to make their employees work more than 8 hours overtime per week and there's a limit of 150 overtime hours per year. Also, overtime pays 50% extra and working on weekends and holidays pays 100% extra. And the employees can opt for getting extra time off for every hour of overtime they worked. That's the legal minimum and I doubt CD Projekt gives more overtime pay than that, but it's still way better than most US tech companies, I'd bet.

there are some companies that skirt around overtime laws, mostly by relying on their employees being fucking idiots when it comes to knowing their rights. or just sacking people who do. they'll get slapped with a lawsuit for a few million dollars and just keep rolling along because they didn't lose more than they saved.

Last week's video was so forgettable that I unintentionally took a break from this thread altogether. The optimist in me wants to politely say "It just wasn't the best, a show can't always be perfect" yadda yadda.

So anyways, to the latest video, which got a much stronger response out of me!

Jim's broken a personal record! He's insufferably annoying right at 00:00! Thank God my headphones were turned down!

1:03 -- WHY ARE YOUR COLLECTIBLE ANIMATION CELS IN A FLIMSY PLASTIC SHEET YOU’RE BENDING THEM REEEEEEE-

7:58 -- Notice how Jim conveniently neglects to define any form of crunch outside the most extreme version of it? As if no company ever compensates their workers for extra hours under any circumstance? Instead, he accuses Twitter or whatever gamer strawman for wanting him to be selective with his journalism. Straight up gaslighting.

Spoiler: Example of Reasonable Crunch from Personal Experience

Hope this isn’t too much powerleveling.

My job fell behind after the lockdowns in April. Many customers didn’t give two shits about a real economic issue delaying their orders. Crunch was necessary to clean out the backlog. My department was given multi-tier incentives for overtime, which let us earn bonuses at each tier, another bonus for doing all the tiers, earn back a little PTO, and still get paid time and a half.

BUT HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE IN JIM STERLING WORLD??? LOOK AT ALL THESE BAD APPLES THAT DON’T COMPENSATE THEIR WORKERS!!! CRUNCH BAD NO MATTER WHAT!!11!!

I guess it’s important to write in fine print that my job security didn't have a "gun to head" situation over this crunch. Jim has a “gotcha!” over me there! ...Because semantics aren’t allowed in this discussion.

This flavor of Jim video has always given me vibes that he expects all reviews of video games to have giant disclaimers if the studios behind them had drama. Wouldn’t that make the review unfocused? If the crunch noticeably affected the end product, then there’d be a natural segway into the topic. Otherwise, you’re reading a review of the game… for the fucking review.

I believe the Jimpressions video for Borderlands 3 does what I described above. Surprise: Jim randomly interjecting disses at Gearbox/2K interrupts the flow of his "review." I don't have any time stamps, so here's the video if you can stomach it yourself:

please...a segway is a shitty person mover...a segue is a transition from one topic to another...

Black representation needs to be in my game about medieval Polish mythology.

well this was what got kingdom come: deliverance into trouble. i fucking hate people that roll out pseudohistorians to claim "wow ackshuwally medieval england was full of black people also look at this (very dirty) painting of beethoven! he was definitely black this is not just the toll of time."

 

[BHWuser]

there are some companies that skirt around overtime laws, mostly by relying on their employees being fucking idiots when it comes to knowing their rights. or just sacking people who do. they'll get slapped with a lawsuit for a few million dollars and just keep rolling along because they didn't lose more than they saved.


please...a segway is a shitty person mover...a segue is a transition from one topic to another...


well this was what got kingdom come: deliverance into trouble. i fucking hate people that roll out pseudohistorians to claim "wow ackshuwally medieval england was full of black people also look at this (very dirty) painting of beethoven! he was definitely black this is not just the toll of time."

Have to remember how everything whites have was stolen from black people. I mean... Just look at all those African scientists and inventors... who still fucking think you can pray lightning to strike people.

 

[White Devil]

Have to remember how everything whites have was stolen from black people. I mean... Just look at all those African scientists and inventors... who still fucking think you can pray lightning to strike people.

You mean these same people who have had Africa for centuries before the first white man showed up and invented almost... nothing?

 

[Chilson]

You mean these same people who have had Africa for centuries before the first white man showed up and invented almost... nothing?

No you racist. They created the finest mud huts, the sharpest spears and slaver....I mean unwilling employment.

 

[Radical Goodspeed]

Lipstick on a Pig Jim is even more insufferable than Faking-Heterosexuality-for-a-Green-Card Jim.

 

[WolfeTone]

Jim seems to calmly, glibly say whatever gets him the most attention, why he latched on to the outrage boiling over from TLOU2. Although I can agree with a few things the man says, that's the point, he throws his net wide and in whatever direction the wind is blowing. I once thought he was a masterful showman, and though that may be true to some extent, he lacks his own brand, it's just an amalgamation of whatever is juiciest that he sticks to himself. A genderblob. For God sake, look at this.

 

[Neko GF]

Here we see Jim trying to argue that Twitter doesn't have a pro-Biden bias, despite them recently trying to purge a story that could potentially damage Biden's campaign:

https://tw.tinf.io/JimSterling/status/1317064863185854465 (Archive)

 

[Just_a_Bored_Guy]

Hey, @Pissmaster, you called it. Today's video is on Tim Dawson and the free Golden Axe reboot prototype, Golden Axed.

 

[Hideous K]

Hey, @Pissmaster, you called it. Today's video is on Tim Dawson and the free Golden Axe reboot prototype, Golden Axed.

I swear Jim didn't even look at why SEGA turn the proof of concept down, anyone remember golden axe beast rider and why they gave Tim the cold shoulder back then? I mean Matt made a video on what happen.

 

[Pissmaster]

Hey, @Pissmaster, you called it. Today's video is on Tim Dawson and the free Golden Axe reboot prototype, Golden Axed.

Hahahahaha! As soon as I saw that guy say the word "crunch", I immediately thought of Jim. For context, I posted about his Twitter fit here.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

I swear Jim didn't even look at why SEGA turn the proof of concept down, anyone remember golden axe beast rider and why they gave Tim the cold shoulder back then?

>Expecting Sterling to do ACTUAL research
Jim was, is, and always will be a REACTIONARY "content creator" that does REACTIONARY pieces regarding vidya, pushing a REACTIONARY one-sided narrative that makes his watchers/subscribers become as REACTIONARY as he is. No actual thought or effort required. There were times, as rare as they were (like 4 leaf clover rare) where he would make a video about a topic, stay on point, and have something intelligent to say about it. But even those rare days have disappeared like dust in the wind.

Since changing his format, he has gone rogue by flinging shit at everyone with his opinions that no one fucking asked for, doing "LOLRANDUM" skits and transitions no one finds funny, going on like a broken record about the same handful of topics he's already covered in other videos, and beating the shit out of people with buzzword after buzzword, hoping that you become so braindead that you'll agree with him.

He used to be a lolcow I followed, but this fat fuck has become so insufferable, I gave up months ago.

 

[Steinercard]

there are some companies that skirt around overtime laws, mostly by relying on their employees being fucking idiots when it comes to knowing their rights. or just sacking people who do. they'll get slapped with a lawsuit for a few million dollars and just keep rolling along because they didn't lose more than they saved.


please...a segway is a shitty person mover...a segue is a transition from one topic to another...


well this was what got kingdom come: deliverance into trouble. i fucking hate people that roll out pseudohistorians to claim "wow ackshuwally medieval england was full of black people also look at this (very dirty) painting of beethoven! he was definitely black this is not just the toll of time."

In my experience Game Companies skirt around laws like this with one trick. Most of their employees have to be looked after under most countries laws. As you said. But the vast majority of workers in game dev are contractors. As they technically count as self employed they can be fucked over and abused as much as a company wants.

 

[Tanner Glass]

In my experience Game Companies skirt around laws like this with one trick. Most of their employees have to be looked after under most countries laws. As you said. But the vast majority of workers in game dev are contractors. As they technically count as self employed they can be fucked over and abused as much as a company wants.

And they exist this way because there's way more workers that want to get into that industry than available jobs and all talk of "worker solidarity" goes right out the fucking window when someone gets to fill in a vacancy left by someone else.

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

And they exist this way because there's way more workers that want to get into that industry than available jobs and all talk of "worker solidarity" goes right out the fucking window when someone gets to fill in a vacancy left by someone else.

This in general is one of the things that folks like Jim don't seem to get, passion for change isn't power to cause it.

Being a worker only grants you power when there are more people needing your skills than there are people to provide them. While some skillsets like engine and tool programmer are not quite flooded out, the middle breadth code monkeys are being churned out by the thousands from game dev colleges. Artists will practically pay you to let them work on a project. Designers are being churned out by the thousands from the same game dev colleges, and thats even worse because its a very useless skill outside of gamedev, and a game project has a handful, not dozens. Sound designers are pretty much exchangeable with the SFX guys from all media, not just gamedev, although there is a bit of specialization.

I hire contractors at times for some of my dev, and straight up, for every job posting I put out, I can expect half a dozen offers within the same day, and dozens by the end of the week. Most of them are brand new grads with no experience, and a shitty portfolio of some janky game clones from their factory class, maybe a failed game jam project or two. These people have no leverage to negotiate a better deal at the table, and most can't even offer something actually unique. Same goes for the artists and composers, for the most part. You'd think that a style of visuals or sound would be specific enough to command the price, but there's people out there who can hit up any atmosphere you crave if you can describe it.

 

[Leblanc]

Jim seems to calmly, glibly say whatever gets him the most attention, why he latched on to the outrage boiling over from TLOU2. Although I can agree with a few things the man says, that's the point, he throws his net wide and in whatever direction the wind is blowing.

That's always been jim's modus operandi, he's a trend follower who tries to cosplay as some grand populist who is saying some big and shocking idea the only reason he got away with it in the past I'd argue is because of the big normie crowd he initially drew in from the sheer trashfire of the digital homicide fiasco who wouldn't dig too deeply into everything about the games industry

 

[None Drunk Username]

Of course a workshy fat faggot like Jim would complain about overtime/crunch seeing as he does about 3 hours of work on an average week. Also fatboy needs to quit it with the wrestling shit, it's fucking embarassing to all involved and one day he's gonna end up breaking something.

I'm not sure if he still has it but he's said before he has chronic back pain that led to a painkiller addiction because he hurt himself cleaning out his fucking garage.

That's always been jim's modus operandi, he's a trend follower who tries to cosplay as some grand populist who is saying some big and shocking idea the only reason he got away with it in the past I'd argue is because of the big normie crowd he initially drew in from the sheer trashfire of the digital homicide fiasco who wouldn't dig too deeply into everything about the games industry

I can remember years ago on one of his podcasts he admitted (or implied) that he was upset that one of his videos was overshadowed by a major game industry controversy that was way better than the one he thought he uncovered. I can't even remember what the controversy was I think it had something to do with steam greenlight which was his bread and butter before it stopped being a thing and Jim was left with nothing. He released his video on the same day or week that H3 covered the CS:GO Lotto controversy with TMartin and ProSyndicate and that ended up being a huge scandal. Jim ended up making an emergency midweek Jimquisition because fans were begging him to cover it because it was such a hot topic but if I remember correctly he just regurgitated information that everyone already knew.

So yeah I can remember him on the podcast being like I thought my game controversy was gonna be huge but then the cs go lotto thing happened and that's all anyone was talking about.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I hire contractors at times for some of my dev, and straight up, for every job posting I put out, I can expect half a dozen offers within the same day, and dozens by the end of the week.

I have the opposite problem. People say they want to work on a game, but months later when comes time to deliver the thing they promised, it's nothing but excuses. Sometimes it's genuine, but part of me thinks it's people who expect game development to be fun and then give up when the harsh reality of having to put your nose to the grind stone appears. And I say this as one of the laziest people I know.