Jim Sterling | |
---|---|
Born | James Stanton 1 January 1984[1] |
Occupation(s) | Video game critic, web video producer, livestreamer |
Employer | Freelance |
Known for | Video game journalism |
Website | TheJimquisition.com |
Jim Sterling (born James Stanton, January 1, 1984) is an English video game journalist, reviewer, consumer advocate, and the former review editor for the websites The Escapist and Destructoid. He produces a weekly YouTube show called "The Jimquisition".
Personal life
Sterling was born in the United Kingdom, where he lived on the poverty line for much of his childhood and was psychologically abused by his mother's lover, a Hell's Angels outcast.[2] He currently lives with his wife and step-son in Jackson, Mississippi, United States.[3][4][5]
Career
Early in his career Sterling attempted a career as a live comedian, performing both in live sketches and stand-up, but he was not successful. He also briefly ran a blog, "Morphine Nation", which he billed as "social commentary [with] very angry, curse-laden rantings."[citation needed] During this time he began writing as a video game reviewer, producing a few articles for friends' websites; the success these reviews met encouraged him to contact IGN and Destructoid.[citation needed] Sterling joined Destructoid in 2006, eventually becoming reviews editor for the site. He garnered attention in 2009 where he gave a controversially low score to Assassin's Creed II[6] Sterling hosted the sites official podcast from 2011 until 2013 and was a regular guest on the site's video series Office Chat as well as other numerous site projects.[7] He remained a full-time employee of Destructoid until November 2013 when he became reviews editor at The Escapist.[8]
The Jimquisition
On Destructoid Sterling began the weekly series The Jimquisition in June 2010.[9] The weekly program focuses on the video game industry, with a strong focus on community advocacy.[10] Sterling uses a comedic persona in the program, with the catchphrase: "Thank God for me!".
The Escapist
The Escapist had been host to The Jimquisition since 2011, and in 2013 Sterling had become reviews editor for the website. He also created and produced a new, original series titled Movie Defence Force, where he defended movies which are commonly mocked. The series ran from January 2013 through to September 2014.[citation needed]
Sterling also co-produced two other original series along with Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, the first called Jim & Yahtzee's Rhymedown Spectacular, a show where Sterling and Crowsaw presented a poem each week. The show ran from March 2013 until May 2014.[citation needed] The show was replaced with a competitive gaming show called Uncivil War, where the two versed each other in a gaming challenge each episode, with the winner receiving a point which tallied throughout the season. The show only had one season with Sterling winning, a second season was never produced due to Sterling leaving the site. It ran from July to November 2014.[citation needed]
On the 15 of November 2014, Sterling left The Escapist and became self-employed.[11]
Independent works
As an independent producer Sterling has continued to publish The Jimquisition, as well hosting written media and the podcast Podquisition on his website. Recently his brand has also expanded into a clothing line.
Outside of his direct brand, he stars in the weekly podcast FistShark Marketing, a sketch comedy, where Sterling and his co-stars play fictional executives of a marketing firm.[citation needed] Fistshark was created as a spiritual successor to a previous podcast Sterling starred in called The Dismal Jesters, which was also a sketch comedy co-starring Conrad Zimmerman along with Jonathan Holmes.[12] The show ran for 30 episodes, ending when Holmes decided to quit the show.[13]
Voice acting
Sterling's voice has appeared in multiple independent video games, such as Jazzpunk, Volume, The Charnel House Trilogy, and You Are the Reason.[14] He is also set to appear in episode 2 of Albino Lullaby.[citation needed]
He also played the role of Ditto in two episodes of the web-series Teenage Pokemon hosted on Machinima. [15]
Views
Sterling's opinions are often polarising, if not outright controversial. His views have been described as "controversial yet accurate" by Oscar Gonzalez of Original Gamer.[16] From the views espoused by his character in The Jimquisition, Jim positions himself firmly as someone who believes in the rights of the developers as creators to express themselves fully,[17] while disparaging the industry selling the material, who he has often cynically branded as being over-interested in making money and under-interested in producing a quality product.[18][19] He bills himself as a consumer advocate.[20] Despite his character's reputation for provocation, however, Sterling demonstrates a progressive attitude against sexism in video games, and has argued against it in interviews,[21] having evolved over time on the subject. He regularly criticises games for using women solely as "window-dressing" or to add exposition to the plot without any character development.[22]
In the past, he has been accused of homophobia,[23] allegations to which he reacted strongly. In a Google+ discussion with another journalist,[24] he implied his sexuality was more fluid than the rigid heterosexuality he felt his opponent had assumed, and in his recent video on Fallout 4 he said "Look, I am not a monogamous guy, nor am I a straight one either".[25] Also recently, his views on sexuality appear to have evolved even further; a Jimquisition episode centering ostensibly around Dragon Age: Inquisition was made to answer the larger questions of the role of sexuality in video games, and how much water the arguments of those who wish to see a return to more traditional arrangements held.[26]
Criticism of Steam Greenlight and developer incidents
Due to the perceived extreme low quality of the games on Steam Greenlight, Sterling has been highly critical of the service's handling by Valve, asserting that the service is in dire need of quality control.[27] He noted that while the system was intended to be democratize game development and game publishing, it is instead now closer to anarchy.[28] He regularly takes aim at shovelware and often talks about the practice of "asset flipping"; purchasing ready-made assets from asset stores provided by game engines like Unity or Unreal, and re-selling them as a game with little-to-no modification.[29]
In late 2014, the developer of indie game The Slaughtering Grounds, Robert Romine,[30] took such offence to one of Sterling's Squirty Plays of the title then James Romine filed a DMCA takedown request through YouTube due to defamation and harassment from the Youtuber's subscribers. After uploading a Best of Steam Greenlight Trailers video of the game Island Light, which highlighted the game's lackluster state, the developer Kobra Studio hit Sterling's channel with a copyright strike as well.[31]
Two games shown in his Best of Steam Greenlight Trailers series—Island Light[32] and Skate Man Intense Rescue[33]—were presented in such an unfavorable manner that the developers responded by filing DMCA takedown claims through YouTube, with Digpex Games, the developer behind Skate Man Intense Rescue later admitting they filed a DMCA strike in an attempt to "Stop that guy" from "Using poor weak developers for money".[34][35]
In response to continued abuses of the DMCA system, YouTube set up the YouTube Fair Use Protection Program, which protects select content creators from misuse of the DMCA system. One of the four videos they pilot-protected was Jim Sterling's Greenlight video covering two of Moo Tech's games, being Raging Citizens and The Simplest Game, which had a false DMCA levelled against it several weeks prior to the announcement. The video is now restricted to US audiences only, and is also being held up by YouTube as an example of a video protected under fair use.[36] Jim has said that he is hoping to restore the video to non-US audiences.
Digital Homicide
Jim Sterling has been involved in a long-running conflict with Digital Homicide, a two-man team who developed The Slaughtering Grounds. It started when Digital Homicide created a video which added subtitles to Jim's gameplay video, chastising him for not turning off the music, not holding an empty gun while collecting ammo and coining the phrase "I'm Jim Fucking Sterling, son". After this, Jim replied by talking over the subtitled video, laughing at the various accusations.[37] Digital Homicide in turn replied, releasing a response of plain text on a black background, over the audio of Jim's response.[38] Following the controversy, Digital Homicide filed a DMCA takedown request on his gameplay video of The Slaughtering Grounds. The developer's behaviour, which became increasingly erratic, was widely covered by gaming media.[39][40] This fiasco earned Digital Homicide place as the focus of a Jimquisition episode, once the takedown claim expired.[41]
References
- ^ "Who the **** is Jim Sterling?". destructoid.com.
- ^ "The Beginner's Guide Review – The Hardest Word | The Jimquisition". www.thejimquisition.com. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
- ^ Jim Sterling wife
- ^ 2012 TMI Interview with Jim Sterling
- ^ "Jim Sterling step-child". Twitter.com. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
- ^ http://www.destructoid.com/review-assassin-s-creed-ii-155807.phtml
- ^ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE2EE9F5E323A823A
- ^ http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rqsrbv
- ^ http://www.destructoid.com/the-jimquisition-plagiarism--177449.phtml
- ^ "The Escapist : Forums : Gaming Discussion : Jim Sterling Leaves Destructoid (UPDATE: Jim Joins The Escapist!)". The Escapist.
- ^ https://twitter.com/Gregtito/status/533448443143151616
- ^ https://archive.org/details/DismalJesters
- ^ http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Jonathan+Holmes/-nvgr-why-i-quit-the-dismal-jesters-276619.phtml
- ^ "Jim Sterling is Creating The Jimquisition". Patreon. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
- ^ Teenage Pokemon - Rare Candy. YouTube. 3 March 2013.
- ^ Gonzalez, Oscar (2010-03-22). "Jim Sterling: His Controversial Yet Accurate Views". original-gamer.com.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ Editing Versus Censorship (The Jimquisition). YouTube. 23 March 2015.
- ^ How Evolve Fell Down The Bullshit Tree (The Jimquisition). YouTube. 19 January 2015.
- ^ Cinematic (The Jimquisition). YouTube. 2 March 2015.
- ^ "TwitLonger — When you talk too much for Twitter". twitlonger.com.
- ^ wundergeek (2013-06-21). "An interview with Jim Sterling about sexism in game culture". Gaming As Women.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ DmC Devil's Advocate (The Jimquisition). YouTube. 16 March 2015.
- ^ "Jim Sterling reminds us how good gays behave [UPDATE] With response". ctrlclick.com. 2012-01-01.
- ^ "Google+". google.com.
- ^ "Fallout 4's S.P.E.C.I.A.L Relationships (The Jimquisition)". YouTube. Retrieved 2015-11-09.
- ^ Regarding My Inquisitor And Vaginas (The Jimquisition). YouTube. 15 December 2014.
- ^ http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/8753-Steam-Needs-Quality-Control
- ^ PLAGIARISM ON STEAM GREENLIGHT - Why This Is A Real Problem
- ^ The Asset Flip (The Jimquisition)
- ^ "Jim Sterling - The publisher of The Slaughtering Grounds,... - Facebook". facebook.com.
- ^ Suprak, Nikolas (27 July 2014). "Kobra Studio Puts Bad Game on Steam Greenlight and Threatens Jim Sterling for Making Fun of it". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
- ^ ISLAND LIGHT - Where's Sarah McLachlan?. YouTube. 14 July 2014.
- ^ SKATE MAN INTENSE RESCUE - Welp, Videogames Have Peaked!. YouTube. 15 March 2015.
- ^ Klepek, Patrick (2015-03-19). "Indie Developer Retaliates To Negative Video With YouTube Takedown". Kotaku.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ Skate Man Intense Rescue: A Steam Spite Story (The Jimquisition). YouTube. 6 April 2015.
- ^ Knight, E. Zachary (2015-11-19). GamePolitics http://gamepolitics.com/2015/11/19/youtube-launching-stronger-fair-use-protection-measures/.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ SLAUGHTERING GROUNDS DEVELOPER MELTDOWN INCEPTION SPECIAL. YouTube. 2 November 2014.
- ^ SLAUGHTERING GROUNDS DEVELOPER MELTDOWN CHAPTER TWO: THE MELTDOWNENING. YouTube. 4 November 2014.
- ^ Brad Jones (7 November 2014). "You Might Want to Avoid 'The Slaughtering Grounds' Mess". Game Rant.
- ^ Chris Fox. "The Slaughtering Grounds, Jim Sterling, & Why Censoring Criticism is Futile". Twinfinite.
- ^ The Slaughtering Grounds: A Steam Meltdown Saga (The Jimquisition). YouTube. 1 December 2014.