Career
Prior to becoming completely independent in September 2014 through crowdfunding, Sterling was the review editor for Destructoid and a content creator for The Escapist. The Jimquisition is a weekly YouTube video series in which Jim Sterling discusses current issues surrounding video games. Such topics include pre-order culture, gender issues and early access games.
The series originally started on Destructoid’s YouTube channel and was later moved to The Escapist"s channel.
Currently his other series include Best of Steam Greenlight where he watches and comments on poorly made or games that have been sold only using unaltered pre-purchased assets (known as "asset flipping"), gameplays of different games released on Steam, often games of poor quality, and itch.io tasty series where he plays various videogames available on itch.io under various topics. His main gameplay series is Jimpressions (formerly known as "Squirty Play"), this is done in the style of a Let"s play series where he talks over his own gameplay.
In November 2014, Sterling announced that he was leaving The Escapist and intended to seek funding for his work independently through the Patreon website. He has also stated the desire to go back to writing articles and doing podcasts, which he wasn"t able to do since he left Destructoid., but has since done on his own website (thejimquisitioncom), creating "The Podquisition", a podcast that he shares with Gavin Dunne and Laura K Buzz.
He started up a second podcast "The Spin-off Doctors" in which himself and Conrad Zimmerman analyze movies which are based on video games, though they have mentioned they may move into comic book and other geek culture territory eventually.
In March 2016, a lawsuit was filed against Sterling by Digital Homicide for 10 million dollars. Sterling was featured in a list of "the 25 raddest game journalists to follow on Twitter," by Complex. Sterling has developed into a controversial figure in the world of videogame journalism with his views often challenged.
Criticism of his negative review of Final Fantasy XIII prompted him to release a statement in defense of lieutenant
His views on art games have been criticized by TIGSource editor 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 later became a major art style.