Jim Sterling

James Nicholas Stanton (born 1 January 1984), better known by his pen name Jim Sterling, is an English freelance video game journalist, critic, pundit, and wrestling personality. Prior to becoming independent in September 2014, through crowdfunding, Sterling was the review editor for Destructoid, and an author for The Escapist. His active YouTube series are "The Jimquisition", "Jimpressions", "Industry Bullshit", "Direct to Video", "Oh My Gawd Hype!", and "Commentocracy"; his discontinued series include "The Videogame Show What I've Done", "Boglinwatch", "itch.io Tasty", and "Nitpick Theater".

Jim Sterling
Born
James Nicholas Stanton

(1984-01-01) 1 January 1984
Erith, London, England[1]
OccupationVideo game critic, web video producer, livestreamer, professional wrestler
EmployerFreelance
Known forThe Jimquisition
Websitethejimquisition.com

Career

Video game critic

The Jimquisition is a weekly YouTube video series in which Jim Sterling discusses current issues surrounding video games, primarily involving unethical business practices in the video game industry, of which he is an outspoken critic on. The series originally started on Destructoid's YouTube channel and was later moved to The Escapist's channel, before being released on Sterling's own channel. Direct to Video consists of his playthrough of recently released, and often poor-quality, early access games, while Oh My Gawd Hype! has him discussing anticipated upcoming games. His main gameplay series is Jimpressions (formerly known as "Squirty Play") where he discusses his impressions of a recently released video game while showing his own pre-recorded gameplay. Another (albeit rarer) series, Commentocracy, consists of Sterling playing a flamboyant 18th-century aristocrat character called "Duke Amiel du H'ardcore", (a parody of "hardcore" gamers), who in a tongue-in-cheek manner reads disgruntled, haughty, or otherwise trolling online comments on the topic of video games.[2]

Sterling has often spoken against sexism in gaming. He is open about the fact that his position on this subject has slowly evolved.[3]

As of January 2019, other series no longer produced include Best of Steam Greenlight Trailers, where he narrates over and comments on poorly made trailers (and their respective greenlight pages) for games looking to get onto Steam, often games that have been sold only using unaltered, pre-purchased assets (known as "asset flipping"); Nitpick Theater, where he speaks intensely about issues within gaming that he describes as "make really big deals out of things that don't matter"; itch.io tasty, a series where he plays video games available on itch.io under various topics; Greenlight Good Stuff, a series where he makes videos about good game trailers on Steam Greenlight.;[4] and Boglinwatch, where he unboxes Boglins and provides news about them. One of the notable episodes in the series is when he visits a Boglin art show in New York.[5]

In November 2014, Sterling announced that he was leaving The Escapist and intended to seek funding for his work independently through Patreon. In a 2020 video released on Sterling's YouTube channel, he stated that he departed The Escapist after they refused to publish his negative review of Assassin's Creed Unity, citing that parent company Defy Media was afraid of damaging any sponsorship opportunities with Ubisoft.[6] He also stated the desire to go back to writing articles and doing podcasts, which he was not able to do since he left Destructoid,[7] but has since done on his own website (thejimquisition.com), creating "The Podquisition", a podcast that he shares with Irish musician/one-man band, Gavin Dunne, and fellow British game journalist Laura Kate Dale. After 250 episodes of "The Podquisition" Gavin stepped down from the podcast although he can return and guest on any episode he wants. Conrad Zimmerman joined Jim and Laura from episode 251 of "The Podquisition". He started up a second podcast "The Spin-off Doctors" in which he and Conrad Zimmerman analyze movies which are based on video games, though they have mentioned they may move into comic book and other geek culture territory eventually. Also with Zimmerman, Sterling plays a character in "FistShark Marketing", an improvised comedy podcast set in a fictional marketing firm, which was shared with Destructoid writers Caitlin Cook for the first fifty episodes and Jonathan Holmes (under the guise of Paulson Sear) from episode 56 to 100.

In March 2016, a lawsuit was filed against Sterling by Digital Homicide Studios for $10 million for "assault, libel, and slander",[8][9] following Sterling's negative review of their first game The Slaughtering Grounds.[10] Sterling further accused Digital Homicide Studios of deleting negative feedback of the game on its Steam review page, and banning users who criticized it.[10] The lawsuit was raised to $15 million, before it was eventually dismissed with prejudice in late February 2017.[11]

Sterling has been credited with originating the name of the meme "Big Chungus". He started using the term "Chungus" on his channel in a variety of unrelated contexts with different meanings for humorous effect.[12]

Pro wrestling

On 17 July 2017, an episode of The Jimquisition was hit with a copyright strike for using two seconds of WWE footage. He responded by ordering a custom spandex outfit and taking on the persona of Sterdust, parodying the WWE wrestler Cody Rhodes's Stardust persona. His first appearance was on the 16 October 2017 episode of The Jimquisition.[13] In 2018, Sterling joined wrestling YouTube group Cultaholic. He has a show called WreSterling.[14]

Shortly after the first appearance of Sterdust on The Jimquisition, he joined the Mississippi independent wrestling promotion Pro Wrestling Ego, where he performs as a heel. Sterling is the leader of "The Constellation", a wrestling stable consisting of several members including Ursa Major, Joshua O'Hagen and Alex Graves.[15] On 19 January, 2019, Sterling won his first professional wrestling championship when he teamed with Graves and Major to win the Ego Tag Team Championship from "The Renegades Of Phunk".[16] The championship is held under the Freebird Rule, which allows any member of The Constellation to hold and defend the championship. On 18 May, The Constellation lost the titles back to The Renegades of Phunk.[17]

Reception

Sterling was featured in a list of "the 25 raddest game journalists to follow on Twitter," by Complex.[18] Sterling has developed into a controversial figure in the world of videogame journalism, with some of his views being challenged.[19] Criticism of his negative review of Final Fantasy XIII prompted him to release a statement in defence of it.[20] His site has undergone two DDoS attacks due to his posting reviews for long-awaited games which were met with opposition, first for No Man's Sky[21] and then The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.[22][23]

His views on art games have been criticized by TIGSource editor Derek Yu. Yu compared Sterling's view to that of art critic Louis Leroy in 1874 of a Claude Monet painting, which Leroy criticized for being unfinished, while the style of painting later became a major art style.[24]

Personal life

Sterling was born in London, England, where he lived on the poverty line for much of his childhood and was psychologically abused by his mother's lover, a Hells Angels outcast.[25] This abuse is what prompted him to take on the "Jim Sterling" name, saying that he would have had it legally changed, if not for his legal issues.[26] In a video from November 2015 on Fallout 4, when talking about the polyamorous relationship options he stated that he is "not a monogamous guy, nor [...] a straight one either."[27] He openly identifies as pansexual[28][29] and queer.[30][31] In June 2020, he became a naturalized United States citizen.[32]

Late June 2020, while discussing the Speaking Out movement and misconduct within the video game industry, Sterling touched upon his own disorders:[33]

The events of recent weeks have been particularly affecting for me, as I've begun to come to terms with my own history. While all of this talk of abuse is going on, I've had a psychiatric evaluation where I was confirmed to have bipolar type 2 and complex PTSD as a result of what can only be described as a couple decades of having my sense of identity systematically destroyed by caregivers, followed by people convincing me I was making stuff up and that I wasn't even mildly depressed.

— Jim Sterling

References
  1. Sterling, Jim (11 April 2012). "Beautifully bleak, a quasi-defense of "dark and gritty" games". gamefront.com. Archived from the original on 24 November 2016. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  2. "The Cuphead Elitists Episode (Commentocracy)". YouTube. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  3. "An interview with Jim Sterling about sexism in game culture". 21 June 2013. Archived from the original on 22 December 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  4. Jim Sterling (25 June 2016). "SHOTS FIRED - Where's Waldo With Guns". Retrieved 1 November 2018 – via YouTube.
  5. "Boglinwatch - YouTube". YouTube. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  6. Sterling, Jim. "Ubisoft Spent Years Protecting Mental And Physical Abusers (The Jimquisition)".
  7. Tassi, Paul (15 November 2014). "Examining Jim Sterling's Grand Experiment To Create Video Game Journalism Utopia". Forbes. Archived from the original on 29 December 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  8. Patrick Klepek. "Angered Game Developer Sues Critic Jim Sterling For $10 Million". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on 19 March 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  9. Chris Carter. "Indie developer Digital Homicide sues Jim Sterling". Destructoid. Archived from the original on 18 March 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  10. Sterling, Jim (November 10, 2014). "The Slaughtering Grounds: A Steam Meltdown Story". The Escapist. Defy Media. Archived from the original on June 30, 2016. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  11. James Stanton. "A Statement Regarding Romine v. Stanton's Dismissal With Prejudice". The Jimquisition. The Jimquisition. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  12. Ana Valens. "Big Chungus is the last great meme of 2018—and it could only appear during the holidays".
  13. James Stanton. "Stergazers Unite! Get Your Very Own Sterdust Shirt… CHOMP!". The Jimquisition. The Jimquisition. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  14. Sterling, Jim [@jimsterling] (23 August 2018). "Oh hey! So it's pretty easy to guess, but I'll be providing my diseased thoughts on wrestling for @Cultaholic with WreSterling! JOIN ME!" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 26 August 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2018 – via Twitter.
  15. "The 2018 Great Southern 8 Competitors..." Official Facebook PWE. Pro Wrestling EGO. 5 November 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2019. This year also gave EGO the opportunity to highlight the grudge match of the year as Sterdust and his Constellation went to war with [...]
  16. "The Constellation have seized the tag titles". Official Instagram Sterling. 20 January 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2019. The Constellation have seized the tag titles due to the champions no showing. We’re going to share the burden of championship.
  17. "EGO Path To Pride 6". Cagematch.net. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  18. Dyer, Mitch (21 October 2011). "The 25 Raddest Games Journalists To Follow on Twitter". Complex. Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  19. Gonzalez, Oscar (22 March 2010). "Jim Sterling: His Controversial Yet Accurate Views". Original Gamer. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  20. "Jim Sterling (Destructoid) defends himself over FFXIII review". Gamegrep. 18 March 2010. Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  21. James Stanton. "No Man's Site". The Jimquisition. The Jimquistion. Archived from the original on 10 June 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
  22. Driver, Ben. "Jim Sterling's site under attack after giving The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a 7/10". VG247. Archived from the original on 13 March 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
  23. Donnellan, Jimmy. "Jim Sterling Angers Zelda Fans With "Negative" 7/10 Breath of the Wild Review". Cultured Vultures. Archived from the original on 14 March 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
  24. Yu, Derek (19 February 2010). "To Jim Sterling, Who Hates Art Games". TIGSource. Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  25. "The Beginner's Guide Review – The Hardest Word | The Jimquisition". www.thejimquisition.com. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  26. "While Wikipedia had already listed "James Stanton" as your birthname, does that make "Jim Sterling" a pseudonym or something more official than that? And is the "Fucking" implied regardless of whoever says "Jim Sterling"? | ask.fm/Jimquisition". ask.fm. Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  27. Fallout 4's S.P.E.C.I.A.L Relationships (The Jimquisition). 9 November 2015. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2016 – via YouTube.
  28. "Sterling! on Twitter: "@stillgray So many of these apply to me!...."". Twitter. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  29. "Sterling! on Twitter: "I used to identify as bi before I realized the whole pan thing applied to me so much more...."". Twitter. 23 September 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  30. "Sterling! on Twitter: "If ONLY I felt queer was an insult to me, calling me queer would work. But I don't, so it isn't. Might as well say I have a nice haircut."". Twitter. 22 August 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  31. "Sterling! on Twitter: "Anyway, as an openly queer wearer of corseted hats, I do declare that homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia all smell of poo and wee. #IDAHOBIT"". Twitter. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  32. "Twitter". mobile.twitter.com.
  33. Jim Sterling (29 June 2020). A Truly Fucked Up Industry. Event occurs at 5:47. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
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