User banned (1 week): off-topic drive-by, ignoring mod-post, many recent accumulated infractions
does this guy never stop complaining about games? seriously for the amount of whining he does i'm surprised he even likes video games at all.
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The Jimquisition - Telltale Games
- Thread starter Magoo
- Start date
Christ, can you just let people talk about what Jim is saying in the video instead of the same derailment in every single Jim thread? It's super annoying.
all he ever seems do to is shit on games though...i just dont understand it.
Title name aside, this is a pretty reasonable summary as far as I can see having not played Telltale's games myself. The format was great at first but making so many different games over such a short period using the same format just got a bit boring. If they had instead made 2 seasons of something per year at most the company could have done stuff like upgrading to a new engine and bug testing as I heard that as a common criticism of their later games.
Feel sorry for the developers having been hung out to dry, I do hope they end up somewhere great.
Feel sorry for the developers having been hung out to dry, I do hope they end up somewhere great.
He really doesn't. You apparently only watch the ones that are negative. Just to cite a video I recently watched from him (I admittedly don't watch many of them either) that was positive about a game - Dragon Quest XI.
Apart from all the games he has been positive on like Hellblade, God Of War, Spiderman, etc?
I can tell Jim is trying to be respectful, but man, this video is just really mean.
Hundreds of people just lost their jobs, and he decides now is the best time to release an already planned video shitting on them and claiming they put in no effort?
Like, for God's sake, I'm sure the devs are having a hard enough time as it is. This video isn't adding anything to anything, all these complaints have been repeated over and over again, it's just shitting on people while they're down.
I hope it doesn't hurt any of the devs trying to find new jobs, although that might be giving the power of this video too much credit.
Hundreds of people just lost their jobs, and he decides now is the best time to release an already planned video shitting on them and claiming they put in no effort?
Like, for God's sake, I'm sure the devs are having a hard enough time as it is. This video isn't adding anything to anything, all these complaints have been repeated over and over again, it's just shitting on people while they're down.
I hope it doesn't hurt any of the devs trying to find new jobs, although that might be giving the power of this video too much credit.
That was from three days ago and the news is still fresh. How is it not mean to do it now.
No Tales sequel which is the biggest bummer of it all for me. It's a game that gives me the same warm fuzzy feeling as the old Simpsons episodes did, the game can be replaced so many times and it always makes me laugh. It's one of those rare games where comedy is on the forefront, and the humor is generally well done, without feeling obtuse. I'm gonna miss Telltale for that at the very least.
I dunno, I'll admit I avoided their stuff really because of the janky way TWD Season 1 looks, but playing through Borderlands, which IS a fantastic game on its own merit also got me to go back and play the original Borderlands games. TWAU is also great.
It's a real shame the ending is going to leave such a nasty bitter taste for a lot of people, I can't see how TT's owners and management can claw back any goodwill.
I'll give the vid a watch later.
?
I didn't really take the video as that at all, sorry.
He's clearly talking about Telltale as the corporate entity. He prefaces the video stating that Telltale worked the developers to death rehashing the same style. That's clearly not blaming the developers.
Maybe this video is a bit too soon, I'm not going to disagree there, but I don't think Jim was particularly insulting or mean towards the devs.
He seemed like he blamed management more than anything.
Was quick to mention that the staff was overworked and undercompensated.
Yes he should. It's the company's fault after all, that so many developers lost their jobs.
I fucking love his background music lmao
I am thinking they significantly overextended too
I don't see why they needed 250 or 400 people except in the way for having so many projects
My imagination is they did not fire/rehire during shifts in development stages, maybe a bad thing given the whole studio closed
I am thinking they significantly overextended too
I don't see why they needed 250 or 400 people except in the way for having so many projects
My imagination is they did not fire/rehire during shifts in development stages, maybe a bad thing given the whole studio closed
Except they were evolving the formula with their more recent releases. Just because you didn't play them doesn't mean they weren't changing.
Telltale games filled particular niche genre. It is a style of game we dont see very often. To get tired of that seems more like he is looking for something to criticize.
It will be interesting to guess who in this thread is posting based on the video title alone.
Some would say unfortunate timing, as a video about Telltale's shortcomings has been coming for a long time, but on the other side of the coin, one could say it's excellent timing
Some would say unfortunate timing, as a video about Telltale's shortcomings has been coming for a long time, but on the other side of the coin, one could say it's excellent timing
He's kind of missing the point with this one. Sure, the problems he brings up contributed to the decline of the studio, but in my opinion the expansion after TWD blew up was something they just couldn't sustain, and that was the fatal flaw here. A case of huge missmanagement blinded by an unexpected success.
He addresses the point of being accused of being a one trick pony himself, which is valid in my opinion, but the situations aren't compareable. He would have needed to hire a few people full time after the initial Patreon success for it to match it, but thank God for him, he isn't stupid.
He addresses the point of being accused of being a one trick pony himself, which is valid in my opinion, but the situations aren't compareable. He would have needed to hire a few people full time after the initial Patreon success for it to match it, but thank God for him, he isn't stupid.
You seem to be misreading that tweet. He said he wanted to write up something about how he got tired of the "formula" of the games, but that it'd be mean to put it up now due the timing. He never said he wasn't gonna do a piece about the corporate mismanagement.
It's more than fair to criticise the company heads for succumbing to greed and devaluing their employees. Jim does it in a provocative style as usual, of course, but I think some people are taking this the wrong way. He's not hurling shit at the developers who were only doing as they were told and ended up losing their jobs. He's expressing disappointment on behalf of them.
yes hundreds of people just lost their jobs
because Telltale as a company failed them
which is addressed in the video
Jim isn't some sort of monster. He wants to tell the complete story of whatever subject he's addressing. What puts people off is the way he does it, through a character that's the personification of an exaggerated ego. If you check out his other stuff, you'll see that he's actually much more chill than the Jimquisition persona might make it seem.
I consider myself a fan of Sterling and he usually has a point. I really don't think he's overly negative.
I'd say claiming they don't put any effort in as he did is pretty hard to not see as calling out the devs.
It's likely a remnant from when this was written before the company went under, and I'd like to think he wouldn't have said that if he was actually writing a video about how the workers were treated and struggled against management, which is why I think capitalising on the closure to release it now is kinda gross.
I really enjoyed all the Telltale games I played (even Game of Thrones which had some great moments) but it was hard to disagree with any of that. Constant recycling of the same formula, a creaky not fit for purpose engine, rapid expansion despite not having a hit since TWD Season 1 and an awful work environment show how poorly managed the company was.
But bloody hell Jim, was the "Tellfail" video title really necessary? That seemed pointlessly mean.
But bloody hell Jim, was the "Tellfail" video title really necessary? That seemed pointlessly mean.
At no point in the video does he ever accuse anyone of putting in no effort or being "lazy"
He is not shitting on anybody who recently lost their job. Watch the video
I disagree with that when Jim so often targets the people in charge. For me it's easy to see that he's referring to how the higher-ups had no interest in allowing said effort to be made.
I feel like the interest in games of this style has simply died off, particularly with B-grade production values and the episodic format.
Until Dawn and Detroit work because they are singular releases with huge development/marketing budgets, and the weight of a huge 1st party platform holder behind them.
If Telltale had implemented some kind of XP/Skill system as suggested here, I don't really think it would have helped all that much.
The lived and died by their execution of story, and the stories they made subsequent to TWD just didn't gain the same kind of buzz and traction.....that and the myriad of technical issues that Jim doesn't even mention here (strange to see him pulling punches).
Until Dawn and Detroit work because they are singular releases with huge development/marketing budgets, and the weight of a huge 1st party platform holder behind them.
If Telltale had implemented some kind of XP/Skill system as suggested here, I don't really think it would have helped all that much.
The lived and died by their execution of story, and the stories they made subsequent to TWD just didn't gain the same kind of buzz and traction.....that and the myriad of technical issues that Jim doesn't even mention here (strange to see him pulling punches).
I guess. Still feels too soon to go all in on something so negative. It's like criticising a person after he or she died.
9:45 in the video.
"...Big Bad Wolf put in the effort and did new things with the genre, something that Telltale itself, sadly, failed to do in the last five years (stock image of a sad clown)"
I get that a lot of people in these threads just come in to drive by post because they don't like Jim, but just accusing people of not watching the video isn't going to get you anywhere.
It's really quite obvious that he's playing a massively exaggerated parody of himself, much like Boogie, except for the annoying sexist/racist bit.
They are dead because of managment, which is who he is criticising here.
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Why is he bringing up hot garbage like the Council and apologizing for all their bad writing, while still shitting on David Cage despite the fact that Detroit did a much better job at all the things he's talking about in The Council?
Earlier in Telltale's run, they actually did change up their formula to suit each game. They may have all been adventure games, but they exact interface and style of puzzles did vary between Sam and Max, and CSI, and Monkey Island. After Walking Dead they seemed to get really locked into a formula they were afraid to deviate from, which is a recipe for diminishing returns.
Developers like Dontnod and Quantic Dream, on the other hand, did manage to take this format outlined by Telltale and build on it in interesting ways. That's the sort of thing Telltale ought to have been doing.
With that said, I don't think their formula stopped working. I loved their recent Batman games, especially the second season. When the stories are good the rest is forgivable, and Telltale had some of the best writers in the business.
Earlier in Telltale's run, they actually did change up their formula to suit each game. They may have all been adventure games, but they exact interface and style of puzzles did vary between Sam and Max, and CSI, and Monkey Island. After Walking Dead they seemed to get really locked into a formula they were afraid to deviate from, which is a recipe for diminishing returns.
Developers like Dontnod and Quantic Dream, on the other hand, did manage to take this format outlined by Telltale and build on it in interesting ways. That's the sort of thing Telltale ought to have been doing.
With that said, I don't think their formula stopped working. I loved their recent Batman games, especially the second season. When the stories are good the rest is forgivable, and Telltale had some of the best writers in the business.
I think your inferring something from the video that isn't actually there.
I think it's pretty clear to me that he's criticising the upper management for their decisions. After all, at the end of the day it's down to their decisions which shapes the company. Employees can't suddenly make something innovative and new unless they get the time and funding to do so.
At no point in that video does he suggest that the developers themselves are lazy, as I already pointed out, he even states before the criticism that Telltale worked their developers to the bone doing the same thing over and over. That in itself proves that he's on about Telltale the company, not the developers.
I feel like some people really don't want to talk about why Telltale failed for whatever reason. It's kind of weird. Yes, it's tragic tons of people lost their jobs but there were reasons why they went under and it should be okay to talk about them. Jim isn't disparaging the employees, he knows how hard they work.
Exactly. I can understand why some people don't like it, but some people think he's actually like that.
Er, he doesn't really explain the problems with TT's mismanagement as much as he complaints about how their games have been decreasing in quality in recent years and really, don't think is the best time for that.
Note when he refers to "Telltale" he's explicitly talking about management and not the employees hired to make the games. His entire argument is that "Telltale" (The company management not the employees)
Followed the success of TWDS1 with an overbearing amount of more of the same.
It's bizzare to take that statement as an attack on the devs.
I watched the video. He makes"dead" puns (at the same time people don't know if they can make their rent) hat for me render this video insensitive at best. He also, for me, doesn't make enough new points that make releasing this video worth it. He might have had these thoughts about the management and Telltale a long time ago but this is also a prime Jim Sterling opportunity when emotions are high for him to seize dem clicks. I'm not just levying these claims at Jim. Other outlets are posting similar articles/editorials. I would have waited a bit.