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.

[Janny Jewsh]

I've read somewhere that they got married in 2007. In the few years following, AVGN was still, for many, in its prime, but I guess it all started really going downhill after they had their first child, and even worse after the second child, hence "MUH KIDS". I think James used his kids as an excuse as early as right before the AVGN Movie came out.

You're right, I remember that his first child was born close to when filming started on AVGN movie.

I feel there was a continual drop off in quality after episode 100, which would roughly coincide with daughter's birth.

 

[Fursei]

Any idea on how much money James brought in over the years?

At his height, when he pumping out videos regularly, he was probably making $10k-$20k per video. He was hitting a million views an episode easily (he probably had preferential treatment at GameTrailers and got a higher CPM). He also posted the episodes later on YouTube and accumulated more views over time, possibly hitting $30k-$50k overall on some videos.

Whatever it was, it was enough to pay Mike who now owns a house.

 

[Pickle Dick]

I feel there was a continual drop off in quality after episode 100, which would roughly coincide with daughter's birth.

Now that I've read this post, I've suddenly harnessed the autistic energy to summarize the quality of each AVGN season. This will be a post in three parts, and will cover five seasons each.

Spoiler: Seasons 1-5 + Pilots

Season 1, including the pilots (2004-2006) was a little shoddy, but they at least had excuses as for why. For the pilots, James did those as a joke about taking games (especially old ones) way too seriously, and he didn't expect to do more beyond those. For Season 1 in general, James was only able to do episodes on his free time (and yes, he actually could use "muh time" as an excuse back then) since he had a real life job. All of this meant the episodes of Season 1 were extremely basic, although James going freelance later on meant he would have more time to do Nerd episodes. Excluding the pilots, the best episode (IMO from here onwards) was TMNT (the episode that made AVGN popular), the worst episode was Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu (which "guest starred" a particular pickle with feces on its head, that episode is just a little unbearable to watch because of it)

Season 2 [2007-2008] saw an increase and quality, and in turn, more episodes that were good and rewatchable. In addition, James began a contract with GameTrailers, in association with ScrewAttack, to post new episodes on their website. In turn, these AVGN episodes wouldn't be published to YouTube first, instead they were uploaded there between 2008 and 2009. The season itself is beloved for probably being James's creative peak for the show, featuring innumerable camera angles for many episodes (see that cherrypicked meme for reference), and episodes overall being far more experimental than those that came after the season. The best episode was Spider-Man (guest starring Kyle Justin, the guitar guy, as the titular character), the worst episode was the Legend of Zelda Timeline (as James himself puts it, he wasn't even "furious" in the episode, and it was a holdover from Season 1)

Season 3 (2008-2009; published on YouTube between 2009 and 2010) would see the show move from the apartment that James had been living in since the previous season to the current "Nerd Room" in the basement of his new house. There was far more room in the basement than in his house, and in turn, gave James much more opportunities for episodes. The best episode was NES Accessories (which happens to be the most viewed AVGN episode on YouTube as of this writing), the worst episode was Deadly Towers (though I don't see it as a bad episode, it was pretty creative to be honest, it did kind of foreshadow how try hard James would be with the scripts he would be given in ten years' time)

Season 4 (2009-2010; published on YouTube between 2010 and 2011) was effectively peak AVGN. A healthy variety of, as James puts it, "basic" episodes (e.g. Super Pitfall, Plumbers Don't Wear Ties) and "epic" episodes (e.g. Crazy Castle, Ninja Gaiden) were present in this season. The season was also the most memeable, with clips being utilized from episodes like Transformers ("That's right, we're gonna cheat!") and Pong Consoles (the scene where the Nerd shoots at the TV) for comedic effect. The best episodes were his retrospectives of Castlevania games (personally, it helped me get into Castlevania more). The worst episode was X-Men (it's actually a fairly decent episode, but was a little boring in my opinion).

Season 5 (2010-2011; published on YouTube between 2011 and 2012) saw the show reach 100 episodes, celebrating that milestone by reviewing ROB the Robot and its games. James had burnt himself out by this time due to his two episode per month schedule, and would thus scale down this schedule to about one episode a month. The show started showing some decline in quality, but was still a very decent season,. The best episodes were the twofer of Action 52 and Cheetahmen (they felt like they were the last Golden Age AVGN episodes in a way). The worst episode was How the Nerd Stole Christmas (its not unwatchable, but its way too gimmicky for its own good)

I'll post summaries of Seasons 6-10 in the coming months, and that's when I think the show was very obviously in the decline in quality.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Now that I've read this post, I've suddenly harnessed the autistic energy to summarize the quality of each AVGN season. This will be a post in three parts, and will cover five seasons each.

Spoiler: Seasons 1-5 + Pilots

Season 1, including the pilots (2004-2006) was a little shoddy, but they at least had excuses as for why. For the pilots, James did those as a joke about taking games (especially old ones) way too seriously, and he didn't expect to do more beyond those. For Season 1 in general, James was only able to do episodes on his free time (and yes, he actually could use "muh time" as an excuse back then) since he had a real life job. All of this meant the episodes of Season 1 were extremely basic, although James going freelance later on meant he would have more time to do Nerd episodes. Excluding the pilots, the best episode (IMO from here onwards) was TMNT (the episode that made AVGN popular), the worst episode was Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu (which "guest starred" a particular pickle with feces on its head, that episode is just a little unbearable to watch because of it)

Season 2 [2007-2008] saw an increase and quality, and in turn, more episodes that were good and rewatchable. In addition, James began a contract with GameTrailers, in association with ScrewAttack, to post new episodes on their website. In turn, these AVGN episodes wouldn't be published to YouTube first, instead they were uploaded there between 2008 and 2009. The season itself is beloved for probably being James's creative peak for the show, featuring innumerable camera angles for many episodes (see that cherrypicked meme for reference), and episodes overall being far more experimental than those that came after the season. The best episode was Spider-Man (guest starring Kyle Justin, the guitar guy, as the titular character), the worst episode was the Legend of Zelda Timeline (as James himself puts it, he wasn't even "furious" in the episode, and it was a holdover from Season 1)

Season 3 (2008-2009; published on YouTube between 2009 and 2010) would see the show move from the apartment that James had been living in since the previous season to the current "Nerd Room" in the basement of his new house. There was far more room in the basement than in his house, and in turn, gave James much more opportunities for episodes. The best episode was NES Accessories (which happens to be the most viewed AVGN episode on YouTube as of this writing), the worst episode was Deadly Towers (though I don't see it as a bad episode, it was pretty creative to be honest, it did kind of foreshadow how try hard James would be with the scripts he would be given in ten years' time)

Season 4 (2009-2010; published on YouTube between 2010 and 2011) was effectively peak AVGN. A healthy variety of, as James puts it, "basic" episodes (e.g. Super Pitfall, Plumbers Don't Wear Ties) and "epic" episodes (e.g. Crazy Castle, Ninja Gaiden) were present in this season. The season was also the most memeable, with clips being utilized from episodes like Transformers ("That's right, we're gonna cheat!") and Pong Consoles (the scene where the Nerd shoots at the TV) for comedic effect. The best episodes were his retrospectives of Castlevania games (personally, it helped me get into Castlevania more). The worst episode was X-Men (it's actually a fairly decent episode, but was a little boring in my opinion).

Season 5 (2010-2011; published on YouTube between 2011 and 2012) saw the show reach 100 episodes, celebrating that milestone by reviewing ROB the Robot and its games. James had burnt himself out by this time due to his two episode per month schedule, and would thus scale down this schedule to about one episode a month. The show started showing some decline in quality, but was still a very decent season,. The best episodes were the twofer of Action 52 and Cheetahmen (they felt like they were the last Golden Age AVGN episodes in a way). The worst episode was How the Nerd Stole Christmas (its not unwatchable, but its way too gimmicky for its own good)

I'll post summaries of Seasons 6-10 in the coming months, and that's when I think the show was very obviously in the decline in quality.

I think you can pinpoint when the decline in quality officially began and that was when he did the Sanic 06 video. It was a dead horse subject plus the video was lazy in so many ways. In retrospect, it was the first sign of things to come. It's basically the Principal and the Pauper equivalent to AVGN. That's the Amir Tamzarian episode of the Simpsons.

 

[Pickle Dick]

I think you can pinpoint when the decline in quality officially began and that was when he did the Sanic 06 video. It was a dead horse subject plus the video was lazy in so many ways. In retrospect, it was the first sign of things to come. It's basically the Principal and the Pauper equivalent to AVGN. That's the Amir Tamzarian episode of the Simpsons.

That episode was in Season 11, which I can pinpoint was the season that Screenwave began to be more involved in the show (not to mention his second daughter was born, but I’ll get to that much later). From what I’ve read, they’ve been involved with the show since about Season 9 (or as early as the AVGN movie, albeit for distribution only), but their cancer didn’t really start to permeate until around Season 11. It wasn’t a bad season on its own, but many of the episodes did feel a little off, like James was reading off a script someone else wrote… but it wasn’t as bad as later seasons, where there are only a handful of superb episodes, and the rest have qualities that range from “actually pretty decent” (Darkman) to “wtf is the abhorrent piece of junk” (Sega Game Gear tapes)

 

[Green Man]

I genuinely don't understand the "muh kids" bit. This guy makes money hand-over-fist [though probably not as much as he once did] to sit on his ass and play videogames, write scripts and deal with regular content production shit, and works from home no less. He doesn't need to go off to a studio space somewhere. I get that his first kid had some kind of medical issue [maybe his second one too but I can't remember] that required hospitalization which would probably mean a lot of commuting and stress/etc but they seem to be fine now. So what's the deal?

I've known people working two fucking jobs, people working third shift, people doing 60 hours a week with 3+ children and if they'd either stopped going to work or started phoning it in at work and half-assing things they would've been shitcanned. And those people all had hobbies and side projects they took part in, which is really mostly what James' deal is, I don't believe he's actually engaged in content production for 40 hours a week. If he is it's probably because he refuses to streamline his process and is still using ancient IDE drives or some shit. He's been using this "no time/muh kids" thing for years now and he clearly has time, he just started a fucking band and a podcast, which precisely zero of his fans asked for. Instead of doing gay Zoom band shit and a podcast with big fat ass slobs, why not put that extra time into making his old lineup of content more high effort and watchable?

I think he just doesn't want to admit he's burnt the fuck out on the AVGN, and fair enough if he is, he's been doing it for a long time, but if so, then why keep pumping out shit episodes that just degrade the overall "brand" or channel?

[I may be incorrect, he may not even write the fucking scripts anymore and I heard one of the ScreenWave slobs play the games to capture footage]

 

[José Mourinho]

I think he just doesn't want to admit he's burnt the fuck out on the AVGN, and fair enough if he is, he's been doing it for a long time, but if so, then why keep pumping out shit episodes that just degrade the overall "brand" or channel?

James mentions in the Behind the Scenes video (13 minute mark) that lately he had to do like "two episodes a month with contracted brand deals and deadlines". AVGN videos are the ones bringing in the views so it would make sense he would make more AVGN:

Doesn't help that the recent non-AVGN videos for the Cinemassacre channel are also generally looked down upon and there's a reason why some people say "We don't want this shit, we just want AVGN", as well as looking down on James being a movie guy. His passion seems to be more on the Rex Viper stuff which is divisive.

Maybe one day I'll just rank and give my thoughts on all the AVGN episodes.

 

[deeman]

How often will they air the slobcast? I'm actually looking forward to the next one, since the first one always gets a "We're noobs" pass and i just can't wait slapping my forehead when it get's to the Rex Viper half hour again.

(And i'm pissed Screenwave seems to choose the games, i mean there are still soooo many awfull funny games on the C64, hell, he haven't even mentioned Mega Duck!)

 

[PeriodicTrouble]

How often will they air the slobcast? I'm actually looking forward to the next one, since the first one always gets a "We're noobs" pass and i just can't wait slapping my forehead when it get's to the Rex Viper half hour again.

(And i'm pissed Screenwave seems to choose the games, i mean there are still soooo many awfull funny games on the C64, hell, he haven't even mentioned Mega Duck!)

I'm guessing its once a week because of James filming them in bulk like James and Mike Monday except the podcast is being released every Tuesday. https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCinemassacreTruth/comments/p1wrzy/avgn_now_classified_as_random/

 

[José Mourinho]

How often will they air the slobcast?

They said every Tuesday.

because of James filming them in bulk like James and Mike Monday

I don't get why they have to do a lot of these podcasts in advance. The first podcast implies it's filmed before Hearts on Fire music video is released (mid-July 2021) and if you film these podcasts early in advance they would seem dated. This isn't like James & Mike Mondays or Game Grumps where all you do is just play games and occasionally talk stuff. Besides, I can imagine filming podcasts in bulk all at once would seem tiring.

 

[PeriodicTrouble]

I don't get why they have to do a lot of these podcasts in advance. The first podcast implies it's filmed before Hearts on Fire music video is released (mid-July 2021) and if you film these podcasts early in advance they would seem dated. This isn't like James & Mike Mondays or Game Grumps where all you do is just play games and occasionally talk stuff. Besides, I can imagine filming podcasts in bulk all at once would seem tiring.

James has no time, so he has to film them in bulk.

 

[deeman]

It's almost as if he and Rapepril has separated and he have the kids every other week, since all is made in bulk.

 

[Mongo0o]

Any idea on how much money James brought in over the years?

He''s probably pulling in low six figures (100k range) but he should be a millionaire with how recognizable the character is.

 

[Raging Capybara]

Not a single video crossed the 1kk views mark in the past two months. And after 24 hours, the podcast sits at a negligible 100k views. Things are not looking good for the crew, it would be better to spend the 200 hours dedicated to the Rex Shiter and Fear in Vegas videos to one single decent AVGN episode.

These bad numbers suggest the Youtube algorithm has given up on the channel.

 

[Pickle Dick]

Not a single video crossed the 1kk views mark in the past two months. And after 24 hours, the podcast sits at a negligible 100k views. Things are not looking good for the crew, it would be better to spend the 200 hours dedicated to the Rex Shiter and Fear in Vegas videos to one single decent AVGN episode.

These bad numbers suggest the Youtube algorithm has given up on the channel.

Let's not gravedance just yet, there's a miniscule chance the AVGN episodes that haven't been doing good now could potentially explode in views in a distant future... whenever that may be a fan can dream :-(

 

[Gru]

Rewatching that awful behind the scenes video, and what's his fascination with "epic videos"? Why does he consider "epic" to mean good? What happened to this just being some guy in his basement being unnecessarily angry at video games?

Actually, yeah, what the fuck happened to that? Now the nerd's going to fucking las vegas to enact a parody, the jungle to meet some celebrity cameo, getting kidnapped by shrek cultists or whatever the plot of that fucking awful episode was, etc. Sure he went out of the basement sometimes, but not to this extent. When was the last time the show explicitly acknowledged and played off the fact that the AVGN was just some guy in a basement and not Tripod-Man the superhero, who is suffering from a chronic lack of time?

 

[Clark_Ashton]

James probably likes the "epic" episodes better because they're closer in style to the movies he would like to be making, instead of the AVGN.

 

[deeman]

Rewatching that awful behind the scenes video, and what's his fascination with "epic videos"? Why does he consider "epic" to mean good? What happened to this just being some guy in his basement being unnecessarily angry at video games?

Actually, yeah, what the fuck happened to that? Now the nerd's going to fucking las vegas to enact a parody, the jungle to meet some celebrity cameo, getting kidnapped by shrek cultists or whatever the plot of that fucking awful episode was, etc. Sure he went out of the basement sometimes, but not to this extent. When was the last time the show explicitly acknowledged and played off the fact that the AVGN was just some guy in a basement and not Tripod-Man the superhero, who is suffering from a chronic lack of time?

Aw Shiiiiet remember that Jurrasic Park one were he was at that island, allthough you could clearly see by the camerawork James wasn't even in that scene... Was he in any scene of that piece of shit? I have no time to rewatch.

 

[Janny Jewsh]

April & James (Behind The Scenes)
[this was too spicy for r/TheCinemassacreTruth lol)

View attachment 2434621

can somebody give me a quick rundown on all the cuckolding rumours?

Cuckold James Rolfe

"Cuckold James Rolfe" refers to anonymous copypastas relating to James Rolfe from Cinemassacre.com (a.k.a. The Angry Video Game Nerd) along with many rumors

knowyourmeme.com

 

[Clark_Ashton]

@KikeKiller1488
There's no rumour. It's just a running joke based on the fact that James seems to be a rather "passive" kind of guy.