How has James Rolf (aka AVGN) influenced you as a gamer?

[Luke]

No one is telling me anything I don't already know. I guess what I didn't say loud enough in my post is that he's lost spunk.

Obviously with all the ads on his site he's still in the loot, but his heyday is over. The only people who will see his, I have to guess only available online, movie are die hard fans.

I'm sure he'll do his own tour to promote it, but so far it looks like a financial disaster waiting to happen. That said, I know if he comes close to breaking even he'll be thrilled as he made a feature length film, but what will he do after that? Keep making money on internet ads and youtube paychecks?

Trust me, I know how long it takes and how many people are involved with making a motion picture...a motion picture that has a theatrical release. It's going to be something difficult to see this movie in an independent theater unless the owner knows or is a huge fan of James.

He was a genius by accident. Now he's making awful videos that are so run of the mill that aren't worth watching, or attention. You know what they say about looking a gift horse in the mouth.

[vatermuzik]

I think a lot of people just get older and look at things differently. I, like a lot of gamers I'm sure, see similarities between myself and James. He's the same age as me I believe, and when I was 25 I was just much more of a goofball. Then things like paying bills, building a career, etc. start taking up space in your brain and it's harder to act like a crazed lunatic over a video game just so some people can get a laugh.

Might just be my imagination but it seems like right around the time when the picture quality became great on the videos was right around the time he started doing AVGN because it paid the bills and not because he was passionate about it, not that you can blame a person for something like that.

My only fear is that some of these guys are great at what they do and you want to see them do more, and then it just turns out they should've stuck to their niche. MikeJ's movie looks atrocious, Nostalgia Critic thought he could write sketch comedy with multiple actors and he was dead wrong, and personally I don't have high hopes for the Nerd movie. Unless the writing has a really specific tone to it that I'm just not getting from the trailer I just wasn't feeling it. I'll still buy a copy though. He's given me more than enough laughs to warrant a purchase after all the work he's done on it.

I agree with this pretty much word for word. Well said.

AVGN was what started my trip down gaming memory lane. Yeah, the newer episodes don't resonate with me quite as much as the older ones, but I feel like he's doing a fine job considering how much is on his plate. I'll buy a copy of the movie for sure.

[SNESdrunk]

Tried to watch PaperBoy 64 and turned if off.

Dudes playing a game, mispronouncing words, and just another "here's stuff" video. No reason to invest time watching that nonsense.

And I do like the AVGN character, but Christ...not shit on his site worth watching but mostly videos from 2009. And the straight to Internet Movie? Wayyy too much time invested in that when he could have been pumping out his regs.

But marriage, a kid (I think), has slowed him down to a snail's pace. If his recent videos of the past few years say anything, it's that the guy is fine with phoning it in and has given up trying to provide unique and quality content.

He's a film enthusiast, he's certainly going to prioritize making a feature film over his normal gig, which he is likely sick of by now.

I seriously hope the Nerd dies at the end of the movie. I like James when he's being himself a LOT more than the Nerd character, which was funny for a while but has been beaten to the ground repeatedly.

[Retrogamer0001]

Tried to watch PaperBoy 64 and turned if off.

Dudes playing a game, mispronouncing words, and just another "here's stuff" video. No reason to invest time watching that nonsense.

And I do like the AVGN character, but Christ...not shit on his site worth watching but mostly videos from 2009. And the straight to Internet Movie? Wayyy too much time invested in that when he could have been pumping out his regs.

But marriage, a kid (I think), has slowed him down to a snail's pace. If his recent videos of the past few years say anything, it's that the guy is fine with phoning it in and has given up trying to provide unique and quality content.

He's a film enthusiast, he's certainly going to prioritize making a feature film over his normal gig, which he is likely sick of by now.

I seriously hope the Nerd dies at the end of the movie. I like James when he's being himself a LOT more than the Nerd character, which was funny for a while but has been beaten to the ground repeatedly.

Funny, that's the way I feel about every copy-cat Youtube reviewer who constantly swears and rants about video games exactly the way James does.

[kidfresh]

I'm sure he'll do his own tour to promote it, but so far it looks like a financial disaster waiting to happen. That said, I know if he comes close to breaking even he'll be thrilled as he made a feature length film, but what will he do after that? Keep making money on internet ads and youtube paychecks?

Trust me, I know how long it takes and how many people are involved with making a motion picture...a motion picture that has a theatrical release. It's going to be something difficult to see this movie in an independent theater unless the owner knows or is a huge fan of James.

I think he's expecting a financial loss on this. Almost every independent film maker does. For a lot of people in the independent film scene, it's more about reaching *your* own goals rather than appealing to a large audience. I'll probably end up watching it, because my little brother is an enormous fan and will come banging down my door to watch it with me.

I actually think that has to be his largest audience, 12-14 year olds. His humor is immature and straight forward enough to appeal to them (not trying to knock anyone who is a fan).

[BoneSnapDeez]

NY Daily News article:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen ... -1.1749283

[Hawk]

I enjoyed his videos for a short time but his constant profanity for absolutely no reason got old. Also his picking on problems most of those early games had is pointless. Oh the Power Glove didnt work??? Huge news right? I am glad he got others started but I dont even watch any of his stuff any longer.

CGR is my channel of choice! Long live windsquid! Also I will always love Kieth Apicary lol.

[Mad_Hatter]

I never liked him tbh. A bunch of cursing for comedy was never my taste.

And he will always be the Angry Nintendo Nerd to me, after watching his SNES vs. Genesis review.

I like Classic Game Room the best, but recently I feel CGR is more about quantity instead of quality. Imo it's hard to find a good CGR review because there is so much 4 minute game reviews where he plays one half of the first level and that's what his review is based on.

[synbiosfan]

I have never watched his videos.

I've heard a number of people blame him and others like him for some of the ridiculous prices we are paying for many games now. So other than higher prices (debatable) he has has no influence on me as a gamer.

[Konacha]

I'll be honest as James Rolfe pretty much changed my life around. You see, I never heard of the AVGN as I've only have been watching his stuff for a few years now. However, it is what lead me to lead to become a film maker. I saw Youtube stuff before but nothing like his quality of work that he put into each of his episodes. Plus, you can tell from his older videos that he is really putting his heart into the work. While they felt like video game reviews, you also had a sense of it being it's own episode and it's own stand alone thing. Plus being a film maker and going to film school, you can see that he has the same skills most people don't even notice and take for granted when watching a film (universal concepts). Not like reviewing anything or doing a lets play (which I HATE with a passion) but making something and just doing something different AT THE TIME. Plus he is the first person, I've seen, to really show the true reason why the Zelda CDi Games suck. Of course at the time my view was limited on that. Which I think is one of his best episodes. Of course, now a days we get everyone trying to copy him to have themselves become the next AVGN which won't work because you can't be the next one, you have to be your own thing and shake it up.

While I do admit his newer videos seemed to have lost that "spark" and is mainly seem to be doing it because people still visit him. I think he won't get rid of the nerd character because look what happen to That Guy With the Glasses when Nostalgia Critic retired. The site was hit hard and Demo Reel was killed off because people wanted Nostalgia Critic (though granted, Demo Reel did suck on it's on to begin with).

While I don't think AVGN will leave, his other stuff that he does are really good and whenever he does something new such as Board James and Monster Madness I'm also looking out to see it.