Ironically I've felt about Jim what he feels about Duke up till now. Maybe the humor doesn't quite translate too well but it's nice to hear you take the piss out of yourself once in awhile 
Jimquisition: Too Cool To Be Cool
- Thread starter Jimothy Sterling
- Start date
I can't help but think that even though Jim explained the point in the actual video. That a lot of people are missing the point.
Has anyone ever taken Duke Nukem seriously? No. Obviously. Because you aren't supposed to.
Are you supposed to take everything from Jim seriously? No. Obviously. Because you aren't supposed to.
Have a lot people taken Jim's assessment of Duke Nukem seriously? Yes. Why?!
Has anyone ever taken Duke Nukem seriously? No. Obviously. Because you aren't supposed to.
Are you supposed to take everything from Jim seriously? No. Obviously. Because you aren't supposed to.
Have a lot people taken Jim's assessment of Duke Nukem seriously? Yes. Why?!
Uh, Jim, that's kind of the joke. The fact that he's so unapologetic is the whole point of the Duke, and just cuz they don't cue a laugh track every time doesn't mean it's not a joke. It's just subtle.
You were dead on about Sonic though.
Oh, and 2:19 was epic! Maybe that'll stop all of the modwork every time you post a video.
You were dead on about Sonic though.
Oh, and 2:19 was epic! Maybe that'll stop all of the modwork every time you post a video.
It never looks good when you ignore direct questions pertaining to your use of the word "pretentious" and why you think so. I also noticed you were defending Fox News on the "Games as art" thread?Ace IV said:
I ask, because I believe it will relate to your overall posts regarding EC...and your ability to (properly) address criticism on your logic. You see, Fox News and its followers were never too brilliant at sticking with the issues or making much sense outside of their little bubble. So I'd like to save my time and any onlooker's time in the event you also logic-dodge.
So, a character who stars in a trailer wherein he does little but throw other people's shit around is supposed to be taken seriously?
Jim, serious question, were you joking or are you really that fucking stupid?
Jim, serious question, were you joking or are you really that fucking stupid?
Duke Nukem will work for one reason only:
We live in the most sickeningly politically correct time in the history of the planet.
For every reason people will ***** about how misogynistic, chauvinistic, neanderthal and politically incorrect the game and character is, there will be a dozen new fans loving every second of it because we have come to a point where our society is so damned boring and restrictive that freaking DUKE NUKEM's satirical tough guy image is something to be admired and appreciated.
We live in the most sickeningly politically correct time in the history of the planet.
For every reason people will ***** about how misogynistic, chauvinistic, neanderthal and politically incorrect the game and character is, there will be a dozen new fans loving every second of it because we have come to a point where our society is so damned boring and restrictive that freaking DUKE NUKEM's satirical tough guy image is something to be admired and appreciated.
It's not that people don't get it, it's just that people, well, I say people I mean myself and likely others, find it poorly executed and not funny at all.emusega said:
On topic though: I don't think anybody that actually plays DN takes him seriously, although it was a concern that I noticed when watching the trailers for it. They do seem to be trying to make him more straight and serious about his role, in the original games I never felt like he was being serious at any point. But in the DNF trailers, gave off a different impression. So I agree. But I don't trust GearBox with DN at all really.
I don't know where the "comedy" of Duke Nuke Em' will go but I literally know where it's coming from. The toilet. I couldn't agree more about Duke Nuke Em' and I'd love to hear what you think about Matt Hazzard. (In the interest of full disclosure I'm highly biased as I've played through it four times. I, um, thought it was funny. Really, really funny. Seriously. Give it a look. For a Professional game player it would only take a few hours for you instead of months for me. (Give my regards to the Kraken. You're welcome.)Dice Warwick said:
Brave of you to take on a major and popular franchise like that and saying some things a lot of us have been talking about (just yesterday when out looking at new releases at the mall in fact) which sort of boils down to I don't care about irony, parody, or whatever you want to call it if the character flings dung someone else can play the monkey simulator I'll reserve Green Lantern.
As for what you said about my beloved Sonic, *sigh* you're right. I just hope SEGA combines your idea about comedy with a return to it's roots Super Street Fighter IV style. Yes use the 3-D but use the graphic power not to render the characters and perspectives but backgrounds and visual effects but keep the mechanics solidly 2-D. I used SSFIV but really it's the SNK approach. Just master what you do best and then liberally apply the bells and whistles. Why not a 3-D interpretation of the old pinball machine/gravity maze that led to the chaos crystals that was in the first game? Lots of ideas on that front but I agree with you.
I think this show is coming along much better than before and I think you really have been listening and adapting maybe making the joke a bit easier to detect for us "idiots." Either way it's feeling more like some of the YouTube work that I've seen which as I've said before I like a lot.
Oooooooooohhhh BUUUUUUUURRRRRN!!!!
Nice vid. This episode was very quotable. And Jim, MONOCLES, please?
This entire video may as well have been titled: 'Why Jim doesn't understand irony.'
His whole 'persona' is that of an pompous, self-important games journalist, the irony apparently being that he isn't in fact any of those things. Except that he is. Just because you overplay your assumed persona doesn't make it 'ironic', it makes it painful. The irony would be to engage the audience as a know-nothing self-important egotist, and in delivering the act present an argument that is, in fact, the opposite of that.
The very fact that he calls Duke Nukem out on his apparent lack of self-aware irony is ridink-dam-donkulous. Duke Nukem succeeds on the levels of irony that Jim is blatently unaware of. Duke is over the top, crazily machismo and, in fact, worshiped and adored. He is a caricature of the action hero superimposed upon the surface of a nearby planet! The pure hyperbole which is his only recongizable characteristic forces the player to attempt to mediate this bent perspective purely to keep two feet in that universes ground.
When the whole world is screaming at how fantastic Duke is, himself included, and you can actually see he is an overindulgent hero it forces the realisation of: Man this guy is actually a douche, into your perspective. Otherwise you could not sanely inhabit the world you are introduced to.
Duke doesn't need to be self-aware himself, nor does anybody in the game world, they are equally ridiculous. The makers, however, are blatently aware of this oddity, and push it to its extreme. The player plays the game to be Duke, to fill the role of ultimate action hero, but in portraying this vision to its maximum potentional, we realise that its not exactly all its cracked up to be. The dissonance between the thrill of the action and the dispelling persona of Duke creates the whole frickin' experience.
Jim, on the other hand, bloats his performance while attempting to be self-deprecating and insightful. I don't think he is too full of himself, actually. But I don't think he deprecates himself either. It smacks of a inferiority complex more than anything, pushing a big image onto people because you are dimly aware of your shortcomings, but instead of addressing them, you put on a facade. As for insight, well, read the above.
His whole 'persona' is that of an pompous, self-important games journalist, the irony apparently being that he isn't in fact any of those things. Except that he is. Just because you overplay your assumed persona doesn't make it 'ironic', it makes it painful. The irony would be to engage the audience as a know-nothing self-important egotist, and in delivering the act present an argument that is, in fact, the opposite of that.
The very fact that he calls Duke Nukem out on his apparent lack of self-aware irony is ridink-dam-donkulous. Duke Nukem succeeds on the levels of irony that Jim is blatently unaware of. Duke is over the top, crazily machismo and, in fact, worshiped and adored. He is a caricature of the action hero superimposed upon the surface of a nearby planet! The pure hyperbole which is his only recongizable characteristic forces the player to attempt to mediate this bent perspective purely to keep two feet in that universes ground.
When the whole world is screaming at how fantastic Duke is, himself included, and you can actually see he is an overindulgent hero it forces the realisation of: Man this guy is actually a douche, into your perspective. Otherwise you could not sanely inhabit the world you are introduced to.
Duke doesn't need to be self-aware himself, nor does anybody in the game world, they are equally ridiculous. The makers, however, are blatently aware of this oddity, and push it to its extreme. The player plays the game to be Duke, to fill the role of ultimate action hero, but in portraying this vision to its maximum potentional, we realise that its not exactly all its cracked up to be. The dissonance between the thrill of the action and the dispelling persona of Duke creates the whole frickin' experience.
Jim, on the other hand, bloats his performance while attempting to be self-deprecating and insightful. I don't think he is too full of himself, actually. But I don't think he deprecates himself either. It smacks of a inferiority complex more than anything, pushing a big image onto people because you are dimly aware of your shortcomings, but instead of addressing them, you put on a facade. As for insight, well, read the above.
Great episode, and, really, can people stop complaining about the satire of his jokes when they don't get it, and, if they think about it and listen, they'll realise he makes some interesting points.
I definitly think Sonic should take a step back and think about his character; in the originals, he was just a small little hedgehog trying to get through the stage, and yet I prefer him to someone who has 15+ years characterisation.
I'm not sure I agree about Duke. I'll admit I haven't played any of the Duke games, so I may be talking out of my arse here, but the impression I get of him is that, when he was in his prime, he was intended to be a reflection of Hollywood action heroes (hey, look at the insight of this guy), which came about after the first one, where he was a blank slate, so they probably chose to take up that projection of the action hero and make him into the most over-the-top action hero that when he makes bad jokes in that voice of his, you can't help but laugh at the stupidity of it, case in point 'I'm an equal opportunity ass-kicker'.
I can make one example of a similar figure, Arnold Schwarzenegger: every time I see him in one of his films, I can't help but laugh at his accent combined with cheesy one-liners, yet, despite the fact that we can't take the role that seriously or believe that such a character could exist, we love the guy, and Terminator 2 will forever be among one of my favourite films.
The universal praising of Duke in the world he lives in, plus the fact that he's basically an arrogant douche, certainly makes him unbelievable, but he's fun to be observe, and I look forward to when DNF finally comes out. I think that parody of generic action heroes in films has come full circle to be a parody of the new generic action heroes in games.
I definitly think Sonic should take a step back and think about his character; in the originals, he was just a small little hedgehog trying to get through the stage, and yet I prefer him to someone who has 15+ years characterisation.
I'm not sure I agree about Duke. I'll admit I haven't played any of the Duke games, so I may be talking out of my arse here, but the impression I get of him is that, when he was in his prime, he was intended to be a reflection of Hollywood action heroes (hey, look at the insight of this guy), which came about after the first one, where he was a blank slate, so they probably chose to take up that projection of the action hero and make him into the most over-the-top action hero that when he makes bad jokes in that voice of his, you can't help but laugh at the stupidity of it, case in point 'I'm an equal opportunity ass-kicker'.
I can make one example of a similar figure, Arnold Schwarzenegger: every time I see him in one of his films, I can't help but laugh at his accent combined with cheesy one-liners, yet, despite the fact that we can't take the role that seriously or believe that such a character could exist, we love the guy, and Terminator 2 will forever be among one of my favourite films.
The universal praising of Duke in the world he lives in, plus the fact that he's basically an arrogant douche, certainly makes him unbelievable, but he's fun to be observe, and I look forward to when DNF finally comes out. I think that parody of generic action heroes in films has come full circle to be a parody of the new generic action heroes in games.
Because every episode a bunch of people like yourself show it attention and act like you hate it.SvenBTB said:
I don't like Fox News, yet I don't go around raging about how much crap they are. I understand intrinsically that they are crap and leave it at that.
You however, by being here, validate him.
I don't mind him, he has some good commentary in between the dry spots. The most bothersome part about it is the episodic return of people bantering about him.
It's like folks who star at car accidents and act mortified but never look away and never refrain from slowing down to see a new accident in the future.
best episode yet, I actually found it rather well thought out, and actually made good sense, great job
I think people are focusing too much on Duke's facet as an action hero parody (which he undoubtly is) and forgetting a bit the main point of his characterization: to give players a lens to see the game with, or a script to approach the game.
Back when Duke Nukem 3D came out most FPS went for the blank slate approach. Even when the character had a fleshed out story that was being progressed in the game, the actual behaviour of the character in the gameplay was left for the player to fill with their minds. Was the space marine in Doom a scared-to-death guy struggling for survival? Was Kyle Katarn in SWark Forces a badass that went guns blazing while cracking jokes? Or Vice-Versa? You had freedom to decide this as you played. The characters' experience was yours.
Duke Nukem traded this in for an EXTREMELY strong characterization. There wasn't nearly as much room for projection or immersion. The game made it clearly from the get go the attitude you were expected to experience the gameplay. You were no longer yourself in the hero's shoes, you were the hero and if you didn't want to rip someone's head and shit down their neck you were in the wrong game. Back then this was a breath of air in FPS and made the difference.
So talking about character development in Duke Nukem doesn't make that much sense to me. He's not a story to be told or a concept to explore or expand, he's a lens to see the game through.
Back when Duke Nukem 3D came out most FPS went for the blank slate approach. Even when the character had a fleshed out story that was being progressed in the game, the actual behaviour of the character in the gameplay was left for the player to fill with their minds. Was the space marine in Doom a scared-to-death guy struggling for survival? Was Kyle Katarn in SW
ark Forces a badass that went guns blazing while cracking jokes? Or Vice-Versa? You had freedom to decide this as you played. The characters' experience was yours.Duke Nukem traded this in for an EXTREMELY strong characterization. There wasn't nearly as much room for projection or immersion. The game made it clearly from the get go the attitude you were expected to experience the gameplay. You were no longer yourself in the hero's shoes, you were the hero and if you didn't want to rip someone's head and shit down their neck you were in the wrong game. Back then this was a breath of air in FPS and made the difference.
So talking about character development in Duke Nukem doesn't make that much sense to me. He's not a story to be told or a concept to explore or expand, he's a lens to see the game through.
Looking through the comments here and on facebook it's amazing how much hate that show gets, just the same with MovieBob lately. I actually quite enjoy the show, I mean I think he makes some interesting points and I just like his absolutely overplayed love for himself. Jim, I thank god for you
This episode and the sexism one were also just pretty good.
This episode and the sexism one were also just pretty good.
Dear Jim,
I watched the first two videos of yours and wasn't really feeling it, while I found your words mostly interesting there was to much staring at you and not enough shots of games and such.
Watched some more recent episodes and that has been fixed a bit, less staring at you talking and more looking at things that are interesting, though I still think the show could do with some manner of consistent animated representation ala Extra/Zero.
P.S. I always knew you were "in character" as a giant self loving D bag, but even characters have to be lovable, i.e. we have to love to hate, not simply hate. And I think its gotten better. We'll see if you can turn the show into a good escapist staple yet.
I watched the first two videos of yours and wasn't really feeling it, while I found your words mostly interesting there was to much staring at you and not enough shots of games and such.
Watched some more recent episodes and that has been fixed a bit, less staring at you talking and more looking at things that are interesting, though I still think the show could do with some manner of consistent animated representation ala Extra/Zero.
P.S. I always knew you were "in character" as a giant self loving D bag, but even characters have to be lovable, i.e. we have to love to hate, not simply hate. And I think its gotten better. We'll see if you can turn the show into a good escapist staple yet.