Jimquisition: Accountability

[Custard_Angel]

Finally.

After all these weeks Jim finally made a video justifying my faith.

My faith being that Jim could justify his existence on this site by making a video that's worth a damn given a long enough time period.

 

[A Curious Fellow]

I think Bob Chipman's Game Overthinker episode about Gamestop was talking about the same grandscale issue from a different, and more insightful, angle.

 

[gyroscopeboy]

Peter Gabriel is a genius...a twat..but a genius nonetheless

 

[Metalrocks]

he is absolutely right. i always hate it when you have to create accounts just to play a SP game and not only for MP. like resident evil 5 and bulletstorm (PC). i hate "live". what a piece of s*** this is. took me like 30 min to create an damn account for bulletstorm because for some reason my account from RE5 wasnt accepted anymore.
and the problem is. that you are forced to sign up otherwise you cant play the game.

 

[Jennacide]

Easily the wisest of his posts to date. I'm actually having to debate how badly I want to play Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3 since fucking EA has decided to bind them STRICTLY to use on Origins. That doesn't make me want to support the game, that makes me consider piracy for once because fuck that shit. Origins is an awful idea, and seemingly stemmed from a kneejerk "we want in" reaction to Steam after Valve snubbed EA's Partners recently when they did their own marketing and port job for Portal 2, and EA got none of that fat cash.

What they stupidly don't get is there is a simple reason why Steam is number one, after YEARS AND YEARS of building up loyalty to it through releasing good games on it and expanding it's field of influence slowly. EA thinking their own version of Steam, which will only host their limited selection of EA titles, is going to succeed, is lunacy. Sure, they fully believe they can force it down people's throats when they buy Battlefield 3 or ME3 to get it on their computers, and they'd be right. But thinking anyone will actually KEEP USING IT is a leap of faith I can't fathom.

Go ahead EA, ask Microsoft how well that worked with G4WL and Gears of War or Fallout 3. Oh, wait, G4WL is FUCKING DEAD.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

Okay, I'll admit I haven't really been keeping up with Jim. I watched the first episode and was like "Nope."
Then I read his contributions to the Email-a-go-round? (My phrase, if you want it Russ, message me for the cost to the rights!) he was in with James P. and Yahtzee and he came across MUCH better in print.
So I gave him a bit of a second chance and now I'm digging the cut of his jib.

But...

I gotta know, and please don't take this offensively, but is Jim really from the UK? No offense, but his accent seems... fake? I mean he sounds like an American trying to sound like he's from the UK. Like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, or Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own. It just sounds.. well.. I mean, it sounds like he's from Cardiff but pretending he's from Kent and it just sorta caught me offguard.

Anywho, great episode, really touched on the subject. I look forward to more.

 

[SoulSalmon]

Odd... Jim seems to be getting better at this every episode, wonder how long that's gonna last?

All in all, I'm finally gonna have to suck it up and say that I do enjoy these vids, and hope he keeps it up .

 

[Beautiful End]

I gotta admit I'm ntot hating the guy anymore. Now I can clearly see his arrogance is just a mask he puts on just to amuse us. And although I'm disappointed about the fact that it took me like 3 episodes to figure it out, I'm glad I did anyways because I am starting to enjoy these vids now.

Also, I obviously completely agree with he said. I bought a series of used games a while back; The Sims, Need for Speed, Dead Space, and so on (I guess they were all EA games). I know I had way more but I forgot. And about 75% of the games asked me for an online pass/account. For example, The Sims 3 kept bugging me about it every time I played the single player mode. So I ended up hating the game and I returned it.

DLCs? My friends keep bugging me about MvC3's DLCs. I could care less about these DLCs! Why can't I have a good game without having to get some DLCs? I paid for the game, right? Doesn't that make me valuable too in some sort of way?

And I am glad someone's sticking up for used game sales. They're not evil! As a matter of fact, I am quite thankful for them. Example: Modern Warfare 2 runs for about 60 bucks brand new. You can get it for 25-30 dollars used. Uhh...yeah, I'm getting a used copy. Not only that but, like Jim so impressively pointed out, they make money out of DLCs and whatnot anyway! Sure, I understand they want ALL the cake for themselves. But there's nothing they can do about it. If you want to stop people from buying used games, then go after Gamestop, eBay, Amazon, Craigs' list and every single kid out there selling his games after school.

As a side note, I love how he made fun of all the people ranting last week about that one troll vid he made. It truly shows how much he was missed.

 

[ProjectTrinity]

I was apparently immune to the hating and the loving. I just watch the show because some of the humor is pretty funny + unique angles + the RAGE comments. I didn't particularly care for this episode's message either since I only play the artsy and ambitious games of life and therefore have no such problems (sorry, dude).

But I still loved this episode. It was utterly brilliant.

 

[Coffinshaker]

man, I think this has been my favorite episode of Jim. excellent rundown dude! and he's right on with all this nonsense too. I almost miss the days of the cartridges... sigh... back when game companies didn't hate us gamers...

 

[ChupathingyX]

Hey Jim what's happening between you and Koei, I'm more interested in that.

Oh and yeah i agree about all the subscriptions in the gaming community, they need to stop.

 

[OaKleIgHy]

I really appreciate his analysis of the issues he brings up. Not so sure about his act as a whole tho..but generally I tend to appreciate his opinion

 

[iblis666]

Accountability

You are all so lucky to be able to watch these videos. This week, Sterling rants about videogame accounts and publishers' increasing demands for explicitly reaffirmed customer loyalty.

Watch Video

/slow clap

god fucking god these just keep getting fucking better with every fucking episode that i fucking watch keep up the fucking good work Jim

 

[42]

i must say that was (just because i feel like making the billionth jim pun) Jimtastic.
But he is right, I'm not up to signing up for every game service that comes out, only because there is such a thing as oversaturation. while this term is normally applied to products, it can also refer to the services that provide the product, and flooding the entire internet with services that provide said products will lead to an almost clusterfuck, and if one of them gets hacked, you're info has now landed into the hands of someone who will use it for troll purposes. i mean right now i have just an XBL account and a Steam one as well, and they both suit me well enough. ok i have to pay to use one, and the other is a massive sink for any income i have, but i don't see why publishers keep questioning (as jim pointed out) the consumer's loyalty. they can't demand that, because to gain loyalty means they have to earn it. and so far neither the big 2 EA or Activision have impressed me. But yeah that's beside the point. Btw the episodes are getting better and better, keep up the good work Jim. the show is very jimgasmic. (hey someone had to say it)

 

[Gunner 51]

Hmm, not a bad video, sir. I tip my hat to Jim. The points he was making about the publishers screwing the common gamer were spot-on. It seems Yahtzee and the Extra Credits crew might have to play catch-up on this.

Publishers will have to realise that there is a tipping point to how much you can screw gamers. I think that point is coming sooner rather than later. People don't want to sign in many times to play a game or get Day 1 DLC. (Which should have been on the disk to start with.)

The Rockstar Pass is certainly a big step in the right direction. Not only don't you have to sign in to use it, but it also entitles you to all the DLC for no charge thereafter. Having said this, the Pass can be made better in the following way:

Don't charge everyone 800 MSP to download it. Like Project Ten Dollar just give the "Buy New" crowd a code to download the Pass for free. They've spent a King's Ransom on the publisher and developer, their loyalty should be rewarded with all post-release DLC coming for free.

Full price = full game.

 

[messy]

All pretty good, you have improved with time. The arrogant interludes and exitludes are just getting a bit boring now, although I 'll admit the hack attack one was funny. I think just the general generic arrogance is just a bit "meh" nowadays.

 

[iron skirt]

this show keps geting beter and beter

 

[xFullmetalx]

This, Escape at the Movies & The Big Picture and Zero Punctuation are the reasons I come on this site.

 

[Bostur]

A good subject. I sometimes wonder why game publishers sometimes use so much effort to try to piss me off. Maybe they just got into a bad habit at some point and it became part of their corporate culture.

I think this subject could benefit with a more in-depth treatment, maybe an idea for an article on the Escapist. Interview some biz guys from game companies and ask them exactly why they do this to us. Don't they love us customers?


Edit: And let me just rant for a sec:
What the fuck is the deal with an annoying drop down thingy for entering my date of birth just to visit a website. It looks like they are doing their utmost to scare everyone away.