Cup of Jones - November 29, 2018

Hey Jones, First congratulations on nailing down a studio space for the EZA crew! We’ve been anticipating this for a long time, so I’m excited to see what you guys can do with a shared space. What immediately concerns me though is how your expenses are going to go way up compared to the cost of working out of the garage. You’re going to need computers, security software, storage, insurance, decent internet access, and all sorts of things. Is the 50k a month we have going to be sustainable for a studio? Am I overestimating costs? L&R PS - please consider releasing the Q&A’s as audio on your RSS feed! Even if it’s only after the video goes public on YouTube. You’d be doing my cell phone data rates a service

Kanlink

G’day Brandon, Hope everything has be going well for you today. Firstly a huge congratulations are in order for the new head quarters you’ve locked down for Easy Allies. The positive buzz within the community has been infectious and the anticipation to see those doors open is gonna be an absolute treat when the time comes. My question for this CoJ is simply this, if you gained the ability to time travel and choose to meet up with your past self how would you best describe this crazy ride that has been Easy Allies so far ? do you think he would believe you ? Praise be to Sweeney, Christian Thomas

Christian Thomas

All good! I'll do my best! - Brandon

Easy Allies

Hey Brandon, Just wanted to send my compliments on Fancy Fifteen. This is exactly the kind of content I always wanted from EZA-- it shows off the Allies' fun banter in a condensed form without having to watch an entire stream for those of us who simply don't have the time. I hope this show comes back to stay. I've been thinking a bit about Star Wars: Fallen Order and hoping it could be the classic great Star Wars game of this generation, and I'm hoping it will be shown at the game awards! What would the game to be? Congrats on the studio!

Matt Kuryloski

Congrats on the studio! I'm curious, is the booth going to the studio? Or staying in the garage? You remodeled the kitchen area for it.

Eric Grynberg

Congrats on the studio you guys &lt;3 This is a super minor thing but when people Cheer bits on Twitch the little cheer image is just a broken image: <a href="https://i.imgur.com/J0Ucb70.png" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/J0Ucb70.png</a> With Twitch's Holiday Charity event with Bits to Cheer starting on the 12th (just in case you guys don't know yet: <a href="https://blog.twitch.tv/blizzard-of-bits-b11dc7d50427)" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://blog.twitch.tv/blizzard-of-bits-b11dc7d50427)</a> I thought it'd be nice to be able to see the dancing Rufus emote on screen again :D Just a small thing, but the rufus emote is too good to go unloved :p Cheers!

sirvorn

Congratulations on the studio! I'm ecstatic for all the Allies!<br> <br> I notice on some streams and videos that you guys will try to wrap things up early or quick, even when the conversation is entertaining and engaging, cause someone needs to use that space immediately after. With the studio, will the Allies be able to finish their shoots once they feel they have adequately expressed what they wanted to or will it still be under certain time schedules? I'm curious if the community showcase and other shows could potentially be getting longer without much time restraints.<br> <br> L&amp;R<br> MamaWaffles <br> P.S: My first name is pronounced like Anya. (Like the nickname of the character, Anastasia.)

Ania Juarez

So now that the new studio has been secured (congrats by the way!), how is the commute for the other allies going to be compared to heading to your garage? Will it be easier for them to meet up for mini group streams, etc?

Greg Kettering

This is my first time commenting and wanted to say congrats on the studio. Could you give me some fond memories or thoughts about super mario bros. 3 and your favorite world from that game? It’s my all time favorite game and I’d love to hear you speak about it for a minute or two. Love and respect.

Greetings! With GOTY season approaching I was curious if you and the allies would be opposed to having a film of the year also? Would be cool hearing the allies thoughts on films they enjoyed in the year, but I understand if that is too much hassle for this time of the year! L&amp;R

Comment/concern about the third anniversary meeting. The bar stools they had at Tommy's Place were horrendously uncomfortable, I wouldn't wish those things on my worst enemies. Also the seating layout was very strange, the tall chairs were all in front of the sofas and 'lower' seating. I remember a couple people sitting in the back saying they couldn't see the stage.

Ehie Yovach

When Kyle introduces himself at the Game Awards, is he not allowed to say "I'm Kyle Bosman from Easy Allies..." or does he choose not to? Seems like an enormous opportunity to get your name out there.

Selarmor

At this rate, we'll have that top 100 games list done in 11 years.

César Villa

Hello Brandon. I think someone asked something similar to my next inquiry last week. Feel free to skip if you think you just answered it. If you were able to do a reset button on easy allies, would you do changes on the tiers? Either order or pledge amount. I ask this because when you went live, I thought "$20 for direct access to ask a question? What a steal!" and that has been my tier ever since; and I have to be honest, the opportunity to have my name misspelled or mispronounced at the end of the podcast is not something I look forward. I've been wanting to upgrade my pledge to the $50 tier, but that's a big jump that I have not been able to afford; and given the political environment in my country where the Dollar has been just going up the last few months, the possibility just keeps going further away. So, that's my question; do you think the tiers are fine as they are or after almost 3 years of running things this way, is there something that makes you question your initial and inexperienced choices? Love &amp; Respect, César.

César Villa

I'm not sure if this is the right place to submit Cup of Jones questions but here we go: Have you or the other Allies thought about including your faces more in the thumbnails of your videos? I think that would generally give off a greater sense of personality to people who don't know you guys, and I hear thumbnails are big in the YouTube game. Maybe making more poppy custom thumbnails just doesn't fit the schedule, but I think it would lead to more views on YouTube

PS. Jones, you haven't retweeted the Easy Allies "We Got a Studio!" video on your Twitter... tsk tsk Please fix that asap! L &amp; R

Daniel Ribeiro

Hello, Mr. Jones!!! I'm so incredibly happy that Easy Allies finally got a studio. I'm also very proud of helping, however small, into making the dream turn into reality. I was reading everyone's Twitter - even Sophie's, who I also follow, was great. That is, untill I reached Amanda's... Then it hit me, we won't be getting as much Amanda, Sophie and even Norbert time anymore - which were already too little to begin with, specially Norbert. So, I have a demand, you are prohibited from shooting Cup of Jones from the studio more than one time per month, the other time you need to shoot from home, so the option for Amanda, Sophie and Norbert's appearances will be very high. If you need the equipment that is going to the studio to shoot Cup of Jones, please buy new equipment with some of the money accumulated from the last few months while you guys were searching for a studio. You've said you planned to use some of that money to buy better equipment for some of the Allies for their homes, for streaming and such, which I find it great. But don't forget about yourself as well. I know you've said that you will make some adjustments to the garage, but I really hope you use it often for those of us who have grown to really love the place. Also,, take some of the gifts that the community has given you to the studio, I personally hate spaces where there's not much personality to them, like if it was a sterilized lab. I definitely want to see Hollow Knight's main character plushy and the One Piece Devil Fruit in the new studio - that's non-negotiable! Which brings us to a very important question: what will you do to the Easy Allies' Goddess, Éclair Farron Valentine - real name of Lightning from Final Fantasy 13? Sorry I haven't submitted any questions to the last Cup of Jones episodes, been very busy lately. But hopefully, I will be able to contribute more from now on. The studio news really made my day, week and month since it means a really awesome milestone and achievement for Easy Allies, plus guests, Jones, GUESTS!!! I absolutely loved to death GameTrailers' GT Live segments, some of my favorites, of which there are too manty to name, are the ones with John Vignocchi and Craig and your mother, which were brilliant and hillarious. Any chance of mom Jones - and Craig and Vignocchi as well - making a return, pretty please? Together with the impending avalanche of great game trailers and announcements coming at The Game Awards - CTR: Crash Team Racing!!!!! - this is like Christmas came early. Seriously happy for everyone, Cheers!

Daniel Ribeiro

Hi Jones! Congrats on the studio! Some studio questions!: - Is a physical 'hall of greats' possible? - How big, if you have to compare it to the garage, is the main room? - Will you bring Lightning with? - i would love to see the studio empty aswell before the sets etc. Is a 'transformation' video planned? Thanks!

Sven Van Lathem

I’m surprised that after saying so many times that audience of Cup of Jones will be the first to know about the studio, you made the announcement during your group stream. I would understand it if other allies wanted to say something about it, but it was just a video which you could play in the beginning of this week’s episode of Cup of Jones and make it public right after.

Alexander Zyryanov

Hey Jones. Congratulations on the new studio! Can't wait to see it. I was watching the patron Q&amp;A for November and I found your discussion about the top 10 games list for the 2010's very interesting. What was even more intriguing was the talk about the Top 100 games of all time list. Would you and the allies ever give serious thought to actually making an official "Easy Allies: Top 100 games of all time" list? I know it would be a lot of work, but I would love to see something like that. Thanks for all that you do. Love &amp; Respect from Canada.

Babak Karimian

Will you ever bring Sophie to the studio to hang out?

VGJunky

Congrats on the new studio!!! I’m sure I can speak for much of the community when I say we are very excited about this next step for Easy Allies, but since the changes won’t be seen until after the holidays, will we have a possible last holiday send off to the garage? Maybe an emotional pause and reflection, inside the empty room, similar to the end of Fresh Prince of Bel Air? We’re all excited about the big change, and I know you’ll still have personal streams from your home, but many of us do have an attachment to seeing your cozy garage every week, and feel bitter sweet about saying goodbye. L&amp;R!

TAHK0

So excited about the new studio! I have a question about the "dark period" between when you are leaving the garage and finally being ready at the studio. Is there a chance that some shows, say the Easy Allies Podcast or Frame Trap, could be presented in a low-fi Google Hangouts format from your all's respective homes, so that you all don't have to worry about setting up a spot or editing anything? Just a suggestion that comes from my selfish desire for EZA content. L&amp;R - Josh Read

Josh Read

Hi Jones! Apologies if this has been asked before (I'm a relatively new patron), but I would love to hear more about the little quotes from you that play at the end the EZA Podcast, e.g. "I'm enjoying these microtransactions", and "What do you mean you let him out? Turned out to be a koala." I remember hearing both of those in their original episodes, and I love hearing that little quote each week, it never gets old. You're the one who edits and posts the EZA Podcast, right? So are you the one who originally chose those quotes and decided to put them in? Or does one of the other Allies chime in after a particularly good episode and say something like "Oh Jones, you have to put that koala bit at the end of the podcast, that was too funny" ?

I know it might be a lot to ask, what with the current review and awards season going on, but would it be at all possible to do 2 Trailer Jones episodes for the month of December? As of me writing this it is rumored that a trailer for Captain Marvel, Avengers 4, and Spider-Man: Far From Home could all be released this week, and it would be a shame if one or all of those trailers got buried by all the trailers that will come from The Game Awards. If it is not too much trouble, having two different Trailer Jones episodes, one focusing on the movie trailers and the other on the game trailers, would be a good way to break it all up and give all the trailers the time they deserve.

Evan Charles Teague

Mr. Jones A question about artificial conflict and overt messages in video games. What are your thoughts on videogames with a specific, overt message that is usually driven by an unrealistic antagonism? Examples that come to mind are Deus Ex: Mankind Divided with racism, and Horizon Zero Dawn with Feminism. I really liked these games but found their messages distracting because I felt beaten over the head with them rather than thoughtfully explored. I never understood why Aloy is always condescended to by male characters and undermined for almost no reason, even after performing heroic feats. In Mankind Divided, I couldn't understand why NPCs were hated and treated like second class citizens because of loosing their leg and having a prosthetic. I thought it was strange that a game like Wolfenstein 2 had a far more impactful messages in spite of having a hyper unrealistic premise. The difference I believe comes from grounded antagonism vs. artificial. Your thoughts?

Morgan Mohalla

More of a comment than a question. Apologies if that's flouting the rules here. Without spoiling Ben's review score for Fallout 76 for anyone, it didn't do brilliantly on the 10 point scale. One thing I noticed is that your current review graphics don't make it clear whether it got X/5 or X/10 so there's a bit of a danger for low scoring games that people who skip straight to the end for the score may think you awarded double the score that you actually did. In this case it's low regardless, but in the example of a big "4.5" on screen with no other context, it could be a big difference. Like I say, I don't think it's a huge deal because that's what the rest of the review is for, but maybe worth adding as a takeaway for next time you redesign the on screen graphics.

Greg

Cup of Blood! Cheers before the next Blood Moon Rises!

Darren Mifsud

How can Ian and Don hit the beach if they're on a mountain?

Kris Fredrick

Hey that's me! I'll just chime in and say this would be awesome. The Weekly Clips videos are how I found EZA just before E3 this year. The day Damiani announced the videos were ending, I made the animations for the intro and end slate, got permission from CptHampton to use his music for it and had the first episode up that Saturday. Haven't missed a Saturday since.

Kris Fredrick

Business: Hi Jones, have you guys noticed the youtube channel EZA Weekly Clips? Someone decided to edit the weekly Twitch Clips. Maybe you can work out some collaboration with him like you did with Somegamenews? Cheers

Sven Van Lathem

Hi Jones, I know you've mentioned a bunch of times that you guys would love to hire a community manager. Have you guys considered making this a new patreon goal? Since you guys have hit the studio goal do you feel like you need a new "milestone" to shoot for? I know you have mentioned multiple times that at the beginning you guys thought 50k was kind of crazy and you didn't really know if you guys would ever really hit it. Now that you've hit that goal and the studio is going to happen, hiring a community manager could also be one of these crazy goals at 80k or maybe even 100k. Thank you, Love &amp; Respect

Soratos23

There's been something I've been meaning to ask for the Longest time, and that is, When would you or any of the full time allies ever feel comfortable enough to take a couple of weeks off and do you think you might be close to reaching that goal? If so, what's the first thing you wanna do on this hypothetical break?

Drey Oroceo

Hello Jones! First of all, thank you for taking your time to tackle my question last week, as I realize it was kinda heady and far-reaching, not helped by me getting ahead of myself and bungling some sentences as a result. (More specifically, I meant to say "RDR2 was a massive hit, but was it always go to be?" but ended up just saying "RDR2 but was it always going to be") But that's neither here nor there, because this is a new week and I have a new question. Specifically, I'd like your take on review scores in video games media. More specifically, what's the deal with the way we score games? Take Opencritic for example, which defines "weak" games as getting an aggregated score of less than 65. Isn't that kind of weird? Shouldn't, logically, a 65 be above average? Fallout: 76, one of the largest flops of the year, sits with an average score of 53, still above average, by the literal definition, but somehow still within the lowest ten percent of all aggregated scores on the site. What's going on here? Why do game review scores as a whole only sit in the upper 35-or-something of the 100-point scale? What caused us to get to this point in the first place? I personally feel like this is something that's a problem, because by limiting the range of our scores we also limit our ability to use those scores as a shorthand to convey critical opinion in a meaningful way and it just causes this weird critical dissonance (because like, come on, how is 8.0 just "pretty good?"). What's worse, you can't really stray away from this system on your own due to sites like Metacritic and Opencritic, because there your score gets aggregated the same way all the others do, even if they are contextually different. Of course, I realize this is not just the fault of games media, a lot of us consumers help perpetuate it. Take last year, for example, when Jim Sterling got his site DDoS'd because he had the AUDACITY to give Breath of the Wild a 7.0 (which by the standards of his own metrics is actually pretty good) which is just an absolutely shameful way to respond to a critic disliking something you like, which makes it all the more unfortunate that this is not the first time fans throw temper tantrums over critics not liking something they like as much as they do. I guess my ultimate question is this: Do you believe that the way we score things in the present day is hampering our ability to perform criticism, and would it be worth it to try and rework this system on a grander scale? Thank you for your time! Love &amp; Respect, Small Leviathan

Small Leviathan

I feel Kyle already does this on the podcast with the Pop Tart and Toaster Strudel segment, granted he usually only covers one season at a time though.

BeatenDownBrian

Unfortunately, we only have limited control over how posts are handled on Patreon. Each post has to fit into a specific category, so we don't have any technical way to upload audio to Patreon and include the video as well. I checked the e-mail settings as well, and there's no way to combine posts into an e-mail digest on either the creator side or the patron side. Sorry for any inconvenience. -Bloodworth

Easy Allies

Hey Jones! I feel like you guys send out too many emails via Patreon. Whenever you post something (eg. Fiasconauts) &amp; an audio-only version for that, that's two emails where one should suffice in my opinion. Every single post on patreon seems to trigger an email, so my question is: Why can't both posts be combined into one, am I missing some benefit of the current way or technical difficulty with combining both posts? Another (possibly even better) solution might be to send only one email per day (if you posted anything) listing all the new posts. Does Patreon offer any functionality like that? I could see how some people might want to get notified as quickly as possible when you post something so this shouldn't be a mandatory update for everyone though. Greetings from austria, love &amp; respect wu_tang_clam (Not a native speaker, hope that I got my point across with the right tone)

They covered this topic pretty extensively on the podcast I think

VGJunky

Will Easy Living always be near the beach, or will it eventually go to a different place, like snowy mountains?

Alexander Zyryanov

Greeting Jones!! I want to add my opinion to one of the questions from the Q&amp;A this month about the fear of easy allies getting too big and changing from the beginning of the company. As a patron of Easy Allies since the beginning, I always felt like you guys have done a good job of including everyone. It is hard to get your question read on the main podcast, but shows like this and the Q&amp;A guarantee you get your question read. I've always felt like you guys do a great job of giving us a voice and helping feel like we contribute.

strawhatninja

Hi Jones! Thanks a lot for going through my previous post regarding new Patreon tiers. With the amount of content EZA produces already it is indeed hard to make tiers that would require a lot of work for one or more Allies. That being said being a 25$ Podcast Producer feels good so why not make a new tier called "Super Producer" which lets me be the producer of all 3 EZA Podcasts. Another tier I would personally love to see is a tier related to EZAs various Betting Specials (maybe "Betting Kings"). People in this tier could actively participate in Betting Specials as wild cards or for certain categories. That's just some ideas I had in mind which might not cost too much of your time but might be interesting for certain people (like me) to up their monthly pledge. L&amp;R Daniel

Daniel Fuchs

Hey Jones, I wanted to talk about making the website in a different way then what people have been asking. The website should have both twitch and patreon integration. The forums should carry over twitch emotes and have badges for both patrons and subscribers. The website should know if you are a patron and automatically show you a list of videos only available to your tier etc. Ps. I thibk having a channel called EasyAllies Originals is a great idea.

Ibrahim Sozer

Hi Jones! I know how you started at GT, and I know how GT ended. Businesses typically go through lots of change so that it can hold the bottom line, and GT went through a lot of changes over the years. With that in mind, how did you stay with the company through all that time?

jif52

I think a good RDR GTA hybrid Jones was talking about could be based in my hometown of Kansas City. A very large and artistic city with several burrows, then if you go just an hour south, it is country, cows, small town living. I think it would be an interesting take on the franchise.

Jarod Shulista

Hi Brandon, what are the ingredients of the smoothie that you usually take for breakfast? it's always the same or you try to change it regularly?

Daniel Garza Andrade

How much was cut from the recorded version? Is it just a few minutes we missed?

iconmaster

Mr. Jones! Is the extreme reception of Fallout 76 partially due to a backlog of resentment? The game is quite simply a slog, but a lot of the criticisms aimed at it would apply to nearly all the games Bethesda Games Studios has produced (though, obviously it doesn't help that the good stuff is missing). Can BGS go back to releasing games like they used to? Or is enough enough and are they going to NEED to start making polished games? P.S. I did it, Jones, I kept it shortish!

James Kennedy

Reaction Shots did like... three of them I think? Borgman, Pan's Labyrinth, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit I think? I maaaaay have misremembered the specifics.

Tokyo Slim

Hello Jones, I was wondering if you guys would ever think of doing movie commentary tracks? Just have the audio of you guys commenting that we can synch to the film as we watch on our end? I loved when you and Kyle watched Pokémon Origins together and think it could be fun. Just throwing that out there.

Megan Linart

Hey Mr. Jones! While we’re getting to the close of 2018 and GOTY talks are becoming more prevalent, I had an idea that might be fun, but I’m hesitant to suggest it because it’s a video/stream, and it feels weird to suggest new shows/ideas when EZA makes SO MUCH, but here goes: Do you think it would be fun for EZA to come together and talk about a most anticipated games for 2019 list? It doesn’t have to have a set number and I’m not talking about the Desire Index, but just a group of games everyone is looking forward to they are confident will be played next year. Or is this more of a Top 10 or a podcast topic (be it the main podcast or Frame Trap)? Either way, this seems like a fun thing to gauge what EZA is looking forward to next year. Thanks for reading as always and have a great day! Cheers!

Brandon K Gann

Hi Jones. Speaking of the thing that some people think you guys post spoilers etc. I would like to provide you with an opposing opinion. I think you guys are often TOO worried about spoiling stuff. For example - on more than one occasion I've heard from several Allies that they are not going to stream "Game X" when said game is in the zeitgeist because of spoilers. This is very strange to me. For some games it's important to strike when the iron is hot, like around the release of a hyped game, and I feel you might be missing out on opportunities to get new viewers. Someone who does not want to be spoiled does not have to watch but people who want to watch you guys play the latest games and don't care about spoilers are sort of left with the short end of the stick. This might be hyperbole but it kind of feels like the group that is listened to is the one saying "We don't want to watch this so no one can."

Olf Himself

Check this week's episode. He answered this question there.

Olf Himself

Bloodworth can u stream battlefront 2?

Jaylyn brooks

(I’m also an audio only allie!)

Lukas Krepel

Hellon Brandon, if IGN offered to sell you the rights to the Game Trailers name, IP, and youtube channel, for a price you could afford would the allies buy it and would you move to the larger channel and brand or stay as is?

Garrett Kuenzi

Playing Final Fantasy VI end of the world part all night during a thunderstorm. I'm not Jones, but come on, you have to give it to me, that's a good answer.

César Villa

New link <a href="https://youtu.be/uc6UUo0GTpw" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/uc6UUo0GTpw</a>

Easy Allies

someone @ Blood on Twitter

wait... that link is from a cut stream, where is the actual link?

Allan Cruz

Whats up

Jaylyn brooks

Who? His zero viewers? :D

Snowcone Guy

yes we only get a 1.5 minute video recording of the "stream starting soon" stream intro

Snowcone Guy

Hopefully someone tells Jones lol.

klastical

It is showing a video instead

hey Jones if your reading this, you may need a new link! old one is no longer live :)

Rammer

yup, all i get is a 1:36 video screenj

Technical difficulties?

Snowcone Guy

Hi brandon! A quick question. Do you stress out when there are so many good games to play, but not enough time to play them. I often do, i dont wanna but i do hahah. Cheers !

EdyAle

Speaking of rain, what is your fondest memory of video gaming when it is either pouring rain or snowing outside?

Professor Metal Gear