I feel like I need to address a bit of an “elephant in the room” with regards to my Angry Video Game Nerd Episode Review project. For over 3 years now I’ve taken time to, in order, review every single episode of James Rolfe’s much loved web series, and as it stands I’ve completed over 100 episode reviews – far more than I ever thought I would do, or, hell, even planned on doing.
To say I’m fan of Rolfe’s work would be an understatement. I really do like his creative style, his passion for film, and certainly relate in his drive to “do his own thing” and to create the kind of content he wants to.
That being said, I’m not blind to the most obvious things that any Cinemassacre follower today will notice: things just aren’t the same. In the past couple of years Cinemassacre, as an online presence, has become a part of Screenwave Media and things have been changing. Thumbails for AVGN episodes now match the current arbitrary standards that YouTube has judged are “good” and their holy algorhythm will decide to show to people. Episode numbers have been removed from uploads, and end screens have been added, even though old episodes were, of course, not made with end screens in mind.
As for new episodes of the Nerd, James isn’t really as involved with them as he used to be – as far as evidence suggests episodes are written by pretty much anyone and everyone but James, and then he performs them. He’s taken what amounts to a back seat in his own series, which is now littered with the typical YouTube garbage of baked-in ads for services and products which, in the future, will seem incredibly dated. and most fans feel the quality has really dropped. It just isn’t the same.
James, in a way, doesn’t seem to have his heart in it anymore. It’s been said he’s wanted to abandon the Nerd for a long time now, and with that in mind everything going on makes sense. Let’s face it, he’s a man about to turn 40 who has a family. His real passion is film, not video games, and while he clearly at a point enjoyed doing the Nerd and even made a feature film starring the character I think it’s safe say its time has passed in his life, and now he simply does it as a job, rather than as a creative outlet.
I can’t speak for him, however — I can only go based on what I’ve read in various sources. I’m also not even touching on the drama surrounding Cinemassacre over the past few years, as while I want to keep this a realistic and serious post I don’t want to open that “can of worms” as they say. Suffice it to say there’s been quite a bit on the back end that the casual observer would known nothing about, and it’s honestly sad to think about the friendships that were lost in all those events.
Getting back on topic as to how this will affect my future AVGN episode reviews… well, I’ve still got quite a few great episodes to cover; easily 5 or 10 I really like, and many more that I’m fine with. With production rates as slow as they were, and one holiday episode set being multiple super-short episodes I can quickly knock all that out and get to what I consider “present day” AVGN, which is from Earthbound onward. The problem there is that this is where I mostly stopped watching. In fact, the past 4 or 5 episodes I’ve not bothered to watch yet. I just haven’t felt the urge, which is sad, as I used to watch new episodes as soon as possible: Season 4 was some of the best times I’ve had online watching content, and it’s kind of sad to see the changes that have happened to the show to make it what it is today. That’s not to say the new content is bad – I’ve enjoyed many recent episodes, but it quite simply isn’t’ the same, and James’ heart doesn’t seem to be in it anymore. Some would say it hasn’t been in AVGN for a long time, though, and I can’t blame him.
So, that’s really that. I’m a bit mixed on going forward, as at a point I’m just going to have to say “okay, I’m done” but for now I’m continuing, in so far as James continues to let the show exist and new episodes get made, I’ll eventually check them out and, when the time comes, write my reviews. Again, I’m a fan of his work, and current AVGN (an episode actually just released today, coincidentally) is still AVGN as much as the old episodes were, if by name alone. Why cover the early ones if I’m not going to eventually compare and contrast the later ones to the origins? What would the point of it all actually be, in the end, then?
Still, with all of the above said, I’m a fan of James’ work. In the end, I enjoy what he creates, appreciate the effort he’s put into so many things (Board James, the AVGN Movie, etc) and, in a sense, do the reviews as a way to thank him for the entertainment. Don’t ever think I’m not appreciative of it all — I certainly am.
More to come, as always.