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Easy Allies |EZOT2| Love & Respect

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Servbot24

Banned
He went too far with the "chimps can review games" thing but other than that he just doesn't like Hubers over the top enthusiasm about everything all the time and how it can be tiring. The rest of the Allies are generally pretty positive about most things too but he didn't criticise them.

OTs usually just end up in circle jerks about the product and that just annoys me because then any negative opinion gets shouted down and told to go elsewhere. There was a fair amount of "hey guys, love and respect!" when people were annoyed/disappointed/fed up with the Bosman bet trolling where if you don't like that then you obviously hate them all and should go somewhere else.

They're people though, I want them to be themselves. That's what I like about them. People aren't things that you can focus test and tell them to change their personality in order to be a different product.
 
He went too far with the "chimps can review games" thing but other than that he just doesn't like Hubers over the top enthusiasm about everything all the time and how it can be tiring. The rest of the Allies are generally pretty positive about most things too but he didn't criticise them.

OTs usually just end up in circle jerks about the product and that just annoys me because then any negative opinion gets shouted down and told to go elsewhere. There was a fair amount of "hey guys, love and respect!" when people were annoyed/disappointed/fed up with the Bosman bet trolling where if you don't like that then you obviously hate them all and should go somewhere else.
And as you admitted, it's not just a negative opinion, it's a negative opinion stated in a disrespectful way.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened here.
 
Saw this on my twitter feed and made me laugh.
C2EMu3uXUAAt9G9.jpg
 

luchadork

Member
probably easier to address his rough tone than the actual content of his criticism.

anyways, i love EZA. but i too found their critical response to the presentation somewhat lacking. i feel for them. i, and i'm sure they too, were expecting a sony quality e3 style conference full of megatonne announcements and shadow drops and shit. i think if youre already prepared to give something an 11 out of 10, and youre legendary hype masters, it probably takes some time to work your way back down when reality sinks in.

jones: C
hink: C (changed to D)
bosman: D+
ben: D+
huber: B- (changed to C+)
brad: C-
damiani: C-
 

ito007

Member
It sounds like a really cool feature, I think it was just the really strange presentation of it that was in line with the whole presentation. There was honestly enough information in the conference that it could have been a pretty killer 30 minute Direct with better presentation.
Absolutely yeah the visualizations were awkward. The idea of counting the number of beads as you roll them side to side is really intriguing to me though. Imagine a lock picking minigame with that.
I'm intrigued by it actually. But I think it's something you have to try. But I've been wanting an evolution of rumble for a couple generations.

Speaking of rumble. Remember how PS3 launched with no rumble due to the lawsuit? Man that was a mess of s launch. Oddly enough the OG PS3 ended up being the best hw version.
Just another weird thing that came on top of the hefty $600 price tag. Strange times for sure. I'm just glad those prices for home consoles are over with... Maybe... For now
 
EZA OT, where "Love and Respect" means "Fuck you lalalala ignore list!" to anyone that doesn't like a thing you like.
... was the first person that's ever made it on my ignore list, actually.

Feeding trolls is fine (whatever floats your boat), but I have better things to do with my time.
 
probably easier to address his rough tone than the actual content of his criticism.

anyways, i love EZA. but i too found their critical response to the presentation somewhat lacking. i feel for them. i, and i'm sure they too, were expecting a sony quality e3 style conference full of megatonne announcements and shadow drops and shit. i think if youre already prepared to give something an 11 out of 10, and youre legendary hype masters, it probably takes some time to work your way back down when reality sinks in.

jones: C
hink: C (changed to D)
bosman: D+
ben: D+
huber: B- (changed to C+)
brad: C-
damiani: C-

I think they along with most of us it took some time to process what happened. And I expect more insight and better collected opinions in the next couple weeks.

As they distanced from the event I think it got better. Ben had good critiques and context of what happened with similar games from Wii U. Brandon straight up went "see ya this fall!" Kyle basically liked nothing except Mario/Zelda and the games in general. And the more they thought of the system and less the big two the more criticism came up.

Huber's stance with Nintendo hasn't changed much. It's a secondary system thst plays the handful of exclusives and that's it. He's said numerous times he wish Nintendo wouldn't do it but he's not really been on board since the Wii. He puts up with it to get the Zeldas, Marios, etc like most big game enthusiasts do (myslef included). I do think he wasn't conveying this point as well as he has on this in the past. It felt given the overall vibe he wanted to keep it somewhat balanced in tone/outlook

I'd say at this point bloodworth is probably the most excited for the switch at this point. And it can all change once
 

Naythan

Member
EZA OT, where "Love and Respect" means "Fuck you lalalala ignore list!" to anyone that doesn't like a thing you like.

It's more along the lines of "don't be an asshole while pretending you're just providing critical commentary and then be surprised when people don't respond well to you" but perhaps that's more of just my personal motto.
 

luchadork

Member
I think they along with most of us it took some time to process what happened. And I expect more insight and better collected opinions in the next couple weeks.

in the next couple of weeks? i dunno man. just from a purely constructive point of view, i can understand being disappointed in the insight offered when it was basically "hey, its got zelda and mario in a year". and it doesnt take weeks to analyse this shit. i knew 20 minutes in this thing was a trainwreck. legit, 20 minutes into a launch presentation and all we'd seen was 1-2 switch. then you get the follow up blockbuster... arms. its just shit tier.

maybe i'm placing my own perspective on things. desperately wanting nintendo to succeed. knowing how much they have burnt me personally in past and hoping they would knock it out of the park with this one last chance. and therefore am being a bit harsh, but honestly this is a 5 game lineup. no clear details on anything like the ui, the online offering, virtual console, the upcoming release plans. i wanted to know why. wtf have nintendo been doing? why would they do a conference like this? havent they learnt anything? i want insight. i want critical thought. someone get ja rule on the phone sort of shit. i needed someone to make sense of this shitshow. and sadly we didnt really get it from the eza guys at this time. "hey, its got zelda and mario in a year. b-" is just disappointing criticism IMO.

anyways, just my opinion on their coverage of the presentation. i love the eza guys and dont want them to change.
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
Weird maybe I need to rewatch the presentation.
I went away with the impression EZA being super high and positive on the games that were shown(I was too). Anything on the system itself and the online service + the general lineup or the presentation in general got criticized(like Ben called them rightly out on the Nagoshi appearance that was so unneccesary), thus the final grades.

I felt very aligned with that. It becomes crazier that I'm so reluctant to jump into the Switch. I missed out on the WiiU cause region locking made it not worth it for me. All they needed to do was having a month to month bang up line up, up to at least October with some of them being WiiU ports of their best titles.

But they even fumbled that to the point where I had to find justification elsewhere and instead I only found more doubts with ridiculous periphery prices, incredibly bad battery life, incredible uncertainty around their online infrastructure, etc etc.

I wanted to be convinced so badly and they even failed that.
Nintendo was simply out of touch and that's really the most damning thing after the years of last generation and their multiple stances on youtube, fighting tournaments. online infrastructure, etc etc.
 
Watching the reaction stream right now. 22 minutes in and Huber already saying that he wouldn't buy one out of principle, if the dock doesn't have an ethernet port. Can't wait to see how that changes.
 

PeterGAF

Banned
EZA OT, where "Love and Respect" means "Fuck you lalalala ignore list!" to anyone that doesn't like a thing you like.
That's not what happened at all. Dude was a complete ass hat. Love and respect means don't be an ass hat and have respect for someone else's point of view. it's one thing to disagree with someone's point of view, it's another to trash all over it like this guy did.

But anyways let's talk about games. That Switch event was a bit of a return to earth for me but I still pre ordered one and a copy of breath of the wild. It's been years since I've pre ordered anything. I'm so excited!
 
EZA OT, where "Love and Respect" means "Fuck you lalalala ignore list!" to anyone that doesn't like a thing you like.

There's a difference between constructive criticism and personal attacks. Constructive criticism happens all the time here, which makes it a far better thread than most community threads. What he did was a personal attack and then when he was called out for it, he couldn't admit that he was out of line and escalated the argument instead. There's no need for any of that.

in the next couple of weeks? i dunno man. just from a purely constructive point of view, i can understand being disappointed in the insight offered when it was basically "hey, its got zelda and mario in a year". and it doesnt take weeks to analyse this shit. i knew 20 minutes in this thing was a trainwreck. legit, 20 minutes into a launch presentation and all we'd seen was 1-2 switch. then you get the follow up blockbuster... arms. its just shit tier.

maybe i'm placing my own perspective on things. desperately wanting nintendo to succeed. knowing how much they have burnt me personally in past and hoping they would knock it out of the park with this one last chance. and therefore am being a bit harsh, but honestly this is a 5 game lineup. no clear details on anything like the ui, the online offering, virtual console, the upcoming release plans. i wanted to know why. wtf have nintendo been doing? why would they do a conference like this? havent they learnt anything? i want insight. i want critical thought. someone get ja rule on the phone sort of shit. i needed someone to make sense of this shitshow. and sadly we didnt really get it from the eza guys at this time. "hey, its got zelda and mario in a year. b-" is just disappointing criticism IMO.

anyways, just my opinion on their coverage of the presentation. i love the eza guys and dont want them to change.

Yeah, pretty much. That first 20 minutes was horrendous, filled with Nintendo talking to us like we're babies, wasting time on rubbish like wrist straps and debuting the system with a Johann Sebastian Joust clone. It got better when they started on the big game announcements (though Mario in the more realistic world is super jarring) and I was hoping they'd keep going with them but then they got to the third party segment and it was the Wii U all over again. Like, what? What I wanted from the Switch was basically a more powerful 3DS with the combined weight of the 3DS and Wii U's software support, what they showed me was the Wii U 2 but more expensive and now you have to pay for their god awful online service. It's really disappointing. Between the prices, locking key online features behind a mobile app, the games lineup and the way they talked about it, the whole thing stunk of Nintendo not learning a single thing since the disastrous initial 3DS launch.

We got a NZ price by the way. NZ$549... For comparison, the PS4 is NZ$448 and the PS4 Pro is NZ$578. It's DOA. Nintendo consoles have never really done well here (even the Wii bombed) but their handhelds do (in large part thanks to Pokemon) and I can't see that happening at that price.
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
Bloodworth giving short tease impression on twitter on what he got to experience at the event is pretty cool. Makes me excited for proper in depth impressions later.
 
I'm a bit dismayed that they are seemingly stuck at 38,000 for their patreon. It seems, whatever theoretical cap they've hit...they've hit. Don't get me wrong, that's still close to a half-million U.S dollars in patreon support per year, but considering it's nine people employed living in tax-heavy California (I guess upcoming lower taxes is one Trump silver lining) could help. Especially since they pay a business tax on top of individual filer tax.

Do we have an update on twitch subscriber count? Hopefully that fills a gap.

To be honest it was unfortunate when Bloodworth said he's not getting a Pro because he can't afford one.
 
Honestly I think they just needed some more time to marinate on what just happened. After all the goodwill Nintendo generated with the initial Switch reveal, everyone was expecting they'd blow us away with a Sony E3 style conference. They, much like many others, went in WANTING to love this thing so much, so maybe that's why they didn't appear as critical. I was kind of the same way last night since I love Nintendo so much, it took me some time to get back down to earth and realize all the bullshit they pulled
still pre-ordered baby
.

Huber was not being a fanboy. The conference simply matched his expectations. I thought he made that very clear.
 

AAK

Member
I'm a bit dismayed that they are seemingly stuck at 38,000 for their patreon. It seems, whatever theoretical cap they've hit...they've hit. Don't get me wrong, that's still close to a half-million U.S dollars in patreon support per year, but considering it's nine people employed living in tax-heavy California (I guess upcoming lower taxes is one Trump silver lining) could help. Especially since they pay a business tax on top of individual filer tax.

Do we have an update on twitch subscriber count? Hopefully that fills a gap.

To be honest it was unfortunate when Bloodworth said he's not getting a Pro because he can't afford one.

Does anyone have the trend of funds Kinda Funny received via patrean from inception until they hit their office goal? I think that would be a fair comparison to see how long it takes for the patreon subscriptions to rise.
 
I'm a bit dismayed that they are seemingly stuck at 38,000 for their patreon. It seems, whatever theoretical cap they've hit...they've hit. Don't get me wrong, that's still close to a half-million U.S dollars in patreon support per year, but considering it's nine people employed living in tax-heavy California (I guess upcoming lower taxes is one Trump silver lining) could help. Especially since they pay a business tax on top of individual filer tax.

Do we have an update on twitch subscriber count? Hopefully that fills a gap.

To be honest it was unfortunate when Bloodworth said he's not getting a Pro because he can't afford one.
I can understand that sentiment if you look at the total dollar amount but they haven't hit any cap yet. They have surged to $40k but it was always inflated by people doing one time increases to get there and those never would last. The key to really growing it, as Jones has said repeatedly, is though the patreon numbers. KF has 10k patreon. EZA is 5.6k right now. But their numbers have steadily increased every month (looking at each month end "dip") if they keep growing the patreon numbers and sustain it they will easily get to the studio and it'll be more stable.

I believe It took KF 3 years to get to a studio. EZA is doing it well and we still aren't even at the one year mark. They're at 38.5k and that's with an open $500 sponsor spot still open

Here's the chart.
https://graphtreon.com/creator/EasyAllies
 

AAK

Member
I can understand that sentiment if you look at the total dollar amount but they haven't hit any cap yet. They have surged to $40k but it was always inflated by people doing one time increases to get there and those never would last. The key to really growing it, as Jones has said repeatedly, is though the patreon numbers. KF has 10k patreon. EZA is 5.6k right now. But their numbers have steadily increased every month (looking at each month end "dip") if they keep growing the patreon numbers and sustain it they will easily get to the studio and it'll be more stable.

I believe It took KF 3 years to get to a studio. EZA is doing it well and we still aren't even at the one year mark. They're at 38.5k and that's with an open $500 sponsor spot still open

Here's the chart.
https://graphtreon.com/creator/EasyAllies

Wow, never knew about Graphtreon. I just looked up KindaFunny:

https://graphtreon.com/creator/KindaFunny

What happened in January 2016?
 
I've been meaning to do this for a while but here is a snapshot of their patreon numbers at the start of each month. So this reflects what the numbers are after each months "dip" during the billing cycle.

I also included what its at now. Historically it looks like the dip is around 150-200 patreons at month end

Code:
+-------+-----------+------------+
| Month |  Patreons |  Dollars   |
+-------+-----------+------------+
|  4/16 |   4,031   |  33,909.70 |
|  5/16 |   4,559   |  35,143.90 |
|  6/16 |   4,760   |  38,101.30 |
|  7/16 |   5,055   |  38,617.60 |
|  8/16 |   5,083   |  37,638.90 |
|  9/16 |   5,096   |  37,941.10 |
| 10/16 |   5,059   |  36,937.60 |
| 11/16 |   5,034   |  36,033.80 |
| 12/16 |   5,239   |  36,603.20 |
|  1/17 |   5,413   |  37,924.20 |
+-------+-----------+------------+
| Now*  |   5,636   |  38,563.00 |
+-------+-----------+------------+
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
I get the sentiment I'm invested in EZA's growth too because I can see the promise of what they could deliver with rising budget. But really we just have to be patient and trust in them. I'm sure they themselves are thinking about how to extend their reach and grow.

Jones said year one really was more about them figuring out what EZA is and on what they can deliver and basically testing how well their content pipelines work and by consequence also relying a lot on what they already knew and we as the audience knew. I'm sure they learned a ton(like things like cup of jones or lore corner did not pan out as planned among other things). And despite that they still experimented with stuff when it came around organically. Like the trial and music videos.

Year 2 is probably a lot of improving/iterating on lessons but I assume also about trying more new things(one of them fairly sure being confirmed being charity activities).

So even if growth doesn't happen fast I think there's good reason to look forward to how EZA evolves.

That said I think the discussions around what they can try or just sharing what type of content we love to see is always cool and Ben himself said that it does take effect with the Anime podcast being a direct result of that.

And just because I'm thinking about it right now I hope when the anniversary hits they're going to give more information/reiterate on Retrospectives and Game Sleuth again. I think we all understand these things take a long time because they're so work intensive but I feel like I would like a clearer picture on what we should expect from both this year. Like are we looking at 2 retros per year currently? 4-5 Sleuths a year?
Actually I don't even need anything too concise but just their current status on both would be appreciated cause it's been a while since we got anything on both a simple we don't know is fine.
 

Crashdown

Neo Member
Wow, never knew about Graphtreon. I just looked up KindaFunny:

https://graphtreon.com/creator/KindaFunny

What happened in January 2016?

I believe that boost coincided with their first big live show. They were really hitting a stride around then.

EDIT: Nope, I was wrong, that was in May. Now I'm curious too. Where'd that jump come from?

Graphtreon is a very cool resource, I like using it to track creators whose output has slowed considerably over time.
 
I can understand that sentiment if you look at the total dollar amount but they haven't hit any cap yet. They have surged to $40k but it was always inflated by people doing one time increases to get there and those never would last. The key to really growing it, as Jones has said repeatedly, is though the patreon numbers. KF has 10k patreon. EZA is 5.6k right now. But their numbers have steadily increased every month (looking at each month end "dip") if they keep growing the patreon numbers and sustain it they will easily get to the studio and it'll be more stable.

I believe It took KF 3 years to get to a studio. EZA is doing it well and we still aren't even at the one year mark. They're at 38.5k and that's with an open $500 sponsor spot still open

Here's the chart.
https://graphtreon.com/creator/EasyAllies

That's cool to hear. How are things on twitch?
 
I believe that boost coincided with their first big live show. They were really hitting a stride around then.

EDIT: Nope, I was wrong, that was in May. Now I'm curious too. Where'd that jump come from?

Graphtreon is a very cool resource, I like using it to track creators whose output has slowed considerably over time.

It was their 1st anniversary of going full time. They just had their 2nd anniversary stream last week (but it was not the same scope).

That long stream was essentially a rally for the brand. There would be fun things that would happen if they met certain Patreon goals during that stream. As a result, their overall Patreon numbers (and funds) increased. I really think Easy Allies should try something. For instance, in that January 2016 stream, one goal was if they reach a certain amount of money, they'd play the lightning reaction game, which became a mainstay for them since then. Another goal was Tim and Nick would eat and review as much of the Taco Bell menu as possible. I could see Easy Allies coming up with little goals that would get the patrons excited. Think of it as Patreon goals at the micro level (i.e. every $50-$100 dollars or so).

Fun note: When Brandon showed up at Kinda Funny Live 2, he played Lightning Reaction with them. They finally put the video of the show up last week, but unfortunately it is only for Patrons (at $1 or higher) until February.
 

Rockk

Member
Judging from Ian's twitter it sounds like Easy Update is going to be about Cookie Clicker and the new update Orteil's been hinting at.Ian's friends with all the weirdo indie developers. Can't wait for the confusion in the comments.
 

Mario007

Member
I do think though, that the post conference coverage was way too positive for way too long. I five of the Allies have preordered the Switch live which tells you exactly what the slant was in that room. Especially when Jones mentioned that there was nothing to buy the system for at launch and Huber very much launched at him stating "ZELDA!!!!"

It is not something that you can change though, since Ben, Brad, Huber, Bosman and especially Damiani have their gaming life very much linked with Nintendo and Zelda. I would feel the same about my favourite games and franchises.

They course-corrected themselves when they were giving scores for the conference but Kyle mentioning that PS4's launch conference was bad was just hilarious. In the PS Meeting Sony announced Killzone, Driveclub, Knack and Infamous. That's four AAA games, two of which were new IPs. Along with that they mentioned to show off lots of third party support, probably biggest of which were Watchdogs and Destiny (two biggest new IPs this gen). Along with that they managed to completely break down the system from a technical perspective. The only bad things Sony did during the reveal was flimsy PS Now dreams and not showing the console.
 

Burt

Member
Imagine being Resident Evil Die Hard Extraordinaire Potential RE2 World Record Speedrun Contender in his Prime Michael Huber

And having the most awesome looking anticipated Resident Evil entry in nearly a decade

Send a tape all but to you

#mustbenice

but seriously, that's some living the dream stuff right there
 

Budi

Member

I'm confused, this is actual marketing for the game? Or something fan made? It's neat. =D I was actually hoping to see Huber approach the guy with an axe at the end, with his maniac face on.

Oh and about EZA thoughts on Switch, I hope people aren't disappointed that Allies are still interested in the Switch after lackluster presentation. I mean, it's a Nintendo console. If you love their first party franchises, you want the machine no matter how badly it's presented. I haven't still seen their reactions for the presentation itself. But I watched the discussion a bit after the presentation was over and to me it seemed that they didn't much like what they saw. But that didn't hurt their big first party IP:s. Nobody should expect them going "Yeah not getting the Switch." Not sure if that's the case to someone. It's still okay to be hopeful about the Switch, there's still promise for great things. While the games lineup at this moment seems less than stellar. It could end up doing worse than Wii U or it could end up coming close to Wii.

Did people watch the Treehouse stream? I watched it all, it actually bummed me out more than the presentation. The time I spent watching didn't match up with quality and quantity of the games they were showing. And the constant technical difficulties didn't help either. My highlights were trying to see Bloodworth on the breaks playing the games and making jokes about the stream with my friend in Steam chat. My friend who hasn't been a console gamer for a while and I wanted him to make the Switch. Not likely to happen now. Even the showing of Zelda which we were eagerly waiting for, was quite boring. Not a good day for Nintendo imo. But that being said, not getting it on launch but probably later this year. Unless the games released are all mediocre at best. Yes, including BotW.
 

Jonnax

Member
My hype has somewhat deflated.
I was 100% on getting the switch for Zelda. And after that trailer I'm 120% for Zelda.
However the console's pricing has been really offputtting.

But paying £60 for games seems crazy.
£40 for 1-2 switch as well is crazy.


I bought FFXV for £40 and I think that's the most I paid for a day 1 game.


The accessories are also on another level.

£65 for the professional controller when the PS4 controller has so much more features is crazy. Especially since controllers cost at most £10 to manufacture.

The joycons are the same.
It's £75 for a pair. That's more than a day's wages at minimum wage.

Just compare the value to the PS4. It's possible to get a PS4 slim for £250 with a game.

Extra controllers are cheaper. And there's an entire library of games with reasonable prices.

Makes me wonder if the console is only for the rich.

Or these prices are taking advantage of their fans who will buy day 1.

The kind of business logic that sees that people are willing to spend 50-100% markup on scalped NES Classics and wanting to get in on that market.

I've got a Switch pre-ordered but right now I'm likely to cancel in the next two months unless something changes.

If Nintendo just say nothing until launch I'll be really disappointed.
 

evlcookie

but ever so delicious
Was 40K always story time with the allies? I thought it was only with Damiani when I last checked it a few months back.

I do wonder if they should put out a "pilot" episode of what the $40k show would be. It at least gives patreons and potential patreons a better idea as to what they will get once they hit the 40k mark.
 

Bosman

GUILTY videogame man
Kyle mentioning that PS4's launch conference was bad was just hilarious. In the PS Meeting Sony announced Killzone, Driveclub, Knack and Infamous. That's four AAA games, two of which were new IPs. Along with that they mentioned to show off lots of third party support, probably biggest of which were Watchdogs and Destiny (two biggest new IPs this gen). Along with that they managed to completely break down the system from a technical perspective. The only bad things Sony did during the reveal was flimsy PS Now dreams and not showing the console.

I just rewatched the PS4 reveal before the PS4 Pro meeting last year. It really was bad. Maybe you're forgetting how each of those four AAA games were presented. Infamous was announced, but with that over-serious introduction and a trailer with nothing in it. The Destiny presentation was stinky too, weird environmental footage tied to the awkward announcement of ambiguous exclusive content. Also, they didn't really demonstrate that much third party support. On top of Destiny and Watch Dogs, they showed The Witness, Deep Down, Agni's Philosophy, and Blizzard announced a Diablo III port.
It's weird to remember because those games and everything turned out great, but it's definitely not hilarious to call it a bad presentation.
 
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