The sad reality is that Newgrounds is struggling, doesn't have the same draw as it once did and is easily overshadowed by larger platforms that host similar content. We are not here to discuss about this reality, we're here to talk about what could've been. To talk about the idea that NG is a brand that everyone and their grandmother knows and the cultural impact this version of the site could've looked like. What do you wanna see from a larger Newgrounds that's basically the juggernaut of online entertainment competing with the likes of Hollywood, AAA, recording labels and so much more? What about the stuff you don't want that would make you wish otherwise?

For me, I see visions of NG opening up pop-up stores and store aisles with it's characters, putting out big ad campaigns, sponsoring with brands that appeal to NG's demo, having a museum and theme park, the list goes on! However, I think part of the magic of this site might go away had Fulp appeased investors and advertisers.

What are your thoughts on this hypothetical?

Any serious corporate acquisition or capital assistance could have turned NG into a shell of itself to some severity or shut it down entirely, and the risk of that happening would probably be too high to try it.

I don’t think those things you mentioned are fair metrics of success for something like NG, the last “dead” period the site experienced is most definitely over as of 2020 and we’re doing quite well now, even if it’s been slow to become self-sustaining.

It's funny you mention a physical NG store though because that was floated around as a possibility briefly, many a year back!

^

Newgrounds is better without a Big Corporation. For the reasons other platforms are larger isn't because a large company bought them, its because those platforms changed to be more popular (yes due it be owned by a corporation) and thus their main goal is money, so they are designed to bring viewers to watch ads. It's why animators have been complaining about youtube for years now.

Honestly that would feel a bit like the death of ng. What I love about NG is that its for the people, theres no appealing to market shares and investors. I feel like NG Would have to censor itself more and more and strip creativity away! Imagine ads before movies, More mature content being removed or stripped away! A corporate newgrounds is not a newgrounds I want to be on. The reason ng isnt the juggernaut it once was is purely because its BY artists FOR artists. I'd love a ng store tho i cant lie

The thought of NG becoming a soulless mega corporation / monopoly of entertainment is amusing to say the least.

If such miraculous thing were to happen I believe the spirit of the site would just reincarnate in some other underground webpage, and then the cycle repeats forever. Honestly though, I feel that Newgrounds is a once in a lifetime kind of thing, nobody would be able to keep up their integrity against every competitor for as long as this site has anymore. Nobody. It would be a massive loss.

No company would want to buy out a website that has NSFW on it. And alot of it.

I like to think the spirit of NG is indomitable, that it would reinvent itself, because we need this to some degree…

That’s not a cult-ish thing either, I can draw some parallels from NG to other creative communities

NG though, is personally my absolute favorite now, of course

I know that's true but it certainly wouldn't be the same. In terms of design I think it'd be difficult to strike the balance between functional usability and distinct visual identity this site has, just taking a look at any other site they all have this twitter like appearance just because "it works & it's what people are used to", what tends to make them all equally painful to utilize & navigate in my experience.

I feel like I'm on a roll with derailing threads just to say this but goddamn how much do I love this website, it is really a heavenly gift we do not deserve.

Oh same, my adoration is beyond words, nowhere’s doing it quite like here! I’m also optimistic for NG’s future

I'm quite humbled! I thought this was a discussion about what the shoulda-coulda-wouldas about what NG could've been had Fulp been the next Walt Disney or Satoru Iwata, but no. It's about how Fulp helped democratize indie animation and games well before YouTube and Hominid's console release(and Steam) just like how Todd McFarlane and some other disgruntled Marvel artists democratized indie comics with Image!

i had to pause my music to read this

i think that by making newgrounds a larger company, youve essentially executed the website. not gracefully, either. we're talking on the scale of a 1970's slasher movie execution.

i dont believe that this site is supposed to be a corporate giant. it, by itself, is a giant of its own. i know no other website that can host as many different types of media AND an active forum base as effectively as NG here.

at the same time, the community of the place is one that i wouldnt trade for anything. i've yet to see any other platform where your numbers dont matter, but in a good way. literally every other social platform is competitive, this place is supportive. everyone's trying to boost each other up. i think the closest thing to a hierarchy is how long youve been a member, but even that is negligible. i left a successful youtube career(as in 1k subs LOL) because i knew i could pursue i wider range of creativity without being punished by the algorithm, hell, because i saw that the community was a lot more open to everything

but, the moment you throw in a large company?

all that goes out the window. the community. the lack of desire to focus on numbers. the FREEDOM.

the moment you go large, everything crumbles. things have to be bent backwards to please shareholders. numbers get crushed by an inevitable algorithm and everyone is competitive. niches pop up, circles form, and then we're no better than somewhere like twitter.

the point of the website is the people using it, not the larger appeal. newgrounds is everything by everyone, to willingly become a major company causes the problems of the future to become today's.

(however i do think even a billboard advertisement could be awesome, but that likely wont happen)

Newgrounds is the way it is because of the small dedicated team its has, Newgrounds is possibly one of the few website left from the old golden years of the internet. When the web was nothing more than a collection of smaller personal websites dedicated to community and honestly i commend Tom and co for keeping it like that.

Newgrounds did and has revolutionized popular culture, the site most certainly was key in the mass appeal and overall ease of access of digital Animation every popular animation on YouTube in the 2000's came from here. Without Newgrounds we wouldn't have seen Eddsworld, Awsome Series, Tankman, Pico, FNF. Without Newgrounds I'm sure artists like Egorapter, Spazkid, Harry Partridge, Oney and Shadman (yes even him) wouldn't have been as big and well known as they are if it wasn't for Newgrounds.

Newgrounds is proof that a company doesn't need to be a money powerhouse like Disney to be relevant or to change culture. The site is proof of what is needed is the creative spark and a site team willing to let that spark create without the fear of meddling or interference both external and internal.

In short what you wish for isn't and wouldn't be Newgrounds, it would be Walt Disney and no one wants that.

Bigger ≠ Better

Then it will become "Joe mama" territory.

Lots of people will be in beds watching South Park and playing FNF at the same time.

There are actually multiple companies that want to buy NG at the moment.

dont let them do it fulpster

Yes, I remember back like 10 years ago that you said no for many reasons to these companies.

Sometimes I wonder if they are intentionally trying to stop the site being popular.

Just so that it cause you to make you feel more pressured to sell it at dirt cheap.

I saw that kind of tactic in couple of circonstances.

But since this website is technically you baby and part

of your routine. There is no question about why its still

alive. You literally outlived Miniclip. Just to mention it.

Here my two cents:

The fact that sites like YouTube and Twitter being bought out by big companies or people is what is slowly ruinning them. They are trying to stay relevant with the users but yet not understand what made their sites great in the first place.

If you really think NG missed the opportunity to be bought out by a large company, then damn just go to Twitter and see how bad Elon fucked up Twitter (oh my bad it's X now.)

Artists have been moving over to Newgrounds, Cara and other alternatives smaller sites because the sites that turn into greedy companies have shown they care less about those who actively use the site. Instead they want to actively promote the people they wanna see (like aibros and shit)

Hell better example of a shell of its former self website is DA, once a site for the artists turn corporate and pro-ai.

This prob doesn't make sense, but tbh I love NG because it's independent and if I had a million dollars to spare I would give it to Fulp. It's important for artists to have their platform.

I'd say wait 1 hour - 20 years.

Semi-related, one of the big news items this week was a "research group" article taking down Roblox. What wasn't being discussed as much is that the article is from an investment group that has a short position on Roblox - they make money when the stock goes down.

In the past whenever NG would get some decent ads, people would quickly notify the advertisers that they shouldn't be advertising on Newgrounds - was it regular people doing that, or someone else? I'll never know.

Mmh, if the advertisers back down giving money. That means someone got the bigger cake in the grand scheme of things.

None the less, you managed to create supporter donation options. So, you are making a living without too much relying

on them.

Plus you are focusing on making new projects and learned to adapt through everything. No wonder these vultures are getting discouraged at the way you are thriving.

I hope you publish the Nightmare Cops soon. Probably will cause a boost of popularity on the site if things align, just like Alien Hominid!

I hope that never happens. The internet became so bland and sanitized because big corporations control all the sites we use. I love Newgrounds so much because it's one of the few places left that doesn't kowtow to advertisers.

Then Tom would be richer, while Newgrounds is sent on the path to certain ruination.

As we have seen with every other good thing on the internet that was taken control of by a big corporation.

If they were to go for the route that most companies do, that is going public and having investors and such, i feel that newgrounds would become a shitty money hungry place that would have to make the investors happy, but if they did like steam and stayed a private company that cared for their users the most i feel like it would be one of the best sites to be a creator on.

The idea of pop-up stores for newgrounds would be so fucking awesome i would spend all my money on them.

Well call me a pessimist but I think There are many ways this could go wrong

If Newgrounds Became a Larger Company

Then NG would most likely lose all it's charm/creative opportunity for artists. To become a Larger Company, it has to be significantly more mainstream. Content on this site would have to be shortened for more digestible art. Completely eliminating the creative thought behind well done and meaningful Art. And I know that 70% of this site is just porn and NG seems to favor porn over other art forms, But at least it's favoring something people want. If NG becomes mainstream it would have to favor what brings in Money and Ad revenue. Youtube has practically gone to shit and the only thing stopping NG from being next on the chopping block is the fact that mfs nowadays don't even go on website based social media platforms. If we're talking specifics, NG would first have to be an app on the playstore/app store. Because half of the retarded people on the net would rather die than go on a website that isn't either a way to get free media or porn. If I sent a link to one of my friends and recommend this sight. He would go "I ain't doin allat" thats because PEOPLE ARE BRAINROTTED NG would have to change their site for Retards who only regurgitate tiktok sound effects online and in person. Secondly, NG would then either have rules set in place that lets the minimalistic, shitpost, advertised, and braindead art forms have dominance over the Jungle of content. Something that gets a quick laugh. There would be no forums, If anyone is early Gen z (In highschool rn) ask your friend if they know what an internet forum is, I guarantee you they'll either think of 4chan or just gawk at you. There would be no live radio and no art collabs. Nothing that requires an ounce of thought put into it.

Either way, NG is kinda fucked

This is beautiful! I thought people would ignore this thread, but thank you all for making this fun to read, it was so engaging! Long Live NG! Even Fulp himself chimed in.

NG is what it is because of the way it facilitated free speech and the way online artists took advantage and crossed boundaries with it. This place is by artists for artists and I'm glad its remained that way since its inception. The site was really dead last decade so I'm glad that FNF did what it did and rejuvenated the site in terms of donations and content. Any influence from some third party besides Fulp would be devastating

I personally have been seeing slow and steady growth from Newgrounds as more and more people get tired of soulless websites. The best thing to do to keep Newgrounds from dying is to just give people good reasons to come over here.

i want Hot Topic/Spencer's but make it Newgrounds exclusives

when do i want it

yesterday

Honestly I do not know of any other site that compares to Newgrounds in what it offers. It's very unique in itself that still holds that old school internet homely feel every time I visit.

For it to become something bigger it will eventually turn into something hollow wishing we could back to the days of when it once was.