Cup of Jones - July 31, 2018

Hi Jones, can you remember a time in GT/EZA history where you had to play the boss card?

Deniz Schreiber

B

Sekiro505

What do you think of metal Batman and also the one where he takes steroids?

Sekiro505

No question Jones. Just wanted to say H'aanit elite club for life.

I hope you're doing well today

How did you and Amanda meet?

Riley Donoho

You get to take the powerset of a character from the Marvel Universe and are transported into the DC universe. What character's powers will you take? What do you do in that universe now that you have powers? Do you try to join the Bat Family? Do you go to Metropolis? Or do you become a villain? Does the JLA try to hire you? What. Do. You. Do?

Daniel Askew

Who's the biggest Xbox/Microsoft fan of the group?

Steve S

Business Question Alert! (Cue: MGS "!") Hey Jones, I noticed that many youtube channels I follow all initially load as the following: youtube.com/Channel/[Random Characters] But! Once you click any of the main page tabs, they change to youtube.com/User/[Specific Name] But EZA doesn't do that. Any particular reason why? It may be a Blood question, but it may make finding the youtube page by sharing the URL/etc easier to use. Example: EZA: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZrxXp1reP8E353rZsB3jaA" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZrxXp1reP8E353rZsB3jaA</a> KFG: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/KindaFunnyGames" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/user/KindaFunnyGames</a> Feel free to not read all of this out loud, or reword it as you wish, it's just extra info so you can hopefully better understand and see what I mean. ;)

drd7of14

Morning Brandon! If this question has already been asked before (I'm not there every week), feel free to skip it. No hard feelings ;) My question is: I value EZAs reviews dearly in regard to expensive purchase decisions I have to make (like full-priced games). From a consumer standpoint, have you ever considered expanding your scope for reviews to include big game expansions (like WoW Battle For Azeroth), hardware revisions (like the PS4 Pro) or gaming peripherals and accessories (like toys-to-life and Nintendo Labo kits) in order to inform consumers about these pricey products the same way as you do with games? L&amp;R Henk Groenendijk

Henk Groenendijk

Hey Jones Quick question about the game 'Just Shapes and Beats': I can't find any coverage of this game by the allies. I'm not even sure I've heard the game mentioned at any point. Have I missed it or did it just slide under the radar? Please put your feelers out there, make sure the Allies know this game exists. It's beautiful.

Daniel Rona

Jones is a wise man

Jones, Batman time: How do you think Bruce Wayne should be portrayed: Like a spoiled, selfish, arrogant doofus (A direction Batman Begins went) or as a charitable, competent upstanding citizen of Gotham (like the animated series steered)? Hopefully you have your own take how Bruce Wayne should be portraying himself to the rest of the world.

Robert I.

This is something that I’ve been thinking about lately too. I think your idea is sound, but I feel like for it to work, then I’d worry that it would absolutely require someone to be responsible for keeping track of the covered topics in a forum post or something, as well as that person needing to be present in the comments each week to help direct people to those episodes. The other potential issue is that if Jones puts something to rest, like let’s say Brandon Plays Pokemon for instance, then I feel by highlighting it, you may actually end up with a heap of comments focusing on it, i.e. People wanting to make their case for why they still think it could work. I hope it doesn't seem like I’m crapping on your idea or anything here Morgan, I don’t mean it to come off that way at all. Like I said at the start, it’s just something I’ve been thinking about for a while too, but I’m not sure if I've any great solution either. See comment below lol.

BeatenDownBrian

(You don’t need to address this, unless there’s a part of it you want to cover, otherwise it’s just feedback.) While obviously this week’s episode of COJ was bloated due to the backlog of personal questions, the volume of questions you’re receiving, as well as the overall length of the show, seems to be becoming more of an issue for you as the Patreon continues to grow. I wanted to offer up a few possible solutions to maybe ease the problem. Repeated questions: This one is the hardest imo, as I’m not sure there is any great solution. There will always be someone who is new, or someone who just missed an episode where that topic was covered. While it’s not ideal, as it’s more work for you, but in the absence of a COJ FAQ, then maybe responding in the comments is the best solution for now at least. Duplicate questions: While the questions about Brandon Plays Pokemon were approached from different angles, perhaps they could’ve been grouped together, just so you’re not covering the same topic multiple times in the same show. Introduce a new soft rule regarding questions: Up until now COJ has been a place where you’ve been guaranteed an answer to your question, which is great, but I feel like in some cases this has lead to people asking questions maybe more because they can, rather than it being a burning issue for them. I also feel it leads to people sometimes asking questions about other Allies shows etc., which would be better directed at said Ally. What I want to suggest is a new soft rule of one question, per Patron, every two episodes. I say a soft rule, because when you’re staring at a sea of usernames it may not always be easy to remember if that person asked something the week before or not, but in general anytime you’ve asked the community to ease back on questions for certain episodes, they’ve responded in kind. I realise this would probably drastically reduce the number of questions per week, but maybe now is the time to do it, before reaching the point where doing so would still leave you with an hour and a half long show. L&amp;R

BeatenDownBrian

Hi Jones. I think you recently brought up that some of the allies were waiting outside during the final section of Cup of Jones. Why not invite the ally in for a bit? I am just curious what a cup of jones with a dash of -insert ally name- would be like. L&amp;R Alex

Alex_AI

Mr.Jones I just watched the last two COJs back to back and noticed that the redundant questions were pretty distracting. I understand the audience rotates and some overlap is inevitable, but is there any way you could structure the conversation a little more? You have already done a good job with separating business and personal questions, setting boundaries with question content and enforcing the one question per week rule. I would suggest a completely unofficial segment, implemented at your discretion, called "I am putting it to rest". In this segment you could address the audience's recurring interest in a topic, state "Leave your questions for me to address next week so I can put this to rest". After you discus it the following week, add it to the short list of retired topics and simply reference the discusion if it comes up again. Perhaps the community could keep track of what topics go with what episodes for future reference. I think this would alleviate the frustration of frequently repeating yourself and construct a better dialogue between yourself and the audience. Respectfully, Morgan Mohalla

Morgan Mohalla

Hi Jones. I was just watching Community Showcase and heard you saying my name which surprised me because I didn't submit anything. After looking into it the one who made it is named Tyson Nguyen. Just wanted to correct it since I didn't make it. L&amp;R TearjuEngi

Trung Nguyen

Business question: Hi Jones, so from what i understand you'll reveal the new goals at Easy Livin'. I think its great but can you please upload a video about it on youtube aswell? If you want to attract new Patreons, you have to reach some of those 175k subscribers and not just twitch people. Just a thought. L&amp;R

Sven Van Lathem

or not, whatevs

VGJunky

Greetings Brandon, With this fall being as clearly stacked as it is, I know you're all already going to be strapped for time, but I was wondering whether there are any plans to cover Destiny 2: Forsaken. Obviously coming out the same day as Dragon Quest XI and three days before Spider-Man makes it a tough sell - and let me be clear, I LOVE Dragon Quest and don't want anything to take away from it getting all the attention it deserves - but as a fan of the Destiny franchise I'm curious how the major changes Bungie is promising will affect the game's reaction among the Allies who played it last year when it was new.

Erunion

Hello Brandon. On last Cup of Jones when you've talked about Mass Effect 3 you've said that you don't want developers to do something only because fans wanted it. I feel that the same is happening with Box Peek. Kyle recently announced that he plans to split Box Peek in two seasons and release first 5 episodes before the rest is done. I feel that Box Peek wasn't planned and written with this split in mind, and Kyle is doing this only because he feels the pressure from the fans and patrons. Also I guess that this pressure was partly created by regular updates from Kyle, since he regularly sets time goals only to find out that he can't reach them. I feel that Box Peek production should go dark and resurface again only when the whole series is ready. This approach seems working for retrospectives and Game Sleuth which are also patreon funded goals that was initially promised to be delivered on timely basis. What do you think?

Alexander Zyryanov

No, there's some weird technical issues preventing us from converting it to mp3. -Bloodworth

Easy Allies

Will there be an audio version of this episode released?

CosmicCrown

After hearing you talking about galaxy of heroes on numerous occasions, I decided to give it a try, and now I am obsessed. What about this game, in your opinion, separates it from other mobile offerings.

Lucid Ludwig

Hi Jones, The comment and discussion from this episode about limiting Hall of Greats so that Allies had to bring a game the others hadn't played got me thinking. Have the Allies considered limiting candidates for an episode to a certain system, console era, or decade (such as 16-bit era, 90's PC games, or only arcade games)? I know you mentioned that you were not that comfortable limiting what games the Allies can bring to Hall of Greats, yet in your previous mini-editorial, you lamented that Huber rebutted your GTA 3 pick with "Why didn't you bring GTA 5?" Normalizing the candidates so they have some general, common attribute could help focus the Q&amp;A portion to avoid that type of question or the "which version?" issue for games with re-releases or remasters, and focus more on gameplay or story elements that may not have worked or what really made that game special over its peers. I realize the ideal of Hall of Greats is to debate and agree on the timeless games that "are great" rather than "were great in their time" and that it is fun and interesting to debate why Pong deserves a spot next to Super Metroid. But with such a limited time for discussion, it can be difficult to fully explore those arguments. It might also help diversify the selections and promote inclusion of games that might otherwise get overlooked when you have the entire history of gaming to choose from. Would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Who do you want to come to Marvel Strike Force? Is there an Easy Allies alliance on there I can join?

Hi Brandon, Let me preface this by saying I am a big fan of the Community Showcase streams and the way that show has evolved from its inception is a big success story for Easy Allies. Your engagement with everyone in the community is a large reason for why you guys are so successful. With that being said, would you eventually consider moving the Showcase off of a Patreon tier and over to a monetary goal akin to Friend Code or Reaction Shots? Here's my thought process. As the Showcase streams have continued to grow in length, you have mentioned that it's fortunate that everyone subscribing at that tier does not submit, or the show would be untenable. As Easy Allies grows, this scenario grows increasingly more likely as more Patrons are gained. Additionally, the $10 is a unique price-point, where many people outside of Patreon likely pay for other monthly subscriptions such as Netflix or Amazon Prime. I think it is essentially a threshold for essentially your higher-tier offerings and therefore offers a lot of incentive for what is offered. With $5 Patrons outpacing $10 Patrons on a scale of roughly 4-to-1, I think there is an opportunity to convert more people to a more universally enticing tier. If you were to move Community Showcase off of this tier, you could then highlight the submissions you receive each month, still doing your stream, but you could control the length moving forward. I do not perceive it as a show that would see an overwhelming number of new submissions if available to everyone, but if so, you'd be able to curate the show since you'd no longer be tied to addressing every submission. The flipside to this, of course, is a possibility that submissions may be cut for time or moved into future showcases, which may bother long-time supporters of the show. I just think this helps to ensure the longterm viability of the show while still offering a new option at a valuable tier. Of course a big part of this suggestion relies on what would replace Community Showcase at $10, and I do not have the answer for that, but I'm sure internally you guys have kicked around some ideas. I feel super awkward making suggestions like this since I know that no one knows the business better than the 9 people who live it 24/7, so as always, thank you for you time!

Jon White

Hi Brandon, Rockstar recently did a collaboration with facebook, where "Facebook Gaming Creator friends" stream GTA Online and viewers can grab a random GTA$ cash drops during the stream. I feel like it's an interesting idea, do you think you can pull some strings and make a special facebook EZA stream happen? <a href="https://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/60504/Social-Club-x-Facebook-Gaming-The-AFTER-HOURS-Live-Streams-Series" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/60504/Social-Club-x-Facebook-Gaming-The-AFTER-HOURS-Live-Streams-Series</a>

Sergey P.

Hey Jones, quick suggestion for Easy Livin game to play: Pokemon Colliseum on the GameCube. You play as a bad guy who can catch and steal other trainer's Pokemon mid battle! Completely in 3D too! Thought you'd enjoy it based on your Pokemon philosophising comments in the past. Also thank you for your stance on politics in content, I love having EZA as a jolly refuge from the world. Love and respect!

Javi

a "jones" is a slang for an intense craving. He goes mad for those ads, he's got an intense craving for trailers. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Jones_Street" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Jones_Street</a>

Evan

I've found myself answering a fair number of questions before Brandon has a chance to. Obvious things where the answers are 'no because of time, or resources'. Or, 'the studio will help that'. I'm also getting a little worried about individuals who say 'I don't like this thing' and then Brandon suggests EZA will attempt to placate that person by doing what they demand. Like, 'X is too short, or too long, change it' Obviously, there will be people who have the opposite opinion or think it's fine. No question here, just some concerns.

Kif

I really like your "Technical" episode of Trailer Jones idea. I hope they go for it! L&amp;R

Shawn Doom

Hi, Jones. Two quick ones. First, regarding the EZA audience. I saw the Brazilian Mega Drive stream and I've seen quite a few Brazilians around in L&amp;R and such and, as a Brazilian myself, I was wondering if you could share a little bit of the information regarding the EZA international community on Patreon/Youtube. Is it a big part of Patreon? Were you guys intrigued by your audience size in different countries? Just curious about where the overall EZA international community comes from. Second, regarding Trailer Jones, I know you pick people who are available to record after the podcast, but I'd love to have, if possible, a Trailer Jones more "technical" with you, obviously, Ian and Don. Given that you all are video editors, I think it would be quite cool to see what you all would think about the trailers. Not that I dislike the other allies' views and opinions. Thanks!

Éberson Polita

He goes mad for those ads, he got a........trailer jones??? Is that a dirty joke Brandon? hmmm?

FreeDoM

For the Stream: Question: How do you feel about making Spoiler Mode more of a regular part of your coverage cycle and content production? Some previews, a FT segment, and a Review are great but I think what will really be beneficial is the patron-exclusive spoiler discussion that comes with each major release. I think that the major area we're lacking is that you guys play a lot of big games but the venue to talk about it unfiltered and post-completion is a bit lacking. Frame Trap is great but it's limited to a biweekly show with only two guests at a time. I brought it up to Ben and he said you guys were planning to do more - I just want to emphasize how much more I think would work And for slow periods, maybe even do major games from the past like FFXV or the Nier Automata spoiler mode we never got. You've got plenty of other good games that warrant it because of there being aspects to it that you wouldn't want to spoil elsewhere I know that a major hurdle is that two people need to have played a game for a Spoiler Mode, but I feel like for the big releases that will usually be the case and there's also got to be a way to get around the 2 person requirement for us to get some spoiler coverage of big games. (You don't have to read any of the following on stream, just some thoughts:) I think that aside from reviews, Spoiler Modes might be some of your most sought-after content and definitely your most enticing exclusive show for casual viewers. As such, I think you guys are going to want to put a big or bigger emphasis on getting those done for every major game release. DQXI, Spiderman happening around the same month? KH3 and RE2 within days of each other? Tough, but you have to do them all, since they are some key releases, especially when you guys hype them over months or years. The big ones should be locks, and consider doing smaller games or franchises that a couple of Allies are passionate about like Valkyria Chronicles or DMC (I am biased) should as well, since passion lends itself to good discussion. You can only do so much with so much time, but surrounding major game releases Spoiler Mode deserves to be up there on the priority list of things to put time into. And you have to PROMOTE it - a 10 second Youtube video saying that a Spoiler Mode for a big game has dropped and to go to Patreon to get it will go a long way and it's a direct marketing play. You don't have to worry about clogging up the Youtube feed either, since Spoiler Modes themselves don't even show up on it when they're published. Making it your Podcast promotion is also a good call, so it was nice to see that you guys did it this week. The fact of the matter is that people want to hear a little more in-depth and focused discussion about particular games than a 20 minute spoiler-free segment on a Frame Trap once every two weeks can provide, This is especially true because those are always only the games brought by 3 panelists (which are basically always Huber, Brad, or Ben). Sometimes just a segment on Frame Trap and a review aren't always enough, and I think that the extra targeted gaming content will go a long way since sometimes the balance is very non-gaming or news-heavy The schedule sometimes feels a little sparse so, embargoes aside, I would always look at what's coming on a weekly or monthly basis and think about "how much of this is about the games we're playing and our thoughts on them?" Is it doable? 30-45 minutes of openly discussing a game? I feel that it would be worth it. It might have some redundancies with Frame Trap but despite jokes about wanting a 5 hour episode, FT is already frankly long enough as it is. Ben could have a brief/general version of the discussion on FT with his own questions and then direct people to the Spoiler Mode for even more if they want it. FT could also bring in Allies that weren't on the Spoiler Mode that could be visiting a game late. Is putting out videos focusing on specific games that aren't just previews or reviews on your guys' radar? I think it should be near the top of the priority list. Reviews, EZA Podcast, Frame Trap, Spoiler Mode, Top 10s, and Previews should be like thefoundation for your content creation in my eyes, since they are the specifically gaming focused things that cater to the global gaming audience (Spoiler Mode being their gateway into dropping a dollar to support). And then you have to pile on the other community obligations like Showcase, Q&amp;A, Reaction Shots, Trailer Jones, CoJ, and Friend Code, but if it's at the expense of your coverage of new games then you might have to reevaluate something along the way.

VGJunky

just come home from ESA (European Speedrunner's Assembly) and had such a blast, raising roughly 1 month of EZA patronage for charity ;) Any speedrunning hype among the Allies? I rarely hear you speak about it.

irene035

Brad?

Olf Himself

Hey Brandon, subjective question: Given how other circumstances currently suck in the world, we celebrate the Golden Age of gaming in our decade. The sheer output of new and revised IP, no matter if AAA or indie, is overwhelming at times. However I feel there is still a lack of proper coop games. I have a good friend who lives in a different country and we stay in touch by playing coop. We are both not a fan of competitive multiplayer and enjoy story games. A WAY OUT was definitely a suprise for us. However most other options are either based on a simple formula (shooter campaign) or the coop multiplayer mechanics are very complicated and annoying (Souls games, Monster Hunter). Yes, there is the occasional platformer and indie game, but overall I feel that there is room for more variety and presence in bigger titles: "BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL 2" gives me a COOP vibe and I would die for excitement if CYBERPUNK would be playable in coop (probably very unlikely, but that would be a gaming milestone of course). What is your take on better/more coop games? Ever discussed this with other Allies?

wouldyoukindly

Would it be beneficial if your patrons made requests to patreon directly visavie joint audio/video posts? Helping them see demand for a feature like that... Or would that maybe be unhelpful and muddy the water? L&amp;R Matt

Matt Brookbank

Hi Brandon, just wanted to throw this out there. I recently got more into Kind Of Funny and that led me to Collider’s Movie Trivia Schmoedown. I feel like at least a few of you are pretty knowledgeable with movies, why not give it a shot? Challenge the Kind Of Funny or Funhaus crew, they both have appeared on it. It would probably be fun and be it would be another way of getting the EZA name out there.

Sean Stark

Hey Mr. Jones! Now that we’re three days away from Quake-Con, I was wondering: Will EZA have a live reactions stream to the keynote? It will have the world premiere gameplay of DOOM: Eternal, plus a couple of other games will be covered. It will be Friday, August 10th at 9 am PT, so I wasn’t sure if the early time on a weekday would warrant a stream with some of the Allies, considering it’s not a major keynote from something bigger like TGS, Gamescom, or Paris Games Week, but I wanted to double check nonetheless. Thanks for reading again and Cheers!

Brandon K Gann

Jones, what would you do if EZA hadn't been so successful as is right now? what if people didn't believed in the project? did you had like a time frame to give this a shot?

Daniel Garza Andrade

I think that group stream is the best time for presents since it's the time when everybody's there to receive any physical messages or gifts directed towards them.

VGJunky

YouTube Promotion Notes: It is against their terms of service to create a video directing users to a competing streaming site. Linus Tech had their YouTube streaming rights taken away from a time (months?) because of doing this for their WAN Show.

Sam Sorensen

thanks Jones!

Hey Jones, I love that the community showcase exists and the patreon is growing every day but along with this comes more and more submissions every month, and I can imagine this getting tougher to handle as it grows even more. Have you ever thought of doing a separate show just dedicating it to the comments, letters, and unboxing presents? Almost like an EZA Mailbag Show instead of including the comments in the showcase? I think this would help make the showcase more focused on showcasing the art, photos, and music while the comments and presents still get the attention as well and with them spilt up they each can get some more time for discussion and viewing instead of having to rush through them. Not every ally needs to be present either. I’m not sure how this would affect the reward tiers so this is honestly just shooting some ideas around so no need to take it seriously at all. Thanks for taking the time

Megan Linart

Dear Jones If this is a frequent question please feel free to skip it. How did you learn how to do voiceover work. Dear comments. If this was asked before does anyone know where I could find the answer?

Kola Aina

Hello Jones! I'm performing a one man show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year, doing 24 shows in 26 days- I was wondering if you had any tips for how to keep my voice and my body okay? I'm going to be doing yoga after the show and also drinking honey, lemon and hot water- but if there's any other tip I should know, it'd be great to hear it from the Easy Allies voice maestro himself.

See You When I Get There

Well, I spent the time to rip the audio out of the Youtube link so I can listen to this on a walk. Figure I would upload it to my server and share for others. Hope this is alright, I am a bit worried something is missing and YouTube is not settled yet, but this is how the video starts atm. <a href="http://46.4.56.205/share/Cup.of.Jones.July.31.2018.256kbit.AAC.mka" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://46.4.56.205/share/Cup.of.Jones.July.31.2018.256kbit.AAC.mka</a> Enjoy, I use VLC if the audio format is giving anyone trouble.

You're missing one vital point: Youtube Premium isn't available in a lot of countries. Currently it's available in Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the UK and USA. Also, people might not want to get just another subscription to something next to the subscriptions they already have. And on top of that a lot of people like to listen to their audio stuff in Podcast apps that track what they already listened to.

Stefan Vlemmix

Ps. The family account I mentioned is about 15 bucks a month, while a solo account is about 10 bucks a month.

umryan

Hey Jones, every week I hear fellow patrons requesting audio versions of various EZA content, and I wanted to try to broadcast a solution that works very well for me. Some people may not realize that Youtube audio will continue to play on your phone while the screen is off WITH a youtube premium account, thus rendering ALL EZA content on youtube as audio form. I'm not trying to shill for youtube or Google, but I find this feature simply invaluable. Personally, I use a Google play music's premium family account, which includes youtube premium for up to 6 accounts. Plus Google play music has decent podcast integration. I'm able to listen to so much content, EZA or otherwise, while at work or while exercising thanks to this. I have no affiliation with Google and they could remove this feature at any time on a whim, but I find this to be an elegant and essential method for consuming EZA content in audio form. Did you know this feature was available? (Please skip this if you take issue with essentially advertising for those companies, just trying to get this info out there. Thanks.)

umryan

Mr. Jones I hope you find yourself well. I am enjoying the countdowns as an additon to my regular weekly media consumptions. The talk about the old Top Ten Manbabes on Frametrap and the great Top 10 Silver Foxes made me wonder if you would rule out doing a ranking of female characters based on their attractiveness and if so, why? I wish you all success.

Hey Brandon, can we get an Evil Allies Month where you guys have evil pointy goatees for every show and stream for that allotted 30 days? It would be fun and silly.

Jason Walstrom

I think it will have to hit 52-53k for us to maintain 50k. There is always a good 2-4k drop at the start of each month. But Hopefully it's 50k next month.

Victor Ko

I wonder if we will maintain at 50k again for July. It's there now.

Professor Metal Gear