Cup of Jones - May 4, 2020

Thanks, Ty! - Jones

Easy Allies

Hi Brandon Great job moderating the podcast so far, especially handling the virtual format which in of itself takes time and experience to master while at the same time finding your flow and building your confidence in the role. Moderator feels right for a podcast and especially so for the Easy Allies as you are all experienced hosts and contributors, it makes sense that the focus of the role is on the needs of the audience and who better than you to support that aim. I was struck by a thought; when designing a fine meal, a chef has a clear idea about what they intend to create. They select the finest ingredients, preparations are made and with their signature flair the recipe, techniques and seasoning are tested, refined and perfected. Similarly, to get the richest flavours from the panellists during for example, ‘Rank the Significance’ it could help to clearly define what you mean by ranking the significance for the benefit of both them and the audience and then to challenge or support their view and have them elucidate further using the definition as a guide. Also are you looking for personal takes, gamer or industry-oriented opinions or a combination of one or more? And in general, when going into any conversation, to be clear on what your opinion is and to have a banked position to challenge or support the views of the others and to always be mindful of, “what might the audience be thinking?” Even when curious and open to the views of the group, it can help to facilitate the richest, spiciest, strongest and subtlest mouth-watering exchanges by helping them to clarify and explain their own thoughts which are generally coming off the cuff, with the constant thought of, “did that bite satisfy the diners”? These are just thoughts and offered knowing how mindful you are and I know as you continue to make the podcast your own, the flavours will satisfy the varied palates of your patrons and the wider audience alike. P.S. I loved the Dirt Blood-roast and throwing to Damiani to lead off the Nintendo news. Love and respect, Elliot

Elliot Moscow

Hi Jones, Not really a question, so feel free to not read this on the show. But I just wanted to say that I hope we don't lose stream art with Kyle leaving. The weekly art was some of the most impressive stuff from the community and the fact that it all had a central theme (whatever game was being played) really helped the cohesion. It also makes a stream feel like more of a "show" by adding throughlines and running gags, as you now know from Silver Squad. Obviously calls for art don't fit every stream and you don't want it to feel forced, but it would be a shame if stream art gets lost to time. So, I dunno, keep it in mind, ask other allies if they've considered it (or even SEEN the stuff that got emailed every week). I think Damiani could do this pretty naturally, actually, since he has been planning to do some full playthroughs soon. Throwing it out there. L&R, Aaron N P.S. Loving the podcast overall, but wanted to say the corrections music sounds very... ominous to me? Very intense, I get like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire vibes (lol). Just saying.

Arnesh Nagavalli

Hi Jones, Just wanted to say I thoroughly enjoyed the most recent EZA podcast. The conversations flowed nicely and I really appreciated the Nintendo segment. Having Damiani lead it worked wonderfully and I hope more Allies will get the chance to lead particular segments in the future. Not really a question, just wanted to say keep up the good work. L&R Ty

Lord Zedd

Hi Jones, The other day I rewatched the "Brandon watches Pokémon Origins" video. It made me remember that I would love to see you watch and talk about (react, if you will) to the early Pokémon Anime or movies. I have seen other people express a similar sentiment, although that was a long time ago. On a similar topic, Pokémon Origins feels like the only time any of the allies has done a conventional reaction video to something that was not a live or recent piece of games media. I feel like these sort of TV or anime reaction videos have gotten extremely popular over the past few years, and the reaction videos are often by far the most popular content your channel produces. How do you feel about doing these types of reaction videos? On the one hand, it could be a slippery slope and may end up drawing in a very different or disconnected audience, but on the other, I would be lying if I said I didn't want to see "Brandon watches Gotham" or "Brandon watches Pokémon: The first movie" happen. Would love to hear your thoughts! P.S. I hope I got my point across, I wasn't sure how to formulate it. without writing an essay. Also, Sorry if this shows up several times or something, Patreon seemingly keeps deleting my reply.

Edvin

What's going on with TrueArt@easyallies.com? The fan art for the beginning of your streams were awesome, and it served as a good way to catch viewers up on what happened on the last stream.

Kanlink

Heya Jones, I mean, okay. I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree on that one. But if Easy Allies was a show based on one of the most popular superheroes in the world, with a multi-award winning director and songs by a famous pop star, how many people would it injure before it closed?

Asbo Zappruder

Hi Jones, finished listening to the EZA podcast of this week and did really not like how you passed the hosting over to Damiani for almost half and hour. Not that I do not like Damiani hosting, but it felt no longer like the easy allies podcast, but rather like an episode of friend code. Will this be a regular occurrence? Outsourcing nintendo stuff to Damiani? Because if so, than I do not really see a need for friend code since it already feels like that Damiani needs to reach for topics (due to the focused nature of the show). But I am fearing having to listen zo basically the same thing twice now.

PrinnyTonic

Safety

Nextgenheff

(This is all personal stuff, not business related at all) Hey Jones, Missed a cup of jones submission last week, didnt get a chance to say your first podcast pretty good. Was surprised how into my batman beyond pitch you guys were. I have no real background in writing at all, so no promises on a full script. But maybe some scenes. I am just wondering if it is ok if I run some updates through you here from week to week. I am going to keep all updates pre-pitch part 2(return of the league), saving that for the next huber showcase. For the first week, I have some info that might not have made it into the part 1 pitch or you guys misunderstood. -I imagined this universe of mine taking place 50 years from the current animated universe (ignoring the latest movie cause many bad things happen in it), completely different from the canon batman beyond stuff. -While Gotham is a big city, after the “death of the batman”(Will go into this in a future week if you want me too, its kinda really dark), I thought the justice league would be there to try and help keep what peace Gotham has. So I came up with the idea that they have grown to a more intergalactic organization, only worrying about planet sized issues. -After all the batman stuff over the last decade, I have grown kinda tired of Bruce Wayne, so I thought up the idea of replacing him with an older, matured Damian. -Damian is in the beyond comics, and his storyline is related to a return of the league of assassins. I plan to stray away from this exact storyline, but any more and we go into spoilers for my return of the league. -At the very end, it is Damian’s son, and the son is the one who kills Damian's assassin messenger. He is an original character along with Ellen Drake. -I am mirroring Ellen Drake to be like the new commissioner from the Dark Knight Returns storyline. Hence the name Ellen, the commissioner’s name in that. Sorry if this is not the place for this, I don’t really have any friends that into Batman beyond that would really care to hear about stuff like this.

Nextgenheff

Good morning Jones, I just wanted to hassle you about Who Is In My Bathroom. There's been quite a few things built for the game and I'm excited for you and chat to see the game in a completed state. Just hope this hasn't fallen to the wayside. L&R ocd_odst

Hey there! I've been enjoying the Jones era of the EZA podcast so far and excited to see improve from here as you settle in. My question, is with lockdowns going on for the forseeable future, have you guys thought about doing any lockdown specific content? Apart from the extra spoiler modes we've been getting. Thanks for all you guys do Stay well Gabe

Gabriel Roy

Hello Jones, There's been a pretty interesting debate going on since the Inside Xbox event about how next-generation games won't look THAT much better than what we're getting now. People, like Geoff Keighley and Shinobi602, seem to be hinting that games will look significantly better on next-gen while many outlets, like IGN and GiantBomb, seem to think games won't look drastically better and the upgrades will come in the form of features like load times, more things on the screen, and physics/AI. Do you think next-gen games will look significantly better, or do you think everything else will be the main focus for next-gen titles? Thanks!

Seth Parmer

Hi Jones, Love the first two episodes of the podcast with you as moderator. Some (hopefully) constructive criticism: Gaming Gladiators is fun but I think that one round per episode would be more than enough, especially if you ever intend on bringing it to a conclusion. I feel that you took a couple of corrections too many in the beginning, I think picking particularly egregious mistakes and funny ones is the way to go, anything else is just padding out the opening. The shorter the better to get closer to that 90 minute goal. Finally, something I noticed particularly during Rank the Significance was that you would introduce a game with your opinion on it, before throwing to the panel. This may be a purposeful difference but something I loved about Kyle's moderation was that he would always intro the topic and throw to the panel asap, fitting in his opinions later (if at all). I think from a panelist standpoint it is probably nicer that way so that you haven't stolen any of their potential talking points before you've even asked them what they think. I hope none of this comes across as harsh or unwarranted, just want to reiterate that I absolutely loved the first two episodes and I'm excited for more. Keep up the good work, thanks!

Hello Jones! ANIMAL CROSSING CONTENT! I have been loving the island tours and home tours of allies and friends. Do you guys have any plans to have some Animal Crossing GAME streams though? Hide and go seek? Fishing tournaments between the allies? Pitfall Sumo? I'd love to see that and Animal Crossing content is super hot right now so it'd probably perform well too! Lastly , I'm sure you're aware of the Animal Crossing Survivor and Deal or No Deal streams... If EZA wanted to get more creative and own something like that it'd be great too. Maybe an EZA animal crossing MURDER MYSTERY! Ok.. that's all. Keep up the great work! L&R

Raven Perez

Hey Jones, I've started noticing how often you describe things as "weird". It stands out to me because describing things as "weird" carries a bit of a negative connotation from where I'm from - I understand from the context that you often use the word "weird", you're really just using it to say something is interesting/unique/curious/unusual, but to me it sounds more like you think it's bizarre/dumb/senseless. Performing on camera all day every day is no easy feat so it's hard for me to give any feedback on how you do it, but I just wanted to put it out there to get it off my chest, feel free to ignore it. L&R.

Cash

Hello, Mr. Jones. I hope that you're well! Will you please share your thoughts on the diversity of the allies? Thank you! -Leon

Zak Leon

Personal Question Hey Jones, I just wanted to ask a personal question regarding the absence of my April Community Showcase post. Did you omit my post due to too many questions being asked or was there another reason? I completely understand if the post was left out due to the amount of questions I asked, I just couldn't trim any of them down. In the future I won't ask so many questions and will focus more on providing creative works in the showcase-I'll save most of the questions for the monthly Q&A. L&R

James Davie

Hey Jones, There are actual extensions where you can watch a video at the same time instead of sharing in zoom where everyone else sees a delay except the person sharing. https://www.watch2gether.com/?lang=en Google watch YouTube together if you will use YouTube, the link I provided is for twitch. Thanks My idea to make your opening better for the podcast. Have 3 matches. and have the set-up similar to wrestling. First match is fun and the opener. Second match is no.1 contender where the winner fights the winner of the main event which is for the EZA Podcast VG World Title. L&R tier chose the contestants for the matches. The first match(the opener) can be fun low stakes and can even chose tag team characters. Having a world title gets a reason these characters fight for. The Allies discuss how each fight finishes like wrestling and decide the winner. The main event let's say it's Mario v Sonic and Sonic wins with a low blow and spin dash, while the no.1 contender is between Zelda v Peach where Zelda wins by putting Peach to sleep with a sleeper hold. Next week the main event is Sonic (champion) v Zelda where everyone looks forward to and the guests next week decide the winner with a no.1 contender chosen again, so on and so forth. This isn't about who will actually win but to make an entertaining finish.

Ibrahim Sozer

Hey, Jones. I've been slowly catching up on old Gametrailers content that I never got around to, since I didn't follow the site closely at the time besides for Final Bosman. Something I recently started watching was a show from around 2014 called "Thanks for Playing!" It's a variety show, each 30 minutes to an hour long, in which 12 full episodes aired (according to Gametrailers Archive Youtube channel). I'm finding the show super interesting. A series of discussions, impressions, interviews, etc. filmed in a variety of locations, with plenty of game footage b-roll. Can you talk a little about the show? What was the idea being creating it, and more importantly, why did it fizzle out? Looking at the Youtube playlist, unless episodes weren't uploaded correctly after the 12 full episodes, it seems that at some point it stopped being a longform variety show and instead was uploaded as single segments, be it an interview, or a Let's Play, or a discussion. Would love to hear more about this show. L&R, Josh Read

Josh Read

Hey Jones, I thoroughly enjoyed your inaugural Easy Allies podcast as the new host. Keep it up! My question is, how is the overall moral of the team due to the stay at home situation? Personally, I love that my commute time is non-existent but I find myself very unmotivated during work hours without having my colleagues around me. L&R, David

Mr. Jones, Why aren't you doing voice acting, at least on the side? You have a silky recognizable voice, and prominent voice actors Troy Baker and Nolan North have their own video game channel with a sizable audience from just the roles they play. Would it not be good cross promotion to operate Easy Allies and be a video game voice actor? I actually get excited trying to find Amanda's voice in games you mention and can't help thinking it would be fun to do the same with you. I think the obvious answer would be " there's not enough time," but is there any interest on your part? Respectfully, Morgan Mohalla

Morgan Mohalla

Hey Jones! Just wondering, since COVID-19 is causing a lot of bigger games to be delayed, are there any smaller projects that you think might get more attention than they otherwise would due to the more empty release landscape that is this summer? Personally, my mind goes to THQNordic's remasters of Battle for Bikini Bottom and Destroy All Humans. Both could now do far better than they originally expected due to lack of competition. Could this be a weird blessing in disguise for the indie game industry? L&R & Sorry Enforcer, Spongejay1

spongejay1

Hi Jones, This is my first time commenting for Cup of Jones. I just had some feedback to provide and a suggestion to make. First, I've noticed that over the past month or so, a large portion of Easy Allies content has been focused on Animal Crossing and Final Fantasy VII Remake. Animal Crossing has gotten weekly streams with Jones, several bonus streams with Blood, plus episodes of Easy Update and Huber Syndrome. FFVIIR has gotten a full playthrough from Damiani, a group stream with the beginning of Jones' playthrough, and two spoiler modes with a third on deck. And of course both games have gotten reviews and been topics on Frame Trap. My hot take on this: I think this is great! EZA's coverage of games has pretty decent breadth, but it sometimes lacks in depth. I really truly appreciate the detailed coverage of both of these games, and I would hope that you go similarly deep into other future big releases. Then again, I understand that these two games are somewhat unique in that all or almost all of the Allies (save for Don, maybe?) have been playing them, which is relatively rare even for the biggest releases. Moreover, it's totally possible that you guys have gone in deep on games in the past, and I just didn't notice because they weren't games I was interested in. But the reason I bring this up at all is because I think, no matter how broad you try to be in your coverage of games, you are going to miss somebody's favorite game - so I think it's worth it to sometimes favor depth over breadth. Tell us everything about the games you love, rather than a little bit about a bunch of games that you think are ok. Part 2: A stream suggestion. You keep teasing us with mentions of you almost playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses. So, here's a free idea for when you get back into the studio: weekly stream where you play FE3H with Ben Moore on the couch. Actually, any of Ian Hinck, Michael Damiani, or Brad Ellis I think have finished the game at least once and could take a couch spot, but I think since JRPGs are kind of Ben's thing, it would make sense for him to be a permanent cohost of such a stream while maybe the others join sporadically. I think this would be a good way for you to play FE3H without overly distracting from other games you want/need to be playing, and to share your first impressions with the community. Cons: Ben already streams a lot, so he might have to give up an existing stream to have time in his schedule. The length of these weekly streams might be an issue; two hours a week like Silver Squad might not work out for finishing the game in a few months. Speaking of Silver Squad, folks might expect this stream to "replace" that in terms of dynamic and feel, which would not be possible. And of course, this is all pending there being any interest from you in doing this or from other allies in cohosting, which there may very well not be. Anyway, these are just thoughts I've had that I wanted to share. Sorry if this is too long! -khfan93

khfan93

I don't see why Hall of Greats wouldn't be possible to do from home. It's basically just talking and we've seen that showing each other videos works fine too.

Olf Himself

When is it too late to post a Patreon comment? And I'm not talking about ones with clear deadlines (like Cup of Jones questions, or the EZA Podcast L&R segment). I often find myself listening to a podcast say 4 days to maybe a week after its posted. Maybe even a few weeks. Sometimes I'll want to post a comment (not necessarily a question), but then realise that the EZA crew probably won't read it since its been so long. Is there a recommended deadline I should consider when I post a comment that I'd like an EZA member to see? I can imagine this will vary greatly between shows and EZA members, but some rough guidance on this would help me be more timely with my comments. My general rule of thumb so far is "before they post the next episode", but I suspect this might even be too slow. Cheers. P.S. I've almost finished listening to your first time hosting the EZA podcast. It's great stuff and has reassured me in keeping my Patreon pledge. I particularly liked the addition of "Also This Week...". P.P.S. The above is also an example where I found myself to be too slow at finishing the podcast, and too late to posting a comment for you to see in time (I assume).

Andrew Chalmers

Hey Brandon, I loved the first podcast. My only suggestion, which I'm sure you've heard, is for 'also this week.' I think not being in the studio, you might want to just barrel through them all and ask the panel when you're done what grabbed them from the headlines. It definitely felt like sometimes, people wanted to jump in and you seemed to steamroll over them, which I assume is because of not all being in the same space. I like the addition of smaller headlines like that and the smaller discussions that were had, just needed some ironing out. All things considered, it was an awesome first show. Thank you, ~Matt

Matt Galeza

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/ocarina https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ocarina https://www.dictionary.com/browse/ocarina https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/ocarina A video from people who make ocarinas for a living. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0tpeDhU-UM And if that's not good enough for you, here it is out of the mouth of Bill Trinen as well. https://youtu.be/7W9H3JxTXf4?t=47 As for Miyamoto saying it, in the link you provided I only hear it once, and he says "Toki no Ocarina" very fast to the point that I would be hard pressed to distinguish between the O sound in no and the first vowel in Ocarina. However, it should be noted that Japanese speakers wouldn't be used to an O making an "ah" sound, and Japan frequently adjusts spelling and pronunciation of foreign words to fit more naturally into their speech and writing structure, but that has no bearing on how the word should be pronounced in English. -Bloodworth

Easy Allies

You're definitely more a Terminator 2 Jones

Ibrahim Sozer

Blood, I would definitely enjoy learning what soundtracks you consider to be "among the greats" and why over time. Just sayin.

Radioactive Magic

Yeah those are all pretty fair points Jones. I would love an entirely new format to Hall of Greats for soundtracks, however it is put together, in order for it to work well. Even if it was fewer allies involved, just the ones that really want to dive into them, would be enjoyable content (at least in my opinion). Thanks for listening, L&R.

Radioactive Magic

Love the editorial Jones. Curious - you said that only one version of a game could qualify for a top 100 list. Which version of Ocarina of Time would you say is the greatest?

Brandon Ray

I am one of those that cringes from the "auk-arina" pronunciation. 1. The company Zeldaphile, Damiani, pronounces it "oh-carina". 2. Miyamoto says "oh-carina" (9:26 and 9:44) - https://youtu.be/F0-apUr407k 3. You personally bore witness to this debate at GT, and the research favored "oh-carina" - https://youtu.be/fZxN7wsLlUg Now, if we can get that settled (or even if not), how about your personal top 10 songs from Ocarina of Time? I personally have 6 in my top 100 songs of ANY kind. I have hummed Lost Woods at least once a week for the past 21 years, and I consider Great Fairy's Fountain a mechanically perfect song. Hail, Koji Kondo! P.S. I prefer Majora's Mask. Sorry. :\ (But it wouldn't be great without Ocarina as a base!)

TurboChickenMan

You are slipping on your goal of keeping Cup of Jones under 1 hour. Keep your boundaries :)

Logan Young

Hello again, I realized after watching todays episode, that my first ever submission was too late to be answered, so in that case I will be quote putting in again and adding both of my posts together. Apologies for the long post. Best Regards. Ankit "Hello, This is my first ever comment/question ever on any patreon/easy allies related thing. I hate that it has to do with something negative but I am very much interested on your take. Also I realize that you wanted to stay away from spoiler talk for the podcast, but new things have come up since. My question is simply, what are your thoughts on the whole Naughty Dog/Sony debacle? Specifically referring to the re-occurrence of how bad the work environment is along with the fact that many, many people have had videos just discussing their thoughts on this taken down when they never showed images or leaked videos. I for one was 50/50 on getting the game but after seeing what they have been doing, along with getting spoiled and ended up reading all of it, will not be getting the game and am seriously contemplating switching over to the Xbox for next gen. FYI, I hated everything I read and saw in terms of story for this game. It seems like this story will be very much negatively received in my opinion. Also there are some videos being taken down that are just discussing the ramifications of all of this and not even the spoilers themselves. It almost seems illegal and just plain disgusting to me. Again sorry for the first time being negative, hopefully not the last i write. Thanks and great debut as Podcast Host. Ankit."

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a7GMEG3tdWs I’ll leave this for you Jones if you haven’t seen it

Wire rope

Hey Mr. Jones! While you were discussing a soundtrack version of Hall of Greats last week, I recognized how a “regular” Hall of Greats could work with everyone at home and while I think the presentations would be the most creative to date, the voting wouldn’t work as well. This then led me to thinking about one-off specials EZA has done with some regularity, and how they too would face difficulty if EZA tries them while at home. So I wanted to ask: Since EZA has a month plus of streams and shows from home under its belt, will those things will be on permanent hiatus until you can go back to the studio or will EZA give those things a try at least once to see if they’re viable? Apologies if you had answered this at the beginning of work from home, but I couldn’t remember if you explicitly addressed Hall of Greats, Achieve it Yourself, or Mysterious Monsters being attempted from home (though the latest Mysterious Monsters pitting the A.I. helpers was a riot). Thanks again for taking my question if you do (I understand if you don’t if you’ve answered previously), and as always, have a wonderful rest of your day! Cheers! QUESTION: Will EZA give those occasional shows and streams that happen every so often like Hall of Greats (which pre-pandemic would’ve been next month), and Achieve it Yourself a try once to see if its viable from home, or are such videos, including the likes of Mysterious Monsters impossible to do without the aid of the studio? Apologies if you answered about these previously, but I couldn’t remember if you ever discussed these examples specifically.

Brandon K Gann

Hi Brandon, I just wanted to say that your first EZA podcast was awesome and you did an amazing job implementing all of the things you had mentioned in the last podcast with Kyle. Keep up the great work, excited to see (or hear rather) the future of the EZA podcast.

Jonathan Figueiredo