Cup of Jones - 02/06/18

Also if you were curious about my dumb riddle, the answer was in fact COFFIN. Which upon reflection may have been the wrong choice entirely for a CoJ ep celebrating your birthday. Though most know you will always be young at heart. Please excuse the accidental idiocy :P

Christian Thomas

Hi Jones! What is happiness?

Parasitepaladin

Hi Jones, I love when Frame Trap's Hottake conversations get into the nitty-gritty of what you do as Easy Allies - your responsibilities, your ethical practices, and what have you. Does the existence of conversations like those on podcasts change the dynamic at group meetings in any explicit way, or do you largely treat that as one thing and business talk as another? Thanks, Dominic

DaleBastion

I just wanted to clarify something about my recent submission to the Community Showcase: Huber's Bard costume included a codpiece, not a diaper. This is a reference to Bard Quest, an earlier work by the same author. Don't be fooled by the Bard's silly outfit though, they are some of the most destructive classes and a force to be reckoned with.

Small Leviathan

Hey Brandon, I'm going to double down with another Star Wars question this week: What's your take away of the Game of Thrones writers getting at least 2 Star Wars movies? Are we getting things too planned out in advance, or is this welcome news because of their high profile work before Star Wars? I've seen some comments about how they struggled with doing their own stories when not following George R R Martin's work directly for GoT, but I think that's too much of a simplification of the situation. Either way, we have at least 7 Star Wars movies unreleased, but we only know the subject matter of 2. Keep up the great work, Matt Kuryloski (kur-LA-skee phonetically)

Matt Kuryloski

Hi Brandon, Hope you’re feeling better this week. Recently you mentioned how you will play Red Dead 2 online when it releases and run an EZA gang. This got me thinking. It would be cool if there was a dedicated weekly or monthly gaming session where any available Ally played a multiplier game with Patrons. The participating Patrons could be selected randomly so that everyone who wants to join gets a shot. Perfect games for this could be Sea of Thieves, Red Dead 2 online, or PUBG. I believe this happens already in a way when an Ally tweets that they will be playing X game with anyone who wants to join, and that Ben’s Dojo invites other players. However, a dedicated time for multiplayer games other than fighting games can make these session less spontaneous and more organized. I know you guys are slammed with work already but I thought this could be an idea for you to archive. I like every EZA member and would love to play games with them. This is my selfish way to try to make that happen. Thanks for reading. L&R, CrazyBiird

Hiya there Jones, Quick question. Have you jumped into the Olympics DLC for Steep? I hadn't played it when it first came out, but between Olympics hype and Bosman streaming SSX, I had to give it a shot to scratch an itch. It's not a perfect game, but it's definitely fun. L&R

Kate Bishop

Hi Brandon! Here's a tough one: Flash FM or Emotion 98.3? Remember those drives under the neon lights and try to make this impossible choise.

Ville Ranto

Hey Jones! Quick question, do you have a set date for an anniversary stream? I saw the live show announced, but I wasn't sure about the stream. Thanks!

Maggie Frayer

Hi Jones. The EZA forum community have collectivly decided Top 25 games of 2017. The best five are: #5. NieR:Automata #4. Super Mario Odyssey #3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild #2. Horizon Zero Dawn #1. Persona 5 How do you feel about Horizon beating both Mario and Zelda? Link: <a href="https://forums.easyallies.com/topic/4741/the-eza-community-top-25-best-of-2017" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://forums.easyallies.com/topic/4741/the-eza-community-top-25-best-of-2017</a>

Alexander Zyryanov

Hey Jones, seeing as you're a huge fan of the DC animated universe, I was wondering if you've ever watched the show Young Justice. It has wonderful characters, interesting plot lines, and is overall one of the best representations of the DC universe. It ran for two seasons before being unjustly cancelled, but is being brought back for a third season thanks to fan enthusiasm. If you can find the time, I think this is one you would really enjoy. Love and respect as always.

ZF

Did you play Yoshi's Wolly World (Wii U)?

GmanSir

But only being able to speak to one chat section at a time, unless they go really crazy. Save Mixer for streams that clearly benefit from it. I'd be interested in seeing them try it for one week of Weekly Hunts, as we could see Ian, Brad, Huber and Ben all streaming simultaneously on Mixer.

Louis Sandiford

Hey Jones, just a small suggestion for a thing to do in the near future: Twitter and Facebook verification. There are a couple of reasons for doing this: 1) You're personalities now, and that means managing your brand. A verification mark prevents nefarious people from putting out things in your name. While it may seem to you that there's only a very low chance of this happening right now, but why wait to act? 2) It means that people trying to find the Allies on Twitter / Facebook don't struggle in doing so. The Facebook page, as an example, doesn't have *too* many followers, so a little check mark would demonstrate to people that it's an official page, and not some fan page. 3) It looks professional, and helps get you noticed. This is channelling my inner brand manager here, but a little blue tick is a status symbol in and of itself. Maybe this means you get retweeted more when replying to a tweet. That increases visibility and helps the brand. It's small, but every little helps. <a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/about-twitter-verified-accounts" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/about-twitter-verified-accounts</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/100168986860974?helpref=faq_content" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/help/100168986860974?helpref=faq_content</a>

Louis Sandiford

All business this week. Mr. Jones, What do you do to improve your business acumen? It is nice that everything seems to be running smoothly, and the Allies are happy, but as the leader of this business how are you honing your edge to make the company better? Also, there is a lot of talk about the company requirements from the GT days such as strict review deadlines, top tens every week, etc. not being conducive to a good working environment. While I agree that pushing people too hard can result in fatigue, I also can't help but think that the punctual reviews and consistent content served as a credit to the GT name. I know that top tens are not coming back and reviews will be delayed to give a full and honest take on a game, but does it concern you that it may be a detriment to the EZA brand? Respectfully, Morgan Mohalla

Morgan Mohalla

Hi Brandon. Completed the original PS1 Resident Evil on my PS3 with the glorious English voice over, which makes me think of old spagetti western. A favorite is Keoma, have you seen it and what's some obscure spagetti westerns worth watching?

bjørnar haraldsvik

Jones, looks like you've forgot to make January Community Showcase post public.

Alexander Zyryanov

Hopefully now my comment won't disappear

Karl Williams

Hello Mr. Jones, Since my January Community Showcase post had disappeared before the stream and probably wasn't read, I wanted to give a short version of what I had been playing recently. I have been into Fortnite: Battle Royale even since I saw portions of it being played at PSX back in December. The game is very fun with interesting strategic elements in terms of building material. I've even gotten a few wins which is awesome. And while it can be frustrating sometimes, I'm glad to have found something that gives Final Fantasy 14 a run for its money in occupying my play time. Speaking of Final Fantasy 14, the new story patch for Stormblood has been out for a while, and I've barely scratched the surface. Currently, I'm only focusing on the next installment of the 8-man raid, which features bosses from Final Fantasy 6, including the Phantom Train and of course Kefka. I've already completed the raid's normal mode and will focus on the raid's savage mode. I've never played Final Fantasy 6, so getting the opportunity to fight Kefka in his final form with Dancing Mad playing the background would be quite the honor (his final form is only accessible in savage mode). And that is it for what I played in January. As you can see, it would have appealed to both you and Damiani and hearing both of your comments would have been a treat. Hope you're feeling much better, Mr. Jones. Love &amp; Respect.

Karl Williams

Unfortunately it's part of the technical limitations of how Patreon is designed. We can choose an audio post (which creates the Patron-only RSS feed) or a video post, livestream post, text post, image post, etc. They're each very distinct and separate. -Bloodworth

Easy Allies

I have notifications set up to email me for every new post on the Easy Allies Patreon because I love keeping up with everything that gets posted here. I was wondering though, would it be possible to post the audio and video posts together instead of two separate posts, or is there a technical reason this needs to be done? I understand posting separately if there's a delay on one of those versions, but often they're posted one after the other and it sends me 2 emails and 2 notifications through the Patreon app. Just a thought!

Saw "Cabaret" last night and during the "Perfectly Marvelous" number I couldn't help picturing you and Amanda performing it together. If ever you two feel like getting musically silly on camera, I hope you will give consideration to performing the number. &lt;3 Feel free to make this a one-time Patreon stretch goal to gauge interest, because maybe I'm alone encouraging this. '^_^

Robert I.

Question: do you have a favourite brewing method for coffee (whether making it yourself or having it made for you in a cafe for example). Aeropress, cafettier, espresso machine, V60, Turkish, pour-over etc. Keep up the good work and Duty Now for year 3!

3 questions for this week. Using your head and not your heart, which Rockstar game do you think will enter the Hall of Greats first? In my opinion San Andreas is the best but I would back Vice City followed closely by Red Dead Redemption for the least resistant entrants. Question 2. Why do Americans say 'tuna fish' what other tuna would you confuse it with? Question 3. You have been so good to us with weekly cup of jones do you feel any fatigue? Is the future of cup of jones weekly. Or at some point would it become monthly? Thanks

Steven Beaumont

Good Morning Brandon! I've been noticing that a lot of the comments recently have the same tone. Many of them talk about the production quality of your shows. One of my favorite aspects of EZA is the scrappy nature that comes with a group of dedicated people just doing what they love. The supposed "low" quality of some of your streams and podcasts are part of what makes the show charming. I love when Kyle has to remind Damiani to talk into the Mic, or when the audio levels are off at the start of a stream and they have to be fixed, or even that you can tell that the whole thing is being recorded in a garage. In fact, I worry that when you get to that studio goal, you will lose some of that charm that I love so much. But I trust you guys, and it will be fun seeing that studio come to fruition. -Quaznarg

Quaznarg

I could be wrong, but I think the reason this happened in this instance was because Blood is on holidays, and he simply wanted to get them posted so he could relax. He put out a tweet basically to that effect.<a href="https://twitter.com/dbloodworth2/status/960772532168048640" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/dbloodworth2/status/960772532168048640</a>

BeatenDownBrian

Good day, I was wondering if any of the allies ever thought about competing at EVO? What if the allies have a few fighting game tournaments and the overall winner will be sent to EVO to compete. I know the allies aren't that good in fighting games, but just the experience would be interesting. Maybe an Easy Update at EVO. Just a random thought. Keep up the good work.

NotYourMom

Hello Jones! First of all, a big thanks to you for this show. Also, huge kudos for keeping up with the weekly schedule. I always look forward to a new Cup of Jones. English is not my native language so apologies for the grammar. I have a suggestion for the Easy Allies Podcast. How about letting the patrons recommend the weekly goals? 1. Patrons send their suggestions via a central post in Patreon or some other means. A patron can suggest as many goals they want as many times they want. 2. Suggestions are pooled and the panel would pick from this pool at the beginning of the podcast. The panel may see the what’s in the pool because the pick will be random/blind anyway. Kinda like when Kyle was picking songs from a pool during Boz v Woz. 3. The goal should be kept secret from each other (and the audience maybe?) and will be revealed at the end during the usual time when Kyle checks up on the goals. The goal and the patron who suggested it would be revealed. 4. Patrons-suggested goals must not be mean spirited. It's all about L&amp;R after all. 5. The pool may be purged weekly or just let it grow and purge when it becomes too large to manage. 6. Goals already picked should be removed from the pool (although my OC-ness would prefer you keep a record of goals picked) 7. Maybe at the end of the quarter/year, the one who achieved the most goals wins a prize or something. I thought letting the patrons pick the goals would add some spice to one of my favorite moments in the podcast. These are just suggestions and not a deal breaker for me. Just wanted to get these thoughts out there since they've been in my mind and wouldn't go away. FYI, I am very happy with the podcast as it is now. Can't wait for the next one! L&amp;R LeiLore

LeeLore

Hey Jones! I was listening to the latest Frame Trap and i had an idea that i thought would be cool and i wanted your thoughts on it. During the Hottake (sp?) Huber mentions how difficult it can be to try and balance your time with reviews due to embargos, missing review codes and other variables that might impede on the review process, he also mentions how impossible it is to review every game that ever gets released. It's a completely understandable predicament im sure you all face, not just Huber. What if you guys had a poll system, much like you do with group streams and have Patrons vote a Month (or Months) ahead of time on what games they would like to most see covered in a review? It would be a neat way to include Patrons in the review process, it would allow you do refine the pool of games you may consider reviewing to just the ones you know your viewers care most (and the ones you care about) about and also give you insight as to which games would be appropriate for Previews or a Don't Skip. The ones that get high votes would be reviewed and the "honorable mentions" would make for some great Don't Skips! There would have to be a chance for each Ally to review games that they want to play as well, you guys are gamers too and i think we care about your opinions on the games we're into AND the games you're into. A smaller version of this idea would be to have 1 review every month that is Patron selected! (maybe a new tier?) It seems like a pretty stressful part of the job juggling peoples expectations with reality and trying to make it as smooth a transition as possible, maybe some more rigid structure would help takes some pressure off. And remember, finish those checks, keep your stick on the ice and pump those legs. Keep up the great work! Love &amp; Respect Dr.Ice P.S i SUCK at grammar, apologies.

Based on the note in your audio Patreon post. The allergies could also be due to the erratic weather changes in So Cal... well, this warmup in winter seems to be the norm as of late. My allergies have been acting up, but mine are relatively minor episodes. Get more sleep though. More sleep means more time for your body to take advantage of building muscle. Don't want those lessons from GermanEfficiency to be in vain.

Professor Metal Gear

Jones, Mixer, Twitch and Youtube at the same time <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkYTXNXGtJE" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkYTXNXGtJE</a>

I don't have any serious questions. Here's something hyperbolic. EZA has grown into a multi national conglomerate... who do you consider acquiring?

Kif

If you're convinced that given the right circumstances you would enjoy Stardew Valley, I would recommend modding it. I had the same experience; I tried it, but I felt that with the time available to me in the real world and the way I wanted to play it, in short stints every once in a while, the game just wouldn't work for me. So, I installed a couple of mods. Now I love it.

Kif

What do you think of the Batman villain Hush? Personally, he's one of my favourite "B" villains.

Logan Tawse

Hey Jones, I appreciate your opinion on Horizon, but for some reason I want to play it even more now ^^ I think I'll get it next time it's on sale or something. And to specify my headache. I had it in the past for some games, but it was never so bad that it hindered me having fun. Bloodborne was the first one where it got really bad and since then I pay a lot of attention to fps in games. Although slow JRPGs, RTSs and stuff are no problem in 30 fps. And now for some question-action: Imagine the allies as fruits! What kind of fruit are the allies? Yours Sincerely, DiamondCrusader

Hey there Brando. Hope your feeling better champ, Now while I have your attention may I submit a question ? Much appreciated. All I wished to ask is with the EZA third year celebrations around the corner (insert dates here for viewers) I was curious how the lessons you learned from the first two years of Gametrailers compares to how you consider the growth of Easy Allies in it's third year. Always up for a little internet history story time with Jones. I understand that the internet is a whole new landscape from when the site started in 2002 compared to now. But the visions and goals behind a business have always fascinated me. Particularly when it seems like there is all sorts of potential with the passion behind Easy Allies. For context: November 2005 was when you were acquired by Viacom if that helps jog the memory :).

Christian Thomas

Jones! I don't have the time to go and listen to this right now so ignore this if you answered something (I'll edit if it becomes redundant when I get around to it over the week and change it to another sort of question) Just a bit of feedback regarding your recent multiplayer streams: for the love of god please do more of these. Please, please find a way to make the audio of the other allies in said videos not be bad. Please, please, PLEASE start recording each person's perspective, and pretty please give that footage to someone to get them to edit together Kyle's Digimon video style. You're sitting on a goldmine with those streams, and i would be happy beyond belief if we could get those sorts of videos even once a fortnight/3 weeks/month/whatever. -Mr M (now an 11 year long fan!) P.S. Did you ever drink that mango nectar i told you to drink? Love ya xxx

Mr M

I just want to clarify that I don't think that Patreon is a bad site. Yes it has some technical problems with comments, but it's really hard to make a web site that is reliable, fast and easy to use at the same time. Especially if you are not Apple or Facebook and can't spend insane amount of money and man-hours on fixing rare bugs (and let's face it, sometimes even Apple and Facebook have some problems). I think that Patreon is a good place, and we should continue using it. The workarounds I've posted last week we posted to make our life here easier, not to incentive us to go somewhere else.

Alexander Zyryanov

Agreed. EZA's content is a 10/10, it's overall audience is consistently growing (see YouTube subs), yet its Patreon contributions have stalled for many months now. Really need to change those tiers, particularly the 45k one, because they're clearly not effective (relative to what EZA deserves).

John Peterson

In regards to the patreon goals and funding: Not trying to throw you or your show ideas under the bus but: Have you considered changing what your current $45k goal is as it doesn't seem to be inspiring anyone to donate additional revenue? Maybe replace it with a 15 minute scripted show/comedy skit/whatever you guys wanna do? I'm just suggesting aiming for something that has more universal appeal and is more unique as the internet is already full of trailer analysis/breakdowns. Just some food for thought as we march forward towards the studio goal. I hope this question doesn't come off as mean spirited because it's not meant to be. Love and respect!

klastical

Thanks for the advice on meditation Jones, I'll try to put it into practice. You should definitely do another "nature" editorial, I would love it! As an indoor kid I could use that extra motivation. Also, Star Wars side note, your problem with Khaleesi saying "I know what you really are" to Solo, her next line is for sure "scoundrel." And I'd put money down that there'll be a stand off and Han shoots first.

Hey Jones! This is just a recomendation not a question so feel free not to include it. Yesterday February 1st you released 3 reviews, Frame Trap and a Preview in a span of 7 hours. I love the content, dont get me wrong. But I feel it would be better, when possible, to spread content to cover more days more evenly, just from what little I know about how youtube recomendation works. But of course you make the calls, please take this "criticism" as a sign of how much I care for Easy Allies!

What do you usually order at McDonald's?

I had a conversation with my friends about the Solo movie, and was wondering what a hardcore Star Wars (specifically a Han Solo) fan such as yourself feels. Let’s just pretend we saw the movie and the entire film was trash, worst Star Wars movie yet except for one part, the Kessel Run. Let’s say that was the best 10-15 minutes you’ve ever spent in a movie theatre. Would that be enough for you, to say you enjoyed that movie?

Thank you for acknowledging that people outside of the US in very different time zones hardly ever get to watch your streams live. It’s nice to know you’re aware of your international audience’s disadvantage in interacting with you, even if the US EZA community frequently overlooks it.

Rhys Simons

Brandon! Howdy! where can we see those new photos that you have shared 1 via twitter and the other on the twitch schedule?

Daniel Garza Andrade

What's your ideal Robin? We know your Batman. How does Bruce Wayne handle seeing the death of the flying Graysons? What happens to Old Bruce?

Ibrahim Sozer

Hey Jones! It's movie awards season! What was Brandon Jones' favorite movie of 2017, and why? (If you can't think of just one movie, feel free to list a couple movies that were your favorite)

Andrew Left

Hello Jones. You don't have to read this message out loud on CoJ if you don't want to, just a heads up if you didn't see my email. I sent a gift a few weeks ago. It should have arrived but you didn't have it last group stream. I've emailed you a tracking number if it might have gotten lost at the post office.

Olf Himself

Fiduciary Duties FTW

The Hashtagonist

Hey Mr. Jones! Thanks for the feedback, particularly if the anniversary can be streamed. That would be the BEST! But anyway, onto my next (in a never-ending string of interrogation it feels like &lt;=-) ) question: Outside of submitting questions or comments for content on Patreon, I stick to the forums and today I realized that different Allies populate the different platforms (Misters Moore and Bloodworth here on Patreon, Mr. Bloodworth on the forums, etc.) I understand everyone is busy with all the work, but in your case specifically, what area do you wish you could visit more often and engage with the community? The EZA sub-reddit? The forums? More time on social media? Anywhere else? Or not at all? Thanks for taking my questions as always. Have a great day!

Brandon K Gann

Good morning! An idea to temporarily patch/solve to the commenting issue here on Patreon could be to utilize the forum on easyallies.com. I imagine the initial reaction of having to go to another place is unappealing, but it would give a (hopefully) more stable location to collect the comments.

Imagine 'Cup of Jones' where 'Cup' means a prize in a competition. What is this competition about and how does this Cup look?

Alexander Zyryanov

Good morning 🤓

ZatVunDoot