Jim Sterling

Jim Sterling is an English-American 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. Their active YouTube series are "The Jimquisition", "Jimpressions", "Squirty Play," "Industry Bullshit", "Direct to Video", "Oh Mah Gawd Hype!", and "Commentocracy"; their discontinued series include "The Videogame Show What I've Done", "Boglinwatch", "itch.io Tasty", and "Nitpick Theater".

Sterling was born in London, England, where they lived on the poverty line for much of their childhood and was psychologically abused by their mother's lover, a Hell's Angels outcast. This abuse is what prompted them to take on the "Jim Sterling" name, saying that they would have had it legally changed, if not for their legal issues. In a video from November 2015 on Fallout 4, when talking about the polyamorous relationship options they stated that they are "not a monogamous guy, nor [...] a straight one either." They openly identify as pansexual and queer. In June 2020, they became a naturalized United States citizen. In August 2020, Sterling came out as nonbinary on Twitter, initially saying they accept all pronouns, but since expressing a preference for "they" specifically. They still use the name Jim Sterling, but have added the middle name "Stephanie."

James Stephanie Sterling's videos on YouTube feature a unique style of self expression. Traditionally, they wore a red and black suit, red gloves, and an iconic corseted top hat in all their videos, and carried a scepter. Since coming out, they've substituted these assets for more femme versions, including a pink hat with their pronouns on it. They also have a variety of fictional characters, including the Corn Flake Homonculus, Duke Amiel du H'ardcore, and the Steam Cleaner.

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 they are an outspoken critic. 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 their playthrough of recently released, and often poor-quality, early access games, while Oh Mah Gawd Hype! features Sterling discussing anticipated upcoming games. Their main gameplay series is Jimpressions, where they discuss their impressions of a recently released video game while showing their own pre-recorded gameplay. They also have a gameplay series called Squirty Play, where they play and mock a randomly selected game off of Steam Direct. 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.