Are things slower around here?

[Kosheh]

There are plenty of legitimate uses ranging from a learning tool to a sprite style reference to the actual purpose of the site which is... an archive of sprites.

Just because you aren't interested in seeing a rehash of a rehash of a rehash of baby's first Mario clone doesn't mean the site doesn't have uses.

In regards to things that use assets from the site:

I'm not opposed to the idea of showcasing, but I don't know if something like that would really increase activity. I'm personally not interested in things like sprite comics, fan videos with sprites, or fangames at all, and I haven't seen other people express that much interest when those types of projects are posted either.

Original works are a different story, and I'd like to see those put somewhere nice...

this is
you guys

i love you but
this... okay that's it


Think about the clientele of this site for a second. Think about the majority of past users on this site and the userbase on the site now.

Here's what our clientele consists [and consisted] of:

- People looking for sprite sheets.

- People looking for pixelart requests.

- Novice spriters posting their work looking for C+C.

- Novice and intermediate pixelartists alike, spriting in a consistent style (for a project of some sort)

- People advertising their cool fangame/their cool sprite sets in a topic.

- Experienced spriters showing off their work a lil seeking C+C.

- Experienced spriters who provide C+C (but were previously the latter)

- Neoriceisgood

The majority of that clientele is people looking for assistance - aspiring spriters, aspiring game creators - newcomers to spriting, basing their work off of an existing style; and some who want to show off, while actively seeking comments and criticism. And that's cool - that, in my opinion, is what TSR is all about. It's a stepping stone on improving.

I should also bring up that not everyone was like you, Angie and doesn't quite have the same views on art when they joined.
Sorry to make you a pinnacle, my friend - but just to put things into perspective.

This pretty much says "I have an art background" prior to joining...that you're serious about art, and at that point you were possibly pursuing art in the future. And currently, as you stated - you use the site's sprite archives as a reference point for your other work. And that's cool. It's evident that you've got an art background, and I'm not holding that against you
This art doesn't say "I rolled out of bed one day, figured I'd make some digital art" with zero prior art background.

The unfortunate truth, however, is that the majority of new users here all start somewhere.

(sorry guys, but...sorry)

And our best...move onto places like Pixeljoint or to their own endeavors, creating portfolios with the aspirations to work on popular games (and some actually have, which is awesome!)

http://www.pixeljoint.com/p/20426.htm - you might remember this guy! he worked for nicalis for a bit! now he just kinda makes indie games [one featured on kotaku] and im not sure what else he does but apparently he does a lot of talking at places
http://www.pixeljoint.com/p/6223.htm
http://hunter.digitalhaven-ent.net/ - hey - I know this guy too! He's actually done some recent work for WayForward and did some work on Dungeons of Dredmor!
Also two other users who we've unfortunately lost in a major site fallout - Grooveman and Zeemort - last i've heard from them they entered and indie game compo, with future aspirations of doing what they love - writing for games and creating wonderful, unique art, respectively.
And then there's Neorice.

But that's where the problem lies. TSR has somewhat of a "disposable" userbase in that regard. The target age we've got using the site consists mainly of 1# year old users; and once they hit 18~19 they've pretty much made their decision on what they're going to do from then - whether spriting/art in general is actually worth enough for them to pursue a career in it, or to move on with life. It's at this point that they realize posting on an internet forum where everyone gives you a buttpat for making good art, and they move on. What we need is to either draw in that teenage demographic looking to improve, and/or keep our userbase in their post-teen years to provide good role models and aspirations for the former. Oh, and to stop providing buttpats.

With all that said, I from time-to-time kind of wonder and self-reflect on why I still post here.
I think the reason for that is that all my old friends are here and haven't quite left yet. In addition to that, I want to show that a generally carefree attitude isn't a bad thing, so long as you know your place in society - I try to remain a staple of the community that shows that you don't have to be an uptight person who consistently keeps their ducks in a row :]
Talking in game design perspective, from time-to-time I like to come up with really neat, creative ideas though I don't think there's much of a future for people who just sit around and think all day about creative mechanics for videogames, lol. It seems like nowadays, rather than thinking about how good your ideas would be it's better to just actually just make the damn idea yourself and showcase it in practice.


well, all that and i hate posting on facebook, facebook sucks lol




so, okay - to be fair here, Angie maybe taking the buttpat approach was the wrong direction (as it seems that's what most of the newest users lately are looking for and users as of late that don't receive buttpats lately break out into crying fits, exhibit a [though to be fair it could've been handled better, though this is a topic for another time]), but we've got to draw in new users while keeping the realistic expectation that most of them will age out.

However, another truth of modern times is that most aspiring game designers with ideas and aspirations don't start out in a place like this in 2014.

They start here.

So how do we keep up in 2014?