Cup of Jones - September 28, 2020

Mr. Jones, I know you have mentioned that it is difficult to have guests during covid and with how the busy schedule has been, but would it be worth the Allie's time to try and appear on other popular streamer's channels? I believe that your personalities are big enough to encourage people to check out EZA following a guest appearance and grow the community. I can also imagine there may be lots of legal roadblocks or conflicts of interest that may prevent this. What are your thoughts? Respectfully, Morgan Mohalla

Morgan Mohalla

Hello Brandon. Can I submit a video to the Community Showcase that has music track from Epidemic Sound?

Alexander Zyryanov

Hello, I am a patron of about 12 hours now. Just saw behind the curtain a bit with the most recent 4 Cups of Jones (all watched today) to see what all those mysterious YouTube comments were talking about when mentioning that such and such was discussed on the last Cup of Jones stream. First off, I have no idea how you can maintain this stream, and have been for years, when people frequently write in with doubts, concerns, critiques, and just plain hard questions. All the while these people to some extent write your paycheck. The stress is hard to imagine, especially since as you put it, voices seem to contradict one another. That aside, I have not personally felt a dearth of good EZA content, but I have felt an exhaustion fall over the team. I see it in my life too, that the same amount of work seems to be harder when all previously used stress outlets are closed. When all you have is work and isolation, things hold less interest as you cannot recharge to renew that interest. It was Augusts? QandA session that really showed that, as the team assembled talked about how hard it was to keep up the hype level. Huber was talking about Syndrome, others about other things... anyway. The point in all of this is that if you feel like you are in an okay place financially, the best thing for EZA in my 1 in 250k subscriber opinion is for you all to take some time and just find the fire again. I like your channel because your channel is so very different and in the face of what is the current trend of YT content. The genuine camaraderie and wholesomeness is why i am here. I don't have any business advice or anything like that, but thank you for all that you have done. Also, after hearing requests for polls and info about patron sign-up from other patrons, I am a 5 dollar patron person that decided to join because i am about 300-400 hours into EZA content and the patron party post was enough to kick me over the line. I am in too deep to not show support.

Heya Jones, Um, sure. I guess? It's just not something I would expect. But if Easy Allies were to base a dance musical on a famous singer-songwriter of the 70s and 80s, what would it be? Best of luck with the move, Jones! Try not to stress too much!

Asbo Zappruder

I could pull the database and run a report on this information, but there's not a handy go-to way of doing it. I think we have a pretty good spread of monetary tiers though, and it's a bit of a nightmare to add new ones, so going forward, we'd likely lean toward adding rewards to existing tiers rather than making new ones. -Bloodworth

Easy Allies

Jones, Hope you are doing well and the move is going good. Idea for a limited run show that could be dropped at anytime Where are they now? with EZA sit down and do some small interviews with past talent from GT etc Marcus Beer, Rich Brown, Justin etc. Can discuss how they have been since their departure and their thoughts on gaming at the moment

Jordan Buitendyk

Hi Jones, Does Patreon list how much people are supporting if the amount specified to pledge isn't one of the actual tiers? The reason I mention it is if you can see what people are paying that isn't exactly liked to a tier it might give you an idea of a tier someone would like to be at that you don't already have. Perhaps if you are planning to make changes you mentioned in your Patreon Party message this would come in handy. Has it ever occurred the Allies to pole the patrons as to what tier or $ level someone would support if there WAS a tier at that level, and whether their gift is tied to a reward or just a financial feasibility? As someone who has lived at a range of financial situations I look at donations very seriously and personally it isn't tied to a reward but I know it is for many of the other patrons. Just a thought. Love&Respect JessieBlu

JessieBlu

Selfishly, I've always wanted a more in-depth conversation around the HoG games. The time limit for that stream can be painful because it's clear that the Allies get lively talking about how much they love these games.

Kanlink

Hey Jones, To piggy back on last weeks discussion on the one off Super Mario Galaxy conversation, what I loved about that conversation was that it was essentially a spoiler mode for a beloved classic (can I say that now?). It was good content, it played to the Allies' strength, and so I have a proposal for you. Hall of Greats and Spoiler Mode are some of EZA's strongest brands (can I say that too?), why not marry these shows together. For every entry you have submitted to the Hall of Greats, there's undoubtedly a number of allies who have played those games to completion, so the prep time would be less of an issue than what you would typically need for a spoiler mode (i.e. invest 20+ hours into a game) and the library of games you have on the Hall of Greats are not only popular, meaning they would perform well with SEO, but many of them are franchises, meaning if a new game from a studio and franchise is announced, you can pretty quickly upload an hour long discussion of a game that people are interested in. You can make these public, they will perform better, and can serve as an ad for the Patreon locked Spoiler modes for new games and movies, as well as an ad for your Twitch account. Win win?

Kanlink

i've brought this up multiple times, i think they've made it clear they're content with the status quo and watching their patreon continue to go down rather than trying to do something that might actually energize their community.

A Joker Fan

Hey Jones, I’ve been hearing snippets of some Allies praising Hades, and after seeing Huber’s review I have one simple request for you to float to the allies. Hades Spoiler Mode. I’ve been obsessed with this game and it seems multiple Allies are really into it (Brad, Ben, Huber, Blood). And I would love a long form focused discussion about the game. L&R Scott

Scott Kaplan

Hey Jones, Given the current circumstances of streaming from home, will EZA be hosting another horror game marathon stream at the end of the month (or the last Tuesday of October to be more specific)? Would be pretty fun to see the Allies in costume, even though there will be no in-person interaction. I'm sure there has (or will be) discussion among the other Allies on what to do streaming-wise for the month, but I figured I'd ask anyway. Also, could you possibly do an Animal Crossing Halloween stream? The footage from the New Horizons fall update trailer made participation on Oct. 31 look very enticing.

Karl Williams

Hi, So this is just a suggestion that popped into my head a few seconds ago. I loved the News video you guys did on X box but one of the things Maximillian Dood does really well is upload a solo talk about a certain topic that just happened in video games all in real time 10 or so minutes usually and i love to watch them. I was wondering if this is something you guys would like to do? maybe if you can't get everyone together at some stage. Now i know extra work means tearing someone away from something else and this is not me making any demand! just a suggestion really as i personally am very happy with the content i get from you guys!

Calvin Delaney

Hi Jones, I have an observation about the community showcase. I love the opportunity for the community to express themselves and seeing the Ally "on the couch" reacting to comments and submissions helps motivate me to continue being an active member of the community. Having been a contributor many times over the past 2 years, watching as many as I can live and catching the rest on the VOD I have noticed the "comments" section that you read can run well over 2 hours, with the guest Ally invariably seeming to become fatigued and (as always happens when you try to stay hydrated while talking a lot) the quite often needs a research break afterwards before beginning the photo/audio/video section. The other problem I have noticed is that the talk and joviality in the first hour tends to wane and by the media portion there's a "c'mon lets wrap this up" vibe. I was wondering, do you think you would consider splitting the read comments into two portions with the media submissions in the middle? In this stay at home era of EZA there have been a lot of adjustments made and this might give you the time for a short break to set up for the media while the Ally takes a research break and the media could give you a bit of a rest as well (considering the comments attached to the media aren't SUPPOSED to be full-length). It could refresh and revitalize the room, so to speak, leaving the last hour more likely to not feel rushed. I think that you have done a wonderful job with the showcase and look forward every month to finding out which Ally will be featured so I can tailor my post to that specific Ally. Some day I hope to have a month when you are featured and not "just a host". L&R JessieBlu

JessieBlu

Dear Jones, Here's a brief thought as you guys continue to discuss changes for the future. I'd like to encourage you to embrace your name and be easy allies. The internet is often a place where people are at their worst. If your channel can be a place where it's easy to have fun and easy to make friends/allies, then that will make you a compelling group of people to partner with. I became a patron because of the comments section on an episode of Fiasconauts. I read them with trepidation as comments sections are often full of the worst us humans have to offer. What I found, however, was a whole bunch of positivity; compliments, celebrations, witty gags and general good times. I didn't actually end up watching the video but I was so encouraged by the community that you were fostering that I decided to get on board. Whatever changes you end up making to the types of content you deliver, I hope you can hold the concept of Easy Alliances as central to everything you do. Hold your model loosely but hold your purpose tight. Peace. Kirk

New Patreon show idea: Bloodworth passionately argues a controversial gaming topic as the "devil's advocate" to another ally (for example, that Nintendo is pro-consumer), to try and change the given ally's mind. The show title? Blood Pressure. Thoughts?

Josh Read

Is Trailer Jones dead? I will never forgive you for this :)

Ibrahim Sozer

I don't know if this has been answered yet but why not go to the studio and some Allies work at a certain time. I'm only saying this because there are people from LA and they are working with masks on and keeping their social distance con camera.

Sekiro505

I agreed with the ad about money lending. It was a bit disappointing to hear that kind of ad

safe

Faraz Rizvi

Hello Jones, Second attempt at this even though I’ve been watching COJ since day 1, I still managed to put this under the wrong post. Since everyone has been giving feedback I figured I'd chime in. I see a lot of complaints about the allies content but imo the content over the summer has been pretty good. I think initially there was a period where none of the shows were enjoyable but there was also nothing positive going on in the world or gaming and that affected the shows and also viewer expectations. Also I think most of us realize how hard you and other allies are working and the comments that you all are coasting are uncalled for. I don't think some patrons realize how many hours you are actually putting into EZA, It's not like you are working 9-5, but I guess gamers in general are pretty bad at understanding how much work goes into things. The only part of the criticism I really agreed with is that the solo twitch streams aren't really compelling and to me I think some Allies need to work on the skill of streaming. Watching someone like Maximilians streams and compare it to some of the Allies solo streams will just show the difference and its not just about production values. I also feel like most allies usually ignore chat, while other streamers it usually feels like chat is involved and the stream is the streamer chilling with chat rather than us watching them play a game. And you need to call out every sub/resub and bits all that is what keeps people engaged. I think learning from other streamers would go a long way here. Aside I want to say I really miss Tabletop, I've been watching since GT days and I feel like that show was kind of the heart of EZA content. Yeah it had low views but I remember the views being almost similar to the number of patrons. Hopefully it can comeback again some day, even if it's short campaigns. Overall though I don't think it's the YouTube content that's the root problem for less patron numbers I think the root cause is lack of bringing in new people and that goes to getting EZA videos do better on YouTube. I think the focus should be on better titles, thumbnails, uploading videos on a specific schedule that does better with the algorithm. No matter what shows you guys do, it won't matter unless there is a constant stream of new viewers because people will always fall off and you can't keep everyone happy. The fact that you guys have 249k subs but regular content gets 20k views means there is something wrong. As Don said on one of the streams, it's time to dabble in click bait titles and thumbnails. Yeah it's lame but that's YouTube and I feel like you have to play the game. Linus from Linus tech tips has done a video (https://youtu.be/DzRGBAUz5mA?t=280) about this and he shows data on how much these things matter, he has multiple channels with more than million subs. Simple example is minnmax recently had an interview with a Fall guys dev and they clipped out an answer and made the title with some thing like "fall guys creator says xyz" which made me watch the whole interview. Yeah it was click bait but the content wasn't so I didn’t mind. Another example is this Shenmue 3 review / retrospective (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpNAKDx4CwY) the same video on EZA would be titled like “Shenmue 3 impressions” or “Shenmue Retrospective”, I recently came across that video browsing and I would never have clicked on it if it wasn’t for the title, and I was not upset because it was actually a good video. I also feel like the Patreon pitches are often very bloated, rambling and confusing at times. Many times on the podcast the Patreon plug gets derailed by random talks or trying to give details on things that don’t matter in the moment. For example when you plug the shoutout tier, instead of trying to explain the minutia of how Patreon works and what date you need to get just give the information people need which is explaining the tier. The person can go and learn the extra info when they are signing up for the tier rather than the Patreon pitch being fully derailed and usually ends up with allies talking how Patreon is confusing. Thats not a good sales pitch. A recent friend code had the same issue where Damiani was trying to explain the dates you need for the shoutout tier and all that and really that’s no necessary. I don’t think anyone is going to spend that much cash per month without looking into it a bit and that information can be there on Patreon it doesn’t need to be part of the sales pitch. If I wasn’t a Patron honestly I would just tune out half way through most of the Patreon plugs because it’s like these guys trying make me sign up sound confused about the platform I am not going to bother looking at it. Another issue with the Patreon plugs conversations going into details like sometimes you will say: “We mostly make our money from Patreon” and another ally will chime in “Well we do make some money to twitch and YouTube, but yeah Patreon is majority” etc etc. I think the message should be clear to anyone listening to the plug EZA wouldn’t exist without Patreon and we need your support. I feel like you should also give a Patreon plug at the start of the podcasts like “You are seeing this 2 days early if you are a patron” or something like that so people that don’t watch the final wind down part of the podcast know about it. Final suggestion, recently I was watching the Allies’ Cyberpunk reveal reactions which I think is your most popular video at over 2million views but no where in that video or description is Patreon mentioned. I think you recording a little 15 second plug that pushes Patreon and the podcast like (“If you liked this checkout our gaming discussion on this weeks podcast and help us exist by going to Patreon.com/easyallies where you get exclusive shows for just a $1”) that can just be attached to the end of all your snipped out reactions which usually get a ton of views and I feel are more likely to be seen by new viewers rather than people who already know about you. And then add links to the podcast + Patreon in the description. It’s just a shame that your most viewed videos don’t tell users about Patreon because eve if you get like 1% or more of those people to checkout the rest of your stuff overtime you will gain a lot more users. You don’t have to read all that on stream just some suggestions for the allies!

Faraz Rizvi

Hi, Jones. Business/Personal hybrid question: Can you please do a final "Garage Farewell" video in memory of the place that housed EZA for so many wonderful years full of even more wonderful memories? L & R

Daniel Ribeiro

Hey Mr. Jones! At the top of the show last week, you discussed the new “Breaking News,” “Newsflash,” etc. initiative, and while you did touch on it only being viable with enough distance from the podcast, and how others do a daily show like Kinda Funny, I think another format that could work is adopting what What’s Good Games does: They have their main podcast which lasts from an hour and a half to two and a half hours covering news, what they’ve been playing and once a month a Patreon provided topic (they record these on Wednesdays and release publicly on Fridays), whereas on Mondays, they do a livestream on Twitch (right around when Cup normally ends) that’s more in line with what EZA does as it focuses on the news since their last show and if there is enough time, they take questions from their chat. They keep it focused at only an hour to keep it orderly. Since their Monday show covers everything that happened since the prior Thursday, they can cover all the news in a week with two podcasts. I’m going into such detail to ask a two-part question as it relates to EZA: 1.) Because EZA records Thursdays and make it available to Patrons Friday and Sunday publicly, does this mean when Breaking News, Newsflash, etc., does get produced, should we ONLY ever expect them (when applicable) on Mondays and Tuesdays because of when you all record and 2.) Do you think EZA could adopt a much more condensed and smaller podcast that could be handled by other Allies (pending they A.] want to do it and B.] their schedules allow) which could be weekly? As is the case with recording news focused podcasts, news will always break the day after, but I only suggest this to keep topics more timely on a more consistent basis, and of course, as I’ve said in the past, I typically loathe suggesting new show/stream ideas because you guys are busy enough plus I don’t know each Ally’s preferences, schedules, etc. Just an idea that I thought could help EZA (as I always try to by asking the questions I do). Thank you so much for reading a longer submission than normal, and again, as always, have a wonderful rest of your day! Cheers! QUESTION: In an effort to stay on top of news and as an extension of the Breaking News video, would adopting a more condensed podcast to be released Mondays or Tuesdays be feasible if there would be a rotation of Allies willing to do so, schedules permitting? I know this sounds extremely similar to Breaking News, but this is more in line of discussing things that came out over weekends whereas the main podcast not only covers the previous week, but also has an opening bit, Love & Respect, Bets, etc. I loathe suggesting new show or stream ideas, but this is something I really feel could be very beneficial for EZA in light of 1. the amount of positive reception Breaking News received (myself included as I too enjoyed it immensely) and 2.) it doesn’t necessarily need to be the same Allies every week.

Brandon K Gann