Jimquisition: Corrupt, Censoring, Suicidal Indie Devs

[JoshuaMadoc]

Why is it always the bloody Russians doing this kind of poppycock? WHY??

 

[medv4380]

The phrase Bad publicity is good publicity is still true. To understand it you have to go back to one of its original phrases for it.

The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/there-is-no-such-thing-as-bad-publicity.html

Jim, TB, and other being negative about a game is good publicity. Dev's attempting to censor people is actually the only thing worse than them talking about how bad their game is. Censorship is the silence that kills them.

Your the one failing to look to the source. Oscar Wilde based much of his career upon lampooning those he disliked and found objectionable... can you name a single one of them. I can't; but the message is what has persisted. I will probably forget Kobra studios tomorrow and not recall them again until I am browsing steam and see a familiar screen shot or a familiar name on the page... and then I will make a face and move on. No more and no less.

Also, Silence has yet to end a single dispicable human practise of any sort I can think of and is simply a pathetic and futile responce to anyone activly abusing others.

So your unable to see the parallel context of those who were attempting to silence Oscar Wilde's criticism. You must have a sad life with the inability to preserve even the most basic examples of irony.

 

[Apl_J]

Video Game Industry: Where the little guy is an asshole, too. (So is the consumer, the big guy, and the critic).

That's just a generalization, of course, but its still begs the question of why this happens against all logic. I mean, I'm beginning to grow tired of Jimquisition solely because it talks about stupid decisions made by people in charge of my passion. Its absolutely depressing. Not only is it plain deplorable, its not even done well, even by the big guys with wallets and lawyers to throw around.

Goddamn, I hate the industry so much.

 

[Raspberry Gecko]

It's intriguing that Jim mentioned Ashton Raze right at the start of the video, I believe they're one of the writers for a game called Starbound, whose developers have gone on a warpath of silencing criticism of the game and it's developers.

It's even seen one developer go as far as attempting to undermine the legitimacy of the overwhelming amount of critical reviews the game has received on Steam as one forum trolling, or as meaningless because they focus more on the developer's handling of the game's development than the game itself.

 

[hydrolythe]

I got into a row [http://www.codiekitty.com/MOREC/misc3.htm] with an indie developer who released their terrible game (which also included plagiarism in the form of doctored sprites from Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger, and a line pinched from Yahtzee's Witcher review) on actual Sega Genesis cartridges instead of a more mainstream outlet (though a port of it has been Greenlit).

Still, those guys should be counting their lucky stars that they've managed to stay far enough under the radar enough that they're answering to a nobody like me and not somebody like Jim Sterling.

Yeah, though I hear most reviewers actually liked the game. I have seen why you do not (and perhaps you would compare it to this http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http%3A//www.lemon64.com/games/details.php%3FID%3D3135 ) and like you for it, though I still wonder what you have to say to the more mainstream critics that like it though, mainly as they have more influence on the general gaming community than you.

 

[Sergey Sund]

Concerning youtube channels:
Jim, I have a small hint for you. It is my understanding that, if one of your YT channels gets 3 strikes it is deleted. Further, it will be illegal for you to just start a new YT channel when your old one gets taken down.
However, all YT channels that you currently possess at the time of the take down can remain in your possession.
So:
Why not create a bunch of safety-channels right now? It can be 3, it can be 10, holy shit, go out and make it 30!
Just have some backup channels around should this take-down shit go on!
Just remember to write down all the information for the extra email addresses, passswords, and shit that you're going to need. But look at it like this: Once you have spend an entire anfternoon doing nothing but making email addresses to create new fail safe channels you will never have to be frustrated by a channel strike again. If necessary, just burn your bridges, say "fuck it", and move on to the next channel name.

 

[Demonchaser27]

I've lost a lot of love for indie development that I once had. For every Shovel Knight (I wish the game was a bit longer, although :/) there are at least 15 Guise of the Wolves. And I'll not lie, there is nothing these developers deserve to have in their favor for the laziness and intrepid shit they've been flinging. However, while I agree with the underlying tone of this episode, I'm not sure that I'm okay with how your handling it here Jim.

You're essentially playing the "my **** is bigger" card. I totally understand these type of indie devs as well as bigger companies deserve scorn for what they've been doing, but this episode felt like less of a criticism and more of a pissing match. Antagonizing people is bad, but even then to do so in this manner, solely because you know your in a better position than them. Its one of the things that bothered myself and you so bad about Microsoft was it not, Jim? This, "I can do whatever I want and say whatever I want because I have more power in this situation than you do." I most certainly believe its wrong what these devs are doing but the egoism in this particular episode came off quite a bit stronger than usual. I do imagine your growing tired of the attitudes of these devs, but I'm not sure this is the best way to solve this problem. Its like your testing them, drawing a line and daring them to cross it with a threat expulsion. This no-bars antagonism isn't something I necessarily agree with.

 

[Ima Lemming]

I got into a row [http://www.codiekitty.com/MOREC/misc3.htm] with an indie developer who released their terrible game (which also included plagiarism in the form of doctored sprites from Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger, and a line pinched from Yahtzee's Witcher review) on actual Sega Genesis cartridges instead of a more mainstream outlet (though a port of it has been Greenlit).

Still, those guys should be counting their lucky stars that they've managed to stay far enough under the radar enough that they're answering to a nobody like me and not somebody like Jim Sterling.

Yeah, though I hear most reviewers actually liked the game. I have seen why you do not (and perhaps you would compare it to this http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http%3A//www.lemon64.com/games/details.php%3FID%3D3135 ) and like you for it, though I still wonder what you have to say to the more mainstream critics that like it though, mainly as they have more influence on the general gaming community than you.

I have found two [http://rpgfan.com/reviews/Pier_Solar_and_the_Great_Architects/index.html] other [http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9117291] reviewers at major game sites who disliked it, though not nearly as much as I did. Granted, one of them spent his entire review complaining about it and still gave it a 69%.

As for why just about every other review of the game is positive, imagine if Twilight had been marketed in such a way that only teenage girls heard about it. Or if Muxwell had only made Earth: Year 2066 available to his friends.

Pier Solar is Genesis fanboy porn; the people it was catered to didn't care that there were only two enemy formations a dungeon, or that the story was made by ripping stuff from other 16-bit RPGs then stitching it all together with cliche, or that the developers stuck a line from an avid hater of JRPGs into a JRPG, they just wanted to see the Genesis pull off Mode 7.

I haven't played Zak McKracken, but since the developers never marketed their game by dredging up an embarrassing 20-year-old console war, nor insulted the competition while ripping it off, nor asked their friends at a major computer gaming website to nuke a poll because people were "trolling" it by giving the game low scores, I'm inclined to think any flaws it had were the result of developers who were just misguided instead of arrogant.

 

[mister R]

you'd think these guys would learn :I

 

[Wolf Hagen]

Huh? Apperantly the game was taken down from steam greenlight...
Nor anywhere on steam to be seen. Yay!

 

[Fsyco]

Huh? Apperantly the game was taken down from steam greenlight...
Nor anywhere on steam to be seen. Yay!

The game was originally released on Android last week, though, and is still available for purchase for 4 bucks. It has okay reviews, even (although I have no idea if the devs just removed the bad ones, but there is one 1-star review). They might actually still make money off this, since it seems like very Android gamers have heard of what the devs are doing to our Lord and Savior Jim Sterling.

The phrase Bad publicity is good publicity is still true. To understand it you have to go back to one of its original phrases for it.

The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/there-is-no-such-thing-as-bad-publicity.html

Jim, TB, and other being negative about a game is good publicity. Dev's attempting to censor people is actually the only thing worse than them talking about how bad their game is. Censorship is the silence that kills them.

"No such thing as bad publicity" is a myth, because the word 'bad' can mean so many things, and there's a sort of uncanny-valley-esque thing going on with it. 'Bad' could mean the game is boring, buggy, generic, poorly designed, unimmersive, or a whole host of things. It has to be an interesting kind of bad that doesn't turn people away.

For example, when child stars do that thing where they re-invent themselves as edgy and sexual (latest incarnation: Miley Cyrus), it generates alot of buzz and controversy, but it's not too weird and out-there so that people still wanna buy their stuff. It's about partying and sex and drugs, and people generally like those things. Then you get to your "famous person says or does a thing they shouldn't" kind of controversy (Gary Oldman, Mel Gibson, Chris Brown), and those might create temporary spikes in buzz in the short term, but in the long term people don't want to associate themselves with whatever awful thing you said or did, which can kill a career.

 

[Guilen-]

Overall point about censorship aside, the guy who looks vaguely like a nazi in this video sure makes an aspiring developer not even want to bother. This is lesser Escapist Magazine right here.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Has anyone created a website to publicly black list developers/studios that do this kind of shit?

I would like to bookmark that site.

Would be a very short list unless you added a "out of business" category

That would be good also.

If it is a short list, it still serves as a warning. Either way, a way to call them out on their bullshit in a popular and public way will be a good thing for consumers.

 

[Scrythe]

No. Fucking. Way.

The developers of Hydrophobia gave you shit for a bad review, Jim?

I was late to that party, but I picked that game up when it was on a PSN sale for $2. I *still* feel I was ripped off. The only thing that game had going for it was impressive water physics (that didn't really come into play until the end of the game), and they had the nerve to quash criticism of their horrendously animated, glitch-ridden, enemy pop-in fuckweasel of a game?

 

[hydrolythe]

I got into a row [http://www.codiekitty.com/MOREC/misc3.htm] with an indie developer who released their terrible game (which also included plagiarism in the form of doctored sprites from Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger, and a line pinched from Yahtzee's Witcher review) on actual Sega Genesis cartridges instead of a more mainstream outlet (though a port of it has been Greenlit).

Still, those guys should be counting their lucky stars that they've managed to stay far enough under the radar enough that they're answering to a nobody like me and not somebody like Jim Sterling.

Yeah, though I hear most reviewers actually liked the game. I have seen why you do not (and perhaps you would compare it to this http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http%3A//www.lemon64.com/games/details.php%3FID%3D3135 ) and like you for it, though I still wonder what you have to say to the more mainstream critics that like it though, mainly as they have more influence on the general gaming community than you.

I have found two [http://rpgfan.com/reviews/Pier_Solar_and_the_Great_Architects/index.html] other [http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9117291] reviewers at major game sites who disliked it, though not nearly as much as I did. Granted, one of them spent his entire review complaining about it and still gave it a 69%.

As for why just about every other review of the game is positive, imagine if Twilight had been marketed in such a way that only teenage girls heard about it. Or if Muxwell had only made Earth: Year 2066 available to his friends.

Pier Solar is Genesis fanboy porn; the people it was catered to didn't care that there were only two enemy formations a dungeon, or that the story was made by ripping stuff from other 16-bit RPGs then stitching it all together with cliche, or that the developers stuck a line from an avid hater of JRPGs into a JRPG, they just wanted to see the Genesis pull off Mode 7.

I haven't played Zak McKracken, but since the developers never marketed their game by dredging up an embarrassing 20-year-old console war, nor insulted the competition while ripping it off, nor asked their friends at a major computer gaming website to nuke a poll because people were "trolling" it by giving the game low scores, I'm inclined to think any flaws it had were the result of developers who were just misguided instead of arrogant.

I still am wondering though why they would want to make a JRPG though. Seeing as the Sega Genesis was mainly so successful due to their great (but nowadays indeed heavily outdated) western marketing division and the fact that EA decided to reverse engineer their system instead of the SNES it probably would have been better suited if it was a RPG like one that EA would have made (think of games like The Bard's Tale).

Also, who cares if the Genesis can pull off Mode 7. Games like Spectre for the SNES have shown that the SNES is capable of displaying polyons in a 3D world without slowdown.

 

[MB202]

On the one hand, I feel like certain Indie developers can get a lot of hatred and bile spewed at them, mostly for taking any kind of stance other then pandering or appealing to young, hetero white dudes, and that's unfair... It makes me all the more angry, though, to see some people use this argument to defend themselves and invalidate criticism of any kind. It's like quality control, more then ever before in the gaming industry, is a freaking nightmare now, and THAT'S saying something.