James Stephanie Sterling
Personal information
Born
Erith, London, England[1]
Occupation(s)Video game critic, web video producer, livestreamer, professional wrestler
YouTube information
Also known asCommander Sterling
Channel
Years active2006–present
GenreVideo game industry journalism
Subscribers764 thousand[2]
Total views548 million[2]
Associated actsLaura Kate Dale
Last updated: 19 November 2023

James Stephanie Sterling,[3] also known as Commander Sterling and formerly known as Jim Sterling, is an English-American freelance video game journalist, critic, pundit, YouTuber, and professional wrestler. Before becoming independent in September 2014, she[lower-alpha 1] was the review editor for Destructoid, and an author for The Escapist. Sterling is noted as one of the main examples of a YouTuber achieving success through crowdfunding.[5]

Career

Video game critic

Sterling presents The Jimquisition, a weekly YouTube video series in which she discusses current issues surrounding video games, often involving consumer protection and ethics in the video game industry. The series originated on Destructoid's YouTube channel and was later moved to The Escapist's channel, before being released on Sterling's own channel. Her main gameplay series are "Jimpressions" and "Squirty Play", where she discussed her impressions of a recently released video game while showing her own pre-recorded gameplay. She has often spoken against sexism in gaming, and has been open about the fact that her position on this subject has slowly evolved.[6]

In November 2014, Sterling announced that she was leaving The Escapist and intended to seek funding for her work independently through Patreon. On a 2020 episode of The Jimquisition, she stated that she had departed The Escapist after the publication had refused to publish her negative review of Assassin's Creed Unity, citing that parent company Defy Media was afraid of damaging any sponsorship opportunities with Ubisoft.[7][8] Sterling also stated her desire to go back to writing articles and recording podcasts, which she was not able to do since leaving Destructoid.[9] She currently maintains her own website, The Jimquisition, in addition to producing a podcast titled "Podquisition", which is shared with fellow British game journalist and founding host, Laura Kate Dale.[3][9] The third founding member/co-host, Irish musician Gavin Dunne, had his final permanent appearance on episode 250, leaving to pursue a musical career.[3][10][11] Gavin was replaced on episode 251 with Conrad Zimmerman, who had previously worked alongside Sterling at Destructoid.[3][12][13][14]

In March 2016, Digital Homicide Studios filed a lawsuit against Sterling, seeking $10 million in damages for "assault, libel, and slander",[15][16] following Sterling's negative review of their first game The Slaughtering Grounds.[17] Sterling further accused Digital Homicide Studios of deleting negative feedback of the game on its Steam review page, and banning users who criticized it.[17] The lawsuit was raised to $15 million, before it was eventually dismissed with prejudice in late February 2017.[18]

Sterling has been credited with coining the term "Chungus", which would later be part of the name of the "Big Chungus" meme. Sterling started using the term as early as 2012 on her channel in a variety of unrelated contexts with different meanings for humorous effect.[19]

Wrestling

Sterling wrestles under the name Commander Sterling.[20] Sterling initially became involved in wrestling as a joke, appearing as a character called Sterdust, parodying Cody Rhodes' character Stardust,[21] later appearing as a heel manager, before taking up wrestling herself, also as a heel.[7] She has wrestled for promotions including Pro Wrestling EGO, Ryse Wrestling, BadBoys Wrestling (BBW), and the PolyAm Cult Party.[21] She co-founded and runs wrestling promotion Spectrum Wrestling.

Voice actor & video game writer

Sterling joined the writing team for Vampire Survivors in 2022, writing the game bestiary.[22] She has also provided voices for Jazzpunk, We Happy Few, 2064: Read Only Memories, Volume, The Charnel House Trilogy, Lorelai and Oddworld: Soulstorm.[23]

Reception

In 2011 Sterling was featured in a list of "the 25 raddest game journalists to follow on Twitter" by Complex.[24] She has developed into a controversial figure in the world of video game journalism, particularly for her criticisms of industry practices and focus on consumer protection.[5][25] Fans of some highly anticipated games, including No Man's Sky[26] and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,[27] have launched DDoS attacks against Sterling's website following reviews that were believed to be insufficiently positive.[28][29]

Sterling's views on art games have been criticized by Spelunky creator 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 would later become a major art style.[30]

Personal life

Sterling was born in London, England, where she lived near the poverty line for much of her childhood and was emotionally abused by her mother's partner.[31] This abuse is what prompted her to take on the "Jim Sterling" name, saying that she would have had it legally changed, if not for legal issues.[32] In a video from November 2015, Sterling stated in a video (while talking about the polyamorous relationship options in Fallout 4) that she was "not a monogamous guy, nor [...] a straight one either."[33] She is openly pansexual and queer.[34][35] In June 2020, she became a naturalized United States citizen.[36] In August 2020, Sterling came out as non-binary.[37] Sterling uses she/them pronouns.[4]

In late June 2020, while discussing the Speaking Out movement and misconduct within the video game industry, Sterling touched upon her own disorders:[38]

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

Notes

  1. ↑ Sterling identifies as a transfem and uses both she/her and they/them pronouns.[4] This article uses she/her pronouns for consistency.

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 31 December 2023.
  2. 1 2 "About Jim Sterling". YouTube.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Fennimore, Jack (26 January 2021). "Jim Sterling: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  4. 1 2 Sterling, Jim. "Commander Sterling (@JimSterling)". Twitter. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  5. 1 2 Davis, Hubert (25 February 2020). "Jim Sterling – The YouTuber Standing Up To Game Industry Greed". ScreenRant. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  6. ↑ wundergeek (21 June 2013). "An interview with Jim Sterling about sexism in game culture". GamingAsWomen. Archived from the original on 22 December 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  7. 1 2 "Jim Sterling: From 'Pathetic Edgelord' To YouTube's 'Princess Of Pansexual Pandemonium'". Kotaku. 9 February 2022.
  8. ↑ Sterling, Jim. "Ubisoft Spent Years Protecting Mental And Physical Abusers (The Jimquisition)". YouTube. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  9. 1 2 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.
  10. ↑ Dunne, Gavin (20 September 2019). "A fond farewell to Podquisition <3". patreon. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  11. ↑ Podquisition 250: Miracle Of Sound, retrieved 7 November 2020
  12. ↑ "An unlikely pairing has given birth to Plague Road". 14 January 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  13. ↑ Podquisition 251: Naruto Honk, retrieved 7 November 2020
  14. ↑ "About". Conrad Zimmerman dot com. 14 July 2014. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  15. ↑ Patrick Klepek (17 March 2016). "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.
  16. ↑ Chris Carter (17 March 2016). "Indie developer Digital Homicide sues Jim Sterling". Destructoid. Archived from the original on 18 March 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  17. 1 2 Sterling, Jim (10 November 2014). "The Slaughtering Grounds: A Steam Meltdown Story". The Escapist. Defy Media. Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  18. ↑ Ibrahim, Mona (2 March 2017). "Jim Sterling was sued for making fun of a game, and it was a bad idea". Polygon. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  19. ↑ Valens, Ana (13 February 2019). "Big Chungus is the last great meme of 2018—and it could only appear during the holidays". The Daily Dot.
  20. ↑ Bell, Brian C. (28 June 2021). "Ryse Wrestling removes announcers after misgendering talent". Outsports.
  21. 1 2 Fennimore, Jack (1 May 2017). "Jim Sterling: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know".
  22. ↑ Troughton, James (20 December 2022). "Vampire Survivors' Giovanna Is Trans". TheGamer. ValNet. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
  23. ↑ "ABOUT". The Jimquisition. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
  24. ↑ 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.
  25. ↑ Gonzalez, Oscar (22 March 2010). "Jim Sterling: His Controversial Yet Accurate Views". Original Gamer. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  26. ↑ James Sterling. "No Man's Site". The Jimquisition. The Jimquistion. Archived from the original on 10 June 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
  27. ↑ Donnellan, Jimmy (13 March 2017). "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.
  28. ↑ 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.
  29. ↑ Bishop, Sam (13 March 2017). "Jim Sterling's site receives DDoS attacks after Zelda review". Gamereactor UK. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  30. ↑ 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.
  31. ↑ "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.
  32. ↑ "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.
  33. ↑ 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.
  34. ↑ Sterling, Jim [@jimsterling] (23 September 2019). "I used to identify as bi before I realized the whole pan thing applied to me so much more..." (Tweet). Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2020 – via Twitter.
  35. ↑ Sterling, Jim [@jimsterling] (17 May 2019). "Anyway, as an openly queer wearer of corseted hats, I do declare that homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia all smell of poo and wee. #IDAHOBIT" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 28 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020 – via Twitter.
  36. ↑ Sterling, Jim [@jimsterling] (29 June 2020). "The job is done, a citizen I am, and I have a flag to prove it" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 29 June 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020 – via Twitter.
  37. ↑ Sterling, Jim [@jimsterling] (25 August 2020). "I am non-binary pansexual gendertrash. I like all pronouns. I haven't been this comfortable with myself before. Ever." (Tweet). Archived from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020 – via Twitter.
  38. ↑ Jim Sterling (29 June 2020). A Truly Fucked Up Industry. Event occurs at 5:47. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
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