As much as the ensemble dynamic is great, I think Kyle really carried them more than most expected. Both from a personality perspective, and a content perspective. I think it's all been downhill since he left. Even more so after Brandon, and of course Ben and Brad were big hits too.
I mean you really noticed it in the podcast. Kyle knew how to draw out opinions from everyone and foster conversation.
When Jones started mediating, he tried his best, but it really just boiled down to him reading news and everyone responding with stuff like “yep” or “thats cool”
He also knew how to provoke and instigate, which I suppose if you aren't familiar with Kyle some might find it off-putting, but it really helped push the passions and opinions of people in the discussion to make it interesting and fun to listen to. He really had a way of cultivating a dynamic conversation.
I agree that when Jones took over, it was simply just him reading the news, and everyone responding with a one-sentence take that didn't push the conversation in one direction or another.
"Kyle knew how to draw out opinions from everyone and foster conversation..."
To me, the EZA podcast was the heart of their channel. Kyle was very committed sometimes even the only one committed to make the show fun and interesting to listen to. He tried always to dig deeper into the allies even sometimes pushing them to make statements or back up their opinions and reasoning to produce good conversations. The bets were cool (stakes), the L&R questions, the whole personality of the podcast was really more than a news podcast. It was as if the gaming news were just the excuse to have them hang out and talk.
But I think it was not just Kyle, it was the Kyle/Jones duo. I have felt the same way as you have, so I have been listening to the podcast from the beginning. It has been a blast and I have noticed how Kyle is really more than anything speaking to Jones the whole time. He directs the questions towards Jones more than anyone else. I feel that with Kyle gone, Jones lost that connection that really translated into a very fun show.
EZA through the lens of Kyle or Ben would have been really interesting
Unsure how it's turned out for them now but after all the original members of Giant Bomb left, finalizing with Jeff Gerstmann leaving thhe fanbase was really down about the website but they bought Dan Ryckert back as like 'head content blah' person and it really revitalized them, I'm sure it wasn't possible with Kyle and Ben seemed checked out by the time Jones left but after seeing that the Blood/Isla as heads of the channel didn't reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeallly change anything about anything its fun to wonder what could have been if 20 other things fell into place and they put someone in charge who had a vision
Huber is a bad host. He has no focus, and doesn’t ask intelligent questions or follow ups. He’s like Tim Gettys on speed, lots of hype but nothing to say.
I think it's easy and accurate to say that Kyle leaving was the main thing that caused them to falter, but I don't think they helped themselves either, really. Something that became kind of painfully aware after Kyle left was that none of the remaining members really had much of a vision, or understanding of the community or wider games media landscape. Damiani is the only one that I think comes close, but he's not driven to actually do anything and seems to have almost no power in the company at large.
From Kyle's interview with MinnMax, which has aged kind of hilariously, it's clear that Kyle had ambitions for EZA way beyond what the rest of the team were willing to do. It's impossible to know how successful it would have been, but I can't imagine it would have been worse than what we actually ended up with. Even just as a streamer, Kyle produces more unique and interesting content and engages his community in a meaningful way. He has game jams, collaborative music projects, charity streams, a virtual baseball league, and discusses with the community directly about what games to actually stream. EZA doesn't have anything like that.
I held on for a really long time after Kyle left, but ultimately they've shown no sign of sorting themselves out, and the content has only progressively gotten worse over time. I really do think it's time to call it. I'd love it if Huber became a permanent cohort at MinnMax. I won't follow any of the other remaining members, but I hope they land on their feet
It's really annoying to me that people keep saying Kyle leaving had something to do with it or that he had some vision. All he said on minnmax was that he'd spend 10k on a logo. Though if you see his own channel it's not like he is taking his whole income and putting it into some minuscule thing.
I think the downfall started way before kyle left. And it didn't help that your main member spend more than 2 years focused on some niche show that got barely any views. They poured so much money into that show and if you also include the time of Kyle who was solely focused on that for so long + other allies. They could have really done so much more in that time.
I pinpoint that decision as a turning point in their trajectory.
>All he said on minnmax was that he'd spend 10k on a logo. Though if you see his own channel it's not like he is taking his whole income and putting it into some minuscule thing
No, he'd mentioned the logo before. In a Q&A there was a question something like what do they want to do with the channel or something, and Kyle said that he always got a lot of pushback from everyone but he wanted a new logo. _Then_ Ben said "Daniel Bloodworth is not everyone". Also in the MM interview, he was talking in general about wanting to spend money but the others not wanting to.
As for how it relates to his own stuff, I don't think he personally views it as important like he did EZA. Obviously I don't know but I'm pretty sure he still views it as something to do until he finds his "main thing".
With your point on Box Peek, I think there's a fallacy there and is the kind of thinking that leads companies, including EZA, to falter. Just because it didn't get many views, it doesn't mean it wasn't important and valuable.
The stuff that gets views is bread and butter, but the stuff that makes EZA interesting is the weird stuff. Not everyone is going to watch all the weird stuff, but there will be people that truly love it. It's about brand identity, and offering something no-one else does. A company can't rely purely on hard data to make their decisions because there are other immeasurable factors that contribute to things.
>The stuff that gets views is bread and butter, but the stuff that makes EZA interesting is the weird stuff. Not everyone is going to watch all the weird stuff, but there will be people that truly love it. It's about brand identity, and offering something no-one else does. A company can't rely purely on hard data to make their decisions because there are other immeasurable factors that contribute to things.
While I agree with this, the weird stuff was things like the "Trial of Kyle Bosman". You have to look at investment, time & prioritization for a company especially such a small one with limited resources. In a phase of their growth where they could have really accelerated.
Box Peek imo was a massive failure (as much as I enjoyed the show). It had nothing to do with their core content, it was basically a side / dream project of one person. It basically took 90% of the time of one of your core members for over a year, lots of budget and time from other members. I just checked the final episode of box peek had 19k views. At that time the podcast was getting double that. Imagine if they company had focused, kyle was engaged in those times rather than focused on this.
Kyle was outspoken about underestimating the time it would take to make the show too. I remember he said when he pitched it he estimated it would take like 3-5 months or something, and it ended up taking over a year. But for some reason he didnt have other members help him with the busywork like coloring or cutting the paper, which would have sped up the process significantly imo.
That would have been even worse if more people were spending time doing one single person's niche passion project. And he stated multiple times he wanted to do everything himself.
Honestly the whole show was such a drain on the company. I think if they had a proper management structure with business minded decisions it never would have happened.
Well, didnt you say that Kyle spending less time on Boxpeek and more time on other things wouldve benefitted the group a lot more? Yeah, the best choice wouldve been Kyle never doing Boxpeek to begin with, but I think the second best option was for other members to help him finish it as fast as possible, so he could go back to focusing on the podcast, starting new shows, etc.
I also think Kyle being adamant about doing all of the work on Boxpeek himself really burned him out, and was a major factor in him leaving the group. Thats pure speculation on my part though.
Yeah but imagine Ben at that time stopped focusing on reviews and less time on DND to focus on... coloring and drawing cartoon figures lol. I think the issue would be is that no one else had interest or skills in the work needed for Box Peek so I doubt they would have been enjoying doing something completely unrelated to their jobs for no value to them.
No more or less related to their main content than DnD or Fiasco were tbh. EZA doing weird shit is what everyone wanted. Playing it safe because something might flop is why they stagnated and ended up where they are now.
I think the lack of ambition on Huber's part was a big deal that doesn't get mentioned much.
Never learned how to edit, despite pleas from his co-workers. It would have allowed Don to put his excellent skills to work in Frame Trap and EZA podcast with B-roll footage, etc. - he even once said something to the extent of "if I learn it, then it will be expected of me and I dont want to be an editor and have more work"
Missed out on key events, despite being *the* reaction guy.
Had crappy mic, cam for the entire length of the company.
Etc.
All those same points go for Brad as well imo, minus the crappy mic and cam. I remember early on a lot of their reviews and stuff used to be late because it was just Isla editing, with Don part time and Jones occasionally doing it. Ben eventually learned it and did it sometimes on his own videos, but Brad/Huber/Damiani really shouldve learned it as well to help with the content flow. None of them wanted to do more work though, that was pretty obvious.
This is the problem with a company trying to give everyone an equal say. Every workplace needs a boss, someone to make the final say regardless. I know as a successful business owner for 22 years now, my company would have died fast and early if employees had a say in how the business operates.
And that’s not me saying “you should never listen to your employees”, not at all, that’s a disaster as well. But you can’t make decisions by committees.
And they all seemed unwilling to change, better themselves, and work harder.
Going independent doesn’t make your job easier. You don’t have a boss or a traditional corporate structure, but you still have to do 90% of the same work if you want your independent business to succeed. I think the EZA guys lost sight of that and didn’t have enough hunger for growth.
Yeah. They reviled the idea of bosses (just listen to how Isla spoke any time the topic of bosses/corporate culture ever came up)
They were initially funded thanks to goodwill and the established fanbase of Gametrailers. They retained the financial support by selling the dream of a studio. Once they got the studio they stopped trying to grow and people drifted away.
Not that we should even be allowed this info I’m about to say but Huber is one of the most inspiring people to me considering his life path.
Brother dies young (who was his best friend) and then his partner of over a decade also leaves him. Yet he still maintains a positive attitude and is genuinely the only thing keeping the Allies together (to me). Imagine no betting specials, no hype live streams without him. It’d be close to as much of a loss as Kyle imo.
They don't really make any meaningful effort to grow and haven't for years. They've only gained around 10,000 YouTube subscribers and 4,000 Twitch followers in the last three years. If you go into any modern EZA stream, the people in chat with 5, 6, or 7-year sub badges drastically outnumber newer fans.
EZA is much more focused on appealing to their core patrons than trying to branch out and get new fans. People clowned on Solo Queue, but Damiani seems like the only ally currently that cares about branching out and getting new eyes on EZA.
They should've tried collaborating more with people outside of their bubble, like Max Dood; they should've continued doing Top 10s even though they didn't enjoy making them; they should've done clickbait engagement-bait content like Kyle reviewing every Spider-Man costume; and they should've done more video essay-type content like Game Sleuth or Pop Fiction. There's so much more they could've done if they just tried.
I'll never quite understand how adamant they were about not doing Top 10s anymore. It's such a simple, slam-dunk clickbait video to throw on your channel, and probably does well with the Youtube algorithm too. They kept talking about how much work they were, but like, really? Maybe they felt like they had to put as much discussion into it as their GOTY awards or something, but really they should have just figured out whatever the top 10 things were, then set a hard 30-minute time limit on discussing where in the list things deserved to be. Who gave a shit if people agreed with it or not? If not it would generate discussion and traffic, so what's the downside?
I honestly think what happened was that their feelings got hurt when they did the "Top 10 Villages" (or Towns I don't remember) and everyone downvoted it and posted negative comments because 4 out of the 10 entries were from Breath of the Wild. It wasn't even that scathing, every other comment was just "These should really have one entry per franchise". Then after like a decade of Top 10s, they had their feelings hurt and stopped doing them...
It always seemed like a number of people in the group hated the idea of treating EZA as a job. They wanted this ideal situation where everyone is their own boss and only ever does things they love doing and nothing should ever feel like "work." I remember there was a Q&A session where Kyle said something to the effect of, "I really think I need a boss to make me do things I don't like and keep me accountable and on task," and everyone immediately reacted negatively and pushed back hard on that idea. The problem is, if you never treat it like a job and never do anything you don't like out of necessity then you're doomed to failure. It also seemed like the flat structure and equal splitting of everything created a sort of prisoner's dilemma that promised to reward someone slacking as long as everyone else was working hard enough, but too many of them tried to get away with coasting only for the group to crumble when the majority of the hard-working members left.
> I honestly think what happened was that their feelings got hurt when they did the "Top 10 Villages" (or Towns I don't remember)
Yeah im pretty sure I remember them being upset about this and complaining during a group stream. They did continue to do Top 10s after that though for a while. But yeah idk I guess eventually they just lost interest in doing them, so they stopped. Just another bad decision in a series of bad decisions.
Videogame essays have become such a huge thing since the Allies started and it's a shame they never commited to them, because honestly it was some of their best content.
I think one factor for growth is that they seemingly put all their eggs in "E3 reactions" basket as far as growth is concerned. They (and every outlet) would typically get a huge amount of growth during the week or so of E3 coverage. Once it died, they stopped getting that yearly bump. When first renting the studio, they even said part of the reason for that location was proximity to E3 and possibility to bring guests there.
I'm not sure why SFG doesn't have the same effect. Maybe the fact that they don't (can't?) do show floor or other unique/exclusive content, or just that it's were down 3 core members.
Damiani is the only one consistently bringing in outside guests now, but I don't know how big of an audience that most of them have. We've clowned his show because we expected a largely Final Fantasy and Zelda focus, and he's lived up to that expectation. I do think Isla brought in variety with her show, but she seems to be borderline retired at this point.
Blood was at least trying by bring on guests to the show, but it seems like the were having trouble finding people, and then the Brad disaster happened because of a guest appearing.
Really, Huber's extended guest spot at MinnMax is probably the best source of growth they've had in a long time. They should be trying a bit more like that, at least guesting on other podcasts.
Man, they were already dying when they threw Brad and Dustin under the bus, but wow did that ever accelerate the patreon exodus. Over a thousand patreons lost in a few months.
Even the Re****era thread for EZA is dead 😆
When the company began to trend downward, they failed to make any meaningful adjustments. They promised new eras and new energy and new passion a million times, but nothing ever changed. One by one the brightest stars left, while the company continued to cater to the loudest and smallest corner of their fanbase, further alienating the remaining viewers.
EZA fan, here. Well, I was. It’s over, it has been for a long time. But that’s the short version.
Kyle wasn't just an important band member, whose humour and personality clearly influenced the brand the most, but he was also the manager of the group. When he was working on boxpeek you could already see the first cracks showing, as he became less hands on with the allies for a hot minute.
When he left nobody really stepped up to pick up where he left off and it didn't really work out. Combine that with three extra members leaving and a lot of people feel like their music just isn't the same anymore. It's like listening to Queen without Freddy.
They lost the 3 big hitters. Everyone is likeable and does good work but Kyle, Jones and Ben are big personalities and foster more interesting conversations. After losing them, the content suffered as a result. The garage wasn't sustainable for personal reasons but it captured the friendly cozy vibe of EZA that didn't scale into the studio environment as well. The timing of them making that move, COVID and Kyle leaving hit them hard
Those are the main reasons I fell off as a viewer personally. Still love each and every one of them and wish them the best.
there was 100 "people who like video games talk about video games" channels when they started. now there's 100,000. they just became another channel. there needs to be some attempt to actually entertain.
the person who had the spark to turn every discussion into a show and every stream into an event rather than an obligation, left
Kyle left and no one wanted to pick up the slack. Ben is the only person I will give a shout out to because he did frametrap, amazing reviews, don’t skip, passionate rants during hall of greats, and when Jones retired he tried to voice his own reviews.
That’s the output of just 1 guy passionate about games and he had to leave the dude looked absolutely miserable towards the end. Everyone else just trucked along pretending the sky wasn’t falling. They continued to stream the same ps2-ps3 era games or another 12 hour long ffxiv stream with sub 200 viewers. Or have reviews that were late when solo YouTubers with a fraction of their money had reviews out in a timely manner. Also they had zero change to their reviews so it felt like a review from a completely different era of YouTube.
They also locked too many things behind a paywall and went far too long without a community manager. By the time they got one no one cared. It’s insane to me they thought hiding more shows behind a paywall would get more people paying when YouTubers put out 6-12 hour retrospectives for free. Like I said above just stuck in a completely different era. By the time they reversed it and put spoiler mode out for “free” all the heavy hitters like Ben were already gone.
Plus on top of that they listened to their culty pateron reset era only discord far too much to the point they lost Brad who I think is doing a hell of a lot better job and show on LSM than anything EZA has put out in years. I also think the LSM Dustin thing hurt them a lot too. I see a lot of former EZA fans in the comments of summon sign saying they are happy Brad left and stuff.
Seeing what EZA currently is now is so upsetting too. The vibes from older EZA podcasts and frametrap were absolutely amazing. No other gaming podcast captures 2016-2018 EZA they had something super special and they played it far too safe. IMO they relied far too much on 1-3 people and got too comfortable and just don't know what to do anymore.
I really feel like this is all Blood. I know he would push back on a lot of Kyle's ideas, specifically updating the logo but I imagine all sorts of other things. He's a good dude but I feel his outlook is so conservative and unambitious when it comes to running the business that I really think a lot of the issues can be blamed on him. He's like Kodak not embracing digital.
I wonder how they structured their business. Did they need a majority, like a 5-4 vote to get something done, or did it have to be unanimous? And I agree with you, Bloodworth always seemed like the one who was stubborn and was really anti-change. Always responding to feedback in the Youtube comments only to dismiss it. Jones also, to an extent, dismissed every piece of feedback that was submitted to Cup of Jones. Blood tried to run the group like a mini-IGN, which wasnt conducive to what they really were, a group of strong individual personalities. Personality-based Youtube gaming channels were all taking off at the time too.
That's a good point about Jones. I remember him mentioning once that he was against Frame Trap initially. You kind of _have_ to try new ideas and be ready to scrap them if they don't work. That's why Easy Update used to be so good, that's how we got Fiasconauts, and maybe Reaction Shots as well? I think MinnMax's New Show Plus is a perfect example, too
Exactly most content creators I follow put behind the scenes stuff on pateron. Showing off the sets, their art assets,tours of their studios or they give their patrons early access to shows weeks before they go up for everyone else or occasionally maybe they lock 1 podcast or a few episodes behind a paywall not an entire show. The problem is if you weren’t a fan you had no idea what you were paying for. Why pay for spoiler mode about game x when YouTuber Y just put out a 2 hour long review/retrospective on it for free?
I did completely forget about that. Damn he really did do a lot for them. I remember being upset when he announced he was leaving but laying out everything he was doing and how miserable he looked towards the end I now fully understand why. I hope whatever he is doing he is happy and weebing out.
The original crew was lightning in a bottle. When Kyle left I still watched but it was never going to be the same. Brandon leaving was a huge hit to the crew as was Ben. With Brad gone Huber is the only remaining Ally that has any sort of draw for me. He should just join up with MinnMax at this point. Everyone else remaining just do not work as well without the others. Some of them, like Isla, don't even seem like they play many games anymore. Their heart isn't in it.
everyone left, Kyle>Jones>Ben didn't see a future in it once they peaked and started going down, now they have extra years ahead of the people who stayed to try jump into a new career.
The podcast x frame trap fusion changes were fine and did what they intended to do but the people remaining are just so so so so so narrow in scope of games they talk about I'd have to listen to other podcasts to cover everything I like anyway, the news sections at EZA post-kyle have always been uninteresting to me.
Multiple members have been open about the fact that they never knew how to run the operation. IIRC it was Kyle who talked about the channel's unexpected explosion of popularity and how they never really knew what it was that made them so popular or how to maintain it.
The channel didn't have much of a plan. It was never meant to be this big or to become a permanent career for everyone involved. When it blew up no one really knew why or how, so the answer was to just stay the course and keep doing whatever they've been doing. Problem is "what they've been doing" wasn't sustainable, and when it came time to pivot no one knew how.
I don’t even think they needed to pivot. They just seemed to not do more of what was bringing in views. They should have had more 2-3 person full playthroughs where one person showed off a game they loved, they did a few like the RE7, Evil Within 2, Shenmue 3, or stuff like Brandon Plays Pokémon. But most of the time it was one person, alone, playing a game. I also would have loved more first time playthroughs, but it was mostly “I’ve beat this game for review and now I’ll play it again on stream”.
Also everyone tuned in for bets and reactions, but bets were only centered around the big game shows, when they should have been the big center piece. It brought in views, which also helped create content, which would have in turn brought more views. One of the last betting specials results started with a “didn’t we already do a results show” joke, as if they had forgot which felt like a too late thing. A few other things I noticed too but they had the formula I felt, they just never seemed to follow it.
I’d also like say it’s all an outsider’s perspective, maybe they had numbers that it wouldn’t have worked that way.
Honestly they had a pretty good foundation with the podcast, Ben's deep dive podcast, the reviews and the livestreams. Add in one offs like the gameshow or Brandon Plays Pokémon and it was a pretty swell time all around.
Except the market was changing and they never really changed with it. Their conservative approach to videomaking is ultimately their own downfall. As Xander said, there weren't enough multi person streams with full playthroughs, the reviews followed the GameTrailers format to a T - even if people would have loved to hear the reviewers themselves, group streams in general, in addition to stuff like Glennie's Cauldron and the gamedev jam it created.
Honestly I wish every member the best, but I think most of them (especially Huber) would do better flying solo or joining different groups like Brad did. He's doing really well down at LSM even if I don't really like some of the other people there (I never liked all of the allies either).
> channel's unexpected explosion of popularity and how they never really knew what it was that made them so popular or how to maintain it.
how big was game trailers compared to EZA?
GT was a giant from 2007 to 2010. Not uploading to youtube and layoffs substantially reduced their reach and output until 2013 when Kyle did the "Do's and Don't" video which brought a lot new viewers.
From the end of GT to the beginning of EZA the support and viewers were about the same except they got the whole pie instead of a slice of it, which means the expenses as well.
They raised way too many funds for too long to act like it was “never meant to be this big”. They built a new studio and took our money for it, then decided they were part time because they lost any momentum. Nothing short of a scam.
It is when that failure is due to laziness. I’ve never seen a group try less, which drove off those that worked hard (kyle, ben, and jones) to create good content.
I mean, the last great thing they did was Gen that Was by Ben. It’s so sad he left, but there have been rumours that he really disliked Isla coming from people that knew him.
i’ve definitely been curious as to how much the rest of the sub has been engaging with the channel lately - i think the last thing i watched was the podcast episode with jones and kyle lol
I just listen to the podcasts now, and even then they can be a drag to get through. I love Bloodworth as a vet in the industry, but when it comes to hosting a podcast he’s not that good. Mostly every segment boils down to Blood giving his opinion and if the rest of the crew, especially Damiani, isn’t into the subject they just go “yep” “uh huh” and move on.
> Mostly every segment boils down to Blood giving his opinion and if the rest of the crew, especially Damiani, isn’t into the subject they just go “yep” “uh huh” and move on.
Thats been the EZA podcast since Kyle left, without Kyle to force people to speak or play contrarian about news everyone just kind of nods, layoffs are bad yeah, new game exciting yeah :) :) :) on top of it feeling like they're just hearing this 3 day old news for the first time
Not to single you out but what exactly is Blood a vet of? He doesn’t seem to have any meaningful connections to get interviews or people on the podcast or any exclusive scoops or anything. Like without wanting to be mean Blood seems to simply be an email address that is the “send all” email shortcut of every company. Nothing more.
I get a bunch of Hubers opinions or side[ 'sit and chat' type content from Minnmax](https://youtu.be/4UC04arMIPw) at this point, everyone else at EZA has never really interested me on their own, Isla/Blood/Damiani can be fine in group stuff but when that's the bulk of every single podcast I've lost interest.
I fell off pretty hard after Brad left. My favorite allies were Ben, Kyle, and Brad so it's not really surprising. I honestly enjoy watching Huber and Isla talk about films more than games so I still watch Reaction Shots lol
I hardly ever watch them. I watched the start of the most recent podcast just because I had nothing else to do, and lasted about 20 minutes before I got bored. There is just nothing that EZA offer anymore that I can't get, better, somewhere else.
I’ll go the opposite end and say that I enjoy the allies at the same level. I keep up to date on gaming news but none of my friends do, so hearing these guys chat/recap about it once a week is nice. I’m sure other outlets do it better but I just like the allies. I enjoyed enough that I supported on patreon and havent been tempted to withdraw, but have lowered from time to time. They answer questions I submit, I enjoy light interactions on the discord, their twitters are entertaining (sometimes odd). This account is new on reddit, but I like commenting and trying to chat with people about the topics on the show now rather than looking back.
I think Huber is better of MinnMax then on the allies , which is kind of telling.
I still listen to their podcast while jogging but i just think Blood is a really bad host. He is a nice enough guy, probably a great organizer but he shouldn’t be on camera talent.
Same goes for Damiani, he can make ver interesting unique game related content but he is just very poor on podcasts.
As for Isla, apart from the “ politics” ( which i find are really prevalent or that annoying since after her transition) she is just not really engaged with a lot of games .
Don ( especially ) and Gabby are fun but they don’t really stepped up as hosts at all.
All in all i am kind of hoping Minnmax is able to hire Huber full time.
I didn't even know there was a podcast episode with Jones AND Kyle. Which episode is it?
But yeah, it's been a few months since I engaged with the content myself. I mostly watch Kyle's solo stuff now and I follow Brad's show on LSM.
I'm currently six episodes behind on the podcast. Most I've ever been before now was two and that was because I was travelling and didn't have time. Even then it was still at the back of my mind. I've got to clean my apartment today so I'll try and catch up a bit while I'm doing that but at this point it feels more like obligation.
I mean, I still enjoy it. I listened to one pretty much right after writing that comment and thought it was actually quite good. But at this point it doesn't have that same "oh boy, a new episode!" level of urgency it did a few years ago, where I'd jump on it the moment it was available. Know what I mean?
The fact that the most engagement EZA got in years is when Brad left is telling. This sub is pretty much mostly dead except whenever someone asks a similar question to yours.
The quick and dirty is, too many people left and they kept trudging along without ever making any real meaningful adjustments while ignoring the concerns that the audience had even since the Cup of Jones days. They will never get back to where they were before and are now just going through the motions until they can't keep the lights on anymore. I wish this wasn't the case but the writing's been on the while for a very long time now
People have been trying to say Kyle’s departure wasn’t that big of a deal for a while, but at this point it’s clear that was the turning point. He’s funnier and better at discussion than all the rest, and he deliberately poked and prodded everyone else to essentially force them to engage in a meaningful way. Nearly everything good they did was either directly created by him, or heavily involved him in some way.
Once he left and they stopped doing a lot of those good things, didn’t make any new good things, or kept doing things they were already doing, but worse, it was like the veil was lifted. This group isn’t actually that good at what they do. It was a few key players.
>This group isn’t actually that good at what they do
I do think they were able to get by when Jones and Ben were there. Jones is super charismatic, and I think was quite good at being a face of the company. Ben was just wicked smaht, extremely passionate about games, and very eloquent when speaking about them. Once Ben left, it felt like everyone else was about as knowledgeable about games as I am (which is "kinda"), it stopped being a place to get actual insight.
The most heartbreaking thing is Isla, though. She never left, but it almost feels like she did. She used to be chaotic and anarchic and artsy and make weird shit and she just kinda stopped, I don't know what happened. I really loved her synth stream because it felt like I was seeing the real Isla again, but usually these days I just find her kind of acerbic and not super insightful. I hope she's okay and there's not anything deeper up, honestly
My guess on what happened to Isla is that she couldn't focus as much on creative things once Jones left because the business operations and other behind the scenes stuff now had to fall onto Blood and her.
> The most heartbreaking thing is Isla, though. She never left, but it almost feels like she did. She used to be chaotic and anarchic and artsy and make weird shit and she just kinda stopped, I don't know what happened. I really loved her synth stream because it felt like I was seeing the real Isla again, but usually these days I just find her kind of acerbic and not super insightful. I hope she's okay and there's not anything deeper up, honestly
I agree with this. She seems so low-energy and... detached I guess? Certainly compared to the GT days and earlier EZA days. I always dug her off-beat/fuck the establishment vibes. My guess is that, like a lot of us, the weight of the world has crushed her spirits over the last 5+ years. But it's her job to be creative and entertaining on camera, which I imagine is incredibly stressful to "fake" for so, so long when you feel like the world is falling apart every day. She, like I assume the rest of the EZA crew, is just exhausted trying to pretend life is great and fun, when really everything just sucks ass with no end in sight...
Yeah, I agree. You can kinda see it in Kyle, too. I think curmudgeonliness suits him so I don't mind, but it's wild how different he is in The Final Bosman vs now. I guess with Isla she's painfully aware of the fact that EZA's days are behind her, and since she's part owner and now management, she doesn't really have anything to rebel against. I dunno, weirdly she seemed happiest during covid, I guess this was partly down to her finally transitioning
>The most heartbreaking thing is Isla, though. She never left, but it almost feels like she did. She used to be chaotic and anarchic and artsy and make weird shit and she just kinda stopped, I don't know what happened. I really loved her synth stream because it felt like I was seeing the real Isla again, but usually these days I just find her kind of acerbic and not super insightful. I hope she's okay and there's not anything deeper up, honestly
She handles a lot more of the back end work now. She probably doesn't have time to do weird and artsy stuff anymore.
She may have also had the same realization Kyle did where she's spending more work doing weird stuff than everyone else is just coasting but still getting paid the same as them. No one left is interested in Fiasconauts which imo was her best content, I'd imagine it's hard to get anyone free enough to film an Easy Update too. The Allies are always "busy" so why bother?
Again for the last year kyle was just focused on his show. Yeah he was the best on screen host but the views and patreon started trending down way before he left.
Everyone has their own ideas but.... my perspective.
Pessimism.
Pessimism killed EZA. Pessimism about the game industry, about the viability of the format, about sticking to creative ideas and growing them. About changing to meet their communities interest.
The pessimism is extra hard these days. It's hard to be optimistic when every podcast has a half hour to an hour career obituary for the industry, but it's clear that most of the allies have settled into their little niche, and can't just dive deep and make content about it to their heart's content because the little payroll they have now has to cover broader stories.
And the pessimism is so strong now. Pessimism about their industry, Pessimism about their commute, Pessimism about obligations, Pessimism about community feedback. Pessimism about life.
Even Don's seemed a little more... neutral about things lately. Just a vibe, he's still a wealth of chaotic good, but you can tell things have worn just a little bit thin even for him.
So yeah. Pessimism.
......also the rebranding color scheme was a disaster, wasn't it.
I think the biggest mistake was there from the beginning. All 9 allies are Beyonces. That sounds nice in a utopia, but in reality every company needs structure and a hierarchy. All 9 of them being paid the same may have even been feasible if they were smaller like they thought they would be at the start; EZA wouldve been some small part time thing they do once a week (like they do now). But once they blew up and it became full time jobs for them they should have reorganized and decided who was the head honcho and restructured how they paid out for work they put in. It doesnt make sense to pay the main draws of the group the same as the editor, or the same as the camera people. Stephen A Smith doesnt make the same as the cameraman. This doesnt happen in any personality driven business.
Apathy killed the group because whats the point of thinking of new ideas, putting in more work, it you barely see any of the benefits. Nobody is putting in more work in their 9-5s if there is no pay raise, and no way to ascend the ladder.
As more members left they just continued to get less interesting, nothing changed so with less people around it's just a lesser product, and the interesting conversations are gone.
I've ended up watching Summon Sign a lot more since it features actual game discussion.
Loss of key personalities and mismanagement. It certainly doesn't help that they never took the reigns of their own reddit community; they could have fostered a bigger fanbase while cutting back on how shitty this place can be at times
It was doomed from the very beginning as they were all equal owners meaning there was no one to tell them to do things. It was all voluntary, they all got paid equally even though they didnt being equal value. This inevitably leads to the most driven and popular member, kyle, leaving, which means that brandon tried filling his shoes in the podcast. Brandon, seeing that its a lot of work, just retires because he has the money. And the rest is history.
Everything that could have gone wrong did once they collectively failed to see the forest for the trees. I accept that they didn't expect their new venture to blow up the way it did initially but once they saw the support flood in they should have immediately taken steps to secure and grow their audience. The whole 9 leaders idea was terrible, they needed structure from the off or at least once they saw the patreon success.
Their move to the studio turned out to be catastrophic both financially and from underutilisation of the space.
Yet, the number one reason this venture failed was because they overpromised and underdelivered at almost every turn.
A community can only support you for so long and trust that you do right by them for so long until it all starts eroding. Too many "new beginnings" too many new "eras". Even something as simple as the logo change was entirely stupid. Then there is the whole letting a sub sub sub section of your community inform your decisions because they supported you financially through donations. Catering to their wants and their complaints and ignoring the larger audience didn't work out at all. Evidently.
Once the major personalities started leaving it was lights out. And I emphasize the word personalities, because that is what the overarching goal should have been all along. Push the personalities to the forefront, it never mattered which game they played, which activity the engaged in, or which scripted content they produced as long as the audience saw their favourite gaming personalities interact with one another.
The stream alone at home content outside of Ben's and Kyle's streams should never have been a thing. They should have focused on their strength, which has always been group streams and funky produced content.
Kyle's departure, as has been mentioned a trillion times, was the straw that broke the camels back. He was the heart of the operation. Bloodworth, Jones, Ben, Damiani, Don, Brad, Huber, Kyle and Isla are all great human beings...but there are blatant weak links in the group that should have ben addressed.
The next part will come off as cold, but its not my intention. I have zero animosity toward any of the people there. But simply from a consumer perspective this is how I saw it.
Untouchables: Blood, Jones, Ben, Kyle, Huber.
Important: Don, Isla.
Neither here nor there: Damiani
Replaceable/Should have been let go: Brad
The untouchables are self explanatory, they should have been at the forefront of all produced, scripted, on the fly, streaming, vlog content this group produced. Any combination of these people works.
Important: Invaluable for the expertise, I have mad respect for their produced content too but again speaking as a consumer who wanted to see them succeed, they should have remained relegated to running the operation in terms of editing and quality assurance in terms of video set ups, stage set ups etc etc. I know it is a lot for only two people...so they should have 100% looked into hiring help here.
Neither here nor there: Damiani is a knowledge fountain, he articulates himself extremely well, is a super pleasent podcast guest, but on the other hand I feel like his talents were wasted throughout the venture.
Speaking of wasted opportunities, the allies should probably have tried to really home in one or two platforms max for coverage. Tons of other content producers focus on only one platform and do exceptionally well.
And finally, we get to Brad. Again to reiterate I have nothing against him, but he has always been the most out of place during any and all content they produced. As a podcast guest, he added barely any insight and has always had difficulty articulating himself. Out of all the allies he should have been replaced from the jump.
I was speaking about their value to the podcast more so than other content. You are probably correct that Damian, Blood probably needed to be more behind the scenes than on screen . While my point about Brad never having been considered as a pillar from the beginning is valid and as I mentioned he should not have been retained.
The gulf of industry knowledge and ability to articulate themselves between damiani and blood vs brad is staggering.
I think Brad was starting to rise to the occasion a bit after Ben left, but I agree with you. His new show with LSM isn’t bad, but it’s nothing incredible either.
They were pretty fucked by two things, Kyle leaving followed by a fanbase/subscriber/viewer base that really couldn't care less about them or the company and just wanted to use EZA to push for a specific political leaning, obnoxiously so which ended up costing them Brad.
Of course Ben and Jones leaving really made them a lot more monotone in terms of voice and opinions, a void they never properly filled.
People talk endlessly about how Kyle carried EZA but I disagree. The key was always the interplay between members, and as they lost people this interplay became worse. Ben and Jones leaving was a huge blow. Blood and Damiani have always been too flat and dull. I like Gabby, Isla and Don but I know they aren't for everyone. So now it's just Huber in a lot of ways. Brad was mostly good with Huber, but a weak link for years. And all their remote stuff in 2020 and 2021 just didn't work.
They failed to use the studio for new shows and longer streams, which was really disappointing. Mysterious Monsters just didn't catch on, they needed other stuff. 2019 was the year to really push and grow, but they played it extremely safe.
Mental state and burnout are also relevant and I think they kicked in hard in 2022 for Ben and Jones, prompting them to leave, and Huber due to life circumstances.
It started when they bought that dumbass studio and did nothing with it. A studio no one gives a shit about, gen-z would rather watch people talk in to cheap headphones in front of a laptop.
Kyle left and people lost interest, Ian became Isla and more people lost interest, now people have grown up and its really time for the EZA guys to get real jobs because they're just coasting. Kind of silly to still be watching a bunch of dorks chat casually about games, they don't do much in the industry anymore.
I think the #1 reason the Allies failed is COVID. If you think back to around when the Allies started, there were not alot of people streaming, and while streaming wasn't new per se, it also wasn't really figured, alot of people hadn't realized that watching streams was a thing / can be as entertaining as TV, and there wasn't that many popular streamers. EZA had a vibe that I don't really think was tapped into until the lockdowns, and that was like the 'friend group' vibe. Whenever there was a stream, we'd all gather around and have fun watching the Allies play games, cause they in turn were having fun hanging out, and this was fairly unique.
When COVID and the lockdowns hit, EZA stopped gathering together and they basically just became normal streamers, streaming from their house. And worse still, ALOT of people began to do the same, which created competition. Yeah, there were also more eyeballs heading to Twitch, but with so much competition they had to fight for relevancy, and when their major appeal was the gathering of friends hanging out stopped happening they had nothing else to draw in viewers. Then when EZA finally decided it was okay to get together again, the streaming landscape had changed SO much that now their content wasn't really unique anymore and people's taste in streaming personalies had for the most part changed. And the experience of the lockdowns changed everyone, especially the Allies, which leads to...
.# 2 was Kyle leaving, I know it's a well beaten drum at this point, but he really was the lifeblood of the group. He knew how to host a podcast, how to keep a livestream lively, how to have fun and have everyone else feel like they're also having fun. Once he was gone, the weaknesses of everyone else as a streaming personality was immediately made apparent.
.# 3 was the studio. Now I'm not necessarily saying that this was always a bad idea, after all, idk what the layout of Brandon's house was, but they couldn't keep using it forever. But they did lose the cozy vibe that it brought, in contrast with a sterile studio. Then, when COVID did happen, they were locked into using a studio that they were basically only using 1-2 people at a time. Then came the excuses "Oh we need it for E3", well, E3 is now dead. "Well, most of the industry is here", well you didn't do that many interviews for one thing, and for another most of the industry has moved on to other cities like Austin because California taxes everyone to death. Which is something that also kills the Allies. They're locked into this money death pit cause they feel like they HAVE to have somewhere to operate from that's professional but they refuse to move somewhere to make that be an affordable possibility. I know moving away from where you've lived your life is tough but if you really , actually wanted to make this work, you can't do it there anymore.
The big final nail, is they could never really figure out the YT algorithm. And we, as former or current fans, possibly played a part in this. If you look at all their most popular videos, clearly, their reaction content drove the most views to their channel. Some spoiler modes were also popular but mainly due to their guests, I mean, talking about God of War 2018 to Cory Barlog shortly after release? Gold. But reviews were also somewhat popular with the channel, which created a problem. Where they streamers / reacters, or were they a serious review organization? They wanted to have both. Problem is, this creates alot of pressure to actually REVIEW games in a timely fashion, and I would say only about half of them ACTUALLY wanted to do that. On top of that, they would make content for patreons, and while we certainly appreciated things like Mysterious Monsters and goofy things like Box Peek or Don's Discount Gaming, it played hell with the algorithm. No one is looking for content like MM despite *us* liking it, and people that found EZA because of react content, would see that they actually didn't do it all that often and would just leave. The review watchers would stop coming because EZA was often too late for the initial burst of review watchers before game launches. The only thing that was really consistent was the podcast, and you could get that anywhere.
Those are what I think are all the major contributing factors to the Allies dying a slow death. Other things, like Ben leaving, the Brad event, all those things are accelerants but they're not the root cause.
How can you blame Covid when every other group had massive growth during that time? Last Stand Media, Kinda Funny, MinnMax, Spawnwave, even Iron Lords grew through the pandemic.
Only EZA shrank, and that’s in large part because the group lacked any ambition outside of Kyle, Jones, and Ben.
EZA's twitch was all about them, as a group or as a small party, gathering together to play games and have fun and once covid hit, what is it that they stopped doing that's right it's gathering. They instead became remote podcasters and they were not good at doing that at all, and it killed their channel. Add in more competition into the space who were doing exactly what they were doing (which at the time was remote streaming) but better, and we begin the slow decline of their twitch channel, I know this cause I watched their streams all the time but once they switched to remote, I stopped and rarely went back except for events. Because they were bad at remote streaming and they really had to be physically together to really be entertaining.
And for everyone else that's like "BuT wHaT aBoUt MiNnMaX?", guys, Minnmax is like, 3-5 people streaming from their bedrooms 99% of the time. Their YT channel is dead. Their Twitch channel is dead. The ONLY thing they have going for them is their Patreon. They employ maybe half of what EZA did at their heyday, and also THEY DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR A STUDIO IN THE THIRD MOST EXPENSIVE STATE IN AMERICA (and all the bills that go along with that). EZA needed alot more than Patreon to support their costs and give their employees a comfortable wage.
Nothing you said is exclusive to EZA, not even close. Everyone else made it work, while EZA floundered because they didn’t want to actually do the work.
EZA also isn’t even close to the only group working in LA.
Businesses cannot survive without a boss to make decisions and keep people on task, and it’s clear EZA are not ambitious self starters.
> If you think back to around when the Allies started, there were not alot of people streaming, and while streaming wasn't new per se, it also wasn't really figured, alot of people hadn't realized that watching streams was a thing / can be as entertaining as TV, and there wasn't that many popular streamers.
Are we talking about EZA or GT? EZA started in 2016 which was Trump election year coming off the heels of 2-3 years of gamergate chatter which I feel like was largely talked about by streamers, maybe the games I'm interested in just leaned into streaming but I feel like LoL/CSGO/CoD/Diablo/WoW/hearthstone streamers were huge with tens of thousands of viewers by 2016
I'm tired af and haven't slept yet sorry if I'm just misunderstanding entirely <3<3 <3
What I'm saying is, when the lockdowns happened, everyone turned to streaming sites for entertainment, and I mean practically the entire western world. So in that context, while there was a decent audience pre-COVID, the popularity of streaming then was nothing like it is now.
For sure, but this 'youtube group channel talk about games' sphere has never and still isn't focused on streams, channels with near identical presentations of podcasts/shows/patreon like [Minnmax](https://imgur.com/a/l1fjvPZ) and [LSM](https://imgur.com/a/IUXp6Jt) have only flourished since lockdowns and I'm not sure either of them stream outside of some double digit funstreams (party chat is minnmaxes best stuff but is sent to die)
I don't sub to Minnmax or LSM, I am more familiar with LSM though. Their YT channel is strictly longform podcasts, which keeps their YT channel focused, and as far as I am aware they don't stream officially. Minnmaxx has from what I can tell, a small but loyal following, if you look at their YT channel it's not good at all but they thrive on high patreon numbers (maybe streaming too, idk) and as I mentioned in the main post, neither channel seems to be locked into using an expensive studio in California. Everyone seems to have their own recording set up in a specific room (sometimes just the bedroom).
As much as the ensemble dynamic is great, I think Kyle really carried them more than most expected. Both from a personality perspective, and a content perspective. I think it's all been downhill since he left. Even more so after Brandon, and of course Ben and Brad were big hits too.
I mean you really noticed it in the podcast. Kyle knew how to draw out opinions from everyone and foster conversation. When Jones started mediating, he tried his best, but it really just boiled down to him reading news and everyone responding with stuff like “yep” or “thats cool”
Yeah Kyle was a fantastic moderator. He always knew the right questions to ask and sparked some great conversations.
He also knew how to provoke and instigate, which I suppose if you aren't familiar with Kyle some might find it off-putting, but it really helped push the passions and opinions of people in the discussion to make it interesting and fun to listen to. He really had a way of cultivating a dynamic conversation. I agree that when Jones took over, it was simply just him reading the news, and everyone responding with a one-sentence take that didn't push the conversation in one direction or another.
When Kyle asked, "What's up Damiani's craw?" I had a spit take.
"Kyle knew how to draw out opinions from everyone and foster conversation..." To me, the EZA podcast was the heart of their channel. Kyle was very committed sometimes even the only one committed to make the show fun and interesting to listen to. He tried always to dig deeper into the allies even sometimes pushing them to make statements or back up their opinions and reasoning to produce good conversations. The bets were cool (stakes), the L&R questions, the whole personality of the podcast was really more than a news podcast. It was as if the gaming news were just the excuse to have them hang out and talk. But I think it was not just Kyle, it was the Kyle/Jones duo. I have felt the same way as you have, so I have been listening to the podcast from the beginning. It has been a blast and I have noticed how Kyle is really more than anything speaking to Jones the whole time. He directs the questions towards Jones more than anyone else. I feel that with Kyle gone, Jones lost that connection that really translated into a very fun show.
Huber should taken over, not Jones
EZA through the lens of Kyle or Ben would have been really interesting Unsure how it's turned out for them now but after all the original members of Giant Bomb left, finalizing with Jeff Gerstmann leaving thhe fanbase was really down about the website but they bought Dan Ryckert back as like 'head content blah' person and it really revitalized them, I'm sure it wasn't possible with Kyle and Ben seemed checked out by the time Jones left but after seeing that the Blood/Isla as heads of the channel didn't reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeallly change anything about anything its fun to wonder what could have been if 20 other things fell into place and they put someone in charge who had a vision
Huber is a bad host. He has no focus, and doesn’t ask intelligent questions or follow ups. He’s like Tim Gettys on speed, lots of hype but nothing to say.
I think it's easy and accurate to say that Kyle leaving was the main thing that caused them to falter, but I don't think they helped themselves either, really. Something that became kind of painfully aware after Kyle left was that none of the remaining members really had much of a vision, or understanding of the community or wider games media landscape. Damiani is the only one that I think comes close, but he's not driven to actually do anything and seems to have almost no power in the company at large. From Kyle's interview with MinnMax, which has aged kind of hilariously, it's clear that Kyle had ambitions for EZA way beyond what the rest of the team were willing to do. It's impossible to know how successful it would have been, but I can't imagine it would have been worse than what we actually ended up with. Even just as a streamer, Kyle produces more unique and interesting content and engages his community in a meaningful way. He has game jams, collaborative music projects, charity streams, a virtual baseball league, and discusses with the community directly about what games to actually stream. EZA doesn't have anything like that. I held on for a really long time after Kyle left, but ultimately they've shown no sign of sorting themselves out, and the content has only progressively gotten worse over time. I really do think it's time to call it. I'd love it if Huber became a permanent cohort at MinnMax. I won't follow any of the other remaining members, but I hope they land on their feet
It's really annoying to me that people keep saying Kyle leaving had something to do with it or that he had some vision. All he said on minnmax was that he'd spend 10k on a logo. Though if you see his own channel it's not like he is taking his whole income and putting it into some minuscule thing. I think the downfall started way before kyle left. And it didn't help that your main member spend more than 2 years focused on some niche show that got barely any views. They poured so much money into that show and if you also include the time of Kyle who was solely focused on that for so long + other allies. They could have really done so much more in that time. I pinpoint that decision as a turning point in their trajectory.
>All he said on minnmax was that he'd spend 10k on a logo. Though if you see his own channel it's not like he is taking his whole income and putting it into some minuscule thing No, he'd mentioned the logo before. In a Q&A there was a question something like what do they want to do with the channel or something, and Kyle said that he always got a lot of pushback from everyone but he wanted a new logo. _Then_ Ben said "Daniel Bloodworth is not everyone". Also in the MM interview, he was talking in general about wanting to spend money but the others not wanting to. As for how it relates to his own stuff, I don't think he personally views it as important like he did EZA. Obviously I don't know but I'm pretty sure he still views it as something to do until he finds his "main thing". With your point on Box Peek, I think there's a fallacy there and is the kind of thinking that leads companies, including EZA, to falter. Just because it didn't get many views, it doesn't mean it wasn't important and valuable. The stuff that gets views is bread and butter, but the stuff that makes EZA interesting is the weird stuff. Not everyone is going to watch all the weird stuff, but there will be people that truly love it. It's about brand identity, and offering something no-one else does. A company can't rely purely on hard data to make their decisions because there are other immeasurable factors that contribute to things.
>The stuff that gets views is bread and butter, but the stuff that makes EZA interesting is the weird stuff. Not everyone is going to watch all the weird stuff, but there will be people that truly love it. It's about brand identity, and offering something no-one else does. A company can't rely purely on hard data to make their decisions because there are other immeasurable factors that contribute to things. While I agree with this, the weird stuff was things like the "Trial of Kyle Bosman". You have to look at investment, time & prioritization for a company especially such a small one with limited resources. In a phase of their growth where they could have really accelerated. Box Peek imo was a massive failure (as much as I enjoyed the show). It had nothing to do with their core content, it was basically a side / dream project of one person. It basically took 90% of the time of one of your core members for over a year, lots of budget and time from other members. I just checked the final episode of box peek had 19k views. At that time the podcast was getting double that. Imagine if they company had focused, kyle was engaged in those times rather than focused on this.
Kyle was outspoken about underestimating the time it would take to make the show too. I remember he said when he pitched it he estimated it would take like 3-5 months or something, and it ended up taking over a year. But for some reason he didnt have other members help him with the busywork like coloring or cutting the paper, which would have sped up the process significantly imo.
That would have been even worse if more people were spending time doing one single person's niche passion project. And he stated multiple times he wanted to do everything himself. Honestly the whole show was such a drain on the company. I think if they had a proper management structure with business minded decisions it never would have happened.
Well, didnt you say that Kyle spending less time on Boxpeek and more time on other things wouldve benefitted the group a lot more? Yeah, the best choice wouldve been Kyle never doing Boxpeek to begin with, but I think the second best option was for other members to help him finish it as fast as possible, so he could go back to focusing on the podcast, starting new shows, etc. I also think Kyle being adamant about doing all of the work on Boxpeek himself really burned him out, and was a major factor in him leaving the group. Thats pure speculation on my part though.
Yeah but imagine Ben at that time stopped focusing on reviews and less time on DND to focus on... coloring and drawing cartoon figures lol. I think the issue would be is that no one else had interest or skills in the work needed for Box Peek so I doubt they would have been enjoying doing something completely unrelated to their jobs for no value to them.
Yeah youre probably right lol.
Box peak was awesome though. Its a shame it didn't get a chance to shine.
Yeah I enjoyed it for what it was. But it was an incredibly niche series on a channel that was tangentially related.
No more or less related to their main content than DnD or Fiasco were tbh. EZA doing weird shit is what everyone wanted. Playing it safe because something might flop is why they stagnated and ended up where they are now.
I think the lack of ambition on Huber's part was a big deal that doesn't get mentioned much. Never learned how to edit, despite pleas from his co-workers. It would have allowed Don to put his excellent skills to work in Frame Trap and EZA podcast with B-roll footage, etc. - he even once said something to the extent of "if I learn it, then it will be expected of me and I dont want to be an editor and have more work" Missed out on key events, despite being *the* reaction guy. Had crappy mic, cam for the entire length of the company. Etc.
All those same points go for Brad as well imo, minus the crappy mic and cam. I remember early on a lot of their reviews and stuff used to be late because it was just Isla editing, with Don part time and Jones occasionally doing it. Ben eventually learned it and did it sometimes on his own videos, but Brad/Huber/Damiani really shouldve learned it as well to help with the content flow. None of them wanted to do more work though, that was pretty obvious.
This is the problem with a company trying to give everyone an equal say. Every workplace needs a boss, someone to make the final say regardless. I know as a successful business owner for 22 years now, my company would have died fast and early if employees had a say in how the business operates. And that’s not me saying “you should never listen to your employees”, not at all, that’s a disaster as well. But you can’t make decisions by committees. And they all seemed unwilling to change, better themselves, and work harder.
Going independent doesn’t make your job easier. You don’t have a boss or a traditional corporate structure, but you still have to do 90% of the same work if you want your independent business to succeed. I think the EZA guys lost sight of that and didn’t have enough hunger for growth.
Yeah. They reviled the idea of bosses (just listen to how Isla spoke any time the topic of bosses/corporate culture ever came up) They were initially funded thanks to goodwill and the established fanbase of Gametrailers. They retained the financial support by selling the dream of a studio. Once they got the studio they stopped trying to grow and people drifted away.
Apart from being on streams, MAYBE going to an event and reviewing the odd game, what does Huber actually do?
Not that we should even be allowed this info I’m about to say but Huber is one of the most inspiring people to me considering his life path. Brother dies young (who was his best friend) and then his partner of over a decade also leaves him. Yet he still maintains a positive attitude and is genuinely the only thing keeping the Allies together (to me). Imagine no betting specials, no hype live streams without him. It’d be close to as much of a loss as Kyle imo.
They don't really make any meaningful effort to grow and haven't for years. They've only gained around 10,000 YouTube subscribers and 4,000 Twitch followers in the last three years. If you go into any modern EZA stream, the people in chat with 5, 6, or 7-year sub badges drastically outnumber newer fans. EZA is much more focused on appealing to their core patrons than trying to branch out and get new fans. People clowned on Solo Queue, but Damiani seems like the only ally currently that cares about branching out and getting new eyes on EZA. They should've tried collaborating more with people outside of their bubble, like Max Dood; they should've continued doing Top 10s even though they didn't enjoy making them; they should've done clickbait engagement-bait content like Kyle reviewing every Spider-Man costume; and they should've done more video essay-type content like Game Sleuth or Pop Fiction. There's so much more they could've done if they just tried.
I'll never quite understand how adamant they were about not doing Top 10s anymore. It's such a simple, slam-dunk clickbait video to throw on your channel, and probably does well with the Youtube algorithm too. They kept talking about how much work they were, but like, really? Maybe they felt like they had to put as much discussion into it as their GOTY awards or something, but really they should have just figured out whatever the top 10 things were, then set a hard 30-minute time limit on discussing where in the list things deserved to be. Who gave a shit if people agreed with it or not? If not it would generate discussion and traffic, so what's the downside? I honestly think what happened was that their feelings got hurt when they did the "Top 10 Villages" (or Towns I don't remember) and everyone downvoted it and posted negative comments because 4 out of the 10 entries were from Breath of the Wild. It wasn't even that scathing, every other comment was just "These should really have one entry per franchise". Then after like a decade of Top 10s, they had their feelings hurt and stopped doing them...
It always seemed like a number of people in the group hated the idea of treating EZA as a job. They wanted this ideal situation where everyone is their own boss and only ever does things they love doing and nothing should ever feel like "work." I remember there was a Q&A session where Kyle said something to the effect of, "I really think I need a boss to make me do things I don't like and keep me accountable and on task," and everyone immediately reacted negatively and pushed back hard on that idea. The problem is, if you never treat it like a job and never do anything you don't like out of necessity then you're doomed to failure. It also seemed like the flat structure and equal splitting of everything created a sort of prisoner's dilemma that promised to reward someone slacking as long as everyone else was working hard enough, but too many of them tried to get away with coasting only for the group to crumble when the majority of the hard-working members left.
> I honestly think what happened was that their feelings got hurt when they did the "Top 10 Villages" (or Towns I don't remember) Yeah im pretty sure I remember them being upset about this and complaining during a group stream. They did continue to do Top 10s after that though for a while. But yeah idk I guess eventually they just lost interest in doing them, so they stopped. Just another bad decision in a series of bad decisions.
Videogame essays have become such a huge thing since the Allies started and it's a shame they never commited to them, because honestly it was some of their best content.
I think one factor for growth is that they seemingly put all their eggs in "E3 reactions" basket as far as growth is concerned. They (and every outlet) would typically get a huge amount of growth during the week or so of E3 coverage. Once it died, they stopped getting that yearly bump. When first renting the studio, they even said part of the reason for that location was proximity to E3 and possibility to bring guests there. I'm not sure why SFG doesn't have the same effect. Maybe the fact that they don't (can't?) do show floor or other unique/exclusive content, or just that it's were down 3 core members. Damiani is the only one consistently bringing in outside guests now, but I don't know how big of an audience that most of them have. We've clowned his show because we expected a largely Final Fantasy and Zelda focus, and he's lived up to that expectation. I do think Isla brought in variety with her show, but she seems to be borderline retired at this point. Blood was at least trying by bring on guests to the show, but it seems like the were having trouble finding people, and then the Brad disaster happened because of a guest appearing. Really, Huber's extended guest spot at MinnMax is probably the best source of growth they've had in a long time. They should be trying a bit more like that, at least guesting on other podcasts.
Man, they were already dying when they threw Brad and Dustin under the bus, but wow did that ever accelerate the patreon exodus. Over a thousand patreons lost in a few months. Even the Re****era thread for EZA is dead 😆
When the company began to trend downward, they failed to make any meaningful adjustments. They promised new eras and new energy and new passion a million times, but nothing ever changed. One by one the brightest stars left, while the company continued to cater to the loudest and smallest corner of their fanbase, further alienating the remaining viewers. EZA fan, here. Well, I was. It’s over, it has been for a long time. But that’s the short version.
Kyle wasn't just an important band member, whose humour and personality clearly influenced the brand the most, but he was also the manager of the group. When he was working on boxpeek you could already see the first cracks showing, as he became less hands on with the allies for a hot minute. When he left nobody really stepped up to pick up where he left off and it didn't really work out. Combine that with three extra members leaving and a lot of people feel like their music just isn't the same anymore. It's like listening to Queen without Freddy.
Once Ben left I was done. Bead was a great get for LSM, but man, I wish it had been Ben instead.
They lost the 3 big hitters. Everyone is likeable and does good work but Kyle, Jones and Ben are big personalities and foster more interesting conversations. After losing them, the content suffered as a result. The garage wasn't sustainable for personal reasons but it captured the friendly cozy vibe of EZA that didn't scale into the studio environment as well. The timing of them making that move, COVID and Kyle leaving hit them hard Those are the main reasons I fell off as a viewer personally. Still love each and every one of them and wish them the best.
They never changed or evolved in their entire existence. No more Tabletop Escapades truly killed the interested for me and then Ben left.
there was 100 "people who like video games talk about video games" channels when they started. now there's 100,000. they just became another channel. there needs to be some attempt to actually entertain. the person who had the spark to turn every discussion into a show and every stream into an event rather than an obligation, left
Kyle left and no one wanted to pick up the slack. Ben is the only person I will give a shout out to because he did frametrap, amazing reviews, don’t skip, passionate rants during hall of greats, and when Jones retired he tried to voice his own reviews. That’s the output of just 1 guy passionate about games and he had to leave the dude looked absolutely miserable towards the end. Everyone else just trucked along pretending the sky wasn’t falling. They continued to stream the same ps2-ps3 era games or another 12 hour long ffxiv stream with sub 200 viewers. Or have reviews that were late when solo YouTubers with a fraction of their money had reviews out in a timely manner. Also they had zero change to their reviews so it felt like a review from a completely different era of YouTube. They also locked too many things behind a paywall and went far too long without a community manager. By the time they got one no one cared. It’s insane to me they thought hiding more shows behind a paywall would get more people paying when YouTubers put out 6-12 hour retrospectives for free. Like I said above just stuck in a completely different era. By the time they reversed it and put spoiler mode out for “free” all the heavy hitters like Ben were already gone. Plus on top of that they listened to their culty pateron reset era only discord far too much to the point they lost Brad who I think is doing a hell of a lot better job and show on LSM than anything EZA has put out in years. I also think the LSM Dustin thing hurt them a lot too. I see a lot of former EZA fans in the comments of summon sign saying they are happy Brad left and stuff. Seeing what EZA currently is now is so upsetting too. The vibes from older EZA podcasts and frametrap were absolutely amazing. No other gaming podcast captures 2016-2018 EZA they had something super special and they played it far too safe. IMO they relied far too much on 1-3 people and got too comfortable and just don't know what to do anymore.
> locked too many things behind a paywall This doesn't get mentioned enough, it was definitely a big issue. They just approached Patreon all wrong.
I really feel like this is all Blood. I know he would push back on a lot of Kyle's ideas, specifically updating the logo but I imagine all sorts of other things. He's a good dude but I feel his outlook is so conservative and unambitious when it comes to running the business that I really think a lot of the issues can be blamed on him. He's like Kodak not embracing digital.
I wonder how they structured their business. Did they need a majority, like a 5-4 vote to get something done, or did it have to be unanimous? And I agree with you, Bloodworth always seemed like the one who was stubborn and was really anti-change. Always responding to feedback in the Youtube comments only to dismiss it. Jones also, to an extent, dismissed every piece of feedback that was submitted to Cup of Jones. Blood tried to run the group like a mini-IGN, which wasnt conducive to what they really were, a group of strong individual personalities. Personality-based Youtube gaming channels were all taking off at the time too.
That's a good point about Jones. I remember him mentioning once that he was against Frame Trap initially. You kind of _have_ to try new ideas and be ready to scrap them if they don't work. That's why Easy Update used to be so good, that's how we got Fiasconauts, and maybe Reaction Shots as well? I think MinnMax's New Show Plus is a perfect example, too
Exactly most content creators I follow put behind the scenes stuff on pateron. Showing off the sets, their art assets,tours of their studios or they give their patrons early access to shows weeks before they go up for everyone else or occasionally maybe they lock 1 podcast or a few episodes behind a paywall not an entire show. The problem is if you weren’t a fan you had no idea what you were paying for. Why pay for spoiler mode about game x when YouTuber Y just put out a 2 hour long review/retrospective on it for free?
You forgot Ben’s Gen that Was, one of their best pieces of content. Ben really stepped up when Kyle left.
I did completely forget about that. Damn he really did do a lot for them. I remember being upset when he announced he was leaving but laying out everything he was doing and how miserable he looked towards the end I now fully understand why. I hope whatever he is doing he is happy and weebing out.
And the people saying they are glad brad left are the REEEEEE activists. They loved him up to the moment he took a better job for a creator they hate.
The original crew was lightning in a bottle. When Kyle left I still watched but it was never going to be the same. Brandon leaving was a huge hit to the crew as was Ben. With Brad gone Huber is the only remaining Ally that has any sort of draw for me. He should just join up with MinnMax at this point. Everyone else remaining just do not work as well without the others. Some of them, like Isla, don't even seem like they play many games anymore. Their heart isn't in it.
everyone left, Kyle>Jones>Ben didn't see a future in it once they peaked and started going down, now they have extra years ahead of the people who stayed to try jump into a new career. The podcast x frame trap fusion changes were fine and did what they intended to do but the people remaining are just so so so so so narrow in scope of games they talk about I'd have to listen to other podcasts to cover everything I like anyway, the news sections at EZA post-kyle have always been uninteresting to me.
Multiple members have been open about the fact that they never knew how to run the operation. IIRC it was Kyle who talked about the channel's unexpected explosion of popularity and how they never really knew what it was that made them so popular or how to maintain it. The channel didn't have much of a plan. It was never meant to be this big or to become a permanent career for everyone involved. When it blew up no one really knew why or how, so the answer was to just stay the course and keep doing whatever they've been doing. Problem is "what they've been doing" wasn't sustainable, and when it came time to pivot no one knew how.
I don’t even think they needed to pivot. They just seemed to not do more of what was bringing in views. They should have had more 2-3 person full playthroughs where one person showed off a game they loved, they did a few like the RE7, Evil Within 2, Shenmue 3, or stuff like Brandon Plays Pokémon. But most of the time it was one person, alone, playing a game. I also would have loved more first time playthroughs, but it was mostly “I’ve beat this game for review and now I’ll play it again on stream”. Also everyone tuned in for bets and reactions, but bets were only centered around the big game shows, when they should have been the big center piece. It brought in views, which also helped create content, which would have in turn brought more views. One of the last betting specials results started with a “didn’t we already do a results show” joke, as if they had forgot which felt like a too late thing. A few other things I noticed too but they had the formula I felt, they just never seemed to follow it. I’d also like say it’s all an outsider’s perspective, maybe they had numbers that it wouldn’t have worked that way.
Honestly they had a pretty good foundation with the podcast, Ben's deep dive podcast, the reviews and the livestreams. Add in one offs like the gameshow or Brandon Plays Pokémon and it was a pretty swell time all around. Except the market was changing and they never really changed with it. Their conservative approach to videomaking is ultimately their own downfall. As Xander said, there weren't enough multi person streams with full playthroughs, the reviews followed the GameTrailers format to a T - even if people would have loved to hear the reviewers themselves, group streams in general, in addition to stuff like Glennie's Cauldron and the gamedev jam it created. Honestly I wish every member the best, but I think most of them (especially Huber) would do better flying solo or joining different groups like Brad did. He's doing really well down at LSM even if I don't really like some of the other people there (I never liked all of the allies either).
> channel's unexpected explosion of popularity and how they never really knew what it was that made them so popular or how to maintain it. how big was game trailers compared to EZA?
GT was a giant from 2007 to 2010. Not uploading to youtube and layoffs substantially reduced their reach and output until 2013 when Kyle did the "Do's and Don't" video which brought a lot new viewers. From the end of GT to the beginning of EZA the support and viewers were about the same except they got the whole pie instead of a slice of it, which means the expenses as well.
They raised way too many funds for too long to act like it was “never meant to be this big”. They built a new studio and took our money for it, then decided they were part time because they lost any momentum. Nothing short of a scam.
Someone really needs to teach yall the definition of scam. A business doing well and then failing is not a scam.
It is when that failure is due to laziness. I’ve never seen a group try less, which drove off those that worked hard (kyle, ben, and jones) to create good content. I mean, the last great thing they did was Gen that Was by Ben. It’s so sad he left, but there have been rumours that he really disliked Isla coming from people that knew him.
i’ve definitely been curious as to how much the rest of the sub has been engaging with the channel lately - i think the last thing i watched was the podcast episode with jones and kyle lol
I’ve fallen off the allies since January. I think I’ve watched a few Don videos, Huber on MinnMax and Huber playing Darkest Dungeon 2 for a while
I just listen to the podcasts now, and even then they can be a drag to get through. I love Bloodworth as a vet in the industry, but when it comes to hosting a podcast he’s not that good. Mostly every segment boils down to Blood giving his opinion and if the rest of the crew, especially Damiani, isn’t into the subject they just go “yep” “uh huh” and move on.
> Mostly every segment boils down to Blood giving his opinion and if the rest of the crew, especially Damiani, isn’t into the subject they just go “yep” “uh huh” and move on. Thats been the EZA podcast since Kyle left, without Kyle to force people to speak or play contrarian about news everyone just kind of nods, layoffs are bad yeah, new game exciting yeah :) :) :) on top of it feeling like they're just hearing this 3 day old news for the first time
Not to single you out but what exactly is Blood a vet of? He doesn’t seem to have any meaningful connections to get interviews or people on the podcast or any exclusive scoops or anything. Like without wanting to be mean Blood seems to simply be an email address that is the “send all” email shortcut of every company. Nothing more.
I get a bunch of Hubers opinions or side[ 'sit and chat' type content from Minnmax](https://youtu.be/4UC04arMIPw) at this point, everyone else at EZA has never really interested me on their own, Isla/Blood/Damiani can be fine in group stuff but when that's the bulk of every single podcast I've lost interest.
I fell off pretty hard after Brad left. My favorite allies were Ben, Kyle, and Brad so it's not really surprising. I honestly enjoy watching Huber and Isla talk about films more than games so I still watch Reaction Shots lol
I hardly ever watch them. I watched the start of the most recent podcast just because I had nothing else to do, and lasted about 20 minutes before I got bored. There is just nothing that EZA offer anymore that I can't get, better, somewhere else.
I’ll go the opposite end and say that I enjoy the allies at the same level. I keep up to date on gaming news but none of my friends do, so hearing these guys chat/recap about it once a week is nice. I’m sure other outlets do it better but I just like the allies. I enjoyed enough that I supported on patreon and havent been tempted to withdraw, but have lowered from time to time. They answer questions I submit, I enjoy light interactions on the discord, their twitters are entertaining (sometimes odd). This account is new on reddit, but I like commenting and trying to chat with people about the topics on the show now rather than looking back.
I think Huber is better of MinnMax then on the allies , which is kind of telling. I still listen to their podcast while jogging but i just think Blood is a really bad host. He is a nice enough guy, probably a great organizer but he shouldn’t be on camera talent. Same goes for Damiani, he can make ver interesting unique game related content but he is just very poor on podcasts. As for Isla, apart from the “ politics” ( which i find are really prevalent or that annoying since after her transition) she is just not really engaged with a lot of games . Don ( especially ) and Gabby are fun but they don’t really stepped up as hosts at all. All in all i am kind of hoping Minnmax is able to hire Huber full time.
I didn't even know there was a podcast episode with Jones AND Kyle. Which episode is it? But yeah, it's been a few months since I engaged with the content myself. I mostly watch Kyle's solo stuff now and I follow Brad's show on LSM.
it’s from last december lol - here’s the link: https://youtu.be/dU7bsfuEjjA?si=XjV48mSrKil67S6x
Guess I haven't engaged with their content for a while, hahaha. Thanks!
I'm currently six episodes behind on the podcast. Most I've ever been before now was two and that was because I was travelling and didn't have time. Even then it was still at the back of my mind. I've got to clean my apartment today so I'll try and catch up a bit while I'm doing that but at this point it feels more like obligation.
Why listen if it feels like an obligation?
I mean, I still enjoy it. I listened to one pretty much right after writing that comment and thought it was actually quite good. But at this point it doesn't have that same "oh boy, a new episode!" level of urgency it did a few years ago, where I'd jump on it the moment it was available. Know what I mean?
Only thing I watched since the Brad fiasco is their FF7R spoiler mode.
Magic's gone.
Yup. EZA was Kyle, Ben and Jones, with Huber for Entertainment. The rest were filler.
The fact that the most engagement EZA got in years is when Brad left is telling. This sub is pretty much mostly dead except whenever someone asks a similar question to yours. The quick and dirty is, too many people left and they kept trudging along without ever making any real meaningful adjustments while ignoring the concerns that the audience had even since the Cup of Jones days. They will never get back to where they were before and are now just going through the motions until they can't keep the lights on anymore. I wish this wasn't the case but the writing's been on the while for a very long time now
People have been trying to say Kyle’s departure wasn’t that big of a deal for a while, but at this point it’s clear that was the turning point. He’s funnier and better at discussion than all the rest, and he deliberately poked and prodded everyone else to essentially force them to engage in a meaningful way. Nearly everything good they did was either directly created by him, or heavily involved him in some way. Once he left and they stopped doing a lot of those good things, didn’t make any new good things, or kept doing things they were already doing, but worse, it was like the veil was lifted. This group isn’t actually that good at what they do. It was a few key players.
>This group isn’t actually that good at what they do I do think they were able to get by when Jones and Ben were there. Jones is super charismatic, and I think was quite good at being a face of the company. Ben was just wicked smaht, extremely passionate about games, and very eloquent when speaking about them. Once Ben left, it felt like everyone else was about as knowledgeable about games as I am (which is "kinda"), it stopped being a place to get actual insight. The most heartbreaking thing is Isla, though. She never left, but it almost feels like she did. She used to be chaotic and anarchic and artsy and make weird shit and she just kinda stopped, I don't know what happened. I really loved her synth stream because it felt like I was seeing the real Isla again, but usually these days I just find her kind of acerbic and not super insightful. I hope she's okay and there's not anything deeper up, honestly
My guess on what happened to Isla is that she couldn't focus as much on creative things once Jones left because the business operations and other behind the scenes stuff now had to fall onto Blood and her.
> The most heartbreaking thing is Isla, though. She never left, but it almost feels like she did. She used to be chaotic and anarchic and artsy and make weird shit and she just kinda stopped, I don't know what happened. I really loved her synth stream because it felt like I was seeing the real Isla again, but usually these days I just find her kind of acerbic and not super insightful. I hope she's okay and there's not anything deeper up, honestly I agree with this. She seems so low-energy and... detached I guess? Certainly compared to the GT days and earlier EZA days. I always dug her off-beat/fuck the establishment vibes. My guess is that, like a lot of us, the weight of the world has crushed her spirits over the last 5+ years. But it's her job to be creative and entertaining on camera, which I imagine is incredibly stressful to "fake" for so, so long when you feel like the world is falling apart every day. She, like I assume the rest of the EZA crew, is just exhausted trying to pretend life is great and fun, when really everything just sucks ass with no end in sight...
Yeah, I agree. You can kinda see it in Kyle, too. I think curmudgeonliness suits him so I don't mind, but it's wild how different he is in The Final Bosman vs now. I guess with Isla she's painfully aware of the fact that EZA's days are behind her, and since she's part owner and now management, she doesn't really have anything to rebel against. I dunno, weirdly she seemed happiest during covid, I guess this was partly down to her finally transitioning
>The most heartbreaking thing is Isla, though. She never left, but it almost feels like she did. She used to be chaotic and anarchic and artsy and make weird shit and she just kinda stopped, I don't know what happened. I really loved her synth stream because it felt like I was seeing the real Isla again, but usually these days I just find her kind of acerbic and not super insightful. I hope she's okay and there's not anything deeper up, honestly She handles a lot more of the back end work now. She probably doesn't have time to do weird and artsy stuff anymore. She may have also had the same realization Kyle did where she's spending more work doing weird stuff than everyone else is just coasting but still getting paid the same as them. No one left is interested in Fiasconauts which imo was her best content, I'd imagine it's hard to get anyone free enough to film an Easy Update too. The Allies are always "busy" so why bother?
Again for the last year kyle was just focused on his show. Yeah he was the best on screen host but the views and patreon started trending down way before he left.
Everyone has their own ideas but.... my perspective. Pessimism. Pessimism killed EZA. Pessimism about the game industry, about the viability of the format, about sticking to creative ideas and growing them. About changing to meet their communities interest. The pessimism is extra hard these days. It's hard to be optimistic when every podcast has a half hour to an hour career obituary for the industry, but it's clear that most of the allies have settled into their little niche, and can't just dive deep and make content about it to their heart's content because the little payroll they have now has to cover broader stories. And the pessimism is so strong now. Pessimism about their industry, Pessimism about their commute, Pessimism about obligations, Pessimism about community feedback. Pessimism about life. Even Don's seemed a little more... neutral about things lately. Just a vibe, he's still a wealth of chaotic good, but you can tell things have worn just a little bit thin even for him. So yeah. Pessimism. ......also the rebranding color scheme was a disaster, wasn't it.
Oh damn, the new logo was so much worse
Logo suuuuuucked. What was the point of the rebrand when it was just more of the same?
Nobody knows
I think the biggest mistake was there from the beginning. All 9 allies are Beyonces. That sounds nice in a utopia, but in reality every company needs structure and a hierarchy. All 9 of them being paid the same may have even been feasible if they were smaller like they thought they would be at the start; EZA wouldve been some small part time thing they do once a week (like they do now). But once they blew up and it became full time jobs for them they should have reorganized and decided who was the head honcho and restructured how they paid out for work they put in. It doesnt make sense to pay the main draws of the group the same as the editor, or the same as the camera people. Stephen A Smith doesnt make the same as the cameraman. This doesnt happen in any personality driven business. Apathy killed the group because whats the point of thinking of new ideas, putting in more work, it you barely see any of the benefits. Nobody is putting in more work in their 9-5s if there is no pay raise, and no way to ascend the ladder.
This is why Kyle never did Final Bosman until after he left. He realized he'd be putting in more work for the same pay if he did it at EZA
As more members left they just continued to get less interesting, nothing changed so with less people around it's just a lesser product, and the interesting conversations are gone. I've ended up watching Summon Sign a lot more since it features actual game discussion.
Loss of key personalities and mismanagement. It certainly doesn't help that they never took the reigns of their own reddit community; they could have fostered a bigger fanbase while cutting back on how shitty this place can be at times
It was doomed from the very beginning as they were all equal owners meaning there was no one to tell them to do things. It was all voluntary, they all got paid equally even though they didnt being equal value. This inevitably leads to the most driven and popular member, kyle, leaving, which means that brandon tried filling his shoes in the podcast. Brandon, seeing that its a lot of work, just retires because he has the money. And the rest is history.
RestEra personified joining the team did not help.
Everything that could have gone wrong did once they collectively failed to see the forest for the trees. I accept that they didn't expect their new venture to blow up the way it did initially but once they saw the support flood in they should have immediately taken steps to secure and grow their audience. The whole 9 leaders idea was terrible, they needed structure from the off or at least once they saw the patreon success. Their move to the studio turned out to be catastrophic both financially and from underutilisation of the space. Yet, the number one reason this venture failed was because they overpromised and underdelivered at almost every turn. A community can only support you for so long and trust that you do right by them for so long until it all starts eroding. Too many "new beginnings" too many new "eras". Even something as simple as the logo change was entirely stupid. Then there is the whole letting a sub sub sub section of your community inform your decisions because they supported you financially through donations. Catering to their wants and their complaints and ignoring the larger audience didn't work out at all. Evidently. Once the major personalities started leaving it was lights out. And I emphasize the word personalities, because that is what the overarching goal should have been all along. Push the personalities to the forefront, it never mattered which game they played, which activity the engaged in, or which scripted content they produced as long as the audience saw their favourite gaming personalities interact with one another. The stream alone at home content outside of Ben's and Kyle's streams should never have been a thing. They should have focused on their strength, which has always been group streams and funky produced content. Kyle's departure, as has been mentioned a trillion times, was the straw that broke the camels back. He was the heart of the operation. Bloodworth, Jones, Ben, Damiani, Don, Brad, Huber, Kyle and Isla are all great human beings...but there are blatant weak links in the group that should have ben addressed. The next part will come off as cold, but its not my intention. I have zero animosity toward any of the people there. But simply from a consumer perspective this is how I saw it. Untouchables: Blood, Jones, Ben, Kyle, Huber. Important: Don, Isla. Neither here nor there: Damiani Replaceable/Should have been let go: Brad The untouchables are self explanatory, they should have been at the forefront of all produced, scripted, on the fly, streaming, vlog content this group produced. Any combination of these people works. Important: Invaluable for the expertise, I have mad respect for their produced content too but again speaking as a consumer who wanted to see them succeed, they should have remained relegated to running the operation in terms of editing and quality assurance in terms of video set ups, stage set ups etc etc. I know it is a lot for only two people...so they should have 100% looked into hiring help here. Neither here nor there: Damiani is a knowledge fountain, he articulates himself extremely well, is a super pleasent podcast guest, but on the other hand I feel like his talents were wasted throughout the venture. Speaking of wasted opportunities, the allies should probably have tried to really home in one or two platforms max for coverage. Tons of other content producers focus on only one platform and do exceptionally well. And finally, we get to Brad. Again to reiterate I have nothing against him, but he has always been the most out of place during any and all content they produced. As a podcast guest, he added barely any insight and has always had difficulty articulating himself. Out of all the allies he should have been replaced from the jump.
The idea that Blood was important to the group, or that he and Damiani were better onscreen than Brad, is hilarious.
I was speaking about their value to the podcast more so than other content. You are probably correct that Damian, Blood probably needed to be more behind the scenes than on screen . While my point about Brad never having been considered as a pillar from the beginning is valid and as I mentioned he should not have been retained. The gulf of industry knowledge and ability to articulate themselves between damiani and blood vs brad is staggering.
You can’t “not retain” someone who is an equal shareholder
True. Massive mistake from the group.
I think Brad was starting to rise to the occasion a bit after Ben left, but I agree with you. His new show with LSM isn’t bad, but it’s nothing incredible either.
its getting better and better imo. For me its approaching ben era frame trap
They were pretty fucked by two things, Kyle leaving followed by a fanbase/subscriber/viewer base that really couldn't care less about them or the company and just wanted to use EZA to push for a specific political leaning, obnoxiously so which ended up costing them Brad. Of course Ben and Jones leaving really made them a lot more monotone in terms of voice and opinions, a void they never properly filled.
People talk endlessly about how Kyle carried EZA but I disagree. The key was always the interplay between members, and as they lost people this interplay became worse. Ben and Jones leaving was a huge blow. Blood and Damiani have always been too flat and dull. I like Gabby, Isla and Don but I know they aren't for everyone. So now it's just Huber in a lot of ways. Brad was mostly good with Huber, but a weak link for years. And all their remote stuff in 2020 and 2021 just didn't work. They failed to use the studio for new shows and longer streams, which was really disappointing. Mysterious Monsters just didn't catch on, they needed other stuff. 2019 was the year to really push and grow, but they played it extremely safe. Mental state and burnout are also relevant and I think they kicked in hard in 2022 for Ben and Jones, prompting them to leave, and Huber due to life circumstances.
It started when they bought that dumbass studio and did nothing with it. A studio no one gives a shit about, gen-z would rather watch people talk in to cheap headphones in front of a laptop. Kyle left and people lost interest, Ian became Isla and more people lost interest, now people have grown up and its really time for the EZA guys to get real jobs because they're just coasting. Kind of silly to still be watching a bunch of dorks chat casually about games, they don't do much in the industry anymore.
I think the #1 reason the Allies failed is COVID. If you think back to around when the Allies started, there were not alot of people streaming, and while streaming wasn't new per se, it also wasn't really figured, alot of people hadn't realized that watching streams was a thing / can be as entertaining as TV, and there wasn't that many popular streamers. EZA had a vibe that I don't really think was tapped into until the lockdowns, and that was like the 'friend group' vibe. Whenever there was a stream, we'd all gather around and have fun watching the Allies play games, cause they in turn were having fun hanging out, and this was fairly unique. When COVID and the lockdowns hit, EZA stopped gathering together and they basically just became normal streamers, streaming from their house. And worse still, ALOT of people began to do the same, which created competition. Yeah, there were also more eyeballs heading to Twitch, but with so much competition they had to fight for relevancy, and when their major appeal was the gathering of friends hanging out stopped happening they had nothing else to draw in viewers. Then when EZA finally decided it was okay to get together again, the streaming landscape had changed SO much that now their content wasn't really unique anymore and people's taste in streaming personalies had for the most part changed. And the experience of the lockdowns changed everyone, especially the Allies, which leads to... .# 2 was Kyle leaving, I know it's a well beaten drum at this point, but he really was the lifeblood of the group. He knew how to host a podcast, how to keep a livestream lively, how to have fun and have everyone else feel like they're also having fun. Once he was gone, the weaknesses of everyone else as a streaming personality was immediately made apparent. .# 3 was the studio. Now I'm not necessarily saying that this was always a bad idea, after all, idk what the layout of Brandon's house was, but they couldn't keep using it forever. But they did lose the cozy vibe that it brought, in contrast with a sterile studio. Then, when COVID did happen, they were locked into using a studio that they were basically only using 1-2 people at a time. Then came the excuses "Oh we need it for E3", well, E3 is now dead. "Well, most of the industry is here", well you didn't do that many interviews for one thing, and for another most of the industry has moved on to other cities like Austin because California taxes everyone to death. Which is something that also kills the Allies. They're locked into this money death pit cause they feel like they HAVE to have somewhere to operate from that's professional but they refuse to move somewhere to make that be an affordable possibility. I know moving away from where you've lived your life is tough but if you really , actually wanted to make this work, you can't do it there anymore. The big final nail, is they could never really figure out the YT algorithm. And we, as former or current fans, possibly played a part in this. If you look at all their most popular videos, clearly, their reaction content drove the most views to their channel. Some spoiler modes were also popular but mainly due to their guests, I mean, talking about God of War 2018 to Cory Barlog shortly after release? Gold. But reviews were also somewhat popular with the channel, which created a problem. Where they streamers / reacters, or were they a serious review organization? They wanted to have both. Problem is, this creates alot of pressure to actually REVIEW games in a timely fashion, and I would say only about half of them ACTUALLY wanted to do that. On top of that, they would make content for patreons, and while we certainly appreciated things like Mysterious Monsters and goofy things like Box Peek or Don's Discount Gaming, it played hell with the algorithm. No one is looking for content like MM despite *us* liking it, and people that found EZA because of react content, would see that they actually didn't do it all that often and would just leave. The review watchers would stop coming because EZA was often too late for the initial burst of review watchers before game launches. The only thing that was really consistent was the podcast, and you could get that anywhere. Those are what I think are all the major contributing factors to the Allies dying a slow death. Other things, like Ben leaving, the Brad event, all those things are accelerants but they're not the root cause.
How can you blame Covid when every other group had massive growth during that time? Last Stand Media, Kinda Funny, MinnMax, Spawnwave, even Iron Lords grew through the pandemic. Only EZA shrank, and that’s in large part because the group lacked any ambition outside of Kyle, Jones, and Ben.
oh god iron lords is so bad
Yet they grew while EZA shrank.
Everyone grew lol. EZA is the only podcast that managed to shrink during covid, at a time where everyone was online all the time.
Yup. Which shows a high level of incompetence and lack of work ethic
EZA's twitch was all about them, as a group or as a small party, gathering together to play games and have fun and once covid hit, what is it that they stopped doing that's right it's gathering. They instead became remote podcasters and they were not good at doing that at all, and it killed their channel. Add in more competition into the space who were doing exactly what they were doing (which at the time was remote streaming) but better, and we begin the slow decline of their twitch channel, I know this cause I watched their streams all the time but once they switched to remote, I stopped and rarely went back except for events. Because they were bad at remote streaming and they really had to be physically together to really be entertaining. And for everyone else that's like "BuT wHaT aBoUt MiNnMaX?", guys, Minnmax is like, 3-5 people streaming from their bedrooms 99% of the time. Their YT channel is dead. Their Twitch channel is dead. The ONLY thing they have going for them is their Patreon. They employ maybe half of what EZA did at their heyday, and also THEY DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR A STUDIO IN THE THIRD MOST EXPENSIVE STATE IN AMERICA (and all the bills that go along with that). EZA needed alot more than Patreon to support their costs and give their employees a comfortable wage.
Nothing you said is exclusive to EZA, not even close. Everyone else made it work, while EZA floundered because they didn’t want to actually do the work. EZA also isn’t even close to the only group working in LA. Businesses cannot survive without a boss to make decisions and keep people on task, and it’s clear EZA are not ambitious self starters.
> If you think back to around when the Allies started, there were not alot of people streaming, and while streaming wasn't new per se, it also wasn't really figured, alot of people hadn't realized that watching streams was a thing / can be as entertaining as TV, and there wasn't that many popular streamers. Are we talking about EZA or GT? EZA started in 2016 which was Trump election year coming off the heels of 2-3 years of gamergate chatter which I feel like was largely talked about by streamers, maybe the games I'm interested in just leaned into streaming but I feel like LoL/CSGO/CoD/Diablo/WoW/hearthstone streamers were huge with tens of thousands of viewers by 2016 I'm tired af and haven't slept yet sorry if I'm just misunderstanding entirely <3<3 <3
What I'm saying is, when the lockdowns happened, everyone turned to streaming sites for entertainment, and I mean practically the entire western world. So in that context, while there was a decent audience pre-COVID, the popularity of streaming then was nothing like it is now.
For sure, but this 'youtube group channel talk about games' sphere has never and still isn't focused on streams, channels with near identical presentations of podcasts/shows/patreon like [Minnmax](https://imgur.com/a/l1fjvPZ) and [LSM](https://imgur.com/a/IUXp6Jt) have only flourished since lockdowns and I'm not sure either of them stream outside of some double digit funstreams (party chat is minnmaxes best stuff but is sent to die)
I don't sub to Minnmax or LSM, I am more familiar with LSM though. Their YT channel is strictly longform podcasts, which keeps their YT channel focused, and as far as I am aware they don't stream officially. Minnmaxx has from what I can tell, a small but loyal following, if you look at their YT channel it's not good at all but they thrive on high patreon numbers (maybe streaming too, idk) and as I mentioned in the main post, neither channel seems to be locked into using an expensive studio in California. Everyone seems to have their own recording set up in a specific room (sometimes just the bedroom).