MovieChat Forums > Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie (2014) Discussion > Rolfe and Matei are total scam artists

Rolfe and Matei are total scam artists

posted 9 years ago by ProdigyReinEngel
28 replies | jump to latest

The moment James received his $300,000 check from whichever crowd funding site he used, what did he do? Stopped making episodes, moved into a new house and bought a bunch of new toys that he foolishly bragged about on Twitter and the like. The most important one of the three was that he stopped making AVGN episodes, which is what made him semi-famous. Can you imagine South Park receding into four episodes a year at the height of their popularity? Instead of making new episodes, he began going the lazy route of just playing random games while sitting on a couch with a camera pointed at him. Little to no editing required, no special effects, no script... but plenty of YouTube checks.

Thankfully, not all of his fans were total idiots and a backlash resulted. How did they deal with it? By banning everyone who spoke negatively about them. Ever see that South Park episode about safe spaces? That applies to them more than anyone else I've ever seen on YouTube, and that's quite the accomplishment. Rolfe lost 3,500 subscribers in one day and figured something needed to be done, so he started making AVGN episodes again... four per year, that is.

Around this time he partnered with another person, who shall remain nameless because **** him, and sought funding to manufacture reproduction cartridges of Cheetahmen II, a game none of them actually owned the rights to, but if there's a buck to be made, who cares? After collecting some money, through crowd funding websites again, the project was cancelled with no refunds given.

It gets worse.

Currently, since his Cinemassacre account has almost two million subscribers and he was a pioneer of the YouTube partner program, he finds ways to make as much money as possible by uploading old videos. First, he started breaking up newer videos into multiple parts for no reason, then he went back and deleted old videos, broke them up into two parts and re-uploaded them. Then he uploaded older videos with "better quality," even though not a single person could tell a difference (because there was none). Currently, he's uploading entire "seasons" as one video. That means single episodes are on YouTube up to four times, and I'm sure if he or Matei can think of another reason to re-upload them (better sound, bonus commentary...) they'll be on there five or more times.

You know what I find to be hilarious? In one of his videos he joked about Lucas going back and re-editing Star Wars and re-releasing them, saying he'd never do that to his videos. Well, what he's doing is far worse because at least Lucas changed some things around before re-releasing them.

This movie is terrible, plain and simple. It's rushed, poorly edited tripe that was filmed in front of a single green screen. The effects were done on his Mac, it was shot with the same cameras he uses for the web series and no special care was given to the audio. My point is... where did the $300,000 go? In their pockets, that's where. A man named Stuart Ashen crowd funded his own movie, named Ashens and the Quest For the Game Child around the same time Rolfe made his. He asked for $50,000, every penny of which went into the actual film... which, by the way, was released for free on the Internet, and it's still there now. How can someone make a better looking, better acted, better written, better edited and better filmed movie for 1/6th of the price? Eh, I've already answered that.

One of the more sickening things is that every game reviewer that has reviewed this film gives it glowing praise, all because they want a slice of James' pie. Same goes for the AVGN video game, which is a whole other story. Basically, everyone acted like it was just a fan making an indie game, when in reality it was commissioned by Rolfe himself, who receives most, if not all, of the profits.

I think I've given enough examples of why these two horrible human beings are scam artists, who continuously exploit their fans, almost on a daily basis. Speaking of which, congratulations to the AVGN fans, you bought both of them new houses and merchandise, paid for everything Rolfe's kid needs, made sure all they have to do for the rest of their lives is play video games and how do they thank you? They ban you if you disagree, they ban you if you dislike and they lie about what they'll spend your donations on.

"Sorry there haven't been any new episodes, I'm feeling burnt out."

Thankfully he'll never get burnt out on uploading old videos!

[–] bendern 9 years ago

haha how much did you lose?

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] steve_tobias 9 years ago

I totally agree with what Jar Jar said.

This OP is completely delusional. Making a feature film for $300,000 is almost a miracle, and it is probably the most stressful thing any of them have done in their lives.

AVGN currently has 139 episodes. Each time a new episode comes out, I can visibly see the struggle: they're out of bad games to review, it's hard to come up with fresh ideas, and it seems like they're doing it for the fans. They have a lot of integrity to keep putting out new episodes. It's not how creativity works, you don't put yourself into a box with no tools to work with. They're trying to do it for the fans, but apparently this isn't good enough?

All of their new projects or side projects are great. I got into their channel because of AVGN, but now I like James & Mike Mondays better. Just because the OP doesn't like it doesn't mean that it's bad, or a scam.

I will go a step further and say that they're some of the most sincere Youtubers. They deliver content 2-3 times per week, no clickbait videos, no internet drama in order to get views, no begging for subscribers, no prominent product placement as advertisements, etc. They deliver the content that we expect on time, and try new things as well, like the Jekyll and Hyde trailer. It's all creative, well done, and I enjoy seeing them do what they love to do.

It is common sense that videos uploaded in 2006 need to be uploaded, otherwise most of them will play at 240i or 360i. Even if you shot it at 480i it is worth reuploading for sure. I did this for my own channel. It is a huge difference. You are totally off base with this criticism as well.

The OP's thinking is reflective of some ultra-consumerist, hipster, irrational, auteur theory culture, where people expect an artist to deliver perfect content from beginning to end. That's not how it works, James Rolfe isn't your servant or jester. Their whole team is great and a breath of fresh air, give them some *beep* space, and if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say it. Can you name one Martin Scorsese film before Taxi Driver or Mean Streets? No, because every director's film debut isn't at their top level. Learn more about cinema before you attack good talent.

[–] Ehrgeiz 8 years ago

they're out of bad games to review, it's hard to come up with fresh ideas, and it seems like they're doing it for the fans.

Oh, there would bestill a huge realm of bad games to discover. I feel more its just the classical problem for creative people: Rolfe has been doing it for years and at one point you felt he tried to go for new things, with that movie as the epitome. I can understand that he does'nt want to stay a one trick pony for personal reasons - but, as a longtime AVGN viewer I honestly don't care if he is bored and just want new bad game reviews. I did not even watch his movie.
Thats a problem always hard to solve. Personally I wish more artists were like the Ramones. They throw out like 30 albums which sounded basically the same and did not really care about progression. Sometimes people were crazy about it, sometimes (like early 90ies) they were basically "dead" and sometimes people just liked them. But you could rely on what you got.

[–] arkay 9 years ago

Riiiight, and it only took him 10 years to get there.

[–] kodakManiac 9 years ago

The only conclusion I can draw from this, is that you have a low IQ. Your rant is completely insane and you clearly are very emotional attached to the AVGN for some reason.
You almost sound like a drug addict, and the AVGN is your drug. Your heroin. And when you don’t get your fix, you start getting withdrawals. Please move away from your computer and experience real life.

I can only imagine your wasted days as you go on to rant about how other people fulfill their dreams, and make a profit. Have you any idea how the world works? Yes, people make money.

You go as far as to call them “horrible human beings” and “scam artists”.
You seem to be very hung up about how they make their money, and how they use their money. GET YOUR OWN LIFE! My god, “horrible human beings”, you are either very jealous or paranoid. Likely both.

“Jealousy is an emotion, and the word typically refers to the thoughts and feelings of insecurity, fear, concern, and anxiety over an anticipated loss or status of something of great personal value, particularly in reference to a human connection”

[–] ctilley_007 9 years ago

he sees someone taking advantage of people and giving the bare minimum in return. james rolff thinks he has done enough to be taken seriously. he literally thinks of himself as a superstar who is in the film industry and is too big for avgn. but thats the only thing fans want and the only thing he's good at. he's internet famous and thinks he's movie star famous. its cringy. especially everytime he "retires" the character, he sees his viewership drop immediately, most people who made him this low-level celebrity don't care at all about james and mike monday or board james. make the good videos again or *beep* off with the e-begging

[–] kodakManiac 9 years ago

Are you kidding me, another wining fanboy???

“james rolff thinks he has done enough to be taken seriously”

“to be taken seriously” Are you a kid? What are you talking about?

He managed to create a hugely popular YouTube channel, through hard work and talent, and are able to make a living out of it, and continues to produce videos and entertain people.

But in your mindset, he should stop being a human and act like a machine, and produce AVGN episodes forever and keep living in the past. I hope for your sake that you’re under 15 years of age, and haven’t experienced life yet, I really do. That would make sense.

“thinks he's movie star famous”

Yeah… because a lot of A-list movie stars spend time filming themselves playing golf on NES while discussing 1980s pop-culture.

“make the good videos again”

There it is… like every other fanboy, you just want to be five to ten years younger. You want it to be 2006… boy you are holding on to your past.

*beep* off with the e-begging

Why aren’t you guys concerned about people on wall street making millions if not billions of dollars, every day, by doing NOTHING! That’s something to to be worked up about? Right? …but that’s boring… that’s like “grown up” stuff…

It’s a clichéd line, but in this case, it fits perfectly.
GET A LIFE!

[–] maxp84z 9 years ago

Calling them scam artists is a bit stretching it and unfair imo. James with Mike run a business. A business that needs money. The fans wanted to see an AVGN movie. James said Ok but asked for it to be crowd funded. It was funded by his fans. He gave them a movie.

Now was it completely uninspired and lazy writing and production on his part? You bet. I wanted to enjoy the movie but it was plain terrible. His Co writer Finn must have sucked all the funny out of the air. I usually find James and his AVGN episodes funny. But it's easier to make a 7 to 12 minute short clip funny than a full length feature film.

The movie just lacked everything that made AVGN great. His sidekick in the movie made no sense. I heard it was on request of his wife to cast a black guy to diversify his audience and to get away from the typical white males who follow James. Wow. What a slap in the face to the main demographic! Mike should have been James sidekick or Kyle Justin. That would have worked and felt more like true AVGN.

I don't know how a true fan can like this movie! I watched about 30 minutes of it and I just couldn't watch it anymore. I was bored. Uninterested. Kind of like how James was in the making of this movie.

I love James. I love his other stuff like Board James and don't forget his Halloween special monster madness!!! Those are epic! Love that stuff. I also like James and Mike Mondays. I think James has evolved from AVGN. If his heart isn't in it anymore I'm not gonna force him to keep doing it!! His other stuff is actually quite good. If he officially retires AVGN I won't cry about it. It would give him time to do other projects he's actually passionate about.

Remember the AVGN spawned from his real frustration about those old NES games that frustrated him as a child. He didn't know that this character would take off like it did. But it worked because there was something very real and passionate about it.

This is also going to be the last Monster Madness this year because he wants to use his time to do other projects. I say let's give him another chance.

[–] brighterthanmusic 9 years ago

my 2 cents on the matter: scam artists? no way. mike and james provide a myriad of freecontent on youtube. they work so hard on a lot of projects yearly like monster madness, board james(his best work imo), nerd vids, james & mike Mondays etc.. if you want to buy them on bluray to own you can if you so please. no problem there, they are collectors and they appreciate physical releases, makes sense to me.
the movie sucks arse yes of course, it is inexplicably worse than every ep of avgn and board james. but i do know they worked hard on it despite that, or at least the effects. 300,000 is smaller than a shoestring budget. normal movies just can't be made for anything near that low. i can't say if he used any of that budget for personal gain but thus is the folly of crowd funding. and getting upset over them uploading entire seasons of avgn in single videos is just...well..why exactly does this make you angry again?

[–] sickstorm16 8 years ago

same i started watchinh him n 2006 at 14 15 and he sold out big time tbh he is a horrible actor director lol he wants to be in film so bad but well.. he sucks.. he doesnt even like the nerd char that much but he knoww thats the only thing that will make people watch him he tries to do other things on his channel with his lame ass friends and they come off as such noobs they dont even know how to play basic games it really showed that james isnt a real gamer when hes not doing the nerd stuff he has 0 personality he is very boring tbh makes me laugh that he got famous obviously is the luckiest guy in the world he had 1 good nitch and ran with it and tbh his vids havnt been the same since 2007 they go toomf ar with the *beep* jokes to point its become cringy

[–] manchof1 8 years ago

I lost a ton of respect for my friend for buying this thing on Blu-ray.