Cup of Jones - January 24, 2022
Added 2022-01-24 17:54:30 +0000 UTCVideo Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3MrmTaBPSQ
As we rush the 2021 GOTY football into the end zone, all team members are on the field. We’ve got allies pulling footage for the winner’s video, Isla cutting the video using trailers and EZA gameplay, Bloodworth making sure everything is spelled correctly, spoken correctly, and posted on time. Meanwhile I’m scrubbing through almost 10 hours of deliberations trying to condense the experience as much as it makes sense to do so. Then all of you gobble it up on Tuesday and we start the year-long cycle all over again. So, what are the big contenders for 2022 so far? Any good trailers yet that are worth writing down? Thoughts? I’m kidding, sort of.
- Brandon
DISCLAIMER: I take questions from the post comments on the previous week’s episode here on Patreon. You can ask a business-related question which I may answer live, or a personal question which I may answer below. If your business question was not answered live, I either replied to it in the comments, or referenced the answer in a recent episode. Feel free to inquire why your question wasn't included, or ask the same question a second time if you think I may have missed it. I will edit your comment/question before reading it live to ensure the show moves as quickly as possible. I typically grab all the questions by midnight (PT) the night before each episode.
Comments
Hi Jones, first time long time and apologies for coming in late here. I know the Allies have a big meeting this week to discuss plans for the year and changes etc. I am just asking to some consideration be given to overhauling tiers at 20/25/30 dollars. This area feels a little bare and could use some beefing up to entice people to increase their pledge. A dedicated discord would be my suggestion for a tier around there, keeps it relatively small and is something fun and interactive for community members. Some more behind the scenes stuff could be a good idea too, access to watch podcast recordings live etc could be good incentives for some fresh tiers.
Ultan O'Connell
2022-01-31 13:34:25 +0000 UTCAhoy Jonesy, To my knowledge the only significant others to appear in any content have been Amanda and occasionally Sophia & Kristen. I know that some may be camera shy and/or the Ally may feel uncomfortable with sharing their better half with the world or feel that's a part of their life that is off limits. Any and all reasons are perfectly valid but I can't help but be curious about these people that are such a big part of the Easy Allies' lives that we hear virtually nothing about. While I respect that is likely by design is there any future where we could get an Easy Update Girl Talk episode or Femme Fatale Frame Trap? Could be fun! Heck, you can even blur their faces and/or mask their voices.
Jereme Hiestand
2022-01-31 13:20:02 +0000 UTCSafety Cup
St0mpz
2022-01-31 06:10:09 +0000 UTCG'mornin! Glad to see another intro bit in the podcast. As an official very weird game poster, I'm always down for some goofs. As any healthily self conscious person does, I of course poured through the Youtube comments later that week to see if anyone liked or disliked the Dissecting a Frogger game, but there were no comments (which was almost worse than dislikes?) Anyways, as I was reading through I got to read some good 'ol nasty comments, and a few that were quite confused by the new Who Gamed It bit. Many requested you put the Lanky Kong picture on the podcast -_-. Now, I thought it was obvious, but maybe they were new listeners, or your deadpan delivery is just too dang good.. A suggestion I came up with could be to frame some of the "evidence" like you all saw it in an earlier conference with the CIA. Perhaps a premise a bit more preposterous around the evidence will convey the fictitious nature a bit stronger. A small nitpick to maybe get 1 or 2 more listeners on board with the segment! L&R St0mpz
St0mpz
2022-01-31 06:09:17 +0000 UTCHeya Jones, Oh, really? Well, you can hardly blame them after what happened. But when EZA chooses to get married, will it be to someone young, sea-faring, bold and daring, big bewhiskered, or overbearing?
Asbo Zappruder
2022-01-30 20:48:28 +0000 UTCI’m a huge fan of GOTY lists. I just devour ‘em. There are lots of shows that I watch annually, only for their GOTY coverage, such as MinnMax, who have fun group-discussion format. But Easy Allies is my favourite go-to games channel. I watch everything on the Allies channel, and am a patron - EZA is just a great vibe, all the time. So I was rly excited for the EZA GOTYs. I gotta say though, I have some questions about the formatting. The seven hour deliberations video, with hit-and-miss audio, was not the most digestible format; the scripted prize video lacked the fun deliberation energy. Neither hit the spot. I’d have loved an EZA GOTY show with studio-quality audio, everyone on a mic, and with a more focused and manageable format. Even spread over several videos. Maybe a post-GOTYs podcast episode would do the job. Do you guys ever think about refreshing the EZA GOTY format? Fully acknowledge all the work you put in to the GOTYs. Love & respect. John • gaming in the wild
John • Gaming In The Wild
2022-01-30 17:07:56 +0000 UTCHey Jones, How much do you find the EZA Official GotY choices differ from what you guys vote for the Game Awards? Does that extra ~2 months of being able to play more games drastically change everything? Do you ever regret what you end up choosing for the Game Awards because of that? L&R Logan Tawse
Logan Tawse
2022-01-27 19:13:14 +0000 UTCHello Brandon. Last year you did Cup of Jones editorial where you’ve talked about the best trailers of 2020. Can you please do the same this year? P.S. (no need to read this on Cup of Jones) I’ve submitted my personal ranking of 2021 games to Q&A and you were puzzled that I put Far Cry 6 above Resident Evil Village. I have two problems with Village: firstly, factory section drags for too long; secondly, I disliked that the game pushes you to upgrade your weapons and then punishes you for doing so by introducing replacement weapons. Meanwhile, going through motions in Far Cry 6 is an extremely smooth process, and its story had more depth that I’ve initially expected. Also, I’ve played Outriders solo and just felt in love with its world, story and combat. And since this was a complete surprise (I’ve learned about this game 3 weeks before its release - when it was announced for Game Pass), I’ve ranked it higher than games I knew for sure I’ll enjoy (like, Forza Horizon 5).
Alexander Zyryanov
2022-01-27 14:09:34 +0000 UTCThis is pretty standard practice for these types of events, and in fact doing it the next day is already a significant delay in the news cycle compared to other awards shows. You need to strike while the iron is hot and engagement is high to get in front of those publishers and new audiences. Often tweets will go out live as an event is happening. I think doing it the day after is a fair enough compromise, but I made a note for next year to try to remember to tweet a warning so people can mute the hashtag if they want to wait until later. The reactions that are pouring in from devs and community are showing that it was definitely a good thing for us to do though. -Bloodworth
Easy Allies
2022-01-27 00:50:42 +0000 UTCHi Jones, At the time of writing this comment the easyallies twitter account has been tweeting out the award results as was suggested in the last cup. I don't have a problem with this in essence, but I feel like it's too soon after the 'airing/posting' of the deliberations. For me, much of the fun comes from not knowing the results in advance, and now I was surprised to read the results on my Twitter timeline. Especially since you said in the last episode that spoilers were a concern. I know I could technically have unfollowed or muted as soon as I saw the first result, but that would have still meant I would be spoiled at least one award. In the future, I personally would like there to either be a warning (We're going to post awards in x hours) and/or perhaps wait a week or so after the deliberations are available before posting on social media. I hope this message doesn't come across as hostile, I just wanted to share my experience with the twitter posts and show how it missed the mark for me personally.
Djazzy
2022-01-26 22:36:04 +0000 UTCHey Jones. On a bonus Q&A Minnmax podcast this week, Ben Hanson said he wants to be on the Easy Allies Podcast again. Wink wink nudge nudge
Austin Brackeen
2022-01-26 20:02:33 +0000 UTCAnother question, sorry! I was watching the GOTY deliberations and during the game of the year discussion I noticed pretty much everyone had a different game they were championing. I had the idea that each ally could choose their favorite and then the rest would be filled out by a group discussion. Pretty quickly after I had this thought, Huber ended up suggesting it to the panel but was kind of shot down immediately. What do you think of this idea? I don't know if it would be great for every year, but for this year in particular it seemed like it would have worked well considering how split everyone was and how many games were only played by 1 or 2 allies. Instead, people like Huber had to say goodbye to their #1 game of the year, while others like Ben had like 5 horses in this race he was able to get into the nominations. It just seems weird when a game like Outer Wilds can get in if only Isla played it but Huber can't get in Life is Strange or Ikki Island. Also want to make it clear that this isn't a shot at Ben, Isla, Huber, or anyone - just an observation. (Honestly I'd be the Ben of the group if I were in this situation). Absolutely loved watching the deliberations though!
Badalight
2022-01-26 13:04:07 +0000 UTCNot gonna lie; you blue balled us Jones. You never said what the best end of a review line was. Also, what other options were available for the new bets names (adjectives and animals)?
Badalight
2022-01-25 10:28:04 +0000 UTCThank you for sharing! This is exactly the kind of comment that helps people see what an amazing community we have and how wonderful it is to have you here. This pandemic has made even some of the INTROVERTS long for companionship and having jolly voices bantering in the background is just the ticket to get through a long day doing whatever. L&R
JessieBlu
2022-01-25 01:40:59 +0000 UTCHey Jones. Not really sure where else to post this, just wanted to say thanks to EZA for making the pandemic a whole lot easier for me. It looks like it’s over/coming to an end here in Ireland with restrictions lifting. EZA kept me company over the last two years, I only listened to you guys for E3 and some random shows here and there before that. Every day over the past 2 years I’ve consumed something you guys have done, even if it was just for background noise while I worked. As a fairly extroverted person, working from home alone has been hard enough and you guys definitely helped! Sorry for the ramble just wanted to show my appreciation for you guys. Keep up the good work!
JohnnyCantDance
2022-01-25 00:12:37 +0000 UTCHey Mr. Jones! I was pleasantly surprised to see you all use Breaking News for the massive news about Microsoft’s acquisition, especially since it was two days before the podcast’s recording, but this made me realize: With how scant Breaking News is, as wonderful as it is, would you agree it’s a video that’s dedicated more so for massive topics as opposed to timing? Sure, if something major breaks over the weekend before the public version of the podcast comes up, that’s understandable as well, but as I went searching YouTube, I realized it’s ALWAYS a major news story, regardless of when in the week the news is fresh. Is it a good thing for EZA to have an expected editorial video to be made when something that important happens, regardless of the schedule/Ally availability? Thanks for reading as always, happy (VERY BELATED) birthday, and have a wonderful rest of your day! Cheers! QUESTION: I was pleasantly surprised to see the Breaking News video, but it made me realize: Is it more a video for jaw-dropping topics as opposed to timing? And is it a good thing to have an editorial video be expected any time immense news breaks?
Brandon K Gann
2022-01-25 00:04:29 +0000 UTCHello Brandon :) I would really want for a Brandon Jones and Phil Spencer Interview to happen ! Make it happen! This year please!!!! If you were to have an interview though what would you ask him ? L&R
Sekiro505
2022-01-24 21:12:41 +0000 UTCHi Jones, You mentioned wanting EZA to focus on getting better at what you already do well in 2022, as opposed to just doing more or trying to look busy. Would you be able to tell us if that means a bigger or smaller focus on more Game reviews? I can't help but notice that the number of reviews have gone down the last few years (67 games in '19 / 59 games in '20 / 54 games in '21). Thanks for any insight you can shed on this,
Alex Castellanos
2022-01-24 19:28:30 +0000 UTC
