Mister Negative (The Jimquisition)

God... I literally fell back in love with this channel, with this content because of that Dark Souls video and I don't even like Dark Souls! That is... immensely... IMMENSELY disappointing. I honestly just watched it again before coming on over to this video to see what your Patreon viewers liked. I am really sorry to hear that... I shared the fuck out of that Dark Souls video and then to find out people didn't like it to a point it actually hurt your channel...? Well besides that being the most Dark Souls thing I've ever heard, that makes me very sad (the second most Dark Souls thing I've ever heard)

Damnit, general public, that Dark Souls video (and the Rockstar one and a number of others) are rad! Mumblegrumble...

Naterkix

Jim, personally I feel your style motivated me to try to do Youtube on my own. You, Yahtzee, FunHaus, GG... I appreciate your work and have been a Patron for over a year now... When I see you saying something positive about a game, I know I can trust the review and know its coming from the right place. Hell, I literally bought that Terminator game because I heard about it FROM YOU and you were right... Its why when I see a review from you about a game and it gets a decent or better review, I know its worth my while. Cant say the same about many people.

The Magical Gurl

Jim, the Political Agenda of Dark Souls video you referred to in this one convinced me to become a patron. All of your content, be it positive or negative, informative or argumentative, are superbly crafted and well-organized. That Dark Souls video really got me pondering about video games and the messages they could carry. Carry on the good work, and thank God for you.

Aw man, I dig your journalism work and analysis most of all. But hey, I get it, people hate to think these days so those wouldn't be popular. But, you do you my man. Wrestle, critique, and analyze as you do! Also, people come to a CRITIC's channel for positivity? Seems... off.

Trevor Bond

Jim, you (and Laura and Conrad) are always authentic and honest, that is all I personally care about. A negative opinion is just as valuable to me as a positive one. At least as long as negativity doesn't affect your outlook on life and I have never felt that with you. Au contraire! Much love to you my darling chungus.

Nigel De Maeght

Thank you for all the hard work you put in to your content. I always love watching your videos. Never once have I felt like your videos are too negative. Even if your videos are negative, they’re negative because you think the industry should be doing a better job and they’re not. I don’t have a lot of time to play video games anymore, so I don’t tend to watch many of your Jimpressions videos, just because it makes me feel sad that I’ll never have the time to play these games. The videos you do in the gaming industry are ones I tend to always watch and share. When the industry is doing well, the people who are better at time management (or just HAVE free time haha) will have a better experience playing those games. It leads to more happiness for more people ... especially the people making the games. Every time I think about playing a large AAA game that I know drove people to complete burnout, I feel like that can’t be separated from the game itself. I can’t separate the art from the artist. When I think about AAA games that are literally ruining the lives of the people making them, I’m conflicted if I should buy the game (even though I’ll never have time to play them) so that their misery wasn’t in vane, or, if I should convince other people to not buy the game so that people vote with their dollars that toxic work environments are abhorrent and shouldn’t be tolerated. I thank god for you every chance I get. You’re the only person consistently shining a light on the toxic conditions that surround the most lucrative entertainment industry in the world. Edit: I do also love your positive videos. I forgot to say that when I got focused on the horror of the gaming industry. Thank you!!

Cody Gratner

For whatever it's worth, I bought Disco Elysium in part because of your review. (And there has been a surplus of games that are not only a mile wide and an inch deep and determined to make you trek over every inch of that mile because, dammit, texture artists cost money... So I figured I'd better put my money where my mouth is, preference-wise.) I was also once responsible for a parody movie reviewer whose negative reviews implied those involved enjoyed coitus with weasels and whose "positive" reviews never went any higher than "it didn't suck", so... That it's entertaining to watch people bash things isn't entirely surprising. I hope I've never suggested you shouldn't be negative. But I do occasionally wish that you could use your broad experience and expertise to suggest, not that things aren't shit, but a way they might conceivably move forward. For example- a recent interview with Gabe Newell reminded me of the fact that Valve, whatever faults it might have, remains a privately owned company, and a relatively small one compared to the expanding and contracting thousands of an EA or Ubisoft. Its people are invested, not just monetarily, but personally; they move forward on projects not necessarily because they're trying to be the third guy on the latest trend, but because they find them personally fascinating. ...And Steam's curation is shit, they've handed off way too much of curation duties to people with no stake in Steam or seeing it do well, and asset flips and sub-Minecraft Baby's First Unity Project offerings still take up way too much space. But, conversely, if they had a division of people burning out every six months because they were buried in crap games and taking flak from the Digital Homicides of this world for cracking down on THIS asset flip but not that one... Would they still be recognizably Valve? Would their culture survive? (And, of course, should we care...?) It's great, sometimes, to feel that other people "get it"- Bethesda lies, Blizzard has disappeared up Activision's sphincter and ne'er shall be seen again, EA is picking its teeth of the sinews of once-great game studios and doesn't get why they aren't showered with game buyers' affection- but there are times when I want to say, "Yes, I agree, we're waist-deep in it; do you have a way out?"

Kraken

Getting the notification that you've posted content gives me that feeling I got as a kid and one of my favourite cartoons was on. I watch everything, from start to finish, often repeatedly. You're at the top of the gold tier on YouTube for me and my favourite games journalist. This latest video made me want to support you here too and I have no idea why I didn't do it sooner.

Just wanted to say I appreciate all your content. Whether positive, negative, highly researched or totally unscripted, you are endlessly entertaining and informative to me. Thanks for all the hard work, to you and anyone else who contributes to the Jimquisition.

Honestly, that was me, in the past. I can't even blame it on being young (though I was young-er, I was certainly still an adult). It's funny how mature I thought I was just a few years ago, and now reflecting it's amazing how much I can still grow.

Keep up the positive reviews. I have been following your work for years and I have found some of my favorite games through you. Darkest Dungeon, Children of Morta, Hand of Fate. Odds are, if you like the game, I probably will too. It's just a coincidence that we more or less have the same taste in games, but thank you for finding those indie darlings for me. Also I apologize if this is a double-post, the first one seems to have vanished into the ether.

Vooster

It’s so weird that people find a creator/artist and love their work, then try to dictate what content the creator should put out as if it wasn’t the creator’s original creativity that attracted them in the first place. I watch and listen to all your work because it’s you, not because I feel a need to be reflected, or have my specific desires fulfilled. I’m reminded of Maria Bamford’s recent standup special, which she opens with a line that (not a direct quote, sorry) tells people who are disappointed with her work to use that disappointment as “fuel to work on your own stuff.” Don’t tell a creator what to make. Make what you want to be made.

xxxjay

It's not just your channel. There's this one called "World according to Briggs" who started out doing top 10 lists of good and bad things about each state with respect to moving there. He had the same issue as you, the good videos got a fraction of views when compared to the bad videos. In fact, he didn't even finish the good videos before moving on (which sucks because he didn't do my home state). I'm more interested in video game news than video games so I don't watch your Jimpressions videos (good or bad), but I've never complained about the content either. You keep telling the truth and don't sugarcoat it.

Jason Youngberg

Found myself laughing alot at this one. Loved the receipts

Ástþór Sigurvinsson

Keep being yourself

People whining about being too negative are just mad cuz they're sleeping

Joey Keilholz

I watched you a long time and this video made me become a patron. Keep up the work you do!

Jaap

I found this video very eye opening. I'll admit that I felt your content became more negative a while back, not because of your own choice but because the game industry just kept doing shitty things. I decided to take a break not only from your content but negative YouTube videos in general. I never felt compelled to unsubscribe and I kept my patron sub going as it's a small price to pay to have you shine a light on all the shady bastards in the industry but I really needed a break. Now I feel that it was me seeking out negative stuff that led to me getting so fatigued with it and I was ignoring the positive things (I don't know how much the algorithm contributed to that.) The first video I watched of yours in months was Doom Eternal Jimpressions, I was taking a break from playing and thought, "I wonder what Jim thinks of this" and specifically searched to see if you had made one yet (really enjoyed it by the way.) Since then I've been watching your videos again and now feel stupid for ever thinking that of your content. I'd like to apologise and thank you for producing such a thought provoking video, I've added the Fear & Fury and Dark Souls politics videos to my watch list as I've clearly been missing out on some great content.

I've watched and appreciated too many of your videos for too long now to put it off any longer. Take my dollar sir!

*puts tinfoil hat on* So maybe youtube algorithm boosts not only visibility of negative videos, but also comments complaining about lack of positive videos :o On a more serious note, thank (god for) you Jim, both positive and negative content is fine and I'll watch it with interest.

I want to second all the comments here saying that seeing the analytics for "The Political Agenda of Dark Souls" is disappointing for a patron too--that's probably my favorite video of yours. I'm curious--and maybe you'll get bored enough to indulge me sometime--if you put up a Patreon poll asking patrons' favorite video of yours, and put "Political Souls" in with your four most-viewed videos of all-time, how well would it do? Anyway, I like watching you get angry too, so there's that.

I just joined Patreon. I didn't know we could leave comments here, so I'm just going to copy/paste what I left in the comment section. :D Hey Jim! Big longtime fan. Not sure if you'll see this, but I thought I'd offer some EnGAgEmeNt. 1) I bought Children of Morta because of your video. It's amazing. Thank you. 2) Wrestling is great, please don't stop weaving it into your content. Let them whine. 3) I 100% pretty much all of your videos, negative or not. Gotta boost those analytics for the almighty algorithm. 4) Your positive stuff is great too. I look forward to the Resident Evil 3 video. 5) Finally broke down and did the Patreon thing. First time I've ever done that. This channel deserves support. 6) My wife had a nightmare where you were chasing her. Don't know why. She loves your show. Man, the first time I lost a subscriber I felt like I had gotten punched in the face. You're about 23,000 times bigger, so I can't imagine all of the stress this causes. Don't really know the point of all this. Guess I want you to have more positive feedback. So here it is! Don't ever stop doing what you're doing, especially fighting for the little man.

I find the "negative" videos to contain a lot of constructive criticism, even if obviously presented in a negative light, and I watch the "positive" videos (which also contain constrictive criticism!) and find them to also be helpful. As a developer, I greatly appreciate the critiques about how the industry works, and it's clear that a lot of work is put into research. If not for the vulgarity I'd be sharing a lot of these videos around for all the good insights they contain (not asking for them to be less vulgar; you do you, Jim).

Agonarchy

I am still sad about the Rockstar video last year...

kesseldarkfire

Thank you for this one Jim (though I do thank you for a lot of these). The YouTube algorithm is an unknown clockwork nightmare that affects everyone, small and large content creators alike. I appreciate that you kept the proof of it all, showing viewership numbers. Too often this is only spoken anecdotally.

Perpetual Noob

Became a patron or whatever because of this video. A bit because of pity, a bit because the video struck me, but mostly because I like your attitude and respect you as a person. Thank god for you and people like you. Hope to one day be a person like you.

Losing patrons for the Dark Souls video blows my mind. I don't know what they were reading into the series, but dropping their support? Wow.

shadowscribble

Generally, the only thing I have time for in a week is the Jimquisition. As a patron, I see the synopsis emails from each of the videos you post, so while I don't watch the non-jimquisition videos, I do read the synopses of them. Keep up the good work Jim. Fuck the haters.

I like watching positive videos because I like hearing people gush about things, but I won't deny that I also watch the negative ones because it's all about passion. And negative videos also tend to have a lot of passion behind them as well. But I'm one of the few viewers who watches both the positive and negative videos because of the passion that you can hear/see in a video. I just wish negativity didn't win out all the time. It definitely doesn't help depression/anxiety numbers in the least. Stupid brain wiring.

Kim Knister

Keep up the good work Jim!

puppybuds

People gravitate to negativity. It sucks, but it's true. I've started making a conscious effort of watching more positive content, but I'll admit it's mostly contained to art videos and media analysis. And the playlists I (re)watch the most on your channel are Commentocracy, (negative) Squirty Plays/Jimpressions and Direct To Video, so I'm definitely pushing views in that direction. That being said, I do enjoy videos of those series more when your commentary is more lighthearted or shocked instead of angry. An avalanche of shit games on a storefront (that buries all the good stuff) is certainly bad, but with everything going on in the world (or just the gaming industry, really) it just doesn't seem important enough to get legitimately angry at, at least not to me. I like positive/constructively negative content, I guess. "The Political Agenda of Dark Souls" and "How The Rockstar Sausage Is Made" are some of my favourite Jimquisitions, so it's disappointing to see those analytics as a viewer too.

Lea Chinelo

After having worked my way through almost all of your old school jimpressions playlist, it's worth sifting through the rubbish for the occasional gem you find. =D

Layla Spellwind

How about for every negative thing you offset it with a positive one? For example: Bethesda are rubbish, but.....errmmm. bad example I guess.

In terms of positive feelings about games, I agree that I tend to avoid your really positive videos. However, I really appreciate your positive feelings about games from Podquisition. Based on you and your co-hosts recommendations, I have purchased Undertale, Disco Elysium, Autonauts, Million Onion Hotel, The Beginner's Guide and more. I've enjoyed all of them. In truth, once I hear about a game I might be interested in on the podcast, I tend to avoid any videos about it until I've finished the game. So thank God for you and you being the only trustworthy voice in video games.

Kyle McGuffin

But You Are So Cute When You Smile...

Life is pain. Anyone who says anything else is selling something.

Pete Spicer

You speak truth Senor Jim Sterling. Pain and suffering feels real, and some among us need that. Require that. Even crave that.... Realness. It is the paradoxical nature of humanity.

Trey Pylon

I come to you for the truth, not sunshine and gumdrops. Never change Jim.

Ravin