Videogame Discourse: According to Jim
- Thread starter hanselthecaretaker
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Yep that's about the long and short of it. Game players and Game Companies are a bunch of evil fuckers. We get it Jim, the game's industry sucks, you want us to bail on our decades long hobby because Capitalism is kinda shady?
He had a video about the game awards trailers where we just railed on how much he hates the industry now
and the whole time i was watching the video I couldn't help but think, "Jim needs to get another job, because he is losing his mind doing this." It's like dealing with looking into the industry is ruining his mental state and every video I feel like I'm watching someone break down. Not only are his videos no longer entertaining to watch (even when he was reporting negative practices his videos always had a satirical funness about them that they lack these days), but it seems like he is actively harming himself mentally to keep pushing to do this stuff.
He had a video about the game awards trailers where we just railed on how much he hates the industry now
and the whole time i was watching the video I couldn't help but think, "Jim needs to get another job, because he is losing his mind doing this." It's like dealing with looking into the industry is ruining his mental state and every video I feel like I'm watching someone break down. Not only are his videos no longer entertaining to watch (even when he was reporting negative practices his videos always had a satirical funness about them that they lack these days), but it seems like he is actively harming himself mentally to keep pushing to do this stuff.
True, but on the other hand, after enough regurgitation of the same complaints with no show of improvement (or in this case actually worsening), it’s bound to frazzle someone’s nerves a bit. In one of his other vids he made a jab about no one ever fucking listening to him anyways, and he’s right.
But yeah, he needs to stop letting the apathy control his mind state if his tone isn’t just for entertainment’s sake, because that’s just the way things are now.
I mean i think it's pretty self absorbed to think a youtuber is going to change the world of gaming or the nature of the financial system in general. And I think he let his platform get the better of him because of the middling audience that he has. He has always made good points, and he has always brought to light shit that people previously weren't aware of. But he should never think that his opinions and his preaching where ever going to change the world.
He was better when he protrayed himself as a casual viewer of the shit storms. Mocking people like Randy Pitchford and the whole "FucKomani / ohhhhhUbisoft" bits always were played off in a way in which he was talking to his audience while we all watched the ship sink from afar. When things like the loot boxes in Battlefield 2 blew up, he laughed because he called it and we all laughed with him.
Now however it's almost like he is no longer to not take things personal, and it feels like he is invested in the skullfuckery that the industry is pulling like it legit affects him (when it doesn't). And as a result, his personality and his videos have lost all their fun.
Not every video needs to be funny haha laugh on the floor all the time. I don't want him stressing himself out too much and if he wants to take a break, I do not mind. At least he's one of the people out there calling out assholes and spitting out the truth. He still makes videos that make me laugh, but I don't need to see everything as funny or make a joke of it. Because there are some things you can't make a joke of. Even if you're really good at doing jokes or an expert.
I think the problem lies in that there is a view among some gamers of seeing video games as a form of self validation. If you have that view then any criticism against a title that you enjoy/look forwards to turns into an attack against yourself. Since one of the emotions video games are more capable of inducing than other mediums is pride it is not that surprising that the discourse turns into what it is.
I don't know how people have this mentality. I mean it's one thing to defend or offer counter points to any criticism, but the extremes that people take to prove their point including death threats is just mindboggling to me. Why be so attached to a game like that? It's okay that someone didn't find title X,Y,Z, as much as you did. There is no reason to attack them for it.
It’s basically because they never had any real guidance from parental units that were actually worth a shit. Or one’s that were were too preoccupied making ends meet, or a mix of both...IDK anymore. Maybe now that both parents are so compromised for one reason or another it should be mandatory to send all kids through a life training boot camp of sorts, because they probably aren’t getting much if any from public schools anymore, if they ever did.
Because you have people that are so insecure, and have such a fragile ego, that they have to attach their identity with the product to feel special or a sense of self worth. Damn anyone else that says otherwise. Meaning they don't have much talent or action in their lives. It's not always the case, but it usually is a major part of it.
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Daddy doesn't love me, but GTA V loves me. Therefore I'll kill anyone who talks shit about GTA V.
Yeah makes sense.
Since I am deeply insecure about myself and a lot of things I understand the mentality. Mind you, I've never threatened anyone or lashed out, I've maintained it in the realm of "no-no, your emotions are irrational" and kept it to myself. I still felt them though.
To offer a bit of additional explanation (NOT defense of the behavior) video games has for the longest time been very isolating. If you had a particular gaming system and someone else had a different gaming system then there would be titles that by default you'd be out of the eco-system for. One could obviously buy several machines but that is expensive as all heck and take up a lot of space so that is not a viable option for most people. Speaking of money: one game goes for at least 50 $ at launch. That is also a lot of money so the amount of titles one can own will also be limited, meaning you'll be isolated from those that chose to buy something else. And even within one title you're bound to be able to extract at least 10 hours from a game(obviously this varies but you get the drift). That is 10 hours of your life you won't get back, and 10 hours which isolates you further from people that have not put 10 hours into the game. Other popular medium hobbies don't take that time.
What this isolation brings is that your investment of money and time will be large and if it turns out that any aspect is worthy of criticism you've already committed choices with costs behind them so then it is easier to internalize them as criticism against your person. We make our choices and our choices make us and all that jazz.
Nowadays most titles are cross-platform, the barrier to entry has been lowered (just think how many giveaways the epic game store has done) and developers have gotten better at making shorter experiences more satisfying so at least these aspects are improving.
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That's stupid.
This is something much more fundamental to how humans work. Humans like to be agreeable, like if you are in a relationship with someone then you are much more likely to agree with them then disagree even if it goes against what you like. For instance say there is some movie you love and you find it really meaningful but the person you are with doesn't like it, chances are you probably aren't going to press the issue and just agree that it has some problems and try never to bring it up again because them hating it can feel like a form of betrayal. This is on top of us liking validation for the things we enjoy and becoming defensive when they are insulted, because its rare that someone says they hate something for x,v,z reasons, usually its just "I hate ****" and to us that sounds like "I hate **** and those that like it are dumb" so its easy to interpret it as more personal then is intended.
We actually see this outside of media a lot, religion gives us a great example. A lot of religious individuals take criticism as an attack on their religion, sure some are cool with it and are open to the discussion but a lot will either clam up, leave or even turn violent if they feel their religion is insulted.
Religion is the ultimate fandom. I can't imagine ever loving a book so much that I'll not only live my life based off it, but also go to Live podcasts about the book every single week paying for it every time.
Jim did seem to have grown more bitter and it wouldn't surprise me if he left the industry somewhere in the near future. He seems to have largely given up on his Youtube account for anything except the Jimquesition.
I understand why he's so bitter. He spend years on various subjects that have only grown more vile and extreme as time have gone on without his coverage having changed a single thing. If he stopped talking about topics its mostly because more extreme problems replaced them rather than because the problems actually got addressed. Most observations he makes tend to get entirely ignored even if they have a lot of merit. So I can get why Jim's likely extremely tired.
I think he would help himself and his mental state by going back and looking at the things he loves about video games. Do videos or podcasts or whatever talking about some of his favorites from the past and why he got into this business in the first place. Sure he says those things don't get as many views, but if your almost entirely crowdfunded then who the fuck cares about the views? Do it for your health. Because if you crash and burn, your crowdfunding is gone either way so at least doing this gives you a chance to keep your livelihood going.
Or fuck it, take a step back and close up shop for a month or two. Including the Jimquistion, and focus on other things, explore other career outlets or something and see if you want to come back to this.
Personally I've always felt that the career Youtuber is an exceptionally short lived thing. A career is something you can make a living doing for 30+years, and I just don't see that being possible with Twitch and Youtubers. Because at some point something will happen to shut it all down. Either you'll fuck it all up, you'll lose interest and be unable to remain entertaining, or the platform will lose any reliability. And unless you make it huge where you gain incredible popularity and success to where you can become financially secure in a short period of time, then anyone doing Twitch or Youtube better also have a real job.
I laugh when I see content creators go "I'm gonna be a full time streamer yay!" and they get like 200 viewers. Like how are you going to make a living doing that? Instead you waste your optimal career building time fucking around only to have it crash a few years later and you have no life skills to show for it.
Jim and many lower-mid tier people like him are always riding the cusp I feel. And after over a decade of riding the edge, maybe Jim can't handle it anymore. I mean consider the fact that in all this time as a content creator he is actually found ways to do less and less over the years. No more written reviews, then no more video reviews, no more squirty plays, no more steam greenlight, no more trailer reactions, few and far between jimpressions. He has stripped himself of almost all the work he used to do, and now he does what? One rant a week? He doesn't even edit them himself, so what is his plan? Where does he take himself from here?
I wish him all the best because I love the entertainment he used to provide. I want to see him flourish and I fear he is crashing and burning pretty hard here.
The problem Jim always had is he misses the forest for the trees. Maybe its like PTSD from the DigiHom thing? He always portrays gamers as this singular unified group, and hates them for the actions of a few. Like the majority of games are not playing CyberPunk, its only a very loud minority. Of that minority an even smaller minority think the game is the best thing since sliced bread and tits. Of that minority an even smaller minority care about metacritic and reviews. Of that minority an even smaller minority get angry when a game they like doesn't get the praise they think its earned. Of that minority an even smaller minority are the shitheels that harass and send threats.
So he's talking about a minority of a minority of a minority of a minority of a minority of a minority of gamers, but paints the entire group as such. And always the negative. He never takes the minority of a minority of a minority of a minority of a minority of a minority of gamers who adopted a puppy yesterday and says all gamers love puppies. And its unfortunate that he's boxed himself into this corner where only negative takes appeals to his fanbase.
Now to be fair the game industry is rife with abuse and should be taken to task, but it's not the majority of game companies nor the majority of gamers that need to be taken to task.
So he's talking about a minority of a minority of a minority of a minority of a minority of a minority of gamers, but paints the entire group as such. And always the negative. He never takes the minority of a minority of a minority of a minority of a minority of a minority of gamers who adopted a puppy yesterday and says all gamers love puppies. And its unfortunate that he's boxed himself into this corner where only negative takes appeals to his fanbase.
Now to be fair the game industry is rife with abuse and should be taken to task, but it's not the majority of game companies nor the majority of gamers that need to be taken to task.
There's nothing about video-games that makes them any more egregious than any other medium, sports illicit actual violence and have actually set off wars before which video-games haven't yet.
I am not sure if the adjective illicit is the one you're looking for.
I was referring to a talk held by Will Wright where he argues that the two emotions that video games are better at inducing than other mediums due to their interactive nature was pride and guilt.
