Just gotta give Easy Livin'/Easy Allies an insane amount of credit for having a 50-hour stream that went largely flawlessly. I don't mean this to sound rude to them because I'd feel this if any other group attempted such an ambitious thing as well - I just had bad thoughts about all the various potential ways that such a gargantuan stream in a foreign environment to them could go wrong. I thought there was a great potential for internet problems galore, sound/mic issues/game issues and just any of the potential for lunacy if you put any group of people in a room live on the internet for such a long time. I think Jones or someone mentioned they'd think about a survey or something and I'd love to fill that out as I'm sure themselves and now the audience might have some ideas to improve if they decide to try something similar in the future. Overall, can't state enough how happy I was to have that on for much of the weekend and also love being able to catch up on the archives (that were awesome to be uploaded so quickly).
To change topics a bit, one thing I'd love (hopefully if they get a studio!) would be lengthy group game streams similar to what Giant Bomb East is doing right now (Sunshine, X-COM, Yakuza as specific examples). One that I think would make a great one even though I'm hardly a wrestling fan at all would be Huber/crew actually having the proper amount of time and creating a fully-fleshed Defaulte (or some other abomination) career in WWE. Some of the hardest I've laughed at EZA I think is them creating that character twice now and the insanity, intricacies and the surprising amount of lore that the character seemingly already had. But both times I've been bummed that they just had to drop it for time concerns and Defaulte is now once again gone from us indefinitely.
It's disappointing seeing a slight dip in their Patreon recently taking us further from the studio goal, but it sure seems they've picked up a ton of subs on Twitch recently. I wish that somehow contributed to the goal as well because I really think their streams from the studio (likely multiple people more often) will bring in a bigger audience for them as well.
Just some more unsolicited Easy Allies advice:
-Update the goals/Patreon.
Community comments for May were recently posted so they are a few months behind and I honestly don't think it's worth it all to continue it in the current way. Both April/May were 36 minute long heavily edited videos with Jones reading basically essay after essay. Both videos have less than 4k views. I know it's not about the views and yada, yada, yada...but as someone who could contribute to that tier, I've been skipping it every month. I like the idea of the community being involved in some way, but this just seems like a woeful use of their precious time.
-Game Sleuth/Retrospectives. I love both of these, but it's obvious they aren't focusing on these majorly, WHICH IS PERFECTLY FINE as they've added other great shows/content... Still, they're both on the Patreon and we're approaching a year and a half in and we've had likely 2 Retros (counting Souls one) and 3 Game Sleuths total.
-Studio hype up.
IF the studio is a priority for them, they've done a poor job of communicating what that would mean to them/us. Would this allow them to collaborate more? More group streams? More easily produce content (Top 10's return?)? Final Bosman-esque show return with a studio? More timely and less evergreen Huber Syndromes (I think I heard he records 4 at a time)? It could seriously be a game changer (or not), but if they are excited about it, it really hasn't been communicated well at all. I've heard a few quips in various streams, but the vast majority of their audience isn't aware of what a studio could potentially mean thus many are likely lukewarm towards contributing to that goal.
-Communication/social media
To piggy back on the last topic, promoting themselves or what they're doing is the only thing I'd say Easy Allies is 'bad' at. Thankfully, they aren't cagey or lying to the audience, they just aren't great at letting us know what they're doing at the current time. I follow many of them and Easy Allies on twitter, and they are never consistent with saying they are going live. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. So many times I've just bopped in to Twitch and they are hours in to a stream that I never knew was happening (a bummer that many of these have been the sponsored group stream). I KNOW they have a website with a schedule, but it just seems kind of expected that they'd post/hype up streams/content (nearly 20k followers on twitter) as I'm sure much of their audience is on twitter everyday and not their website. Like, I don't want them going full-blown "Greg Miller constantly self promote mode," but find that happy medium. It's just odd seeing all their heavily followed Twitter accounts and how little all of them post about what they're doing/what they're excited about when it would definitely benefit them and potentially grow their following.
It's just wild to me the obvious amount of hard work they put into the various things they create and how little they promote it. I bet much of their more casual audience had no idea Easy Livin' was even happening this weekend. They posted about it once on their twitter at the beginning of their stream this weekend (1am my time, so I'm sure MUCH of their audience missed it) and never again after.
Also, there's the craziness of Bosman creating a new original show that only existing Patreons know/knew about, so they were the only ones being asked to contribute more to the Patreon (which I was happy to do! But, c'mon). I don't 1% feel that was done in a malicious way at all, just one of the weird EZA quirks, but it's just such an odd business move I can hardly even comprehend it.
Still, there's nothing like EZA and the group dynamic on the internet. Best in the biz, one of the greats, 10/10. They're only getting better with time and I can't wait to see what they do next.