Easy Allies Podcast #94 - January 10th 2018

I feel like the EA manipulation question basically came from this Jim Sterling video. It's certainly worth a watch. EA states in their own words that they are seeking to impact your wins and losses to keep you engaged so they can make more money off you (among other things). <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_QaTtvI2tg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_QaTtvI2tg</a>

Raven Perez

Correction: It was Ian who didn't say "release me" during the last press release me. Though Jones did hold out for quite awhile. Ian said Kyle's reading of it was too good to interrupt.

ComboBreaker

excellent analogy

Easy Allies

Kyle, Khalifa Kale and Cabba, are like alternate versions of goku, broly and vegeta, like frost is to freezer, now that we got that out of the way, dont you think that the best analogy to dragon ball super tournament of power finals betwen uni 7 vs uni 3 are the nba finals, where jiren is lebron and uni 7 is the warriors, yes Jiren is the best but uni 7 just have too many guys...

Totally disagree with bloodworth Sony isn’t backing mhw like a niche game after giving it top billing at e3, and the beta was number 1 on twitch the weekend it was out, I wouldn’t dismiss it that easily

A Joker Fan

Kyle, as the resident Sports Ally I'm surprised you didn't put up more of an argument against the rubber banding! The problem of competitive parity is an age-old one, and it's something most major league sports have solved; salary caps, free agent systems, draft slots, etc. The key with all of those solutions? They don't impact the actual game-to-game play. Rubberbanding in-game punishes you for doing well, and that's really bad game design.

Josh Bossie

I much prefer an easily skippable block that you know is coming compared to Funhaus and crew where they segue randomly into a bit about BlueApron that I have to fumble to skip over. Podcast Halftime is excellent and it barely takes any time to avoid, imo. They've gotta plug the sponsors somehow.

Hudson Bilbrey

I am totally cool with multiplayer "rubber banding" if it's an unranked playlist, but in a ranked match it does feel like backdoor shady deals to me.

Sorry, allies, but I have to fast forward through podcast halftime now. 3 minutes of ads in the middle of the podcast? There's gotta be a better way.

aguynamedjosh

Clearly it was not stated as a fact, more like an exageration for comedic purpose

Correction: at 1:06:07 Brandon incorrectly states that you don't fight Snorlax during a glitchless Pokemon R/B speedrun. You do, in fact, fight one of the two sleeping Snorlax (<a href="https://youtu.be/8Dg1oQ198jM?t=4422)." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/8Dg1oQ198jM?t=4422).</a>

Kyle's a smug time traveler.

POKEY CLYDE

It’s hilarious that I couldn’t tell what Brandon was going for with the Halftime reading, but eventually decided he must be going for a Bosman impression, only to have Kyle comment that it came off as a little condescending. That’s confirmation, right? :P

Welp, that's a win for Bosman!

Samuel Cardwell

No Poison thumb?

King Poh

Great podcast, great segments and bits; loving the energy, camaraderie and playful digs. Thought Jones had a bit of a "sports" feel to PHT. Goals hmmmm, in my opinion; overall, from last year to this one some of the Allies need to put a bit more effort/prep into their picks - you know who you are

Elliot Moscow

My first early access Easy Allies podcast. Feels gooooood.

Chris Brabbs

Technically Atlus is under Sega

It's basically like invisible MMR/ELO in casual multiplayer that could be as manipulative as a publisher wants. Maybe they try to match you evenly, maybe they try to screw you a little

VGJunky

Personally I look at the matchmaking thing as putting me as the player in a position where I'll never know if I won a match because my team performed better than the other team, or if I lost a match because the algorithm said it was time for me to lose. I agree that a system like that operating in the background would likely go unnoticed, and the matchmaking for this theoretical game would probably be praised for increasing engagement, but being out in the open about it almost feels worse somehow.

*Sits* Hello, Allies! Your sponsor says hi!

exactly, that is part of it. I have heard of this system they patented before, where if you buy a gun they put you against noobs to make you feel like your purchase was validated, but at the same time the noobs see that gun and go man I should buy that thing it's destroying us. It's all mind games on how to manipulate users.

Ea is doing the matchmaking most likely to push microtransactions.

Chris H