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Easy Allies |EZOT2| Love & Respect

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A

arkon

Member
mishakoz said:
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.


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Click to expand...

Interesting idea. So Monday Frametrap for Patrons, Wednesday for everybody else?
 
K

Kneefoil

Member
Eeeeeh... I usually much prefer the EZA Podcast over Frame Trap. The only time I've maybe felt otherwise has been the few weeks after E3 when they had so little to talk about.
 
T

TheDarkKnight774

Member
Looking forward to what the new tiers could be.

As the first year of EZA is coming up, this reflection and constructive feedback is all good. But I do take exception of the notion of any of them "coasting". Like many others here, i've been a Day 1 patreon supporter and I couldn't be more thrilled of what they've managed to do and pull off in the first year. First off i'm ecstatic they even exist as an entity. I felt for a while they were on borrowed time on GT. To come back and be this good and successful is simply amazing. Shows the great dedicated community and the allies themselves. Love it

Now onto the content

- Cup Of Jones : Was supposed to be a weekly 10-15 minute show/editorial. It moved into a more once a month deal once other commitments (like reviews which i'll get to in a minute) started to pile up. But once a month hour long is a wash in my mind. Verdict: Delivered
- Podcast : I don't recall ever a missed week. They even did a L&R only podcast when they were all on vacation. Consistent all the way through. Verdict: Delivered
- Second Podcast : Might have missed a week once or so. But the best podcast i never knew i wanted. Verdict: Delivered
- Streaming : All of them have been very good about maintaining a large amount of streaming shows. Whether solo, the group streams, etc. They said it was the focus when the patreon started and they've stuck with it. Verdict: Delivered
- Huber Show : Again Consistent every week. Plus he added Talking Syndrome as bonus content a couple months in. Not behind any tier or Patreon goal. Verdict: Delivered
- Retros : They said they'd be infrequent and they have been. I expected about one a year and i'd imagine they're on pace for that since its in work as we speak. Verdict: Delivered
- Easy Update : Great show, and again consistently delivered. Verdict: Delivered
- Tabletalk Escapades : My favorite show they do. Same crew basically the whole year. Only once maybe there was a missed week? I knwo they did adhoc ones when someone was out, but again consistent and amazing. Verdict: Delivered
- Game Reviews : They've over achieved on this one and is IMO the activity that has impacted the other shows (if they were delayed) the most. When it was first discussed they were talking like one review a month, maybe two. They wouldn't hit everything but they'd continue in some form. Its evolved into reviewing essentially every big game, getting review copies early and able to hit day one embargos more and more frequently. I also think its been their biggest method of exposure and continued growth. Verdict: Over delivered
- Game Sleuth : The one weakness when it comes to frequency. Content has been great, the second project was a huge undertaking. I think reviews has played a big factor in the infrequence. Verdict: Under Delivered. Needs improvement
- Fan Mail : I got mine every month, never late, great creativity. Verdict: Delivered
- Q&A : They never skipped one, and has turned into another great interaction with Patreons. Verdict: Delivered

Now lets talk about all the bonus content that showed up, that wasn't locked behind patreon, and just happened
- Fiasconauts : Love it, improve creativity at its best. Lots a mainstays like Brandon and Kyle but also great guests
- Brandon Plays Pokemon : Another great bonus series that just popped up because they wanted to do it.
- Gundam Building Streams: My favorite streams ever. Its the unofficial GT JRPG streams, but with even more relaxed conversations, chit chat, etc.
- Anime Podcast : Talked about for years, and now it is reality.


I'm probably even forgetting somethings. They generate so much content per week than they ever did with GT, and it keeps growing. Now you might not like the things they've added, and thats up to the beholder. But of the crew is not only meeting their commitments, but exceeding them and expanding them over the course of the year

Is there room for improvement? Of course but a great start nevertheless
 
A

Axass

Member
HylianScribe said:
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.
Click to expand...

I wasn't trying to downplay the other stuff you put out in the meantime. I know you do a lot for EZA and I appreciate that.

Still "Damiani's Pop Fiction successor" was a huge draw when you created the Patreon, and it's still a Patreon goal, just like Retros. It's a bit unfair to pull back on those now that you've been on Patreon for a year and it bums me out a lot to hear you talking about "views". People support you economically on Patreon so that you shouldn't have to worry about those "views" as much as before, Brandon said so himself many times.

Game Sleuth is something basically all your ex-GT fans love and want more of, again, just like Retros, and you're saying you should cut on that in favour of more personality driven stuff (which is already produced in heaps)? I honestly wasn't expecting such a reply.

I want to mirror Blood's thoughts when he says that creating heavy producted content, alongside streams and less "editing intensive" shows, is important for your growth and is something that gives timeless value to your channel: you can watch those videos in ten years and gain the same amount of enjoyment out of it than you'd get now, while all the other stuff you guys put out is way more topical and linked to the "zeitgeist".

Then again, if your heart's not in it anymore, I suppose there's not much we can do if not accept that.
 
P

Primethius

Banned
On the frametrap vs. podcast discussion: I like both. I think they serve very different roles. For me personally, the podcast is as much a weekly check-in with the allies as it is a discussion about the several topics that week, and I really enjoy that.

--

The latest podcast and the LOTR correction, omg.

Edit: LOL @ Ian on the whole Kinda Funny thing.
 
M

mishakoz

Member
HylianScribe said:
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.
Click to expand...

How do you mean? My understanding of the patreon route is that view counts are nigh irrelevant, and the content is being produced for the patrons primarily and also put out into the world.

So the people who shelled out to make the sleuth and retrospective goal happen arent getting what they wanted. I understand its a goal and not "Donate $150 and this tier will give you access to a retrospective every 6 months" but i dont think that makes it okay to put aside things and not do those goals in favor of the more "popular" and view count getting things.

I hope im voicing this in a constructive manner because i mean no ill will, i love you guys, and I want more exposure for the allies and I agree Zelda talk, on time switch impressions and reviews have all contributed heavily to that, it just seems like resources continue to be allocated away from the achieved goals whenever they become inconvenient, which i dont think is okay.

I think its great to admit that some things need to be reworked. I also really love watching you talk about Zelda and look forward to those videos.

Best.
 
S

sora87

Member
I would also say you shouldn't worry about missing a stream for 100 people if it gets in the way of working on a nicely produced video for your youtube that will get 1000s of views and bring much more people to your channel. And this comes from someone who loves the streams more than mostly everything else.
 
H

Hasney

Member
While I feel that as a patron, I wouldn't be massively bummed about Game Sleuth and Retros being taken away because the bonus stuff that wasn't tiers has added the extra content required, I think they would be missed.

While they may not bring in the YouTube views to expectations, I feel they are things people would pay money for. The weekly content is fine as is and on schedule which is what will always get views on YouTube, but I feel both Game Sleuth and Retros are the prestige pieces that can translate into people backing Easy Allies as a whole.

When you look at things like NoClip, it doesn't get the views that a big YouTuber will get, but people are willing to pay for that sort of content because it sets it apart from what other people are doing. I mean, the reviews are great and well written, but are people going to out money down because they thought an EZA review was the best one, or just be content with the hundreds of other reviews out there?

I think the best thing Giant Bomb ended up doing was reviewing a much smaller subset of games and doing quick looks at the rest of them, because reviews are time consuming and there's are just written. Right now, I know there's a lot of games that are of EZAs genres and we want to hear the opinions on, but I would love it if we get to another busy point that things like maybe COD could just have Huber and Jones sit down to play it and talk about their thoughts for 20 minutes or something instead of the whole review process to leave time for other things.

I know Sleuth and Retros take a helluva lot of effort and the goals may have been reviewed if the growth had been slower instead of the awesome first day rush, but if they go on the back burner, hopefully someone can figure out some content that sets EZA apart other than just awesome personality based stuff.
 
H

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
HylianScribe said:
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.
Click to expand...

Feels a bit bad that I seem to have opened the floodgates a bit on that stuff when the anniversary is just next week and in that spirit I also want to repeat the sentiment that dark knight had that there are also a ton of victories that EZA had during this first year and stuff where you guys over delivered and that should be celebrated. So sorry for that.

Never the less I appreciate you engaging. Yeah amount of work has been crazy for you guys and it feels bad because I didn't want to create more stress by bringing it up that said a month to month run down of what's happening/or not happening production wise like the one above is kind of nice to have. Also good to have more updated timeframes with what you currently know I think stuff like that if possible should be stuff that should be communicated fast.

Also I think the interesting thing here is without wanting to go too indepth into it yet but yeah I think/hope the community is open to maybe restructuring of goals more suited to what's happening and passions of the Allies. I would be kind of super bummed to see Game Sleuth, Retros go in favor of something else but maybe it's a conversation worth having if the production pipeline isn't sustainable for it to make sense? I feel like that's in the spirit of Patreon that the audience can have a conversation with the creators and find ways where we empower them to create great stuff that we in turn enjoy. Sure it's delicate to discuss cause a change in direction might lose some people that were in it for a very specific thing but I also think it's very important to retain freedom/flexibility to its creators. Having people do shows just out of pure commitment I don't know if that's the best outcome for everyone involved.

While I think having a staple of weekly/super regular content is super important I was also always a fan of having different release methods for stuff depending on the content. Perfect example of that is the recent season of Don. So maybe some ideas work better in a format where stuff is produced in batch in advance and having a controlled and focused release window. Makes me wonder if it maybe would have been better for Tales from Japan to finish up production and then having a month of releases dedicated for it in the same fashion. Like right now in retrospect the Tales from Japan release schedule has a bit of a wonky aftertaste.

In any case I think I'll be waiting until next week for any new announcements from you guys which may even address some of the other stuff I want to bring up.

Hasney said:
While I feel that as a patron, I wouldn't be massively bummed about Game Sleuth and Retros being taken away because the bonus stuff that wasn't tiers has added the extra content required, I think they would be missed.

While they may not bring in the YouTube views to expectations, I feel they are things people would pay money for. The weekly content is fine as is and on schedule which is what will always get views on YouTube, but I feel both Game Sleuth and Retros are the prestige pieces that can translate into people backing Easy Allies as a whole.

When you look at things like NoClip, it doesn't get the views that a big YouTuber will get, but people are willing to pay for that sort of content because it sets it apart from what other people are doing. I mean, the reviews are great and well written, but are people going to out money down because they thought an EZA review was the best one, or just be content with the hundreds of other reviews out there?

I think the best thing Giant Bomb ended up doing was reviewing a much smaller subset of games and doing quick looks at the rest of them, because reviews are time consuming and there's are just written. Right now, I know there's a lot of games that are of EZAs genres and we want to hear the opinions on, but I would love it if we get to another busy point that things like maybe COD could just have Huber and Jones sit down to play it and talk about their thoughts for 20 minutes or something instead of the whole review process to leave time for other things.

I know Sleuth and Retros take a helluva lot of effort and the goals may have been reviewed if the growth had been slower instead of the awesome first day rush, but if they go on the back burner, hopefully someone can figure out some content that sets EZA apart other than just awesome personality based stuff.
Click to expand...

Just had to quote because I agree a lot with this. Especially the points on them being prestige content and their value in that might go beyond the views they get.
 
Mikey Jr.

Mikey Jr.

Member
I think there is a balance to be struck between produced shows vs effort vs views.

I get where Damiani is coming from. It can be disheartening that a video that you put 100x more effort into gets just the same amount of views as a podcast. At that point you start to wonder if it is even worth it.

I think retro and game sleuth are being created for the wrong reasons if they are being made to just hit view numbers. You also have to balance patron satisfaction.

I really hope EZA doesn't fall into this rut while they are just producing quick and easy slop just to hit view numbers. Streams are great in the moment. You can watch an EZA member play a brand new game you are interested in. Hear their thoughts. Interact with them.

But that kind of content is disposable. I'm not going back half a year to watch Brad play Overwatch. I will watch the deus ex retro again though. Or the game sleuth on OOT.
 
L

LiquidSolid

Member
TheDarkKnight774 said:
I'm probably even forgetting somethings. They generate so much content per week than they ever did with GT, and it keeps growing. Now you might not like the things they've added, and thats up to the beholder. But of the crew is not only meeting their commitments, but exceeding them and expanding them over the course of the year

Is there room for improvement? Of course but a great start nevertheless
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Agreed. And TBH, I'm happy with however many Retros and Game Sleuths they can produce. I do think there might've been a lost opportunity not making the anime podcast the 40k tier though, as it seems to me like EZA has a sizeable anime fanbase and that could've been enough to push it up those last few hundred bucks.

One small suggestion I do have is that streams like the Mass Effect one should be archived on the main EZA Youtube channel, not the EZA Plays channel. Those kind of high profile streams are far better off there than hidden away on the Plays channel and I think all the people who originally complained about streams being archived on the main channel would agree.
 
H

Hasney

Member
LiquidSolid said:
One small suggestion I do have is that streams like the Mass Effect one should be archived on the main EZA Youtube channel, not the EZA Plays channel. Those kind of high profile streams are far better off there than hidden away on the Plays channel and I think all the people who originally complained about streams being archived on the main channel would agree.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree with that. Hot new pre-release footage may as well be classed as a preview.
 
M

mishakoz

Member
One bit of criticism that I consider the most important...


...they are gonna have to wipe down that VO booth window before every shoot. holy crap.
 
H

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
Just learned from the podcast Ian the hero trying to make sure that we people that can't attend the show will get the video still within the same week. Hooray thanks for that.

Also to Johnny B I'll check Hollow Knight out it was on my radar and then I just forgot about it because of the avalanche of games.

Edit:

I think Ian Stops sounds more interesting than Second Chance. At least if Ian elaborates indepth on what lead up to the stop etc.
 
E

El-Suave

Member
If the Allies review Styx, "Everybody adores Styx..." needs to find its way into the review!
Also, the glass on the voice booth/meat locker deserves a good cleaning.
 
H

HylianScribe

Member
Yea, I didn't mean to imply views really factor into determining if content was worth it since we're Patreon funded. I think it's just a personal issue. When Pop Fiction got 100s of thousands of views and got coverage on multiple sites, to what happened with the first two episodes of Game Sleuth, I'll be honest - it was pretty humbling and demoralizing. I do personally measure that show by views and thought it would at least break 100K (least the first one). And I don't mean to imply "hey let's start tossing out random, low quality videos" in exchange for that. I think maybe there's a balance to be struck, which is why I say I question the time investment. I also shouldn't have lumped Retros into it, though I feel I have enough experience with them to speak about them. I have no real say on Retros at EZA since it's not at my discretion, so please don't take anything I said as any reflection on the state of them now or in the future. It was just my personal thoughts on that matter.

But I guess tl;dr answer people have been waiting for on Game Sleuth, probably April for next episode. Have some people looking into stuff to get back to me with answers, then I can do a big push on my end to get it wrapped up and delivered to Don to be edited. I just worry a lot about this show and it does stress me out a lot because of various things. Sorry for doing such a poor job communicating about it, though. Still working on improving so thanks for you patience and constructive feedback everyone. L&R
 
S

Servbot24

Banned
The podcast is best when they are talking about game design IMO. When they are responding to news headlines it tends to just be more "Yeah I guess that could be big for Microsoft. I don't really know." When they get into the mechanics about specific games there's a lot more vigor and depth to the conversation.
 
S

sora87

Member
HylianScribe said:
But I guess tl;dr answer people have been waiting for on Game Sleuth, probably April for next episode. Have some people looking into stuff to get back to me with answers, then I can do a big push on my end to get it wrapped up and delivered to Don to be edited. I just worry a lot about this show and it does stress me out a lot because of various things. Sorry for doing such a poor job communicating about it, though. Still working on improving so thanks for you patience and constructive feedback everyone. L&R
Click to expand...

Looking forward to it, L&R!
 
E

Elfforkusu

Member
I'm not going to advocate dropping them or anything, because a lot of people seem to love them. But I think I've become a little philosophically opposed to retrospectives, as GT/EZA does them per se. The short version is, I don't find 'let's review this game franchise' to be a very interesting way to contextualize games and game development. Following From Software from Otogi through the Soulsborne games, on the other hand... or Sonic Team from Sonic 1 to PSO...
HylianScribe said:
But I guess tl;dr answer people have been waiting for on Game Sleuth, probably April for next episode. Have some people looking into stuff to get back to me with answers, then I can do a big push on my end to get it wrapped up and delivered to Don to be edited. I just worry a lot about this show and it does stress me out a lot because of various things. Sorry for doing such a poor job communicating about it, though. Still working on improving so thanks for you patience and constructive feedback everyone. L&R
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I understand the frustration of spending a bunch of time on something to watch it seemingly disappear into the background noise of the internet, but I do think you're maybe letting the (understandable) desire for quick results cloud your sentiments towards gamesleuth -- it takes time to build a new brand, which is what you guys have both with EZA and with that show. Rest assured that the quality is great, and we're all looking forward to the next one. If you keep making them, your audience for that show will only grow.
 
K

Kasper

Member
HylianScribe said:
Yea, I didn't mean to imply views really factor into determining if content was worth it since we're Patreon funded. I think it's just a personal issue. When Pop Fiction got 100s of thousands of views and got coverage on multiple sites, to what happened with the first two episodes of Game Sleuth, I'll be honest - it was pretty humbling and demoralizing. I do personally measure that show by views and thought it would at least break 100K (least the first one). And I don't mean to imply "hey let's start tossing out random, low quality videos" in exchange for that. I think maybe there's a balance to be struck, which is why I say I question the time investment. I also shouldn't have lumped Retros into it, though I feel I have enough experience with them to speak about them. I have no real say on Retros at EZA since it's not at my discretion, so please don't take anything I said as any reflection on the state of them now or in the future. It was just my personal thoughts on that matter.

But I guess tl;dr answer people have been waiting for on Game Sleuth, probably April for next episode. Have some people looking into stuff to get back to me with answers, then I can do a big push on my end to get it wrapped up and delivered to Don to be edited. I just worry a lot about this show and it does stress me out a lot because of various things. Sorry for doing such a poor job communicating about it, though. Still working on improving so thanks for you patience and constructive feedback everyone. L&R
Click to expand...

I can definitely understand being underwhelmed, even if your expectations were a little high. It's a long time ago in Internet years that Pop Fiction was "the shit" after all, even if the quality of the show is still there. I personally love the show, though, and I've honestly been a little grumpy about the lack of episodes and information, even if I am understandable in terms of everything that's going on on your end.

I can also understand wanting to maybe quit the show if the amount of work to the amount of views/new patrons/new yt subscribers doesn't add up, but it might be worth sending out a questionnaire to patrons at some point if you guys plan to change the various goals around to get a lay of the land as to why people even pledged to begin with. We used to do questionnaires at a site I worked for in the past every so often and it provided us with some useful feedback where people could be brutally honest about what we did well, what we didn't do well, and what people wanted more and less of.

LiquidSolid said:
One small suggestion I do have is that streams like the Mass Effect one should be archived on the main EZA Youtube channel, not the EZA Plays channel. Those kind of high profile streams are far better off there than hidden away on the Plays channel and I think all the people who originally complained about streams being archived on the main channel would agree.
Click to expand...

I most definitely do not agree. Like The Offspring says, you gotta keep 'em separated!
 
K

Karu

Member
I think the long-form analysis videos popping up on YT by certain individuals made stuff like retro's a bit redundant. I still like them and would watch them, but I don't think generally their uniqueness is a selling point anymore. Highly produced videos in general are, though, so I don't know.
 
A

Auctopus

Member
Really enjoying the discussion here tonight.

HylianScribe said:
Yea, I didn't mean to imply views really factor into determining if content was worth it since we're Patreon funded. I think it's just a personal issue. When Pop Fiction got 100s of thousands of views and got coverage on multiple sites, to what happened with the first two episodes of Game Sleuth, I'll be honest - it was pretty humbling and demoralizing. I do personally measure that show by views and thought it would at least break 100K (least the first one). And I don't mean to imply "hey let's start tossing out random, low quality videos" in exchange for that. I think maybe there's a balance to be struck, which is why I say I question the time investment. I also shouldn't have lumped Retros into it, though I feel I have enough experience with them to speak about them. I have no real say on Retros at EZA since it's not at my discretion, so please don't take anything I said as any reflection on the state of them now or in the future. It was just my personal thoughts on that matter.

But I guess tl;dr answer people have been waiting for on Game Sleuth, probably April for next episode. Have some people looking into stuff to get back to me with answers, then I can do a big push on my end to get it wrapped up and delivered to Don to be edited. I just worry a lot about this show and it does stress me out a lot because of various things. Sorry for doing such a poor job communicating about it, though. Still working on improving so thanks for you patience and constructive feedback everyone. L&R
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Thanks for your honesty and the in-depth replies, Damiani.
 
K

Kasper

Member
Reading through the past few pages I'm a bit surprised to see shade thrown at the EZA podcast. Each to their own, but I'd just like to chime in in case Kyle reads this that I love the podcast and wouldn't want it to change drastically or anything. Having different sections pop up every now and then to switch things up is nice, but I also like the show as-is.
 
D

demu

Member
Kasper said:
Reading through the past few pages I'm a bit surprised to see shade thrown at the EZA podcast. Each to their own, but I'd just like to chime in in case Kyle reads this that I love the podcast and wouldn't want it to change drastically or anything. Having different sections pop up every now and then to switch things up is nice, but I also like the show as-is.
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Yep, love the podcast as well.
But the lack of the goddess, Sophie and a L&R game in this week's podcast was absolutely sickening.
 
H

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
Kasper said:
Reading through the past few pages I'm a bit surprised to see shade thrown at the EZA podcast. Each to their own, but I'd just like to chime in in case Kyle reads this that I love the podcast and wouldn't want it to change drastically or anything. Having different sections pop up every now and then to switch things up is nice, but I also like the show as-is.
Click to expand...

I think the mention of anything related to trying to generate more indepth discussion maybe has some validity to it. I''m not sure I enjoy both podcasts quite a bit.

It think people should also recognize that Frame Trap and the EZA weekly podcast kind of serve different audiences(which I think have huge overlap). So I'm unsure about agreeing that Frame Trap is sooooo much better than the EZA weekly podcast and I say this with FT being my favorite podcast among all the ones I listen to it recent times(and I listen to quite a bit random encounter, waypoint, idle weekend, EZA, other stuff occasionally).
-------------
Going to reminiscence about EZA year 1 a bit for my favorite moments there's honestly been a lot of great ones.
 
S

sleepwalkcapsules

Member
Elfforkusu said:
I'm not going to advocate dropping them or anything, because a lot of people seem to love them. But I think I've become a little philosophically opposed to retrospectives, as GT/EZA does them per se. The short version is, I don't find 'let's review this game franchise' to be a very interesting way to contextualize games and game development. Following From Software from Otogi through the Soulsborne games, on the other hand... or Sonic Team from Sonic 1 to PSO...
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I never really felt that the retrospectives goes for a gamedev angle. It's more of a narrative recap with some commentary about the mechanics evolving. So following the game franchise makes sense.

But its been some time since I've seen the GT retrospectives, maybe I'm wrong lol.

demu said:
->

Read the first letter of each word. That ain't right. It's unprecedented.
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Oh no.

I love the bets that use the comment section. Kyle probably won't do it anymore :(
 
L

LiquidSolid

Member
Kasper said:
I most definitely do not agree. Like The Offspring says, you gotta keep 'em separated!
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Wat. Seriously? Why? It seems like a pretty dumb thing to complain about for something that would probably get quite a few views.

Also, mark me down as someone who easily prefers Frame Trap but likes EZA Podcast for what it is and the fact that it serves a different role. Frame Trap wouldn't be what it is if both podcasts were the same.
 
K

Kasper

Member
LiquidSolid said:
Wat. Seriously? Why? It seems like a pretty dumb thing to complain about for something that would probably get quite a few views.
Click to expand...

I have no interest in seeing it because I have no interest in having streams in my YouTube feed, which is also why I am not subbed to the EZA Plays channel. I don't care if having it on the main channel would bring in a few more eyeballs, that doesn't concern me. If the allies wants to do that then by my guest, they can do whatever they want, but I just stated how I have no interest in it, and I don't see how having a different opinion from you makes me stupid, which is what you seem to be inferring.
 
V

VanWinkle

Member
I would just LOVE to see them spending less time streaming hours of random games and spending more time on produced shows. I don't have time/attention span for watching a bunch of stuff that's well over an hour long. Please just give me some stuff to watch that's like an hour or less. I've never been able to make myself watch long-form gameplay, and that's such a huge part of EZA right now.

EZA Podcast should NOT be the Patreon-delayed show. It's a news show! It needs to be out on time. Nobody wants to watch days-old news. Frame Trap should be the Patreon-delayed show. It's pure discussion and doesn't lose non-Patron viewers by outdatedness when it comes out.

And, honestly, the EZA Podcast should probably be shorter and twice a week. Fewer long L&R discussions (stuff that works better in a Frame Trap type show) and more news. A 30-45 minute show Tuesday and Friday would be great (filmed in the mornings, put up at night). Group stream could be moved to Wednesday. Frame Trap should be once a week, and around an hour long.

These are all my opinions of course, but I want ways to have content more often. I think it would be awesome to maybe have Frame Trap every Monday, EZA Podcast every Tuesday, Group Stream every Wednesday, short produced show on Thursday (also maybe Frame Trap for non-patrons), and a second EZA Podcast every Friday. Time-wise, it would be about the same, since each podcast would be about half the length it is now; it's just happening twice as often. It would be SO MUCH BETTER, than having group stream every Tuesday, EZA Podcast every Wednesday (Friday for patrons) and Frame Trap once every two weeks.

Edit: I guess I didn't take into account the fact that there are other common things like Fiasconauts and Tabletop Escapades. My requests seem probably more unreasonable now.

A shorter Frame Trap once a week still should be done, though, IMO. And it be the delayed show instead of the EZA Podcast.
 
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