Jimquisition: Metacritic Isn't the Problem

[Sonicron]

... Ehhh. I heartily approve of the message Jim conveys here, but the presentation still makes me cringe. I'm fine with the dub parts (aside, perhaps, from the resolution of the videos), but those bits with him in front of the camera need to go. Badly. Aside from the fact that the 'acting' makes my eyes and ears bleed, this guy needs to adjust his wardrobe. Casual works; suit and tie works; suit and tie plus coat works; coat plus t-shirt... yeah, not so much.

 

[mateushac]

your show still doesn't hit me at all

 

[deadpool.forever]

Just remember Legends don't die Jim.

 

[Gunjester]

"....You prick.."
I fell off my chair.
Well Done sir, the series is getting better every episode.
For those who hate, calm down for a second and maybe, I don't know...stop watching instead? maybe? hm?

 

[Rabish Bini]

I find it interesting how people that have stated they do not like the show, keep watching the videos then come back and insult Jim once again.

Please Jim, don't ever change.

 

[Ryan Lietzenmayer]

He didn't once comment on how bonkers it is that people take the 8.5 to 9.5 scoring so seriously. He also didn't mention how silly it is to give something as rock solid, concrete, and standardized as the quality of a game a rating from 0 to 100.

That's the real problem, Jim. Not your strawman of publishers or the exaggeration of fanboys. It's how seriously people take these ratings, and how little value these ratings have in the first place.

 

[dietpeachsnapple]

I enjoyed this episode moderately more than I enjoyed prior episodes. It felt more directed and organized. Attacking his critics will only last for so long though. I am also uncertain if there is room for two or three separate shows that give poignant commentary to gaming issues. I would rate Extra Credits, followed by Yahtzee, and finally Jim.

 

[duck-man]

Hm, does metacritic give the standard deviation? It'd help to distinguish between a score that says 'This game is about this good' to a score that says
'Some people will like it more than this, some will like it less than this' to a score that says
'People will love it or hate it'
Silly averages!

 

[UnknownGunslinger]

I... I actually agree... with Jim... I cant believe it

 

[Trilliandi]

Jim you old duff! Lookit you reeling in new popularity! Too bad you still can't manage to stuff some of that over-the-top-bad-acting-narcicism up your cake hole a little more, then I'd actually call you a good source of information.

As it stands you're getting better, but the whole rubbing shit thrown at you back in your fans' faces is your only drawback, though of course you're making the trolls cheer for you, but who really wants to listen to all that grunting?

No but seriously, don't turn into MovieBob. We've got enough insufferable round nerds who enjoy wearing trench coats and pretending the world needs to revolve around them.

All that aside, nice to see you getting a point across.

 

[Sean Deli]

The OP-related text sounds solid, both in the idea and in the communication.
The presentation of the idea - well, I like the way your style is shaping, it might get very-very good. Keep looking for the proper balance between the content and the attitude padding. It's comming.

But the visual part of the show's style still needs some work. See
- Extra credit's and Yahtzee have custom-made slide-shows,
- MovieBob has 8 clip-art pictures + some extra artwork stolen from pop-culture icons
- Ready-Steady-Run are literally sketch comedy.

I don't know what would work best for your show, but pretty much anything would be better than what you have right now. Given the style of your show, you might want to look into something akin the propaganda shorts of Cold War era. I dunno, don't want to get into your business too much.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

I've always thought it was fairly ridiculous that people obsess over the aggregate score on Metacritic as if it was the be all and end all, while ignoring what makes that site so super awesome - it compiles an enormous list of reviews in one place.

Who gives a crap what the overall average winds up as, I cherish being veritably inundated with reviews without needing to bookmark or otherwise know about all the various websites that decide to review things - as a content aggregation service Metacritic is quite handy.

Numerical scores are mostly meaningless anyways - everyone isn't using the same scale to begin with, and human beings don't generally quantify their experiences by assigning numerical values to them; if I go on a vacation, I'm not going to tell my coworkers about it by saying "I give it 88 out of 100", no one actually does that. A higher/lower overall rating on Metacritic tells me squat all about how much better/worse any two games are than each other, or whether I'd even like the damn thing - the number by itself is not a meaningful system of comparison and information delivery.

Now if the same person gives two directly comparable titles vastly disparate scores that don't seem to reflect either prevailing opinion or, you know, reality, that's another matter entirely since there's context for that arbitrary numeric value, but the overall score on Metacritic isn't like that at all.

 

[ForensicYOYO]

You know what? It took me a long long time. But I finally give in. I like this show. Did I mention long time? because it was long.

 

[Epona]

I love Jimquisition's arrogant style, people seem to be taking him too seriously. I don't get all the hate he's getting.

If you love his arrogant style then surely you can understand those at the other end of the spectrum who hate it? Why must those who don't love it be taking it too seriously?

 

[Juuel]

If you love his arrogant style then surely you can understand those at the other end of the spectrum who hate it? Why must those who don't love it be taking it too seriously?

I don't expect everyone to like him, and yes, you're right, some people might not take him seriously and still not like him. I'm just saying that a lot of people seem to be expecting some kind of an artistic approach to video games. After his first episodes he got a lot of crap thrown at him apparently because people didn't quite know what kind of a show we were talking about. After a couple of episodes he wasn't as despised anymore.

 

[Genixma]

Jimquistion. A Message. A Topic. And enough Sarcasm to choke a snob. Bravo.

 

[Doc Theta Sigma]

If anyone ever does see Jim at a convention or anything, I only ask you do one small thing. Break your hand against his smug, self satisfied face.

 

[Jyggalag]

Jim, your passion is strong and your reasoning is solid. This is why I fully support this episode, even though you've been perceived as an asshole from day one.

 

[Still Life]

First of all, I'd like to point out that there's a difference between a "whiny minority" and a "minority group". Perhaps it wasn't your intention to equate the people who I was referring to- the whiny people who think Metacritic is bad or ruining something- to a minority group along ethnic or religious lines, for example.

OK, I understand where you're coming from. I've found that too often, some people have it the other way around.

It's about a vocal minority who think a tool that can be abused by it's user base is necessarily a bad thing.

The public user base certainly abuses Metacritic.

I'm inclined to agree with you and I think the internet has more disinformation than useful information when it comes to quasi-reviews. Boot up Metacritic, Amazon, or something similar and you'll find a battle-of-the-scores milieu between fanboys and detractors. Metacritic itself has become infamous for review bombing by people who need to get a life, and it has simply made it harder to tell a quality product from an inferior.

Having said that, I believe people generally lend more credence to the professional review outlets and publishers have hijacked this process. I personally think that is the bigger evil, rather than those review bombing buffoons in the online community.

 

[EchetusXe]

I don't understand how people can still keeping hating Jim when he has used a Father Ted picture on his video?

This guy is less popular than Bishop Brennan. In my mind it just proves wrong the whole notion of 'all publicity is good publicity' and 'the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about' is bullshit. Now I haven't seen the viewing figures so maybe this series is going swimmingly despite the negative comments, it certainly is going very well on the video quality side of things.

Anyway, people tend to form their opinions first, and then find evidence and twist the image of the world to form their own preconceived prejudices. So all those unfair threads saying how terrible Jim was prejudiced many viewers against his show. Now some people watch the series determined to find fault with it. I admit that before I watched his videos I felt a dislike for him, then I watched the offending videos and was baffled by how little credence there was to the hateful comments.

Jim's right again this week, not that I paid any attention to Metacritic before.