The Game Reviewer Who Hates Games (The Jimquisition)

[@MaddMoke]

Some of your reviews the last few years are the only reason I went out of my way to play and love said games. Hades, Children of Morta, even the Soulsbourne games in general were games I only tried because of your coverage of them. The fact you aren't afraid to call out bad or mid game experiences give trust to me when reading about the games you adore. Thank God for James Stephanie Sterling

[@randomtinypotatocried]

Same here

[@HOOTwheelz]

i also bought Hades after seeing Steph's glowing review of it. I hadn't played that particular genre of game before so I didn't know for sure if I'd like it or not, but I figured if they loved Hades, it was probably a great game to at least try. I didn't really like playing it much, but i think that's because this particular gameplay loop just isn't in my tastes. But I decided not to refund the game because while I didn't like playing it, I could easily recognize that it's well-polished, fresh and cared for. Chances are pretty high that my tastes just need to evolve a little bit more so I can enjoy Hades fully in the future, as I've done with music in the past. So I keep it in my library until I might pick it up again and really enjoy it in the future. I can always read or watch a JSS review and, because I know how my tastes differ from theirs, I can safely determine whether it's a game i should buy, avoid, save for later or recommend to my friends. That's kinda the whole point of a critic! I treat theneedledrop the very same way. his taste in progressive metal music is such that an album he considers mediocre and uninspired is usually going to be an album I fall in love with. Case in point, Anthony's review of The Contortionist's Language album. Anthony thought it was pretty mid, but described it in a certain descriptive manner that made me realize I'd probably like what he wasn't really fond of. So I listened to the album and sure enough, it became one of my favorites. Critics are deeply important, and you can learn just as much from a critic you disagree with as you do from a critic you agree with. The important thing to do is to watch or read the critic's reviews on games you liked and disliked in the past, and see how they felt about them so you can judge quickly how your views align or split off. You'd also be able to tell quickly if the critic is offering valuable critique that can be trusted, or is too easily swayed by corporate leverage or fandom.

[@JimSterling]

💛💛💛💛💛! That means a lot to me! I’m so glad you got to enjoy a bunch of great games because of my work. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t actually get my happies from mauling a game - my biggest joy is getting to unequivocally praise a game like Hades and share its existence with my audience. Putting a spotlight on The Sexy Brutale, or Boneraiser Minions, or any other number of wonderful experiences my audience might not be aware of, that’s the real gratification I get out of being a reviewer.

[@SpritoftheStairwell]

Definitely got me to play Hades (edit: which I'm really glad for)

[@Yaspis]

@@JimSterling I would have never discovered Journey to the Savage Planet without you, and who knows how many other, stellar, less lionized gems!

[@themambawarrior2290]

As Yahtzee said in his video about people saying he hates games, "you don't have high standards for something that you hate."

[@zyriantel9601]

I haven’t watched a ZP video in a hot minute (No hate against Yahtzee, he just has a habit of saying things that set off my depression in a bad way so I had to back myself off his videos for my peace of mind), but I remember it getting to a point where every third comment was to the effect of, “wow, he’s really shitting on this one, must mean he loved it!”

[@jthom0027]

JSS and Yahtzee are the only two game pundits I care about. They've never led me astray.

[@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502]

​​@@jthom0027 I do tend to disagree with yahtzee a lot, but I agree. And even if I disagree with his takes, he rarely fails to provide an interesting perspective.

[@simplus1980]

It's a critic's job to be critical.

[@PeterFlynn-vd8se]

"Loving something unconditionally doesn't mean you love it more; it just means you love it sadder." - Jenny Nicolson

[@esbenm6544]

Pointing out the good AND bad parts of anything is just how reviewing works.

[@kevinlardi5961]

Thank you, I thought I was having a break from reality when someone claimed that was a bad thing.

[@Peepshow789]

Yeah, but they have to point out the good things I like and warn me of the bad woke things I dont like for it to be a real review. Please, I need this. If Im not warned about the political people in a game I might cry 😢

[@marvellousm]

Yeah surely that's closer to being "scientific" than what these whining babies want

[@TheImpolitelad]

I thought the point of reviewing was to secure a revenue stream to feed your crippling Boglin addiction.

[@Jabarri74]

Most reviewers are effectively bought off. Give a poor review no early copy for you, its not impartial at all. (Not to mention no flying them out to lavish PR events etc etc where i bet they get treat like 5 star guests while having to pay nothing)

[@Owesomasaurus]

"This part is good and this part is bad" is literally the purpose of any kind of media review

[@ElevatorEleven]

Reminds me of that time, who was it, was it Bill O'Reilly, it was Bill O'Reilly or someone like him who tweeted something like "According to these liberals, the only thing, the ONLY THING that matters is consent. ANYTHING goes as long as there's consent," and a bunch of the replies were like "Yes exactly, now you're getting it."

[@jemolk8945]

@@ElevatorEleven It was Rush Limbaugh IIRC, and yes. That whole thing was really funny.

[@naomistarlight6178]

@@ElevatorEleven Yeah like as opposed to what? I guess their ideal is religious obedience so they don't think consent matters, but that just means anyone claiming to speak for God can abuse you then.

[@StrazdasLT]

@@naomistarlight6178 The religiuos fundamentalists think any deviance from regular sex should not be acceptable.

[@Earthboundwhisper]

yeah my brain wanted so badly for her to say "y'know LIKE A REVIEW!" Like what do they want from a review?

[@canedust]

"Oh, you found a game tedious to stick with after a while? Where's your 100% run, then?!" Yeah, nothing's better for tedium than 'playing through the pain'.

[@DragonNexus]

They fail to understand that, if anything, playing a game you don't enjoy for 50 more hours would only make your impression of it WORSE.

[@tigerhorse6321]

I've played hundreds of videogames and have precisely one platinum. Get away with that nonsense!

[@zyriantel9601]

I love the old, “You’re just not giving it a fair chance, it gets better once you’re X hours in!” Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, but you’re still trying to demand that I sit through those X hours of awfulness to get to the presumably good parts, and you know, I just have too much to do with my day to sit around and put myself through that. If a game only opens up and starts being fun after multiple hours of slumming it through dogshit, then I have no problem getting that game off my hard drive in favor of one that starts out fun immediately and never tapers off, and if that’s me not giving a game a fair swing, well, tough shit, life’s unfair and I’ve got a limited time to live mine.

[@DragonNexus]

@@zyriantel9601 I remember Yahtzee once saying "Why do I have to wait 20 hours for it to be good? Why can't it be good *now*?"

[@KattReen]

Yeah. Some games DO in fact require a ridiculous time investment to start becoming interesting and engaging though, but I feel like it's reasonable that the fact that they do will drive people away or bring down a review score. Like I have thousands of hours in FFXIV now, but it genuinely took me three whole tries to actually enjoy it since you have to invest, no joke, over 100 hours before it starts being kind of fun. When you bring that up as a criticism you get a lot of variations of how it's ok since it's an mmorpg actually, and that it's reasonable that you should have to earn your way to a game being fun. Which is as hilarious as it is ridiculous. God forbid a game is just enjoyable from the start.

[@jamesproimos]

The "reality revelation" is a big one. This is what was at the heart of that argument over that one dress and what color it was. People find it DEEPLY disturbing when people see a reality that conflicts with your own. This is also why we really really like "remembering" things with an old friend. The more your recollection of a past event matches your friend's the more you will enjoy the activity. Conversely when you ultimately remember something in a different way it can be very upsetting and start a heated argument.

[@ericlamb4501]

Something I told my mother all the time when we were moving to a smaller house and she didn't want to get rid of stuff. Memories are good to have, but if you're holding onto old shit only you remember because of that, is that really a memory or an excuse to hoard garbage? And I don't mean old photo albums, I mean stuff that we don't even need anymore just taking up space cause she remembers something about it and to me it felt like it was basically the first time seeing it again.

[@Ikine557]

Part of loving something is wanting it to be better.

[@Wiimeiser]

Guess I love Nintendo and Society, then.

[@go_gorilla_go]

Things to not say to your significant other during an argument:

[@JimSterling]

Yeah, if I hated games, I wouldn’t constantly write about what they’re doing wrong and right.

[@CarbonRollerCaco]

@@Wiimeiser More of a "I hope you're not actually this way for evil and can thus change"? Though I actually do see Nintendo as a well-meaning, more progressive Japanese company that's none the less still caught up in a lot of conservative Japanese bullshit, though some of it may be just holding down the fort until real change gets made. And obviously we're all society.

[@GeekMasterGames]

"There are few things more powerfully deceptive than the truth of the deluded. For no matter how wrong a true believer may be, the strength of their conviction can topple whole mountains of evidence." Honestly, these are strong words here.

[@dirrdevil]

Thank God for the Game Reviewer Who Hates Games.

[@aestheticmirror9257]

They hate on them cause they love them more that any of us

[@benedictrogers1478]

Wait, are we talking about Steph or Yhartzee here?

[@aestheticmirror9257]

@@benedictrogers1478 yes

[@Mene0]

@@benedictrogers1478 Funny, Yahtz did a video on the same subject like a month ago more or less

[@benedictrogers1478]

@@Mene0 I know, it's why it came to mind. The two videos are actually pretty good companions to each other.

[@badnewswade]

I love the idea of you doing an "objective review": Robot voice: is definitely a video game. The dictionary defines "video game" as (definition). And this game fits that definition perfectly. Your character is capable of . You can also save your progress, as is the norm in games of this type. You travel through the game world doing and finishing levels. The game lets you do and you can do . A solid 5 out of 10!

[@yukaiyami]

They already did that. They did an “objective” review of FF13. It was glorious, minutes of just facts and not a single sentence about something that wasn’t fact. It still holds up today. One of my fave videos of theirs!

[@Zappygunshot]

Final score should be either 1 for 'yes a game' or 0 for 'no not a game'.

[@JoshuaRastia]

This is a fascinating analysis of toxic culture in general. I feel a large portion of what you talked about could easily also be used in the perception of other toxic fandoms, and even things like religious or political cultures. So many people are so firm in their beliefs that they’ll completely shut down and be in denial if someone tries to point out an alternative or contradiction or new fact different to their views, and will quickly switch to, “oh you don’t believe what I believe? Then you can’t be part of this argument” and just shut people off, firm in the belief that they won because they have to be always the right, cuz admiting they might be wrong would break their whole reality. Truly fascinating from a mental perspective

[@abadenoughdude300]

One of the "benefits" of widespread internet access is the ubiquity of echo chambers. There were always people who dismissed other people's opinions because they didn't match their own but that was mostly limited to their immediate surroundings (also people didn't need to have an opinion on everything nor announce it to every person in sight). Nowadays everyone can freely find an echo chamber they like and engage in spats with other echo chambers at the touch of a keyboard so that has become akin to religious fanaticism. No matter what the topic or industry is, everybody will spend hours of their life discrediting an opinion they disagree with rather than accepting that's a differing opinion and moving on.

[@morgannyan2738]

there are only 2 genders

[@Zappygunshot]

I find it funny how you wrote "they have to be always the right" because it's (mostly) true x)

[@morgannyan2738]

@@Shimamon27 im not sure if youre talking about progressives or fandoms

[@hanniballahr94]

The kinds of gamers who say critic's "just don't like video games" are just the folks who get upset when anyone is critical of the games they like because they don't understand that criticism isn't hatred and that our tastes differ.

[@imitationpitaya]

Also they care what other people say about for some reason. When it’s just a review, someone’s assessment/opinion. I’ve disagreed with plenty of reviews but if I like something or hate something, it doesn’t matter. If you liked the thing, why do you care? Why do you need someone else to validate your opinions?

[@MeatyZeeg]

They've been huffing so much copium they forgot what air tastes like.

[@DeannaBaileytheRavensFan]

All of this!

[@DreadedLad88]

I'd say people on your side dabble in misery a little more than everyone else. So how can you be surprised you're looked at this way.

[@coolsenjoyer]

Those kinds of people also don't seem to understand that for a lot of people being a hater is a form of entertainment. Like it can be fun to consume media you think is total garbage and talk shit about it. I wish being a critic was just doing that and getting paid for it. Would be my dream job

[@Frostbite08]

I've lost count of the amount of times I've said over the last few years "I don't hate games, I hate bad games, broken games, and cash grabs. It's not my fault that those are the default now."

[@paladin181]

So much, this. If games weren't so bad, I'd buy more of them. There are games I love. There are games I don't. I don't like most mainstream games these days because they're low effort games with pretty graphics. But sometimes good ones come out.

[@randomstuff-qu7sh]

Agreed. As the gaming industry has pushed the envelope further and further to see what they can get away with, it feels like more and more games are degenerating into minimum viable product loaded with microtransactions. Making things even more "fun" is the fact that so many games are released in a broken state and fixed later (or sometimes abandoned if they don't make enough $).

[@sleepingkirby]

Really? The response to people who complains that people hate "real games" isn't, "Because I'm not a tool." or "Because I'm not a sheep."? It seems like that's more jarring to that mentality than a rational explanation.

[@MidgetPally521]

case in point, I love the star wars series, I loved Star Wars: Fallen Order. I'm fucking disappointed but not surprised the sequel is an un-optimized PC port. I won't be buying it until it's fixed, and it's bullshit that it's starting price is $70

[@nathanlevesque7812]

@@randomstuff-qu7sh Even without shady monetization, publishers mainly pump out trash. Most of the 'indie' titles I see recommended are hollow, a poorly thought out experience, or just plain dumb. The shovelware era has been reborn, wherein anything with the right concepts for content will get buzz.

[@starvalkyrie]

If there's anything I know about Capital G Gamers... it's that they never EVER complain about, get mad about, or throw entire petition signing hissy fits about games. Ever.

[@unkeldolandukc2561]

Nope. Additionally, sarcasm is not a real thing, and there's no way this post is employing it. Like, at all.

[@maestro3947-b9g]

You forgot the tm

[@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342]

Giving the hardcore gamer dooders like myself a bad name... Remember folks. Big diff between me, just some nerd who loves games vs gamer gating incel sexist and racist creeps who would rather rage all day about a woman that they once saw in a video game or a movie instead of complain about corporate bs ruining games like red fall and diablo 4.

[@MF217]

The petition part of things actually is what saved Digimon in the international market during the 2010s. I was there and lived the whole chain of events live, I was one of many people who signed the petition to encourage international Digimon video game releases, and we ultimately hit the big time when Cyber Sleuth onward virtually every major Digimon game Bandai Namco was working on ultimately was able to see an international release, even if admittedly the game in particular the petition was originally made for didn't see international release.

[@starvalkyrie]

Eh not really the kinda petition I was talking about. That sounds pretty constructive to me.

[@WraithMagus]

I've done amateur game review work before. I've done things where I gave games a lengthy essay listing positive elements and negative elements, including describing how those elements interact to create good or bad experiences. The thing I could never get over was how I could give a game the equivalent of a 9/10 and spend equal amounts of time talking about positive and negative aspects of a game, and people still constantly complain I am "too negative".

[@summarcaki]

It still annoys me that some so called fans want video games to be treated like "a big boy medium" like movies and books but the minute they're criticised as such they revert to being childish. Thank god for Steph and the few select reviewers who actually do critique.

[@mindblower76]

I would say that people who are critical of their hobbies are doing it because they love em

[@lancelotto475]

And we know they can and should be better.

[@ChevaliersEmeraude]

I don't know... I'm not just talking about Sterling here, but in general, it seems a lot of the gaming community are devolving into cynicism, not actual criticism. Like they forgot to have fun. Used to be, if I went to, say, a Final Fantasy forum, people were talking about their favorite game in the series, their favorite characters, favorite ships, helping each others pass through a difficult boss, sharing wild theories about how to revive Aerith or how everything after Disc 2 in FF8 was all a dream in Squall's head. Remember that stuff? You won't see that kind of thing anymore; if you go to a Steam forum on most games, no matter how much they are rated positively, the forum is full of negativity about how the game is bad or too costly or how the developers are bad people for reason X or Y. I do believe a lot of gamers kinda just lost their passion, just being excited to play games they enjoy. And sadly, not much I can do about that either: All I can do is be at home and play the games I enjoy myself.

[@legomaniac213]

To paraphrase Anton Ego: "I don't *like* games, I *LOVE* video games. If I don't enjoy it, I don't play!"

[@lancelotto475]

@ChevaliersEmeraude I agree with you there. I miss those days when game forums could be fun. I'd love to pop on a Magic subreddit and chat about decks or the lore, but a lot of the discourse is about Wizards' mismanagement of the game nowadays.

[@AkuniLesare]

@@ChevaliersEmeraude Welcome to a world/generation destroyed by social media. It wont get better unless those burn to the ground. Currently, no matter what you do, you have X people screaming in your face how to do it better and/or what you're doing wrong and how you're bad at whatever you do. That just gets you jaded quickly. Back in the days, you enjoyed the thing, then you went out of your way to share that with others and generally speaking, you met similar people. Giving everyone a plattform to voice their opinions was more than a mistake.

[@patton3338]

"The enjoyable 7/10 classic Breath of the Wild." Hahaha, the shade is on point today. 🤣

[@Ikine557]

What shade? That's a respectable score!

[@iwouldprefernotto4381]

Haha that was a brilliant bit of snark! I honestly don’t get the breathless love for BOTW, the gameplay is really boring.

[@patentedorganism1557]

For someone who hates games, you sure do love a lot of games.

[@JimSterling]

But they’re not the “right” games so they don’t count.

[@RedSpade37]

​@@JimSterling Thank God for you, Commander.

[@dalekrenegade2596]

​@@JimSterling What do you think of the Jurassic World Evolution games?

[@StrazdasLT]

@@JimSterling To be fair, your best game of the year looks like torture device to me.

[@kylecairns2847]

I’ll never understand how people are so unsteady in their sense of self that the existence of someone who doesn’t like what they like is considered such a personal and existential threat.

[@Zectifin]

We all like different things. Steph finds most open world games monotonous and boring. I enjoy most of them. If Steph says its a little less monotonous that other ones I know I'll love it. People can dislike my favorite game and I like to hear why. Doesn't mean their opinion is wrong. Just means they like different things. A bad review can make me buy a game if their reason for disliking it is something I enjoy.

[@morgannyan2738]

you should meet the trans community

[@bluester7177]

@@morgannyan2738 not liking a product and being against civil rights are not remotely the same thing, also, if you feel they are that annoying why are you doing the same exact thing you seem to think they do?

[@SunshineCasy]

This kind of reminds me the whole "audience vs critics" thing. If critics always agreed with audiences, we would lose out on valuable critical perspectives.

[@Zectifin]

and its great. I love when something has an imbalance of critic vs audience scores. Then I comb through them and see why. Sometimes the critics don't get something because they are being too pretentious and the media hits with everyone else and the critics come around later. Sometimes the critics love something and its just them being really pretentious. Sometimes something is good, but its getting review bombed because they dared to put POC or LGBT people in the cast. Its great to examine why.

[@seazonegranec]

It's impressive how there's a perfect Mer-Man expression for any context. It's like a cheat code for frames

[@justinemery2194]

I’ve been telling people for years (and long before “games journalism” became a sad joke) that you find 2-3 reviewers who explain the game well that you AGREE with, and go off what they think. They are in your wheelhouse. IF they dislike something you still think you’ll like, then being able to articulate what they do and don’t like should inform you beyond their score. I’ve found those approach works well with horror movies too, esp since mainstream reviewers typically hate horror.

[@mjc0961]

Also find some that you don't agree with but they also articulate well. More perspectives never hurts, and sometimes a negative review can be more informative than a positive one. I still remember positive reviews of Sonic Unleashed simply saying that the number of daytime stages is equal to nighttime stages, implying that you at least have a fair balance between play styles. It was only the NEGATIVE reviews that saw fit to point out how nighttime stages can be 2-3 times longer than daytime stages, meaning that there isn't actually a good balance at all, and the game is heavily lopsided towards the "like god of war but" stuff that I'm not buying a Sonic game for.

[@MarquisdeL3]

I can't remember where, but I heard a story about a guy who discovered he had basically the complete opposite opinions on films to a specific movie critic, so he used that critics reviews to determine what to watch. If the critic hated the film, he knew he'd love it, etc.

[@mrcheesemunch]

Yeah it's really dumb when people say shit like "Omg you just won't play a game because they told you not to!" Ain't how shit works Me and Jim have very similar tastes in a lot of ways, particularly I share their disdain for games that are just tedious to play so whenever they point out how tedious a game is that's immediately on my radar, if a few other people I follow say similar shit then I can be 99% sure it won't be for me because no game that's just an endless list of resources you have to collect and repetitive missions does it for me and they never will 'cause I don't have time for boring games

[@Venatius]

People seem to have genuinely forgotten that reviewers are things you shop around for. You look for ones with tastes similar to yours. That's the reason it's valuable to have so many around. If you disagree with a reviewer constantly, then unless you're watching/reading/listening to them for entertainment, that's not the right reviewer for you. Move on and find someone else. A mom posting reviews of mobile phone games she plays between tasks around the house is gonna have very different standards, expectations, and needs than, say, a veteran PC roguelike grognard or a fighting game enthusiast. (Or just do what MarquisdeL3 suggests and just do the opposite of whatever that critic recommends) Like for me personally, games that take away my progress in huge chunks are what I can't abide. A reviewer with a lot more free time than me might not care as much and could wave it off as part of the challenge.

[@VeshSneaks]

@@mjc0961yeah, I fell for the “equal number of states” thing. Never mind that the daytime stages were over after a minute or so, but the nighttime stages were 10 minute slogs i had to force myself through.

[@spiraljumper74]

I love how the white mage looks like she’s flipping the dead bodies of the enemies off with her victory pose.

[@NoExplosionsMcgee]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that. Lol

[@mdeac48]

My head canon will accept nothing else

[@brettc6132]

I also had the titular lollipop chainsaw and I can attest that after 10+ years I finally opened it a few months back and it tasted just fine-quite good in fact! Over the years I had sorta forgotten that it was edible and not just a decorative collectible and it’s not like I really need a physical reminder of that game so when I got desperate for candy one day I went ahead and ate it and the only negative effect was that it made me think about lollipop chainsaw

[@optiquemusic6204]

So I'm guessing you don't like the game?

[@kaorugirl180]

I actually lost friends for being critical of pokemon scarlet and violet. Like literally told me my negativity (read: being frustrated by glitches) was too upsetting to be exposed to, and asked me how I'd feel if someone said that about games I liked. Well, as of posting this I've put 445hrs into scarlet. I've got a wip fanfic based in the setting with 40k words so far. My frustration came from how good the game COULD'VE been if they didn't crunch it out the door too fast. The concept i could criticize a game I love was incomprehensible to them, who in the end decided that the game's honor was worth more than our friendship ig. That was in like December and I still can't warp my head around the logic.

[@Ziko577]

In that case, they weren't your friends then. Screw them as far as I am concerned. Besides the bugs and other issues, the game had so much potential but it needed more time plus the devs shouldn't have sold the game on the competitive elements and faux open world stuff to begin with as that gave a lot of people a false sense of what the game was instead of what it actually is.

[@jaythomas468]

Damn, that’s really sad, actually. Chalk that up to another reason I despise Pokémon now (ruined friendship of internet rando I met).

[@orfeas2335]

I lost a friend for giving a negative review for the batman 2022 and old zeldas control system

[@darkarchonisme]

the logic is they wrapped up their self identity in the forms of what products they are fans of, what media they consume. any criticism of something they like so much its part of their internal identity, is automatically an attack on their identity.

[@Veolynn13]

Same, but with Gen 8.

[@aimeeg4809]

Phoenix's off-camera comments never fail to make me laugh out loud.

[@guitarsimon1]

"Why eat that and be upset and confused when you can eat those and be upset and confused?" hit me like a tonne of bricks 😂

[@JimSterling]

They’re a damn funny enby.

[@aimeeg4809]

@@JimSterling As are you, and together you're a fabulous couple!

[@zyriantel9601]

I love how offended they sound when JSS fires off with “T’other day”

[@CodPatrol]

@@JimSterling why did you change your gender? That took me by surprise, didn’t seem the type

[@mirrorsandstuff]

I always felt that JSS demanded standards that no longer exist in the mainstream video game industry, that others just take for granted as not being present any more. I'm glad she demands them still though. It's why I read the reviews.

[@gamepapa1211]

"Show me your 100% completion save file." And this right here showed the fundamental flaw in The Gamers(tm) logic. They honestly, HONESTLY believed that movies and video games are equal, and no critic has any right to judge a game until they sat through everything the game has to offer and the credits rolled. Well fun fact: movie critics walked out on movies all the time. Roger Ebert doesn't have to sit through all of the Wing Commander movie to know that it's garbage. Hell, most folks only need 20 minutes to know that Wing Commander was garbage.

[@Phlebas]

You just reminded me that the Wing Commander movie was a thing. Even as a fan of the game series, I can't say I felt any real desire to sit through that movie.

[@Booksds]

Do *any* game reviewers (other than Jirard the Completionist) tend to 100% games before they write the review? That’s such an insane bar to clear, especially given the bloat most AAA games are filled with!

[@CrispBaker]

@@Booksds The problem is that there was a plague of "reviewers" who would clearly only put in about an hour or so before writing their reviews. There was a bunch of callouts of that sort of thing during the 7th Gen. (Which was the absolute bottom for game criticism.) Games aren't movies, but many do start a bit slow and get better. Half Life's very early gameplay is pretty dull, but if you bounced during the tram ride and wrote a scathing review, you'd be rightly seen as an idiot.

[@gamepapa1211]

@@CrispBaker Pretty sure that just like in movies there are metrics in place to tell you when a game is garbage long before you even reach the middle point. Kinda like when movies only have one big star in it and the rest are no-name billings. Or when shaky cams are involved.

[@CrispBaker]

@@gamepapa1211 You'd think, but games are infinitely more complex than movies, and quite a bit longer so they're better comparable to books. And if you're trying to argue that (say) a book is obviously going to be shit after reading the first chapter then you're an idiot and everybody understands that It would be like blowing off LOTR because you thought Tom Bombadil was boring Also how you saying "shaky cams are garbage" when uh bro there's been a shitload of absolute stone classics that use shaky-cam, to the point where there's actually more than a few games that fake that look to make things seem more "cinematic"

[@Saladmander17]

"'Videogames are bigger than Jim Stephanie Sterling' *laughs* ... No they're not." I could see this coming from a mile away and I still laughed 😆

[@ZoeAlleyne]

My partner is a dev for not a game you have critiqued, but a COMPANY you have and he said: "never felt like she was attacking the developers, also most of the developers will not even play the whole game".

[@KristofDE]

That second part is very true. Many devs only play the finished game when it's done. Some never do! You can get a bit burned out on a game after working on it for years...

[@swamplinglvr]

Ah yes, the age-old argument: "If you don't absolutely adore the thing, then that means you must vehemently hate the thing!" 😑

[@starfarerjackie3459]

i loved the start where your partner IMMEDIATELY shot down your discussion of eating the old ass lollipop

[@JimSterling]

They’re frequently saving me from myself.

[@edandollie]

When you tie a love of a brand to your self-esteem, that's never going to end well.

[@aidensnow5017]

**Every Xbox fanboy has left the chat** I was going to write console fanboy, but Xbox fans are a SPECIAL breed indeed. Xbox could literally sht in their mouth, sell them no games, and tell them they will need to pay a 49.95$ fee every month just to keep the plastic box in their house collecting dust, and they would still find a way to excuse it. Not even while they where trying to implement DRM did the Xbot's get outraged, 70% of them where still excited to buy the Xbox One even before Microsoft walked back their 98th envelope push. Xbot's don't complain over all their games becoming a sht live service, they just keep buying it with gleee!! Even Nintendo fan's have more of a back bone when it comes to envelope pushes like this, AND THEIR MOSTLY LITERAL CHILDREN!!!

[@GameJames-Arkveveen]

A lot of what we are seeing is insecurity manifesting itself. I know I had to deal with that stupid feeling when I was younger and defending games I liked. I have no idea how people can claim to love video games when they feel so insecure about liking those games that they need external validation from others to give them permission to enjoy them. Sure, reviews help inform buying decisions. But, you know, you aren't the ONLY reviewer out there, and there's also player reviews to take into account on top of critic reviews like your own. That guy went out of his way to look at your review and then get angry about it!

[@samppawest]

I’ve met people like Jim who at glance would seem like they hate cars, music, football etc. But if you actually listen and think about what they are sayin you’ll notice that they actually absolutely love the things they seem to hate and they love them so much they have a harsh but honest take on the things and usually they are sad about what has happened to the things they love and the industry that produces them.

[@peterclarke7240]

Yep. I'm a total beer snob, for example. Give me a pint of decent real ale that nobody's heard of and is only available in a few pubs, and I'll wax lyrical about it, even affectionately pointing out the aspects of it I think could be improved. Give me a pint of shitty generic lager, however, and even though I'll thank you for the free alcohol, I'll trash it to within an inch of it's life for being an insult to the brewer's craft. 😂

[@kriscynical]

I'm that way about professionally produced illustration and design. Graphic art runs in my blood and I'm an illustrator and colorist for a living, so ofc I'm going to be hyper critical of what I look at; I understand all of the nuances behind it. Another sticking point for me is shitty anatomy because I LOVE drawing human anatomy, so I know all of the bone and muscle structures that are relevant to artists. I WILL tear apart the anatomy in whatever it is I'm looking at (if it's otherwise of a professional/experienced skill level, ofc; I'm not going to tear apart a teen who is learning because I'm not a complete monster, just a _bit_ of a bitch).

[@ChristopherSadlowski]

@@peterclarke7240 I'm like you, but with coffee. Don't give me that Maxwell House waste-of-my-time bullshit. Hit me with the real stuff or don't bother giving me anything at all. Starbucks? I'd rather gouge my eyes out than suffer through that swill they label "coffee". Bunch of overpriced hipster bullshit. Want to shut me up about how awful your coffee is? Give me good coffee and I'll be quiet and content for hours.

[@jsc315]

Because they are passionate and want things to improve

[@SamDavies94]

I'm very much like this with films

[@spoonikle]

we all get there. The point where we stop uncritically liking everything marketed to us. its called being an adult.

[@technopoptart]

say it louder for the people in the back

[@jamesrule1338]

I agree it's part of being an adult. I disagree that everyone gets there.

[@FrankB1110]

I consider myself extremely fortunate, it occured around 20 years of age, probably thanks to people like our Steph here and TB, showing us how the sausages are made.

[@aerrae5608]

I don't think we all get there. Some stay dumb, they're the ones that go on to vote Republican.

[@Xvladin]

​@FrankB1110 you had to be 20 years old before you critically thought about what was being advertised to you? And you consider this fortunate? Raise the voting age to 21

[@Horadrius]

Yahtzee just put out a similar video as well. No one who does this as long as they (Sterling and Yahtzee) have done can really truly HATE games.

[@aestheticmirror9257]

They probably loved them more then us and that’s why they “hate” them

[@TustlePlays]

It's because they love games that they call out the drivel for what it is before *all* game companies start thinking that EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, Take-Two etc had the right idea, ie "lootboxes aren't exploitative, they're 'surprise mechanics!'" "It's okay to release a game before it's finished!" "'Recurrent User Spending' is the way of the future!" "Gamers love sewer levels! You can't have a game without a sewer level! Super Mario Bros technically had a sewer level and look how big Nintendo got! Let's make 'em darker, grittier, and harder to see in!" so on and so forth and get that outta here dangit ...okay so that last bit is because Yahtzee gets extra humorous when a game includes a sewer level and is getting altogether sick of them being in games but never you mind.

[@Placker8102]

Yeah I like his opinion on why these people get so upset about bad opinions, there is a little niggle telling you the game isn't as good as you think it is and your trying to ignore it.

[@TheSorrel]

Yeah, but Yahtzee is a shallow hack who only reviews games to show everyone who smart he is.

[@MikeyMikey2113]

I love how their detractors always give the best quotes. "Thank god for me" "Bigger than videogames"

[@Twinrehz]

And the infamous “I’m Jim fucking Sterling, son”

[@rickdaniel7341]

Gamers (TM): “I like this video game.” Stephanie Sterling: I don’t. Gamers (TM): SAFETY PROTOCOLS DISABLED.

[@lui1115]

also jim sterling when critisms about thim are made: "ACTIVATE DAMAGE CONTROL"

[@SonNeoKaku]

Great job as always! Can't wait for a "James Stephanie Sterling is bigger than video games" shirt🤣

[@naikigutierrez4279]

With an image of Stephanie doing the cover of Abbey Road to match the energy.

[@Frigidevil]

And the inevitable sequel, 'James Stephanie Sterling's tits are bigger than video games'

[@TeddieSage1987]

Not gotta lie, that would be glorious and fabulous.

[@Skios]

I love your reviews. You're one of the few I trust to not just parrot the industry bullshit.

[@michimatsch5862]

@@atijohn8135 Asking for a source was directed at a comment accusing Sterling of scamming their editor or something. Since that comment seems to have been deleted I have deleted mine in turn as the necessary context no longer exists.

[@jose.montojah]

T'other day I was wondering on language and how they keep us colonized with it. Videogames are falling in that cultural hole of propaganda, those that aren't shovelware! Still, through the lines, we can see human creativity spew. Despite the power structures.

[@atijohn8135]

@@michimatsch5862 alright, I deleted mine as well

[@hanniballahr94]

The issue I've seen with a lot of people (not just gamers) is that they confuse the media that they like with the media that is good ("I like this so it must be good"). You're allowed to like bad art and dislike good art.

[@SibrenFetter]

Exactly! I for one never really like any Oscar nominated movie. I can appreciate they are good, but they are normally not for me.

[@NightmareLyra]

That implies objectivity around art as a real thing, though. Something having a budget or following film school rules doesn't mean its good automatically, in the same way a Ubisoft game isn't good automatically just because it has good grapichs and lots of content

[@solanceDarkMOW]

Agreed I'd just add more importantly people have different criteria for qualifying art as bad and good whether they like it or not.

[@hanniballahr94]

@@SibrenFetter Agreed. My go-to examples for years for friends and colleagues has been that I like the 1990 adaptation of Stephen King's IT, a bad movie, and I don't like The Dark Knight, a good movie.

[@SibrenFetter]

@@hanniballahr94 I loved It!

[@larsg.2492]

'Fandamentalist', that's a word I have incorporate into my vocabulary. Thank you, that encompasses the quasi religious feelings of people within a fandom towards certain publishers and developers perfectly.

[@bleemwisspillow8686]

"I didn't like this meal." "If you didn't finish it, you can't say that! Show me your finished meal!" "No. I just didn't like it. Tasted bad." "That's bias!" "Yes. Opinions tend to be biased." "So you admit it! It's just your opinion!" "Yes. It's about how much I liked a thing. You might like it. I donno. I didn't." "I thought reviews were supposed to be objective." "Okay. Here's an objective review: The food was a steak cooked to 150*F. It was seasoned with salt and pepper and seared before being placed in the oven. It was accompanied with a salad that had spring mix, cherry tomatoes, and balsamic vinaigrette." "But was it good?" "That's an opinion." "Some reviewer you are. Can't even tell me if it's good or not."

[@StrazdasLT]

Except the joke objective review Sterling did was actually a good review.

[@zyriantel9601]

@@StrazdasLT Christ, so two months ago you just went on a Being Wrong spree, huh?

[@StrazdasLT]

@@zyriantel9601 Im not Christ, thank you very much, but being objective on your review is not wrong.

[@haplomindstabed]

I saw this same behaviour when talking with an coworker 2 jobs ago who said he doesn't like "how political" some of the new media he had consumed was. And based on what we'd been talking about it was crystal clear that he'd spent his whole adult life mistaking consuming easy comforting media that AGREED with his exact politics with "non political", even if the material was overtly political, and conversely, media that disagreed with his world view in any minute way even if a very non political piece, was to him, "political". The reality warp some people cover them selves in like a safety blanket is very deep and strong.

[@TheGerkuman]

Steph and Phee showing once again they are one of the best tag-teams in the videosphere.

[@jose.montojah]

T'other day I was wondering on language and how they keep us colonized with it. Videogames are falling in that cultural hole of propaganda, those that aren't shovelware! Still, through the lines, we can see human creativity spew. Despite the power structures.

[@AB-fh9zh]

truth

[@cymtastique]

Ever since I've been actually describing why I like and don't like things, I've been able to actually get more games that I like. I have James to thank for that at least partially. Thank god for them!

[@cymtastique]

What in the world is that commenter talking about? Was this worth addressing? I mean, I'm entertained, but like...that person was not worth the energy.

[@garou1911]

They want reviews to validate them. Because their brand choices are a big part of their identity as a person. It's the reason the Bud Light controversy is a thing. They've tied their personal sense of self to their opinion of a corporately produced massively marketed product so hard that saying you don't think it's perfect is literally a personal attack on them. They have nothing else. So if you aren't validating them, they _need_ to invalidate you

[@rhythmandblues_alibi]

It's fkn crazy. Wouldn't it be wild if people staked so much on shit that actually matters 😣😓😓

[@FlorSilvestre12]

I'm glad you mentioned how this happens with other forms of media criticism because the entire time I kept thinking about how the RWBY fandom on Tumblr harassed anyone with any criticisms of the show into posting in a different tag than the main ones for the show, and then some even more unhinged people decided to make another criticism tag because they thought people in the original tag were being too harsh about things like racist and misogynist writing.

[@Bleentron]

The moment Steph went 'ow' I knew that someone is going to be getting spanked with lollypop and called a candy-ass. It is inevitable.

[@hyperdude144]

The very Based ending we hope for.

[@SlapstickGenius23]

Frigging Based.

[@prothstein]

holy shit the Jimquisition finally appeared in my feed for the first time in about a year, what the hell is going on KZbin?

[@KingBobXVI]

2:47 - highlighting the white mage giving the middle finger is just... perfection.

[@originalscreenname44]

I can relate. As someone who is often not a fan of "the popular thing" (for example, Drake, because fuck Drake), people think I hate everything. Then when I tell them the things I like, they look at me as if I made up a bunch of shit because "I don't listen to/watch/play that so it must be trash".

[@StephySon]

I’m someone who likes Drake, if you don’t like Drake that’s fine that’s 100% your business. We all have opinions, I just don’t see why anyone should be attacked for liking music or a movie or a game or not liking one

[@The1NickSkyline]

@@StephySon ...I can relate.

[@Nelsathis]

Whats drake now?

[@StephySon]

@@Nelsathis the rapper, singer, actor. Like major A lister celeb

[@Nelsathis]

@@StephySon Oh, oops. Somehow the thought that this is about music did not even come to me. To be fair though, the name isnt actually self explaining.

[@vpgreg]

I love BoTW so much but I also love your commitment to troll the shit out of it at every opportunity.

[@JimSterling]

What I enjoy most is that it’s not even trolling that much. I genuinely consider a 7/10 a good score, always have. I like Breath of the Wild, despite criticizing it. I’m not falling over myself to praise it, but it’s a good game and I’ve always maintained that. The fact that I manage to “troll” Nintendo fans by *liking* a game they love is just beautiful. They’re really only trolling themselves.

[@zyriantel9601]

@@JimSterling Like, I’ll gladly slap BOTW into my Switch and go on another romp through Hyrule, no questions asked, but I can also painfully see the rough edges, especially when they’re slapping me right in the face (I’m already helplessly rolling down a hill after being bitchslapped by a Moblin, do I REALLY need to be constantly losing hearts the entire way down to the bottom?) 7/10 is a very reasonable score, in my mind. It’s an exemplar of Zelda games, but there’s room for improvement.

[@garysturgess6757]

@@JimSterling Absolutely. I don't get why anything less than a 10/10 is considered a bad review - where's the nuance? 5/10 should be "an average game" - a passing grade, as it were. Shouldn't be more than one or two 10/10s a year, maybe not even that many. (Off hand I can't even think of a game I'd give 10/10 to. Closest I'd come to it would be Minecraft, but I very much doubt that would be a universal, or even popular, opinion).

[@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502]

​@@JimSterling a lot of people seem to think of 7/10 as average, for some reason.

[@chaossmith3864]

@@JimSterling Personally I feel like it's a solid enough game with some flaws, but at the same time I just can't personally get the same level of personal enjoyment out of it as I'd rate it. Like I feel like your 7 is fair, but my enjoyment level was like a 4 at best. Unfortunately. What do I get out of not enjoying something? Really? I want to enjoy things. There are plenty of games I adore that I'll freely admit have flaws and aren't for everyone.

[@noneclass]

The greatest example of this that I saw was when Cyberpunk 2077 was released and most reviewers talked about how amazing and wonderful the game was, and only changed their minds after the public opinion about the game changed, some even deleted their review videos about the game.

[@shis1988]

Basically every review was bought and paid for.

[@mcvc1840]

The opposite of love isn't anger, people. It's apathy. You can *absolutely* love something while being disappointed/angry with it's current state. Just go ask your parents/siblings/spouse.

[@Hathur]

This reminds me of my college paper 23+ years ago and my professors realization of what effect the word "review" has on people. Most forget it is INTENDED to mean opinion / editorial in most cases... but in the real world, it often has very calculated intentions (job reviews for instance are often mostly calculated things. Your earnings, number of widgets made, number of widgets sold, etc - these are used to "review" your performance as an employee and can have very serious consequences). Our college paper would get a lot of complaints about book reviews and movie reviews. So our professor decided to simply rename the section of the paper "Book & Film Editorials". Overnight, the number of complaints about "bad reviews" of films and books dropped over 80% and stayed dropped for my entire time in college up to graudation. When you use the word "Movie Editorial" or "Movie OpEd", people's expectations immediately shift.. "Oh.. this is just the person's personal opinion." ... but calling something a "Review" makes it sound very "official" and "calculated" to many dummies (and most people are dummies). Hence why to this day I dislike the word "Game review" ... wish people would call them "Game Editorials" or "Game OpEd" etc - it would drastically change the expectations of readers / viewers and help remind them "Dude... this is just one person's personal OPINION of a damn game.. it's not some formal decree upheld by world powers."

[@Hathur]

@@surft Yep works too. Anything but "Review" - too many people have a mental hangup on that one word, as if it somehow meant "measured" or "calculated" .. or in Steph's case "Unbiased" (an absurd term, as Steph points out many times). Critique works, it carries a general understanding of just being a personal judgment without the baggage of a mathematically induced calculation of analysis or some such nonsense that a word like "Review" does.

[@jkclark5204]

It's a shame that you have to play the game of "What synonym should I use that won't make people act like anxious fucking children?" with every. Damn. Interaction. Online. And in politics. And in sales. And... Because most people are heartbreakingly stupid, and require careful manipulation, rather than direct and genuine engagement with concepts. I'm just saying "I agree" I guess. It's depressing.

[@lotus_emanon]

@@jkclark5204 They literally explained in the first paragraph how people come to the conclusion that "reviews" carry a more official connotation than it is. If 9 out of 10 times its usage indicate valuation in an "official" capacity, it would be illogical to expect an exception for the 10th. Ironic that a post dunking on "the dummies" betray such a lack of reading comprehension.

[@lotus_emanon]

Completely irrelevant to the point Steph made in her video. Gamers TM created a ridiculous hypothesis that Steph hates all mainstream games to justify their dismissal of her opinions. Colleges, on the other hand, are where opinions are formed and challenged. The people who have complaints about your reviews don't magically disappear after you changed the wording, they just stopped being invested. That does not reflect well on the contents of the course. If you wish to not be challenged in an educational environment, feel free to be a preschool teacher. Regardless, you also enjoy it when listeners have nothing to criticize and simply nod along with the lectures. In other words, exactly the same as the gamer bros Sterling has been criticizing, without an ounce of self-awareness.

[@Veolynn13]

tbh when i hear “editorial” i think “bigoted screed hiding behind the plausible deniability of ‘just my opinion’ even though it’s being published by a News Outlet.”

[@imitationpitaya]

“Religious fandomentalists” I’m gonna start using that

[@Ninjacatmuffin]

I feel like these people just want an excuse to hate you and/or never engage in any media with a critical lens ever. You even mentioned that you had two very positive reviews right before Dead Island 2 and they ignored you. I appreciate that you explain any likes or dislikes in your reviews. It's a good way for me to tell if I'd like a game or not. I actually got Dredge for a friend based on your review of it, so thank you for that. She's obsessed!

[@thegreathadoken6808]

Don't make the mistake of assuming an excuse is needed. Sterling gives his critics plenty of reasons to hate him.

[@Linken_88]

"JSS is bigger than video games" might be one of the best lines I've heard and would make some hilarious merch. Also the bit about cotton candy grapes had me laughing too loud in the break room at work.

[@raf74hawk12]

yeah I hope that becomes a recurring line

[@Shanesawendsley]

I remember in late 90s early 2000s one of the game mags would do a sacred cow roast for the April fools issue. They would make fun of all the biggest most beloved games but the funniest part would always be the hate mail in the letters from our readers section in the coming months.

[@kaiserinkai]

I get being annoyed at reviewers who clearly haven't played the game much putting blatant falsehoods into their reviews, both good and bad scores do this sometimes and they both piss me off. But you've never done that. I don't always agree with your reviews but you've never lied, you just stated your point of view along with your experiences playing the games. I respect your reviews because your scores are based on your experience playing the game rather then things like how much you were bribed by the publisher. I don't get why so many people go after you when there's so many bad faith actors out there lying through their teeth. When I say lying through their teeth by the way I mean saying things that are demonstratively false. You never do that. I can always trust your reviews to be accurate to your experience playing the games and I appreciate that.

[@megamax898]

I've noticed they do this with the bad scores for a long time too. I swear they use a bribery system and punish the games that don't give them a stack before the review.

[@zoushaomenohu]

Something else that's always stuck with me was a video Dan Olson of Folding Ideas did way back when he was still using the Foldy puppet: the capital-g Gamers place reviews on such a pedestal because the Free Market is the ultimate arbiter of good taste in their mindset, their "god" for lack of a better term, and reviewers its priests and oracles telling them what to buy. If you've made your fandom an important pillar of your identity, and you get really emotionally invested in the smoke-and-mirrors of hype and marketing that inevitably precedes any video game's release, a review that doesn't depict the game as anything less than perfect and a guaranteed purchase from you means you set yourself up for disappointment, that the money you were already going to spend on it was wasted, that you were TRICKED, and if there's one thing people in general LOATHE doing it's admitting they were somehow fooled. So they will double down on their insistence that the anomalous review and the reviewer who wrote it, excoriating them as a false prophet trying to lead the fandom flock astray. All this, like Stephanie was saying in the video, for entertainment products they wish to consume.

[@abadenoughdude300]

The classic "far easier to con people than convince them they've been conned".

[@DragonNexus]

Total Biscuit used to say something similar. That to some gamers, a bad review is an attack on the ego. We all want to be considered smart purchasers, making wise choices about the things we consume. So if we buy something that's considered bad, we've been a bad consumer. We wasted our money and will be a laughing stock. So the ego demands we defend ourselves. Instead of just...not caring snd enjoying the thing we bought, regardless of what others think.

[@CrispBaker]

...only someone whose parents buy his video games would not understand why people call the game industry "a market". Come on.

[@DragonNexus]

@@CrispBaker Not what he said at all.

[@peyotecowboy3199]

1:18 I busted out laughing when Phoenix said ABSOLUTELY NOT.

[@phoenixtoothill]

I’m really glad 💜

[@peyotecowboy3199]

​@@phoenixtoothill I do think Steph put forth a valid question though. Can lolipops (or lolipop chainsaws) ever truly go bad if they're still wrapped?

[@Strakfur]

@@peyotecowboy3199 So long as they don't get too much humidity, they won't

[@scbtripwire]

​@@peyotecowboy3199 They're pure sugar, they can't go bad.

[@GaldirEonai]

Phoenix being the Designated Adult :D.

[@Bleedingsilver_blue]

The "I'm pretty trash" line had laughing hard. Great response video Steph very well said and pointed out the issues.

[@Formoka]

My partner needs to see this. He got shoved out of movie loving conversations all the time for not liking the “right” movies. I think he’ll understand a lot.

[@JaiaV]

As someone once told me, complaining about the problems with something is one of my love languages - I complain about stuff I adore, because I want it to be as amazing as it could be. I think there's a similarity there. I often try games that you seem to really love because they're genuinely good and I am almost never disappointed, and I find that we often share similar thoughts on many of them.

[@pluckylump]

I would be terrified to live inside the mind that wrote that screed.

[@Samael1113]

Probably. A lot of neurodivergence is apparently ever worsening tinnitus (ringing in the ears - like you just came back from an arena concert and were in the front row) and intrusive thoughts you have trouble managing because your brain never turns off, having to plan everything out and hyper-examine the shit out of everything that stimulates you. And then there's the whole, looking for understanding and a place that makes sense and "You belong", but not really finding that, because 80% of the population are plain incapable of making that connection and the other 20% are so diverse and unique in their own group... just because you can relate to someone, doesn't mean you will like being around them or interacting with them. Ohh, and the CTSD, going back to the brain that refuses to stop over-analyzing things and intrusive thoughts... there's the whole constantly, literally reliving negative experiences as if they were actually happening while you think about them. Even if the experience is relatively neutral and learning, if you failed your own expectations, expect it to be a part of your individual purgatory of existence for decades while you seek to atone.

[@Praisethesunson]

I like that wanting and advocating for standards in game quality and production is considered hating games. That is setting a ridiculous bar for video game critique

[@williamrussell4367]

I doubt I'll get a response, my one Stephanie responded comment got deleted, damn you Gilson B Pontes! But in my life, I've found that it really doesn't matter what score, or how a critique feels about the media they review. Instead the best reviewers for you to listen to, are the ones that happen to like what you do and dislike what you don't. Unbiased and objective is a hilarious thing to ask a reviewer to do. Just don't be a human with experience just state the numbers! Jss, typically likes what I do so i trust her reviews for things I like. I suggest if people have trouble to look for a reviewer that suits your temperament. For my money, JSS is the most accurate for me. Thank God for her.

[@robertleowulf1745]

Keep doing what you're doing. There are some of us who appreciate an honest impression of a game.

[@zachdee92]

Imagine caring THAT much about Dead Island 2

[@Sorrowdusk]

It only bothers me that I have a code for Dead Island 2, but STILL can't log into my damn Epic account or even create a new one because of AI Generated hCaptchas. they're using now.

[@thewordywarlock7159]

The _devs_ didn't even care this much about Dead Island 2.

[@cynicalnoloc5122]

Never change! And that “No, they’re not” was fantastic

[@Witchgirl44]

Imagine having games you like….but also having games you dislike

[@DaniloSalvadori]

I never comment but I want to add my voice to the people that already told you this: you are one of the few reviewer I trust completely. I know every word you write or say in a review is your honest and professional opinion. Thank you and thank god for you.

[@animosity9197]

When I was in middle and high school, there was a film reviewer who wrote for the Arizona Republic whose reviews my mother and I read religiously, because he was so predictably opposite of our film tastes. If he liked something, we saw something else. If his entire column was about how a film was boring, we went as soon as we could. So as a film reviewer, he did a great job, even though I think we would have come to blows if we'd ever been in the same room. I think it's not a coincidence that so many of the "True Gamers" (and True other things) who really think people don't like the "right" games are pretty privileged people. Like, when you are continually catered to by the mainstream and can easily find people with the same tastes as you, it makes sense that you would think your opinions are the objective truth. I mean, if you're the kind of person who can't recognize the very basic fact that other people are other people, and therefore different from you. Which I feel like I grew out of sometime before kindergarten, but I guess it takes everyone different amounts of time. It's not actually an attack for people to like different things! Or not like all the same things! It doesn't mean anyone is ~wrong~, it just means that different people are different. Shock! Horror!

[@torylva]

"Critics, stop being so CRITICAL ABOUT THINGS!" "Why must critics criticise things!?" I think someone missed something important in the name there edit: Also, I'd argue that Gamers™ have a lot in common with religious zealots. Their worldview is objectively correct and those that disagree with their view are obviously wrong or have an agenda to destroy their beliefs

[@S41t4r4]

the same people are also ready to shit on a journalist for giving a game they don't like a good score.

[@MrMcJazzhands]

I'm reminded of something hbomberguy said in his RWBY video: "It's important to be critical of things you like." And honestly? Keeping that in mind has helped me figure out more about my own tastes. Besides, if you weren't critical of videosgame, could you actually love them? Some mainstream titles do really well, but they aren't for everyone. Similarly, I love Disco Elysium personally and my sister enjoyed watching me play it, but said she wasn't sure if it would be something for her.

[@charlesn.2881]

It's always someone's first day on the internet. This cycle will never end.

[@DragonFae16]

The funny thing is, if reviewers were actually writing objective reviews, they would in fact point out all the flaws of a game and give a score that reflected them. Steph is likely one of the only really objective reviewers out there.

[@Bloodglas]

I think part of it is also that they make these games part of their personality to the point where if you say you dislike a game they like they hear it as you saying you dislike them as a person. if you say a game they like is trash they hear it as you saying they are trash.

[@JBaley1017]

Phoenix off screen shouting "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" feels like a regular occurrence at Jimquisition HQ.

[@AphroditesCrush]

Being a game journalist (yes you still are Steph!) means you have a duty to be critical of the medium! Anyone who thinks that you need to sidestep critical thinking when judging a product is just simply arguing in bad faith. They want their big PR fix for a game THEY are biased towards.

[@arturoaguilar6002]

I'd like to make a study on the percentage of people who read reviews only after playing the game with the goal of just confirming their own opinions.

[@AphroditesCrush]

@@arturoaguilar6002 fair point. Confirmation bias is present in all fandoms.

[@ibbathon]

I've watched and listened to enough of your content to know that my taste in video games is almost completely opposite yours, but your critiques continue to be both insightful and funny, so I keep watching. Carry on, you wonderful raccoon's paradise.

[@Wulfuswulferson]

I used to listen to mark kermode's (former BBC) film reviews and found that most things he liked I didn't but because he's a good reviewer I'd still get a good idea of whether I'd like it, it's almost like the point of a review isn't to tell me my opinion was right after seeing/playing

[@-tera-3345]

Oh god, the late-2000s/early-2010s discussion of what counts as a 'real game', I remember how much of that was just claiming phone games didn't count for the sole purpose of excluding girls from counting as "gamers". Weirdly enough, flash games from places like newgrounds or cool math games were never discounted, and actually tended to be looked at fondly, despite many being the same kind of thing, it was only the specific platforms and types that data had started showing more girls playing than boys.

[@Valdrake]

JSS, I cant say thank you for this!!! This seriously one of the things I started to see the puzzle to when the cracks in my rosie tinted glasses started to show. (back in 2015 if we need context) and over the years through hours of therapy, and a major mental break down. I started to see the whole picture and like you at the 10min mark, i had a similar reaction. I was terrified, the level of delusion that had taken hold of ppl in this toxic kind of fandom, (or cult if you will). It frightens me, the level of delusion that takes hold, and the level of fandom ppl take to defend their delusion, but Fandom, Celebrity culture, and (T****isim) its all the same, and it just... its mind blowing to me that its not being discussed any where.... and just... it makes me feel hopeless if i'm being honest.

[@jedisalsohere]

Hearing Jesters of the Moon in a new Sterling video was a hell of a nostalgia trip

[@Jablicek]

Completely outside the bounds of this film, but showing solidarity with all workers on this May Day - we need to be more vigilant than ever, protect your rights, don't let your bosses exploit your life for their profit. Take care of yourselves, and be well.

[@kitmakin289]

Based and wonderful. Happy May Day!

[@gabagandalfoftheweed]

The "fan" in "fandom" is derived from "fanatic" after all. Fanatics being fanatic about something shouldn't come as a surprise

[@lovefrom_darkghost]

As someone who also doesn't like the "right" games, i appreciate hearing your reviews of games that i might actually like, so that i can play them and have a good time.

[@laughlee]

I read your game reviews because I like hearing your opinion and the things you pick up on. Sometimes your score matches mine and sometimes it doesn’t. Strangely I never feel compelled to rant and rave when they don’t align :). Thanks for the great content, Steph!

[@Synthonym]

3:45 I remember this FB thread. Guy was writing paragraph after breathless paragraph that was either a) just repeating what he said in the first sentence in an increasingly pseudo-intellectual and hysterical manner, or b) trying to explain why it's everyone else's fault that he was twisting himself in knots trying to justify his position

[@pixelsbykris5494]

This video has assured me that Steph needs to buy a cup that says Gamer™ Tears and post a picture of them drinking from it every time somebody says they hate video games.

[@ndh06]

I dunno, Gamers crying actual tears would be a sign of emotion maturity that would get them austrisied from their own community.

[@pixelsbykris5494]

@@ndh06 I see your- very valid -point. But please consider: the fact that they don't have the emotional maturity to cry actual tears, but ARE whiny enough to complain about everything under the sun that they, personally, do not like, would mean seeing Stephanie drinking from the aforementioned cup, might make them shake with rage in their emotionally-stunted boots. Which, in my opinion, is a hilarious mental image.

[@ndh06]

@Pixels By kris yeah, you could make a cup for their bile discharges, but there could never be a big enough cup to hold it.

[@Veolynn13]

dude, no. *please* don’t bring back _that_ shit. i enjoy dunking on The Gamers(c)(tm), but that “joke” is dangerously counterproductive to societal growth.

[@levankiknadze5354]

"Clown eating foreskins with a fireworks fork" - this is priceless!

[@SimnaibnSind]

Sometimes people make the mistake of thinking they want to seek reviews when they are really seeking hype or confirmation.

[@bengorraou2602]

Just want to let you know i love your videos and i constantly play them in the background while im working, thank you steph

[@jameskelly9473]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Sterling’s review of Tears of the Kingdom was a one sentence statement, a 6/10, and a link to this video.

[@nobodyinparticular9640]

Tears of the nintendrones

[@shis1988]

Honestly... "5/10, because weapon durability still exists." would be more than appropriate.

[@nobodyinparticular9640]

The game leaked yesterday, lmao

[@troqu]

As someone who bought and was satisfied with Dead Island 2: That judgement is incredibly fair, possibly even being too nice.

[@diegowushu]

The "dude getting mad at laptop while lying in bed like a schoolgirl" clip will never not make me laugh like an idiot. I'm so grateful to JSS for introducing it to me. OTT, I wonder if at any point in time people will stop beating this dead horse. I guess no, as every year new kids are turning 14 (and some 50 year olds even stay 14 forever).