How do you feel about the Angry Video Game Nerd?

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by snake

I don’t know, I still enjoy his stuff as much as I always have. Everything recent from the Megaman episode on has been golden, and it seems like James is actually having fun doing them again. I still look forward to new episodes, and I always enjoy them. Doing the “angry” thing constantly is forced at this point, so the more professional tone of these episodes make the legitamately angry moments so much funnier in comparison.

Yeah, there’s no moments like trying to use the grappling hook in Batman Forever or “I CAN’T TOUCH THAT RED POT?”, but I still find it entertaining.

Yeah, I still enjoy him. Apparently he no longer plays the games and has a team playing the games and writing the script for him nowadays? I wouldn't know if I had never read that online, though. So far it's been working. The crowbar joke in the Dirty Harry episode was bad, though.

I'm glad James has more free time to work on other stuff and be with his family.

Originally Posted by Powder

Pretty much this, in the now. I enjoy Cinemassacre on a whole, especially now that the Silvermania gang have been absorbed. I've always liked those dudes, having two of my favorite Youtube outfits meld together is a rad thing. They mesh well.

I guess you're talking to the guys who occasionally show up in the James & Mike's Mondays videos?

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

In response to Prowler's long post.

James may not be a huge youtuber by today's standards, but he was certainly one of the more revolutionary ones, if not the most during his time.

I might be wrong on this, but I am pretty certain that he is solely responsible for starting the "angry video game reviews" genre.

Also, when you compare the scale of Youtube back then compared to now, I think it could be argued that James was one of the biggest Youtubers of his time.

Heck, the Irate Gamer got his videos featured on the front page in 2007-2008, and he is the poor-man's version of AVGN

Just goes on to show how influential and big AVGN himself was, if his rip off managed to reach such popularity at the time.

His content is also timeless I would argue, in the sense that I still check out his old reviews from more than a decade ago, and still enjoy the ever living hell out of it.

Many Youtubers nowdays however, who became more popular than AVGN in terms of subscriber count, were just fads who faded out over a period of time, and are hardly remembered nowdays.

Atleast there seems to be a steady stream of AVGN (like the ones here on the drome) who have been fans for a decade (if not more), and continue to look back on his old stuff with fondness.

My favourite AVGN review of all time has to be Turtles 3, that will always be a classic for me.

Yeah, he pretty much is responsible for that.

Irate Gamer certainly ripped him off a lot. He was the only one other than James back then who had access to special effects and higher production values, and also the only one who also had some film making and editing experience. At the time, me and many others hated IG for blatantly ripping off AVGN and even getting featured on YouTube for a while, while AVGN got his channel removed a couple of times for whatever reasons. But now, looking back, I guess anyone else that had the same skills and resources as the Irate Gamer would have tried to become the next AVGN as well. A lot of people at the time wer doing the angry gamer shtick, and they ALL got some hate from AVGN fanboys for being heavily inspired by him. Irate Gamer was the least original of the bunch, and ironically became the most popular of the bunch. Plus, in the first couple of IG videos he made, I doubt he even dreamed of becoming as notorious as he did, so I guess we cant' really hold it against him for his earliest reviews being a bit similar to the ones by James.

A lot of the people from back then are forever grateful to James, and even in a roast they did for him some years ago, Brental Floss said "this man was an inspiration to all of us".

I agree that his old videos are still fun to watch.

Well, who knows if some of the hottest YTers these days will be remembered several years from now on. Maybe in a decade or so no one will care about pewdiepie anymore, who knows.

I guess James was just destined to be a pioneer and not someone who stays on the top for several years. Nothing wrong with that, though. The big video game fans will forever remember him, at least a sizeable portion of them will. Plus. James is not a person who likes to get into drama and obnoxiously forcing himself into everything, so I'm not surprised he's not as big as some other guys out there. Even his social media accounts feel very down to Earth. He doesn't go around acting like a loudmouth or anything. He sticks to games, movies and such. He conducts himself professionally, and that's part of what makes him so likeable and his fanbase so loyal. If James was a jerk, I'm sure he'd have lost a lot of fans by now. He seems like a genuinely decent fellow and nothing about him says that he might be an asshole deep down.

And lastly, he focuses on retrogames. People mostly want the new stuff out there, so it makes sense they'd prefer YTers who play current games than those who review old games, a lot of them bad and/or obscure.

It's a bit odd to see him reviewing PS2 or Xbox games. Sonic 06 in particular was a 360 game iirc. I think talking about how bad Sonic 06 is in 2017 or so is a bit way too late. We're talking about a game that got a lot of bad press and reactions online back when it came out, and not a bad game that came out in a time where the internet wasn't even a thing yet. So by 2017 I don't think criticising Sonic 06 had much of an impact anymore. Plus, a part 2 for the episode as unnecessary, imo. But oh well, still entertaining enough.

[snake]

I’d like to see a source on the “he doesn’t play the games anymore” thing.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by snake

I’d like to see a source on the “he doesn’t play the games anymore” thing.

I read it somewhere on the internet recently. I think it was through a google search that took me to Cinemassacre's sub-reddit or something? Someone basically said that. Maybe I'm not remembering it well enough or someone was BSing. Who knows.

[Prowler]

Wow, the Life of Black Tiger episode was pretty bad. I guess James and Screenwave just focused on having Gilbert Gottfried as a guest.

And PS4?! I mean, it's fine if it was a James & Mike Mondays video, but AVGN is supposed to be retro. I guess occasionally a more modern game is fine, but still, it's just odd to see AVGN reviewing a PS4 game. I think James works best with games that came out on systems before the PS1/Saturn/N64 era.

Besides, the "magic" of talking crap about an old game is that back then it was harder to know if a game was bad or not. Nowadays if a game is bad the entire internet will know pretty quickly. And even back in the mid-2000s word of mouth ran rather fast already. James reviewed Sonic 06 in 2017... talking about how much Sonic 2006 sucks in 2017 seems rather redundant. Even though the review was OK, he didn't get that far in the game, and the second part episode wasn't that great.

Also, there wasn't much of a need for James to play Superman 64 again. Especially considering he already reviewed that game around a decade ago.

AVGN changed since Screenwave began taking control of things. I guess he no longer writes the scripts. His episodes have become rather hit and miss lately and more focused on guest stars. Macaulay Culkin and the Pepsiman guy worked out well for their respective episodes, though.

[Leo656]

Treats me fine.

Dude's got a family now, we're lucky to get anything. I dug the most recent video since my wife's a huge Jurassic Park mark.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Treats me fine.

Dude's got a family now, we're lucky to get anything. I dug the most recent video since my wife's a huge Jurassic Park mark.

I have no issues with him having a crew shooting and editing his episodes now. I wish he still wrote the scripts, though. Sometimes it can be a bit off. It's hard for writers to sometimes emulate an already existing character. In the Dirty Harry episode, James makes a crowbar joke. "Is the bar made of crows" which is a joke I couldn't imagine him ever writing/coming up with. It was reaaaaaally lame.

The good episodes are still good, but they've gotten more hit and miss in the last couple of years.

[Prowler]

New episode is out:

Spoiler:

This one has a different take by James on an AVGN episode with the episode being filmed in... one take.

He was obviously reading off a script throughout a significant portion of the video, but it's a one take episode, so I can't blame him.

I found it an interesting episode artistically-wise and I can see what they were going for here. It wasn't really funny, though. James spoke a lot and sometimes a bit too fast. The way he spoke fit the tone of the episode, but it wasn't funny. The show is a comedy and this episode wasn't really funny. It's not a bad episode, though. But I can see it being a bit polarising with the fans.

[snake]

The screenwave slobs really went and changed both the thumbnails and the episode titles from the old videos. Shame, shame.

[Turo602]

Originally Posted by snake

The screenwave slobs really went and changed both the thumbnails and the episode titles from the old videos. Shame, shame.

I don't see the problem. They're modernizing it in an attempt to grow his channel.

[snake]

The screenwave content is complete garbage. Why does a relic of internet history like the nerd need clickbait thumbnails for old episodes? I understand doing it for new ones, but why tamper with the other videos? Anyone who would be interested in AVGN already knows about him.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by snake

The screenwave content is complete garbage. Why does a relic of internet history like the nerd need clickbait thumbnails for old episodes? I understand doing it for new ones, but why tamper with the other videos? Anyone who would be interested in AVGN already knows about him.

Mike Matei said he and James didn't like the idea of changing the thumbnails much, but due to YouTube's algorithm, thumbnails that have the faces of the uploader are more likely to top searches and get more views. Notice how in most of pewdiepie's videos he puts his face on the thumbnail and the style in that they are which Screenwave is trying to emulate?

Anyway, people say James no longer is playing the games he reviews but I'm yet to see solid proof of that. I do believe when they say he no longer writes the scripts or edits the videos, though.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by snake

The screenwave content is complete garbage. Why does a relic of internet history like the nerd need clickbait thumbnails for old episodes? I understand doing it for new ones, but why tamper with the other videos? Anyone who would be interested in AVGN already knows about him.

Don't let /tv/ get to you so much, yo. They're just tryna bring in cake.

[Prowler]

I feel like the AVGN fandom is quite split lately. There's a lot of fans who simply hate anything James did in the last few years and some people even dedicated an entire sub-reddit to bash him and mike. Jesus, get a life, people. Also, I don't think James owes any of us anything. He has provided us 170+ episodes of FREE entertainment, and at some point he was making 2 episodes a month. Keep in mind they usually take like 30+ hours to make, and some like the ROB the Robot one took him about 100 hours to make.

I remember back in 2006-2007 when James and ScrewAttack went to GameTrailers and people complained he wasn't uploading his newest episodes on youtube anymore, someone in a forum said "be grateful you're still able to watch AVGN's episodes for free. That might not be the case in the future." Well, we're in 2019 and he's still providing us with FREE content. So yeah, I don't think he owes us anything. I kind of expected him to retire the Nerd character with the movie, kinda like Sacha Baron Cohen did with Borat, but fortunately he kept on making Nerd episodes.

Btw, AVGN's prime was pretty long, imo. It went from the very first episode, Simon's Quest, up to Ikari Warriors. That's 2006-2013. Then Toxic Crusaders came and since then, while he has put out some good and even some great episodes, the quality slowly began getting more hit and miss. But hey, that's 110 episodes or so of James at his best. From Simon's Quest to Ikari Warriors there's only 2 episodes I'd call "bad": Master Chu and the Drunkhard Hu and Independence Day. I think SMB3 is very overrated and WAY too over the top, but I'd not go as far as calling it a "bad episode".

I guess a lot of people are just disappointed that James no longer does everything by himself or with the help of Mike Matei and Kyle Justin. I understand why it made it more special and "human" for James to have full creative and technical control of his own show, but I guess he's tight on time and has other things to do, so he can't fully commit to AVGN anymore. I don't just mean family. He probably has other projects to work on or ways to make a living.

[Turo602]

Originally Posted by snake

The screenwave content is complete garbage. Why does a relic of internet history like the nerd need clickbait thumbnails for old episodes? I understand doing it for new ones, but why tamper with the other videos? Anyone who would be interested in AVGN already knows about him.

How exactly is it clickbait? The thumbnail promises exactly what the video provides. It's just using a popular format so people are more likely to click on the video than scroll passed it. The channel also wouldn't be growing if that were true. Seems like a trivial thing for anyone to be upset about, no matter how much one dislikes Screenwave.

[snake]

I just didn’t think it was needed. Algorithms and the “shocked face” on the thumbnail look so jarring with the older, obviously made for fun videos. It’s something I’ve always associated with clickbait, and especially Doug/NC videos.

The past couple episodes have been so terrible, with the exception of Chex Quest. I don’t care whether or not James plays the games anymore, but it doesn’t even feel like AVGN anymore (references to things like framerates or walk-cycles take me out of the video). To be clear, I like some of the screenwave stuff, and the first batch of episodes post Megaman were awesome. But Aladdin Deck Enhancer, Life of Black Tiger, and Jurassic Park were so bad that not even r/cinemassacre is defending them anymore. Either let AVGN die off or improve the writing. The elaborate skits were never funny in CA videos, and they aren’t funny here. There’s a clear difference in having a character show up in an AVGN episode (which is a staple of the show) and the Jurassic Park episode. Pepsiman is a recent episode that does the skit aspect right, Aladdin Deck Enhancer is not.

Sorry I don’t believe in defending everything a channel does because they used to be great. The Screenwave management change has done more harm than good.

Oh, and Rental Reviews is just Redlettermedia without anything that makes that channel exceptional.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by snake

I just didn’t think it was needed. Algorithms and the “shocked face” on the thumbnail look so jarring with the older, obviously made for fun videos. It’s something I’ve always associated with clickbait, and especially Doug/NC videos.

The past couple episodes have been so terrible, with the exception of Chex Quest. I don’t care whether or not James plays the games anymore, but it doesn’t even feel like AVGN anymore (references to things like framerates or walk-cycles take me out of the video). To be clear, I like some of the screenwave stuff, and the first batch of episodes post Megaman were awesome. But Aladdin Deck Enhancer, Life of Black Tiger, and Jurassic Park were so bad that not even r/cinemassacre is defending them anymore. Either let AVGN die off or improve the writing. The elaborate skits were never funny in CA videos, and they aren’t funny here. There’s a clear difference in having a character show up in an AVGN episode (which is a staple of the show) and the Jurassic Park episode. Pepsiman is a recent episode that does the skit aspect right, Aladdin Deck Enhancer is not.

Sorry I don’t believe in defending everything a channel does because they used to be great. The Screenwave management change has done more harm than good.

Oh, and Rental Reviews is just Redlettermedia without anything that makes that channel exceptional.

Yeah, I didn't notice someone else was working on the episodes until someone pointed it out to me. The early days of Screenwave were alright. But from Aladdin Deck Enhancer on I feel like something changed and for the worst. Pepsiman was a cool episode, though.

[sdp]

AVGN hasn't been great for over a decade, his videos are still entertaining enough for me and quality between videos differs a lot as it has always been the case so it's really nothing new. I think the formula needs change and while the screenwave episodes aren't amazing at least they're trying something new.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Pepsiman was a cool episode, though.

Getting the tv game guy was the icing on the cake.

The game is so much easier than what AVGN makes it out to be though lol.

[Leo656]

Was playing the Aladdin/Lion King set recently. Good stuff. Bouncing around on YouTube just before, saw a James and Mike video about The Lion King. I usually don't watch these because Mike is f*cking insufferable, but I figured "Eh, I'll give it a shot."

I remember now the other reason why I only like watching James do the Nerd gimmick: These guys are f*cking terrible at video games considering... Well, everything. Like seriously, I know it's considered a "hard" game, but not really. Watching people constantly screw up on super easy parts is so annoying. They spent 20 minutes whining about the super easy monkey level and never even talked about the stupid Hyena Maze at the end with the respawning enemies and almost no health items? Give me a break!

I like AVGN videos but watching him actually struggle with easy stuff is so frustrating. Last time I was so annoyed by him was when he did the wrestling games video, and declared that Raw and Royal Rumble were bad because he couldn't figure out the super-easy controls on the two easiest wrestling games ever made. I know he's got other hobbies and responsibilities but being so bad at easy games kinda hurts his gimmick.

Then again, he apparently beat Majora's Mask with only half the hearts and a weak sword, so I'unno. It's like he's good at harder games and bad at easier ones, or something.

[The Deadman]

Probably because he's never played the wrestling games before and thats why it was more difficult for him.