Original = awesome

some good points right here but...
"To encourage users to be more original, maybe there should be a "category" selection when uploading your flash. You can pick from either "sprite toon, parody, original" or what not. If users fail to pick incorrectly, the flash can be flagged and changed appropriately by a mod."

If this change happened, some really annoying people would abuse it just to piss off the mods. Sure, it's great idea, but I seriously don't think the mods would wanna trawl through hundreds of submissions with an incorrect category just so some immature kids could get some laughs.
Anyway, back to business.
sure, originality is great, but some people don't really wanna be original or they have to start somewhere, which leads us to video game parodies, and lets be honest people, we have all done at least one VG parody at one point, I know I have, but that's where we all start, then build our way up to an awesome original idea. But I think it's been said before, it's not the VG parody that's the problem, it's the voters that constantly vote five that are the problem. i mean, i'd love to see some more original content but, there's a lot of parodies out there and people will look at the portal and see a whole bunch of parodies, then leave, without even trying to look for the original stuff.
that said, VG parodies are something that the NG community love. its one of the things that makes Newgrounds what it is. sorta like the Clock Crew, it's love, hate.

but like i said, you have some good points and ideas right there, but...it may not help. people will still make parodies whether we like it or not.

You have some point to it, but it sounds like you want to restrict everything. I mean with the review restriction, what the hell? So you have to be talented enough to make a flash quite a few people like before you can express your opinion on others?

And with the sprite animations not getting prizes etc. who's to say they're not as good as a drawn animation? It's still an animation just in a different style, here you are preaching about art I thought you would have realised that.

And yes it is sad that horny guys everywhere vote 5 on Meet N Fuck games, but sex sells and unfortunately they thinking with their penises when they vote 5 (mind you it's cartoon charcters on the screen).

So that's my opinion,

Idiots and 13-16 year olds = NG's main audience

How to pander to idiots and 13-16 year olds: give them what they want

Anyways I've seen a lot of awesome original stuff these few last months so I ain't gonna complain.

I think the voting has started to go a bit haywire though...people see a bit of fancy frame by frame, or Mario fighting Link, and vote 5 straight away. I mean even the Brackenwood flicks used to struggle to meet 4.35, whilst nowadays we have a stick movie about Counter Strike sitting with a fucking amazing 4.43. But again, audience.

I don't wanna see people who just make sprite movies because they enjoy it be 'forced' to stop making them altogether because they want to be part of the cool kids or whatever though....but anyone who makes sprite movies just to swipe daily awards and get ultimately pointless 'internet fame' should jam a fork in their eye.

Also

WE WILL NEVER SLEEP
COS SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK

Also camp north's pretty cool.

When i vote 5 for my favorite Mario flash i slap my penis down on the keyboard over and over. It feels good and Mario gets the score he deserves. Sometimes tho, the flash is so good that i get a hard on, and then i have to pick up my keyboard and push it down over my penis.

"Yes the parodies will keep on flowing in by the thousands. But there should be some kind of filter that reeps them of getting any sort of prize, it's not fair to all the hard working original artists in my opinion."

At first this may sound great. I mean, it'd keep all those really poorly animated sprites movies from gaining awards and the like so all the original stuff gets the spotlight. But, it does not cater for the spriters that actually "work hard" to impress the audience with a compelling storyline, great humour and wonderful animation (yes, they do exist, it is not a lie). It doesn't seem fair to those spriters that work hard. As I said before, great ideas, but it won't help.
Anyway, I'm off to sleep. I'm tired and gots work tomorrow.

there is a good mix of origionality, parodies, videogame movies and stickmovies on NG..

but yeah id agree Tom needs to do something about the voting system, it really isnt holding up against all the parodies/videogame movies.. an slowly this place will be mostly videogame parodies an stuff, an it will basically be crap.

LENKO- new bmth sucks.. a lot

"LENKO- new bmth sucks.. a lot"

I don't listen to them, but it was in Blordow's movie

Yeah, the majority of the audience here just doesn't get what it takes to make a cartoon, and their interest is so narrow that unless they find something they truly love, like mario,

they don't give two shits about it.

there are, of course, exceptions

I read the first few paragraphs so you maybe said that somewher ein your post but;

I think that the 3 categories you mentioned should have their own awards.

Cut the daily 4th and 5th though. Daily first, second and third in the categories sprites, parody and original content.

I don't get how people can still think sprite movies are a "growing" problem on the site... Newgrounds is a big ship and doesn't make 90 degree turns on a dime, but over the past two years the site and culture has been stearing in a pretty good direction. Adult Flash very rarely gets the spotlight compared to years ago, and sprite movies get way less spotlight than just a year ago. These are two categories that have always driven a lot of traffic around the site, but there is a gradual transition going on. Maybe it hasn't been happening fast enough but it's happening. Anyone I'm done defending NG people either see where it's going or they don't.

I actually kinda agree with that guy above me who clearly stole tom's username.

It's true that sprite and hentai movies are getting submitted by far less, now the problemes are the whole vg parody movies but the slogan is "Everything by everyone". Even though I don't like most of these parodies you can't denie that they bring a lot of traffic to NG, which also might get you a few more views for your flashes.

Oh there's only one thing thats annoyed me recently actually

Tywo at Large Ep 3 - under 20,000 views

That 4chan Lazer collab - around 100,000 views

: /

anyway. i'm going to bed, I'll reply to any more comments in the morning (aus time)

Well to my opinoin i HATE sprite movies. It doesnt requier any real animtion skills.
When i whas reading this post it whas like i whas hearing myself talk. People here on newgrounds forgot what originality is and probably the word itself. Okay self DRAWN game parodies are okay and i myself like those ones. Since i like gaming myself. But still because people here are so immature you get unfair votes and useless reviews. Like also in the audioportal zero bombs everywhere. Guess we gotta deal with it or find a strong salution for this problem or just simply look for another website and leave newgrounds for good!

A few months ago ashford pride made a movie with a foreboding title. It was called "Awesome Grounds".

Well ladies and gentlemen, that's might as well what this site should be called (at least right now), with the top row on the front page slot dedicated to an "awesome" movie and an "awesome" parody, an "awesome" t-shirt in the newgrounds store, and pretty much every "awesome" movie in the top 100, along with han's "awesome's creed".

I can't go to newgrounds with seeing something not about egoraptor or his coveted video game parody series. It makes me wonder sometimes if pursuing anything but half-assed cartoons making mildly funny observations about video games laced with profanity is even worth it. Truly, they are what bring the masses of 13-year olds to this site, and thus increases traffic and competition in the internet world. But you have to ask yourself, with this sort of two-bit audience increasing in numbers, are they really interested in watching anything else?

I understand that it's a dog eat dog world in the online entertainment business, and to compete you have to pretty much put up content that a majority of internet browsers would click on. This includes either women or video games. Things they already know they want. And that's all they want. They sign up, watch more, and come back and do it again later. They're trained to know that what they want is easily accessible and is promoted all over the site.

Original content is often shuffled off to the bottom of the page, or never gets any attention to begin with. Now comes into play the whole 'they won't click on it unless there's a boob for the icon', etc etc. That's because they've been fashioned to think that way.

I'm not saying i have all the mysterious answers to the way people's minds work. But this much is true - if all people click on are breasts and video game icons, and you give them breasts and video game icons, you're not pushing the envelope.

Newgrounds is the epitome of user-generated content. We already have a massive advantage over youtube in the fact that making a cartoon involves so much more creativity than snappily editing your webcam footage. So instead of 200 cartoons coming out every minute, we have 200 cartoons coming out every day. That gives someone a better chance of breaking out and being discovered for his hard work, and a reward for a job well done.

But in the same way that viewers are trained that they don't have to go out of their way to avoid original content they would otherwise enjoy, authors are becoming more and more disenchanted with their personal creations and are turning to nerd culture icons and cheap tactics to get viewers.

I can't tell you how many animators I have spoken to that have shunned their own creations in favor of sub-pop culture parody and disjointed scripts sprinkled with toilet humor and profanity. a cartoon catering to everyone who's forgotten what cartoons are all about. And here we are shoving away everything about cartoons that was originally appealing and magical, because we're pretty much forced to.

I'm not pointing the finger at any one person here. I think it's part of the bigger picture - bigger than Newgrounds, too. But if people really care about the future of cartoons and animation, we wouldn't be seeing this kind of blatant favoritism.

People will find what they want if they want it. They don't need to be spoon fed it all.

For thirty years animators who strive to create something genuinely unique have gotten nothing but a slap in the face. It's sickening and it has to stop someday, before they all disappear.

Lastly, this post is not about me. I'm not writing this out of self-pity, bitterness or spite. I'm being honest. I care a lot about the future of animation, and what I see around me is very troubling. The industry is bad enough, but where the future lies is in the small corners of the animation world. Newgrounds is one of them. I spend a lot of time trying to encourage and teach frame-by-frame animation, and creating your own characters and scripts. That is what is important to me. If I really cared about being popular, my list of flash cartoons would look a lot different.

Come to think of it, where's the visual appeal with sprite movies anyways? They look ugly as fuck if you zoom in even as much as x2.

The ratings and review systems sucks 'course. But I haven't seen any good rating systems anywhere. So don't know how anyone could say anything about that.
All the scores I see in everything, everywhere is from 8-10.
It's just biased and honestly it feels unnecessary.
Isn't reviews made to the creator themselves to begin with?

Reviews in NG is a comment section. Really, thats how they all turn out.
Would you tell people if you disliked a movie, or liked it?
Hell, go to imdb. They all go 8-10. I go piratebay.
"This movie sucks ass, don't watch it."

there should be a button on front page that leads to a collection of (good) origional cartoons. the FP is what tom and wade like, not what we like. but it's pretty gay workin on an awesome toon to be beatin by a meet n'fuck game, but its the silly voters.

lol
u putted
all da video game characters
in a truck
dat is so funy!
how do u com up with dat?!!?!!?!!??

If Tom was going to prohibit the unoriginal swill on this site from winning awards, he would have done it long ago. The problem is the majority of the user base goes towards the game observations with sub par animation over original, well drawn, well thought out movies. Therefore their voice is louder. And as it seems Tom listens to the louder voice.
We also can't rely on the userbase for the better either because things are more likely to get worse.

Maybe someday Newgrounds will honor the greater videos over what gets honored now, but for now if you want to be appreciated for artistic merit then you will have to submit your work to other sites. It is a huge shame really, because Newgrounds is a great site, just the users ruin it.

As Time passses by, I cant help but hate these parody things, and start being more attracted to original content. It is an evolutive process.

I dont really think a videogame parody is NECESARILY bullshit for the sake of being one. hans van harken and jhonny utah are good examples of how can you make something great and that its obvious had effort put in. but when you make a million crappy frame by frame animations and shit, and even sell stuff like if it was your own... well. there´s the problem.

As for sprite movies. I think... I am more inclined to agree with what you said ... sadly. There are so many crappy animators winning shit. I tought peole liked my sprite movies because of my humor, but obviously there is a hughe impact on the user thanks to videogames.

I was a kid once too you know? I know how it feels like to see a videogame character in a flash. werent you a fan of randy solem when you started making sprite movies blordow?

but times change and so do us.

I do think these exists a very evident favoritism towards egoraptor and kirbopher for example.

2 days ago my cousin said the most retarded thing ever.
he saw brawl taunts and he said it was awesome lol rofl.

then, about 30 minutes later, I showed him metroplois circuit and he said it was not original and it was boring and that guys in skaters or whatever has been done a million times before.

I wanted to break his face in the wall.

well im just a self teacher and still kinda new first year anyways. and i would say my stuff if origanal, and the more i make tha fucken better they will be. I got a new style im working on, fbf is much more lovley to me now.

SECOND TOUGHT

and this is something you will all have to agree with.

how come NOTHING by rtil or by Leafworthy is one of the 50 best of all time?

"how come NOTHING by rtil or by Leafworthy is one of the 50 best of all time?"

Because of the hyperactive voting nowadays the top 50 is constantly shifting,

when things settle you'll probably see Circuit or Move your Feet up there.

If you are a web flash artist and you need encouragement to be original this is a problem already, you should quit what you're doing and go work for a corporate bastard who tells you what to do.

I can see where you're coming from, but i have to disagree with a few points.
I think that although alot of parodies and sprite movies are unoriginal and boring (mine included), there are some really good examples which I don't think should be disqualifyed. Take 'Chris and Harry' for example. It was a giant DBZ parody adding to the thousands we already have, but it was really well executed and I could honestly give it a 10. With sprite films, although the art is not their own, the animation and storyline can still make for an interesting watch which may deserve a prize. Orginality is good, but difficult, and if every beginner had to come up with a completely new idea every time they wanted to make a flash with a chance of winning something, it would put them off. At least when something original is created it is usually recognised here.

Just a few thoughts...

Oh, and i think we shouldn't be elitist and only let people of high levels or achievements review. After all this is 'Everything, by Everone' and that includes points of view. It wouldn't be a bad idea to increase reviewing power of people who actually contribute though...

I MADE A PAROGIE ONCE

BETCHA HATE ME

I, Dylan Lawrence... Hereby vow to make an original flash-NO... TWO original flash movies to every parody/sprite movie!

C'mon Newgrounders... we can all do our part, and give those much deserved baby steps toward originality! WHO'S WITH ME?

This parody problem on ng sorta reminds me of global warming problem.

we all waste and pollute, so its time to give something back to the earth by plainting a tree or two!

in the case of newgrounds, make an original thing.

Actually this is kinda like Television right now... the reality shows are taking over and getting good ratings.

Why? because this new generation is attracted to familiarity... meaning they can relate, and are more entertained by things that can happen to them, or sparks a memory in their feeble little noggins.

Why do Newgrounders like videogame parodies? Same reason... they instantly get that familiar fix of childhood memories!

hey its the internetz buddy... can't expect that the place will be full of deep-thinking artistic types.

I'm with Tom on this one. He's doing everything he possibly can to make things work. He's not dishing out money to the sprites, and he's giving quality work as prominent a spot as possible. He does whatever he can to promote overlooked masterpieces (ie a MILLION treasure hunt contests).

Aside from that, there's nothing that can be done.

Just stop worrying too much about it. Gripe a little here, whine a little there (the best way to keep the sprite animators feeling uncomfortable), but at the end of the day, just leave it be.

Do your part to let them know they're not the least bit legitimate, but beyond that, let it rot in its own corner. Let's put our efforts to creating stuff; these constant suggestions of how to radically revolutionize Newgrounds get old fast and never produce any decent results other than to make fanboys whine, anti-fanboys whine more, and Tom feel bad because his efforts aren't appreciated.

Also, guys above, don't concern yourself with the top fifty anymore. It doesn't mean anything.
I think I was talking with Hans about this, and we both agreed, as it is these days, we could make a cartoon in a single afternoon that could rank in the top fifty.

Oh, and guess what... he proved our hypothesis. (See "Awesome's Creed".)

It's just a "quick list" for an instant fix for kids wanting something that will suit their tastes without having to look too hard.
It's not actually a compilation of quality and deserving animations and games ranked in order of talent and ability shown through those works.

I'm not entirely sure I agree with the overall assessment of newgrounds sad state of affairs. I still think that Newgrounds is one of the better places to get your work hosted and seen.

I recently released an 'original content' short and recieved a fair ammount of good feedback and positive comments. I recieved far more views than I ever would have releasing at most other popular community sharing sites, and I came out of with with a great ammount of information about what people liked and would like to see more of.

Albiet I do not care much about awards and prizes (don't get me wrong, I am utterly thankfull to Tom and the NG crew for any award or prize I have or may in the future win, I just find the instant feedback and exposure in and of itself to be a far better reward), therefore I am not so focused on who is doing better than myself and wether of not they deserve it (again, not trashing people who think that way, It is just not a concern of mine.)

I think the people who develop original content will later in their careers reap their own rewards. If you spend countless hours on a sprite or videogame parody movie, it may do tremendously well on the internet, but the sad truth is (with few exceptions) that you will never be able to license or sell your work without severe legal backlash.

I admit that my overall goal in submitting to newgrounds is to gain perspective from my proposed audience on a series that I am in development on, so my goals may be different from the average NG user, but through this I have come to find that there is room on Newgrounds for all kinds of content, and although it may at times seem like a middle school cafeteria with thousands of adolescents screaming over eachother about their favorite rehashed jokes and characters, there is definitely room for quality original content as well.

I guess my attitude on the whole thing is, let the children have their jokes, let them have their fun and games, it doesn't hurt anyone and it is an important part of growing up and growing as an artist. The important thing is to focus on your work and ways to make it work for you. You will never (once again, with few exceptions) gain a bountiful income or immense notaritety from posting on newgrounds alone, however those with a mature mind, original content, and a bit of a creative thought process towards marketing themselves can find Newgrounds to be an incredibly usefull tool in building a name and career for themselves.

Make the shit you want. Ratings are superficial. Everybody knows this stop whining .

If you make original stuff that is good, people will follow suit because they will be inspired by your work.

If prize money is favorable towards original work wouldn't the the desire then be driven by monetary gain more than desire to make original toons anyway?

It is up to YOU to make stuff that is not shit. Everyone who complains about this stuff DOES NOT DO IT because they're too busy COMPLAINING to work on something worth a shit.

TL;DR but this is the problem that is makeing Newgroudns being turned into a peiace of crap.

Technically its illegal for any flash that contain copyrighted music or characters to win money anyway, and while music still does occur sometimes the character thing has slowly been pushed out, thats why Alvin didnt win anything for his latest atrocity. The fact is tho, NG needs sprites and video game garbage to bring in the traffic that allows Tom to give out prizes in the first place.And even if original content was to be pushed forward even more, most submissions would end up being bad family guy style sitcoms, because thats all the kids seem to like, and thats all the kids know how to make.

i think egoraptor sayd it clearly.
JUST SHUT THE FUK UP

A few months ago ashford pride made a movie with a foreboding title. It was called "Awesome Grounds".

Well ladies and gentlemen, that's might as well what this site should be called (at least right now), with the top row on the front page slot dedicated to an "awesome" movie and an "awesome" parody, an "awesome" t-shirt in the newgrounds store, and pretty much every "awesome" movie in the top 100, along with han's "awesome's creed".

I can't go to newgrounds with seeing something not about egoraptor or his coveted video game parody series. It makes me wonder sometimes if pursuing anything but half-assed cartoons making mildly funny observations about video games laced with profanity is even worth it. Truly, they are what bring the masses of 13-year olds to this site, and thus increases traffic and competition in the internet world. But you have to ask yourself, with this sort of two-bit audience increasing in numbers, are they really interested in watching anything else?

I understand that it's a dog eat dog world in the online entertainment business, and to compete you have to pretty much put up content that a majority of internet browsers would click on. This includes either women or video games. Things they already know they want. And that's all they want. They sign up, watch more, and come back and do it again later. They're trained to know that what they want is easily accessible and is promoted all over the site.

Original content is often shuffled off to the bottom of the page, or never gets any attention to begin with. Now comes into play the whole 'they won't click on it unless there's a boob for the icon', etc etc. That's because they've been fashioned to think that way.

I'm not saying i have all the mysterious answers to the way people's minds work. But this much is true - if all people click on are breasts and video game icons, and you give them breasts and video game icons, you're not pushing the envelope.

Newgrounds is the epitome of user-generated content. We already have a massive advantage over youtube in the fact that making a cartoon involves so much more creativity than snappily editing your webcam footage. So instead of 200 cartoons coming out every minute, we have 200 cartoons coming out every day. That gives someone a better chance of breaking out and being discovered for his hard work, and a reward for a job well done.

But in the same way that viewers are trained that they don't have to go out of their way to avoid original content they would otherwise enjoy, authors are becoming more and more disenchanted with their personal creations and are turning to nerd culture icons and cheap tactics to get viewers.

I can't tell you how many animators I have spoken to that have shunned their own creations in favor of sub-pop culture parody and disjointed scripts sprinkled with toilet humor and profanity. a cartoon catering to everyone who's forgotten what cartoons are all about. And here we are shoving away everything about cartoons that was originally appealing and magical, because we're pretty much forced to.

I'm not pointing the finger at any one person here. I think it's part of the bigger picture - bigger than Newgrounds, too. But if people really care about the future of cartoons and animation, we wouldn't be seeing this kind of blatant favoritism.

People will find what they want if they want it. They don't need to be spoon fed it all.

For thirty years animators who strive to create something genuinely unique have gotten nothing but a slap in the face. It's sickening and it has to stop someday, before they all disappear.

Lastly, this post is not about me. I'm not writing this out of self-pity, bitterness or spite. I'm being honest. I care a lot about the future of animation, and what I see around me is very troubling. The industry is bad enough, but where the future lies is in the small corners of the animation world. Newgrounds is one of them. I spend a lot of time trying to encourage and teach frame-by-frame animation, and creating your own characters and scripts. That is what is important to me. If I really cared about being popular, my list of flash cartoons would look a lot different.

Seeing as how we're all fighting the same fight etc I was wondering if it would be okay for people to vote FAIRLY on this:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view /469430

It IS original, it has NO video game references and is VERY enjoyable but for these very reasons it has been cruelly under-rated. Come on, 3.44?
Don't be a cunt. Let's sort this out.

I'm making quite a few original things at the moment. I just don't have any of them finished, and usually when I get a video-game parody idea, I finish it a whole lot faster :(

Why do people keep talking about this? Its never going to change.
It
Is
NEVER
GOING
TO
CHANGE

just make what you want and enjoy your small niche audience/fanbase.
and maybe if you're REALLY FUCKIN LUCKY, you'll get work.

Here is what Egoraptor meant: If you make original stuff, people will follow suit because they will be inspired by your work. That is, if they can find the work through the shitty game parodies that I make and everybody copies.
Oh, and according to me, making a complaint paragraph to try improve the place you want to like, but can't partly because of me being a sellout. Takes months.
BRB
VIDEO GAME OBSERVING
THEN WRITING SCRIPT TO WHAT I HAVE OBSERVED
I bet somebody will agree with me JUST because I am Egoraptor, maybe somebody called "beast-unleashed" or something who will not say why he agrees with me, but just wants to say my name and think I will notice.

I will be off to make money off of copyrighted stuff now. Stop complaining bro because if things change, my fame and money will vanish.

After reading where you said if the sprites are original and made by the author they would be eligible for prizes etc. , I'm starting to agree with you a bit. Although video game parodies are abundant on this site, it's just today's culture, something that almost everyone will be able to get.

As for the original work, just tough it, all the great artists have encountered difficulties, this could just be yours. :P

egoraptor said "If prize money is favorable towards original work wouldn't the the desire then be driven by monetary gain more than desire to make original toons anyway?"

If you are illwillpress, yeah. and prize money is not favorable towars original work at all really.

So basically what you said is that a person that can make original content and win money, WITHOUT it being the main reason for doing these things, cant exist?

I KNOW there are many animators that dont do this for the money even tough they have been successful at getting it.

It doesnt matter if it is a game parody, an original cartoon or whatever, If the motivation is to have fun with this, everything is just fine and great, because you are doing this FOR YOURSELF.

But if money and popularity are the motivation, whats the point of making this things? People that sell out will never be happy with what they did.

I have never won prize money before, but If I ever do, I hope it is for something i truly deserve and have worked in for a looong time.

This is the way i see it.

I'm siding with Tom and Egoraptor on this. If you want to see more original cartoons on here; LEAD THE WAY. By the way, expect Camp North to end up like TXM in a few years.

"It's funny, my halloween flash has dropped to 3.62. I'm thinking maybe it's because Egoraptor makes a cameo, dies horribly thus fanboy's vote 0. OR it's just a really horrible, badly animated piece of crap."

No sir. It is NOT because it's horrible. It is definitely not terrible. It's amazing. GOOD things are getting insanely underrated nowadays. BAD things are getting insanely overrated nowadays. I don't know, or will ever know how the Flash has such a low score.

"It
Is
NEVER
GOING
TO
CHANGE"

I am slowly realizing this. And it's kinda sad. But it's true.

And CampNorth looks really cool. But if people keep talking about it, all the fags here will transfer over there, and it'll be NG all over again.

Btw Blordow I love you.

3 days from now this thread will be completely forgotten and no one will care.

5 years from now, Legend of Khale will still be someone's favorite cartoon.

I'm just saying, man. If you wanna try to make a difference just do something instead of getting a bunch of angry teenagers riled for a couple days.

yes, but what if this happens: you spent almost a year getting inspiration for your parody, and then put in a lot of hard work to animate and etc. you submit, but then are declined a prize because its a parody. meanwhile, a poorly animated, cruddy ORIGINAL flash is basking in the light of the prize. I'm not saying that your idea is bad, but come on, some people who are more ehrm.. mentally challenged... might have worked hard on their parody or sprite flash. but i wouldn't know since i don't animate myself :\. also, nice picture.

I don't think any situation is out of hand yet. More people will like what they're familiar with. Most people here like video games and videogame characters, parodies and the like. Just because someone makes a flash with Mario in it doesn't mean they worked any less hard on it. Is it fair that people don't get as much attention for original characters? No. But that's just the way it is. The community like what it likes and there's nothing you can do, and in my eyes there is nothing that should be changed.

Taking awards away from people who earned them, people who voted for them to win would be stupid IMO. Everyone should be eligible to win, they win because the people vote for them and the community gets what it wants. If you make something that you consider original and it doesn't get a good score, I don't think you should be pissed off. Take it and try to make something better. Improve on your animation, make your jokes more accessible, form a style that's easily differentiable from other people. If you're only here to create original content a daily award shouldn't mean anything.

Also, there's still a lot of great things coming into newgrounds and still a plethora of great artists here.

I absolutely see where you're coming from, bro. It's frustrating sure, but it's just all in how you look at it. Either way, whether 1,000 views or 1,000,000 views, you're still just creating what you want, and you shouldn't let some fickle rating system stop you from creating what you love. =)

I'm sure someone's already said my part before, but this caught my attention enough to say something...
First off, I agree with you. Newgrounds is becoming a great, big, festering, stagnant little shit heap because of the lack of originality. I agree that the Meet-and-Fucks really shouldn't be getting front page. What I find funny that you fail to mention, is that the DOMO movies are getting front page-- which, are made by a COMPANY, and is being praised as if a SINGLE ARTIST is creating and posting this nearly bi-weekly.

I'd demand something be done about it, but Aeria games pays for ad space here on NG, so I highly doubt anything'd get done, and they're technically not breaking any rules. Fuckers.

Anyway, back on topic. That's all fine and dandy, and yes, some of this shit that's getting through the portal is really getting old, and needs some kind of better... "filtering" system, persay, to keep the lame shit off the front page.
I liked your idea for adding a category section for when you submit; like they have on Deviantart. It's pretty dandy so long as you don't get ridiculously complicated like D.A.'s turned it into, where you need to be a genius to figure out what exactly your 5 minute drawing of Naruto dry humping Sasuke drawn with a piece of turd-covered crayon needs to go. And hey, maybe it could be like a rite of passage for new mods to have to sift through reports of mis-categorized crap movies. D.A. normally doesn't care when its thrown in the wrong pile, so why should NG?

Submitions should be given the chance to be categorized, and from there, voted upon. This is where I start thinking you're a douche-bag though: ALL categories at that point should be given the same chance to get a prize. Do you work for disney? Are you a professor in animation? Are you the god of animation, and can deem some animator's toils as worthy and unworthy based upon their medium? Well-done sprite movies are actually really hard to do. In fact, they're harder to do then fbf-- at least with some of these idiots who call their fbf dicking around in flash art. I've done both, and I focus on fbf, because its easier for me to do, and I can b.s. better than I can with sprites.

Anyway, to summarize: yes, categories should be made. No, "original" movies should not be considered the only ones worthy of being given prizes. Why? because FOAMY is considered original under that category, isn't it? And I think everyone can agree he's gotten old, and really needs to try something ACTUALLY original.
And I realize that means Tom'll have to shell out more money. No, he doesn't. He doesn't even have to give out prizes for this. He's doing that because he's an awesome guy like that. Maybe each category can get its own award, and the cash prize goes to the one that had the highest score when weighted upon the votes (NG is still a mock-democracy after all)

I also looked at your halloween submition. That was the worst plot I think I've seen in awhile that got a score over 3.0. I gave it a 4. Did I do it because all the famous Newgrounds symbols were dead? No. I gave it that because the message was old, filled with nothing but clear violence towards said symbols (which is also like beating a dead horse, almost literally), and wasn't very... halloween-y, really. Your animation was way above par though, and I'm glad we have someone here on NG that also knows what he's doing visually, and audio-wise-- I just hope you can work your story-boarding out, and can find a message you want to convey in a clear, thoughtful manner. Ever thought about running a series like Xin? Necropolis? I think if you put your energies into a decent story with a defininte ending, you could do very well here on NG, no one seems to wanna stick their neck out to write a decent story anymore.

If your qualms are with these dumb 13 year old boys who can't get their hands or heads around anything that's not a penis or a video game, then you're in the wrong community. It's like going on 4chan and hating anime, lolcats, or any internet meme/fad for that matter. You're choosing the wrong place to hang out. If you want to be viewed on your artistic talents, I suggest D.A., but you better draw a naked chick once a month, or draw homo-erotic pictures bi-weekly, or you're never making the front page. Newgrounds is made for, and maintained mostly by the community, so if you can't connect to them, they're not going to vote high for you, simple as that. It's a sad existance, but its not like this is the only place you can get critique.
And hey, if you're sick of this same old crap-- post something different. I'm working on my own, and I'm going to seriously be pissed if it gets blammed.

Good luck, and here's to hoping that small-time animators, voice actor/esses, and muscians get the limelight they deserve.

Personally, I'd be much more satisfied showing my original ideas to 20,000 people than to show Mario to 200,000 people.

That's a lot of text for something that is extremely simple. If you want to encourage someone to do something, award them for doing it.

The way I see it, originality is just one of many things that should be looked for in games and movies, and I don't see it as a priority. If the gameplay is good, I don't care if other people have used the same sprites (I'm not talking about 8-32 bit sprites, but all sprites) to represent this or that. As long as I actually enjoy playing it, I don't care. I see humor-driven movies the same way. As long as it is drawn well enough to convey what is desired, then I don't care if it's well-animated. And if it covers something other people have covered, again, as long as its funny, I don't care. For me, the value is in the purpose - funny movies should be funny and games should be fun to play. Things like storylines, settings, sprites, etc. are only additions that can enhance but not take away from them.

If a game or movie relies on originality, it's going to fail, because it is crap. Originality doesn't make something good. It makes a good thing better, and even then, it is unnecessary to achieve that aim.

Also, I think it's a bit silly to complain about the audience as the problem. The people that visit this site do so for what they enjoy on it. There is no accounting for taste. Yours is different than theirs. Different, but not better. Requesting that things be changed to suit your arbitrary tastes is absolutely ridiculous. I might as well request that movies that do not include cock-jokes be moved into their own category, which I would dub "crap", to be contrasted with "awesome". And by that standard, all of your movies are crap, unless I missed something.

oh i jus watched your halloween movie..haha nice one!

im suprised ego is commenting in here considering he gets beaten to death by RTIL in the movie :S

That's interesting.

As a newbee to newgrounds, I find it surprising to hear that originality is not respected.
I am surprised because I see that some of the original stuff usually has over a hundred reviews, and some decent scoring, but I didn't know that it wasn't anything compared to the sprite movies.
True, I must admit that I got acquainted with this site because of the video game parodies and sprite animations, and even I want to put some stuff in here.

Reading this little article is really deterring from doing so, but I guess I shouldn't be afraid of showing some of my ideas.
Should I really give it a try and submit some stuff in?

In the end, I guess that, by reading your article, I could try and leave some original stuff and be unnoticed, and then add some fan material to see what happens; a balance between both I mean.

Lol, you make one original flash, after fucking years of sprite movies and newgrounds referenced movies, and you all of a sudden discovered the holygrail of original entertainment.

How about you and unkijoe shut up and put up already.

Btw Im not trying to single you out, everyone needs to do this, preaching on in text wont change anything, you need to make a change by example, if more original entertaining content was made then more artists would be influenced by them.

its really just that easy

its all well and good that you've moved on from sprite flashes, but the truth of the matter is, you made them, and quite a few I might add. and Why? because maybe you weren't sure of your own artwork and just wanted to test the flash waters? or maybe you just needed some encouragement, and easy 5s from a sprite movie was juts enough motivation to go at it on your own.

whatever the gay reason you have for making sprite movies, it still stands, you made them to have fun, you made them to learn flash, you made them to get encouragement.

and you are being quite the douchbag posting this and trying to forbid anyone else from testing the flash waters such as you have. If simply have aimed your attacks at the few people who refuse to grow from flash movies, your case would be even smaller.

how about looking at it that way.

I made a parody once, but I was making fun of some newgrounds flash that was really bad. Not many people got the joke.

what's with the childish reply?

I think I made a fair point, and you fag out when you dont have justifiable response?
I actually thought you were trying to make a serious point with your blog,
I realize now you where just following a fad. forgive me for considering you an equal.

I disagree. (And that's not because I enjoy making sprite movies.)

I have never really experienced a situation where somebody rated a movie high because Mario was in it. While this may occur with less common characters, who seldom appear in a cartoon, I have yet to experienced it.

And also, take notice that animating sprites take work. While it may be easier than frame by frame, it still is work, and therefore sprite animators are entitled to rewards.

Anyway, some people just aren't good enough at drawing to animate a beautiful, original skit. Take them into consideration.

Don't give a damn about what happens with other people and you'll be a much happier person.

Because of the audience, hard working original flashes are being overshadowed by these other submissions."

See the thing is, this isn't really true. A lot of original works are either quirky, very personal, or simply flawed. and Well its up to the artist to make the flashes that much more phenomenal. And well, thats just goes with the territory. See if you make a sprite movie, and or a parody, and the animation is shit, it still works, because you are making a joke based on something everyone can relate to.
When you make an original piece of flash, you cant really expect everyone to just appreciate just because its "original". At this point your piece needs to be exciting and have a certain level of polish, its an extra hurdle everyone has to overcome if they want to go the "original" route. Obviously the average viewer will be more disenchanted with your original piece, because there is no association with it.
and thats why you must over come that obstacle yourself with your submission.

asking the audience to basically Love your flash as you would any mario submission is ridiculous. BUT.. its not impossible.
as is the case with Adam Phillips, and the There she is series. it can be done.
and without the unnecessary text walls.

BTW telling the audience to grow up and ignore these sprite movies basically means alot of people new to flash wouldn't get the encouragement they might need to keep going. now image if some asshat decided to post what you just did, and it caught on, just around the time you were learning flash, and everyone decided to give your wack ass sprite submissions zero's across the board, filed away from public eye like you want them to be, you seriously think you wouldve been encouraged to do more after that warm reception?

In the end though, it is up to each individual where they're going to go with their flashes"

Exactly. In the end its up to the artist, not the audience. and if the artist is too weak minded to move foward, thats no one's fault but the artist.

"The audience does play a huge part on what direction they take."

maybe for the ones that dont care, and those are too few and far in-between.
in the end preaching to the audience on what to like, is selfish, and silly.

I'm not sure I understand your problem with Sprites. If there's a great story, amazing animation, and some well thought out points, why not let it get what it deserves? I mean, look at your sprite animation series, "Escape to Snow Path". It's an amazingly well done Animation for its time (And is still great even now!), and people are STILL rating it and praising it. NOT because it's Chrono Trigger (Although there are people there who did, but the same would happen with "Original Work". Look at the Audio Portal if you need more proof of it, people compare original composers to Video Game music.), but because of it's great plot, good Voice Acting, and smooth Animations.

Look at Granfaloon, for example. He's got both Original, and Paradical works. BOTH are up in the 4's as far as rating is. And both were in the Top 50's for a time (I think they are now). Bigfoot has several Paradies with Sprites, but his animations are smooth, attractive, and the music goes very well as are the sound effects.

I find it unfair you completely get rid of Sprites from animations, when Sprite movies are more heavily rated than anything else. You don't realize how many "Itz sprite. 0 bad." there are on Newgrounds. Sprites aren't that easy to do (as i've seen) to the callibur of say... "Super Mario Bros. Z" or "Final Fantasy: Sonic X" or heck, even "LoL: Oh Yes, and Spiders" where all of the Link sprites were custom made and the humor amazing. I especially want to reference LoL, seeing as there are no "Cock Jokes", "Overused Cursing", or even tons of death. But clean, very well done humor. Give it a look.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but Sprite movies can be really well done, like yours are. In fact, i've seen them when they first came out about 5 years ago, and I still remember the laughs and kicks I got out of "Wario Gets Straight", or as stated before "Escape to Snow Path" which I thought was amazing back then (which is my reason of seeing this post, I recentally wanted to see them again).

I feel a balance of the two would be a great thing. Make some good Sprite movies, with a mix of Animated Cartoons as you've done. A good artist can adapt to the audience, and doing both would make everyone happy. Granfaloon does all drawn work, but a clever mix of parodies, and original (His Red Riding Hood Flash was a clever look at the story Little Red Riding Hood).

But, what it all comes down to is opinion. There will always be haters of EVERYTHING. But you must think: Originality is VERY hard to come by, let alone GOOD ones. Why do you think in the Gaming District, GOOD original games are scarce (Which is why Mirror's Edge and The World Ends With You did so well, they were great original games!), and old games, rehashed (TMNT Turtles in Time Re-Shelled, Bionic Commando, Megaman 9, etc.) are also being released in bulk.

Just bare with it, if an Original Animation is good, people will notice it. If a Sprite Movie is bad, people will rate it down. Bashing on Spriters who spend hours, upon days, heck, years on a Sprite Flash and get good ratings for their hard work isn't the way to go, as i'm sure you wouldn't like "OMG Animation is bad, you should sprite again. 0/10." reviews as Spriters are getting lately. Just bare with it. I'm sure things'll look up.