Cup of Jones - April 24, 2018

Hey Alex! I was catching up on Cup of Jones and heard your question. Jones did a great job of responding, but I wanted to add my two cents. When designing the overlays (mortises), the space dedicated to the graphics is usually determined by the webcam and gameplay size, and not the other way around. If the gameplay's too big then you can't see the Allies, and vice versa, but the size ratio dictates the negative space that the overlay has to fill. We've been experimenting a bit - recently I created four alternates of a design for 16:9 games where the webcam can overlay a bit on gameplay. Ideally we don't want to cover up important HUD elements in a game but at least this way the webcam can be placed and scaled more strategically and be less intrusive. I absolutely understand where you are coming from and am working on a long-term solution. Right now I'm focused on helping the Allies make their E3 streams look as awesome as possible, and if everything works out, the strategies I'm working on can be adapted and implemented in all future streams. Hope this is a satisfactory answer. In short, we're thinking about this constantly.

Chris Leroux

Hi Brandon! I was wondering if you would consider putting all of your podcasts on Spotify? The reason I'm asking is because Spotify on the PS4 can play podcast in the background while playing a game with headphones on. If I'm grinding in a game, I love to listen to your podcasts! There are many good gaming podcasts on Spotify now, such as kindafunnygames, bombcast, what's good games and such, but sadly none from my favorite podcasters: you guys! L&R!

So, until the drop, you are currently just under 47k. Any thoughts on adding a 48k goal, just to continue the 2k increment. Perhaps a show with Blood or Brad seeing as they're the two that haven't got their own 'thing' (EZanime and Blood pact withstanding)

Andreas Kleanthous

Just wondering if this has been asked before but now with the inclusion of rufus for twitch bits could we possibly get custom bit badges in the future? Werehogs would be perfect for this! I get a bunch just from watching ads so I'll throw some more your way soon thanks! L&R JoleeHonso

Jones! On Tuesdays I work from 10am -6pm but due to my position currently as a gardener/cashier I am given the opportunity to listen to the show and make my day go by faster. So thanks for that! My question. Do you have a show that you listen to or watch while you work to make it go by a little bit smoother. My guess is no. Editing requires focus. But I gotta ask nonetheless!

Dominíc Brown

Last Week you talked about how Chewy would be a more interesting character than Han. Would you help settle a disagreement regarding a similar concept with a Harry Potter Character. Draco Malfoy, in my opinion, is a far more interesting character than Harry Potter. Harry does have it rough in the beginning but seems to have everything turn out in his favor as the story progresses toward him fulfilling his destiny. Then there is Draco, who has things pretty good to begin with but then it all falls apart for him. As he grows up discovers his father is not the man he thought he was, is pressured into a life he does not want, he must constantly must face disappointment at the hands of Harry even though he tried to be his friend when they first met, his friends actually die as well. His turning point is when he cannot bring himself to do "the thing" in the Half Blood Prince solidifying the kind of person he really was. Way more interesting but I doubt he will be getting his own story. Your thoughts on Draco?

Morgan Mohalla

Which of the following annoys you the most about a movie or video game trailer after having seen a movie or played a video game? Revealing key scenes in a trailer? Having scenes in a trailer that do not make it into the final product? Scenes that are nothing more than misdirection?

Professor Metal Gear

Salutations Mr. Jones, <b>What is the piece/type of merch you feel is most lacking from EZA? Perhaps a better way of putting that would be what piece/type of merch would you most like to offer and what are the obstacles preventing you from doing so?</b> Also, great google-y moogle-y, that God of War spoiler mode was the bees knees. My favorite thing about it was having Mr. Balrog in the room with most of you, engaging in a very real way. If I were Damiani I would offer you one of my kudos. As I am not, please accept one attaboy. ALSO also, bonus shout out to Rick Hoeg for following me back on Twitter. Mr. Hoeg, Need to get one of those Hoeg Law mugs... L&amp;R matt b

Matt Bollenbach

Hey Jones, My ears perked up when I heard you mention the car spawning in GTA on the last group stream because I've noticed the same. I decided to do a quick sleuthing and plop the result here. Turns out that similar car types (e.g. sports cars) share the same 3-D models under the hood (pun intended). Earlier GTA games had limited memory and since the car you're driving is already loaded it saved space to load similar cars. What I wonder is whether GTA V really still has that limitation or if they figured not having that behavior would feel wrong after all this time. I dunno!

RobBobWill

Have you seen Infinity War yet? Quick non-spoilery thoughts on it?

I thought about this too. They said "And For That Reason" is one series and then another Patron Exclusive show would replace it. I think once the next show starts, they could do a weekly release of the last Patron Exclusive show.

Do you think the next generation of PlayStation will have a bit more emphasis on backwards compatibility? I can't have more than a couple of consoles at a time due to space.

Throwing my 2 cents in, love the reasoning behind this, but hate the idea. I hate ad reads on podcasts, but love the EZA sponsors sections. Jones makes it entertaining enough and there's sometimes some cool sponsors I like hearing about to make me not want to skip through. I'd hate a sponsor at the bottom of the screen. However, I DO think a banner at the bottom of the screen promoting the Allies patron page would be smart. Get the patron page out there as much as possible.

The formatting on here is an absolute illegible train wreck if you'd like something less eye searing <a href="http://bit.ly/2HDLc4I" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2HDLc4I</a> thats a google Doc that is much easier to read

Sarah Wampler

Hello again Jones. Last year after E3 I went beck through all the Cups o’ Jones up until then and wrote up a round up of the marketing/promotional ideas that either you or viewers mentioned in the past as something you were planning to explore/would get back to later. I have apparently decided to make this an annual thing, but I thought; in light of the fantastic support you had with the fundraiser, doing this a bit early might be valuable. Again I have condensed any repeated requests, including those that were of a similar theme, in the interests of preventing this from becoming a 20 page digression of questionable utility. Even with these combinations the significantly greater number of episodes means there have been MANY more suggestions. In response I have organized the suggestions into a number of rough themes. <br> <ol><li><p>Invest in the future (I hear you came into some money recently)</p> </li> </ol><ul> <li><p>360 Camera</p> </li> <li><p>Branding, style guide (shows, site, streams,)</p> </li> <li><p>Website revamp (see all of #2)</p> </li> <li><p>Merch (see all of #6)</p> </li> <li><p>Electrical work in Garage (you’ve shorted it out multiple time including on this show live, also mentioned that you don’t have enough outlet for the mics)</p> </li> <li><p>Cloud Storage, Servers, (you’ve often waxed nostalgic about the Xsan)</p> </li> <li><p>Social media networking training)</p> </li> <li><p>New PC</p> </li> </ul> <br> <ol><li><p>Website Revamp (oh my sweet and fluffy lord do we want you to fix<a href="http://easyallies.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> EasyAllies.com</a>)</p> </li> </ol><ul> <li><p>Suggestion Box</p> </li> <li><p>FAQ pages, both about EasyAllies, the Allies themselves and a repository of previously asked questions (for Love and Respect and for Cup of Jones and other shows, so that people can see that they aren’t reasking a question that has been repeatedly answered - related: info on each show’s page on what makes a good question for that show, give us some guidance on what you are looking for)</p> </li> <li><p>Useful Bio Pages (public contact info for their respective shows, also info useful to potential gift givers, ie. clothing sizes and food restrictions -related: a ‘thanks but no thanks’ section of things that you would prefer not to receive, ie. homemade food, games you already have )</p> </li> <li><p>Text of reviews (from a pure accessibility perspective you should be doing this)</p> </li> <li><p>Bets tracker and Werehogs tracker (also actually use and integrate the physical Werehogs you have)</p> </li> <li><p>Monthly Reccs (like the employee shelves at blockbuster)</p> </li> <li><p>Page for Sophie</p> </li> <li><p>Lore (potentially addressing some of the FAQ requests people have recommended integrating one of the Wiki platforms)</p> </li> <li><p>Feed promoting all appearances of Allies with other groups (generally do a better job of cross promotion see entirely of #5)</p> </li> <li><p>EZA Library (what do you already have, prevents sending of dupes, is also just interesting. You should have this somewhere anyway just for internal use clean it up make it public)</p> </li> <li><p>Games Draft</p> </li> <li><p>Mispam’s feedback for fixing the uninviting and unintuitive forums <a href="https://imgur.com/a/IYpE5" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/IYpE5</a></p> </li> </ul> <br> <ol><li><p>Build the Community (we’re here and not all of us can afford to support you financially but we want to contribute so give us an avenue) - See also #5</p> </li> </ol><ul> <li><p>Charity work (Extra Life - you have repeatedly insisted you want to participate, other EZA driven efforts, use this to get groups outside CA to get together and get involved in their local community then feature it. BUILD on L&amp;R and this community, set aside a sponsor slot for a charity of the month)</p> </li> </ul> <br> <ol><li><p>New Content Suggestions</p> </li> </ol><ul> <li><p>More short format content (things that don’t require catching up on a backlog of shows or several hours at a go to get caught up. Even listening 2x speed it took me 4 days to go through just Cup of Jones, those 2hr episodes just killed me )</p> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><p>Behind the scenes of exiting shows, EZA functions in general</p> </li> <li><p>Discussion of ethical concerns in gaming</p> </li> <li><p>Quicklooks</p> </li> <li><p>Pop out Topic specific discussions from FrameTrap and other long form shows</p> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><p>More Multi Ally Content (one of the things which distinguishes EZA is the number of people involved and the interaction of your personalities, do a better job of leveraging what makes you unique)</p> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><p>Race or Duel streams</p> </li> <li><p>First 15 with two allies of differing knowledge (bite size Brandon plays Pokemon)</p> </li> <li><p>Non Gaming group streams (Allies learn to rock climb etc)</p> </li> <li><p>Huber and Brad retro reminiscences show</p> </li> <li><p>Pubg stream with everyone</p> </li> <li><p>Classic Board games stream (Life, Monopoly etc)</p> </li> <li><p>Trivia show</p> </li> <li><p>Battle of the Bands</p> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><p>Video of Sophie playing in slow mo (this is YOUR idea Jones)</p> </li> <li><p>Trailer Academy</p> </li> <li><p>‘Blood List’ (add drawing from Blood’s grab bag o’ random codes to the weekly stream schedule, rotate through the allies meaning that it won’t disrupt regular schedules too much but will always ensure that you collectively are always exploring something new/funky/small)</p> </li> <li><p>Pick a set, repeated time when you stream multiplayer content that the community can participate in. Having it on a regular schedule means ppl can plan their ability to participate</p> </li> <li><p>Quarterly L&amp;R only Podcast (discouraging how difficult is is to be picked for L&amp;R - see above wanting guidance on what makes a good question for each show)</p> </li> <li><p>Annual new ideal proposal stream/Patreon post</p> </li> <li><p>Christmas Carol Stream</p> </li> </ul> <br> <ol><li><p>Evangelize/Promote (we love you and want to see you grow so give us what we need to go out there and spread the gospel of EZA also leverage the opportunities to get EZA’s name out there)</p> </li> </ol><ul> <li><p>Get your name out (You say you keep running into fans who didn’t realize what you moved on to post GT - that should be a HUGE red flag going into year 3. GT fans are the low hanging fruit for EZA. What else is still on the table?)</p> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><p>Decals for best _ in show at E3</p> </li> <li><p>rocket league flag</p> </li> <li><p>Have the EZA Twitter and Youtube accounts engage with your peers more often (comment on their content etc, generally expose yourselves to their audiences)</p> </li> <li><p>create street teams of non CA allies who can go to events you can’t get to (TGS etc)</p> </li> <li><p>short form videos promoting individual shows that are social media friendly and easy to share</p> </li> <li><p>Literal advertising (have EZA be a noclip producer etc)</p> </li> <li><p>Steam Curation page (Blood seemed to second this at the time 11/14)</p> </li> <li><p>Official Easy Allies Club on Xbox (and any other platforms)</p> </li> <li><p>Post videos to relevant sub-redits</p> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><p>Organize the EZA year around fixed Tentpole events - E3, Easy Living, Easy Allies in Concert are already set but fill out (add an annual charity drive) so that there is always an event you are building to</p> </li> <li><p>Leverage the community (you have repeatedly said EZA needs a dedicated community manager for these to make sense)</p> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><p>Capture club</p> </li> <li><p>Patron created content (ie Some Game News, Site and brand redesigns submitted to Community Showcase)</p> </li> <li><p>Community Created fundraiser rewards (the EZA Garage Lego Set)</p> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><p>You have stated several times that one of your biggest regrets is that you did not take advantage of the network opportunities you had at Viacom. Do you think you’re better about it now?</p> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><p>Challenge other outlets in a betting special</p> </li> <li><p>Plug Allies’ appearances on other shows on the podcast</p> </li> </ul> <br> <ol><li><p>Merchandise (Here take all our money!)</p> </li> </ol><ul> <li><p>Create Courses on Corsera (or other similar services) ie. Jones on VO Ian on editing etc.</p> </li> <li><p>Enamel Pins </p> </li> <li><p>Embroidered Hat</p> </li> <li><p>Betting Special Merch (choose a side!)</p> </li> <li><p>Tank Tops</p> </li> <li><p>Sophie Plushie</p> </li> <li><p>Working with Gildan</p> </li> <li><p>Cup of Jones Mug</p> </li> <li><p>Patches</p> </li> <li><p>Holiday Shirts (Halloween)</p> </li> <li><p>Hall of Greats Tour shirt (entrants listed like tour dates)</p> </li> <li><p>Larger sizes</p> </li> <li><p>3D printed Figurines</p> </li> <li><p>Run a Patron contest - winner gets their design in the shop</p> </li> <li><p>Coasters</p> </li> <li><p>Console Stickers</p> </li> <li><p>Box Peak Merch</p> </li> <li><p>EZA Songs albums (EZA in Concert content, raps, Fiasconaughts etc - man you guys sing a lot )</p> </li> <li><p>Make the link on the EZA site link to both Spreadshirt AND Fangamer shops</p> </li> </ul> <br> <ol><li><p>Patreon Feedback (issues with Patreon was a consistent theme)</p> </li> </ol><ul> <li><p>Regularize your Patreon promotion (right now it isn’t on a schedule nor does it appear to be something ingrained enough to be automatic so you need structure)</p> </li> <li><p>Create a Patreon guide for users (how to save your comment from being eaten etc) and creators (pitfalls and work arounds you’ve discovered make it useful to the wider world remember #5)</p> </li> <li><p>One Time Fundraising drive for Tabletop Escapades ( get them maps, figurines, spell cards etc - really this seams ideal for a sponsorship by a company that makes such items)</p> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><p>Tabletop Escapades Tavern Tier</p> </li> <li><p>Tabletop Escapades Live on Twitch</p> </li> </ul> <br> <ol><li><p>General Business housekeeping</p> </li> </ol><ul> <li><p>Copy-write your shows</p> </li> <li><p>Promo disclaimers</p> </li> <li><p>Branding uniformity across streams</p> </li> <li><p>Survey to get usage and demographic information (insight into how tiers are performing is the person at 10$ b/c of that reward or just because that is what they can afford and they just generally want to see EZA thrive)</p> </li> <li><p>Amazon affiliate link the gundams you are working on/ silly candy you receive so if viewers are interested they can get</p> </li> <li><p>Auction off anything you are replacing</p> </li> <li><p>Plan EZA in Concert better (have the date set sooner, lets us book better, lets you book better)</p> </li> </ul> <br> <ol><li><p>General Content Feedback</p> </li> </ol><ul> <li><p>Make the headshots bigger when the allies do streams (hard to read expressions </p> </li> <li><p>You said you wanted to sit down and listen to FrameTrap, Friend Code and other shows with a specific ear towards how welcoming they are to new listeners did you? (10/31)</p> </li> <li><p>Communicate better across platforms (make sure your YouTube community knows when you go live on twitch and about the benefits of Patreon etc)</p> </li> <li><p>Watermark the platform for multiplatform games being streamed</p> </li> <li><p>Promote Cup of Jones on the Podcast </p> </li> <li><p>Suggestion to be able to see you Blood and Kyle during Trailer Jones episodes</p> </li> </ul> <br> <ol><li><p>Community Management/Maintenance </p> </li> </ol><ul> <li><p>Regular review of shows (how welcoming are they to new viewers, review does not mean necessarily you need to change just that you are cognizant that you are creating a barrier of entry and actively choose to do so)</p> </li> <li><p>Make a welcoming/landing area in the Forums</p> </li> <li><p>Build procedures/protocols for the community mods for integrating/welcoming new members</p> </li> <li><p>Welcome streams</p> </li> <li><p>Use something like<a href="https://canny.io/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> https://canny.io</a> to better manage feedback</p> </li> </ul> <br> <p>Having gone back and watched 9 months of content all in one sitting, themes are readily apparent. We want more out of the Website and more polished branding from EZA as a whole, we want you to take better advantage of how you all bounce off each other and we want outlets beyond Patron where we feel we can contribute to EZA. And Merch, this community and you, are all so vibrant and unique and the Merch is boring! Please let us give you all our money!</p>

Sarah Wampler

Good morning Jones! New patron here. Have the Allies ever all gotten sick at the same time with the same illness due to the passing around of controllers in the garage from group streams, etc? My college buddies and I once all passed around some pink-eye like infection which wound up hitting about 8 of us. Halo LAN parties were worth it though. Love &amp; Respect, Micah.

Micah Hendrick

Whenever you inevitably reach your 46k goal what if on occasion you do more personalized top 10s Huber’s top weapons, Ian’s top Souls bosses,etc. It could possibly help reduce the time it takes to produce said content if your not having to deliberate as a group. I even remember some episodes from the Gt days where it was more of you guys talking to the camera than there was game footage. Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. Love and Respect Dakota

What is your headcanon for the character Yoshi?

GmanSir

Thanks for the God of War coverage it made the choice of getting the game much easier. I was wondering what do you think about pokemon replacing mario world as what is to go in Universal Orlando in 2020?

Mr.V

Hey Brandon, another day 1 EZA contributor here, I never really know what to ask, but something I've been always wondering about you in particular: You have a way of always talking about things from a very positive place and that's something I admire deeply and want to bring out in my own personality more as well. But doesn't it get tiresome sometimes? Your online persona displays so much positivity and you get out of your way to be calm, collected and not offend anyone. Even when GT closed its doors, you seemed sad but didn't really loose your cool at all. Is that something you consciously want to display in your online persona? I must have watched hundreds of hours of videos with you by now, but I'd still have a hard time imagining you ever losing your shit. Anyway, love you guys, thanks for everything you've done for us.

Deniz Schreiber

Hi Jones, Quick background on myself; I’ve been a fan of GT since before Invisible Walls started, following the website ever since then and am crossing my fingers we get to $46k to be able to bring back Top 10's soon. When you got shut down I was genuinely devastated for a while as I listened to the podcast every week and loved your reviews. However I got the best early birthday present ever as you announced Easy Allies just 11 days before my 28th birthday. I’ve been an ally ever since but this is my first time submitting a question to Cup of Jones so hopefully I don’t mess it up! My question is a bit statistical but stay with me; You talked in the past about trying to ‘convert’ the over 150k subscribers from YouTube into Patreon pledges. I understand that increasing the Patreon is what is mainly driving you guys at the moment to get to the studio but if you take a step back and look at how other Patreon vs subscribers are doing you’ll find something very interesting. I looked at 9 (ignoring NSFW) Patreon’s above you guys on Graphtreon and the average Youtube subs vs. pledges is 2.12%, and this included one crazy anomaly of someone with 12% of subscribers being pledges. If you took that anomaly out the average would drop to just 0.88% subscribers vs. pledges. You guys are on a much healthier 4.26% of subscribers being pledges. My question is could you guys be chasing the wrong thing at the moment? Rather than trying to convert your existing loyal fan base (of which some might not be able to afford to pledge, some people are on tight budgets) would it not be better to try and expand the reach of Easy Allies more. I am *positive* there are more than 150k of people out of the 3.2 billion with internet access who would love Easy Allies. I’ve always been told there is no problem without a solution so one suggestion would be (and yes I know it is cheesy) to ask for people to share your videos more than you do. I understand you do this at the moment but I think it could have a better emphasis rather than just being something that is said in the middle of a sentence. Maybe link it in with when you mention the Patreon saying “If you can’t pledge then give this video a share, it’ll cost nothing.” If only 1% of people who watch the podcast each week who don’t pledge share the video and 5 of their friends see it you get over 1000 people who might not have heard of Easy Allies before, and this is *just* on the podcast, imagine if this happened on every video. Can’t wait for you guys to get a studio I know it’s going to happen soon and E3 can’t come soon enough. Owen D-J

Owen D-J

I love Cup of Jones but recently I've found myself stopping after the business section (the separation is great btw) as it is getting a bit too long. This saddens me as I've always watched the whole thing before. There's always something else screaming for attention after a couple of hours. Maybe it would be to both our benefit if there were a couple of guidelines to follow to optimize the stream a bit. You have a lot of other stuff to do on tuesdays as well :) Like for the Q&amp;A streams you could have an approximate max word count and only one submission per ally and maybe answer some questions in text directly on patreon when you see them if they have been answered before, things like that. What do you think?

Benny Samuelsson

ust a thought, did you consider the fact that by making exclusive shows to Patreons, you are limiting your reach ? I think there is a lot of potential in shows like Spoiler mode, which should be public, thus attracting new people to your channel. I understand you want to give back to Patreons, but speaking for myself as a small, but constant fan/patreon i want to see you grow. Not get exclusive shows/content. I honestly dont care for that. I think that all your shows should be public, so that your audience gets bigger. To me the whole thing that we are getting things early just means we are getting them on time, while others get them later :) What i want to say is, i think that many people support you because they like you and your shows and wish you the best, they dont support you to get exclusive content in my opinion. What i think is more interesting to patreons is the ability to interact with you on some level like comments, messages etc. Also since i already posted wall of text, i might as well just keep going. I love all of your content and everyone on EZA, been watching you since GameTrailers with Shane. But what i find to be problematic with EZA and why i think its so hard to reach broader audience, is that its very difficult for the outsiders to understand what this channel and you guys are about, what the shows are about. A lot of thumbnails are just people's faces or something obscure. Same goes for content, i am for example long time fan, but i have only limited time, so i prefer to watch Podcast, FrameTrap and once in a while Cup of Jones. There are few shows on your channel, i am still not sure what exactly they are about :) This might speak a bit to my ignorance, but also a bit to the communication to the audience and making things accessible/readable. This is not criticism, just a suggestion what to improve. I am no pro youtuber, but i think some simplicity and more direct approach to trying to connect to new people would help a lot. Your fans already know and support you. While i want you to keep that special thing you guys have, i hope that you expand and get the studio, be able to cover all game conferences around the world, do more reviews etc and that can happen only when your audience gets bigger and for that reason .... i think you should focus on reaching bigger audience.

Jones, I gotta hand it to ya. I've never seen anyone say so many words, so quickly, in such a short amount of time. Are you just a naturally wired personality? You remind me a lot of my musical theater friends in college who seemed like they were constantly "on" and always performing, no matter what the social situation.

aguynamedjosh

Ha Jones, I'm that person, the person who would sometimes only watch the business stuff, and then the editorial. It really depends what I'm doing, or how much time I have when I'm listening/watching. I mean no offence or anything, it's just that I haven't watched a movie in probably over ten years, I've never really connected with Batman, or any superhero really, and my only interaction with them tends to be through games, lastly, I know nothing about Disneyland, and have never been to a park in my life. Quite honestly, the idea of standing in line for two hours, for just about anything seems kinda not worth it to me lol. (I should add that I'm from Ireland, so I don't think I've ever even seen a two hour queue for something.)

BeatenDownBrian

It's just my own two cents, but if you're not enjoying it, you should move on. It would be different if you hadn't even gave it a chance, but you did, and if it's not clicking then it's not clicking. The only other thing I will say is, even if Fornite is not doing it for you, I wouldn't wash your hands of the whole genre. Just from reading your question, it sounds like the building mechanics are frustrating you, a game like PUBG, or if COD or BF5 adds it, it might be a better fit for you. :)

BeatenDownBrian

PERSONAL QUESTION: Recently, I have been trying to get into this whole battle royale craze after Fortnite blew up. While I feel like there have been some good steps to lower the barrier of entry (lower queue timers being one of them), I've been really struggling to get into this genre. I can get a kill or two, but inevitably I just get shot down by someone sporting the John Wick avatar who just instantly spawns a kill tower and snipes me from above. I really dont feel like this gametype is for me, but I dont want to be left behind in the conversation. Do you think its a good idea to keep trying to get into it or do you think I should just wash my hands of it and admit that I just dont think I can get into battle royale gamemodes?

Gaspard

Bloodworth here. Since Jones may not know the whole story, I'll recap a bit. There was a back and forth between some of our fans and Cory on Twitter, and it seems he already watches our videos at times, and he expressed interest in response. We tried to follow up a couple times, and we talked to the team at Sony who coordinates press relations, but didn't hear anything back for a while. Encouraged by his earlier response, fans continued to prod him and us, and eventually some private messages went back and forth between Cory and Huber. Cory of course needed the PR team's approval before he could do anything, and they soon gave me a call, saying they could come by the next day or day after. From there, it was just a matter of getting the schedules aligned. -Bloodworth

Easy Allies

Hi Jones! New patron here. Sorry if this already been asked, but what do you think about putting the group streams and special events like the fundraiser streams on the main channel? Keep up with the good work, L&amp;R!

Erick Galdino

Personal: Hi Jones. As several of the Allies have said, you guys pretty much have a dream job. However I'm wondering, is there anything about the day to day life that you don't like? While I imagine a lot of the job can be seen as fun, for example when you're streaming and/or playing games for review. I'm curious about the stuff that you don't look forward to, or feel like you need to grind out. Thanks, L&amp;R!

Eric Mitchell

Hey Brandon, Do you have any concerns for Red Dead Redemption 2? RDR was one of my favorite games of last generation, but given how Rockstar used to let you buy a story expansion for $40 then and now that only gets you a single supercar in GTA online, I'm a little nervous about their business model going forward. I know some people think the idea of buying a horse online is absurd and won't happen, but I could certainly see purchasing and furnishing a gang hideout taking hours of grinding or throwing down money for the next version of shark cards. Maybe the single player will be OK, but I just can't imagine that the huge boom of micro-transactions won't affect this game for the worse. Are you concerned at all, or do you think single player will be insulated from all of this? Keep up the great work, love the new patreon changes!

Matt Kuryloski

If it's not a secret, how did you manage to convince Cory Barlog to join you on Spoiler Mode? I imagine, he must be super busy with game promotion &amp; interviews and Easy Allies doesn't have the biggest audience.

Alexander Zyryanov

I too have been watching the Mandatory Update compilations and while I find myself appreciating them and the memories they awaken, I’m not sure that I’d want to see your current content being in that vein. I think that my tastes have matured along with the allies themselves and the sort of content it seems like they’re interested in creating. For instance, I have no interest in seeing Ian playing to an obnoxious shtick or anyone calling Bosman “Side Bitch”. For me, Mandatory Update is an entertaining trip down memory lane; however, I am relieved to see that the group isn’t trying to recreate what it once was.

"I just want to tell you 'Jones', good luck. We're all counting on you." ;)

drd7of14

I saw a short WWE video about Seth Rollins going to Hooters in the past to watch WWE. So I wondered how often you go to Hooters? (Is that actually where all EZA meetings take place?)

Yo, Brand Manager! As you surely noticed, the two "Cup of Jones" like updates you posted on the main YouTube channel got lots of views and positive comments. I think they also brought in many new patrons, since there's been a huge surge in the numbers ever since the donation stream ended and especially after you posted them. So, why not keeping the YouTube audience updated once in a while (not necessairily every week) with a "Sip of Jones", as you called it yourself? What I mean is giving a general update on the new shows, important chages, premiere dates, new stuff you bought with the donations and so on. Could even be shorter than 10 minutes, just something to engage the 150k+ subscribers you have on the channel and to mantain the flow of new patrons going. I doubt patrons would be opposed to it, especially if you film it during regular Cup of Jones. Besides, there would be no questions and no editorials, which are the meat of regular Cup of Jones, so the excusivity of the show would be mantained. Think about it. PS - Please, upload Damiani's recap of Dragonball Z on the main channel! It's going to rake in quite a lot of views, I'm sure! - Axass (Alessandro)

The switch from casual Brandon to professional Brandon was amazing ^^ love how close and personal Cup of Jones feels ^^ great job!

Tim Bechen

Hi Jones, if you reach the Top Ten tier will you film your deliberations? I feel that would be a great patron exclusive show

Dylan Wiggan

Thanks so much for the response, Jones. I'll definitely try to check out as much of that stuff as I can. Cheers

Hey Jones. It is very understandable that you (or more accurately Kyle) limit you love and respect questions due to show length, being late/tired. I would just like to suggest that all this Love and Respect is a terrible thing to waste! What about a patreon exclusive "Morning after" or "I still love you" show where Kyle picks a few gems from the leftovers and records a response at home the next day? He could even forward the question to be answered at home by another ally if it were say Huber specific or a game for example. Anyway, just an ideal, maybe it can be passed along. L&amp;R Matt.

Matt Brookbank

Personal: What would you say about a Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars port, or a brand new Chinatown Wars-esque GTA for the Nintendo Switch? Also, any ideas on what it could be?

GermanScientist

Business: Hi Jones! Last week, you mentioned that the additional cameras and switcher would allow you to do multicam, with a wide shot as well as closeups of the allies on the left and right respectively. As I've said In the past, I'm not a fan of cutting away from the wideshot in the podcasts. You touched on why when you mentioned that the lavalier mics would solve the issue of your current mics being in front of your face, blocking the view of your expressions. Cutting away from the wide shot to a closeup presents the same problem. There would be no way of seeing the other allies reactions! To me that would be more of an issue than mics blocking half of your face. So again, I hope you'll consider keeping the single wide shot, at least for the podcasts, or at the very least reduce the closeup cuts to a minimum. Being able to chose where to look and see your reactions at any time is something I very much enjoy. It's as if we (the audience) are there listening in on the discussion.

GermanScientist

G'day Jonesy, I've seen a little concern about EZA having more patron-exclusive shows. While for me, as a patron, I obviously don't mind personally, I do wonder whether shows like "And For That Reason" should eventually be released to the public to help bring in more viewers and potential patrons. This window could be much wider that the "early access" period - maybe 2 weeks to 1 month - to help make sure they do still feel exclusive for patrons during that first few days where most videos get the majority of their views. Cheers.

James McCoy

Hi there Jones, would you consider adding some kind of identifier for Patreon exclusive videos in the future? Something like '[PATREON ONLY]' written in the title of the Patreon post perhaps. At the moment it's easy to keep up with just Cup of Jones being exclusive but as more shows are added as initiatives I worry about losing track of these shows that won't appear in my YouTube subscription feed. At the moment I just look out for the email to come through of a new Cup of Jones episode then follow the link, open the video in YouTube and then add the video to my Watch Later list. Anything to help myself and others take notice of these future exclusive videos would be much appreciated and beneficial all round. Love and Respect.

Hiya Jones. I apologize if this has been asked before, but what was your garage like pre-EZA? How often did you utilize it? What did you use it for? L&amp;R, Josh Read (pronounced Reed)

Josh Read

How is it that Alec Church and Culinary Stud consistently conclude the EZA Podcast Sponsors segment shown at the last podcast of each month? I think it's cool, but I wonder why they're usually last on the list of names.

jif52

Where is the Lego The Last Jedi game? E3? ;) Or did I miss something? L&amp;R

Yui

Jones, please in the group streams tell Damiani to decrease the game banners size. Yes it's been improved over the last few months but it still seems to be in the way. Maybe just fade it in and out and certains parts. Thanks L&amp;R

Sekiro505

Jones,

Sekiro505

Hi Jones, As I'm writing this, the Frame Trap sponsorship tier has only 3 of its 7 slots filled. This seems odd since Frame Trap regularly touches or exceeds 30,000 viewers on YouTube per episode. Those empty slots represent a cool $1k that could be getting us closer to Top Tens and that studio goal. Sponsorship slots for the Easy Allies Podcast are currently full, but I remember there have been a couple of times where you advertised needing to fill a slot or a slot being open for the next month. This might sound a little weird, but I wonder if potential sponsors would be more incentivized to advertise if their sponsorship extended beyond a spot in podcast halftime or the Frame Trap sponsor roll call. There is often a fair amount of empty space in the lower quarter of the podcast videos that is really only used for panel IDs at the beginning of the episode and to show team scores for bets, etc. Have you considered using that space to [tastefully!] display sponsor information periodically throughout the episode, sort of like how Major League Baseball has ads positioned behind home plate visible during every at-bat? As someone who primarily watches the podcasts as opposed to listening to the audio, I doubt this would affect my viewing experience at all, and if it gets EZA more sponsors and therefore closer to that $50k tier, I'd be all for it. A greater on-screen presence might be attractive to potential sponsors who are worried that people just skip through the ad block of each show. I'm curious to hear your thoughts and to read Bloodworth's take in the chat (hi Bloodworth).

Daniel Matos

Some people in the comments (me included) asked them to go back to the old style because the new thumbnails made it hard to identify the video as the weekly podcast at a glance. I don't know if that's why they went back, though.

Alex Browne

Hi Jones, hope all is well! As we spoke a lot this (now last) week about the future office. What we also briefly mentioned was furniture. So when you hit 50k (and you will), are you going to look for a office that is already furnished or will you get an empty place, eat ramen on the floor for a while then buy desks, tables, chairs, beanbags etc. If so, how are you planning on finance it? have you set aside a budget for it? or is that already included in your 50k goal? Love and Respect!

Sebastian Hall

Hello Jones Question: I started to notices that the podcast started having interesting thumbnail. for February 21 - April 4, and I really like them. I feel that these thumbnail makes these video interesting to click on. It also makes it more likely for people to re-watch these podcast again due to the thumbnail reminding them a little of what they already watch. The thumbnail makes each podcast unique and different from each other. However, the last two podcast did not have that these thumbnail. I would like to know what happen to them. I really like these and I feel that more people on YouTube would more likely watch your podcast if you have these interesting thumbnails. L&amp;R Tiffany

$60,000 goal, a once a month scripted show called The Last Kyle ;)

Kif

Is it possible to buy official Easy Allies stickers? I've been looking for some to put on my laptop and car, but haven't been able to find any other than what appear to be a few fan-made ones on Redbubble. Are there any plans to have some in the EZA merch store? Keep up the great work, can't wait for E3 (esp. E3 Bets!) L&amp;R Kevin PS: My wife and I have been talking about getting another dog, specifically a Mini Aussie, so we always freak out whenever Sophie shows up on stream. If you're comfortable disclosing it, we were curious as to where you adopted her, or at the very least, we would love to hear the "Sophie Origin Story" =)

Kevin Liwag

I didn't even know there was an EZA forum. Thanks! I just signed up. :)

Early Access or EZAccess

Ibrahim Sozer

Hey Brandon, it would be great if the Allies could promote the Easy-Allies-Forums every once in a while. There are always a lot of great threads about new topics to discuss as well as a bunch of threads that stick around, one of them "General Gaming Deals/Giveaway", like the name suggests is dedicated for the promotion of great deals and a place to share unused keys for other allies to enjoy. And who doesn't like cheap or even free games? L&amp;R Ferris

Finally have time to listen to this one (:

Hey Jones, I was wondering how reaching the office goal would affect your streams. I know a lot of people are clamoring for more multi-person streams, and of course spending more time with everyone in the same place would facilitate that, but do you think it would also impact the overall amount of streaming that you do? Would it open up the door for something like a second weekly group stream, or more "format" streams like Settle It?

James Anderson

Yes, just submit whatever question you want in the last Cup of Jones post. In this case, the post you've submitted your comment to.

Isaiah Matthews

How do I submit messages/questions to Cup of Jones? I can simply write it here?

Éberson Polita

It's PAX Melbourne not Sydney, what an idiot. What do you expect from someone from Melbourne.

Ibrahim Sozer

Would you be able to do a Top 10 Countdown Pilot epiosde?

Ibrahim Sozer

Hey Jones, I recently read an academic article outlining a possible future for video games; and one of the big things was the 'social bubble' around gaming online supposedly popping. This would essentially be the greater downfall of many a streamer and YouTuber mostly focused on simply having huge audiences from simply playing games. I don't fully agree with the paper, and I was wondering what you thought about it? Do you have any industry insight on the possibility of the personalities of Dunkey, Sodapoppins... Etc potentially losing their place in mass culture?

me too

Luis Puig

Is the recording on YouTube broken? It starts with Jones in the middle of a sentence for me

I think this would be the one tourney where Don had the advantage.

Jeffrey Tessar

Hey Mr. Jones! Before my question: Congratulations on the phenomenal success! Now: With the Group Selection Committee now a thing of the past, where can I suggest the Allies partake in another E3 Trailer Hypefest stream or special non-game streams of that nature? As you’ll read during the Community Showcase, it was a source of great entertainment to revisit, and I would love a repeat of that this year. Have a great day and Cheers! P.S. Taking one sip of a drink is also a MASSIVE pet peeve of mine.

Brandon K Gann

All the Allies are cast on a season of Survivor, who wins?

Alex McMillan

Imagine you've been given Huber's ability to have any dream game remake or sequel become reality, what game choose? Mine would be an Oblivion remake.

Hey Jones, In regards to the question last week about making your videos "more clickbaity, flashy thumbnails and really push the marketable "internet meme culture" I for one hope you never do this I personally can not stand content that is made like this and I primarily started supporting easy alies because I believe in the style of content you create. I hope you know a lot of us here on patreon support you because you don't disrespect your audience by puting on a fake face and yelling the most current internet meme at the camera. ps I love game informer any chance you do something with them again? ~Jesse

Jesse.P

Comment Saver 9000

Alex McMillan

Hey Jones, With the Group Stream Selection Committee now sunsetted, I was wondering if there will still be an official way to suggest group streams to the Allies. I know Kyle had asked people to keep Tweeting ideas, posting ideas on forums etc., I just wanted to see if there will be any direct channel of communication for this going forward or if it is simply a case of getting in touch via any of the usual channels? On a related sidenote: Are "show" suggestions from the community ever taken into account when deciding on new shows? Now with EZA looking into short-run shows such as "And For That Reason", I feel this is something that may be more viable in the future. L&amp;R Alex McMillan - Northern Ireland

Alex McMillan

You know jones have you ever had any intrest in makeing your own cup for cup of jones? Ceramic glass or even whittled wood. Be intresting too see jones cup

Matthew Palling

It's up!!

Good morning!

ZatVunDoot