Unfortunately, what Jim suggests presents a bit of a conundrum that's bound to trap people forever in infinite cycles of hatred, weariness, joy, then love. Frankly I'm quite amazed this is the same Jim as the one who wrote an article several years ago claiming that customers outside the gaming media cycle were smarter than the ones in it, because they chose games based on what looked fun to them, not because of the developer/publisher's name on the box and not because of any sort of hype surrounding them. Jim's suggestion is for us to trust developer's with proven track records of products. Except that's exactly what happened with A:CM. Jim even says it himself. "You can't trust the people that made Borderlands 2, so who can you trust?" So how are exactly are they supposed to earn your money again?
I'm also not sure what he's bitching about with advertisement. They lied to you Jim? Really? A marketing team over-hyped something, or flat out promised something that wasn't in there? Say it ain't so, Auntie Em. Welcome to every other industry ever. The newest Die Hard trailers also promised me it was gonna be the best valentine's day movie ever; how much you wanna bet on the veracity of that statement. I'm quite worried that gamers just don't seem to understand the relationship of the customer in the subjective world of entertainment, and that they're just now realizing "Gee, maybe we shouldn't just throw money at developers or series we like whenever a new one comes out." YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE WHO MAKES THE JUDGMENT CALL ON WHETHER OR NOT TO BUY SOMETHING BECAUSE THE COMPANY HAS NO WAY OF KNOWING IF YOU WILL LIKE IT BEFOREHAND. Companies can't decide for you what you should or shouldn't be buying, and their survival depends on convincing you why you should buy their product over others. Now, in a perfect world, they'd accomplish this by putting out the best product. But, since things like Twilight and Transformers can make all the money ever, we know that that doesn't always work. So they have to promote. They have to hype. Especially these days, since games are more expensive than ever to make. And yes, sometimes gamers fall for the advertisements, sometimes they look at the box and just plain make the wrong choice. Does that mean the company is this evil behemoth that's sucked another victim dry? Of course not, someone looked at the information available to them and made the wrong choice (for themselves).
If everyone picked the right game for themselves all the time (hell if they bought the right anything all the time), than we would be the wisest civilization ever. I watched Mama when it was released. I saw the trailers, and the short film it was based off of. It looked good to me. The trailers promised it would be scary, and it was, right up until the last fifteen minutes or so. That ending sucked. But I didn't write to the directors or the producers calling them distrustful assholes who made me pay for something when I had no idea what the final product was. Why? Because it's impossible for anyone to make a game, movie, story, book, food, furniture, TV, computer, car, toy, song, etc. that everyone will like. And to demand that of them? To demand that they put out something no one will have any complaints over is beyond ridiculous. It would certainly be nice if they did, hell even they want to put out something everyone will like. That's the ultimate goal. But it's a nirvana no one can ever reach.
TL;DR: There are lots of products of which require you to pay first before you can experience them. Food? Can't just start sampling that new cereal in the store. And good luck trying to return two-thirds of a six pack you didn't like. Movies? God, A History of Violence was terrible. Games ain't the first one. So suck it up. If you ever bought a game you didn't like, then you made a mistake. Salvage what you can and move on. You'll be a lot happier for it.
(Also I noticed Jim hid his Assassin's Creed 2 statue, and the Skyrim dragon statue; things which either came with pre-orders, or collector's editions which are even worse)