The Angry Video Game Nerd

[MysterionMuffles]

 

The Angry Video Game Nerd series is something that entertained me for a decade and felt like I could relate to. I myself have had my frustrations with video games because they are something that are supposed to be fun, but sometimes are too challenging, either intentionally from the programmer, or just my own lack of skill at the time. Such is the case with many of the games this guy has reviewed.

 

I've been an on and off viewer, but in the early years when the anger was raw and more genuine than it is now, it was one of the highest watched Youtube series when Youtube first came out in 2006. The Angry Video Game Nerd is a satirical game reviewing series, wherin a disgruntled adult nerd picks out games that haunted his childhood and replays them to give angry reviews about. The irony is that he drinks beers while reliving his childhood trauma by choice, while also portraying it in a way that's meant to be funny.

 

Something in recent years has stricken about me. When I still used to read Youtube comments, people would often complain that the anger in his more higher quality recorded reviews, the newer ones that is, don't have as much anger as they used to, therefore it's no longer funny. And how many times can he make piss and poop jokes to make fun of video games before it gets stale, right? He always has great analogies like, "making an accurate shot in this game is as hard as picking fly shit out of pepper with boxing gloves!"

 

James Rolfe has done a great thing with connecting with his viewers, showing that they are not alone with their own horrific video game experiences. Yes, a lot of games we played as kids were designed to be too hard for our brains to comprehend, and it's usually episodes like the Silver Surfer review where people relate to how frustrating it can be when games programmed for kids are done in a way to stress out their sense of challenge and reward. Especially since getting good at video games doesn't earn you anything tangible unless you enter into tournaments and win money for winning at fighters, but that's a topic for another day perhaps.

 

Anyways, when people complain that he's just not angry anymore, I sympathize with him. He has a wife and child now, after making 100+ movies in his life he has finally embarked on the journey of making a feature length film based on the AVGN character--and all the anger he has felt and expressed with the camera on must've done so much to relieve his childhood trauma with video games--that at some point he's gotta become too happy to go on with the character.

 

An episode that I felt like it had nothing to do with the character, and so much himself, was this episode on Ninja Gaiden.

 

The 2nd game in the series was my favourite game as a child because I just loved ninjas, but always got frustrated with how increasingly difficult it got further along. As an adult I mastered it because I have since developed better reaction time and memory of the level mapping, but as a kid, I think I only got so far as into the 3rd or 4th level out of the 5 or 6 the entire game comprises of. These games were short if you could beat them through and through, but usually there was enough difficulty to give you time and space to keep trying and approaching it at different angles.

 

ANYWAYS getting off topic and I'm sorry if this isn't an eloquently written post, but the point of this thread is this:

 

Obviously therapy and possibly looking at his FOO issues if he has any would be more ideal, but I feel like his journey into writing and producing this series for a decade has helped James reconnect with child self and thus made him a happier person. And that I feel strongly about the people who criticize the newer episodes for not being as rage filled as the earlier ones, that they demand his anger for their amusement like I used to. Underneath my amusement, I always knew at some level this was a bit like therapy for him.

 

Going back to the Ninja Gaiden episode, he plays the first original game and not the 2nd one I was accustomed to, but I feel like this episode had character development in it. He becomes determined to get better at the game and conquer it, and when there's a clip of him concentrating and becoming happy about his progress, I felt connected to his plight because one of the things that have given me sheer joy is mastering a video game knowing that I didn't let myself get frustrated by it. I just focussed, had fun like I was supposed to, and took the challenge in for what its worth.

 

[MMX2010]

I'm 38; my brother is four years younger than me, and we would often play Nintendo games "together".  (One plays, the other watches, and we switch playing whenever the other one gets frustrated.)

 

Whenever we would die on Ninja Gaiden, we would turn the death music into a series of "hah's".  But we made that last three notes really bass-y. 

 

Something like: hah-hah-hah-hah, hah-hah-hah-hah-HAH.  (other person, very bass-y) hah-hah-hah. 

 

Looking up the Ninja Gaiden death music made me very happy that this YouTube video exists.

 

[dsayers]

@Rainbow Jamz: I can't tell exactly what you're trying to say with this thread. Video games aren't traumatic, so getting angry with them or vocalizing that anger wouldn't be therapeutic. To better understand how much/little anger was present and/or how much was genuine or for the sake of entertainment, you'd need to look at a bigger picture.

 

I recommend

as a starting point since it's an autobiography of sorts. As you can see, the AVGN persona was more of a side-project. He fostered it because people responded. If you watch episode 1 of AVGN, there's barely any anger at all. Just an objective look, calmly delivered. The "anger" and vulgarity grew for the sake of the audience that was asking for more.

 

As for his state of mind, I'm not sure how much we can derive from his public image. In that link, we see his parents clearly let him express himself, explore his passion, even monopolize their garage, etc which suggests a healthy relationship. However, his passion always centered on mutilation and aggression, which would suggest severe trauma. Meaning that those signs of a healthy relationship could've been more akin to neglect. Having a wife and child by no means proves therapy, self-knowledge, overcoming trauma, etc.

 

I apologize if none of this has anything to do with what you were trying to say. I couldn't really tell what the overarching purpose was.

[MysterionMuffles]

No I'm not saying video games are traumatic, but apparently for Mr. Rolfe it was.

I know about the whole history of the AVGN conception but thanks for the video. That one was great. And you mirror my thoughts about whether or not his parental relationship is healthy because they seem okay with his self expression, but the violent B-movies he used to make suggest otherwise.

 

All I'm trying to say with this thread is that his involvement in this project has made him a happier person in comparison to who he was when he first started, but that has come to the cost of lessening the anger that fueled his earlier work that made it so appealing. Even when he does get "angry" you can tell it's pure acting, whereas in earlier videos, I could sense a lot of it was genuine.

And much like him I have decreased the frustration I feel with video games through self knowledge of where my early negative experiences of video games came from.