Easy Allies Podcast #152 - Video

Kyle, I’m really proud of you guys for tackling the THQ controversy in the way that you did. Don’t be afraid to talk about political issues if you feel like they are important! People who go on and on about keeping politics out of video games are just trying to stifle discussion. Complaining about “faux outrage” and “virtue signaling” is just another way of dismissing a legitimate issue.

bymanus

Those might have been the same episode, actually.

wuggles

This podcast is one of top EZA pods of all time, up there with the time you talked about Red Dead and unions and the time you played Halo Ship or Swift Song.

wuggles

We all know "layin' pipe" is taking a shit yeah?

I appreciate Kyle’s willingness (and the allies in general) to be open to criticism and actively work to improve. It’s been crazy to see how EZA has grown and being in tune with the community has been a big reason for that. A lot of people were upset (rightfully) that Kyle was under informed a couple weeks ago but I think it’s important to recognize the effort to more thoroughly educate himself on the issue after hearing the criticism. Nobody is perfect and the allies are going to make missteps along the way, same as everyone else in life. As a side note: I really appreciate all Damiani does for the allies but in multiple podcasts now he’s contributed next to nothing, to the point where the other allies have to call him out for staying silent for 30 minutes and prompt him to say anything. When he’s engaged it’s great to have his point of view, but sometimes you would never even know he was there unless you were watching the video. I’m really not trying to crap on Damiani, I just don’t see why he’d go on the podcast if he isn’t going to speak.

A good thing to keep in mind is that you can skip through any conversation you don't enjoy whereas if they don't address it at all, people who are genuinely interested have no recourse.

Matt Lopez

I really didn't read Huber's outrage as "faux". Believe it or not, people can be upset about tacit endorsement of pedophilia. Not "reeeee", not a virtue signal. I agree with you 100% about the significance of Chinese censorship however.

The furor over THQ Nordic never appeared genuine to me personally, they did an ama, it’s over, I wouldn’t have done it from a business perspective but who really cares other than the typical reee’ers and virtue signalers who weren’t going to buy their product anyway. I also really could of done without Huber’s “think of the children” faux outrage. To me that Taiwanese company getting bullied and aggressively censored by the Chinese government was the bigger story and kudos for Kyle for bringing it up and giving it much needed attention.

A Joker Fan

They actually did come back to fix it. But the problem didn't happen when they were back on site and they tried something anyway but it didn't work.

Aaron Kirk - Kurxx

I really found last weeks coverage of the opening two stories boring, the same this week, I'd more rather hear about games and development stories than PR and political issues happening related to games.

sam

This is already one of my favorite EZA moments. Hilarious if you just came from the Batman Reaction Shots video and started watching the podcast right after

Wesley de Waart

1:41:08 - someone please gif Jones' mortified reaction

Captain_Falcpwn

They got it right on the 10k a month political podcast. Or so I am told.

I'm totally OK and encourage discussions on rough topics. However, you really need to be well researched at the bat and not after a week during corrections. Words you say and impressions you make are a disservice to the discussion, discord and topic of concern if you only have it half right and need to rediscuss an issue because you did not have the full story. The Steam issue now is a big deal and I think should be discussed but only when you feel like you have a solid grasp of the topic and it's path to allow you to property articulate thoughts and impressions.

Zugdar

Poor Bloodworth.

Derrick DesRoches

Correction: "Space man from Pluto", not "The man from Pluto", Jones... Side story, he was so serious about it that he sent a memo to the production demanding the change. The way they stopped him? Steven Spielberg sent him another memo stating that all the production laughed hysterically at his "joke"memo, since Steven knew the executive was so proud that he would never accept he was being serious if all the people took it as a joke.

César Villa

Also Scorbunny is the best starter in Gen 8.

Huber is right, the guys at THQ that were involved in that 8 chan thing should immediately be fired. You guys can make a decision to talk about their games or not in the future, I understand the rationale to both arguements. This would be way easier if they would just fire the guys who did the AMA. Kyle, I appreciate your willingness to talk about this issue and the China story. You being open to feedback is also appreciated. Love & Respect.

I'm pretty uncomfortable with calling outright for anyone's firing. There are other options here, such as the guy in question learning from the experience -- even if he acted in full knowledge. The notion of excluding an entire publisher from the podcast because of one man's actions is pretty silly too.

iconmaster

I find it very alarming that THQ, the company that used to publish all of the Nickelodeon games, are now directly communicating with pedophiles on sketchy message boards...gross

Daniel Schwartz

I actually really appreciate that you guys didn't shy away from having these conversations. Kyle I think the thought process of not being afraid to discuss topics with the clear intention of being open minded to the feedback you're going to get on that fundamentally sums up what I want easy allies to be. A place where you can be yourselves but in a way that allows room for others to disagree. This is true not only of the difficult topics but also the fun ones like which 7/10 game Huber says is the best. I also genuinely enjoyed the philosophical questions you briefly touched on with regards to which evil is the worst and how do you factor that in when deciding things, that really got me thinking and deciding where to draw these lines, is in my opinion, something that is incredibly difficult that no human ever has gotten 100% right. In the specific case of THQ/8 chan accountability is huge and the excuse of "we didn't know what 8chan was" or that "it was supposed to be moderated" is in today's day and age of the internet at best incredibly incompetent and at worst a baseless attempt to deflect what was clearly a bad decision due to negative feedback. We all need to make decisions how we hold others accountable and I will continue to support you all with however you chose to express that. Love and respect, Mango.

Mango

Pretty sure child porn and white supremacy is a pretty reasonable benchmark for a blacklist and not just “disagreeing on ideology”. Like that’s a pretty major fuckup.

Mr M

thank you for revisiting the THQ story. not enough was said last week, and i'm glad you took a firmer stance. i don't think the company as a whole needs to be on a media blacklist, but i imagine there will be an asterisk next to them when discussed for a while in the industry. hopefully they take clear steps to remedy the policies and issues that lead to that bad decision making. also, i keep trying to up my patreon pledge to the $10,000 tier but it says there are zero slots left, let me know if that slot opens up.

rob

I can't remember where, but Ian has said that he put bids in on other games, he was just beaten by Kyle.

James Kennedy

I love Ian being a regular fixture on the show. I missed him being there this week. As for your idea of other allies swapping out... not only would that require extra training for them, but that would increase their workload as well. Ian stepped up to the plate (as he always does), isn't it better to just let him handle that end of things while also being the third reoccurring ally on the panel? Ian will always be a welcome addition to the podcast (in my mind, at least).

James Kennedy

I really don’t like the idea of EZA having a “ban list” of games they will or won’t talk about. It does a disservice to their audience, to refuse to talk about “news” or things relevant in the games industry. Let your individual listeners decide if they want to support a company or not. You guys are doing news/commentary. You don’t have to give THQ money, if you arent comfortable. But if you go down this road, you are essentially allowing your own personal activism, to affect your company, and keeping us (your audience) ignorant of news and information because you no longer want to cover a company. Not talking about THQ, doesn’t make them stop existing. It doesnt make all the games that will come out from them, go away. Also if you go down this road, where does it end? There are so many companies that you would have to blacklist, due to someone in the company making a bad decision, or having opinions you don’t agree with politically/ideologically. Please don’t do this. I never in a million years would think of ending my sub to you guys. But if you started doing things like this, I would certainly have to consider it. And that breaks my heart.

Mewgia

In the case of THQ, I think if it's newsworthy, it should be covered. You covering this THQ debacle in the first place lets me know to steer clear from them.

POKEY CLYDE

I hope Kyle and blood are not fighting

Matt Brookbank

On the subject of executives’ children having sway over creative works: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was reportedly rejected 12 times before one publisher gave it to his 8 year old daughter to read. She loved it so much that she insisted her dad make it a book so she could read the rest of it, 500 million copies later...

There are no mistakes but there is the freedom of choice, the consequences of those choices and choosing to be accountable for those choices.

Elliot Moscow

Again always funny when Americans complain about censorship outside the US^^ Thank God in the USA there is no such things as changing games to fit the culture or just not releasing games because they are considered offensive. Xenosaga comes to mind, or Snowpiercer (ok thats a film^^) but the point stays :) I really think people complaining about foreign nations should first look at their own backyard, because frankly it really smells there Also about the THQ issue, yes it was really stupid, but how is it worse than supporting the actual murder of civilians, like Microsoft and Apple do? I have never heard you say that you should stop talking about Microsoft for their action in the drone war, for which I remind you the CIA claims that over 90% of the victims are innocent bystanders. As abd as supporting 8chan is is murder on a scale of thousands really better?

erni

The fantasy critic updates would be whatever if it wasn't clear Kyle was the only one between him, Ian, and Don who cares about keeping picks up to date and winning.

Kyle, you’re the best.

Cannonball_Jones

I noticed the lights in the back aren't fixed yet. Why not? They kept flickering in a video earlier this week. The contractor should come fix that. It shouldn't be EZA's fault they're broken. Seems like a contractor problem.

TravelingSnowman

DEAR LORD THAT LAYING PIPE BIT. *chef kiss* PERFECTION.

Raven Perez

thank you Kyle for discussing issues in the game industry like with THQ and the lot. L&R.

navyblueprince

Far, FAR better discussion about THQN this time around. Thank you for taking the comments to heart and improving.

really appreciate your commitment to stick with the thq and red candle stories, kyle. i love having the panel discuss these kinds of issues within the games industry and it's honestly super refreshing to hear everyone's perspectives, it really adds a lot to the podcast. keep up the great work!! L&R <3

Esther Devil

I know you addressed the "talent" terminology vs. "skill" in this podcast and I don't disagree with you in the sense that there are folks who are innately talented in things vs. those who accrue more advanced skills over time. As a developer in the industry though, I think in terms of a discussion of the ability of developers to make great work with budget and time notwithstanding, talent has, in my experience, never been the primary differentiating factor. I've known folks who are immensely talented in their trade, and also those who's innate attributes in a skill weren't initially very remarkable. All the same the people I've heavily tended to see succeed in game dev are those who are passionate, dedicated, and communicative, even while some very talented people have stumbled when they don't push to improve or evolve their craft, or if they don't make consistent efforts to work well with those in their teams. I know this is in many ways semantics about a particular area of the discussion but it's one that has come up a lot in the time I've been involved with game dev, and I'd say most friends of mine in the industry I've spoke to about this find drive and accrued skillset to be more valuable in the long term relative to talent.

Sam Handrick

"Jedi should have Charizard Armor"

Cash

Also, thank you for continuing to cover this particular story! It would have been a shame to leave it as it was last week.

Regarding the story around THQ Nordic, and how our actions might negatively affect innocent employees, who have nothing to do with the current story, I believe by withholding action on their behalf, you are allowing those higher up on the chain to use their livelihoods as hostage. If we did absolutely nothing any time injustice occurred because we were scared someone innocent might be hurt, how would we ever enact social change?

I had that too.

Fantasy critic!! Please keep talking about the league. I dig it.

Nick Geurtsen

Does the video blink for anyone else? I thought my TV was dying but then it kept blinking when I switched to my computer monitor.

Olf Himself

I don't think the Fantasy Critic updates belong in the podcast. They can be presented in a much more relevant context on ez update or as its own vid

Swet T.

I think its pretty obvious that 99% of the community wants a Fantasy Critic update every podcast. Just want to show my support for Ian Don and Kyle cause there are some haters on the Podcast ;p

Jeffrey Tessar

Remember when you could download videos from rss feeds

Ibrahim Sozer