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Easy Allies |EZOT2| Love & Respect

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Visceir

Member
I dunno if I'd call it coasting(given that I'm not under the impression that they're just comfortably sitting around but rather I'm constantly under the impression that they're going above and beyond doing overtime to make the stuff happen that should/needs to or they want to happen) and I'm unsure about a push for more new shows as a push for the studio. I'm pretty happy with the organic growth so far and I feel like before we look onto having more regularly shows to push the numbers up I feel like we should try to improve the stuff that is there/already promised first.

I have a small list of things I want to bring up for discussion in maybe two weeks when things are quieter but it kind relates to while they don't have to be concerned with viewer numbers at all which is good I also hope they don't absolutely disregard them.

Not sure if stuff like that is already happening but shortly before GT closed they said they had a meeting where they brainstormed and talked about how to improve things. I think it'd be valuable for them to have meetings like that more often.

During one of the recent Q&A's it was asked which allies shows they watch and most of them didn't seem to be all too interested in their shows or watch them. It might be worthwhile to sometimes review their own content as a group to see what works and what doesn't and maybe strive to make stuff that they themselves would be watching and enjoying too.

...of course all that could be easier done if they had an office.
 

Hasney

Member
Not sure if stuff like that is already happening but shortly before GT closed they said they had a meeting where they brainstormed and talked about how to improve things. I think it'd be valuable for them to have meetings like that more often.

During one of the recent Q&A's it was asked which allies shows they watch and most of them didn't seem to be all too interested in their shows or watch them. It might be worthwhile to sometimes review their own content as a group to see what works and what doesn't and maybe strive to make stuff that they themselves would be watching and enjoying too.

...of course all that could be easier done if they had an office.

They did say they had a meeting like that recently. I'm guessing we may hear more during the events next week.
 

Axass

Member
After the one year anniversary is out of the way I'd really like to see some more pushing for their goals. Whether it's changing/adding current goals or just more ways to spread the word. We've talked about a "telethon" type deal to raise awareness and monthly patronage, that'd be a cool way to start. But obviously that's just one idea

Yes, sometimes I don't feel they're passionate enough about reaching those goals, or at least they don't show it. Brandon repeating everytime how he wants to reach 100k Youtube subs for the anniversary was a nice change of pace, no matter how silly it can be. I think the community responded to that, maybe in equally silly ways (e.g. the recent NeoGAF thread), but still it responded.

What I mean is: don't be scared to reach for more and to be passionated about getting better, if the community sees your passion, I'm sure it will give it back tenfolds and support you as much as possible.

Love & Respect
 
The kinda funny stuff got me thinking: who will leave eza first?

My money's on Huber leaving to pursue his game show host dreams

Huber's new show will be called "Valhalla" which will retroactively make every time he said "take me to Valhalla" on Easy Allies content look like he was playing the long game for shadow advertising.
 
Yes, sometimes I don't feel they're passionate enough about reaching those goals, or at least they don't show it. Brandon repeating everytime how he wants to reach 100k Youtube subs for the anniversary was a nice change of pace, no matter how silly it can be. I think the community responded to that, maybe in equally silly ways (e.g. the recent NeoGAF thread), but still it responded.

What I mean is: don't be scared to reach for more and to be passionated about getting better, if the community sees your passion, I'm sure it will give it back tenfolds and support you as much as possible.

Love & Respect
Yeah there's ways to push for it and not seem like a scumbag or like your content is brought down by it

Blood's "1 dollar" challenge seemed to do well for them and it's nice to remind people of the perspective that the podcast gets like 30-50 thousand views. If everyone donates one dollar that's 30-50 thousand. I'm sure a large portion of patrons are at $5 or above which would get them way past their goal

Maybe a way to further boost is to straight up make a list of "this is what we will guaranteed be able to deliver you with a studio". Because I think right now it's been Jones responding to requests with "well that's something we could do with a studio". People are obviously happy with the content they have right now so really a studio shouldn't matter to them if they don't really know what they (the viewer) are getting out of it
 
Maybe just have something written up that divides all the episodes into arcs or something can help? So people can just jump into new arc points.

I could work on something like this. The episode numbers and a paragraph about what generally happened I think.

Background Lore
Ambush in the Forest
Kobald Cave
City of Hethensburg/Heathensburgs/Heavensburg (spelling?)
Mysterious Island
The Ziggurat
The Purifiers
City of Kalveed

Anyone else have any better ways to break up the show into arcs? I think entering a new location will be the best place for people to jump in. Later tonight I'll go through the episodes and read the comments as a refresher before I write anything up.
 
They also said they were gonna add new Patreon tiers. In January.

Honestly I think it's time for some criticism round-up for the Allies. It's been a year and, while I'm very happy about the general state of affairs, (1) they don't seem ambitious enough (as Michael said above me "they're coasting") and (2) there're some clear "failures" related to a few projects not coming out in a timely manner (Retros, Sleuth, Tales From Japan, Cup of Jones, part of the reviews).

They did say they had a meeting like that recently. I'm guessing we may hear more during the events next week.

I agree that some criticism is valid but I'd give time. I think we may have some changes coming in Year 2, so I'm willing to wait after the anniversary to see the effects of their meeting.

My major criticism was the tech issues, and they seem to be doing a bunch of stuff on this area:
- The VO Booth will improve the quality of reviews

- Investing in shotgun mics for the front row and using the yeti for the back row on the streams (though I think it had a slightly mix/direction problem in the last stream)

- Apparently they're getting a newer camera for the streams? Also, they bought a new camera for the podcast, that was nice.

So I'm happy to see improvements. I think they're listening so I think just the fact that we've been talking about schedule here will already get some reaction. So I'm waiting for the review storm + concert + anniversary all to pass.
 

cm osi

Member
this is the case....which bums me to no end every time I think about TFB, he is extremely good, but he just doesn't want to do it and we all know how bosman ends up when he is forced to do something.

they should force him to review a game again if he lose a bet

i noticed less bets lately btw
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
The Allies seem like they are coasting, which is fine.

There's no point in Bosman doing a show he doesn't want to do. It won't be very good even if they did hit that target and people that wanted it might go away.

Honestly I think it's time for some criticism round-up for the Allies. It's been a year and, while I'm very happy about the general state of affairs, (1) they don't seem ambitious enough (as Michael said above me "they're coasting") and (2) there're some clear "failures" related to a few projects not coming out in a timely manner (Retros, Sleuth, Tales From Japan, Cup of Jones, part of the reviews).

Okay, I'll go in. I'll start out by saying the Allies as a group are great and I'm so glad none of them are going to suddenly neo-nazi up and go to internet war. They're an exceedingly funny bunch, and are always a joy to watch.

Some of them are absolutely coasting though, and a year on that now has to change. I don't think Huber, Ben, Don, Bloodworth or Jones are coasting. Brad either because he's doing more content now than he did at GT and is stepping up with things like the Anime podcast. Unfortunately that means there are some people that could be doing more with their time or just being a bit more creative. We'll start light.

IAN

Now Ian does do quite a bit. I think the problem is I'm not actually sure what he does editing wise or if he only does Easy Update and Fiasconauts as well probably? Tabletop? Ian's not full-time so there's probably the problem of editing being what he does for other corps and then doesn't want to do too much more of it for EZA and the irony being that what EZA really needs is more editors. If he could perhaps spend a bit more time teaching the other allies the dark arts of l'editing? I just... don't want Jones to die basically.

If Ian has a 'price' to do more editing, I'd rather see that as a Patreon goal than some other stuff. I also half suspect thats what the Trailer Jones higher tab is for.

DAMIANI

Just hasn't adapted to the post-GT landscape I don't feel. 2 Game Sleuth episodes in a year when it was one of the mid-tier Patreon goals is a disaster. I think he's been given a long stretch of time to breathe because of Zelda's release and him being 'that guy', but he is also one of the only other full-time employees. I'm not seeing that full-time-ism at play like I do from Ben and some of the part-timers.

Streaming is perhaps too easy an answer to content as for the Twitch crowd sure its more background noise, but for the Patreon supporters expecting Youtube shows, it's not a good fill-in. Reading a Zelda Manual aloud on a webcam is just... not the level EZA should be comfortable putting out. It also sounds harsh but unless you're reviewing an MMO, someone having time for one while being 'full time' anything else is an eyebrow raiser. It's all a bit too me-me-me content rather than teamwork.

I think he got too used to having a million editors around at GT, but he needs to learn that dark art himself and perhaps do the EZA Best Of round-up videos that farsir is currently doing a great job of.

Basically anyone at EZA that isn't currently dipping their toes into editing is wasting time and money. Hobbyists are doing it on YouTube with a hell of a lot less monetary support than EZA enjoys.

Oh and when asked about Amazon affiliate stuff and the upcoming Twitch game buying link stuff, it's clear he doesn't want to do it when it falls under what he was gonna be doing at EZA full-time when he came on. One of those uncomfortable "while EZA doesn't have a defacto boss, it's time for some management" conversations.

BOSMAN
Has gone on record saying editors are superheroes and that what made Final Bosman happen was the set to do so, hence Dear Bosman. Comes from a production background and started on GT:TV. He's thus currently spinning his wheels as EZA has very little to 'produce' around.

To be blunt, The Podcast feels vastly inferior to Frame Trap at this point and just too dry. With no ongoing Pokemon show currently and because Kyle refuses to review games (unfair to other Allies lets be blunt), he's going to waste. He needs to be put into a vice and challenged at this point to get him back to where he was and for Easy Allies at that. If he just set up a desk at Huber's or wherever and filmed a block of interesting game discussion content, thats views. Bosman At Home but just not in that darn kitchen is more than acceptable. Yes it won't look as good as LWYTG or whatever but... no shit? You can't use that as an excuse not to do things for years when you already have a hungry audience. Lets not pretend Dear Bosman didn't prop up Keighley's show a hell of a lot more than anyone expected.

You also can't say without editing you're not comfortable making a show when all you are putting out currently is unfiltered hours of content with no editing for a year. Find a plain white wall you can dunk a desk and lighting infront of and acceptable audio levels, suit up, film your thoughts with doodled intro cards. Then have Bonus bits as a Patreon tier. Well done, you enticed money.

Tetris and Dumb Game Mondays are enjoyable cop-outs and thats okay for a year of recollection, but then ya went and did Dear Bosman for another company while not being prepared to do that for your friends and colleagues Patreon biz and that ain't right.

OTHER THOUGHTS

- The sit down preview chats on the couch have been great, so more of those please. Perhaps need a little bit more game footage and title cards with relevant info like release dates, platforms, etc.

- Don produced a season of content. This is good for repeat subscribers and keeping an audience. Coming back each week for more of that Don show is key. Audience has already forgotten about Game Sleuth though. There needs to be a "season" of it to retain viewership.

- Farsir's Best Of Videos are winning people round. Have the Allies acknowledged them yet or are they concerned about precedents or something? It's CLEARLY something they need to be doing themselves and while I'm sure the Anniversary event feels important, if its taking this much planning and time away from growing a very young company, it was a mistake. That sounds harsh but its also what a Business Monster would tell you. The people attending are lifers and what you need to be doing is expanding the audience.

- Something that fills the gap between review and preview. Ben is beating himself up over EZA not getting to cover as many games as they want. They all have capture devices and mics, some short "Taste Of" or whatever videos seems like a good compromise.

- Further to that, get creative with time. If you're streaming a game, try and find a way where that footage can also be recorded off to be used for review or anything else. Top Tens could be a thing if the Allies had a store of content that didn't have all the Twitch streamer shit on it for instance.

- Group Stream hours need to change. Its torture for Euro's and thus feels exclusionary in some ways. Stay up til 4am or never be a part of that side of EZA,
 
Itd be great if it were
42.5k Trailer Jones
47.5k Bosman show of some kind

I know he doesn't want to do one, and that's fine, but it will probably get those patron numbers up, which is good for him and for the rest of the Allies. Or they are going to have to think of another mid 40-50k goal that will push people if they want to advance...

...But it doesn't seem like there is much push to get to the studio. The Allies seem like they are coasting, which is fine. Im happy with the current output of content so I'm good, but I'm not sure what the rest of the patrons think.

Seems to me like trying to squeeze as many goals as possible between 40k and 50k is only going to have diminishing returns. 2.5k isn't really THAT much in the grand scheme of things, it probably isn't enough to hire another video editor to help Jones keep up with their workload, so all adding more shows would probably do is hurt the release schedule of their other shows. That's why I've long thought that Bosman's show would be a great goal for a second Patreon, like Kinda Funny did. If they even made it a 15k goal on that Patreon then they could use those funds to make more of the Allies full-time, including Ian or Don.

there're some clear "failures" related to a few projects not coming out in a timely manner (Retros, Sleuth, Tales From Japan, Cup of Jones, part of the reviews).

I'll take issue with this one bit. Cup of Jones is a Patron only show, so I'd argue it comes out as often as it should. In hindsight, the amount of time Jones dedicated to it last year, when he was putting them out almost every week, was really silly.

In completely unrelated news, over the last couple of days Full Throttle Remastered, What Became of Edith Finch and the Disney Afternoon Collection have all been announced for April. Are you happy now, Blood? Are you?!
My backlog weeps.
 

Hasney

Member
Damn that's a really good price for that little gadget. Might have to get a couple for myself

Yeah, they're really neat. Giant Bomb recently did a revamp of all their equipment and started using them along with a custom built PC for streaming multiple inputs and full on video switching. They did a stream to go into it all and make sure it actually works (they have a custom ingestion package and video player on top of everything else so it's not like they can just use XSplit) It's a fun watch if you're into video equipment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBgJDOtA1Ws
In completely unrelated news, over the last couple of days Full Throttle Remastered, What Became of Edith Finch and the Disney Afternoon Collection have all been announced for April. Are you happy now, Blood? Are you?!
My backlog weeps.

giphy.gif


Couldn't end up justifying Nier next month with the Switch hit, but I need Full Throttle. Think I'm going to either fit Nier in before Persona 5 after I get paid which would give me a couple of week, or maybe after, since I'll want Full Throttle and MK8 which at least won't be 238907198037128937 hour games. Then it's just Fire Emblem so far in May. A quiet month! Unless Star Trek Bridge sounds good.
 

Auctopus

Member
Just wanted to say for almost two pages of criticisms, it's felt like most posts have been fair, constructive and supportive which is a nice change to see!
 

WarRock

Member
i noticed less bets lately btw
Year barely started and everybody is busy with 40000 games and the anniversary.

To be blunt, The Podcast feels vastly inferior to Frame Trap at this point and just too dry.
Look, I'm not even a patreon so I try to avoid doing comments like most are doing in the last few pages but... I have to agree with this. Podcast feels rushed as hell, since episode 1. They start with a few topics that nobody except Bosman knows beforehand, try to comment on them. Sometimes it goes well and we get lengthy, or at least meaningful discussion. A lot of the time it doesn't go all that well and it fells kinda shallow.

Bosman does a great job hosting those for at least 20-30 minutes though, and then we get into PSN+/Live Gold debate, that is completely random as how interesting the discussion will be.

Then it's already podcast halftime and we get L&R, which is great basically all the time.

Like, I love the guys and enjoy the podcast, but as themselves keep saying on the podcast, most of the news discussed aren't news anymore the time it goes up, so the appeal is listening to their opinions. Except the discussions are short as hell and it feels at least half of the time they don't really have anything to say about those news.

It's OK that they want to keep the in depth discussions about games in Frame Trap, but then go in depth into another topics during the podcast. Why only comment on news (some weeks there are almost none!), and not bring up some general topics about gaming? Something like "Hey guys, let's talk about context today. How can non story focused games, like racing or fighting games, bring context to the players? Do they even need it? Is that a good thing?" and the just go for half of the podcast debating that.

I really like how Bosman always goes after people's opinions and makes them explain what they mean or what they are referencing, but even then the discussions don't feel elaborate enough. It feels like they change topics too fast sometimes and all the discussions end up weaker for that, as a quantity x quality thing.

(Hopefully I didn't sound impolite or aggressive, I'm always wary of elaborating my points in English since I barely have experience writing it. Sorry for any grammar mistakes too!)
 

Hasney

Member
YOU BETCHA BROTHER

Real talk...........I would love a Wrestlemania Betting Special between Huber and Brad.

Shit, I actually meant 3 months, E3 and shit.

But yeah, that would be goddamn ace.

EDIT: Double shit, I was right the first time and your quoting of me bamboozled me
 
Okay, I'll go in. I'll start out by saying the Allies as a group are great and I'm so glad none of them are going to suddenly neo-nazi up and go to internet war. They're an exceedingly funny bunch, and are always a joy to watch.

Some of them are absolutely coasting though, and a year on that now has to change. I don't think Huber, Ben, Don, Bloodworth or Jones are coasting. Brad either because he's doing more content now than he did at GT and is stepping up with things like the Anime podcast. Unfortunately that means there are some people that could be doing more with their time or just being a bit more creative. We'll start light.

IAN

DAMIANI

BOSMAN

I'll be honest, I realize you're writing all this with the perspective of what you want out of the allies.... but I do think we have to get the idea that maybe we get half-Kyle... or no Kyle at all (and this goes for many of the allies).

I don't like to theorize their personal lives but I think many of these decisions you're criticizing are deliberate. Are it's probably not fair to compare the allies, cause all of them have differente salaries, different obligations. It's really hard to know who is "coasting" cause we don't even know the level of work that we should expectate each of them to have.

Maybe they should be more upfront about it? It's something to think about, I don't know if it would be positive or not...

It's OK that they want to keep the in depth discussions about games in Frame Trap, but then go in depth into another topics during the podcast. Why only comment on news (some weeks there are almost none!), and not bring up some general topics about gaming? Something like "Hey guys, let's talk about context today. How can non story focused games, like racing or fighting games, bring context to the players? Do they even need it? Is that a good thing?" and the just go for half of the podcast debating that.

Kyle branched off of news on the WiiU Legacy. I couldn't find the timestamp but he said that he'd try to do this more times, mainly when it's a slow news week.
 

Hasney

Member
Kyle branched off of news on the WiiU Legacy. I couldn't find the timestamp but he said that he'd try to do this more times, mainly when it's a slow news week.

Yeah, generally it's supposed to be the tighter podcast within an hour to 90 minutes, so if there is news, it'll be talked about. Some people do want that as evidenced in this thread previously.
 

Ultimadrago

Member
Tetris and Dumb Game Mondays are enjoyable cop-outs and thats okay for a year of recollection, but then ya went and did Dear Bosman for another company while not being prepared to do that for your friends and colleagues Patreon biz and that ain't right.

On this note, following up with Bosman's "Hiatus/Resign" from Bosman at Home. I believe the point he was getting at was that he didn't want to try to recapture The Final Bosman-esque content without the resources for which to do it properly. With Geoff's assignment of Dear Bosman he had a makeup crew, rose lighting, a solid setpiece, etc. Without a studio (and perhaps other accessories) for Easy Allies, I don't think Bosman has what he'd want to make the polished solo show with great presentation that he wants. I'm not going to blame him for that.
 

El-Suave

Member
Real talk...........I would love a Wrestlemania Betting Special between Huber and Brad.

Yup, I hope Huber and Brad do something for Wrestlemania. It doesn't need to be elaborate, just a review of the card and predictions - I enjoyed what they did for the Rumble.

Oh, and why we're bringing up polite suggestions for improvements, I have a small one for Huber Syndrome: PLEASE say a few more sentences about the movie you're recommending at the end! It's really annoying when it's just the title being dropped and the assurance that it's great. The latter is a given or the movie wouldn't be mentioned in the first place. Just add 30 seconds or a minute explaining it and I think it would be much more satisfying.
 

mishakoz

Member
I actually think the tighter podcast is just fine although some weeks it can feel a little short. It makes me think that Frame Trap should get the patreon delay, not the topical podcast.

Yeah, they're really neat. Giant Bomb recently did a revamp of all their equipment and started using them along with a custom built PC for streaming multiple inputs and full on video switching. They did a stream to go into it all and make sure it actually works (they have a custom ingestion package and video player on top of everything else so it's not like they can just use XSplit) It's a fun watch if you're into video equipment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBgJDOtA1Ws

This is dope. I use Vmix as well and although I cant say how it compares to OBS or Xplit which the Allies use, I can say that having a person behind the screen at all times would help so much with everything.
 
DAMIANI

Just hasn't adapted to the post-GT landscape I don't feel. 2 Game Sleuth episodes in a year when it was one of the mid-tier Patreon goals is a disaster. I think he's been given a long stretch of time to breathe because of Zelda's release and him being 'that guy', but he is also one of the only other full-time employees. I'm not seeing that full-time-ism at play like I do from Ben and some of the part-timers.

I just want to quote this part because I think it's completely ridiculous. If you want to see more Damiani on camera then surely the person you should be complaining about is Brandon? He's the one giving Ben and Damiani their roles, as far as I'm aware, and Damiani's mostly just seem like they're behind the camera.

Also, I think there's some heavy recentism in your argument, as Damiani did a ton of great streams over the holidays.

giphy.gif


Couldn't end up justifying Nier next month with the Switch hit, but I need Full Throttle. Think I'm going to either fit Nier in before Persona 5 after I get paid which would give me a couple of week, or maybe after, since I'll want Full Throttle and MK8 which at least won't be 238907198037128937 hour games. Then it's just Fire Emblem so far in May. A quiet month! Unless Star Trek Bridge sounds good.

Yeah, I was really hoping to finish NieR a week or so before Persona 5 comes out so I could fit a nice, easy short game in between the two (I've got Telltale's Batman sitting right there on my shelf) but I don't think I'll have the time. It's tough trying to fit in all these great 50+ hour games that I'm excited to play on day one.
 

sora87

Member
Also, I think there's some heavy recentism in your argument, as Damiani did a ton of great streams over the holidays.

Streaming is one thing but he needs to get Game Sleuth out there more regularly, 2 episodes in one year is just not good enough whatever way you put it.
 
Streaming is one thing but he needs to get Game Sleuth out there more regularly, 2 episodes in one year is just not good enough whatever way you put it.
I'm not up in arms about it but I agree, it was a high tier Patreon goal

That sort of thing can send the message that goals don't actually mean anything (regardless of the real life circumstances)
 
Our bad for not being more clear/communicative about this, but we have new Patreon Tier goals that will be announced next week and we are abandoning the Story Time idea. Sorry we took so long to cut it loose and move on to something else, but we have multiple new things to present that we really think is stuff you'll actually want.

Edit: Podcast also up for Patrons.
 

Axass

Member
I'll take issue with this one bit. Cup of Jones is a Patron only show, so I'd argue it comes out as often as it should. In hindsight, the amount of time Jones dedicated to it last year, when he was putting them out almost every week, was really silly.

I love Cup of Jones, it was my favourite show when EZA started, it gave great insight into what was going on behind the scenes and watching it made me feel as a part of something cool.

I only considered it a "failure" due to Brandon "failing" to put it out on time. They were once a week first, then he went to whenever, then he decided he would do them twice a month around the end of December. We've had two Cup of Jones in two and a half months.

It should be an incentive for the 1$ tier, yet it's so rare now to have an episode that I wonder why people would sign up for it, if not purely to show support (like me). I agree that once a week was overkill after the starting period, but twice a month could definitely be doable.

I just think that Brandon should rework the show, as he already started doing, into more of an editorial thing, answering less patron questions (there's already Love & Respect, Frame Trap e-mails and the monthly Q&A for that) and seriously cutting back on the length of each episode. Better to put out 2 episode per month of 15-20 minutes than to put a 1:50 minutes episode every two months IMO.
 
Our bad for not being more clear/communicative about this, but we have new Patreon Tier goals that will be announced next week and we are abandoning the Story Time idea. Sorry we took so long to cut it loose and move on to something else, but we have multiple new things to present that we really think is stuff you'll actually want.

Edit: Podcast also up for Patrons.

Thank you for chiming in, Damiani.

I've already said it before, but I think most people would be a lot more understanding, if you guys could be more transparent about the produced shows. A short post on Patreon about the current state of GS would be really helpful. Something like "this is the plan for the next episode and this is why it's taking so long". And by plan, I mean the general outline, not necessarily the game you're going to investigate.

Transparency and communication is always important with these things.
 

Axass

Member
Thank you for chiming in, Damiani.

I've already said it before, but I think most people would be a lot more understanding, if you guys could be more transparent about the produced shows. A short post on Patreon about the current state of GS would be really helpful. Something like "this is the plan for the next episode and this is why it's taking so long". And by plan, I mean the general outline, not necessarily the game you're going to investigate.

Transparency and communication is always important with these things.

Yeah, I remember when Michael did all those patron-only video explanations while preparing the first Game Sleuth, when he was still in Texas. It was nice, gave you an insight on what was going on behind the scenes. I remember when he said he'd give hints about the next games to be featured to the fans, I remember he said he'd be up for making shorter episodes on smaller topics (mentioning the REVII dummy finger) possibly with the help of the community as well. Then nothing came out of it.

I also remember Ben's lore corner, which was cool as well, he said he wanted to possibly start doing it again, but nothing came out of it either (then again he's super busy with lots of things), just like posting the patrons D&D campaign recordings. Back then there were actual reasons to be a patron besides the mere will to support them, now you're basically only getting the podcast early, unless you shell out some serious money.

Now, this may sound as overly demanding, or I may seem too negative, but in fact I think that the Allies had a fabulous first year. I just hope things will pick up even more steam in the next one. :)
 

Hasney

Member
Our bad for not being more clear/communicative about this, but we have new Patreon Tier goals that will be announced next week and we are abandoning the Story Time idea. Sorry we took so long to cut it loose and move on to something else, but we have multiple new things to present that we really think is stuff you'll actually want.

Edit: Podcast also up for Patrons.

Niiice. I figured something would be announced during next week after the planning meeting as I thought it wouldn't just be concert stuff. Looking forward to it!
Not looking forward to my wallet if it's stuff I'd be interested in
 
Um, if this week's podcast is any indication, Bloodworth should apparently be taking over Game Sleuth. Wow

So this is what explaining Kingdom Hearts to people sounds like. Actually, maybe Blood should make a Tolkein Timeline.

Yeah, I remember when Michael did all those patron-only video explanations while preparing the first Game Sleuth, when he was still in Texas. It was nice, gave you an insight on what was going on behind the scenes. I remember when he said he'd give hints about the next games to be featured to the fans, I remember he said he'd be up for making shorter episodes on smaller topics (mentioning the REVII dummy finger) possibly with the help of the community as well. Then nothing came out of it.

Those updates were more done out of the fact that I was still in Texas as you said, still had a full time job I was committed to, and did not expect my goal to be funded anywhere near that soon (thought I had a few months). So I was told "hey, we need an episode soon" and I was in no place to deliver that, so the compromise was updates on what I was thinking/planning.

I mean, the updates for 2017 would have been January: "got Tales of Beseria and Gravity Rush 2 recently, both are massive games and have to review them ASAP, RIP my January sorry can't work on much of anything else at the moment". February: Began digging into what the next episode would be finally, got an overall picture of it. I also want to do some new things, let me begin planning on those shows as well. Oh wait, we got Zelda and Switch early, goodbye everything for two weeks. March: "Switch launch stuff, then my birthday! Family visiting nearby so out for most of the week to see them since haven't seen them in nearly a year (I didn't go home for Holidays, I did 2 weeks of streaming to help cover our gap with others out if you remember). Oh crap, one year anniversary stuff! Need to write my stuff for that and get it rehearsed. Oh this Zelda show is happening, let's do it. Oh crap, I need to edit it myself, need to learn Premiere real quick. Oh rats, I didn't stream for like 2 weeks due to Zelda, I need to get back on that ASAP. Oh yea, Retro Game Sessions, I need to resume that, it's a weekly show. Crap, I haven't done Eorzean Allies in like a month, that was supposed to be more frequent gotta figure out getting that back up and going. I Finally got some stuff rounded up and set to go on next episode of Game Sleuth, but realistically it's gonna have to wait until after next week's anniversary stuff, so looking like April for it."

But you might ask "what about when you finished GTA episode in October of last year?" - I was just honestly super burned out after that one took months to do.

Also, I know somebody pointed out the "monthly" thing, I just want to say this. Even at GT, with a bigger staff, more resources, etc, I couldn't hit a month all the time. We'd go 2 months sometimes without an episode. That was with giving Don like a week or more of dedicated time to edit the thing, me not having to worry about working on anything else whatsoever (Pop Fiction was one of the highest viewed shows so my bosses would say just focus on it usually), and just so many other variables. Even with all that, it still took a good amount of time to make one. I could never tell how long would take to make before hand, so trying to guess was pretty futile. So basically, I shouldn't have ever said "roughly one month". That was optimistic even under GT standards. If you want the brutally honest answer, one every 3-4 months is what I should have told you all back then knowing what I know now. Same with Retros. Those things are way more involved and intensive, so like, 2 of those a year would be pretty amazing with our current setup and resources. And quite honestly, I think with where we are now, I feel we should focus on delivering more frequent content that comes from our personalities and passions. It means more frequent and importantly good content. Which is why I'm going to do Zelda Talk every other week going forward, and hopefully some other stuff as well that covers what I'm passionate about and is stuff I can deliver on a routine, frequent basis. Finally, I think we might have jumped the gun on the bigger projects. I think we maybe should have settled on more reasonable shows for the time being, and saved the bigger stuff for when we grew more and reached a spot where they made more sense. When I see the EZA podcast pulling in the #s the last episode of Game Sleuth did and Part 2 of the Retro, I seriously question the time investment made in those at this point. Are either really expanding our audience as much as say, our reviews, which when published in a timely fashion, seem to get us way more exposure than anything else we do next to our reaction videos. We can still do some high quality videos IMO, I just think we might need to scale back a bit for the time being.
 

Hasney

Member
So this is what explaining Kingdom Hearts to people sounds like. Actually, maybe Blood should make a Tolkein Timeline.

One of those "Explain the plot of x in minutes" videos that was hilariously dumb as they had no script or research, just doing it from memory.
 

Hasney

Member
OMG those were the best.. and I even remember those had huge views...

Mostly for the same factor as the Top 10's though, everyone bitching about how they didn't know anything. They were great for those of us in on the actual idea of it though.
 
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