Jim Sterling (The Jimquisition)

Basically, don't change shit for the sake of changing shit. Stay loyal to your roots.

Also while it's good to get input from the audience as to what does and doesn't work it's usually not worth it to let your game become designed by committee, as it often incurs a lot of bloat with the result that your game ends up a lukewarm Master of None.

An update on Digi Hom's lawsuit against Jim.

In short, Mr. Romine's case against Jim hasn't exactly gotten any stronger. Frankly, I'm surprised the case has lasted as long as it has.

I suppose the only reason it's still going is because the judge either hates Romine and wants to humiliate him as much as possible, or he hates Jim and desperately hopes to see that eeebil SJW taught a lesson .

Jim also posted this on facebook:

"As some of you know, the lawsuit against me is continuing. James Romine amended his complaint to comply with the judge's request that he either seek a lawyer to pursue a suit against me on behalf of Digital Homicide, or amend the lawsuit so it is not about the LLC he tanked by attempting to sue hundreds of anonymous people on the Internet.

"Romine has taken the latter option, and continues to not only accuse me of libel, but of directing criminal harassment against him. Such evidence of this "direction" includes Operation Cleanlight, a program I instated to highlight good games on Steam Greenlight and talk about why I find them appealing. It also includes The Steam Cleaner, a comedic vigilante alter-ego in a leather plague doctor mask that I introduced while talking about underhanded cottage markets in Steam's Greenlight community.

"It is my personal opinion that - of those portions of the amended lawsuit we may deem comprehensible - the charges are convoluted and possess such an intense degree of flimsiness, no word currently exists to convey quite how flimsy they are.

"According to what one can yank from the tangled mess of words and poorly scanned images, James Romine wants $15,326,000. All I'll say to that is this:

"When this is all over, I'll consider reimbursing you the $1.00 a month you claim to give me on Patreon in order to "prove" I do business in Arizona."

Wait, Romine (allegedly) donates to Jim's Patreon simply so he can hold this lawsuit in an Arizona court? I've heard some people can go to unusual lengths to take their grievances to court, but this is just ridiculous.

People who are determined will do anything. Anything.

At this point, this guy's like a Saturday morning cartoon villain.

Edit: Embedding isn't working right, so have a potholed link to the newest Jimquisition.

Jim on Gamestop. Also, he finally discusses the Digital Homicide lawsuit on video.

edited 6th Feb '17 1:04:06 PM by lrrose

Just seeing if I can get the embedding to work.

...

Dammit, I can't get it to work either.

edited 6th Feb '17 1:14:29 PM by MapleSamurai

I guess to sum the video up, Gamestop is scum of the earth (surprise surprise) with their Circle of Life program since they are pressuring stores to make more money with used games sales since they get little back on a sale made with a new game. Employees are in a constant state of fear of losing their jobs to the point of outright lying to the customer about not having a game in stock if said customer is not making a pre order or buying a used game.

edited 6th Feb '17 3:59:56 PM by MeeMaggot

Question: what's in pre-orders that a brand new non-reserved game doesn't offer?

Is it pre-orders being a guaranteed product sold, or demanding that more's shipped than there would be without pre-orders? I'm not exactly sure.

There are few things I'm more ashamed of as a gamer than having given money to Gamestop.

I haven't played a console game in about four years, so I've managed to avoid giving Gamestop any of my money for a while. When I get around to getting a PS4, I'l probably buy my games from a good company, like Amaz-

Oh right, Amazon also abuses their employees.

edited 6th Feb '17 4:57:43 PM by lrrose

Heh, glad the Philippines doesn't have Game Stop. Suckers, kappa

The sitch isn't quite as shitty here in Germany, thankfully, but it's still GameStop.

I'm glad to see RE 7 doing well. I played the demo (yes, EVERY version of the demo) and quite enjoyed it. Even though the first person horror angle isn't really my kind of game, I loved the classic era survival horror RE titles (though I also consider RE 4 to be one of my all time favorite games - I guess the key is be a good game), and I'm going to have to pick it up at some point, probably at a reduced price, if for no other reason than to find out what's going on with a certain reference to the series' roots.

I wasn't quite digging the hillbillies like Jim was, but I gotta admit, they're starting to grow on me. I especially like Lucas' line "I don't do spoilers!" when he's on the VHS tape.

On the topic of Gamestop, I live in Canada, and from what I've seen, EB Games (the Canadian name for GS) is nowhere near as rotten as its U.S. counterpart. I've gone there for years and I've never once seen anyone pressured to buy Game Informer or anything like that.

On the other hand, a close friend of mine told me he tried to buy a new game from their for a Christmas gift this past December and was told they didn't have it in stock and he was skeptical about it because there was a case for it on the shelf. Now mind you I'm not sure because he's kind of a moron about stuff like this (he once bought a game from EB for a gift after I outright told him it was on sale at Best Buy) but once I booted up Jim's latest opus I couldn't not think of that. I'm probably going to mention it to him the next time I see him.

Didn't know that about Amazon. Oddly, my nephew told me in December he "doesn't support Best Buy" and I was confused by that, and he didn't give me a reason why. I'm still super curious what his grievance was with them.

Let's put to you this way. If I applied that kind of filter to myself, I wouldn't be able to buy anything from Sony, Nintendo, Konami, EA, Bandai Namco, Ubisoft, Bioware, Microsoft, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Cogeco, I'd have to cancel my Netflix subscription, and probably a crap ton of stuff I've forgot. Probably Capcom, Square Enix, and Funimation, if I'm being honest with myself.

edited 7th Feb '17 4:42:28 AM by MainManJ

Don't forget Activision.

Let's put it this way: I have less of a beef with Activision than most of the other companies I just listed. I'm not saying that didn't say and do shit things, they totally did, I'm just not personally irked by them the way I am some other companies.

Then again, like Jim Sterling circa 2011, I'm actually one of those weird creatures who actually enjoys the Call of Duty campaigns. Not Ghosts though, Ghosts kinda sucked.

Eh, I suppose I'd have to include Warner Bros too, wouldn't I? I mean, they did do Arkham Knight on PC.....

See where I'm going with this? It's like Six Degrees of Corporate Shitbags. The fact that the only objection is the absence of Activision says a LOT.

[Edit] Oh wait, I just remembered Activision delisted the Spider-Man and TMNT games from the digital storefront. Yeah, they'd definitely be on the list.

And Disney, and probably Valve/Steam. Let's just say all of the companies and move on.

Getting back on topic:

1) Those Megatron/Starscream mashups were actually really cool looking.

2) The game industry's hangup about digital sales is shitty, but I don't know what the solution would be. Digital's got it share of problems to begin with (delistings, the Nintendo eshop's issues, Steam Greenlight, arguably Early Access) but it's also where a lot of indie games and smaller, more niche or retro games go to and I really like a lot of that stuff. It's also where you see rereleased older games

3) The randomness of the Spice Girls song that played during this week's episode has gotten me to ask something I've been wondering for a while: What's the deal with the shrimp? Does it mean something, or is just Jim Sterling "randomness for the sake of it"? I mean, out of context the Barbarian seems pretty random but I actually did end up seeing the video that started that gag and I now I kinda get it.

4) On a less related note, I recently learned of an adventure game Jim is in called 2064: READ ONLY MEMORIES. Has anyone here played it and if so is it any good?

edited 7th Feb '17 5:47:39 AM by MainManJ

Yeah, EB Games in Canada is much less bad with the "circle of life" thing. I know someone who works at the one near me and she said that they like used game sales and preorders and all that, but having two employees on at a time, and having maybe six employees total, and not logging who's selling what means that it's nearly impossible for corporate to go after an employee for not selling enough, because they can't tell.

I miss the times when games weren't meant for the money and were meant to give us enjoyment on our free time. Now its hard to imagine a game that doesn't suit the industry, but still allows you to have enjoyment we want.

Oh the video game industry was by and large always in it for the money. Nintendo for example. We all remember Shigeru Miyomoto for creating the characters and games, but Hiroshi Yamauchi was the big businessman behind Nintendo in its blossoming days, and apparently he was as shrewd a businessman as they come, Japan's answer to Walt Disney in how he'd be vilified as a matter of parody and criticism. Originally Nintendo made playing cards and toys.

Then you have the fact that after Sega "gracefully" bowed out, the two main competitors to Nintendo were the guys who made your Walkman and the guys who made the operating system for your computer. And the CDI, the thing that resulted in Playstation being made at all, was made by the guys who made my electric razor. If that doesn't say "In it for the money" I don't know what does.

We do have passionate artists in the indie scene, and I'd imagine, the individual development teams (I imagine the guys at Wayforward must be pretty passionate guys) but the other side of that is guys like Phil Fish. If Fez 2 was made by a major '"Triple A!!" studio it probably wouldn't have been cancelled but at least one of the guys working on it would have been bitter. Kinda like Infinity Ward, actually.

Then you have Kojima, and Igarashi, and maybe Inafune (???) and the dudes making Yooka-Laylee. Guys who were willing to jump ship and make their games without the licenses. That's where you'll find the passion.

Well that and the guys who made Kirby's Epic Yarn and Yoshi's Wooley World. You can't tell me those guys have no soul.

edited 7th Feb '17 7:54:43 AM by MainManJ

Inafune has always been a shrewd businessman himself. It took Mighty No 9 for people to realize this.

edited 7th Feb '17 8:32:59 AM by Demongodofchaos2

^Dunno how Might No 9 is example of shred business making

I mean, that is completely based on Kamiya's quote as far as I know? Not to defend too much Inafune since he DOES get way too much credit for Megaman