Cup of Jones - April 6, 2020

Good to know! Thank you. - Jones

Easy Allies

What do you do to try to maintain positivity in the current environment? Even video games aren't providing me the usual escape they used to, and I know things are always darkest before the dawn, but I'm not sure when that dawn will arrive.

Steve S

Mr. Jones, Is EZA more of a popular media site than a video game site? You cover creative ideas from the allies, movies, shows, anime, and wellness in addition to video games so would the popular media label be more appropriate? Would you want to lean into diversifying the brand across popular media, concentrate your essence to focus more on games or just have fun doing what you're doing? Just curious how you would like to manage your public image. PS: In response to last weeks episode I upped my pledge to $10 a month and wanted to know how you feel about being perceived as a greater value than Netflix? Respectfully, Morgan Mohalla

Morgan Mohalla

Not really a comment for CoJ, but you can use the Vive base stations for the Valve Index.

Rappy

Heya Jones, Can you hear me alright? Is this working? Okay, so then if Easy Allies were a struggling songwriter and filmmaker living in the East Village and they had their power turned off, would they just pay their rent or set things on fire? ps - I noticed in the last Community Showcase that you were referring to me as he. I figured I should let you know I'm a she. And I realize it's slightly confusing because the actual Asbo Zappruder, the magical baby seal, is a boy. (And I guess the actual screaming Argonauts were presumably male as well..) Anyway, just thought I'd clarify. Cheers!

Asbo Zappruder

Just wanted to say that this week’s Dreams Lovers was my favorite episode of the series. I loved seeing how you didn’t understand Logic at first, but didn’t stop trying and eventually figured it out. Also thank you for giving us access to the full Podcast episode on Friday. It was inconvenient to go back on Sunday just to watch Podcast Halftime.

Alexander Zyryanov

Not so much a question, but something that I hope can be passed on to Ian. In the latest Fiasconauts episode, because of the camera setup, you were a lot more conscious of telling the audience when a black or a white die had been selected. Usually it is just held up on camera, but this does nothing for audio followers! It'd be really helpful for future episodes if the habit of announcing the die colour continued. Thanks again, Louis.

Louis Sandiford

Hey Brandon, Apologies if this has been addressed recently, haven't been able to keep up-to-date with CoJ of late. My question: Is it a conscious decision to leave the website (easyallies.com) as it currently is? Are there any plans to improve it that have been put on the back burner, or are you happy with the site as it currently exists? The reason I ask is that I see it as a bit of wasted potential, right now. The 'About Us' page really doesn't tell people much about you at all, there are no ads (there's no harm in monetising your own site), 'Merch' still contains a link to Fangamer, and there appears to be no rationale behind the ordering for the dropdown list of 'shows' (which in itself contains 'Easy Allies Plays' and 'Newest Uploads', and drops off the bottom of my laptop screen - maybe it's worth splitting these between 'active' and 'completed' shows?). Furthermore, there is no way to link to a specific video on easyallies.com. This means that any posts on Reddit regarding reviews (which seem to drive a decent amount of traffic) will link straight to the YouTube video, but not to the website. A website is your own customisable storefront to sell to an audience. It's a lot easier, hypothetically, to direct people to your content on a website, whereas you have no control over YouTube algorithm recommendations. Apologies for the kinda long take / question, feel free to edit it down to however much you feel is necessary. L&R, and stay safe - Louis (pronounced the French way).

Louis Sandiford

Hello Brandon. I want to clarify some Community Showcase rules you’ve talked about on the last episode. You’ve mentioned that we can’t use licensed music, because the stream will be muted, but we probably can use in-game music, because you stream games a lot. Also last time you mentioned that big disclaimer in community showcase post exists because we give you the right to monetize our submissions on Twitch. I want to ask you specifically about using in-game music that receives “no monetization” copyright claim on YouTube. The most recent example I found was a submission in December 2019 showcase with an arrangement of Kingdom Hearts 2 music. Is this allowed? I plan to submit a video that will have a piece of Final Fantasy XV opening and this segment receives similar “no monetization” copyright claim on YouTube. Ben streamed this part of the game in 2016, so I guess it was OK for Twitch. So should I edit out the music, or can I leave it as it is?

Alexander Zyryanov

How much benefit do you guys see from "late" reviews? Do those still see a good amount of traffic or do you feel like you have missed out on the zeitgeist of when embargo drops?

Victor Pham

Now that IGN has announced it's sort-of digital E3 replacement, has there been any word on restreaming rights? Will EZA still be able to do their typical reactions this year, or does IGN have rules against that?

Brainfreeze

Just want to mention this directly to you jones, sorry I wasn’t in the showcase this month, I was really looking forward to showing everyone my new pet snake but I got laid off due to COVID-19 and had to drop my tier to the 1 dollar. Just want to say sorry and as soon as I’m back to work I’ll be back! 😊

Megan Linart

Dear Jones, did you DQ the drawing I submitted for the community showcase? You did not show it and because of the deadline, I had to stop playing Resident Evil 3 and get the piece done in time xD. Sincerly Bjørnar aka Juleskum

bjørnar haraldsvik

Please stay at home. I would rather have bad streams than sick Allies and you can't guarantee that your trip over to the studio will be completely safe.

Cathal Fallon

Business Question: Now that you will be taking over the podcast, this will add a lot of extra work on your plate. Now you have to research, host and then edit and upload the podcast. Not to mention get l&r questions, bets and if you do bits, reading YouTube comments etc. Are you planing to balance some of your other duties as a result of this because we don't want you to overwork yourself.

Faraz Rizvi

It's slightly different because everybody submitting is paying money for that tier

VGJunky

I checked on my phone and it's updating correctly. Try adding your link fresh. You can find it on the my membership tab here on the desktop version of Patreon. If that doesn't work you may need to try it in a different app to narrow down whether it's your feed or PocketCasts that's having the issue. -Bloodworth

Easy Allies

Do need to read this "on air", but is something going on with the Early Editions RSS feed? I haven't seen anything since March 30 and when I tried to re-subscribe in Pocket Casts, it wouldn't load...

Hi Jones, I really feel for you on the Community Showcase front. I often have to peer review my colleagues work before it can be considered complete. It can be really hard to say to someone that a piece of work isn't to the standard that we need, as in my line of work it's easy to become emotionally attached to the work we produce. I can imagine there's a similar feeling in regards to journalism. Human sympathy is too damn powerful sometimes. One piece of advice I can give is to make it not about you saying no, but about your inability to say yes. Perhaps make a spiel that you can say, with bulleted point graphics on the screen at the time, similar to how Kyle does his "Stream Art Rules". "The rules are this, this, and this. If you submitted something for this months showcase and you don't see it, it'll be due to your submission breaking one of the aforementioned rules, and so we were unable to include it in the showcase. If you would like to alter your submission in some way so that it can qualify, we would be more than happy to see it on next months showcase." Or something to that end. If you want to be really nice, leave a comment on the submission detailing the rule that's broken, with a similar message about altering it and then seeing it next month. It's just a suggestion, but I commend you at the very least for saying what's on your mind. It can't have been easy!

Harrison Holt-McHale

Hello Jones I saw this brought up in chat and by Huber during the RE3 stream so I wanted to ask it here. Could the Allies who have been having trouble with their internet go to the studio by themselves and stream from there? Chat speculated that since they would be there alone it might be something you could do?

Olf Himself

Hey Mr. Jones! Going off the answer you gave my question from last week, I got to thinking about workload and how you said we’re seeing an additional stream or two over a given week than there would’ve been because of the lack of driving. But I was curious; is there a temptation to add even more work than normal to fill time that would’ve been allocated to the miscellany you touched on (driving and the like)? I know you can only speak for yourself, but do yourself or other Allies that you’re aware of, need to actively not stream or take on additional background work to maintain a healthy balance since work and home are now one-and-the-same for the most part? I know you said last week you wanted to give an editorial on wellness, so I guess I wanted to tie this question to that. Thanks for taking my question and have a wonderful rest of your day. Cheers! QUESTION: To tie into your editorial on wellness, have you noticed for yourself and/or other Allies, additional pressure to do more work and risking throwing off work/life balance? Is it easier or more difficult to fill the time you touched on last week that would be filled with things like driving and other life activities?

Brandon K Gann