So I know this is a big topic. I think something needs to be done to make it a bit more fair. It would make this place a hell of a lot better in my opinion.
Judging by most of the flash that wins awards and money these days, it seems a lot of users out their vote based on seeing their favorite video game characters make cameos. Yes this is a topic that has been going on for a long time. But will we see Newgrounds die out because of this? For me personally it is kinda embarrassing to be beaten out by a "meet n fuck" hentai flash game, which happened not too long ago when I submitted my halloween flash.
There are a lot of talented animators out there, who are really original but are being left in the shadows because a flash toon with nintendo characters was voted highly and stole the spotlight.
Another thing, regarding the halloween contest. I don't mean to be disrespectful here. But what's the point of making it a contest, when almost everybody wins? Someone even complained about not placing higher than what they did. I know Tom is a good person giving out so many prizes, it's a great thing he does, but seriously it was in no way a contest at the end of the day with that many winners.
Uhghhh, anyway back on subject here.
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.
With the appropriate category chosen, it will determine whether or not you are eligible for prizes. Sprite toons in my opinion, should be ruled out from any daily awards, cash what-so-ever. Parodies of any other sort are pushing the cash prize, maybe if they did win anything from the monthly awards (which happens pretty much all the time) they get a certain amount of % cut for using references to video games, whatnot.
The community, well, the hidden community I should say, are young, angry, have hormones going like crazy and tend to vote 5 based on their favorite video game stars, or artists who have made these famed parodies. They also seem to flock in the thousands, reviewing with "awsum! hahahahaha solin snak wuz tha awsomist best part i vote 5 k ^____^" perfect 10 scores.
it seems if we give an honest review on the same flash, with maybe a 4. These fan boys instantly mark the review as abusive. It's alright for them to review ridiculously high on it, but it's not okay to give an honest score on a truly mediocre film.
To solve this, maybe there could be a certain level, or flash award achievement which you'd have to obtain. (similar to making a front page post) which allows them to make a review.
Or you could just let this site keep downgrading itself in terms of originality and respect.
I just think there's a lot of things that need to be done here. Sure "Everything by Everyone"
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.
Maybe next time I shall resort to adding in a lot of video game references, and awesome tribute power ups that make egoraptor strong and give strength to overcome all. XDDDD!! vote over 9000 LMAO
But seriously. I like originality. I used to be not so original myself and I think we all weren't at some stage. But for me it was just a stepping stone and now I can proudly call a lot of my latest work, original.
I'm only saying this cause It would be disappointing to see newgrounds turn into a big festy sprite parody site with original works being submitted elsewhere because of the low chances of getting any sort of creditable feedback.
Like I said there are ways around this. There will be sacrifices, but will we see a change? Or will we see Newgrounds become Hentaispriteparodypenisgrounds. Everything by Morons. What are some other ways to encourage people to be more original?
But for now head over to campnorth while you can, it has everything in an art community. A lot of potential and a lot less feebleminded people!