James Stephanie Sterling YouTube Account Suspended

[Nick Calandra]

I think this is a common problem in games media in general...a lot of people just...write about games and that's it. They don't expand their skillset to be viable at other jobs and thus get stuck just making the same thing over and over again because it's what sells, even to the detriment of their own creative mind.

This is something I learned really early because I didn't get the same opportunities that a lot of people get living on the coasts and having easy access to the "right" people. I ran my own websites and I hoped I'd get somewhere with it, but by the end of college I was pretty sure I was never gonna make it.

So over the years I've become extremely fluent in SEO, analytics, UX design, event planning, community management, etc. If I ever get burnt out doing this stuff, then I have fallback options to move into that I equally enjoy.

Also creating content that's just constantly...angry...I'll never get it. It just seems like a quick way to screw up your own mental health and become so jaded that you can't enjoy the work or daily life. Maybe that's exaggerating a bit, but based on how people act on social media, I don't really know.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

I used to love Sterling, I really did, I still will put on a Jimpressions playlist or Squirty Plays series just to have someone chatting me up during a drive or whatever. But since the lawsuit it's been a rapid collapse.

I wonder if my mind worked this part out on its own in the background without me realizing it. Cause besides the last 2 videos... I haven't watched a weekly Jimquisition in... checking back, oof... 3 months. I've watched the odd one here or there, but it's been awhile since I've tuned in frequently. At the same time though, that was around when I started working big time on my mental health via taking time away from work, starting medication for the first time, going to therapy, and cutting a lot of the BS out of my life. Avoiding the information stream of pure industry bullshit Jim brought to the forefront might've been my mind subtly leaning me that direction.

Or maybe I'm tired of it too, I dunno. But the channel definitely doesn't seem the same as it was before, now that everyone mentions it. I liked the start of the era when Jim got the weird roller coaster animation thing added, but ever since it went 90's cyberfunk in the intro and outro it seemed to have lost some of its quality and edge. Not to mention the commercial cut-ins all the time that don't really seem to fit anywhere.

Either way Jim is clearly exhausted and miserable with the state of things, and something needs to give, either themselves and move on, or the entire YouTube and AAA industries.

And I think we all know which way that's gonna go, unfortunately.

There is something deeply illegal and sinister going on in the background here.

I really, reeeeaaallllyyy hope this new potential lawsuit brings up whatever it is, cause this is kinda exciting!

Also creating content that's just constantly...angry...I'll never get it. It just seems like a quick way to screw up your own mental health and become so jaded that you can't enjoy the work or daily life. Maybe that's exaggerating a bit, but based on how people act on social media, I don't really know.

Sounds very accurate to me, honestly

 

[Hades]

Also creating content that's just constantly...angry...I'll never get it. It just seems like a quick way to screw up your own mental health and become so jaded that you can't enjoy the work or daily life. Maybe that's exaggerating a bit, but based on how people act on social media, I don't really know.

That's assuming that those who are creating the angry content really are angry all the time, and aren't just playing a role to promote their channel. There's no chance of damaging your mental health if you know you're just playing pretend. With James Stephanie I can believe their anger is sincere, especially on the topic of in game gambling, but many other content creators, especially those on the anti SJW side of things strike me as grifters merely pretending to be angry.

I do question if Sterling's mental health is at its best these days, and their contend might partially be the cause of that. On the other hand they might feel forced to cover those topics. Things like the scandals at Ubisoft seems things most other pundits avoid like the plague so if Sterling doesn't cover it then no one does.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Also creating content that's just constantly...angry...I'll never get it.

They say they've tried, but that positive or happy videos get about half the viewership of their angry ones. And from what I know about YouTube, that checks out.

(edited because I'm not good at this pronoun thing)

 

[EvilRoy]

Also creating content that's just constantly...angry...I'll never get it. It just seems like a quick way to screw up your own mental health and become so jaded that you can't enjoy the work or daily life. Maybe that's exaggerating a bit, but based on how people act on social media, I don't really know.

I honestly really wonder how things are going to shake out for this current generation - or maybe "block of 20 years centered on youtube getting big" is a better way to express it - as time goes on and the stress cracks start to form. Definitely unpleasant stuff has happened and there have been people who have come out about mental health struggles, but at this stage we're getting to a point were a lot of big name youtubers are hitting or past their thirties which is primetime for things to start really effecting people in ways they weren't before. Its very strange to realize that we are basically subject zero for figuring out what working these content production schedules and maintaining these characters so much of the time does to the average person long term.

I feel terrible saying this, but the pandemic may have actually helped us here in spite of all the pain and suffering it has caused elsewhere. Suddenly it became ok to admit that stuff isn't ok, and its been kind of sad and funny to notice that a lot of the things youtubers I follow say with regards to the pandemic really causing them strain are likely things that were already stressing them out - its just that they only noticed because of the pandemic, or perhaps they always knew but now they finally have permission to admit it.

 

[Nick Calandra]

He says he's tried, but that positive or happy videos get about half the viewership of his angry ones. And from what I know about YouTube, that checks out.

That's because they've (sorry in advance if I mess up their pronouns, gotta remember that) built their audience around that. You can drive viewership with positive content, but if your main focus is on covering drama and hot button issues, that's what the expectation becomes.

Switching gears once you've set that expectation is hard and the algorithm does not help.

 

[Nick Calandra]

That's assuming that those who are creating the angry content really are angry all the time, and aren't just playing a role to promote their channel. There's no chance of damaging your mental health if you know you're just playing pretend. With James Stephanie I can believe their anger is sincere, especially on the topic of in game gambling, but many other content creators, especially those on the anti SJW side of things strike me as grifters merely pretending to be angry.

I do question if Sterling's mental health is at its best these days, and their contend might partially be the cause of that. On the other hand they might feel forced to cover those topics. Things like the scandals at Ubisoft seems things most other pundits avoid like the plague so if Sterling doesn't cover it then no one does.

Anti-sjw, SJW, whatever you want to label it...they all play the same game. They play up reactionary content for views. Don't be fooled into thinking they all don't know what they're doing haha.

The recent stuff with Troy Leavitt was evidence enough of that. I had people replying to me giving their "opinion" on it on Twitter and then privately tell me that they hadn't even read the articles or watched the videos.

 

[SilentPony]

Also creating content that's just constantly...angry...I'll never get it. It just seems like a quick way to screw up your own mental health and become so jaded that you can't enjoy the work or daily life. Maybe that's exaggerating a bit, but based on how people act on social media, I don't really know.

I'm not sure this is what happened with Jim specifically, but they used to do I'd say 3-6 videos a week, 1 of which was the JimQuisition, and the others were them playing video games, either current, older, or early access ones. I don't know when the change up was, but they just stopped doing the other stuff. And its both disappointing and a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The only videos they still do are negative ones, which means the people who are leaving are the ones who want positive videos, and the people who are staying are the ones who want negative ones. And then it turns out they still want negative ones, and its a negative impact on Jim's personal health and view of their own career. And breaking out of that self fulfilling cycle is hard.

 

[Nick Calandra]

I'm not sure this is what happened with Jim specifically, but they used to do I'd say 3-6 videos a week, 1 of which was the JimQuisition, and the others were them playing video games, either current, older, or early access ones. I don't know when the change up was, but they just stopped doing the other stuff. And its both disappointing and a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The only videos they still do are negative ones, which means the people who are leaving are the ones who want positive videos, and the people who are staying are the ones who want negative ones. And then it turns out they still want negative ones, and its a negative impact on Jim's personal health and view of their own career. And breaking out of that self fulfilling cycle is hard.

Well, they're making $14K / month on Patreon. Once you reach a certain threshold where you don't have to really "try" anymore, I'm sure it can't be fun forever, and when your engagement online revolves around dealing with angry people every day, that's probably not fun either. I don't have much sympathy if that's the audience you build though, I'll add that in.

Maybe I'm just being cynical, but like I said, creating content with such a negative and cynical vibe probably doesn't bode well long term for anyone.

 

[Topaz]

they used to do I'd say 3-6 videos a week, 1 of which was the JimQuisition, and the others were them playing video games, either current, older, or early access ones. I don't know when the change up was, but they just stopped doing the other stuff.

Jim used to do those short 'news' videos, which I really liked. I think I miss those videos the most.

Granted, the vast majority of them were about Bethesda and/or Fallout 76. But they were informative, and if nothing else were a good bit of entertainment.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Wasn't going to comment, but the amount of assumptions going on in the thread have not given way to anything else but more assumptions, so am going to try and provide some clearer context as someone who does follow their other work outside of Jimquisition and observes their twitter from a safe distance.

James Stephanie Sterling is usually pretty candid with questions outside of the Jimquisition, and they even release a mini series of answering questions asked by their patreon subscribers which are available to non-subscribers. They're much calmer and speak regularly about being far more happy now they're living in an environment more accepting and encouraging towards LGBT folk: talking tears of happiness level of happy.

Generally speaking, the Jimquisition is openly a character, exaggerated for entertainment, and it is meant just as an industry-focused series, which of course is a place they're pretty jaded in.

The Ubisoft sex pest debacle they've mentioned a few times as the final straw for AAA bullshit tolerance, as it involved experiences from people they know and care about in real life. It was noticeably a watershed moment. Games aren't all hated, just the worse habits of larger corporate structures around high-budget development.

In their other work, they are usually more positive, calmer, looser and having a much better time, like in Podquisition, Boston's Favourite Son, Twitch streaming and indie wrestling, the latter of which I don't really follow but they talk excitedly about a lot and appear to be absolutely loving it.

They are going through transition currently, alongside some other psychological self-discovery and improvement processes, which will unavoidably take focus away from work more than usual.

The main take away is that the Jimquisition is not the place to judge their honest state of mind and general mood, as everything outside of it gives a completely different impression, which seems to be where people are extracting their assumptions from here. In their own words, they are in a much better place mentally right now than ever before, it's just a bit of adjustments and change going on that means they're not as focused on the one show people see them on currently.

Am not sure if that helps, heads a bit fuzzy so may have worded things awkwardly, hopefully some stuff is clearer, I dunno, have a cat!

 

[Silvanus]

Snip

Heheheh... kitty.

 

[Hades]

There's a lot of talk, including from Sterling themselves that their channel is in decline.

I'm not really familiar with the finer nuances of building a Youtube audience but Sterling's numbers seem pretty solid. They got about 900+ K subscribers which seems like a very respectable number. Its a LOT more than fellow Escapist veteran Moviebob who doesn't even have 200K, its not too far removed from the 1 Million subs of Extra credits, its about the same size of Sargon from Akkad who seems among the more prominent alt right grifters, and at a comfortable lead compared to several mid tier gaming channels like Arlo or Bunnyhop.

 

[Nick Calandra]

There's a lot of talk, including from Sterling themselves that their channel is in decline.

I'm not really familiar with the finer nuances of building a Youtube audience but Sterling's numbers seem pretty solid. They got about 900+ K subscribers which seems like a very respectable number. Its a LOT more than fellow Escapist veteran Moviebob who doesn't even have 200K, its not too far removed from the 1 Million subs of Extra credits, its about the same size of Sargon from Akkad who seems among the more prominent alt right grifters, and at a comfortable lead compared to several mid tier gaming channels like Arlo or Bunnyhop.

Subscribers don't count for much anymore, unfortunately. It's the least important metric of a channel these days, considering even if you're subscribed to a channel it doesn't mean you'll see their videos. It's a broken system.

 

[SilentPony]

Subscribers don't count for much anymore, unfortunately. It's the least important metric of a channel these days, considering even if you're subscribed to a channel it doesn't mean you'll see their videos. It's a broken system.

I'm subbed to Jim's channel, with that little fucking bell icon pushed, and I get maybe about 1 in 5 video upload announcements. And usually in one great big wave, like it'll be 10 pm and I'll get an entire day's worth of emails and notifications from Youtube of the 12 channels I sub to that uploaded over the course of the day. It's weird, it'll say Jim just uploaded Yadda Yadda 5, and I go to the video, upload time: 18 hours ago.
Its very weird.

 

[Nick Calandra]

I'm subbed to Jim's channel, with that little fucking bell icon pushed, and I get maybe about 1 in 5 video upload announcements. And usually in one great big wave, like it'll be 10 pm and I'll get an entire day's worth of emails and notifications from Youtube of the 12 channels I sub to that uploaded over the course of the day. It's weird, it'll say Jim just uploaded Yadda Yadda 5, and I go to the video, upload time: 18 hours ago.
Its very weird.

Yup, it's useless and so is their algorithm when 90% of the videos I see in recommended are from 5 or 10 years ago. YouTube is beyond incompetent and I pray for the day we get a competitor that treats creators right and gives them the tools to reach their audience. Same thing with Facebook. Everyone spent years building up huge followings for pages and sometimes our posts get 1 like. Just money hungry companies that are shooting themselves in the foot when the people that literally make their gears turn can't even reach their audience to increase views / ad-rev for everyone.

Just utterly stupid.

 

[Piscian]

Im not sure I really buy that about angry news getting the all the click. I realize thats a product of the time we live in, but I think its important to have a healthy balance of postive and negative, if you have to have negative content at all. I subscribe to a couple channels with millions of views whatever that are just dedicated to stuff like testing new micro-computing toys or stuff like the videogame history.

Yup, it's useless and so is their algorithm when 90% of the videos I see in recommended are from 5 or 10 years ago. YouTube is beyond incompetent and I pray for the day we get a competitor that treats creators right and gives them the tools to reach their audience. Same thing with Facebook. Everyone spent years building up huge followings for pages and sometimes our posts get 1 like. Just money hungry companies that are shooting themselves in the foot when the people that literally make their gears turn can't even reach their audience to increase views / ad-rev for everyone.

Just utterly stupid.

Its interesting, The top hat gaming man just posted a video talking about how he did some testing and thinks he has proof that if your channel contains both live streams and regular content it does something weird with the algorithm that causes youtube to stop properly recommending your videos.

 

[Nick Calandra]

Its interesting, The top hat gaming man just posted a video talking about how he did some testing and thinks he has proof that if your channel contains both live streams and regular content it does something weird with the algorithm that causes youtube to stop properly recommending your videos.

This is why I'm pushing extremely hard to get away from worrying about "views" and focusing more on subscriptions / fan engagement. A lot of our shows don't do a ton of views, but that's OK. Getting millions and millions of views isn't sustainable anymore and never has been.

The way I look at it nowadays is pretty simple.

1,000 peoples subscribing at $1 / month for $1000 in subscription revenue.

or

1000 views for $1 in ad revenue.


Millions of views doesn't account for much in the ad business anymore. Smaller more engaged and supportive fan bases is the ONLY sustainable way forward and people are finally starting to realize it. You're going to see more and more websites close over the next five years if they do not move in this direction, promise.

YouTube's also about to launch the applause feature which will allow people to tip on pre-recorded videos which I assume is going to help quite a bit with those that don't want to subscribe to a paid sub.

 

[Piscian]

This is why I'm pushing extremely hard to get away from worrying about "views" and focusing more on subscriptions / fan engagement. A lot of our shows don't do a ton of views, but that's OK. Getting millions and millions of views isn't sustainable anymore and never has been.

The way I look at it nowadays is pretty simple.

1,000 peoples subscribing at $1 / month for $1000 in subscription revenue.

or

1000 views for $1 in ad revenue.


Millions of views doesn't account for much in the ad business anymore. Smaller more engaged and supportive fan bases is the ONLY sustainable way forward and people are finally starting to realize it. You're going to see more and more websites close over the next five years if they do not move in this direction, promise.

YouTube's also about to launch the applause feature which will allow people to tip on pre-recorded videos which I assume is going to help quite a bit with those that don't want to subscribe to a paid sub.

Tips work better for me as my wallet is only open when I'm drunk.

 

[BrawlMan]

Part 2.

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