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Easy Allies |OT3| "That sounds like the GameTrailers guy!"

ShadyK54

Member
Are there even any conferences at Paris to bet on? I thought it was more like PAX

Sony is having one there that week.

Edit: Worth noting that there have been some significant things announced there before, such as SFV's release date & Detroit: Become Human (thanks Gamespot), so it seems like a good event for a small betting special.
 

Axass

Member
The last page of posts inspired me to write down some criticism, tried to be as fair and polite as possible, but long post incoming.

What I perceive as the main problems EZA had during its first year:

1 - Technical stuff.
2 - Too many streams compared to produced shows.
3 - Not enough video editors to keep up with content creators.
4 - Too insular.
5 - Lacking general scheduling or consistency for some shows, needing more clarity about delays and works in progress.
6 - Big sponsorship woes.

-----

If we look at it now:

1 - Honestly it's been since E3 that the technical side is perfect as far as I'm concerned. I'd say they finally conquered the tech problems. OK

2 - The streams are still abundant but they've clearly taken a set back: we have much more reviews now and streams are usually put on hold when something more important has to be done. I'd say they currently have a nice balance of produced stuff versus live. OK

3 - Jones reiterated many times that they simply lacked the editing manpower and brought up more than once how the other Allies needed to learn how to produce their own shows. Sadly almost nothing came out of it. Ben edited Tales from the East, but that's it I think. Huge missed opportunity, both for the group and for the singular members who would have added a nice skill to their resume. So Jones is still swamped with editorial and voice over duties and they still don't have the budget to hire external help. KO

4 - We're still there: the Patreon has grown but the problem is that it's mostly the same people upping their pledges, while the number of new people grows very slowly and doesn't relate to the growth in earnings (they've actually lost about 300 patrons since E3). That's why they've just gone back 5-6k in their Patreon in a bunch of months, upped pledges hold only for a set time before going back to a more sustainable level. Collabs would help spread the word about them, but after talking about it for a year and a half, they still have to do anything of real substance with other outlets. KO

5 - Cup of Jones, Community Comments, Game Sleuth, and Retros being the worst offenders.

- Jones's show changed scheduling and personaliity so many times that people were bound to lose interest, which is bad for what's supposed to be the 1$ incentive. Weekly, monthly, whenever it's done, bi-weekly, whenever it's done again: doesn't inspire confidence, why should I back at that level. Also it's sometimes a Q&A + editorial, other times just editorial, or a visual tour without any previous warning: I don't mind that but it's not a good look for new patrons, who don't know what to expect. Jones said this year Cup of Jones would have fetured him having a talk with each ally, nothing came out of it, now it's going to be a stream and weekly again... too much confusion, pick an idea you're comfortable with and keep it up. PENDING

- Community Comments are soooo behind I wonder why people still pledge at that level. I don't mind them and I always watch them, but they should really begin wondering if it's worth it to keep them up or not. At least discussing if changing the format into a more sustainable one is possible. KO

- Game Sleuth and Retros are a mess (not quality-wise of course). They were one of the main drives at the beginning, and they still are prominent goals, yet they seriously underdelivered on those. They were supposed to get the fans involved, to give us more insight into their production but none of that happened. Two retros and four Game Sleuths in a year and a half aren't a good look, especially now that there are countless YouTube channels doing retros or long form analysis and that DYKG is a juggernaut, too much time has passed and many old GT fans of both shows were probably lost in the process. KO

- One thing I find bothersome as a whole about EZA is the "shadowdrop culture", I'd much prefer to have constant status updates and sneak peaks about Game Sleuth, Retros, Box Peek than to be "surprised" when suddenly they're ready. In fact all three shows were supposed to be more "open" during their development but quickly moved to "I prefer to surprise you with the final product", and that is due to Jones, Damiani and Kyle wanting that "shadowdrop". That can be cool, but doesn't promote your product: imagine launching a big AAA game with no marketing! Their high production values shows should have a general schedule (nothing too strict, but at least something like 1 retro each six months, 4 GS per year, etc.) and be promoted more through updates, so that people know they're working on it and up their anticipation. KO

- Delays happen, it's to be expected, they just need to be clearly communicated and not left up into the air, the audience should never be left wondering where is show X or Y. EZA has got much better at this, aside from few instances. OK

6 - Another thing Jones has mentioned quite a few times but hasn't gone anywhere yet, not as big an issue as the others though. He said there have been talks about bigger sponsorships (possibly encompassing all shows?) but nothing materialized. The one sponsorship they tried with Hoeg Law for Trailer Score sort of backfired, because by having the show funded from what basically was an external source, yet doing it through Patreon, the patrons didn't feel the urge to uphold their pledges anymore, even though we were almost there, because the numbers were "artifcially" boosted to 46k. Frame Trap finally adding sponsors is great, but they should've gone the Podcast route and increase the spots slowly as the demand increased, instead of dropping 9 sponsor slots in one go, which aren't going to be filled for a loooong time. KO
 

Hasney

Member
3: Damiani is editing Friend Code I know and I think Ben mentioned something about editing something into Frame Trap as well. It takes a long ass time to be as good as the pros they have though.
 

dickroach

Member
I'll throw in a little ramble

I'd be surprised to see another retrospective after this Souls one. and Game Sleuth's already dead, right?
EZA is clearly a personality-based channel. 99% of their content is podcasts, streams, and shows. The retros, sleuths, and even reviews seem to be at odds with what the channel is. They seem like an extension of "we're supposed to do what we did at GT" and the need to be seen as journalists for whatever reason. like Blood had begrudgingly said during the Knack stream that they had to keep saying "review copy provided by Playstation" because Sony views them as "influencers" rather than "journalists"
if I want to hear EZA's opinions on a newly released game I'll surely hear them on one of the podcasts, or streams, or shows, or Q&As. and I'll get to hear from more than one of them, and not have to hear one person's opinion filtered through Jones' voice, a thing that takes the personality completely out of a personality based channel.
yeah they do a little better viewer-wise than a lot of the other youtube videos, but time and time again they've said youtube views are not something they care about.
 

WarRock

Member
Damiani said twice during streams (and I think during one podcast?) he's working on a new Sleuth and this time is about a well known game (after the backlash with the last one).
 

Kneefoil

Member
Damiani said twice during streams (and I think during one podcast?) he's working on a new Sleuth and this time is about a well known game (after the backlash with the last one).

He even made a Patreon post about it not long ago. The episode should be out this month.
 

Hasney

Member
I'll throw in a little ramble

I'd be surprised to see another retrospective after this Souls one. and Game Sleuth's already dead, right?
EZA is clearly a personality-based channel. 99% of their content is podcasts, streams, and shows. The retros, sleuths, and even reviews seem to be at odds with what the channel is. They seem like an extension of "we're supposed to do what we did at GT" and the need to be seen as journalists for whatever reason. like Blood had begrudgingly said during the Knack stream that they had to keep saying "review copy provided by Playstation" because Sony views them as "influencers" rather than "journalists"
if I want to hear EZA's opinions on a newly released game I'll surely hear them on one of the podcasts, or streams, or shows, or Q&As. and I'll get to hear from more than one of them, and not have to hear one person's opinion filtered through Jones' voice, a thing that takes the personality completely out of a personality based channel.
yeah they do a little better viewer-wise than a lot of the other youtube videos, but time and time again they've said youtube views are not something they care about.

Yet the reviews are the most watched videos outside of announcement reactions, then the Deus Ex Retrospective, Hollow Knight Don't Skip, episode 1 of Tabletop. The things you are complaining about are the most viewed things.

If less eyeballs are on them, they'll do worse, simple as. It's not a little better, it's massively better. We're talking over double the views.
 

abrack08

Member
Bad timing for the podcast (and Friend Code), recording right before a (hopefully/potentially) big Nintendo Direct and Bruce Straley leaving Naughty Dog.
 
The last page of posts inspired me to write down some criticism, tried to be as fair and polite as possible, but long post incoming.

...

Thanks for taking the time to write all that up. I won't attempt to respond to everything, but there are some points to chew on and some that line up with recent observations I've made myself.

As for video editing, Damiani edits Friend Code and Ben edits EZAnime and Frame Trap. Those are big steps up for both of them. Plus Don and Ian have been helping a lot more while Jones is working on the retro, so it's not like Jones is cutting every review. As Hasney mentioned though, editing something like a review isn't something the rest of us could pick up quickly, and for some of us, the time just isn't there.

I haven't felt like we've been that secretive about the constant work behind the scenes on the retrospective. We released the trailer in March, and we've mentioned it quite a few times when the cameras are on. Perhaps it could have used some more Cup of Jones updates or a couple more dedicated posts. I do feel like we we've said from the start that there would only be one or maybe two retrospective series per year. It's definitely one of those things that I look at more like a TV season, where there's that long wait with production, then everything comes out over a few weeks.
 
Saw the direct thread was gone and new it musta been locked lol, looking forward to watch the stream!

New friend code had me laughing a lot and was pretty informative. Damiani/Kyle/Brad dynamic was really good. I hope it doesn't go away 😭
 

Bahorel

Member
Apologies if any of this was touched upon in the PAX panel as I have not had time to watch it

I find in general that one of the main issues is complacency with the stagnation. I feel like I've heard several of the allies have an attitude that read to me as 'if we lose out on this tier of content then whatever' but I think that's a slippery slope considering some patrons could pull support if they are disappointed by losing tiers. I wish there was more evidence of a fighting spirit to get back up there, more ambition. More Brand Manager. I know that luckily now they end every podcast and review with talking about the patreon, but I feel like there could be more ways to entice people into it, or a harder sell. Maybe a few more easy tidbits to give to people who join at a low level and then advertise it like hey if you join up you can see this thing (as I've mentioned before, I made the leap because I felt like I was missing out on Cup of Jones. At this point I don't watch CoJ anymore but I'm happy to be a patron anyway.) Low level is probably the key, it's the easiest way to get people who don't really have much to spend, and i know because I was that demographic who needed a little push to get there. It doesn't even have to be video content because that's asking a lot, but just something, some little carrot on a stick. (and who knows maybe the new CoJ streams could be that)

And of course as I mentioned before I think Blood could try throwing out the dollar challenge again because that worked pretty well last time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Sony are doing their Euro show there. They said the only reason they skipped last year was because of the Pro event.

Yeah, the last one in 2015 had GT Sport, Detroit, Driveclub Bikes and Matterfall announcements, plus more Wild, Horizon and Uncharted 4 footage, so this year's should be fun.

I haven't finished the group stream yet (thank Don they ditched Tekken Bowl, MvC:I looks great) but I'm not a fan of the new betting format as described here. Going from two main event challenges last year (E3 and PSX/TGA) to just one this year (E3) is a Ubisoft-esque downgrade.

As for the other news, I'm fine with Cup of Jones moving to a stream because, like Community Comments, spending a lot of time editing Q&A episodes is honestly a bit of a waste of time. I hope we'll still get some editorials occasionally though.
 

Burt

Member
It's funny because I definitely remember seeing like a webcomic or an episode of Robot Chicken where someone was introducing someone else to all the Sith lords.

"This is Darth Vader... Here's Darth Sidious... Please meet Darth iolence... Darth Atred... Darth Ssassin... Darth Ucifer...."
 

ShadyK54

Member
"Easy Allies just went live!"

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Visceir

Member
Wish they would fix those squeaky chairs, lol. Such a minor thing but those constant squeaks do detract from the stream.

and I'll get to hear from more than one of them, and not have to hear one person's opinion filtered through Jones' voice, a thing that takes the personality completely out of a personality based channel.
yeah they do a little better viewer-wise than a lot of the other youtube videos, but time and time again they've said youtube views are not something they care about.

I think their reviews have 'personality', just a different kind. The Last Guardian review definitely left an impression on me and was really well edited. The reviews can also be hit or miss though...always good, just not always truly great. I do kinda agree that their content does tend to be at odds sometimes.

3: Damiani is editing Friend Code I know and I think Ben mentioned something about editing something into Frame Trap as well. It takes a long ass time to be as good as the pros they have though.

I really like the game footage Damiani bothers to add into the podcast, but editing podcasts isn't probably quite the editing most people in this thread are talking about.

It'd be cool if they could get to a place where they, for example, have a 'Weekly Hunt' MonHun stream with 2 members and be able to also edit that stream into a 10 min show for youtube, I think it's content like that they're lacking right now. I imagine if it was the streamer editing the video it'd also make them better streamers -- seeing what works and what doesn't and being mindful of the youtube show while streaming.
 

wmlk

Member
That Primrose story...

Octopath showed better than any JRPG I've seen in the past decade, or any that I can remember right now. The writing pushed it to another untouchable level. Made other most other JRPG's writing look like child's play, lol.
 

Kneefoil

Member
That Primrose story...

Octopath showed better than any JRPG I've seen in the past decade, or any that I can remember right now. The writing pushed it to another untouchable level. Made other games' writing look like child's play, lol.

I played through the Primrose story awhile ago, and I'm saving the other path of the demo for later. But yeah, it's amazing how such a short demo can get me so much more attached to characters than many full length games can. I'm so pumped to play the whole thing.

The battle system seems rather simple, and I don't think you can fastforward through them like you can in Bravely games, so I'm a bit worried they might get really tiresome in the full game. There's also much stronger bloom and depth of field effects than I would like the game to have, but I think I can deal with it.
 

Bahorel

Member
I love how Kyle looked away for the Mario trailer. They've shown too much now but I can't get enough. This is all I care about now. I'm going to be wishing I'm playing Odyssey as I finish up Rabbids

(Though I've had a very good time with Rabbids, I'm on the last world now)
 
I'm halfway through the podcast and am I the only one who finds it annoying how so many game announcements seem to be followed with "but what about the Switch" comments? Like, I get that you're excited about your new system but come on, it's obnoxious enough in GAF threads, let alone on a podcast.
 

Hasney

Member
If it was on the Switch, I could be playing right now while taking this dump instead of typing, whatever game that was.
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
:) managed to get banned on EZA discord cause I spoke out strongly(I admittingly stirred it up but I do believe it was justified I got so fucking sick of reading these baseless statements of people shitting on stuff with no logic at all) against the hypocrisy of people just being jerks, and making false statements on Damiani.
I'm happy that I did it in so far that I really don't want to be the guy anymore just silently taking that stuff. That said yeah I'm over "this community being better" it's honestly like any other bad and good parts I will just enjoy EZA content in silence now.
 

Auctopus

Member
That said yeah I'm over "this community being better" it's honestly like any other bad and good parts I will just enjoy EZA content in silence now.

That's pretty much where I'm at now but not in so much a negative light - I used to really enjoy interacting and posting in GT/Early EZA days but it feels like a bit of a mess now with a golden circle of fans that seem to operate on Twitter. The mods on Twitch are still just as cliquey and it makes interacting with streams pretty deflating.

It's none of the Allies' fault but somehow I feel like Easy Allies is a far more American-centric operation than GT ever was. With every meet-up that happens in LA, PAX, Anime-con or whatever, I just feel like it moves me further from the fanbase. Maybe one day there'll be a London/Mainland Europe meet-up but I think that's a long way away.

I still read this thread nearly daily but have less motivation to post. Still like reading etc. but now we're being targeted as the dark place of the EZA community :'(
 

Hasney

Member
I still read this thread nearly daily but have less motivation to post. Still like reading etc. but now we're being targeted as the dark place of the EZA community :'(

Everyone thinks their little section of fandom is the best. Fuck 'em.

I don't think they're any more or less US centric than they were though. They never did meet ups full stop before so of course they would start in their backyard.
 

Auctopus

Member
I don't think they're any more or less US centric than they were though. They never did meet ups full stop before so of course they would start in their backyard.

Yeah, sorry, I think I phrased that wrong. I think it's because they're pumping out so much content now (mainly personal streams) that it feels like I'm missing out on much more live content than I did previously.

...and the dark place comment was a half-joke, mwahaha.
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
That's pretty much where I'm at now but not in so much a negative light - I used to really enjoy interacting and posting in GT/Early EZA days but it feels like a bit of a mess now with a golden circle of fans that seem to operate on Twitter. The mods on Twitch are still just as cliquey and it makes interacting with streams pretty deflating.

It's none of the Allies' fault but somehow I feel like Easy Allies is a far more American-centric operation than GT ever was. With every meet-up that happens in LA, PAX, Anime-con or whatever, I just feel like it moves me further from the fanbase. Maybe one day there'll be a London/Mainland Europe meet-up but I think that's a long way away.

I still read this thread nearly daily but have less motivation to post. Still like reading etc. but now we're being targeted as the dark place of the EZA community :'(

I mean the geographic situation can't be helped really. I was really into interacting with the community too but these past months reading some of the stuff on discord(new joins getting flamed, certain statements that have no basis in reality some even throwing shade at other people just being waved away as opinions) has just been eating away at me(and I do recognize that me being fed up with that and choosing to be confrontational when it happens made me a less pleasant presence) so I'm glad honestly I'm not on there anymore so I can be more chill again.
As for the dark places again pure hypocrisy really as far as I observed.

I'll lurk around here for sure but for the foreseeable future I don't feel like engaging much anymore which is sad. Cause I kinda really bought into "love and respect" and for a time at the start it was pretty nice stuff like cytube, twitch, ignoring the same people being jerks I did enjoy EZA discord and I even like this place too.

But as I'm longer around it does seem like not everyone bought into it in the same way where it's ok to make shit up to put people down and just be completely illogical. And those few do ruin it for me.
 
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