Fewer solo streams and more streams with multiple people is a godsend. Still wish they made something equivalent to the Giant Bomb's "Quick Look". Stream/upload the beginning or a portion of every new game that they get codes for.
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Easy Allies |OT2| Love & Reset
- Thread starter Nikpls
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Really hopeful for the duo/trio streams. Some of them do decent numbers(around 80k views) on youtube too like the RE7 and Remake 2 full playthroughs. Don't Skip has me excited. It's just nice to have change. Also yey Gundam streams.
Randomly on the people saying this focuses too much on the hardcore I have two things to say. One they tried to have patron expanding shows with spoilermodes I think being their most successful one? Stuff like Top Ten didn't pan out. Sometimes chasing after a hypothetical crowd just isn't a strategy that works. Or in gaming terms like how some franchises tried to westernize to get the Call of Duty crowd interested.
Which leads me to two. Maximillian Dood recently talked in a video about how when he reached 500k subs he was wondering if he maxed out on the viewer cap of the fighting community. Until that point he was very much trying to expand, expand, expand but the growth was slowing. He changed his goals just to make his existing fanbase happy and apparently he grew more in the 2 years after than in the (I believe) 7 or 5 years before. It might not work out the same for EZA but we had a try at shows that would theoretically reach out to a wider audience. Now it's time to just try and double down on what makes us love EZA and see where that leads in my opinion.
Randomly on the people saying this focuses too much on the hardcore I have two things to say. One they tried to have patron expanding shows with spoilermodes I think being their most successful one? Stuff like Top Ten didn't pan out. Sometimes chasing after a hypothetical crowd just isn't a strategy that works. Or in gaming terms like how some franchises tried to westernize to get the Call of Duty crowd interested.
Which leads me to two. Maximillian Dood recently talked in a video about how when he reached 500k subs he was wondering if he maxed out on the viewer cap of the fighting community. Until that point he was very much trying to expand, expand, expand but the growth was slowing. He changed his goals just to make his existing fanbase happy and apparently he grew more in the 2 years after than in the (I believe) 7 or 5 years before. It might not work out the same for EZA but we had a try at shows that would theoretically reach out to a wider audience. Now it's time to just try and double down on what makes us love EZA and see where that leads in my opinion.
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If you aren't posting to the eza podcast for stuff like l&r and the opening bits I dunno why you would pay $5, unless the podcast on Friday's is a lot more appealing then the podcast on sunday's.
and only the hardcore fans are participating in an opt in survey anyway. i'm a patreon since day 1 and i didn't even see the survey. they should've promoted in a podcast at least and give a reward for filling it out like a short exclusive video or something like that.
they started their phase 4 announcement thing with "you all want MORE streams" and i was like "we do?" all i read online is less streams more produced content. guess those were the hardcore fans participating in the surveys lol.
been saying that since day 1.
maybe phase 5...
I have super mixed feelings about the announcement.
The changes look good at first because it seems like something the community wants, like more regular group streams. Effectively killing solo streams in exchange is the best thing they could've done in that regard.
I'm in the camp who doesn't care about streams in the slightest because they're way too time consuming and I was hoping for more produced content and looking at the list I should be happy about the announcements.
However, it's really hard to get excited for something with no date or schedule. When I say "I want more produced content from the Allies" I mean that I'd love to have more produced content on a weekly basis, with a schedule, on time. Something to look forward to during the week, if you like. I actually don't mind that the shows are on a limited run as long as it means that the gap between shows and seasons isn't too long like it happened with the Patreon exclusive shows.
All in all, it's a good announcement but for me personally, I'll have to wait and see what it actually means before considering to raising my Patreon pledge again.
The changes look good at first because it seems like something the community wants, like more regular group streams. Effectively killing solo streams in exchange is the best thing they could've done in that regard.
I'm in the camp who doesn't care about streams in the slightest because they're way too time consuming and I was hoping for more produced content and looking at the list I should be happy about the announcements.
However, it's really hard to get excited for something with no date or schedule. When I say "I want more produced content from the Allies" I mean that I'd love to have more produced content on a weekly basis, with a schedule, on time. Something to look forward to during the week, if you like. I actually don't mind that the shows are on a limited run as long as it means that the gap between shows and seasons isn't too long like it happened with the Patreon exclusive shows.
All in all, it's a good announcement but for me personally, I'll have to wait and see what it actually means before considering to raising my Patreon pledge again.
The people most engaged with the patreon who overwhelmingly said "more streams" were given a new $15 tier to put their money where their mouth is. If that $15 tier does very well for them then it was a good decision.
What came out the most i believe is:
- streams with multiple allies.
- short edited shows with multiple allies
I think they are doing more streams cause it's also easier to do then the short format edited content. There's only 3 editors in a group of 9 people... These 3 people have to edit: Podcast, Reviews, Previews, Don't Skip, Trailer Jones, Easy Update, Huber Syndrome/Prison, Mysterious Monsters.
So i guess that's why they are giving us more streams mostly.
The fact that they are adding 'Achieve it yourself' and more 'Don't Skip's as regular series is a + compared to the past.
yeah i'm excited for those shows and generally positive on the update, i was just wondering where the "more streams" demand is coming from.
from people who aren't you lmao
I don't know how it's that hard to understand.
So it wasn't the full Gundam overhaul I dreamed of but getting Gundam Amateur Construction back is a win.
The other changes are either irrelevant or uninteresting to me and my own tastes plus I can see people's point in that the changes seem geared towards making the groupies happy.
The other changes are either irrelevant or uninteresting to me and my own tastes plus I can see people's point in that the changes seem geared towards making the groupies happy.
like i said i was just wondering. i never seen it in any of the communities that discuss this and the twitch streams pull very low numbers (even group streams), so i was surprised that they said "all of you asked for more streams", because in my limited experience most people asked for the opposite.
i'm not saying it's wrong, i'm was just surprised. let's see if it works out for them. i'm happy if the new shows come frequently and are good.
Can I quote myself? LOL
And yes, it was an overwhelming trend on the survey. More streams with us together in the studio. Fewer streams individually from home.
I def included wanting more stuff like Huber/Kyle RE7/Evil Within 2 streams or Damiani coaching Huber to get S rank Remake 2 in my survey. I imagine I wasn't alone hence "overwhelming".
Yeah, that's exactly one of the major things I asked for in my survey. We also had the whole studio discussion in this thread not too long ago and this change goes along nicely with that.
Doing away with goals strikes me as a gutsy move.
If I were the anxious type, I'd worry about the effects of losing the clear, visible STUDIO HERE demarcation.
btw i am the anxious type.
If I were the anxious type, I'd worry about the effects of losing the clear, visible STUDIO HERE demarcation.
btw i am the anxious type.
Same here. Not to mention, what becomes of the $200 tier now that TTE is gone. They had a prebuilt structure of $1600 coming directly from the appeal of TTE, so does that stay put even without the show?
However, the Patreon incubator idea was really smart and hopefully will really drive numbers once their shows get cranking.
I've already dropped my pledge to one to be honest. Nothing against the allies or anything just not really feeling the focus of these announcements.
I have seen that demand (for more streams with multiple Allies) a lot when reading this thread (and on the old place) the last couple of years. So I can imagine it's going to be the similar in most subcommittees (if that's the right term for this board).
I have also seen a lot of demand for edited shows (and skits), which are probably asked a lot in the survey as well, but are just harder to produce. But they are coming, it's just not easy to produce something like that each week.
I am glad the people that were asking for the streams got their wish. I can see the appeal and will try to catch some of them, I just lack the time to do so consistently.
As far as the poll goes. It was sent out to all patrons (I don't believe it was sent out outside of Patreon). So I guess the majority of patrons asked for this.
Yeah, that was what I was afraid of with the Podcast time change (even though I have seen people being happy with the change as well, so it might even out). It all depends on how and when you watch the show (and where you live), but the $5 tier lost some incentive if you watch or listen to the podcast during commute or during work and you live outside the US (probably even in the US). You can just wait for Sunday/Monday morning for it to drop and watch listen to it on Monday instead.
I don't really make use of a lot of the other perks for the $5 tier either, but I will keep my pledge at $5 as I can miss it and I want to support them (my main reason wasn't the early access privilege when I started to pledge at that tier). But I totally get where you (and Hercule) are coming from. If early access for the podcast (so you can have the podcast during the week) was your main drive to be at the $5 tier, that drive is basically gone (except if you also want the other shows in early access).
I believe the changes were received well by the majority of people (by quickly scanning this thread), but we will have to wait and see what all of this means for the Patreon.
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My favorite Easy Allies content besides Frame Trap and the EZA podcast are the Huber and Kyle streams (RE2, Injustice 2, etc.) so hopefully more of that will come out of the multi-ally streams :)
i've already dropped from $25 to $1 because i wasn't happy with year 3. maybe i'm going up again to $5 if the shows are good and come out consistently.
early pod does nothing for me as an european. will probably drop saturday morning and i'm not listening to it on weekends anyway.
Since the podcast date has changed, I don't really have any further incentive to pay the 5$ for early access. I don't have any other active podcasts I listen to on Wednesday nights/Thursday mornings, so it was always the last thing I listened to while going to bed or the first thing I listened to the next day. If the early access from now on is on Friday night/Saturday morning, I have the Beastcast and a whole lot of other podcasts which I rarely get to since my weekends are usually full. I appreciate the other changes (TTE not continuing excluded), but I'm going to drop from 5$ to 1$ for the time being.
It's not a demand for more streams. It's a demand for less solo stream and more multi person streams, which is exactally what were getting. This is easily one of the most commonly requested things I see mention across this thread, the subreddit and cup of Jones. I'm sure it seems like they are streaming more but I'm willing to bet they are breaking even or even streaming slightly less compared to when they were firing on all cylinders with the solo streams.
The thing to keep in mind is that now they can be much more agile with the content they produce to help drive interest in there patreon. Hopefully they will take advertising the patreon a little more seriously though now that they dont have a goal to point towards it's more important than ever to remind people that it exists.
You should check out kotaku splitscreen. It's a lot of fun with great analysis from the hosts and they often dig deep into whatever the feature story of the week on kotaku was. It posts Thursday mornings for me (USA).
Oops. Double post.
Yeah, solo streams are the least intriguing content they make. Multiple people on stream elevates it a ton.
My pledge has shifted a lot over time and recently settled at $5. It is now up to $15 where it will remain. Really pleased by the changes.
I think every change here was a good idea. Guess we'll see how it plays out. Stuff like Achieve It Yourself and Don's Design Lab really have potential to pull in a new audience, especially with the popularity of the Switch and Mario Maker.
Getting rid of TTE hurts a bit, but it's such an impenetrable series for newcomers that I think TOBGS is going to be more enjoyable because of its episodic nature. I wish it were more like once a month, but I understand that it is challenging to film tabletop stuff in an interesting way. I had a couple of ideas that might help them hit a more regular schedule...for one, more complex games that require a lot of setup and planning can be broken into multiple parts. I'm think of something like Game Grump's Table Flip series. It's a bigger editing workload, and finding good places to cut might be a bit of a challenge in post, but I think it would get more value out of what will be pretty challenging shoots. Alternatively, in between the larger, more complex games they could play TCGs like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, and Magic using pre-built decks. Those are easy to setup and learn for the most part, and you can get multiple games done in a session pretty quickly. I think the camera setup for TCGs would probably be easier as well.
I appreciate the shift away from solo streams and towards more multi-ally streams, as those are so much more watchable due to the camaraderie between the Allies. Group streams have been fun, but largely unfocused, and solo streams have covered interesting games, but have often been boring. The GT streams of old were the perfect balance, so I'm hopeful that this change will make for more entertaining content.
Anyway, that's about all I have to say for now. I wish I had more to give, but the last couple of years have been pretty brutal on me financially for a few reasons...can't really afford more than the $2 per month I already give, and I already had to drop my twitch sub. It would be nice if they can get more new patrons to pick up my slack. =\
Getting rid of TTE hurts a bit, but it's such an impenetrable series for newcomers that I think TOBGS is going to be more enjoyable because of its episodic nature. I wish it were more like once a month, but I understand that it is challenging to film tabletop stuff in an interesting way. I had a couple of ideas that might help them hit a more regular schedule...for one, more complex games that require a lot of setup and planning can be broken into multiple parts. I'm think of something like Game Grump's Table Flip series. It's a bigger editing workload, and finding good places to cut might be a bit of a challenge in post, but I think it would get more value out of what will be pretty challenging shoots. Alternatively, in between the larger, more complex games they could play TCGs like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, and Magic using pre-built decks. Those are easy to setup and learn for the most part, and you can get multiple games done in a session pretty quickly. I think the camera setup for TCGs would probably be easier as well.
I appreciate the shift away from solo streams and towards more multi-ally streams, as those are so much more watchable due to the camaraderie between the Allies. Group streams have been fun, but largely unfocused, and solo streams have covered interesting games, but have often been boring. The GT streams of old were the perfect balance, so I'm hopeful that this change will make for more entertaining content.
Anyway, that's about all I have to say for now. I wish I had more to give, but the last couple of years have been pretty brutal on me financially for a few reasons...can't really afford more than the $2 per month I already give, and I already had to drop my twitch sub. It would be nice if they can get more new patrons to pick up my slack. =\
Just came here to share how surprised I was to find out the majority of EZA supporters (who filled out the survey at least) requested MORE streams. Funny enough I actually requested the opposite --- less streams and more audio content. Of course, I understand not everyone shares my lifestyle, but I just find podcasts to be the absolute best form of entertainment. The ability to consume audio content while still being able to perform another task is so valuable to me. If I'm committing time to watching video on a screen, it's typically a TV series or a movie. Again, I understand not everyone shares my lifestyle and how I decide to allocate my time, I'm just still surprised the overwhelming majority requested more streams than anything else.
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I'm hearing/reading that the requests were specifically for "more group streams" and less solo streams. Either way, streams don't really do it for me. However, I've been a fan of GT/EZA for almost 10 years now. They will continue to get my financial support regardless.
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I'm hearing/reading that the requests were specifically for "more group streams" and less solo streams. Either way, streams don't really do it for me. However, I've been a fan of GT/EZA for almost 10 years now. They will continue to get my financial support regardless.
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Quoting Blood:
So it's not really that they will stream more. They will stream differently as it will be more multi-person streams and less solo streams.
I believe that's also what a lot of people asked for. Not necessarily more streams, but more streams with multiple Allies in one room.
I guess that message didn't get transferred completely like intended (even though I do think the announcement was well done) as I have seen that comment from multiple people (on here and on youtube).
I will also add that I sometimes put on a stream while gaming and just listen to the banter while gaming. You can't do that with all types of games obviously, I found that city builders and racing games work well for this as well as some puzzle games or fighting games. Even the fights in Fire Emblem work for this imo, but obviously not the story based stuff.
So you can do the same thing with streams like you do with podcasts (where I sometimes do this as well).
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Yeah I think many are misinterpreting the stream thing. It isn't "more streams." It's more multi-ally streams, fewer solo streams. The format is changing, not the amount.
To be fair, Brandon kicked off the presentation by saying, "everywhere that Easy Allies is, we've been getting feedback from our community that we should stream more."
So I guess as soon as I heard that, and before Damiani went into more detail, I was in a state of surprise by that discovery.
I think it's less of a lifestyle thing as in not many people sharing or even having a preference for audio content than the fact that we have 3 flagship podcasts + cup of jones. I think most people were just saturated on podcast type listening content and most of the other stuff they produce makes more sense with video. I say this as someone that still would like weekly frametrap but Ben is focusing on other things that are cool too.
Oh for sure and they started with the streaming changes, which probably put more emphasis on them. I understand why they went that route as it was apparently the most asked change through the poll, but it might have given people the idea that there would be a lot more streams happening, which isn't the case according to Blood. I wasn't that surprised that a lot of people wanted this because I read this thread a lot, but I can understand your reaction for sure.
I certainly understand this point of view and the optics are more clear to me now.
I feel like the podcast date change should have been a question in the survey, just a simple "Do you want the podcast later so news is more up to date, or do you not mind?"
I for one don't really care if news breaks after the podcast, if it's big enough it will be covered next week.
In the time I've listened to the podcast I've never felt that there's something I wanted to hear that they haven't discussed purely because it happened after the podcast was recorded, or that them discussing something a week later had been worse than if they discussed it earlier.
I for one don't really care if news breaks after the podcast, if it's big enough it will be covered next week.
In the time I've listened to the podcast I've never felt that there's something I wanted to hear that they haven't discussed purely because it happened after the podcast was recorded, or that them discussing something a week later had been worse than if they discussed it earlier.
After sleeping on it I'm still really torn up over losing TTE. As a DM myself I understand how stressful and time consuming it can be to prepare and run a campaign, but it was easily my favorite EZA thing. It's like my partner just left me lol
OBGS seems awesome but every 3 months is such a low number its not really something I can be excited about.
Fiasconauts will have to carry the improv/role play aspect of EZA on its back it seems. Thank god I still have Fiasconauts...
Anyway we'll see how it all goes but I'm pretty bummed. My survey said more improv/rpg, man ups nights like show, something else from Kyle (sorry I can't get into Box Peek). I also wanted don't skip to come back so at least that's there.
OBGS seems awesome but every 3 months is such a low number its not really something I can be excited about.
Fiasconauts will have to carry the improv/role play aspect of EZA on its back it seems. Thank god I still have Fiasconauts...
Anyway we'll see how it all goes but I'm pretty bummed. My survey said more improv/rpg, man ups nights like show, something else from Kyle (sorry I can't get into Box Peek). I also wanted don't skip to come back so at least that's there.
On the whole more streaming vs the same amount of streaming just in groups discussion, it's more like the same amount of streaming in THEORY (since they were originally all supposed to solo stream every week) but in practice way more total. Most of the allies haven't been on a regular solo streaming schedule in a long time. We're going from an occasional Ben or Huber solo stream once every few weeks to both of them streaming weekly again. I assume the Blood pact is staying since it wasn't mentioned and he said he wants to get back to Mother 3, but Blood is also on one of the new group streams, so that's more streams from him than before. Brad too, and Jones, they very rarely streamed games these days. Ian and Don might be infrequent but certainly more often than in the past. And the Gundam streams coming back and the new group stream tier. The only way I can see the total streaming time being equal is if this means no more Kyle solo Friday Night streams and no more Damiani random 14 hour weekend streams, just because those were so much longer than the group streams will likely be.
I'm very excited for all these streams and I like pretty much all the Phase 4 changes, but it definitely does feel like an emphasis on more streams.
I'm very excited for all these streams and I like pretty much all the Phase 4 changes, but it definitely does feel like an emphasis on more streams.
I feel for those who are bummed about the emphasis on streaming. I hope you don't leave us. We really only lost one podcast style show and have so many others that are sticking around, so hopefully that's enough. I never got in to TTE, despite trying MANY times, but I feel the loss. It was a huge part of the community.... I think there was even a fan podcast about it? Am I remembering this correctly? I don't think Ben made the decision lightly, and I imagine after some time away, it will return, but it still sucks for you all. Just know that I think Ben feels your pain. He isn't the kind of person to just throw something away and say "good riddance." I truly believe in my heart of hearts it will return, better than ever. It just needs some time away to regroup.
Overall, after a good night's sleep, these changes are terrific. We'll get to see more of the Allies in one place at a time, more edited content of them actually playing games and possibly more bonus bits. Removing goals feels like a huge burden has been lifted. And I'm not sad about Full Play-through Fundays. Honestly, them sitting down to play through an entire game in one sitting was never what I wanted. I wanted them to hearken back to the FF7 play-through days, and it sounds like they're doing that with the RPG crew running through Trials of Mana (unless I heard it wrong and that's just what they're streaming next, and not a continuing series). Having these regular streams with a set group of people is the perfect opportunity to do full-playthroughs over the course of a few months, so I hope they consider that rather than playing a new game every week...
Overall, after a good night's sleep, these changes are terrific. We'll get to see more of the Allies in one place at a time, more edited content of them actually playing games and possibly more bonus bits. Removing goals feels like a huge burden has been lifted. And I'm not sad about Full Play-through Fundays. Honestly, them sitting down to play through an entire game in one sitting was never what I wanted. I wanted them to hearken back to the FF7 play-through days, and it sounds like they're doing that with the RPG crew running through Trials of Mana (unless I heard it wrong and that's just what they're streaming next, and not a continuing series). Having these regular streams with a set group of people is the perfect opportunity to do full-playthroughs over the course of a few months, so I hope they consider that rather than playing a new game every week...
As someone very disappointed by the news today it wasn't so much the news itself but what it symbolised, the very large focus placed on streaming seems to show me that the company wants to explore and expand to that direction as opposed to YouTube content that got me to watch them in the first place.
I don't think there will be a lot less Youtube content though. They might miss some weekly Youtube content compared to before, but they have some new Youtube shows in the works as well that they talked about yesterday (and I am looking forward to those). The streams will probably be posted on Youtube as well (even though I understand you are probably not interested in that).
I don't watch that many streams either, but a majority of patrons asked for this to happen + it seems that their Twitch channel is growing over the last couple of months (and they probably make more money from Twitch on the side compared to Youtube). I am happy with the announcements because I am sure I will have more than enough content to watch, but I get you are disappointed. Hopefully the new shows (and old new shows like Don's Design Lab) can get you back around.
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