Everything, by Everyone

Newgrounds- Everything, by Everyone

Are you tired of the relentless monotony of college life, or do you need a break from soul crushing assignments and studying? If so, you should check out Newgrounds.com, an art and entertainment forum made entirely of user generated content. The site includes animations, artwork, music, and games. If you’re looking to kill a little time, Newgrounds is the place for you. 

            Once entering, you are brought to a neatly organized page topped with Tom Fulp, the creator, valiantly commanding his tank in order to combat internet boredom. The sides of the page are also typically adorned with a colorful collage of artwork done by one of the sites many artists. This artwork usually involves popular characters from creators on the site. The page is broken up into several categories mostly including the latest and greatest art, animation, featured artists, contests, and games. It also includes links to news about upcoming events on the site as well as news from the artists themselves. The top of the page is also split into categories of art, movies, music, and games where you can search for entries in those categories. When clicking on each, you can then further narrow your search into the latest, greatest, and most popular results from those four categories. However, this site does have advertisements which can be annoying at times. Another drawback from the overall layout of the site is that you cannot search for an individual artist. You are limited to searching only through the medium of the work, the title of the work, and any related tags. With this system it become quite difficult to find a specific artist unless you can remember the title of their work or get lucky by typing in random related words. However, the vibrant colors and artwork are quite appealing to the eye and help draw attention to the different works of art and categories. Overall the site’s organization functions quite well to allow for ease of access to anyone using it.

            Being that this site is comprised of user generated content, anybody could create an account and submit their work, hence the motto “Everything, by Everyone.” Newgrounds also allows for collaborations between different users on the site. Setting up an account on this site is much like setting up an account on YouTube, eBay, Amazon, and many other sites; it involves entering personal information, mostly your name and email address. In creating a profile you must also create a username. Much like a YouTube channel, this allows for the option of anonymity of the user. Upon submitting something to the site, you must agree to a few terms and conditions, then wait to allow for your submission to be checked for plagiarism and rated.  The rating system on this site is comparable to that of movie ratings, ranging from E for everyone to M for more mature audiences. The rating system allows the user to sort out categories involving violence, nudity, and profanity. Setting up a profile on this site also allows you to favorite, rate, and comment on other people’s submissions. The site also commonly features contests between the different mediums. These contests are typically themed around holidays or other events and are decided by the ratings of other users. The prize for winning varies from contest to contest. This account setup easily allows for people to have a place to submit their work and have it published and recognized, allowing for a person to create an online identity to base their work around.

            The movie category consists of a gallery of flash animations. These animations have a running time that ranges from about thirty seconds to thirty minutes if it’s a compilation; however, most only run for about two to three minutes. These animations typically are a comedic satire of some sort to game, movie or other bit of obscure subculture. There are some animations that are completely original with their own characters and animation styles, sometimes even having an entire series. With such short running time you could watch an entire series of original content possibly in less than thirty minutes. These animations also range from being ultra-violent, silly, comedic, and totally bizarre or any combination of these. Since this site is dedicated to entertainment and art it’s rare to find something that is serious or trying to bring light to a serious issue, most of the content is nonsense, created purely for fun. Although, to be honest a majority of these animations are downright unwatchable. They are devoid of any plot, animation ability, artistic ability, or creativity. Yet, taking in consideration the painstaking effort and complexities of creating flash animations it’s not a surprise that there is a myriad of horrible content. However, taking into consideration the tedious effort it takes to create these animations the horrible ones contrast the good videos. The organization of the site also helps sort out the garbage by being able narrow your search by the most popular or highest rated. The site also allows for the animations to be set up like YouTube videos, with a progress bar to jump from place to place in the video, as well as pause it. Only some of the newer animations have this feature though, almost all of the older ones require you to play through the video all the way. Overall the well-made videos are quite impressive, both artistically and entertainment wise, they’re great for when you have a little bit of time to kill.

            The games category is a gallery of flash based games. This category includes action, adventure, puzzle, strategy, simulation, and many other various genres. Like the movie category you can narrow your search by looking at only the latest, greatest, and popular. The games themselves are typically very well made, developed by either independent companies or users themselves. Many of these games are also borrowed from other sites. This site was the birthplace of a few popular games that were made onto game consoles. For example, the game “Castle Crashers” started as a project on this site. All these games are free and aren’t very long, which is great for killing some time.

            The art category features a gallery of mostly digital based artwork including pixel art, illustrations, 3D art, and other various types. Most of the art is digital based, you don’t see very much physical paintings or sculptures. A majority of the content in this category is typically based on characters, people, and fan art; very rarely do you see landscapes. The variety artwork also typically involves abstract imagery and vibrant colors. A majority of the content on here is very well made, showing off the artistic talents of the creators. However, there are a lot of submissions that lack any type of developed artistic talent. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, nobody can become a good artist without practice. But again, the ability to narrow your search to the latest, greatest, and most popular comes in handy. Although, due to the sheer volume of submissions in this category, looking up a specific artist becomes difficult since you can’t directly look up a username; only medium, title, and tags. There are little to no loading times on these pages so you can view a lot of artwork in a short amount of time. So, if you’re interested in viewing some awesome artwork Newgrounds is the place for you.

             The final category on Newgrounds is audio. This category holds a wide range of musical genres that were all user created including electronic, hip hop/rap/R&B, rock/metal, southern, and voice acting and many other subcategories within those genres. Most of the music on here is instrumental or simply short sound loops; however, there are complete songs and albums. A lot of the music on here is reminiscent of older video game soundtracks, especially in the electronic category, and would make for excellent background music for a video. The music on here is remarkably well produced considering they are being made by independent people. All the music is free to listen to. However, the site also allows you to download music directly if you want, but sometimes you have to pay. With such a diverse collection of music and a large amount of content, the ability to narrow down your search by genre and sub-genre undoubtedly makes this category user friendly. So, if you like to explore free music check out the selection on Newgrounds.

            So, instead of wallowing in self-pity and pools of anxiety over finals, sit back, relax, and treat yourself to some good old mind numbing internet nonsense. It’s good to take a break once in a while, since all work and no play makes someone a dull person. There’s no better place to slack off a little bit than Newgrounds. In fact, the opposite could be true, this could be a place to be productive. If you’re an artist, animator, musician, or game developer you could submit some of your work to the site and get recognized, maybe show off a little.