Cup of Jones - March 23, 2020

I've been told by several allies why they made the movie via email, DM, etc. - Jones

Easy Allies

Mr. Jones, Once the dust settles from Covid-19, will EZA consider having an emergency fund for future emergencies? Or will you take things as they come? Also, does Covid-19 effect Kyle's departure? And...hypothetically speaking... how open is the door if Kyle decides he would like to rejoin the Allies down the road? Love and Respect, Morgan Mohalla

Morgan Mohalla

Swore off HOG at the time, but I am back watching it and loving it. For a while I didn't comment or say much in chat because I felt kind of stupid. Even if it doesn't help much, or it wasn't even me, its good to just clear this air! ~Obligatory Reply Save

Jeffrey Tessar

Last year, I had made a few comments regarding HOG and how I felt Ians Final Fantasy 7 video had made the whole thing a joke. You wrote an editorial on it. It was the only time I have ever commented in such a negative way. One of the comments included I don't feel Ians FF7 video is about love or respect. Since I have done this, I really regret that comment. I was upset, I wanted to be a jerk, and show how I was so frustrated. None of it made me happy, and I was losing myself a bit at the time. When Kyle announced he was leaving, he mentioned his problem with "love and respect", and mentioned it in his stream. I want to apologize to him and the allies regardless of if this is what made him dislike the phrase. I try to always be positive towards the allies, as I love so much of the content you guys create. I was just really upset because I was just laying down on my couch playing online, and couldn't shut off a blaring video that was disrespecting my favorite game. It didn't matter cause I should have never used the phrase I love so dearly, in that way. My everyday life, online and off, makes heavy use of this statement, as a way of stearing me in the right direction. I hate to think I have taken the special meaning behind this statement away from any ally through anything I have said. Jones I owe you an apology and I certainly owe Kyle one. Is there anyway you could let him know? Sorry about that Jones. No excuses, but I was really off last year, had some unfortunate circumstances, as we all do. Thanks for always being so patient and understanding. Please know I will always say Love and Respect the way it was meant to be said, and I would like it if the allies felt strongly about the phrase once again, especially Kyle since hes leaving. Here's hoping ^_^ Love and Respect for Life ~ Heidern98 (Hi dern) Jeff

Jeffrey Tessar

Heya Jones, Oh, I see. Yes, that does complicate things a bit. Let me talk to my people and we'll work something out. In the meantime, would Easy Allies rather be a songwriter for the biggest rock 'n' roll sensation in America or an English teacher?

Asbo Zappruder

Heya Jones Long time listener, first time asker I was wondering if you had any plans to increase the production quality for the at-home streams of the allies. It was pretty evident in the EZX intro video that the quality of each allies’ set-up varies quite a bit with sound and video. I get you guys were doing more stuff in the studio before the lockdown, but do you think it might be worth investing more in at home streams? Better mics, cameras, etc. Also I was wondering if you thought about updating the default stream layout everyone seems to use, as there is quite a bit of wasted space. L&R

Chuck Harms

Safety

Happy Gaming

Hey Jones, I'm curious how the social distancing and shelter in place has impacted video production with you and the Allies. When you had the office readily available, I'm sure capture and digital storage was easier with physical hard drives, but with everyone working from home, how has your production process had to adapt? Is everyone still able to capture, edit, put together videos collaboratively, possibly with cloud storage? Will new types of videos, reviews etc. need to be considered to allow for easier self-producing of each Ally? I watched the preview of Sakura Wars with Ben and Brad and loved the format given they both had to video in. Would more reviews, previews with this format that allows for a more conversational approach be a consideration to help EZA put out more while times are difficult? Love and Respect, Brian from Happy Gaming

Happy Gaming

Hi Jones Have you guys talked about updating some of the Allie's web cams? due to all of you working from home for the who knows how long. It's not a big deal but, it would be nice to have everyone had the same quality of cam video as you do during your web cam streams.

MGS-JUNKIE

Dummy comment because I had to make an edit.

Brandon K Gann

Hey Jones, Not really any questions, so up to you if you want to read any part of this aloud. If you see patreon dollars go down as some people tighten their wallets while this pandemic is occuring, dont be afraid to point out to us if the patreon is dipping to unsustainable levels for the fulltime employment of the allies and request that we who are in stronger fincial situations to up our pledges. I am able to raise my pledge, but i would need to know if/when that bump is needed. Second topic: depending on the world's status at the time kyle is set to depart, perhaps propose the option to him to freelance for easy allies in some capacity, as it might be rough to transition to other things at that time as alot of business might not be highering. If he wants to stay off camera, perhaps he can be a mod in chat, monitor the things damian tends to monitor off screen, or help with behind the scenes business you and Blood work on. 3rd topic: Animal Crossing tip, interact with the Card Rack next to the dodo to send mail to your friends on other Switches. This unlocks a secondary mailing option when you order items from nooks online catalog to automatically send the bought item as a present to friends on other Switches (or you can just atach the item at the Card Rack). I believe i recall you wanting this feature in past games.

Justin Loomis

Hey Jones. Having the Allies on Discord during the Animal Crossing stream was super fun. In these coming weeks(?) of working from home I'd love to see more games played in a group like that. Stuff like Overcooked is still fun even if we only see one person on screen as long as we can hear the others! Steam even introduced a mode where you can play couch coop games online. I believe it's called Steam Remote Play Together.

Olf Himself

Hello Brandon. Have you released Kyle from doing Kingdom Hearts III cut-scene in Devil May Cry 5 bonus video style (I’m talking about a bet that you’ve won)? Or is this a tie-in to Easy Allies that you don’t want to cut?

Alexander Zyryanov

Jones, hope you, your family, and all the other allies are doing well through this crisis. My question is when the social ban is listed, will you guys go right back to working in the studio or will you wait a little while to be safe?

strawhatninja

Not a comment for the next CoJ, just a FYI. In this episode you said "a lot of patron's have been dropping their pledge amount to be at a more sustainable level". How can you know why a patron lowered their pledge? It sounds to me like you could have a case of rose tinted glasses. I personally lowered my pledge not because of my personal finances, but because phase 4's direction (and EZAs direction) gives me less value.

Matt Brookbank

Hi Jones I'm not sure if this counts as a business question or not, but I was watching the EZA podcast this week and I gotta admit I loved the sassy Jones that we got in regards to the PS5 news and how frustrated you were about the way Sony is handling it. I thought it brought an interesting side to the argument that I believe a lot of frustrated PlayStation fans could relate to. So this got me thinking, obviously you don't want to force this stuff and it's not good or healthy to be negative or frustrated all the time. But every now and then, something happens that gets a lot of us (including some of the nine allies) frustrated and it would be interesting (and therapeutic) to see said allies just let it out every once in a while. I know this happens on Frame Trap and Podcast to some degree, but what about a dedicated show called "Sassy Ally" or something where if any of the allies are frustrated with a game or some news or anything really, they can just let it out. Ofc like I said you wouldn't want to force this so it wouldn't have a regular schedule (think something more similar to Don't Skip on scheduling front). These are troubling times both within and outside of EZA, so I don't expect you guys to do a new show anytime soon tbh, just something that popped into my head and thought I'd share here. Thoughts?

Business: Hey Jones, I know you are doing a handover podcast with Kyle where you talk about how you will take over, what you will do, etc. I only have ONE REQUEST! Glinny's Cauldren. Although it was a very "Kyle" kind of segment, it really went beyond that. Every week there were so many patrons leaving ideas, having the back and forth with the allies about these terrible features and lastly, the game jam was all just fantastic fun as a viewer. Selfishly, I am a game developer and although I was too busy to join the jam last year, I would love love love to join it later this year. Plus, Media Molecule's "Dreams" is out now so perhaps this jam is a little more accessible for others? Of course it's your show, you can change up how it works however you like with whatever narrative or rules suit you best. Let me know your thoughts on this one but are you open to these kinds of segments for your podcast?

Radioactive Magic

Hello Mr. Jones! In light of now having to work from home, I’m sure various aspects have been thrown into upheaval. I know Animal Crossing, DOOM, and Half-Life are major games and I’m sure EZA is working on reviews in as timely a fashion as possible, but I was wondering: Has this change caused EZA to NOT review a game or pursue a project? For example, has Together We RPG had its production cycle extended, will the amount of streams/shows remain the same or will there be a cutdown, and does this situation present an opportunity to try new things to adapt for however long we all are stuck in this mess? Regardless, I’m happy to see EZA be able to adapt as quickly and easily as you all have, and I look forward to seeing all the stuff EZA will do in the meantime. Thanks for taking my question and all the best to everyone. Have a wonderful rest of your day and Cheers! QUESTION: Has the switch to working from home caused EZA to not review additional games, take on other projects, extend productions of other shows, or present an opportunity to try new streams/shows until everything goes back to normal?

Brandon K Gann

I think official EZA policy is "ties go to the dreamers"

Lukas Dohm

Hey Jones, This is just a quick question and this can probably be filed under Business. BUSINESS: This is just an assumption (and was kind of curious), but I am under the impression that decisions are made based on voting (my apologies if I got this assumption wrong). With 9 allies, ties can easily be broken… Eventually… you guys will be going down to 8, how will ties be broken? If this assumption is incorrect, then you can obviously just ignore this.

SoulCaster