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The Jimquisition - Telltale Games

Magoo

Magoo

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Oct 28, 2017
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Mod Edit: If you are only here to talk about how much you don't like Jim Sterling, or if you have no interest in the video, don't post. Thank you.
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- S1 was one of his favourite games.

- Fatigue set in because all the titles felt the same.

- It lost what made it feel special. You could see the choices were just an illusion.

- Old engine that only felt older with each release.

- Even though The Council has it's own issues it builds on the Telltale style gameplay, something their own games didn't.

- Overworked staff burnt out from churning out the games started leaving the studio. A point he wants to come back to in the future is how publishers can burn out developers then just get rid of them.
 
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Opposable

Opposable

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,367
I was kind of shocked that this video is so anti-Telltale as a company. Considering PDP already did a video like this and it had a lot of negative feedback.

Edit: And all of the comments are joking about the death of the company whaaat
 
Mass_Pincup

Mass_Pincup

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
7,121
Opposable said:
I was kind of shocked that this video is so anti-Telltale as a company. Considering PDP already did a video like this and it had a lot of negative feedback.

Edit: And all of the comments are joking about the death of the company whaaat
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What did you expect from the fanbase of someone so negative ?
 
Lunchbox

Lunchbox

ƃuoɹʍ ʇᴉ ƃuᴉop ǝɹ,noʎ 'ʇɥƃᴉɹ sᴉɥʇ pɐǝɹ noʎ ɟI
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,548
Rip City
Tales of the Borderlands was the only one I looked forward to episodes on, played quite a few too maybe I was too late on TWD because I thought it was really bad. WAU was good but I didn't have an attachment to the source material.
 
-shadow-

-shadow-

One Winged Slayer
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Oct 25, 2017
6,110
I'm curious what he has to say, because some of the stories that they hired people just a week in advance is terrible.
 

Deleted member 6730

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Opposable said:
I was kind of shocked that this video is so anti-Telltale as a company. Considering PDP already did a video like this and it had a lot of negative feedback.

Edit: And all of the comments are joking about the death of the company whaaat
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I'm surprised he's so negative since Telltale is one of the few high profile devs that makes games rarely touched in AAA.
 
Markitron

Markitron

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Oct 25, 2017
12,510
Ireland
GeoGonzo said:
I usually like the Jimquisition but yeah, that title is... not the best. Haven't watched this one yet, and I'm not sure if I want to given what Opposable just said.
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I won't get a chance to watch it until later but I highly doubt Jim will be joking about people losing their jobs, I'd imagine the point will be a videogame developer over-reaching and over-saturating their market with products. It's a topic he talks about frequently considering all the me-too reactionary games that happen in waves every few years.
 
Amiibola

Amiibola

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Oct 29, 2017
2,255
Ok, this was dissapointing. Jim said on Twitter he wouldn't touch this because it would be in bad taste.

What the fuck Jim?
 
Markitron

Markitron

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Oct 25, 2017
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Think you guys are getting hung up on a title pun a little too much. Most of his vids have titles like this. It's not like the management aren't responsible for what happened either.
 
Vince_Jo1990

Vince_Jo1990

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Jan 12, 2018
62
Spyder_Monkey said:
I'm surprised he's so negative since Telltale is one of the few high profile devs that makes games rarely touched in AAA.
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Rarely touched by AAA? All their games were the same and didn't evolve one ounce since TWD Season 1. They released multiple a year with different licences thinking they could bank solely on these kind of games. They also brought episodic game for Hitman and Life is Strange, they are far from unique.

I loved all their old games and loved The Walking Dead but I stopped paying attention, the gameplay were getting weaker and weaker and storylines not so good, I don't really care about the choices, but it was still hard getting hooked.
 
TheBeardedOne

TheBeardedOne

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I'll pass. I'm sick of listening to Jim and hearing about his ego.

Sounds like I'm not missing anything.
 
Zafir

Zafir

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,987
Markitron said:
I won't get a chance to watch it until later but I highly doubt Jim will be joking about people losing their jobs, I'd imagine the point will be a videogame developer over-reaching and over-saturating their market with products. It's a topic he talks about frequently considering all the me-too reactionary games that happen in waves every few years.
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If anything he actually prefaces the video discussing poor developer conditions and the fact that telltale burned their own developers out leaving them without severance pay at the end, citing that he's going to be doing a video specifically on it. The rest of the video is a post mortem of why he thought the company failed.

The title is rather poor taste though.
 
Yukinari

Yukinari

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Oct 25, 2017
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I always somehow felt the company made the wrong move moving away from their point n click roots. Mid 2000's to early 2010's was their peak as far as im concerned.

Not every game was a hit but they basically perfected it with Sam&Max Season 3.
 

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Vince_Jo1990 said:
Rarely touched by AAA? All their games were the same and didn't evolve one ounce since TWD Season 1. They released multiple a year with different licences thinking they could bank solely on these kind of games. They also brought episodic game for Hitman and Life is Strange, they are far from unique.

I loved all their old games and loved The Walking Dead but I stopped paying attention, the gameplay were getting weaker and weaker and storylines not so good, I don't really care about the choices, but it was still hard getting hooked.
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That's not what I mean but ok.
 
stumblebee

stumblebee

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Jan 22, 2018
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This video's actually pretty good considering who it's from. He takes a pretty well considered look at the company's history, its previous successes, and where it failed.
 
Zafir

Zafir

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Oct 25, 2017
6,987
Yukinari said:
I always somehow felt the company made the wrong move moving away from their point n click roots. Mid 2000's to early 2010's was their peak as far as im concerned.

Not every game was a hit but they basically perfected it with Sam&Max Season 3.
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The problem that audience is rather niche though. I used to love their point and click games, but I kind of acknowledge that those were never going to make lots of money.

I think Telltale did the right thing in modernising them to be more palatable to the general audience, however I'm kind of in agreement with Jim that their down fall was not really doing much to change. I also got burned out on their similar formula, same engine, poor performance and bugs. I haven't really cared enough to play one in recent years because of it, and it's a shame because I do think their initial ones were very good, like the Walking Dead S1.
 
ResetGreyWolf

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Oct 27, 2017
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Haven't clicked play yet, but I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Jim is overreacting like crazy and shouting profanities and just being an arse in general to all things Telltale.
 
GeekyDad

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Didn't read the comments, but his video itself seems unusually un-sensational, really. Seems like a pretty fair assessment of what seems to have happened.
 
Yukinari

Yukinari

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Oct 25, 2017
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The Danger Zone
Zafir said:
The problem that audience is rather niche though. I used to love their point and click games, but I kind of acknowledge that those were never going to make lots of money.

I think Telltale did the right thing in modernising them to be more palatable to the general audience, however I'm kind of in agreement with Jim that their down fall was not really doing much to change. I also got burned out on their similar formula, same engine, poor performance and bugs. I haven't really cared enough to play one in recent years because of it, and it's a shame because I do think their initial ones were very good, like the Walking Dead S1.
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Pretty funny how a company founded by former LucasArts employess succumb to low sales all over again.
 
Markitron

Markitron

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Jim threads are so weird. They are always full of people who are going out of their way to tell everyone they don't watch his content, before derailing the thread by guessing the content of the video in question.

I mean, why even bother?
 
SolidChamp

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GeekyDad said:
Didn't read the comments, but his video itself seems unusually un-sensational, really. Seems like a pretty fair assessment of what seems to have happened.
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Yeah, that was my takeaway as well. He's not making light of the fact that people lost their jobs. He's doing a decent job of illustrating why the company bit off more than it could chew while remaining complacent instead of innovating and taking the time to implement new ideas. He paints the company's mismanagement as a case of gluttony.
 
sir_crocodile

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Haven't really got time to watch it, is it just what we've known for years - poorly managed company, reliance on outdated tech and taking on too many projects, with none of the IPs involved owned by them?
 

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Salty Rice said:
Yeah its pretty off putting considering so many people lost their jobs and he titles the video with this snarky title instead of being more serious.
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that's actually why it's titled the way it is, lots of people lost their jobs because Telltale as a company failed them by making poor decisions, biting off more than they could chew, fostering a toxic working environment, and overworking their workers who they would eventually have to lay off
 
Kewlmyc

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I mean, nothing he said was wrong. Telltale used the same formula in like 8 different games over the last 5 years. The company was a mismanaged mess that treated its employees like crap by overworking them. Jim is in the right to call out the company management (not the hard working employees) as being incompetent to get to this point. The way these layoffs went just shows this.
 
shaneo632

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I've taken a break from Jim the last few weeks because the negativity was just wearing me down a bit. I think I'll skip this one too.
 
get2sammyb

get2sammyb

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Should Jim really be making a video named 'Tellfail Games' three days after hundreds of people lost their jobs?
 
Kewlmyc

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sir_crocodile said:
Haven't really got time to watch it, is it just what we've known for years - poorly managed company, reliance on outdated tech and taking on too many projects, with none of the IPs involved owned by them?
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Pretty much. That summarized into a video while also praising "The Council" for trying new things in the genre.
 
John Konstantin

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This video reminded me of a Simpsons episode where Nelson laughs at a Washington Post journalist, telling him his medium is dying. Skinner reprimands him and Nelson says insists it's true. Skinner replies that there's being right and there's being nice. So basically that, Jim is right but he's an asshole too.
 
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