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.

[BPD Gunt Rider]

What was the bigger reason for his downfall, the failure of the AVGN movie or him simply having a kid?

The movie, because the drama and shenanigans he pulled with it in the early 10s were the first domino in AVGN not being the darling of the fuck shit piss fake gamer genre.

By the time he had a kid in 2013, the glory days were gone and the extremely saturated angry gamer shtick was dying out.

 

[Dom Cruise]

The movie, because the drama and shenanigans he pulled with it in the early 10s were the first domino in AVGN not being the darling of the fuck shit piss fake gamer genre.

By the time he had a kid in 2013, the glory days were gone and the extremely saturated angry gamer shtick was dying out.

He really should have considered the movie a series finale and transitioned to Board James being his main series, as that was the best content he put out circa 2013/2014.

Instead he's long abandoned Board James and now keeps cranking out AVGN despite it only getting staler and staler.

Last year is when he should have wrapped it up, that would have given him an out of 15 solid years of AVGN, long enough to say "ok guys, it's been fun, but I'm hanging it up" and no one would blame him.

I mean how long is he going to keep it going, until 2026? That would be 20 years of steady AVGN, is that not long enough? 20 years is a hell of a long time for anything internet related, Something Awful sputtered out after just over 20 years.

Maybe he could keep it fresh if he focused more on PS1, PS2, even PS3/360 era games, he's dipped his toe in that, but stubbornly stays stuck in the 8 bit/16 bit era even though ranting about games of that era is played out now.

He's like the internet equivalent of The Simpsons, a legend in the early days and now you look at it and just cringe.

 

[Grog]

Maybe he could keep it fresh if he focused more on PS1, PS2, even PS3/360 era games, he's dipped his toe in that, but stubbornly stays stuck in the 8 bit/16 bit era even though ranting about games of that era is played out now.

That's for the best, he's absolutely clueless about anything after and including the N64/PS1 era, and any time he tried to make a video about more modern games you could feel the fat hands of the slobs pulling the strings, even more than usual.

 

[Travoltron]

There's still lots of (fools) gold from the 8-bit era to mine. But he'll never find those games without Mike's help.

 

[MG-34]

What was the bigger reason for his downfall, the failure of the AVGN movie or him simply having a kid?

I tend to have thought in the past that it was the filming of the movie that killed the momentum of the web series, but looking back he was still putting out good content in 2013 and 2014.

It seems instead like it was when the movie released did the slow but steady downward spiral occur, maybe deep down he knew the movie was a piece of a shit and with all the hard work and money he spent on it, as well as knowing he'd never have another chance to make another movie, permanently killed his passion for the whole thing and it became something he does for a paycheck, nothing more.

I really wish the guy would just hang it up already instead of continuing to burn through his goodwill, but I guess he has no day job to go back to.

On the flipside to that, maybe it was just because he had a kid, his priorities changed and he grew up, the man child act was always going to feel stale and false once you actually have a kid.

What a sad fate though for someone who reached such highs though, it's really pretty heart breaking.

The Movie gets my vote, although his wife seems like a drag and likely added her own unwarranted contributions to the movie that further degraded it. Many people can juggle kids and a career. James couldn't admit his final movie treatment was garbage and as already mentioned several times over he pissed good money filming in California as if it was a hard requirement. Making a movie length AVGN video had potental but he chose to fuck with the tested formula.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

What was the bigger reason for his downfall, the failure of the AVGN movie or him simply having a kid?

I would say it was mostly the changes in Youtube over the years combined with Burnout.

Youtube isn't what it once ways in terms of direct monetization so you have to have sponsors if you are doing "edgy" content or direct super chat donations...and James couldn't be bothered learning how to navigate the new systems so he said "Fuck it, I am selling out to Screenwave and the fattties can do all the annoying work"

 

[BPD Gunt Rider]

He's like the internet equivalent of The Simpsons, a legend in the early days and now you look at it and just cringe.

I view the Pissed Off Video Game phase like Beavis and Butthead in the 90s. The edgy negative humor had its place in time after years where people could only buy disk/cartridge games based on reviews and shills. It just doesn't fit today with the Internet where every Joe Blow can think their opinions matter.

I don't blame Rolfe for keeping it up since he has enough of a fanbase to make a good living. Not much different from most of Youtube and streamers today.

 

[Pissmaster]

There's still lots of (fools) gold from the 8-bit era to mine. But he'll never find those games without Mike's help.

One thing I'm surprised he never got to was Mickey's Mousecapade, that one's just perfect for a Nerd video

• well known mascot
• no saving
• Level 3 has invisible doors, you were never given a hint that they exist and to look for them, and you open them by shooting everything like in Milon's Secret Castle
• Level 4 is just four screens long, that includes the boss. Even the longplay video clears it in less than a minute
• Final boss is simple, just time your jumps right and get in a rhythm

 

[Travoltron]

One thing I'm surprised he never got to was Mickey's Mousecapade, that one's just perfect for a Nerd video

The Game Dude made an infamous video on that game. And then Game Grumps did a video mocking the Game Dude's video.

 

[Dom Cruise]

That's for the best, he's absolutely clueless about anything after and including the N64/PS1 era, and any time he tried to make a video about more modern games you could feel the fat hands of the slobs pulling the strings, even more than usual.

The one I always dreamed about seeing him tackle was the Army Men series of games on the N64/PS1, but I only care if it was James himself and not Screenwave.

The Movie gets my vote, although his wife seems like a drag and likely added her own unwarranted contributions to the movie that further degraded it. Many people can juggle kids and a career. James couldn't admit his final movie treatment was garbage and as already mentioned several times over he pissed good money filming in California as if it was a hard requirement. Making a movie length AVGN video had potental but he chose to fuck with the tested formula.

I remember how impressive his 2007 Halloween episodes were, there was definitely potential in making a movie length episode.

The trouble is he bit off more than he could chew, in trying to make it an actual theatrical release, blu ray release etc, he should have just uploaded it online, imagine how impressive it would be in that context instead of treating it like an "actual" movie.

And it needed a rewrite, no bland as shit token black character, Pee Wee's Big Adventure didn't need to give him a never before seen sidekick.

It was also really hamstrung by the fact that he literally never directly references E.T., it's "Eeeee Teeee" or some copyright distinct shit, another reason it should have stayed online.

But yeah, his first mistake was filming in California, not even Hollywood films in California anymore.

I don't blame Rolfe for keeping it up since he has enough of a fanbase to make a good living. Not much different from most of Youtube and streamers today.

He's pissing away his long term legacy though, again, it's like The Simpsons, if he keeps cranking it out at some point there's going to be more bad episodes than good episodes, if we're not at that point already.

Had he quit while he was ahead he could have gone down as a legend instead of burning a lot of goodwill.

But I get it, he has kids, it's a steady paycheck etc.

 

[Mr. K. Dilkington]

What was the bigger reason for his downfall, the failure of the AVGN movie or him simply having a kid?

i may be wrong but i remember there being a decently sizeable uptick in views around the time the movie had come out (big rigs, desert bus, the christmas episodes, hong kong 97 and seaman are considered to be great, classic episodes).
i would consider the main culprit to be a combination of his family life, his style of video growing stale on youtube in the last few years along with how the screenwave contract seems to completely suck all the passion out of his AVGN episodes nowadays, which leads to his views dipping more and more.
i actually believe that he'd still be doing relatively decent videos if it weren't for the necessity to sign with screenwave and, as much as i hate to say it, let mike go. (as retarded as mike is, he was a really good asset for AVGN episodes. he also didn't plagiarize scripts afaik, which is also a plus).

so overall i'd personally consider him a victim of circumstance. it's a shame that he has to make do like this, but he's coming up on his 20th year doing AVGN videos, so I guess you can't expect it to be good forever.

 

[Dom Cruise]

i may be wrong but i remember there being a decently sizeable uptick in views around the time the movie had come out (big rigs, desert bus, the christmas episodes, hong kong 97 and seaman are considered to be great, classic episodes).

That was the last batch of episodes I remember being great, but that was like, 2014? 2015? Quite a while ago now.

i would consider the main culprit to be a combination of his family life, his style of video growing stale on youtube in the last few years along with how the screenwave contract seems to completely suck all the passion out of his AVGN episodes nowadays, which leads to his views dipping more and more.
i actually believe that he'd still be doing relatively decent videos if it weren't for the necessity to sign with screenwave and, as much as i hate to say it, let mike go. (as retarded as mike is, he was a really good asset for AVGN episodes. he also didn't plagiarize scripts afaik, which is also a plus).

so overall i'd personally consider him a victim of circumstance. it's a shame that he has to make do like this, but he's coming up on his 20th year doing AVGN videos, so I guess you can't expect it to be good forever.

It seems to me like most internet things only have a life span of about 20 years before they either peter out completely or have just long gone to shit.

Look at Netflix shitting the bed currently, it may not always be 20 years, but it does seem like the internet is a very fickle place where it's very hard to maintain success for very long periods of time.

Even a decade is pushing it, The Super Best Friends Play channel died after less than a decade, I would say James started getting stale in 2016, a decade after he had been doing it regularly, the only ones off the top of my head who are still going strong after over a decade are Red Letter Media.

 

[Jan Ciągwa]

What was the bigger reason for his downfall, the failure of the AVGN movie or him simply having a kid?

You kinda answered your own question in the same post:

On the flipside to that, maybe it was just because he had a kid, his priorities changed and he grew up, the man child act was always going to feel stale and false once you actually have a kid.

Mike was the AVGN. James was more of a prop in front of the camera.

Mike was also responsible for a lot of behind the scenes work that James sucks at doing. If James had any clue how to monetize AVGN when it was red-hot (there's a long post ITT explaining what went wrong) he wouldn't have to force out by-the-numbers episodes today for sponsorship money. All he had to do was not piss off Mike by talking about the shits his kids took this morning and keep working at his day job.

It reminds me of how Asterix went downhill after Goscinny died because Uderzo was good at drawing but bad at writing.

 

[Craigstopher T Penmanship]

Not James, but I witnessed Screenwave Justin at PAX East this past weekend. Moreso a pathetic display of a man alone trying to insert himself sheepishly into other groups enjoying themselves at the hotel bar at the end of the day.

While hanging out at the bar with some buddies, I witnessed Justin wander in a circle for maybe 90 minutes looking for openings in groups to slink in and start talking with folks. To his credit he was approached maybe twice by I guess fans? He bought a stranger a drink just because they exchanged a few short words, which seems like a nice act but something about it reeked of desperation. Most of that time though was just him walking in circles with a drink looking lonely.

 

[TrippinKahlua]

Not James, but I witnessed Screenwave Justin at PAX East this past weekend. Moreso a pathetic display of a man alone trying to insert himself sheepishly into other groups enjoying themselves at the hotel bar at the end of the day.

While hanging out at the bar with some buddies, I witnessed Justin wander in a circle for maybe 90 minutes looking for openings in groups to slink in and start talking with folks. To his credit he was approached maybe twice by I guess fans? He bought a stranger a drink just because they exchanged a few short words, which seems like a nice act but something about it reeked of desperation. Most of that time though was just him walking in circles with a drink looking lonely.

I guess he isn’t as highly regarded as a professional in the Boston area than he is in Philadelphia.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

It'd have to be a pretty large opening for him to slink into. Not surprised he couldn't find one.

 

[Pissmaster]

So, one thing that's been kicking around in my head for a while as a way for James to keep the AVGN going is to roll with his whole old-man-doesn't-understand-modern-games schtick. I'm not really sure how far he could take it, but much like he captured the frustration of old games, it'd be interesting to see a representation of the sheer ennui so many of us feel while playing most modern games. He could play something like, I don't know, Fortnite, and complain about the absolute shopping mall that is the character customizer, full of all kinds of shit you have to pay for.

Hell, a fun movie idea would be like, his daughter put him a million dollars into debt from buying character skins, so he has to work against being such an old fuckin' man and git gud at the game in order to win a million dollar tournament. All throughout, he could complain about all the modern game mechanics, the hostility of online multiplayer, maybe even touch on the issue of kids bullying other kids over their in-game outfits. The ultimate message would be "Isn't this shit supposed to be fun? When did that quit being the most important aspect to games?"

 

[CyrusHowler]

What’s everybody’s favorite Bootsy song from Board James? Mine is Donut Disaster. It’s so fucking good and catchy.

 

[KIllz]

What’s everybody’s favorite Bootsy song from Board James? Mine is Donut Disaster. It’s so fucking good and catchy.

Gotta go with Dream Phone. Classic!

 

[Jason Wynn]

What’s everybody’s favorite Bootsy song from Board James? Mine is Donut Disaster. It’s so fucking good and catchy.

Tornado Rex is a classic