Cup of Jones - August 16, 2021

Heya Jones, Yeah, wow, I just heard. I hope they can clear it up in time. But what would Easy Allies be willing to do to proves themselves worth of our love: swim oceans, move mountains, feel fire, or drink poison? ps - Could I get a quick plug for an up-and-coming streamer named Kyle who will be streaming 12 hours of Tetris this Saturday to raise money for Girls Who Code?

Asbo Zappruder

Hi Mr. Jones, I don't know if you shared your thoughts on this elsewhere, but I need to know: What is your hype level on Star Wars Visions and can we get your quick impressions on the latest trailer? Thank you and L&R

Hello Jones. I for one love the produced EZA content. In particular the shows that have been mid-week/mid-day drops including Mysterious Monsters, Achieve It Yourself, and many others. As someone who would love to see that weekly content continue, I wondered how statistically successful it has been and if that was something the Allies would be prioritizing. I love Trash Babies but wish it was more frequent. Thank you for your time! L&R TravelingSnowman

TravelingSnowman

Hello Jones, Been listening for a long time, and patreon for a while but never posted before so hello from Down Under! I predominantly listen to your content, and was curious about the breakdown between listeners and viewers in terms of revenue? Would it be better for me to listen to the podcast for example via a video YouTube feed or a podcast app? I thoroughly enjoy all the work you and the allies have done through the years to keep me entertained. Here’s to many more!

Curtis Green

Will you guys be reacting to Xbox Gamescom Stream on the 24th or the Gamescom Opening Night on the 25th?

Steve S

Hi Jones, I hope you are having a great day. After watching the last Cup of Jones and hearing all of the suggestions about Hall of Greats, how it could be improved on various ways, and getting yours and the community’s perspective on what is and should be Hall of Greats, I thought I’d send some of my suggestions and thoughts about Hall of Greats your way and see how do you feel about them. Fair warning and apologies in advance about how long this comment will be. Before I start, I think I need to make it clear that I enjoy the Hall of Greats as it is and don’t really have any problems with it, even with the last one. So these suggestions are simply things that I think might improve on it but aren’t necessarily essential. 1) Increasing the presentation time from 5 minutes to 7 minutes - I actually noticed this after going back and watching the very first Hall of Greats. I think along the way, some of the allies (both the actual EZA members and the community) might’ve forgotten what the original point of having a time limit was. I think it was clear in the early Hall of Great episodes that the time limit was there so we wouldn’t end up in a situation where someone talks about a game for like 10-20 minutes. It was supposed to be a cap, an adherence to a structure, not a way of testing an ally’s ability to present the game in said time limit. I think being a little lenient with the time for presentations would give allies more freedom to have a more complete argument and could lead to better and more interesting presentations. If each ally took these 2 extra minutes, that would be 16 minutes of added stream time in total, so overall, it wouldn’t make the stream that much longer. I know it’s easy to say Don will always go overtime regardless (and that’s probably true xD) but this isn’t simply a Don problem. As we’ve seen in the past, other allies have ran out of time before being able to make their case to the fullest. Again, initially the point behind presentations was to do the game justice and not to test allies’ ability to describe one of the greats within a strict time limit. 2) The option to not vote – Now I know this is an extreme and significant change, but I think it would make for more interesting and expressive Hall of Greats. If an ally doesn’t feel strongly about the games presented, like Huber in the last episode, then it’s better if they aren’t forced to vote than to vote for things they would rather not to. Now I realize this could lead to situations were theoretically some of the allies don’t vote and then two games with fewer votes get in and that doesn’t seem fair. My solution to that is to introduce a minimum amount of casted votes/points needed before the top voted games are allowed into Hall of Greats. Allow me to elaborate. Each ally has 6 points to distribute which means you have 48 points in total. Now, if you allow the option to not vote for games, then the top voted games in that episode are only allowed in Hall of Greats if the total number of points awarded (to all games) is more than 30 points. So in other words, if the games presented aren’t strong enough that 18 points (the equivalent of 3 allies’ total voting power) weren’t distributed, then those games shouldn’t be allowed into Hall of Greats at that time (basically that means no new game will be added to Hall of Greats from that episode if such thing happened). Like I said, I think this will make the Hall of Greats more interesting and allies will have more options to express themselves as opposed to being forced to vote for games they might not feel deserving. In a situation where some allies are absent you can change the minimum amount of points required for that episode as you see fit. 3) And lastly, ties should be further discussed and then voted by allies (8 EZA members to make it clear) during the stream as opposed to having a poll on Patreon – I know the community might not like this, but to be blunt, we are simply the audience. As you’ve said it yourself during the last Cup of Jones, this is not EZA + Community Hall of Greats. Imagine if during GOTY discussions you had a tie for a category and then decided to do a poll on Patreon to see what game wins. That wouldn’t be Easy Allies’ Game of the Year Awards anymore, it would be Easy Allies + Community award, which would be a different thing entirely. Hall of Greats is like that atm. I think it’s a bit demoralizing for the person who has brought the game, presented it, answered all the questions and has gotten enough votes to end up in a tie, to have the fate of that game now be completely out of their hands. I think if games end up in a tie for second position, then they should be further discussed (for 2-3 minutes in total for each game among everyone) and then after that discussion, allies vote between the two by the show of hand (similar to GOTY discussions) and the winner gets in as the second game. Anyway, sorry for the long comment. Like I said, I’m perfectly fine with Hall of Greats as it is and just thought these suggestions might make it more interesting. I think overall, even though presentations definitely matter, it would be good for all of us to keep in mind that Hall of Greats is more about the actual games getting the recognition they deserve, than a test for allies and their presentation skills. Once again, sorry for the wall of text (and bad English). Cheers.

Son of Sparda

Hi Jones, Long time supporter and "watcher of content", i think one of the first videos that i remember your voice was on Assassins Creed 2 Review. Anyways, it's crazy that its been 12 years (had to take a few seconds to calculate). Keep doing what you do, Two things that i had in my mind that i thought would share: 1) Would it be a good idea to do a appreciation stream, video, or something else for each ally to show them each some love from community and other allies ? 2) For the podcast, I used to like ben/omar playing games in the background tv (gametrailers days) or even, some gameplay of the video game being talked about was great, it would give us some context of what the game looks and plays like. Will end it here, but please do let all the allies know, they are greatly appreciated by viewers/supporters like us, who dont normally comment!. L&R!!

Druobo

Jones, I'm sorry to add this stressor to you so far out but I just had the thought that podcast episode 300 is rapidly approaching and I think it might occur on the first or second week of the new year?! Depends on holiday schedules. But it's not too early to start writing your musical number!! :] that is all.

Alec Church

Jones gets so salty about not getting in to HOG lol

Patrick Southward

dude that is so much work, ha.

See You When I Get There

Hey Jones! The past couple of cups you've talked about interviews and said that they don't perform well. Obviously this is referring to views, and not patrons/fans. Easy Allies don't seem to be a company that are chasing views, I almost think you're under more pressure to appease Patrons, but also please yourselves as creators! With that said, what would you say has been EZA's most successful video or video series? Did it get the most views? Did it represent the company the best? Did it bring in the most patrons? Did it please the most people? You can say the podcast, but that feels too easy- maybe reference a specific episode or segment (please). Thanks so much- I love you. You don't have to read this part out- While your Animal Crossing videos didn't get a huge amount of views, the engagement with the community was incredible (I loved them so much!) I feel like they were a perfect video series- really captured a joy only video games can bring, and sense of family/community that feel unique to EZA!

See You When I Get There

Hey Jones, I know you just did an editorial on HOG but I was thinking about all the criticisms people have with it and even though I like HOG the way it is I did come up with an idea. Now I feel some of the criticism stems from viewers wanting the games they love to make it in. So I thought it would cool if before HOG you put a poll up on Patreon with all the submitted games for that HOG but not who is going to argue for which game. Then the patrons vote and whichever gets the most votes adds 3 votes for that game, 2nd most adds 2 votes, and 3rd most adds 1 vote. This way viewers can feel more involved but without it taking too much away from the allies. I realize this takes away a bit of the surprise of seeing which games are brought, but I feel like it could be fun and it might satiate some viewers. It could even be a new tier reward. Anyways, those are my thoughts and I can't wait for someone to bring D&D again! L&R, Cody.

Cody Spencer

i don’t know if anyone else suggested this but my number one want for hall of greats would be to make the allies remember the greats. ADD STAKES. if a game wins, make each other feel it a little (if it’s on hand/available to play still). make everyone play the great either the following week for a stream, or a new take on retrospectives! wherein the allies collectively work their way through the hall (each playing as much as or little as they want) and having mockumentary style talking heads over some gameplay for a short video. this way each ally has to at least move the character around in the game a little or feel the startup and music. gaming isn’t the same unless you can really smell the manual, ya know? just my two cents. love and respect and honestly i still love the show as is, so c’est la vie.

Hello Jones! You mentioned getting steamrolled during easy livin/chillin during a guilty gear tournament. Also somebody mentioned a suggestion for the marathon stream. I have a suggestion for a tournament that should level the playing field. And that is the lovely Sportsfriends! Even if you don't have the space to play Joust (I hope you do) the other games Barabariball and Pole Riders are a VERY fun time. It would be a grand old time!

Parasitepaladin

Everyone calm down hall of greats is just a fun dumb thing that doesn't matter that much. Just have a good time watching.

Garrett Kuenzi

Hello Jones! I was looking at the Podcast yesterday and I usually do just that look at it and hear. Not just hear it like other people. I was wondering if a visual cues can be shown in your video. For example the TV's behind you guys are great to have a video of what is being talked about. Isla can put a video of Hades for example. Zoom out every so often to the people on the table and every so often to the video. Id love that added and also because I don't know all the games being talked about. A video being played while y'all are talking would be great. L&R

Sekiro505

Hey Mr. Jones! Inspired by your editorial last week regarding taking so much feedback for Hall of Greats, I wanted to add one more, if I could be so bold. While I’ve never had an issue with how the format has been nor how it’s evolved over its now 16 iterations, there is one change that has me asking for a new way to go about knowing the votes themselves. While I have no problem with keeping which games get the 3-2-1 votes secret until all votes are cast and winners are revealed, could the Allies let us know AFTER the announced nominees which game got which votes? I ask, not really for myself, but for the Hall of Greats website upkeep done by Mr. Joey Bruno. He does a great job categorizing how things breakdown, but having to guess which game got however many points from each Ally isn’t exact and potentially not reflective of the actual votes. I know I might be overstepping for asking something on behalf of another person, especially a detail that’s really inconsequential, could be more than the Allies feel like doing, and just generally cumbersome in throwing off the flow of the end of the stream, but speaking for myself, it’s really helpful to know how it broke down beyond the overall point total a game receives. That said, I do feel having everyone take no longer than a couple of minutes cumulatively just saying which game is their 3, 2, and 1 wouldn’t be too much. Again, I think the guessing of what votes are given heightens the drama and helps with the payoff of the reveal, just only AFTER the winners have been revealed should we know the specifics. I DO have reservations about how infrequent the actual stream has become, but that’s another conversation for another time. Thanks as always for reading (especially with the sheer amount of time you dedicate to address Hall of Greats feedback. It and Mysterious Monsters probably is the most popular things EZA does), and again, have a wonderful rest of your day! Cheers! QUESTION: Inspired by your editorial last week regarding taking so much feedback for Hall of Greats, I wanted to leave feedback too: While I have no problem with keeping which games get the 3-2-1 votes secret until all votes are cast and winners are revealed, could the Allies let us know AFTER the announced nominees which games each Ally gave their 3, 2, and 1 votes? This helps with record keeping for not just the most recent ceremony, but for EVERY HoG in perpetuity.

Brandon K Gann

Follow up to the HoG talk (you don't need to read this live if you don't, haha). What matters is fun. Is it fun for you do to it. Is it fun for us to watch. I hope you use that as the lens for considering any rule changes. Note, I'm not asking for rule changes, I think HoG is fun now and you all are good at self-balancing with how you tend to vote. Example, you mentioned considering softening the ban rule. I don't care too much, the bans themselves aren't that important, but do consider the effect of the ban rule as it is now: all of the sudden, we're all really invested if certain games get even 1 measly little vote. The tension is palpable as those last few allies do their confession cams. That's really valuable in my opinion. Anything that adds extra stakes to otherwise inconsequential votes would make it more fun. This doesn't have to mean the ban rule stays; you could add a "Mr Irrelevant" award to the least votes, or some other kind of supplementary "honor" (dubious or real) based on the bottom of the list. Obviously wouldn't want to be too mean spirited but you get the idea. If, from time to time, the top of the list seems obvious, then any rules in place that add drama or intrigue to the bottom of the list are still really valuable. And you can see how this concept could apply to other aspects of presentations and votes. There's more at stake than who "wins" HoG (and arguably that's the part I care about the least), so any time you consider rule changes I hope you don't focus too narrowly on how it will influence who can/will win.

Bradley Spies

Just wanted to say you're doing a great job.