Angry Nintendo Nerd

[A Sprite]

I'm just insulted that you would compare the Angry Nintendo Douchebag to good comedians. You seriously think his "comedy" has the same depth and social impact as Chris Rock or Denis Leary? He's a jerk who screams at video games. That's it. A lot of the old games he reviews lend themselves extremely well to parody, but Rolfe squanders those opportunities, instead offering such words of wisdom as "this game sucks the shit out of a dead man's asshole."

 

The fact that these observations have made the man an overnight success is even more frustrating. I'm not sure whether to be angry with James Rolfe for making a show with zero substance, or the Internet community for making it popular.

 

It's character based comedy. He's playing the same guys who imitate him.

 

And you're too good to be wasting your time being bitter about this. Swallow your pride, admit you're targeting a niche audience that hasn't found you yet, and work on hooking them.

[keilbaca]

I love his videos, I even have a F*ckballs AVGN shirt that I wear on an occasional basis.

[Artlover]

And you're too good to be wasting your time being bitter about this. Swallow your pride, admit you're targeting a niche audience that hasn't found you yet, and work on hooking them.

Exactly.

 

Besides, I would like to point out the jealous bitterness is not a positive attitude that will win friends/viewers and is completely unprofessional. It serves more to make him look like the bad guy then help his cause.

[Jess Ragan]

You ever notice how I don't get upset about Zero Punctuation's popularity? It's because he deserves to be where he is today. He's cranky and profane, but also insightful and clever. He's got a gimmick, but he uses it effectively. While I may be envious of his success, I don't begrudge him for it. I am angry about the AVGN because he doesn't deserve to be where he is right now. What he's doing is absolutely no different from what any of us have done for the past twenty years- playing video games and swearing- except he's got a camera around to catch himself acting like a moron.

 

You can try to deflect this by saying "Oh, you're jealous and bitter," but deep down you know I'm RIGHT. Five years from now, the AVGN's schtick will be buried inside the trash can of forgotten internet memes, right next to "All your base are belong to us" and the hamster dance.

[+remowilliams]

Five years from now, the AVGN's schtick will be buried inside the trash can of forgotten internet memes, right next to "All your base are belong to us" and the hamster dance.

Five years is too long to wait.

[PressureCooker2600]

I even have a F*ckballs AVGN shirt that I wear on an occasional basis.

 

 

I thought you had some taste, keilbaca.

[fdurso224]

 

I love his videos, I even have a F*ckballs AVGN shirt that I wear on an occasional basis.

[Artlover]

I am angry about the AVGN because he doesn't deserve to be where he is right now.

"Waaaaaa. I think I'm better then him and I want that attention. Waaaaa."

 

He does his thing and is successfull. Damn son of a bitch, how dare he.

 

If you don't like him, don't watch him. But who do you think you are to declare he doesn't deserve it. That's not for you to decide, that's for the viewing public at large to decide, and they have. Oh, that's right, you're angry at them too.

 

Again, as someone who creates your own web reviews, It's NOT a professional way to act, and makes YOU look like a bitter self absorbed cry baby. Which you are really re-enforcing with comments like those.

 

Get over it and worry about doing what you need to do to become successfull at what you do. That is, after all, where your success lies, you and what you do. He has no bearing on that. You were already given a bunch of suggestions to help you in that other "I want popularity and hate AVGN who is popular and his viewers because I don't aggree with his technique" thread. (Gee, doesn't that sound really petty and horrible when spelled out like that?)

 

What he's doing is absolutely no different from what any of us have done for the past twenty years- playing video games and swearing- except he's got a camera around to catch himself acting like a moron.

Yeah, and? It's working for him, isn't it. Because apparently, regardless if you approve or not, that is what a lot of people want to see.

 

I know, how dare he cater to his audience and give them what they want. That son of a bitch.

 

Again, your popularity and success lie with you and your actions, no one else. No one owes you anything. Cater to the masses, or accept being in a niche. That's the way it works in the real world, regardless if we're talking about any form of entertainment to selling chocolate dipped clams on a stick. Sure, some people will like those clams, but don't expect the world to beat a path to your door over them. Pissing and moaning about the competition does nothing to help you beyond making you look bad.

[Atarifever]

If you don't like him, don't watch him. But who do you think you are to declare he doesn't deserve it. That's not for you to decide, that's for the viewing public at large to decide, and they have. Oh, that's right, you're angry at them too.

The viewing public watches "Flav'a of Love" Artlover; it is okay to pass judgment on them (see that semi-colon; they could never do that). I'll do it right now. I'm actually drunk (not pretend AVGN drunk) and don't care. 95% of the viewing public of TV is made up of morons and 99% of the internet public is morons. It's fine to pass judgment on them, the AVGN and anyone else online. They are morons. I am not worried about saying that, because I don't care what morons think.

 

As for the "don't watch it if you don't like it" thing, hey I'm communist. I'm cool with your communist ideals. However, if you think people shouldn't be able to watch and critique things they don't like, you're free to move to China.

[A Sprite]

If you don't like him, don't watch him. But who do you think you are to declare he doesn't deserve it. That's not for you to decide, that's for the viewing public at large to decide, and they have. Oh, that's right, you're angry at them too.

The viewing public watches "Flav'a of Love" Artlover; it is okay to pass judgment on them (see that semi-colon; they could never do that). I'll do it right now. I'm actually drunk (not pretend AVGN drunk) and don't care. 95% of the viewing public of TV is made up of morons and 99% of the internet public is morons. It's fine to pass judgment on them, the AVGN and anyone else online. They are morons. I am not worried about saying that, because I don't care what morons think.

 

As for the "don't watch it if you don't like it" thing, hey I'm communist. I'm cool with your communist ideals. However, if you think people shouldn't be able to watch and critique things they don't like, you're free to move to China.

 

It's not the criticism that bothers me; nothing said here is new - critics have been hurling rocks at lowbrow comedy since pie hit face and foot hit balls, as if the people who watch it never watched anything else in their lives, and they base everything they do based on the last television show they watched. It's just another way to masturbate - just because you see stupid people doesn't mean you aren't part of the zombie horde.

 

Nerd gives me a few lowbrow laughs when helping people struggling with mental illness gets to be too intense - it's 10 minutes of my day, once or twice a month - that leaves me plenty of time for Lenny Bruce and Jonathon Swift.

 

What have you done?

 

More important, what's Jess going to do?

 

We're still waiting for him to make a move.

 

He's got too much talent to waste it filling his webpage with pictures of himself and trying to guilt people into checking out his Youtube videos.

 

If we didn't believe in him, we wouldn't have wasted this much time on the subject.

[Artlover]

If you don't like him, don't watch him. But who do you think you are to declare he doesn't deserve it. That's not for you to decide, that's for the viewing public at large to decide, and they have. Oh, that's right, you're angry at them too.

The viewing public watches "Flav'a of Love" Artlover; it is okay to pass judgment on them (see that semi-colon; they could never do that). I'll do it right now. I'm actually drunk (not pretend AVGN drunk) and don't care. 95% of the viewing public of TV is made up of morons and 99% of the internet public is morons. It's fine to pass judgment on them, the AVGN and anyone else online. They are morons. I am not worried about saying that, because I don't care what morons think.

You're right. Doesn't change the fact that one has to cater to the audience. Most big budget blockbusters out of Hollywood really kinda suck, and it's the low budget indie movies that tend to actually have content and be good. Where are the people going and spending their money tho. If you make an indie movie, you have to expect most people will never see it.

 

Jess does good work, but that alone doesn't matter and doesn't entitle one to nor guarantee an audience.

 

He is doing mostly classic games & hardware. That has a very small audience for honest reviews. True retrogamers. Do you think the average modern Xbox360 drunk frat boy playing GOW cares about what the C64 version of BluePrint played like? Nope. People don't watch AVGN expecting an honest review of something they care about. They watch him because they want to see him shit all over an old game that they problay never even heard of much less played themselves. That is something a drunk frat boy is going to watch, right after Girls Gone Wild. ZeroPunctuation isn't even worth considering because, ignoring his clever humor, he only does modern games and is relavent to current gamers, which has a huge audience.

 

What Jess does caters to a very small niche audience. I can look at other people on youtube doing honest classic videogame stuff, and most of them aren't doing any better either. It's not like it's just him. Which is another issue, he's not the only person on youtube. Just one out of millions, hundreds (maybe thousands) of which are doing the same or simmilar things that he is. Of the ones that are doing somewhat ok, they all have a hook of some kind (like spoofing AVGN or being an anti-AVGN or something). So I honestly don't know what he's expecting or why he's suprized.

 

No matter how good your freezer is, you're not selling any in Yellowknife, Canada.

 

To quote him from his other thread.

I know, I know... the hits shouldn't matter as long as I'm having fun. You know what, though? Hit counts are important. They especially matter to me, because everything I've done online so far has been a colossal bomb... the web site, the webcomic, the games, the artwork, and now the videos. I want to buck that trend without compromising my principles and surrendering to cheap trendy gimmicks. I want to believe that there are people out there who appreciate what I do and would support my work, but somehow, those people just never materialize. And that's frustrating.

The obviousness of this is so frustrating that I just want to crush my skull. There ARE people that appreciate and support his work. But it seems like he is overestimating the appeal of his work, and doesn't have as many supporters as he wants or thinks he should have. I can appericate his work, because I'm an old school gamer, but I can also see why most people could care less (especially the younger people). The simple fact is, retrogamers with a sincear interest in this hobby are a pretty small group.

 

He can curse AVGN success all he wants, but it doesn't change the fundamental issue that obviously the audience for what he does specificly is smaller then what he wants. <throws hands up in air> Don't know what we're supposed to do about that. But begrudging someone else for doing what they need to do to get what they want sure isn't it. Know your market. Try selling freezers where it's hot, or if you're hellbent on making a sale in Yellowknife, try selling fish instead.

[MN12BIRD]

I love the guy. The first video I saw was the SegaCD and or SegaCD/32X videos. OMG I pissed my pants laughing when he tries to plug them all in. He's good at what he does, no doubt there.

[ragedgamer]

Haha just discovered this guy. His reviews are quite accurate even if they do rip on the games. Makes me want to go out and get the game just because its so bad.

Edited September 3, 2008 by ragedgamer

[+HammR25]

AVGN, NGN is funny in small doses. The 2600 porn and bootleg Nintendo Christian game ones are pretty good. There's just too much irony in bootleg Christian games for it not to be funny and I'd never heard of the porn titles until I watched his video.

 

I haven't watched a whole lot of other videos that he's done. The schtick does get old fast.

[godslabrat]

You ever notice how I don't get upset about Zero Punctuation's popularity? It's because he deserves to be where he is today. He's cranky and profane, but also insightful and clever. He's got a gimmick, but he uses it effectively. While I may be envious of his success, I don't begrudge him for it. I am angry about the AVGN because he doesn't deserve to be where he is right now. What he's doing is absolutely no different from what any of us have done for the past twenty years- playing video games and swearing- except he's got a camera around to catch himself acting like a moron.

 

You can try to deflect this by saying "Oh, you're jealous and bitter," but deep down you know I'm RIGHT. Five years from now, the AVGN's schtick will be buried inside the trash can of forgotten internet memes, right next to "All your base are belong to us" and the hamster dance.

 

Hamster Dance is forgotten?!?! No! It cannot be! Granted, I think lolcats has more staying power, and Rick Rolling is just hilarious, but surely there's a place in the world for dancing hamsters.

 

Anyway, if you're main goal is to get popular (and it IS the popularity angle you keep bringing up), and you can clearly get popular by doing "what any of us have done for the past 20 years", then do it. Get a camera and start cussing like a sailor, or just let it go. I've tried to give you some leeway, since I do sympathize a little at being frustrated that lowbrow humor gets noticed, but dude... you are REALLY your own worst enemy. Whining over how AVGN is more popular than you is very unprofessional and is completely turning me off from your work. And yes, it is whining. I'm an artist too. I've made some stuff that people love, and I made some stuff that *I* loved and no one else gave a damn about. That's life.

 

AVGN found his routine, and it works. If you think you can do better, do it. Even if you can't, there's NOTHING to be gained from making threads like this one.

[S1500]

I have always enjoyed AVGN's reviews. If you take out all the swearing and such out of the reviews, you still have an in-depth review of a video game that goes into the innards of play. He has exposed a lot of unfair things that game designers put into a game(falling rocks, respawning enemies and generally impossible situations) that would make anyone steamin' mad. Imagine paying $50 for some of the games he reviewed, only to get frustrated with it after a day, and chuck it into the closet.

 

He does direct record videos of the gameplay. He slows things down & darkens out backgrounds to show you specific detail. You can hear what he says. There is good editing & flow. He puts skits in between things to keep it fun.

 

Now look at the rest of the video game reviews on YouTube. You have hyperactive 12 year olds with a speech impediment trying to show a game being played, with his epileptic 12 year old brother holding daddy's camcorder at the screen. Lots of "errs" and "uhhs" and no substance really. That's not to say all of them are, but many of them are.

 

Heck, my YouTube videos suck by comparison. I tried doing voiceover reviews and it came out horrible.

[shadow460]

Too bad he hasn't got into PSP yet. I'd love to see Crisis Core's hard mode have fun with him! Ya know, I'm a religious nut but even I made up a few new swear phrases while I was trying to finish that piece of (bleep)!

 

(disclaimer, although Crisis Core is hard, I still think it's pretty decent)

[Jess Ragan]

More important, what's Jess going to do?

 

We're still waiting for him to make a move.

 

He's got too much talent to waste it filling his webpage with pictures of himself and trying to guilt people into checking out his Youtube videos.

 

Uh, those pictures illustrate who wrote the reviews on the site. You're trying to make it sound like I'm some legendary narcissist, when the simple fact is that EVERY review has a picture of the author next to it. That includes not only myself, but John Roche, Tony Bueno, Shawn Struck, and all the other reviewers who've written content for the site at some point in time. I'm pretty sure I've explained this to you before; hopefully this time you'll be able to comprehend it.

 

Also, I just posted a video review, which you can either watch or ignore at your leisure. Would I like more people to watch my videos? Absolutely, but at this point it seems pretty hopeless. As Atarifever so astutely observed, crap sells. It's why Fox gets higher ratings than PBS and why the Ferrelly and Wayans brothers beat the Coen brothers in box office gross every time. It's an obnoxious, frustrating fact of life that I'll just have to learn to live with, as much as I hate it.

 

I may try exploiting a market which hasn't yet been tapped. There's closed captioning on Youtube now, and the deaf audience isn't well served by screaming game reviewers. Maybe I'll target those guys from this point on.

[pixelated]

Wow. Settle down everyone.

 

You take AVGN waaayy too seriously. I personally think he's hysterical, because he not only gets into your nostalgia feelings about games, but also rips apart games I've felt were horrendous and hated when I was younger. He did, however, rip on the old NES game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game from '89....I have fond memories of that game and I still play it today and I mostly enjoy it. Still, that episode of AVGN is a favorite of mine because I didn't take it so seriously, and it made me smile and think of the game and its many frustrations. In a way, he made me love that little tough-ass game just a little more.

 

James Rolfe plays AVGN. Rolfe isn't actually AVGN. He's been known to even rip on games he likes. It's all in fun.

And many of those games deserve it, if you ask me.

 

It's entertainment, not serious critique. It should be obvious by watching any episode of the show that it isn't serious at all. And I for one do indeed find it very entertaining.

[Artlover]

I want to see his other, earlier, non AVGN works. Like some of the many home movies he made. "Killer Puppies". Damn it, I want to see that so bad.

[A Sprite]

More important, what's Jess going to do?

 

We're still waiting for him to make a move.

 

He's got too much talent to waste it filling his webpage with pictures of himself and trying to guilt people into checking out his Youtube videos.

 

Uh, those pictures illustrate who wrote the reviews on the site. You're trying to make it sound like I'm some legendary narcissist, when the simple fact is that EVERY review has a picture of the author next to it. That includes not only myself, but John Roche, Tony Bueno, Shawn Struck, and all the other reviewers who've written content for the site at some point in time. I'm pretty sure I've explained this to you before; hopefully this time you'll be able to comprehend it.

 

Also, I just posted a video review, which you can either watch or ignore at your leisure. Would I like more people to watch my videos? Absolutely, but at this point it seems pretty hopeless. As Atarifever so astutely observed, crap sells. It's why Fox gets higher ratings than PBS and why the Ferrelly and Wayans brothers beat the Coen brothers in box office gross every time. It's an obnoxious, frustrating fact of life that I'll just have to learn to live with, as much as I hate it.

 

I may try exploiting a market which hasn't yet been tapped. There's closed captioning on Youtube now, and the deaf audience isn't well served by screaming game reviewers. Maybe I'll target those guys from this point on.

 

Before we go any further, I want you to read the updates list on the front page of your site.

 

Actually read it.

 

I wish I knew why you were hurting. I wish I could be there for you, talk videogames and life over a drink - you still are, and always will be one of my favorite posters here, no matter what you do wrong, just because you seem to actually give a damn about people's "what if" questions.

 

But you can't make your splash page dysfunctional like that. Don't even bring depth into this - others have hurt just as bad as you, and made art out of it.

 

You can't let your poison own you.

 

PS - I won't argue with the perception those faces gave. Yes, there were others who reviewed, but your picture was the one that showed up the most, by far - I warned you that it looked like a vanity project. You disagreed. I disagreed with your disagreement. That's in the past now. I checked out your new look - so far I like what I see. More to come when I get the time...

[Artlover]

I want to see his other, earlier, non AVGN works. Like some of the many home movies he made. "Killer Puppies". Damn it, I want to see that so bad.

Death Puppies rather.

 

Anywho, he has a crap load of his home movies and film works up now. Death Puppies included.

[guitarmas]

You may also like The Irate Gamer he just did a great 2 part review of ET games with an emphasis on the 2600 version.

http://www.theirategamer.com/

 

No, please no and please excuse my french, the Irate Gamer is complete douche bag and a rip-off from the AVGN. I enjoy watching the AVGN when I have nothing else to do, but watching his videos is not a priority on my list. I apologize if I have offended Irate Gamer fans. I am just not one of them.

[slosu]

No, please no and please excuse my french, the Irate Gamer is complete douche bag and a rip-off from the AVGN. I enjoy watching the AVGN when I have nothing else to do, but watching his videos is not a priority on my list. I apologize if I have offended Irate Gamer fans. I am just not one of them.

 

 

I think that they're both halarious.

[ProperRogue]

I love the AVGN , and I still think his work is amazing ... but if you guys want something a little different , look into his Rocky Jumped a Park Bench documentary.

 

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVwu-UbpPUw

 

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBgN3EdYFP4