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.

Which videos do you like the most from Cinemassacre?

  • Angry Video Game Nerd

    Votes: 1,812 63.5%
  • You Know Whats Bullshit

    Votes: 143 5.0%
  • James and Mike Mondays

    Votes: 96 3.4%
  • Board James

    Votes: 442 15.5%
  • Monster Madness

    Votes: 270 9.5%
  • James' movie reviews

    Votes: 90 3.2%

  • Total voters
    2,853
I was rewatching some of his old monster madness vids and it's a shame that he's heading towards massive burnout maybe it'd be better for James to just move on from cinemassacre at this point but idk if he can still find a decent job or if he's stuck where all he can do is vids now because he hasn't been "employed" for so long, honestly I think james if he ever does get out would make an awesome film history professsor
I think the recent Simpsons episode sums it up perfectly--he can still make laughs every now and then but it just isn't the same as it was back in the day and it's obvious he's doing it for the brand name and the money rather than any sense of passion.

Youtube is big business these days. He puts "Cinemassacre" on his resume and shows the millions upon millions of views he gets and I'm sure he'd easily be able to find a job. My guess is James wants to preserve his self-employed status instead of doing something like making corporate training videos (which he's obviously qualified to do). Personally my hope is that he'd retire AVGN with a decent episode but every now and then (no more than once a year) bring him back for a special.

In any case I think by 2024 he'll put out his last episode since that's the 20th anniversary (!) of the Simon's Quest episode. Could be before, but probably not after 2024.
 
I think the recent Simpsons episode sums it up perfectly--he can still make laughs every now and then but it just isn't the same as it was back in the day and it's obvious he's doing it for the brand name and the money rather than any sense of passion.

Youtube is big business these days. He puts "Cinemassacre" on his resume and shows the millions upon millions of views he gets and I'm sure he'd easily be able to find a job. My guess is James wants to preserve his self-employed status instead of doing something like making corporate training videos (which he's obviously qualified to do). Personally my hope is that he'd retire AVGN with a decent episode but every now and then (no more than once a year) bring him back for a special.

In any case I think by 2024 he'll put out his last episode since that's the 20th anniversary (!) of the Simon's Quest episode. Could be before, but probably not after 2024.
At the very least he'll be retiring with 100+ decent to great episodes. It's a backlog to be proud of.
 
Even then, there's still actually some very good modern AVGN episodes (the Power Rangers one imo is actually one of the best ones James has ever done as a whole) and if you rewatch his old episodes you can see that James does have much more games to talk about (e.g. Cool Spot, maybe Double Dragon III Revisited, etc.), heck in his "Back to the Future Revisited" video he even said that he has so many games to cover while showing his entire gaming library.
It makes sense for the Power Rangers to be a good review considering it's one of the few times James got really hyped for a subject. He's a huge kaiju nerd and realized 20 years too late that there's an entire adjecent genre he missed.
 
I'm conflicted about the obviously ghost written PS1 game episodes. I think they're funny simply because the PS1 was sort of like the "throw whatever sticks to the wall" console of the 90's, same way the NES was in the 80's. Planet of the Apes, Countdown Vampires, RE Survivor.. it's good material to work with. Those games are funny on their own without commentary. I try to trick my brain into thinking James had the idea, even though it's not true.
 
I always enjoyed his content. He's a wholesome man that has content I enjoyed watching when I was nine. Hearing about his cat passing away was pretty sad, however. Boo the Cat was a good lad. Appeared in that Atari Jaguar Segment.
 
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I honestly liked his horror movie reviews more. He got me into watching a lot of the old Godzilla movies. I think thats what he liked best too anyways, always got the feeling the gaming stuff was more like a gimmick that became a cash cow so it stuck. Iirc when he started doing avgn he had already quit gaming for many years.

He gets the prize of "least lolcow", of all the gamingtubers. And lord knows that is more impressive than it sounds when looking at the trainwreck all other faggots from his generation are.
 
That is a pretty sweet man cave tbh
That is why I kinda think the "hate" James gets for the Screenwave stuff is stupid and overblown.

He did AVGN for a decade, that shit took lots of work and dedication. Now he has kids, a wife and the like and wants to pursue some other things and not spend 60 Hours a week on his AVGN brand. So..he did the smart thing. He sold it off to a big production company and now presumably spends much less time on it, which is time he can dedicate to things he actually wants to do.

He is living the dream, and yep that means AVGN episodes are cringe and bad, but I can't hate him personally for cashing out on something he worked on for a Decade.
 
That is why I kinda think the "hate" James gets for the Screenwave stuff is stupid and overblown.

He did AVGN for a decade, that shit took lots of work and dedication. Now he has kids, a wife and the like and wants to pursue some other things and not spend 60 Hours a week on his AVGN brand. So..he did the smart thing. He sold it off to a big production company and now presumably spends much less time on it, which is time he can dedicate to things he actually wants to do.

He is living the dream, and yep that means AVGN episodes are cringe and bad, but I can't hate him personally for cashing out on something he worked on for a Decade.
I think the problems people kept on complaining about are more towards the following:

  1. Gone were the days where Cinemassacre is about a bunch of friends having fun together. Kyle the Guitar Guy? Gone. Bootsy? Gone. Mike? Used to be hated from time to time but now gone. Now the crew is replaced with fat slobs from Screenwave which none find it entertaining.
  2. Quality for videos as a whole has gone downhill. Not just AVGN of course. People just generally don't like the idea that all James does for latest AVGN episodes is just voicing his lines and acting while with someone else doing the work. Some argued that James does have some input on the episodes but the point still stands. As aforementioned, gone were the days of making any videos you want while having partnerships, and now you have to make rushed videos for quick sponsors. Doesn't help that James lost passion for AVGN and still wanted to make quick bucks from recent AVGN episodes. It has reached a point where some argued the recent AVGN episodes are as the same quality as Irate Gamer's.
  3. People dislike the lack of communication between James and his fans. Staying silent is a good thing and that's what James usually does but problem is people dislike him for staying silent for far too long. Usually involving comparisons, but people also dislike James keeps on saying he has "no time" (to the point it became a meme for a subgroup) while comparing him with other similar people who have kids who did much more compared with him.

The problem with this however is spergs reacting to this sad truth in a extremely terrible direction that their reactions are obviously taken far less seriously as a result. The Ghostbusters video (the one where he says he refuses to review it) for some reason stings to these spergs even to this day:


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They also began to complain inconsistently. People preferred James to do something what he likes and prefers him to end AVGN if he doesn't like it but the moment James decided to go for a band which might be something James is into they just complain about him having a mid-life crisis as well as "but what about X":


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Finally, the aforementioned sponsors. Yes, I get it, videos having sponsors is cringe. Yes I get it, the sponsors themselves are cringe for being low quality generally. Even as such, this is something you cannot blame YouTubers because they needed sponsors to keep afloat especially with how YouTube is demonetizing hard left and right. Problem is people are taking it far off:


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It has reached a point where one user from that subreddit spreaded the wonderful works of the "truth" of Cinemassacre to KnowYourMeme and instead got mocked to oblivion because of how he only linked the subreddit (instead of the actual links) and reacting to the sad truth terribly. As a result:


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Bottom line, if you dislike the current direction of any form of media, follow these 3 simple rules from my personal point of view if you want to be taken seriously:
  1. Don't nitpick. Just because you dislike the current state doesn't mean you have to dislike every single thing from it. You do not have quality taste just because you manage to dissect everything from it.
  2. Be consistent. Stick to what you are complaining about and not disliking so much that any changes you would suggest to improve would lead to a lose-lose situation either way.
  3. Look at the current direction in their point of view. Don't bash the new direction all because you dislike change. See in their point of view and understand why they made such a change and criticise from there. Don't criticise James Rolfe solely just because of sponsors, this is something he can't control because of the terrible YouTube demonetization going on. Instead, criticise James for having video qualities going downhill as a result of going for quick bucks.
 
I think the problems people kept on complaining about are more towards the following:

  1. Gone were the days where Cinemassacre is about a bunch of friends having fun together. Kyle the Guitar Guy? Gone. Bootsy? Gone. Mike? Used to be hated from time to time but now gone. Now the crew is replaced with fat slobs from Screenwave which none find it entertaining.
  2. Quality for videos as a whole has gone downhill. Not just AVGN of course. People just generally don't like the idea that all James does for latest AVGN episodes is just voicing his lines and acting while with someone else doing the work. Some argued that James does have some input on the episodes but the point still stands. As aforementioned, gone were the days of making any videos you want while having partnerships, and now you have to make rushed videos for quick sponsors. Doesn't help that James lost passion for AVGN and still wanted to make quick bucks from recent AVGN episodes. It has reached a point where some argued the recent AVGN episodes are as the same quality as Irate Gamer's.
  3. People dislike the lack of communication between James and his fans. Staying silent is a good thing and that's what James usually does but problem is people dislike him for staying silent for far too long. Usually involving comparisons, but people also dislike James keeps on saying he has "no time" (to the point it became a meme for a subgroup) while comparing him with other similar people who have kids who did much more compared with him.

The problem with this however is spergs reacting to this sad truth in a extremely terrible direction that their reactions are obviously taken far less seriously as a result. The Ghostbusters video (the one where he says he refuses to review it) for some reason stings to these spergs even to this day:


View attachment 1926713View attachment 1926715View attachment 1926718View attachment 1926719

They also began to complain inconsistently. People preferred James to do something what he likes and prefers him to end AVGN if he doesn't like it but the moment James decided to go for a band which might be something James is into they just complain about him having a mid-life crisis as well as "but what about X":


View attachment 1926728View attachment 1926730View attachment 1926731View attachment 1926733

Finally, the aforementioned sponsors. Yes, I get it, videos having sponsors is cringe. Yes I get it, the sponsors themselves are cringe for being low quality generally. Even as such, this is something you cannot blame YouTubers because they needed sponsors to keep afloat especially with how YouTube is demonetizing hard left and right. Problem is people are taking it far off:


View attachment 1926750View attachment 1926754

It has reached a point where one user from that subreddit spreaded the wonderful works of the "truth" of Cinemassacre to KnowYourMeme and instead got mocked to oblivion because of how he only linked the subreddit (instead of the actual links) and reacting to the sad truth terribly. As a result:


View attachment 1926759

Bottom line, if you dislike the current direction of any form of media, follow these 3 simple rules from my personal point of view if you want to be taken seriously:
  1. Don't nitpick. Just because you dislike the current state doesn't mean you have to dislike every single thing from it. You do not have quality taste just because you manage to dissect everything from it.
  2. Be consistent. Stick to what you are complaining about and not disliking so much that any changes you would suggest to improve would lead to a lose-lose situation either way.
  3. Look at the current direction in their point of view. Don't bash the new direction all because you dislike change. See in their point of view and understand why they made such a change and criticise from there. Don't criticise James Rolfe solely just because of sponsors, this is something he can't control because of the terrible YouTube demonetization going on. Instead, criticise James for having video qualities going downhill as a result of going for quick bucks.
Part of me is worried if AVGN ever does a collab with someone like Red Letter Media, Screenwave fatties are going to fuck it up just like they did with Macaulay Culkin. I think the only reason James Rolfe doesn't get shit unlike other YouTube reviewers like say the Nostalgia Critic or the Animation anaylasis community is because he's genuinely a nice guy that makes really shitty decisions. He puts his trust into a bunch of fat slobs who've never done that kind of content, which is partly why Bootsy and Kyle left in the first place. I don't think it was James, but rather people like Ryan who tried to buy them off.

Keep in mind, this mostly started after the failure of the AVGN movie, hell I'd say it goes further back to when Cinemassacre and that guy who created Cheetahmen tried to scam people out of their money. I remember watching Archfiend's video years ago going into length about how Mike Matei basically got AVGN fans to waste their money on a fundrasier dedicated to a physical release of Cheetahmen, only for it to never actually happen. Which pretty much started the bad taste in people's mouth about James and his business strategy.

I do admit, that Cinemassarce's fuck-ups are nowhere near as bad as the disaster that happened with TGWTG, but it's still not really looked into by most. AVGN fans just don't realize how much of a shitty person people like Tony from Hack the Movies, Justin Silverman, Ryan and pretty much anybody from Screenwave actually are. It's painfully obvious at this point that James Rolfe wanted to end the AVGN character a long time ago and that he secretly hates doing it. He'd rather just make stuff like movies than continue using a character that he's been doing for nearly 20 years. But since it makes profit, he does it anyway to pay the bills. Overall the quality of Cinemassarce is going to become worse, especially with Mike gone since he was the writer for the majority of the classic episodes. So expect the flanderization of the Nerd continue to increase.

Most AVGN videos from the earlier days would have the Nerd go in detail about the history of certain games and then slowly become angry the longer he played it, actually seeming like he was genuinely pissed off at how badly programmed it was. The newer videos however heavily rely on the Nerd being extremely pissed the moment the episode starts and joking about how he lives like it's the 80s and doesn't know what modern technology is. Even going as far as him using something like a Commodore 64 as a personal set-up. That to me is basically part of the decline, that the Nerd as a character is heavily flanderized to the point that they chose a few traits of his and rolled with it. I mean, who needs writing anyways?

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Part of me is worried if AVGN ever does a collab with someone like Red Letter Media, Screenwave fatties are going to fuck it up just like they did with Macaulay Culkin. I think the only reason James Rolfe doesn't get shit unlike other YouTube reviewers like say the Nostalgia Critic or the Animation anaylasis community is because he's genuinely a nice guy that makes really shitty decisions. He puts his trust into a bunch of fat slobs who've never done that kind of content, which is partly why Bootsy and Kyle left in the first place. I don't think it was James, but rather people like Ryan who tried to buy them off.

Keep in mind, this mostly started after the failure of the AVGN movie, hell I'd say it goes further back to when Cinemassacre and that guy who created Cheetahmen tried to scam people out of their money. I remember watching Archfiend's video years ago going into length about how Mike Matei basically got AVGN fans to waste their money on a fundrasier dedicated to a physical release of Cheetahmen, only for it to never actually happen. Which pretty much started the bad taste in people's mouth about James and his business strategy.

I do admit, that Cinemassarce's fuck-ups are nowhere near as bad as the disaster that happened with TGWTG, but it's still not really looked into by most. AVGN fans just don't realize how much of a shitty person people like Ryan from Hack the Movies, Justin Silverman and pretty much anybody from Screenwave actually are. It's painfully obvious at this point that James Rolfe wanted to end the AVGN character a long time ago and that he secretly hates doing it. He'd rather just make stuff like movies than continue using a character that he's been doing for nearly 20 years. But since it makes profit, he does it anyway to pay the bills. Overall the quality of Cinemassarce is going to become worse, especially with Mike gone since he was the writer for the majority of the classic episodes. So expect the flanderization of the Nerd continue to increase.

Most AVGN videos from the earlier days would have the Nerd go in detail about the history of certain games and then slowly become angry the longer he played it, actually seeming like he was genuinely pissed off at how badly programmed it was. The newer videos however heavily rely on the Nerd being extremely pissed the moment the episode starts and joking about how he lives like it's the 80s and doesn't know what modern technology is. Even going as far as him using something like a Commodore 64 as a personal set-up. That to me is basically part of the decline, that the Nerd as a character is heavily flanderized to the point that they chose a few traits of his and rolled with it. I mean, who needs writing anyways?

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Ah yes, the Cheetahmen drama. I recall when people including even Irate Gamer called him out, AVGN spergs and fanboys sperged out about how James did nothing wrong and began lambasting those who criticise him (e.g. Asalieri, Archfiend, etc.) in a "wtf I hate them now" as if they are traitors.

Not even James had that mood in this promotional video either. The "noooooooooooooooo" effect summed it up.
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Now granted, to be fair, the Cheetahman fundraiser did actually deliver what they were offering. Those who funded it got their rewards (for the most part, if you take a look at the comments in the Kickstarter page, some of the recent comments said they had not received their rewards, but there might be a possibility that they got theirs later, just unreported, so who knows), pretty simple, so for that case alone it wasn't really a scam. But however, the goal needed is overpriced at $65k. And all of that for a reproduction copy which has its fixed ROM file floating around for free on the Internet and it actually costs far less, which is what people are complaining about to begin with for being very sketchy. In the end, the one who set up the fundraiser got his money, gave away the rewards which were far cheaper to produce and ran away with the money. This wouldn't be too bad if it didn't coincide with the fundraiser for the AVGN movie really, and as we all knew the movie was a flop.
 
Idk if this has already been posted before, I looked and saw no mentions, but have you see this?
I found it on CinemassacreTruth (I know, I know, don't judge me for that) and found it pretty interesting, so I wanted to know what you all thought about it.
 
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