I feel I might as well discuss my opinions of NG and different parts of it, not because those opinions matter too much, but more because people will understand me better by me saying these. So without further ado... Newgrounds through my eyes.
The Portals.
Everything has flaws. Seriously, I'm not even gunna attempt to claim anything should be perfect. But damn, the only way you can flunk out of the Games or Movies area is if you stole the project, or if your project is literally non-functional.
That's not a bad thing by itself, low level entry is a cool thing and some major gaming community has to do it (Although, Kongregate does that as well.)
But when you compare it with an incredibly elitist Art channel that smites its new users with a vicious, and bitter criticism offering little to no constructive criticism whatsoever, you have a very bad combination of portals.
I don't mind either separately. One harshly determines what is great quality and what isn't, allowing for a real gauge of how successful you are artistically. This means the Art portal's page is almost always full of top notch stuff, even new releases.
The other allows the developer to grow in ability without being struck down and kept from interacting with the site, but which ratings will give a somewhat useful show of how good the game is for the players.
But when you have that level of Elitism, next to that level of Slack, it's such a stark contrast that it effectively causes a divide in the portal communities.
Now, that being said, I don't see any other communities that do things even remotely as well as these portals do. But, I personally would much prefer two separate groups for *each* portal, an Elitist Section, and a Slack section. Because for me, it's very difficult to navigate through games and flash, because quite frankly, a lot of the stuff that passes just mucks up the portal. No offense to anybody in particular.
Seeing the system, I have 30+ Saves and 2 Blams as of now. 2 Blams. I have blammed a LOT of really bad Flash/Games/Movies. I'm talking Flashing Homophobic Bears with Screaming Sex noises in the background bad. The only 2 that got blammed were likely the two completely broken games that I blammed. Because they were completely broken.
You'd think there'd be a bit more quality control. I mean, sure, a school project should be allowed on the site, but I completely disagree with it being placed in the portal and generally accepted if it's bad.
That being said, the rating system is both great, and atrocious.
Everytime the same member votes on the same submission, each day, that vote is ADDED to the current rating, it doersn't EDIT the old vote with the new vote's power.
This means that the rating system is easily abusable, and effectively broken beyond belief.
Also. Really bad games should have 1s. Bad games should have 2s. Average Games 3s, Good Games 4s and Great games 5s, but the general distribution is Horridly Atrocious Games get 2s along with anything not considered good, good games get 3-4, and great games get 5s.
So... to summarize, in my opinion, the Portals are far too contrasted (Though that's not a bad thing completely), the rating system is broken, and the ratings themselves are inaccurate.
The revenue system, from what I can see, sucks. to add that in. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Kong's Revenue system has more pay out than 5 NG revenues would.
Onto what's good:
The Audience is massive, active, and have a predisposition to vote and look at new games, an the community is great about judging games as far as judging them quickly goes. In fact, the community here, and the games, are driven directly by the community. It is quite likely, that if the Admins suddenly disappeared, NG would thrive continually without their input.
NG's Art Portal is high quality. Keep in mind I'm rating the Portal, not the People. As such, it's a *really* good portal. It's far more high quality than DA's stuff, which has no regulation/lots of slack, much like NG's Flash Portals, (Imagine if the Art Portal were replaced with DA, that's the equivalent of the other portals)
The systems in place, such as Medals, Voting and Rating systems, etc. etc., are all very useful and further boost the site's interaction.
The top quality games and Flash, are top quality, and Humor Flashes on NG are top notch in general.
I feel like NG is far more Game Developer Friendly than Kong due to the fact that the audience actually has an incentive to vote to keep or get rid of your game, whereas on Kong, once it's on, it's on, and it falls into an abyss almost immediately that is quite like NG's Flash Portals. But I think Kong is far more Developer Friendly payment wise.
Keep in mind these are just my thoughts after less than a month of looking at NG from a Developer perspective, so these are subject to change. But so far, I think NG is doing more harm to itself than good, not on the admins, moderators, or site's parts, but by the actual people and the audience's part.
I'd put Kong and NG on about the same level. With each having strengths and qualities the other lacks.
As such, ideally, I'd like to develop for both.
Anyhow, that's my thoughts so far. There are likely other things I'll find, which I'll post about in the near future.
