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.

[BrunoMattei]

January is usually a dry month for Cinemassacre to be fair, though this year is much drier compared with last year's. For reference, these are the videos uploaded last year on January:

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• 16 January: My Favorite Comedies of All Time
• 23 January: Mario Maker - My kid's levels - Episode 1
• 30 January: The Dinosaurs TV Show Review

This year......
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• 1 January: Top 20 AVGN Moments 2021
• 15 January: AVGN Season 15

Optimistically maybe this long break would give James some time to make better quality videos since it's no secret he's on burnout and last year really showed it a lot.


The image from that link in case you all want to have a look:

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It isn't hard at all for James to just sit down and talk in that boring podcast but I felt that time would've been better off used to either making AVGN episodes or even practicing your guitar for your passionate hobby. If that podcast returns I don't mind if James wasn't there at all and in his place would have some special guests such as Scott the Woz to keep the views up.

I think the podcast is done. Rex Viper is done. The people have spoken and said: "We don't like this. Please stop." My hypothesis is that him and Screen Wave are scrambling for what cheap and easy to produce content they can do now. LP videos? Just like James & Mike Mondays? Is he going to do it by himself or with the Slobs with him going "Uhm" and "Ah" and don't forget "Yeah" while feigning interest? Music shit where he talks about the same bands he's always talked about whenever he gets a chance? More vlogs about Slayer and ACDC?

He could do mini-reviews like that Metroid NES review a fan made but something something no time for that. All of the recent AVGN's (excluding the Commodore 64 overview) have underperformed in views so I think Screen Wave is weighing their options dropping him.

It's do or die time for James. Either give a shit and produce quality content again or figure out what you want to do with this YT channel. Ironically, I think Mike is his life raft right now. He could bring back Mike, kiss his balls if he has to, get him back involved with writing AVGN and James & Mike Mondays again.

Edit: selling the channel is another thing that could happen. He could cash out for however much the channel is worth and basically serve as a contractor for Screen Wave or whoever buys it. It's not outside the realm of possibility.

 

[deeman]

Is he going to do it by himself

Oh God, a whole series about James let's play would suck. proof? The last part of Metrod. "Tricky Dicky... mhmmm... Tri...cky... dick...y" is basically what i remeber from it.

 

[José Mourinho]

January is usually a dry month for Cinemassacre to be fair

I was wrong about this one. I decided to see what were the videos uploaded on January 2020:

And these were from January 2019:

You can argue about the quality all you want, but even then seeing how only last year and this year where both have a dry January does sound depressing.

 

[Aquafag]

Edit: selling the channel is another thing that could happen. He could cash out for however much the channel is worth and basically serve as a contractor for Screen Wave or whoever buys it. It's not outside the realm of possibility.

How much different would that be than what we have now?

 

[Least Concern]

He could do mini-reviews like that Metroid NES review a fan made but something something no time for that. All of the recent AVGN's (excluding the Commodore 64 overview) have underperformed in views so I think Screen Wave is weighing their options dropping him.

What? That'd be like The Escapist dropping Yahtzee. What would be left? James is the tentpole.

 

[Wraith]

Year of the Spoony-um, I mean Bimmy!

 

[BrunoMattei]

What? That'd be like The Escapist dropping Yahtzee. What would be left? James is the tentpole.

Here's the thing: Screen Wave is doing the heavy lifting for him now so I think the take has to be something like 60/40. 60/40 is good when a video got 3 million + views during the first week or two but now under a million views during that same period? It's not that much money.

 

[Sexyphobe]

Here's the thing: Screen Wave is doing the heavy lifting for him now so I think the take has to be something like 60/40. 60/40 is good when a video got 3 million + views during the first week or two but now under a million views during that same period? It's not that much money.

Still don't understand why he doesn't just use Patreon like literally everyone else. Wouldn't even need to make that many videos. Gaming Historian uploads like once every month or two, but people don't mind as he does extreme research and sometimes gets the creators on. Guy made me care about the Mega Man DOS games and Awesome Possum, so he must be doing something right.

Cinemassacre could get away with 1 Nerd video every other month and a bunch of movie or miscellaneous videos like J&MM and be fine. Or just talk about good games like I've mentioned on the last page.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Still don't understand why he doesn't just use Patreon like literally everyone else. Wouldn't even need to make that many videos. Gaming Historian uploads like once every month or two, but people don't mind as he does extreme research and sometimes gets the creators on. Guy made me care about the Mega Man DOS games and Awesome Possum, so he must be doing something right.

Cinemassacre could get away with 1 Nerd video every other month and a bunch of movie or miscellaneous videos like J&MM and be fine. Or just talk about good games like I've mentioned on the last page.

Okay, here's my guess: after the Indiegogo with the movie it's made him hesitant to accept money from fans. Why is that? Who knows? It's obvious now that James is a man who is very set in his ways and is very reluctant to any kind of change.

 

[Marge Simpson]

Okay, here's my guess: after the Indiegogo with the movie it's made him hesitant to accept money from fans. Why is that? Who knows? It's obvious now that James is a man who is very set in his ways and is very reluctant to any kind of change.

James is the world's youngest boomer so he might have no idea what a Patreon even is. I mean this is the same guy that thought Dark Souls was a side scroller platformer.

 

[BrunoMattei]

James is the world's youngest boomer so he might have no idea what a Patreon even is. I mean this is the same guy that thought Dark Souls was a side scroller platformer.

They did setup a Patreon once but barely promoted it and I think it was largely organized by Mike.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

James is the world's youngest boomer so he might have no idea what a Patreon even is. I mean this is the same guy that thought Dark Souls was a side scroller platformer.

Wait...what?

 

[Sexyphobe]

Wait...what?

He talks about wanting a Zelda game like BOTW but with realistic graphics like RDR2. Mike suggests Dark Souls because people compare it to Zelda 2, which is a big can of "wut" on its own. Because Mike is saying it's like Zelda 2 he asks if it's a sidescroller. Mike continues to say DS shares a lot of aspects and elements of Zelda 2 which, again, wat.

All that, James not knowing what Dark Souls even is, and Mike even thinking about suggesting it to James is so bizarre.

 

[GhostButt]

He talks about wanting a Zelda game like BOTW but with realistic graphics like RDR2. Mike suggests Dark Souls because people compare it to Zelda 2, which is a big can of "wut" on its own. Because Mike is saying it's like Zelda 2 he asks if it's a sidescroller. Mike continues to say DS shares a lot of aspects and elements of Zelda 2 which, again, wat.

All that, James not knowing what Dark Souls even is, and Mike even thinking about suggesting it to James is so bizarre.

James gets a lot of his gaming cred cribbed from Mike's notes and Mike considers nes and snes "new", regularly plays atari on his solo stream and when asked his fav console his answer is Arcade, and by arcade he means Pacman and Asteroids. So for me this makes perfect sense.
I just wish James would do what Mike does, and stick to the shit they actually dig, because Mike's streams are 100% less dead-inside feeling than James' output.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Doesn't Mike use weird 70's terms for levels and lives? Like "boards" and "toons" or something?

 

[Pissmaster]

He talks about wanting a Zelda game like BOTW but with realistic graphics like RDR2. Mike suggests Dark Souls because people compare it to Zelda 2, which is a big can of "wut" on its own. Because Mike is saying it's like Zelda 2 he asks if it's a sidescroller. Mike continues to say DS shares a lot of aspects and elements of Zelda 2 which, again, wat.

All that, James not knowing what Dark Souls even is, and Mike even thinking about suggesting it to James is so bizarre.

Yeah, Mike recommending that game of all things to James was weird, though I guess he wasn't really thinking hard about it due to being smack dab in the middle of a Mario 3 run alongside someone he's known forever, which may as well have been a heroin rush for how comfy Mike was feeling at the time. If I had to recommend something to James, I'd go with something like a newer Mortal Kombat or Postal 4, just because I'd imagine he'd enjoy all the visceral violence.

James would give up on Dark Souls in a heartbeat. Like just look at where they are in that video, James was only just reaching the end of World 2 while Mike was well into World 6, and Mario 3 is not a difficult game.

Plus, like, James not knowing what Dark Souls is couldn't make it more obvious that he doesn't keep up with modern gaming in the least. I wouldn't be surprised if he were currently confused on whether or not the PS5 is even out yet.

Doesn't Mike use weird 70's terms for levels and lives? Like "boards" and "toons" or something?

Yeah, though I haven't heard him use those terms lately on Talk About Games (which is still really good).

 

[Friendly Primarina]

James would give up on Dark Souls in a heartbeat. Like just look at where they are in that video, James was only just reaching the end of World 2 while Mike was well into World 6, and Mario 3 is not a difficult game.

Oh wow I didn't even notice the difference in levels. That's hilarious. That clip just makes me feel bad for Mike's posture. I'm no doctor but I'm pretty sure your ears are not supposed to be level with your shoulders when sitting down.

There's a moment not long before this part where James thinks he lost a magic whistle because he can't see it on the item screen:
J: Oh fuck I lost the whistle cos I got too many items!
*Mike says something inaudible*
*James presses down on the dpad*
J: Ohhhhh.....
It's nice to have little moments like this that remind us that James is legit retarded.

 

[Pissmaster]

Someone on TheCinemassacreTruth put together a supercut of James being retarded on the Super Mario Bros. 3 JMM video a while ago, it's bizarre just how bad James is at it. It's Mario 3, come on, he played it as a kid.

 

[Marge Simpson]

Doesn't Mike use weird 70's terms for levels and lives? Like "boards" and "toons" or something?

Oh yeah, let's not forget calling "free guys" to the one ups or extra lives. I remember on some video by Egoraptor he was sperging that Matei is the only one who calls them that and i agree with him on that one.

Plus, like, James not knowing what Dark Souls is couldn't make it more obvious that he doesn't keep up with modern gaming in the least. I wouldn't be surprised if he were currently confused on whether or not the PS5 is even out yet.

James himself have said before that making gaming videos is his day job, well if it is then i don't think it's too much to ask that he keeps up with at least the most relevant newer franchises. And i use the word "new" very loosely because Dark Souls as a franchise is already like 10 years old.

 

[Jozef]

Doesn't Mike use weird 70's terms for levels and lives? Like "boards" and "toons" or something?

I'm thinking Mike didn't have many friends growing up so he picked up old words from his parents or something, just like how CWC uses old words like "commode" because the only socialization he got was with his parents.