^^^^^ Yes, that's an actual picture of Jim Sterling, taken from his latest video, which devolves into an absolutely atrocious pseudo-cerebral political diatribe that blends overpriced GBA games, the destruction of fun in gaming, and an economic system which pits us all against each other.
^^^^^Yes, that's another picture of Jim Sterling, presumably roleplaying the purple version of Goldust, but looking like a fat rapist-murderer version of Bob Hope instead.
But he wasn't always like this. The Jim Sterling of old--at least the one I remember--had savage wit and could genuinely make people laugh. But now...I don't know what to make of him. Sure, he had some stupid dress-up gags, but the exception has become the rule.
Observable trends from "modern day" Jim Sterling:
- Disconcerting weight fluctuations, ranging from excessively obese, to obese, all the way back to excessively obese.
- Increasingly bizarre video openings that seem to hint at perverse childhood fetishes.
- A clear hatred for gaming, especially AAA gaming.
- A clear hatred of gamers, especially those that buy anything even remotely popular.
- A clear hatred of developers, especially those that have had project delays, resulting in the most cruel fate known to mankind--"crunch time."
- Embarrassingly amateur political rants that lead me to believe he hasn't properly fastened his Marxist training wheels.
- Self-hatred and guilt that manifests itself in weird monologues, one of which featured him apologizing for helping to embolden the patriarchy while he was working as a games journalist, culminating in his pansexual reveal in Spring/Summer 2020.
- Maybe I'm missing a key event, but when in the blue fuck did Jim Sterling ever "embolden" the patriarchy?
- Persecution complex/narcissism.
In all actuality, this is not a faux-concern thread meant to get cheap shots in at an easy target. Having worked with writers and various artists over the past few years, I've witnessed this degenerative behavior, and it generally starts like this:
- Artist consistently looks for/obsesses over their personal flaws, dwelling on them, and generally blowing them out of proportion.
- Artist's quality of work begins to suffer and clear signs of mania present themselves in their work.
- Artist latches onto a guru or movement and is easily manipulated.
- Artist is reborn as something or someone completely contrary to their previous identity, or a grossly exaggerated cartoon caricature, completely lacking the personal charm or positive traits that made you like them to begin with.
On Jim's Wikipedia page, there is this statement:
If any of that is true (and there is reason to doubt, unfortunately, given what I've outlined), it's undeniably tragic.
But even more tragic is the path he's headed on.
- He recently moved to the American Southeast (Mississippi).
- Apparently he moved out, but is now an American citizen.
- He obtained citizenship in 2020--great year to come to 'Murica, Jim.
- Took up wrestling in Ryse, a terrible federation with backyard matches.
- Spends a lot of time talking about his wrestling matches on his video game channel.
- His "shoots" are generally pretty bad, since he needs to abide by politically woke standards.
- Cannot seem to crack the 1,000,000 YouTube subscriber mark, no matter what he does.
- Think about how long his channel has been around for, and all the controversy and swirl around it, and yet....
- He is also losing subscribers hand over fist.
- His blend of humor seems to grow more and more fringe as the days go on, and a lot of it seems be inside jokes and stupid toy references that only his most staunch followers would get.
- I actually ended up unsubscribing from his channel last week, a move which is petty and symbolic, since it doesn't cost me a damn thing to be a subscriber and nobody cares. Strangely enough, it still felt good.
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TLDR:
Jim is headed for a crash. And it's a matter of "when" and not "if." I truly hope someone stages an intervention, because if that doesn't happen, we're all bound to hear him rant and rave about the supremely evil United States healthcare system, and I don't think I'll be able to ignore his YouTube death rattle.
Jim, if you're reading this...you're not the video game version of John Oliver or John Waters, and you're not a good wrestler or even a good "bad wrestler." Please get back to your core, Jim. You were a good writer and an adept video game critic. I implore you to get back to that persona, and please, please, please dial down the hamfisted political cringe you think is so cutting and profound. It's not, and you sound like a nut job, a moron, and a hopelessly naive little shit.
Please, Jim. Do it for yourself.
www.scope.org.uk
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
journals.sagepub.com
