Cup of Jones - August 17, 2020
Added 2020-08-17 16:56:27 +0000 UTCThere’s a sentiment running through all the questions and comments from last week’s Cup of Jones that echoes the type of support we’ve been given from this community during this difficult pandemic. They address concerns about the studio, our mental health, and the need to utilize our resources wisely so that we can continue to do the stuff we want to do. It makes me wonder if this series is more beneficial to Easy Allies as a way to update you all on what we’re working on, or as an affirmation of all the stuff we’re doing right and everything we’ve yet to improve. Probably both, but I’m feeling especially grateful to have the latter half of that this week.
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2wGT0qDXHk
Brandon
DISCLAIMER: I take questions from the post comments on the previous week’s episode here on Patreon. You can ask a business-related question which I may answer live, or a personal question which I may answer below. If your business question was not answered live, I either replied to it in the comments, or referenced the answer in a recent episode. Feel free to inquire why your question wasn't included, or ask the same question a second time if you think I may have missed it. I will edit your comment/question before reading it live to ensure the show moves as quickly as possible. I typically grab all the questions by midnight (PT) the night before each episode.
Comments
Just popping in, I recently marathoned all the podcasts from about the time E3 was cancelled until now, and I gotta say, I'm really digging the Jones led podcast. Less silly, more informative, but still a 'good hang' as the cool kids would say. Keep up the good work!
Paul Meekin
2020-08-24 16:12:54 +0000 UTCHey Jones, No question this week, just wanted to follow up and say that last week's ratio was a lot better with Love and Respect and the podcast topics being more balanced! Looking forward to the next podcast to see how everything continues to improve as the balance gets better and more natural! I'll try to have more podcast comments, suggestions and questions for next week's Cup of Jones. Lots of love, Brian from Happy Gaming
Happy Gaming
2020-08-24 06:39:53 +0000 UTCGotcha! Sorry for being curt with your question. - Jones
Easy Allies
2020-08-24 05:24:46 +0000 UTCQuick Q about the podcast. I get all my EZA content via my Patreon link, including the weekly podcast. I assume it still helps out if I still subscribe to the regular podcast separately, even if I don't listen to them via that subscription?
Steve S
2020-08-23 15:26:57 +0000 UTCHi Jones, Is Project Cars 3 going to be reviewed by Easy Allies? Do you know when the embargo for the reviews lift if so? I'd love more racing or driving content from Bloodworth or the other Allies. Keep up the great work and L&R. Anthony
Anthony Scibelli
2020-08-23 00:07:53 +0000 UTCWhat's Up Jones, Kinda Funny has this show called "We have Cool Friends", where they talk with guests for about an hour about their life and career. So I ask, with your busy schedule, is there a chance you could make an appearance? I know you and Greg have a good relationship and I feel like a good proportion of the KF audience would be fans of EZA.
Ivan Ndahiro
2020-08-22 09:51:37 +0000 UTCHeya Jones, Yeah, no, I get that. I just don't understand why they went there in the first place. But if Easy Allies were to dig right down to the bottom of its soul to see what it had inside, what would it feel?
Asbo Zappruder
2020-08-22 02:10:48 +0000 UTCThoughts on adding a guided meditation segment to the podcast? I know you have a lot of experience with meditation. With all the bad news this year, I think the panel and audience could benefit from taking a moment to close their eyes, breathe in through the nose, and out through the mouth.
Swet T.
2020-08-19 19:22:31 +0000 UTCI think this would be a great addition to whatever activity is set to replace "Easy Livin'" as the community has to do a lot more to work to make this happen than the Allies (Damiani excluded because I know he would a lot of work to coordinate both the spreadsheet of links and the streams) and I feel it would help us all reflect on the good times of the past 18 months (From March 2019 to scurrent) rather than the turmoil.
JessieBlu
2020-08-19 14:51:03 +0000 UTCHi, I just wanted to say that is an excellent idea. I completely forgot about Halloween and it's Jones' and some of the Allies' favourite holiday. I also loved the previous years' marathon streams. All of this made me realize I'm sorely missing a special event from EZA since we didn't get a EZX and won't be getting Easy Livin' this year. The donation drive for the George Floyd Foundation and the Magic: The Gathering Fundraiser Tournament were great, but the emphasis was on donations. I would love a special event just focused on the Allies having fun and joking around like Easy Livin' was in past years. I really hope Jones and Bloodworth can take your idea to the other Allies, so if they decide to do something special, they will have plenty of time to plan and execute. Maybe we could even get special guests with masks and that could be a fun game with the audience to see if they guess who it is. Huber could also run a Misterious Monsters quiz with some people from chat. Sorry for maybe stealing your question's thunder, it's just that it's a seriously brilliant idea that could be one of the best events in EZA's history, so it got me very excited with all these ideas. L & R
Daniel Ribeiro
2020-08-19 04:13:09 +0000 UTCHi, Jones. I've been thinking for a while about this and I'm not sure how to put it, so I will try my best to explain in a way that hopefully doesn't offend anyone. As of writing this - 08/17/2020, the current Easy Allies Patreon income is at U$ 38,491. Before, during and after EZA rented the studio, you always said that if the Patreon income decreased, EZA would still need to keep paying the studio rent. I absolutely understand that, it's a contract and it must be respected. However, since then one of the Allies left the group and took with him a large portion of the donations - not blaming anyone, just stating a fact - and this pandemic has hit almost everyone really hard. The news all talk about the fact that even if a vaccine was already working, mass vaccination will only be available in the second semester of 2021 at the earliest. But it may even only happen at the end of 2021 or beginning of 2022. I also just listened to the movie Rent's soundtrack for 7-8 hours, so the word "rent" is on my mind. You should really watch that movie. But anyway, all of that got me thinking that the studio's rent eats a large part of the Patreon money while the studio is unoccupied and will most likely be unnocupied for the next 1-2 years. Which when I think about it, seems like a lot of wasted money, specially considering Los Angeles is a very expensive place to rent properties. I don't mean that you should break the contract, but rather is there any way for you to talk with the owner and make a new deal to maybe pay 50% while not on the studio? Or even 20-30%, I'm sure that would help. I understand that with a contract things are very strict, but maybe the owner is an understanding person and can work out something. Maybe the contract could be updated or ammended, if a legal way is absolutely necessary. I understand that for some people this might sound absurd to even suggest, but many articles in famous press sites talk about ways to lower the rent by renegotiating with the owner. For both residential and business properties. I will leave a few links to some of them below: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/business/economy/coronavirus-commercial-real-estate.html https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-renegotiate-rent-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-5 https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/03/i-lowered-my-rent-by-200-what-experts-say-when-negotiating-with-landlord-during-covid-19.html https://www.brickunderground.com/rent/coronavirus-covid-tips-for-negotiating-landlord-lease-renewal-rent-during-pandemic-nyc All of this is because it would mean more money for the Allies and the company, to have better quality of life and maybe buy equipment you need for better streaming from home - like better internet, for example. Also, this money that Easy Allies receives is from Patrons, donors who support the company and specially you all, so any reduction in spending while wouldn't mean the Patrons would donate less, it means the money's original recipients would get more of it. I hope this didn't offend anyone, Ally or Patron. I'm just thinking of ways to make the best out of this situation for you all and the company. Business question: Is it at all possible to renegotiate the studio's rent with the owner for the time that the Allies will be unable to physically occupy the studio? L & R
Daniel Ribeiro
2020-08-19 03:36:19 +0000 UTCHi Jones, I was just thinking about what you guys will do for a Halloween stream this year. Will you all still dress up and just eat lots of candy? I always like watching that stream so I'm hoping you will do something similar this year, but I understand because of COVID you might not be able to.
strawhatninja
2020-08-18 20:14:05 +0000 UTCHi Jones, On an episode of “Play, Watch, Listen” Alanah Pearce talked about how on some occasions she would go back to the Publisher/Developer if she was writing a negative review. She would tell them her main criticisms and ask if there was any chance this would be fixed any time soon. Have you ever taken this approach to a review? Thank you, Varun Kachhwaha
Varun Kachhwaha
2020-08-18 16:03:44 +0000 UTCGotta say, Jones, I'm loving these one-hour Cup of Joneses. Keep 'em snappy! Thanks for the good work, as always.
RanchoCucamunga
2020-08-18 13:16:09 +0000 UTCHello Brandon. Is there a chance to see another “Easy Allies reacts to Easy Allies” stream while you work from home, or will this event be produced only if you return to the studio?
Alexander Zyryanov
2020-08-18 05:10:09 +0000 UTCHi Brandon, Not a quick or easy answer, but I’ll give this a go and it might answer part two anyways. Before we get into the details, let me just start out by saying that the process is made considerably easier after having built up a lot of experience and credibility in the industry. Since I had already been writing about games, doing reviews, previews, and interviews for about 15 years, and GT was an established and respected brand, gaining most of my contacts was as simple as searching through old emails and telling people I was the new person to touch base with. There are still companies that I have to establish a relationship with from time to time, but most of the big publishers and PR firms are already familiar with us. As for the meat of your question though, getting review codes is a two-way street in which our interests line up with what’s available. On our end, I start out by adding games to a spreadsheet that’s sorted in order of release date, generally including the next month and a half of releases. Once I’ve updated it, I let the rest of the Allies know, and they call out which games they’re interested in, which platforms they prefer, and what they’d like to do with them, whether that’s a review, stream, Frame Trap discussion, etc. We then also go through the whole upcoming list in our monthly meeting to nail things down. Plus, whenever I get a press release indicating that a game is going to come out relatively soon, I’ll add it to the list and make sure everyone is aware. From there, it’s largely a matter of sending emails or filling out forms. Since I’m in contact with a lot of these publishers and PR representatives to begin with, I start by searching my inbox for the game title and reach out to the last person who emailed me about it. For some companies, like Nintendo, we have a specific point of contact who handles all our requests, while others like Sony have different representatives handling different games. Other companies sometimes send out links to brief forms for us to fill out or have websites where we can browse all of their titles to see whether or not they’ve opened up requests, and I can submit them right there. After I’ve sent out a request, they typically write back to let us know that we’re on the list, and sometimes tell us when they expect codes to come in. Then once they’re available, we’ll get an email with the code, embargo times, spoiler restrictions, etc. Sometimes, though we will have to agree to the embargoes and restrictions in advance before they send over the code. Once the review is done, I then send the person who gave us the code a link to our coverage. Now as I said, this is a two-way street. So at the same time as I’m making requests for the games I know we want, contacts are sending us emails about games they’re interested in us reviewing. Sometimes they’re simply letting us know that review codes are available. Sometimes they include those links for us to submit a request, and sometimes, they’ll just drop the code and restrictions in an email without any prior correspondence. A lot of the time, this just works out naturally, and we’ll automatically get a code for something we would have requested anyways, but we do get a lot of unsolicited codes as well. With these, I’ll generally reach out to the Allies to see who might be interested in covering the game, but if we didn’t request it, they can take the code without any expectation that they have to do something with it. Then at the end of the month, I’ll go through the two-dozen or so unclaimed codes that we have left and add them to group accounts that any of us can access. Hopefully that covers everything. If you have any questions you want to clarify, let me know. -Bloodworth
Easy Allies
2020-08-17 21:31:57 +0000 UTCHey Jones, my question has to do with the new EZA shirts! Don’t need to know specifics but I was wondering how the sales have gone in the beginning because you guys said if it did well we could get more merch. Shirt is great btw so I’m definitely hopeful you can can come out with some new stuff in the future. As always L&R.
Sage_Mode_Q
2020-08-17 19:08:56 +0000 UTCOh Jones! Don't do me dirty like that! You only read out the first part of my comment and it makes me come across horribly! "I was annoyed you fixed it for the public release". End of comment. Haha. Mistakes happen, and that's completely fine. Just a bit more communication that it's going to be fixed would be appreciated in the future.
Harrison Holt-McHale
2020-08-17 18:26:48 +0000 UTCI don't know if I would put that on Kyle. He seems to just want to do his own things at his own time. If he had to always consider what the Easy Allies were doing and behave accordingly, he'd be doing himself a disservice.
Jonathan Valoroso
2020-08-17 18:26:12 +0000 UTCyeah i thought kyle streaming at simular times as easya was a bit strange. i was never a kyle guy but i wish he was a tiny bit more considerate but whatever.
David McNaboe
2020-08-17 18:12:41 +0000 UTCEDIT: Mr. Bloodworth's answer below goes into wonderful detail and explanation so feel free to skip my question this week. No replacement from me, so I'll submit a new one after the next episode. Thank you! Hey Mr. Jones! This week and next, I wanted to ask how EZA gets review codes. For this week, I wanted to ask about how requesting it works and next week will be about the process itself. I know Mr. Bloodworth will request a code for any given game if any Ally will have a given interest, and the bigger games always carry the expectation EZA will review them (CyberPunk, Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, and Spiderman: Miles Morales are all upcoming examples), but I was wondering: Whenever there is a smaller game that may not be as prevalently known, does EZA request a code for as many games as possible on principle just in case an Ally may be interested, does any review code request come when an Ally lets in known they want it, or does anyone (for lack of a better term), “cold call” with offers of a code, even when not requested, because EZA has a sizeable audience? By no means am I asking for any specific game examples, just curious what the procedure is when EZA is able to obtain review copies (hopefully in a timely manner). Thanks as always for reading and have a wonderful rest of your day! Cheers! QUESTION: I have a two part question about review codes, so part one for this week (and part two next week): does EZA request a code for as many games as possible on principle just in case an Ally may be interested, does any request come when an Ally lets in known they want it, or does anyone (for lack of a better term), “cold call” with offers of a code, even when not requested, because EZA has a sizeable audience?
Brandon K Gann
2020-08-17 18:07:19 +0000 UTCJust finished work here in the UK, and now it's time for Cup of Jones, have my coffee and ready to chill.
Rich J
2020-08-17 17:09:03 +0000 UTCYou guys are doing wonderful work, and I echo concern for everyone's well-being and mental health, especially as a counselor :-) Know you guys are loved and appreciated, and that includes making sure to breathe and take care of yourselves!
Javin Mather
2020-08-17 16:59:05 +0000 UTC
