Cup of Jones - March 1, 2021

Hey Jones Just wanted to say I really enjoy Silver Lining and Also This Week.

Olf Himself

Heya Jones, Look, I know, but that's not really how it happened. I just don't want to talk about it right now. But would Easy Allies consider itself the rose of sheer perfection, the freckle on the nose of life's complexion, or the cinder or the shiny apple of its eye?

Asbo Zappruder

Hey ya Jones Congrats on you guys getting to do those featured contracts for hitman 3. I think that’s awesome for easy allies and I can’t wait to play them! As for my question how’s you settling into your new house? You’ve been in there a couple months now just wondering how you and the family are settling in after being in there a while. In terms of you doing work for easy allies has it been better for you since you moved in there? Love and respect to you, Amanda and Milo.

Sage_Mode_Q

Hey Jones, Sorry if I'm the only one to bring this up, but while I love Blood bringing his own topics to the podcast, I always find it jarring when he starts his topic. I suppose listening to over 250 episodes (most of them 3 times now), until recently it's always been one moderator bringing topics to the table. I love the new method of spreading the work load for the podcast around but I'm still not used to Blood just starting a topic. Maybe a super quick setup/toss to Blood to ease the transition? Maybe I'm over thinking it? Anyway, just something I've felt but haven't voiced. Thank you! ~Matt

Matt Galeza

Typing a reply to add an additional thanks because I'm always concerned Patreon gonna Patreon if I have to make an edit after the fact.

Brandon K Gann

I was watching the gen that was on night shift at work 2015 to be specific, when ffxv was brought up you didn’t say anything. I don’t always keep up to date with how allies feel about games but as a final fantasy fan were you disappointed with ffxv ?

Teph

Hello Jones, I hope you're well. A topic I've noticed comes up with relative frequency in EZA content is a lack of insight into the process of making a video game. I want to be clear that I bring this up with no disrepect - without being in this particular part of the industry, most people probably don't know much about it. It occasionally creates these "black box" moments, where the Allies are talking about a game, studio, or business event, but have little insight into what actually happened behind the scenes. I see this as a great opportunity for learning. I'll put myself in the corner for suggesting it, but I think this has some great show potential. It seems the Allies know a lot of people in the industry, and I think it would be interesting if you were to sit down with industry experts and talk about those "behind the scenes" type things. Programming, level design, sound, graphics, marketing, publisher relationships, etc could all be fascinating and informative conversations you could have. You could have a level designer give you design considerations as you walk around one of your favorite levels, or have an artist talk about the specifics of light sources or textures. Perhaps patrons can submit questions for consideration. The bonus is you would get a two-for-one: you can produce something for the Patreon, but also do some professional development to be better equipped to discuss some of these topics in the future. I hate to suggest a new show that creates more work for the Allies, but I think the professional development angle of this makes it a somewhat unique prospect. I'd love to hear your thoughts, and thank you for taking the question. L&R, Matt

Hey Jones, For a while now I have been thinking about this new potential opening segment idea for the podcast. It combines more patron involvement per segment, hopefully more viewer interaction, and allows you to express your love of musicals each week. I present the EZA Musical Theater. Each week you (Jones) pick any video game you want to become a musical and tell the patrons in the L&R post. They in turn come up with a song title, and possibly genre/description of a musical number that would be in “_______” the musical. You pick 3-4 songs each week and present them to the panel to see if they can guess what video game this musical is about. This will get more patrons involved in a usual opening segment length, give anyone who did not see the L&R post a nice little game to play at the beginning of the podcast each week, and give you a reason to start fusing more of your musical love into the podcast. An example i came up with is 1.) “Just the two of us”, an opening number duet between the two leads 2.)”Always coming back to me”, a romantic soliloquy about a certain “special item” 3.)”Ragggggggggggeeee!!!”, a dramatic action number during the first fight scene Hope you enjoy the idea. Have a good monday, L&R Nextgenheff Answer: God of War (2018)

Nextgenheff

Hey Jones, I was just watching Marcus Beer stream on youtube and we were asking him about the possiblity of a Game Trailers reunion, he specifically mentioned he would love to do something with you. Make it happen! ...Please?

David Warren

Hey Jones, I have a question. What is the best time of the day for a gaming presentation like a Nintendo Direct or PS State of Play for Easy Allies? As in, what time frame benefits EZA the most? Also, is there a particular day of the week you prefer these presentations to happen to not clash with the company's schedule?

GmanSir

I appreciate the “My Blue Heaven” reference, such an underrated movie Martin and Moranis are excellent together

Hello Brandon. Just wanted to say that it’s being almost two years since “Easy Allies Reacts to Easy Allies” stream. If you still have open slots for your 5th anniversary celebration, please consider doing this again.

Alexander Zyryanov

At this point we haven't seen a lot of demand for enabling annual memberships, and it's something I'm not really looking to jump into since it requires changing our settings to charge up front. The reason we don't charge up front is because it can feel unfair for people who are joining in near the end of the month. For instance, if you become a new patron on the 27th at $50, you'll get charged $50 on the 27th and $50 again on the 1st of the month. The other trick with charge up front is that once you enable it, you can't go back. So if we change it and people are unhappy with that, there's no going back to how it used to be. I'm also not sure how annual memberships would come into play if someone decides they want to raise their pledge for a month or two. It gets a little weird with benefits, etc. That said, we haven't discussed it a whole lot, so if it's something a sizable number of patrons are interested in, let us know. -Bloodworth

Easy Allies

Hey Jonesy, I don't listen to this religiously, so my apologies if this has been covered. I noticed that patreon added a feature that gives the user the ability to subscribe annually, with a slight discount. Have you considered this? You would make slightly less money,but but you would know that you had someone's support for the full year. Or are you thinking locking someone into a tier for a full year would stifle growth from people who might want to jump from 1-5 dollars for example?

Quaznarg

No question, but a response: Yep, I'm driving right now. 50-55 hours on the road a week. Makes for lots of time to myself. Fast & Loose is excellent. The reviews are the best & most balanced in the business. As you show in the editorial, that original review still *Feels* like an EasyAllies review. The way that you bring up points that excite, and also point out flaws. The reviews have gotten better with skill and experience. But the heart is still there.

Dr.Medic

Hey Mr. Jones! Before getting into the question, thank you SO MUCH for using my Reviews stats submission for L&R for the editorial AND the completely unexpected shoutout at the end of the pocast! I’m a massive stats nerd so I keep a living document to help chart the course of the reviews and it’s fun for me as a side project (Fun tease, EZA is about to hit another milestone I’m about to submit for L&R soon, but I have to wait a little bit. Still a major accomplishment I want to celebrate as well). You requested a link to the spreadsheet, but I’m massively weird so instead it’s actually a prebuilt Word document, allowing me to incrementally update the numbers/individual facts as they happen. So, when I submit the next one in a couple years, it’ll look VERY similar in format. SPEAKING OF WHICH! Thank you for the star/score feedback and I have adjusted it by the time you read this for a better format when EZA hits 400. I figure it’s always too big to fit into any episode of the podcast, but I always want to drop it in as a submission when reaching a milestone to celebrate all the hard work EZA puts in to something so informative and entertaining. Now onto this week. As a fan of other groups, it’s always a highlight to see collaboration (this isn’t news), so I just wanted to say it’s super rad to see you’ll be a guest on MinnMax’s Deepest Dive regarding Arkham Asylum! While I’m excited to see the two-parter, I was curious if Mr. Henson just contacted you out of the blue for being a big Batman fan, or if you pitched the game (or worked with him to think of something) as a means for you to collab with MinnMax? Regardless, I can’t wait and as always, thanks again, not only for reading my questions but one more time, a massive thanks for choosing my submission as an editorial and the personal mention for the podcast. Have a wonderful rest of your day! Cheers! QUESTION: Before my question, I just wanted to publicly thank you for both taking my reviews stats L&R submission for the editorial and the mention at the podcast's conclusion. It made my week. But enough of last week! It’s all about this week, and how MinnMax will have you on their Deepest Dive for Batman: Arkham Asylum and I was wondering: Did Mr. Henson just contact you out of the blue for being a big Batman fan, or did you pitch the game or work with him to come up with something as a means for you to collab with MinnMax?

Brandon K Gann

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Faraz Rizvi