Jim Sterling (The Jimquisition)

It's a bad time nowadays to follow the Triple-A gaming sphere huh.

T He jist of it seems to be that it's essentially 200 dollar, and incredibly unreasonable battle pass, which is...a lot. That's more than off-putting, that's some shit.

Edited by mrsunshinesprinkles on Nov 11th 2018 at 10:48:39 PM

"Curry killed the pussy hoping that I could kill the hate in you" - Curry, D. "TABOO | TA13OO." TA13OO, PH, 2018

Seems we're also getting a Jimquisition on the Diablo Immortal mess tomorrow.

Obligator embed version:

Disgusted, but not surprised

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCGx_tFHIvw - The Diablo Immortal Backlash Fun Parade (The Jimquisition)

Embedded version.

Loved the Event Horizon reference :D

jamie-b-good.tumblr.com

So is it wrong for me to say that Blizzard is kinda lazy or complacent I guess?

I don’t know they just feel like their sitting on their hands, rolling in their own money sorta.

It’s just a feeling I get from them.

Though heh Jim called the Plant in Smash Bros.

Edited by slimcoder on Nov 12th 2018 at 7:36:14 AM

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

I call Activision-Blizzard creatively bankrupt. They are out of ideas. They cannot even bring themselves to come up with actual sequels to their own series anymore, let alone come up with new ones. And one of the recent sequels they did make lacked a story campaign.

We're even at a point where they did WOW Classic and Warcraft 3 Reforged. Remasters.

The people running Activision-Blizzard don't have a creative bone in their bodies anymore.

I think investors are starting to realize this too. Activision-Blizzard cannot reach the lofty goals they themselves set to please investors, and they lack the creativity, the spark, to come up with new ideas to convince investors that they still got it. To say nothing of the company's utter ignorance of how their cattle — I mean fanbase — would react to this. Like I said, even cattle like us gamers have limits.

They could have at least given people a teaser trailer of a real Diablo 4 game. Or here's a crazy idea — an entirely new IP. Give fans something to salivate over and investors reason to think their investment will pay off.

I used to be a fan of Activision-Blizzard games. I loved Warcraft. I loved Starcraft. I loved Diablo. But those days are long gone.

Also, that thing about people accusing Jim of being gaming's Alex Jones because he didn't side with Activision-Blizzard on this...they clearly aren't followers of the show. Jim Sterling has never sided with Activision-Blizzard or any other AAA game publisher. Half of his show is dedicated to calling out the AAA industry on their bullshit. The other half of course is taking the piss out of pretentious indie "developers" whose egos are far greater than their actual ability to design games.

Edited by M84 on Nov 12th 2018 at 11:58:10 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised

Honestly, I've mostly never given a fuck about mobile games since ever. I have nothing against the concept in and of itself, but by the nature of the format the majority of games for the platform will be very simplistic touch n' go stuff at best, which is fine and even I can get behind that once in a while, but it's not a platform that can really provide a substantial game experience very easily.

And of course, when you consider what the actual mobile market is nowadays, I have zero reason to care. Jim's right; Activision made their bed, now they have to sleep in it.

I don't necessarily agree with "but it's not a platform that can really provide a substantial game experience very easily." There's been some really cool mobile games. Adventure Books for example have had a good shot at making engaging games with a phone's minimal interface ( Joe Dever's Lone Wolf and the Video Game adaptation of "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain", which turns the game into a kind of narrative Rogue Lite come to mind). Hearthstone is of course immensely playable on mobile. Around the World in 80 days similarly takes a game book approach, adds the randomness only a videogame can achieve, and makes for a fun rump. Sure, most of the games are not mechanically complex, but neither is say, Life is Strange, or the Walking Dead and it didn't stop those from being fun. Heck, the mobile port of Doom is pretty damn good, as are the mobile versions of several of Square Enix' classic JRPG.

I don't think the issue is "Difficulty to make them", but rather how crowded the market is. It's hard to get visibility if you're not on top of the App store(s) because mobile games don't get the same kind of press attention other games do.. And its dominated by gatcha games and pay to play garbage.

Mobile became a pool of garbage because developpers, along with Google and Apple, let it become that way.

Edited by Ghilz on Nov 12th 2018 at 2:47:17 PM

I don't think you could make really good traditional platformer, fps or CRPG on mobile though

I haven't watched Jim in a while but since I didn't know much of the issue, having intentionally stayed away from it, I decided I wanted to the explanation and opinion of someone sane on the subject and thus watched his latest one. He did deliver.

But he, once again, suffered from the problem that caused me to stop watching his stuff. He spent 18 minutes talking about something that could have been covered in 10. Granted, this was not the most egregious example of this particular habit of his but it still left me annoyed after I was done the video.

It would be different if he did long videos that really used every minute, then I'd happily watch him even longer. When there's not enough content for the time spent, it just makes me feel like he's wasting my time, even when I go into his videos with the intent of wasting it for something mildly entertaining.

Edited by GabrieltheThird on Nov 12th 2018 at 9:53:36 PM

I definitely think you could make asymmetric cRPG. And like I said, the mobile version of Doom / Doom 2, are pretty good. Sure, it doesn't lend itself to every genre, but neither do consoles (See RTS on console for example). That alone doesn't bar the medium.

Honestly, the people I feel sorry for the most would be the employees who had no say being the lightning rod of anger and whatnot. Of course I don't give a damn about Activision since, even ignoring their bad practices, corporations are not people.

Don't catch you slippin' now.

"We're even at a point where they did WOW Classic[…]"

To be fair on that one people have been calling for a vanilla WoW for ages, especially post-Cataclysm. Of course fan efforts for such have a long history of getting hit with C&D letters.

And while I can see the very twisted logic leading to "Jim Sterling must be a right wing conspiracy theorist for not denouncing this backlash" from some of the stupid gaming controversies of recent years (and no I'm not even specifically talking about that hashtag), it's, well, twisted logic and the man is outspokenly on the left if you pay the slightest account of attention to him beyond the surface of the "shouty video games person" persona he puts on

All one needs to do is look at Jim's Twitter to see his political stance. Just don't read the comments whenever he does make a political tweet.

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.

Funny thing I’m far more interested in playing Classic Warcraft than Wo W.

I’ve fallen really outta MMO’s a long time ago & the fact Wo W is a very archaic one makes me want to play it even less.

Edited by slimcoder on Nov 12th 2018 at 4:10:08 AM

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

Don't get me wrong — I'd like to play Warcraft Reforged. But I'd much rather play a new RTS Warcraft game even though I know that's never going to happen thanks to World of Warcraft.

As for mobile games...I've liked a few. Infinity Blade, Puzzle Quest, Lone Wolf, Song Summoner, Chaos Rings, the app version of Final Fantasy III (yes I'm a big fan of fantasy games and yes I know Infinity Blade and Chaos Rings and Song Summoner are technically science fiction but they have magic too)...and that's it. The rest of it just doesn't really appeal to me.

Edited by M84 on Nov 12th 2018 at 10:18:08 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised

I don't even think making a Diablo 4 would have been particularly taxing for them creatively or financially. They have a license to print money, and you know they'd be raking it with all the garbo microtransactions they'd put into it.

I suspect that there's been some behind-the-scenes reorganizing in Activision-Blizzard that has left them bereft of a creative team and executives willing and able to make a new full-fledged Diablo sequel.

Either that or they actually are working on the sequel but are still very very far from having anything ready to show at a convention. Though honestly, they could have just shown some character design sketches and a title graphic. That would have been enough to make fans happy.

Disgusted, but not surprised

So Jim is right-wing because he doesn't defend the big giant capitalist company. Right...

It's precisely the difficulty of making traditional games work on mobile that made it so interesting in the early days. Touchscreens just aren't good for the kind of precision controls that shooters and platformers demand. As such, developers had to come up with new, inventive ideas that actually worked with the hardware available.

Then somebody came up with microtransactions and the section imploded.

Ukrainian Red Cross

Supposedly Diablo 4 is in development, just not far along enough to display at the time. Still, they could've just confirmed that it was in development as opposed to not at all, even if they don't have a path to commit with it.

Edited by AlleyOop on Nov 12th 2018 at 11:54:32 AM

Why do I keep coming here if it only gives me reasons on why I should feel miserable?

On topic, while Activision has dug their own hole and are showing that they're going to continue their controversial practices, this isn't surprising. I don't even think it's worth talking about, this is a common occurrence when the newest instalment of a franchise that hasn't been touched in years has a "twist" to it. Even worse when said "twist" doesn't carry weight.

When the "twist" is that it's a mobile game that isn't even being designed by the company itself (it's being done in tandem with another company whose main claim to fame was...making Diablo ripoffs)...

It's especially bad in the context of stuff like the C&C mobile game announcement and Dungeon Keeper Mobile.

And Activision-Blizzard decided this should be the big announcement at their con.

Diablo fans have every right to be upset, though of course that doesn't mean they should be getting into personal attacks.

This along with...everything else with Activison-Blizzard recently paints a rather disconcerting picture. And they cannot just shrug it off and continue without changing something for once, since their investors (ie the people they actually have to respect) are also losing confidence.

It's just not a good look when the best things your company has to offer now are remasters of older games (which tbf fans do want).

Edited by M84 on Nov 13th 2018 at 5:14:14 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised

I agree completely, the announcement's timing was horrendous and poorly presented.

I do believe third party companies have done good jobs with big I Ps but the big announcements usually need something to back them up. Not the case here and it is frustrating.

Seriously though, why do I keep watching Sterling's videos when I (though not against) dislike his content? Something is wrong with me.

Way to make an originally chilling Wham Line hilarious... And I usually watch Jimquisition videos when they are uploaded every Monday before hitting the sack for the night. (Before waking up, rewatching it and posting here.)

Anyway, I can't help but be reminded of this image I saw on KnowYourMeme quoting the late Steve Jobs:

I'd like to think there are still developers in Blizzard who still want to make a video game that their fans would surely love—that is, if they haven't left the company already out of disgust or burnout. Because if Blizzard doesn't care about their products anymore and just want to make a high profit with low-effort mobile games, then that gives me no reason to care about what they're selling or offering anymore either.

And while I do agree with Jim that the developers themselves should not be targets of harassment (since they're the ones working their butts off to make the games), the only time I would consider blaming the developers is when they release a shoddy product or turn out to have shitty, dehumanizing working conditions (like Treyarch's QA department, apparently).

Also, instead of directing ire at the poor devs who had to announce a mobile game in front of a PC- and console-gaming audience, find out the identities of the unnamed faceless higher-ups (besides head CCE Bobby Kotick—NDAs be damned) who pushed the developers to make a mobile Diablo game instead of a PC and/or console Diablo game and target them instead.

And most importantly, (and this bears repeating as many times as it takes) show genuine disdain for Diablo: Immortal (or any other shitty "Triple-AYYY"/mobile money-sink/"free-to-play" games, for that matter) by simply not playing it.

Guess I'll wait and see if Warhammer: Chaosbane is worth playing. (Apparently it's a Diablo-like ARPG set in the realm of Warhammer Fantasy. Also loved their tweet taking the piss out of Diablo: Immortal.)

P.S.: Jim, if you (or any of the Jimquisition video production crew) happen to be reading this thread, go ahead and use the "Fucktivision-Jizzard" (or even "Fuckti-Jizz") nickname if you want to make a segment covering Acti-Blizz bullshit in the vein of "#FucKonamiNews" and "Oh, Ubisoft!" in future episodes. (And might as well add a segment for Unicronic Arts while we're at it.) Just remember to give a shout-out to me and my fellow TVTropers if you do, yeah? Thank God for you and your work. o7

Edited by IncognitoNinja on Nov 13th 2018 at 3:29:22 AM

"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."