I mean come on folks. I wasn't initially going to write this, but since it got front page i worked up a little steam.

Let's just talk about this whole SMBZ7 thing. And no, i'm not just going to mindlessly bash it for being a stolen sprite movie. Though that is a point i'd like to raise too, and it's not like that point hasn't been made a thousand times before.

It's come a long ways from angry frustration to just feeling downright pathetic. I'm not going on any more angry rants, all I can do now is sigh and frown at every new overblown sprite movie that reaps in popularity from hard working artists coming through the portal. If you've been here a few years, you begin to realize what a flash movie really is. Coming here for your first time it's understandable that you don't know anything about sprite movies, how they are made, or how you yourself could make one. At first sight these movies are amazing because to you, they are just like any other animation you see coming through the portal that looks decent enough. Something out of your grasp or capabilities.

This was also my mentality when i was about 11 or 12 years old, being new here.

However, you begin to realize as you get more into the flash world, or animation world in general, that these people have no real talent whatsoever. These animations are all the same with little tweaks in dialogue and plot, if even that. Most of them get ridiculously high scores as well, and are front paged. They are all predictable, the are all unoriginal. It's true what they say, that people love familiarity. And the community does nothing to stop this. The community does not recognize criticism, they only recognize insult. The community is stubborn, when you criticize something they like, they immediately take it as personal offense and don't read into what you're really saying. How to improve. It's always insulting to them. It's not even worth bothering to write a good review anymore. Short reviews that say 'OMG DIS IS GREAT MAKE MORE!' are constantly flooding these sprite movies, while the lower scoring reviews (which are ALWAYS lengthier and more helpful) get marked as unhelpful.

These people can be forgiven, however. Most of them are ignorant in the core aspects of animation, which is not to say they are dumb, only that this is not their field to be giving judgment calls on. What can't be forgiven are the incessant, obnoxious, self-empowering staff.

Many of the staff here (including many of the site visitors too) i've realized, don't give a flying s*** on what you have to say unless you are criticizing the community. You may make many posts about how the progress of your latest animation is going, you can release an animation on to this website, but the only attention I have ever warranted from most of the staff is from criticizing the website. They don't care about whatever you're working on, unless you're egoraptor. But if you start insulting the website, suddenly you're the focus of attention! Not only that, but i have gotten obnoxius, ignorant, and down right rude comments on things I did not even incite. Take this for example.

At one point, I submitted audio to the audio portal. The audio was entitled 'Poultergheist', was labeled under the category 'miscellaneous', and had the author's comments 'Here is a song with me singing and some piano. It's not that good.'. Somehow, I incited a review from staff member mindchamber that said,
'banging on a piano like a chimp doesn't make it edgy or experimental.,'
WELL THANK YOU MINDCHAMBER! For that excellent, helpful, and encouraging review. You are really improving the state of being here by leaps and bounds. You f*** arrogant prick. I hope you say that to some kid who actually gives a s*** about making music someday and he quits his passion just because you gave him a snide remark like that. I'd also like to give out a special f*** you to any of the other staff members who have given arrogant, obnoxious, unhelpful remarks to me in the past for negative things i've had to say about the site, and not actually given a s*** about me as an author. Yeah, f*** you. And please feel free now to write a comment on this post about how i'm full of myself and think i'm so 'artsy and experimental', i'll just laugh it all off because you're all so f*** predictable.

I'd also like to say thank you to Tom Fulp, who is the saving grace of this entire site.

But in all honesty folks, please, please, PLEASE realize that what some of us are trying to say to you is only trying to engage in some sort of tactful argument about why something does not appeal to us. When I say, 'This animation is unoriginal and pointless. It's a sprite movie with none of your own artwork. I'd like to see you make something original for once.' and you say 'He's only jealous because none of his stuff gets popular like yours!!' then you are completely thick-headed and missing the point. Oh, and another thing, just because it's popular doesn't mean it's in good taste, nor does it mean the author worked hard on it. Think about Numa Numa dance back in the day.

I guess there is only one thing left to say, and that is that Newgrounds is not a site for aspiring talented flash artists to get big. It's a site for pop culture. These are words that carry true value to only those who have submitted several dozen of their original animations and stories to the flash portal over the years, and then some schmuck with a copy of flash submits his Super Mario Bros s*** that alone gets more views than all of your movies combined. Between the staff and the community, for an aspiring artist, this is really not the place to be anymore.

I have to agree...you have a good point that people are just coming here for the same old stuff, and original work gets shoved to the side while the same old tripe adorns the front page.

However, my question to you is this: Are you suprised?
No matter what intentions go into the creation of most any site like NG, real "talent" (and I use that term to describe good animation, not unoriginal stories which are the only thing most sprite movies have to offer) will get shoved to the wayside because not everyone will go there to submit. The problem is that people come here solely to watch movies. And these sprite movies, like TV, tend to be the same old stuff-just coughed up again in a different package...I am not saying that sprite animations suck-many are fairly entertaining. The problem is that it never really very original. It seems to be the same stuff, and thats what the people who come to these sights just to watch (and either not submit, or submit more of the same) like. They don't want new and unfamiliar, because they are afraid. They worry over what they might see, and would rather stick wih the same, predictable stuff. Thats the problem here.

Many people, like me, tend to have great ideas but have no way to express them. I cannot accomplish any kind of animation, and don't have the focus to actually write anything of decent length. However, many people come by with marginally decent ideas-many of which are the same old things-and know how to get sprites to move and tell their story, and people love it. Meanwhile, a third group, the people who can animate well and have great ideas (like the first) get little attention from the viewing audience (a fourth group) because the audience just wants the same old, same old. The third people and first groups get annoyed because they feel that people with little talent are getting wrongly deserved attention, and they feel that the second group should try harder to produce some original material. The fourth (and sometimes second) group(s) get angry with the first and third groups because they do not want to admit that they liked something that's only marginally good, and then try to blame it on the jealousy of the first and third groups. Every one oends up fighting, and thoughful people get labelled "haters" and end up worse off just because they wanted to swim against the current of the same old tripe

Of course, that doesn't mean we have to rant. We must, unfortunately, acknowledge that these things will happen, and there is no way to stop them. But even when we try to encourage people to do something different, we get even more hatred sent our way. Us "haters" are merely the "hated" and there is nothing that we can do about it...

If you ever find a place that doesn't follow these unfortunate rules, please inform me. Until then, I shall go back to living under my rock, or whatever it is that these members of the second and fourth groups say we do...

This guy sounds like he's just mad because all his stuff sucked and people told him so.