I've been coming to Newgrounds for a very long time, and since I have very little going on today, I thought I might take some time to write about the evolution of this website and me along with it. This will probably turn into a ridiculously long and boring read, and will probably reach what I like to refer as the "Kirbopher-Length". If you don't want to read about Newgrounds, go watch this instead.
The very first thing that brought me to Newgrounds was Pico's School. At that time there wasn't a thing called the portal. It was just a collection of funny movies and games. To be honest, I can barely remember what the site looked like at the time. I enjoyed Pico's School a lot, and hadn't really experienced anything quite like it. I knew that flash existed, but I hadn't realized that you could do things like this with it. I then found out about other games featuring the Pico characters such as Nene's Interactive Suicide, and Pico Roulette. I loved that shit, so I decided to keep checking out the site for new stuff. Killing Celebrities was a great fun, as well as clubbing seals.
Since updates were rather slow, I'd check for new content every now and then. FDA (Fuck Dat' Ass) had some hilarious music videos, but made you take a quiz that you had to pass before you could watch the video (wtf?). Other games by Tom like Samurai Asshole kept me coming, but as with most other sites at the time, I would check it in passing.
Then the portal came into existence. That shit changed the rules of the game. Anyone could post their animations, and slowly but surely people started to turn out some incredible stuff. If you haven't seen movies like Big Black Guy Named Ben, Star Wars Lo Mein, Barnyard Shenanigans, or Blundercats, you're a fucking dickhead. Things like Final Task and Heroes of Cybertron changed my perspective on shit. Also, looking back, I have no idea why, but ABC's made me laugh until I cried.
However, one of the greatest movies I had ever seen on Newgrounds at the time was Keeblur. Though it might not quite live up to today's standards, it still stands as an epic comedy. My buddies and I watched it so many times I could easily quote the entire thing. That movie made me want to learn how to use flash, and that same week I downloaded a free trial and started learning all I could. Later I would see screenshots for Keeblur 2, and they looked fucking sick. Sadly.... I have yet to see the follow up.
Newgrounds continued to evolve. The Front page became more coherent and unified. Flash became more cutting edge, and began to truly resemble more mainstream, big budget animation. More and more classics came out. With the community growing, spam started to become a regular occurrence, and the Clock Crew came into existence. It was actually one of them that made me make my first ever movie on NG. I left a review on a movie called Birdy, and shortly after, the creator messaged me calling me a "fag", or something along those lines, and that I should learn to make flash. I said I could make a movie in two days that scored higher than his. And while I was successful, that movie I made fucking suuuuuckssssss. Even to the standards of the time. In the future, I would go on to make a few Clock Day movies, on a different account. Anyone know what they are?
Not too much longer after that, the movie Genryu's Blade came out. I still think that is one of the greatest animations I've seen, and while it's no longer on Newgrounds (I think the animator got sued), you can still find it on the internet somewhere. That movie inspired me to create animation that is worthwhile, and not just in passing. Another favorite of mine, The Steven Segal Show (also no longer on newgrounds) cemented that ideal.
As the years passed I made a few animations here and there. Nothing special, but in my mind I was biding my time until I could solidify an idea that I would hopefully turn into the greatest animation ever. I wanted that spot on the front page, and though it seemed unattainable, I knew some day it would happen. That day did eventually come, with Random Eye Madness. It was a class project, and looking back, the project that took a month at the time would probably take me a weekend now a days. It's nothing special, but I learned a lot.
The following year I made a few other random projects, all the while biding my time until I was ready to start making my "serious" movie. One was a class project, one took an evening, and the other took a weekend. I made the front page with V-dub Spoof, which again, isn't that great but was fun to make.
Later in the year, I began to notice a growing trend. That trend was "poorly animated video-game parodies". It had been around for a long time, but never had it been as popular as it was then. I thought it'd be a good time to poke fun at them, and started animating How to Succeed on Newgrounds during my spare time in class. I even did some of the audio recording there, which in retrospect is pretty funny. After a few days of work I finished it, and released it in the morning. I went to class, and later that night I returned to see that it was on the front page, and had a ridiculously high score. That's always a huge surprise, especially when you think it's going to be blammed. I had also been working on a serious film in class, and that had been a good break from all the hard work. Later the following year I released Outlaw pt.1 to mixed reviews, which which was major disappointment after I had spent a year (on and off) working on it.
As all this happened, I think the largest change in Newgrounds since the introduction to the portal came into effect. Newgrounds gave its users an opinion.
With the introduction of user pages, users could now give their opinion on anything. Before, the only way you could get to know an artist was through their reviews, and their animations (or the Forums, but I rarely went there). With the introduction to user pages, people had a voice. Sometimes that voice was ugly, obnoxious, or spiteful. Sometimes it was inspirational, or insightful. Either way, it opened the floodgates, and has begun to facilitate countless debates on all things Newgrounds, as well as the world in general. It's interesting to see a community that both bites and embraces the hand that feeds.
I've seen Newgrounds evolve for the better over the ten odd years I've been coming here (I joined much later than I started being a regular). There used to not be a blue or green shade for portal entries. A very high score was once considered to be in the 4.15-4.25 range, which has inflated to 4.35-4.45 or so. The front page now has separate categories for both movies and games (which wasn't the case back in the day). There is a thriving audio portal that has an incredible pool of free music to choose from. Newgrounds now shares ad revenue which should be interesting to see how it works out in the long run. The search function actually works now. I have recieved the front page 5 times now, and I still document each one with a screen shot. It's still just as exciting as the first time.
I'm sure there are plenty of influences I'm leaving out. I still quote College University in my daily life, Tomorrows Nobodies is still great (especially the older ones), and if I got into all the serious cartoons I liked my character limit would run out. Everything that has come out on Newgrounds has influenced me in some way, and will continue to do so for as long as the site exists.
I will continue to create animations, and have several in production currently. More information on that will come once they start to resemble a coherent movie. So for all of you who enjoyed Pico Epsilon, I'm very grateful that you enjoyed it. For all of you who thought it sucked, if you gave me legitimate criticism, I respectfully listened to it. For all of you who thought Nene looked a bit manly, I agree and will fix it some time (I promise I know how to draw women). For those who hated the >9000 reference, I had no idea people would like it that much. There will be more serious movies from me, and I hope they surpass Epsilons quality. Since I don't have less than a month to meet a deadline, I imagine it will.
I hope you've enjoyed this retrospective. I know it's long as shit, but like I said at the top, I don't have much going on today, and thought at least someone would find it interesting. The times seem to be changing. More attention is being paid to original movies, while popular video-game parody series aren't immediately making it to the Top 50. To the people who have recently joined Newgrounds, I hope you don't take for granted how good it is now. And who knows what is to come. Maybe a "sent messages" section in the inbox? CRAZY!!!
