Laugh and the world laughs with you? Not entirely true, apparently.
In my career, I’ve been told to be more positive, to produce happier content, to smile more. I’ve been told I need to publish videos about great indie games or do more optimistic Jimquisitions.
I need to be less negative. I need to stop depressing people. I need to stop dumping on Bethesda.
And yet, the actual results of posting positive content paint a far different picture than the rhetoric in comment sections, and while we can put some blame on YouTube itself, a simple fact is that most of you adore the misery.
Jim’s negativity can be summed up in three words: “He be British”
There, now you don’t have to watch the video or whine about this in the future. You can take the boy out of the Isles, but you can’t take that stubborn British pessimism out of the boy.
And that’s why I love him – and why I thank God for him.
As I remember you were rather positive about the “a plague tale” game, the one with all the rats, and it was a joke about how you were being positive about what is a rather bleak subject mater.
I enjoy the content that highlights what’s bad about things, the stuff that pokes fun at bad practices in the games industry but
that being said, i do enjoy fun stuff, laughing during these times has been so much better for my mental health.
I miss the steam games you used to play.
In the description of the video, where it explains that posting positive stuff doesn’t gain views and posting negative does.
Isn’t that the issue with the games industry, the bad practices continue because they sell and good practices don’t.
Your shows name is the “Jimquisition.” It has an homage to the word “inquisition” in it, what the hell does anyone expect?
“Don’t give up….’cause you have friends.”
You know, I look over my favorite Jimquisitions and I realize that the trend isn’t that I like the negatives or positives but I like the ones that strike a chord with me personally. The ones about single-player games, the perfect pasta sauce, the damn fine coffee, the ones where you call out devs like Gearbox for their shitty behavior or how Crunch development is just terrible. The issues raised in those episodes are just analogous to gaming but to our culture as a whole. Americans do work too much. We don’t take vacations, we don’t unionize, we put way too much stock in what focus tests say we want. You can apply the issues talked about in those videos to a lot of our aspects in life.
I still laugh when he says “Triple A”. Gets me every time.
To be honest Jim, you see this attitude everywhere right now, I feel it’s partly from this ideological perspective that seems to urge us to cease with criticism, and to just be happy with the way things are, or even, instead, to solely be appreciative of the “good” things that come our way (rather than focusing on the bad). The reason I don’t like this view being a dominant one, is that it seems to forget that many of the “good” things that people enjoy, (whether it’s something less trivial) like video-game quality, or (something more important like) free/affordable healthcare, are not simply freely-given, but are gained through constructive critique and social movements that ask “why can’t things be better?” (when we know they often could/should be). Ultimately, critique is one method of holding shitty people, with shitty practises, to account (and also, can be a key driver for positive change).
… Have they not been watching Jim’s game reviews?
I mean one of his long running points is that the game industry needs more bright and colorful games, and that humor and irreverence are sorely lacking.
Jim is a very cherry man, the jimquisition is a series built around him not being that.
I constantly wonder if I should just make a playlist of positive Jim videos and then link it to commenters complaining about the negativity.
TBH, though, I genuinely believe like 90% of those commenters are just mad that you’re criticizing something or someone they like.
“Thank God for me” is just such a good closing line that I understand people miss it when it’s not there. That said, I don’t sympathize with complaining about it. You all know you should be thanking God for Jim Sterling, do you need constant reminders? DO YOU?
People who watch the occasional Jimquisition: “lol why u never positive”
Podquisition listeners: “Dear god please don’t get him started on Dark Souls or he’ll never shut up”
These people wanting positivity sure are eager to look for negative content to complain about
“Humans love tradition, they love doing something because it’s worked just fine for them up until now. The thought of abandoning their current age, even if it’s an age with people’s boot heels on their necks is terrifying because it’s unknown.”
-Jim Sterling
youtube has taken the “it bleeds it leads” type of ambulance chasing and obsessing over disaster and turned it up to 11, their broken ass notification system is a large driver of this
Just for the information: I never had your “best games of 2019” in my recommendation feed at all, however I’m getting your “negative” videos getting recommended all the time, especially Digital Homicide drama, despite already watching it for like 5 times and being subscribed for more than a year.