Jar Time w/ Jeff: 20 Questions, One Jar - 11/30/2011

my thumbs are up.

Man Jeff just seemed really fucking angry in this Jar video.

@StarvingGamer said:

Personally I find it grosser when people vilify a developer for breaking promises that they never made in the first place. But hey, if you think it's cool to bitch about something that only exists in your imagination, more power to you.

Are referring to MvC3? Capcom did say during the preview process that game would be supported and instead released another version 9 months later. I'm not bashing the new content in Ultimate, the value proposition etc. I just think, like Jeff and many others, it's pretty silly having people buy another box in less than a year when it could have easily been downloadable and retail, like what they did with SSF4 Arcade.

It's true that Jeff has some tough love in this video but that review scores guy totally deserved it. My question to people who bitch about review scores is always "why do you fucking care?" If you like the game and you personally enjoy, then what the fuck does its Metacritic score matter?

@Milkman: If you haven't seen it I find this Mega64 video perfectly sums up the ridiculousness of people who hold the meta score on some sort of pedestal.

I keep my love for jeff in a jar and only let it out when i watch jar time

Answering Jeff's objective concerns regarding the Old Republic:

-Naked companions are a glitch. Many people talked about it in general chat, reddit, and the beta forums. Sure there are sick people who would run around with armorless companions but that would really gimp yourself. 99% likely that what Jeff saw was a bug.

-It's impossible to hit a point where you are screwed because you did some light side stuff and some dark side stuff. Flashpoints, AKA dungeons, have light side and dark side choices and they can be run multiple times.

@Rmack said:

I had to turn this one off.

I realize sometimes these aren't always the best questions, but to insult the people asking them is...kinda cruel, especially when they're a big enough fan of your site to pay money to see you do so.

Exactly. He should be filtering the questions better if he doesn't like them. He has his right to get annoyed with questions but I don't think he has the right to be an ass to people who are paying him money to answer their questions...hes lucky he has a job where people will pay him to talk about video games. It's not like anything was said to offend him.

Jeff, I think this series is easily among the best content you guys have ever put out on the site. I really appreciate you continuing to do these. I don't know if I'll ever think of an original and worthwhile question to send in, but I sure as hell enjoy hearing your responses to other people's queries. Keep up the great work.

It saddens me to see that Japanese games aren't as successful now. If they no longer are a player on the market I feel that games will start to look too samey.

I like my Jeff the same way I like my beer. UNFILTERED.

Ouch, Jeff was a tad harsh on some of these questions. Makes me a little afraid to write in!

@CaLe said:

@Brodehouse said:

It was a problem for a while because next-gen was still being used for this one.

That stopped like... 3 years ago? It's just been "current gen" for a while now.

I dunno, I was hearing it as recently as this year. Regardless, that wasn't really my question, he just decided it superseded it. But hey, I guess I learned my lesson, I won't say that again. Probably won't send another question out of fear of saying something wrong.

@Milkman said:

It's true that Jeff has some tough love in this video but that review scores guy totally deserved it. My question to people who bitch about review scores is always "why do you fucking care?" If you like the game and you personally enjoy, then what the fuck does its Metacritic score matter?

If it doesn't matter, why have review scores at all? They serve no purpose but to piss people off and get page clicks, basically.

@gladspooky: they serve the purpose n the sameway a headline or a sentence from a review on Rotten Tomatoes works. If you only look at the score and don't read the review you are a dumbass why wouldn't you read the review

*you not directed at you

One of the greatest features on this site. Glad that I am now a subscriber.

I definitely enjoy the topics that Jeff touches on, especially the last question. Makes me happy to say my fiance does not care if I'm playing the ol' ps3. She actually was super curious about Skyrim when she watched me play it.

@Rmack said:

I had to turn this one off.

I realize sometimes these aren't always the best questions, but to insult the people asking them is...kinda cruel, especially when they're a big enough fan of your site to pay money to see you do so.

I totally agree. I feel like the tone and mood of this series is very rude - but Jeff's knowledge of video games in general keeps me watching.

I love the way Jeff addressed the BF3 review score question. I don't think I've ever agreed more with him on anything before. Good on you for being honest and blunt Jeffrey.

@CJduke said:

@Rmack said:

I had to turn this one off.

I realize sometimes these aren't always the best questions, but to insult the people asking them is...kinda cruel, especially when they're a big enough fan of your site to pay money to see you do so.

Exactly. He should be filtering the questions better if he doesn't like them. He has his right to get annoyed with questions but I don't think he has the right to be an ass to people who are paying him money to answer their questions...hes lucky he has a job where people will pay him to talk about video games. It's not like anything was said to offend him.

I don't like the way he insults his fan base in the most trivial things... For example, like their names or their ignorance of the video game industry. But how can he expect normal people to know just as much as he does? We're the ones confused and asking the questions here. Granted some questions may seem mundane and outright stupid, but why pick them?

It doesn't make much sense to go out of your way to pick out the top 20 questions that piss you off.

Although many of Jeff's comments weren't directed at me in anyway, I just feel really insulted - as if he just has this feeling of indifference and disrespect for his fan base.

I really enjoy Jeff and his thoughts everywhere else but on occasion watching Jar time bums me out.

Jar time is the best feature/segment on this website.

PLEASE release these as .mp3's so I can listen at work.

@gladspooky said:

@Milkman said:

It's true that Jeff has some tough love in this video but that review scores guy totally deserved it. My question to people who bitch about review scores is always "why do you fucking care?" If you like the game and you personally enjoy, then what the fuck does its Metacritic score matter?

If it doesn't matter, why have review scores at all? They serve no purpose but to piss people off and get page clicks, basically.

It probably dose not seem like it to us but there is a giant market for video game reviews for people who are actually looking to see if a game is worth getting or not because they don't follow game news every hour (I think IGN is like the 140th most visited site in the US). Which is why i think the GB rating system is so smart because lots of people are just looking for a yes or no, although it would probably be best served on a more mainstream video game site.

When Jeff answered that battlefield question i had a big stupid grin on my face because that's exactly what i was thinking the entire question. Which is why i love this series because its fascinating too see someone who has been there from the start and his opinions on the industry and is not afraid to call out people who are overly nitpicky about an entertainment form.

Although some questions he seems overly harsh to the people who probably are not asking because they don't know the answer but just want to hear his opinion on the things, yeah he was a little rude to the 7th gen guy.

@MightyDuck: I agree about the last question. It may be harder to find someone who is accepting of all your interests but it's better than having a "man cave" where your banished to do the things you like. In all the relationships I've been in, mind you I'm only 19, I've been 100% accepting of the person's hobbies, interests etc but when they realize I like video games, anime etc I can tell they aren't too thrilled about it which eventually leads too us breaking up.

I'm not looking for partners or friends that are carbon copies of myself but for God's sake we are in the year 2011!! People are interested in different things and shouldn't be condemned if they don't match up with your interests.

VENGEFUL.

Ah, I was worried we wouldn't get any philosophical Jeff this time.  But the man cave discussion was very illuminating.

This was the best one yet. I give it a 88/100 for eye animations.

Still apriciate these videos as much as I ever did. It's some of the most informative and interesting monologue about gaming you can listen to.

I do however feel like this thing might want to fully revert to the "points!" videos where just pure "question answering" is mixed up some by maybe talking some about what's spinning in the gaming consoles at the moment outside of a podcast situation or just way more "stupider" things like downloading an XBLA game (Street Fighter II, if anyone remembers) and playing it for a while or just, you know, anything to break up the lenghty video of a man talking.

I know however, that these requests kind of bypass the whole point of these videos and I am really perfecly fine with them being the way they are, it's just something that popped up in my mind as I regard Jeff to be one of very few people I can watch in his bedroom doing stuff without feeling completely creeped out by the notion.

Another great one. Awesome stuff Jeff.

Odd, I used to have a man room in an older house we rented. It was awesome my friends would come over and we would drink beer and watch hockey. We never felt that we were banished there, we preferred it. It was just a place we could hang out in and be loud. But what do I know, I'm not flipping out on people because they don't know that the term 7th gen is totally uncool... give me a break.

Man, GB fans have some low self-confidence or something. I'm always astounded at how hurt and insulted people seem to get when they think (because they're crazy) that the guys might be in some sort of argument, or that they're being "harsh" on the fans.

There are some dumb people on these forums. We all know that. We've seen threads made by people with 4411, Father, or Kart in their name, and how utterly moronic they are. I would rather Jeff be real at all times, especially in these videos.

@Brodehouse: Man, you got a real bad rap for that question. I mean, really, expecting Jeff to be able to count and understand what generation of consoles we're in when the question clearly implies it's the current generation? Ridiculous!

I mean, we all love Jeff but that was silly. Don't take it personally.

A weird precedent has been set that there has to be one piece of content people argue about on the site everyday. Just enjoy the vids people. Jeff is a human man. Sometimes you might not like what it says, and that is ok both for you and him. Leave the guy alone.

I kind of feel bad for the guy who wrote in the Battlefield question. Maybe it was a dumb question but he didn't have to lash out at him I like that.

@Brendan said:

Man, GB fans have some low self-confidence or something. I'm always astounded at how hurt and insulted people seem to get when they think (because they're crazy) that the guys might be in some sort of argument, or that they're being "harsh" on the fans.

There are some dumb people on these forums. We all know that. We've seen threads made by people with 4411, Father, or Kart in their name, and how utterly moronic they are. I would rather Jeff be real at all times, especially in these videos.

There's a difference from being "real" and having a blatant disrespect for your hardcore fan base. Anyone asking a question for Jeff in these videos is probably a big fan and respects Jeff. It'd be nice to see the same back.

I don't think the content and value of this video series would suffer at all if Jeff just eased up on the eye rolling and scoffing. I mean we're all here to listen to Jeff's input. He knows his stuff. But a higher sensitivity to your fan base can be a good thing for everybody.

Just a point to add to what Jeff said about SWTOR:

With regards to dialogue in group situations (from the tiny amount of beta experience I have), they haven't written those conversations in a way that the player's responses acknowledge the other players in the group. Whoever wins the dice rolls gets to be the one who talks and the responses are written as if the player responding is the only person there. And there is no follow-up response or anything like that from the other players in the group. So these group situations can suck if you don't win any rolls and therefore have to watch this other person give their responses, and you essentially don't even exist in that scenario. You still get to choose what your response would've been and you will get light/dark side points based on that, but what everyone actually sees in the cutscene is the choice of the player who won the dice roll.

The idea being, I presume, that you will repeat these group instance enough times that eventually you will win the dice roll and get to see your responce in these cutscenes, or something like that.

This one issue is what is keeping me from caring much about the story promises of this game. Maybe I'm wrong about this and maybe I just saw a bad example; but if that really is the way the group stuff is made, then I have no interest in this game.

@msavo: Well said!

I was in the same spot as you when I was 19. I'm 24 now. It'll turn out sooner or later, I can attest to that!

It doesn't even have to be someone who enjoys the same hobbies as you, but rather someone who respects the fact that you have your own individual tastes and encourages you to continue them.

@Athadam said:

@Brendan said:

Man, GB fans have some low self-confidence or something. I'm always astounded at how hurt and insulted people seem to get when they think (because they're crazy) that the guys might be in some sort of argument, or that they're being "harsh" on the fans.

There are some dumb people on these forums. We all know that. We've seen threads made by people with 4411, Father, or Kart in their name, and how utterly moronic they are. I would rather Jeff be real at all times, especially in these videos.

There's a difference from being "real" and having a blatant disrespect for your hardcore fan base. Anyone asking a question for Jeff in these videos is probably a big fan and respects Jeff. It'd be nice to see the same back.

I don't think the content and value of this video series would suffer at all if Jeff just eased up on the eye rolling and scoffing. I mean we're all here to listen to Jeff's input. He knows his stuff. But a higher sensitivity to your fan base can be a good thing for everybody.

It can of course be a good thing. Again, though, I would rather that Jeff be real in these videos. I don't want him to be the teacher in class who tries to pretend that the moronic question isn't moronic. Some of the questions he got were eye rollying-ly dumb, and in an honest forum I don't want him to censor himself like that. I would rather people not send in terrible questions, but that's just me.

@Brendan said:

@Athadam said:

@Brendan said:

Man, GB fans have some low self-confidence or something. I'm always astounded at how hurt and insulted people seem to get when they think (because they're crazy) that the guys might be in some sort of argument, or that they're being "harsh" on the fans.

There are some dumb people on these forums. We all know that. We've seen threads made by people with 4411, Father, or Kart in their name, and how utterly moronic they are. I would rather Jeff be real at all times, especially in these videos.

There's a difference from being "real" and having a blatant disrespect for your hardcore fan base. Anyone asking a question for Jeff in these videos is probably a big fan and respects Jeff. It'd be nice to see the same back.

I don't think the content and value of this video series would suffer at all if Jeff just eased up on the eye rolling and scoffing. I mean we're all here to listen to Jeff's input. He knows his stuff. But a higher sensitivity to your fan base can be a good thing for everybody.

It can of course be a good thing. Again, though, I would rather that Jeff be real in these videos. I don't want him to be the teacher in class who tries to pretend that the moronic question isn't moronic. Some of the questions he got were eye rollying-ly dumb, and in an honest forum I don't want him to censor himself like that. I would rather people not send in terrible questions, but that's just me.

I totally agree with you - I'd rather for anyone on GB to be real. But in this case he doesn't have to pick the bad questions.

I'd rather him choose better questions :X

"Yeah, because your parents will be dead someday."

Jeff Gerstmann, showing the world the finer points of life that we all as a society can learn from.

These comments show why people cant be open with each other. Cus then everyone gets offended.

I appreciate Jeff being open and honest in these and hope he continues to be so forth coming. I don't feel inclined to ask anything (as other people have better questions then I would and really I just like listening to this stuff in the back ground when I do other stuff anyway- kinda like talk radio) but if I did I would want his honest candid opinion; even if its to say i'm being stupid for thinking in a certain way. I would be no different to anyone I speak to and appreciate he does the same.

It's a shame so many consider this to be an insult.

Keep it real Jeff, I enjoy these a lot.

@Athadam said:

@Brendan said:

@Athadam said:

@Brendan said:

Man, GB fans have some low self-confidence or something. I'm always astounded at how hurt and insulted people seem to get when they think (because they're crazy) that the guys might be in some sort of argument, or that they're being "harsh" on the fans.

There are some dumb people on these forums. We all know that. We've seen threads made by people with 4411, Father, or Kart in their name, and how utterly moronic they are. I would rather Jeff be real at all times, especially in these videos.

There's a difference from being "real" and having a blatant disrespect for your hardcore fan base. Anyone asking a question for Jeff in these videos is probably a big fan and respects Jeff. It'd be nice to see the same back.

I don't think the content and value of this video series would suffer at all if Jeff just eased up on the eye rolling and scoffing. I mean we're all here to listen to Jeff's input. He knows his stuff. But a higher sensitivity to your fan base can be a good thing for everybody.

It can of course be a good thing. Again, though, I would rather that Jeff be real in these videos. I don't want him to be the teacher in class who tries to pretend that the moronic question isn't moronic. Some of the questions he got were eye rollying-ly dumb, and in an honest forum I don't want him to censor himself like that. I would rather people not send in terrible questions, but that's just me.

I totally agree with you - I'd rather for anyone on GB to be real. But in this case he doesn't have to pick the bad questions.

I'd rather him choose better questions :X

Agreed.

As a proponent of English and psychology as a tool of greater understanding (read: Writing minor in college), I think terms like "greatest ever" are employed to codify and simplify people's overall understanding of what a game or series might be. We tend to, on a macro level, like to lump things together with one another, or to tag them with pithy labels (like, say, review scores) to represent and simplify our understanding of games. If we all tried to talk about every game in terms of its specific successes and failings, considering them as separately on their own merits and technical prowesses as possible, we'd never get anything done - not even those of use who work reviewing video games for a living!

It's not necessarily ingenuous or telling on a deep level to say "Yeah, it's like Soul Calibur but better. I'd give it a 9," but that short statement taps into a lot of reference points that we have as gamers to interpret that statement and attribute meaning to it.

What I'm saying is... it ain't great, but I guess it works. Sorta. Though 'best game ever' kind of insinuates that another better game will never exist at some point in the future. Which we should all hope is wrong.

@Brendan said:

@Athadam said:

@Brendan said:

@Athadam said:

@Brendan said:

Man, GB fans have some low self-confidence or something. I'm always astounded at how hurt and insulted people seem to get when they think (because they're crazy) that the guys might be in some sort of argument, or that they're being "harsh" on the fans.

There are some dumb people on these forums. We all know that. We've seen threads made by people with 4411, Father, or Kart in their name, and how utterly moronic they are. I would rather Jeff be real at all times, especially in these videos.

There's a difference from being "real" and having a blatant disrespect for your hardcore fan base. Anyone asking a question for Jeff in these videos is probably a big fan and respects Jeff. It'd be nice to see the same back.

I don't think the content and value of this video series would suffer at all if Jeff just eased up on the eye rolling and scoffing. I mean we're all here to listen to Jeff's input. He knows his stuff. But a higher sensitivity to your fan base can be a good thing for everybody.

It can of course be a good thing. Again, though, I would rather that Jeff be real in these videos. I don't want him to be the teacher in class who tries to pretend that the moronic question isn't moronic. Some of the questions he got were eye rollying-ly dumb, and in an honest forum I don't want him to censor himself like that. I would rather people not send in terrible questions, but that's just me.

I totally agree with you - I'd rather for anyone on GB to be real. But in this case he doesn't have to pick the bad questions.

I'd rather him choose better questions :X

Agreed.

...well for all we know these ARE the better questions. Maybe he didn't really have some of the best pickings recently?

@Velamo05: True, in which case I revert back to my previous statement where I'm not mad at Jeff for being an honest guy (which is the whole point of these videos, and censoring himself for the sake of feelings ruins it) but disappointed that the questions themselves aren't always great. Some are good, though.

Bummer, I got a talking to. I used seventh-generation because I didn't want confusion about which era I was referring to. It was a problem for a while because next-gen was still being used for this one. Still would've liked if you had answered the question about rereleases. :/

@Brendan: Haha Yeah I just got to the part in the video where someone asked him about steak ( for whatever reason...?) so I see what you mean XD

@Velamo05: That kind of question isn't really the problem for me, since this feature is kind of an extension of Jeff's VYou stuff, where simple and sometimes funny questions like those weren't out of place. It's the questions that we see as ultra-dumb blogs (usually about gaming) from people who should spend more time listening and less time expressing themselves that will obviously make Jeff roll them eyes. Whatever, I can't care enough to worry about this either way, but it's always a headshake moment from me when people only love someone being "real" until they don't seem to be "nice".

Jeff: tellin' it like it is.

YOUR PARENTS WILL BE DEAD

I think the reason review scores matter to consumers is because they want to see the things they like succeed so they will get more of it.

@carnifexseverian: He wasn't making fun of that. He was making fun of people making the excuse of having a "man cave" as an excuse to keep doing the hobbies they like out of the scorn of other people because somehow their hobby is "embarrassing" and not "mature". That's what a "man cave" usually mean to other people. Yours is more like a room to hang out with friends, if you're not actually embarrassed about bringing people there.