Easy Allies Podcast #167 - Video

Love the desire index, but happy to see more patron participation. As always, could do with like 30% less Xbox mockery, tho? Doesn't feel sporting when they're not the market leader and the new management is trying to make consumer-friendly changes.

Cloisterance

Hate being down, but I gotta say I'm not a fan of the desire index. Feels lazy to bring it back after Glinny's Cauldron was so genius.

Fane

Regarding Damiani's comments: When you review a game, the developers take the feedback and implement it into the sequel. The feedback/development cycle always exists, so there's really no harm in giving that feedback directly to the developer at E3.

Daryl Rodriguez

Dudes.... I love desire index!

Nick Geurtsen

I’m glad to see the desire index back, Kyle, you hypocritical conman.

wuggles

The bioware-esque choice of picking between this stacked holiday lineup is the right kind of mad. The pedantic pro's and cons of their placement makes for great podacst material. Plus I feel it gives any new wanderer a little sense of the groups preferred tastes in games as a collective. If they start nodding we may have hooked a keeper.

Christian Thomas

Thank you for the soundcloud link. Primary phone's battery is out but I can still catch up on the podcasts now. I'm back off to work!

David Halvorsen

Correction sabotage: The game revealed during the nintendo direct was really No More Heroes 3 not 2. However why not test the waters and remember that the game shown was in fact the long rumored: No More Heroes VI: The warrior of passive destruction >:)

Christian Thomas

Jones, I noticed Easy Livin' starts right on Fire Emblem Three Houses release date. I know that you guys have trouble getting Nintendo games before the release date, so how will the review for this game be handled? Has Easy Livin' affected any reviews in the past? I will be eagerly anticipating the hot Fire Emblem Three Houses review from I"m assuming Ben whenever it is ready!

strawhatninja

Yknow I don't think Panzer Dragoon is glowing. I was on the 1st floor of Nintendo NYC for the direct and all it got was some muttering, no cheers.

Kaleb

Love the Desire Index. I do like the idea of getting us here to rate the prior week's index and if it gets a certain rating, then you need to reshuffle the index or something.

LeeLore

The NPD game is fun but it was a little difficult to follow as we couldn't see what you were doing, Kyle did a decent job advising the audience what was happening, an overhead camera would have helped with giving a visual. L&R

Matthew Borg

I enjoy the desire index. Also, I get Damiani's view about not giving feedback. If reviewers give feedback, they introduce bias into their reviews. For example, imagine if developers did QA *only* only using reviewers. They would end up with very positive reviews. But the game may end up being overly designed for the reviewers specifically, and thus the reviews are not representative of the general consumer (i.e. positive reviews, but not actually enjoyable for consumers). Separating your QA players and reviewers ensures that game's reception is generalised, as opposed to being geared toward specific people (reviewers). With that said, if you were diligent with this rule, you shouldn't really publish your opinions elsewhere either. For example, previews or discussions in the podcast.

Andrew Chalmers

PROTIP FOR JONES (or any Animal Crossing detail starved fan): Gonintendo.com has a great thing they do where they put bullet point lists under e3 videos. Real time saver for Animal Crossing. I learned a lot of stuff that way (without having to watch 30 min videos). Upgradable nook phone. Live in a tent as long as you want (forever if you want) or upgrade your home. choose your villager's skin tone. outifts not bound to gender. etc etc. Info is still scant.. but it's a lot less scant than that initial trailer made it seem.

Raven Perez

Correction: Pigs don't sound like that either Kyle.

Cash

The Desire Index is dead! Long live the Desire Index!

Msap

Obviously, I only know as much as everyone else at this point, but I do believe in Animal Crossing New Horizons the island is the primary town you'll be living in. The devs have suggested through Treehouse and interviews that you're making a town from scratch on that island, versus moving into an established town in previous games. Eventually, it'll grow and feel like previous games, but you get to be part of that this time around. Of course you'll be able to visit other people's islands through online, but the devs have deconfirmed setting up your own tent there. Right now it doesn't look like there's a mainland or other biomes, unless it is just something to visit in the same way we visited islands in previous games. Could that be something they're saving and the Island Package™ is one of many Nook offers? It is possible, but I don't think it is likely right now. The good news is, despite how it appears at a glance, the island is actually very big, bigger than all previous Animal Crossing games except Population Growing by current grid based size estimates. We know from what we've seen so far that the island can have different elevation levels, and different geographical layouts you choose from at the start is pretty much a lock as well. Being able to place furniture outside will further diversify town variety, even if everyone is locked to the island biome. This game even introduces Southern Hemisphere towns, which means opposite seasons from those who live in the Northern Hemisphere. So, you can go visit a Winter town during Summer or visa versa.

MBUN

Seems reasonable that Damiani doesn't want to be their QA tester but as a gamer myself I'd want a person that found themselves in a position to offer unique feedback or criticism at an early stage to give it so that it might be fixed by the time the game releases. Guess it makes sense that the dev should ask for the feedback first but I wonder about times when they might have asked "what did you think?" and people don't say anything even though they have concerns. I also don't see an ethical issue with playing a game early, providing feedback, and then reviewing it later. A dev could accomplish the same thing if they invite you to a preview event, you play it, you publish a preview, and they go onto Youtube and watch it after. It just happens to be less of a hassle to do it in person.

VGJunky

there already was a pokemon autochess mod for warcraft 3 called Pokemon Defence back in 2010. Had hours of fun with it.

I actually enjoy the desire index. I love thinking about future games and even sometimes think about the order in which I desire them. I say keep it!

Joey and Cait