Jimquisition: Accountability

[Beautiful End]

I gotta admit I'm ntot hating the guy anymore. Now I can clearly see his arrogance is just a mask he puts on just to amuse us. And although I'm disappointed about the fact that it took me like 3 episodes to figure it out, I'm glad I did anyways because I am starting to enjoy these vids now.

Also, I obviously completely agree with he said. I bought a series of used games a while back; The Sims, Need for Speed, Dead Space, and so on (I guess they were all EA games). I know I had way more but I forgot. And about 75% of the games asked me for an online pass/account. For example, The Sims 3 kept bugging me about it every time I played the single player mode. So I ended up hating the game and I returned it.

DLCs? My friends keep bugging me about MvC3's DLCs. I could care less about these DLCs! Why can't I have a good game without having to get some DLCs? I paid for the game, right? Doesn't that make me valuable too in some sort of way?

And I am glad someone's sticking up for used game sales. They're not evil! As a matter of fact, I am quite thankful for them. Example: Modern Warfare 2 runs for about 60 bucks brand new. You can get it for 25-30 dollars used. Uhh...yeah, I'm getting a used copy. Not only that but, like Jim so impressively pointed out, they make money out of DLCs and whatnot anyway! Sure, I understand they want ALL the cake for themselves. But there's nothing they can do about it. If you want to stop people from buying used games, then go after Gamestop, eBay, Amazon, Craigs' list and every single kid out there selling his games after school.

As a side note, I love how he made fun of all the people ranting last week about that one troll vid he made. It truly shows how much he was missed.

 

[ProjectTrinity]

I was apparently immune to the hating and the loving. I just watch the show because some of the humor is pretty funny + unique angles + the RAGE comments. I didn't particularly care for this episode's message either since I only play the artsy and ambitious games of life and therefore have no such problems (sorry, dude).

But I still loved this episode. It was utterly brilliant.

 

[Coffinshaker]

man, I think this has been my favorite episode of Jim. excellent rundown dude! and he's right on with all this nonsense too. I almost miss the days of the cartridges... sigh... back when game companies didn't hate us gamers...

 

[ChupathingyX]

Hey Jim what's happening between you and Koei, I'm more interested in that.

Oh and yeah i agree about all the subscriptions in the gaming community, they need to stop.

 

[OaKleIgHy]

I really appreciate his analysis of the issues he brings up. Not so sure about his act as a whole tho..but generally I tend to appreciate his opinion

 

[iblis666]

Accountability

You are all so lucky to be able to watch these videos. This week, Sterling rants about videogame accounts and publishers' increasing demands for explicitly reaffirmed customer loyalty.

Watch Video

/slow clap

god fucking god these just keep getting fucking better with every fucking episode that i fucking watch keep up the fucking good work Jim

 

[42]

i must say that was (just because i feel like making the billionth jim pun) Jimtastic.
But he is right, I'm not up to signing up for every game service that comes out, only because there is such a thing as oversaturation. while this term is normally applied to products, it can also refer to the services that provide the product, and flooding the entire internet with services that provide said products will lead to an almost clusterfuck, and if one of them gets hacked, you're info has now landed into the hands of someone who will use it for troll purposes. i mean right now i have just an XBL account and a Steam one as well, and they both suit me well enough. ok i have to pay to use one, and the other is a massive sink for any income i have, but i don't see why publishers keep questioning (as jim pointed out) the consumer's loyalty. they can't demand that, because to gain loyalty means they have to earn it. and so far neither the big 2 EA or Activision have impressed me. But yeah that's beside the point. Btw the episodes are getting better and better, keep up the good work Jim. the show is very jimgasmic. (hey someone had to say it)

 

[Gunner 51]

Hmm, not a bad video, sir. I tip my hat to Jim. The points he was making about the publishers screwing the common gamer were spot-on. It seems Yahtzee and the Extra Credits crew might have to play catch-up on this.

Publishers will have to realise that there is a tipping point to how much you can screw gamers. I think that point is coming sooner rather than later. People don't want to sign in many times to play a game or get Day 1 DLC. (Which should have been on the disk to start with.)

The Rockstar Pass is certainly a big step in the right direction. Not only don't you have to sign in to use it, but it also entitles you to all the DLC for no charge thereafter. Having said this, the Pass can be made better in the following way:

Don't charge everyone 800 MSP to download it. Like Project Ten Dollar just give the "Buy New" crowd a code to download the Pass for free. They've spent a King's Ransom on the publisher and developer, their loyalty should be rewarded with all post-release DLC coming for free.

Full price = full game.

 

[messy]

All pretty good, you have improved with time. The arrogant interludes and exitludes are just getting a bit boring now, although I 'll admit the hack attack one was funny. I think just the general generic arrogance is just a bit "meh" nowadays.

 

[iron skirt]

this show keps geting beter and beter

 

[xFullmetalx]

This, Escape at the Movies & The Big Picture and Zero Punctuation are the reasons I come on this site.

 

[Bostur]

A good subject. I sometimes wonder why game publishers sometimes use so much effort to try to piss me off. Maybe they just got into a bad habit at some point and it became part of their corporate culture.

I think this subject could benefit with a more in-depth treatment, maybe an idea for an article on the Escapist. Interview some biz guys from game companies and ask them exactly why they do this to us. Don't they love us customers?


Edit: And let me just rant for a sec:
What the fuck is the deal with an annoying drop down thingy for entering my date of birth just to visit a website. It looks like they are doing their utmost to scare everyone away.

 

[coldfrog]

OK, I've been watching these videos because, I'll be honest, I had a little interest in the show as he would touch on topics, and I'm a whore for information: if there's someone with another viewpoint, I'd love to hear it.

I've finally figured out why I have a problem with this show though.
I understand what he's doing: he wants to make his own shtick combining comedy and games Journalism to keep people entertained as well as do a little reporting. The problem lies in the material.

This video, about 5 minutes long (excluding half a minute for intro/outro) was more than half jokes. And you know, that's fine if you enjoy his sense of humor, which I personally don't, but without that, he does very little to cover the topic at hand. Most of it was spent saying what annoyed him about the current situation, and maybe very slightly touching on what might be the problem. I felt like he lost a lot of time that could have been spent on discussing the problem and what might be causing it and bringing some insight to the consumer as to what is going on behind closed doors. He's certainly right to be angry; a lot of the business decisions coming out of these game publishers seem ridiculous and damaging to the consumer. However, a good piece of journalism, even if it's clearly biased, should be able to at least bring to light the other side of the story, and I feel like, in this show, the buck stops with Jim.

This lack of information just slams the door on the publishers, blocking any possibility that there could be some saving grace or rational, no matter how twisted, that they can use to explain their practices. To me, this makes the piece feel empty - without a counterpoint to his distress, there's nothing to point out as ridiculous, or more importantly, nothing to point out HOW to change as opposed to what to change. Identifying the problem is only one part: finding the cause is what we need to actually make a difference, and if you don't attempt to bring that to light, you're not really going to make a difference on the industry.

And if all that was meant was to entertain, that's fine, but he often jumps between the two personalities - entertainer, then journalist, then back again - and instead of making enough of an impression with one or the other, it feels like it kind of flounders, leaving me disappointed with both. He never really had me with his comedy, but he always seemed like he was on the verge of saying something significant otherwise, and the reason I kept watching is because I hoped one or the other would get better. Sadly, the journalism hasn't improved, and I still don't like the sense of humor, so I think this'll be my last one. Good luck!

EDIT: I WOULD like to see something like Yahtzee does, a print article that is more about the details of a topic - As someone mentioned above, he brought his point across much better in the email discussions they had before, and I'd gladly read that. That way I could skip most of his narcissistic humor and go right to the meaty bits. Of the article I mean. Not of Jim.

 

[Still Life]

Right after the video, the Escapist's ad prods you to subscribe to their Publisher's Club to get some random crap. Ah, delicious irony.

The Escapist is not an online gaming service, like GFWL.

OT:

Jim sheds light on an issue that's not getting a lot of coverage. However, I think the ridiculous (and growing) number of services has something to do with publishers wanting to shift the industry from product based, to service based.

I fucking hate the idea, personally.

It's like the loving father who smothers their child because he has to control everything.

PS.

Jim, you better be back. I love your show

 

[Vallds]

This, Escape at the Movies & The Big Picture and Zero Punctuation are the reasons I come on this site.

I second the quote good sir!

 

[1337mokro]

First Episode I actually genuine liked from start to finish.

You addressed a real issue that is cropping up, added a bit of "Jackass" humour but kept it focussed on the issue.

Good Job. Remember that the humour springs from the way you discuss the issue. Going out of your way to make jokes (like earlier episodes) will only detract from your credibility which will make your out of place humour less funny because people will start to think of you as a joke. I don't think I have to tell you a joke about a joke is not funny.

 

[etherlance]

I have to say the guy is growing on me at an alarming rate.

 

[albear]

Im Jimpressed.................................................

 

[Samurai Goomba]

You know Jim, usually I'm the one posting about how terrible your videos are.

So take this for the huge compliment it's meant to be, when I say I loved this video and hope you do more stuff like this. Also nice reference to "public clubs" which give you no real benefit and require yearly payments.

 

[Wuggy]

This one has been the only Jimquisition episode I've liked. I still don't think Jim is funny, but now at least he has a good point to make. Kudos, I hope there's more where this one came from (and I hope that the "provocative funny" persona of yours will gradually fade away).