Interview No. 123

Interview By: @The-Great-One

Today's guests have been lighting up YouTube and the front page of Newgrounds like wildfire. From satirizing video game culture with Girl Gamer and Minecraft Problems, to Internet culture with PewDiePie Commenters and Most Beautiful Teen. They are an artist and animator duo known as Dalton Joyce, a.k.a. @Jaltoid and Emi, a.k.a. @ObliviousEmi.

ANSWERS WILL BE POSTED BENEATH THE _A:_ DUE TO TWO PEOPLE BEING INTERVIEWED PERSON ANSWERING WILL BE NOTED AS SO.

Q: How did you find Newgrounds and why did you join?

A:

Jaltoid: I actually found Newgrounds on my mom's old windows 98 back in 2002 I was maybe 9 years old. I googled "games" and stumbled onto Newgrounds. At the time I was just another site with games on it. It took me until middle school to actually look into Newgrounds. My older brother asked me to register an account so I can review his movies with positive scores. He was making low effort GroupX videos, but they continued to get blammed. We thought reviews would save the submissions.

ObliviousEmi: I originally found Newgrounds when I was really little and I had been looking up weird/cute pokemon flash videos.

However, it wasn't until I met Dalton that I grew an interest in actually using the site. I'd post my art here and there but I wasn't too active. Now that I'm animating with Dalton though I really enjoy being active and submitting our flash animations.

Q: When and how did you two meet one another?

A:

Jaltoid: It was at complete random. When me and my friend bmac discovered deviantArt we'd try and find submissions that were cheesy or amusing, just go give each other a laugh. He links me this submission that I didn't really say anything towards. It was a video of emi, and she was singing. Something clicked in my head, I realized that maybe dA can be used to collaborate with new people. I saw potential in her voice and I was interested in making her a voice actor.

ObliviousEmi: Oh boy, this is a silly little story, but here it goes. Back when I was tied down to deviantart I had been extremely active and submitting every day. I had recently back then just submitted some silly little thing where I had my voice in it. Out of pure chance Dalton saw it and ended up contacting me about doing some voices for him for his latest flash. I wasn't sure if I'd be into that and was even more unsure since he wanted to use skype to chat and I didn't want to install it. However I did and we ended up chatting more and more until we became very close. Silliest part is I never ended up doing the voices for him, haha.

Q: When and how did you two become interested in art and animation?

A:

Jaltoid: They actually came to me at separate times, I was interested in animation long before I cared about art. I was always fascinated with animation and cartoons growing up. I loved making people laugh at ridiculous things. I'll never remember when I first realized I could do it. Before I was introduced to flash I was making crappy mspaint, windows movie maker animations. But I got home from school one day and my older brother was playing around in a program that he downloaded called "Macromedia Flash 8." I was really interested in trying it out myself, cause I always wanted to make my own cartoons. So I got on my computer and I downloaded some 30-day trial, Chinese ripoff of flash, and even though the program was just awful. I was just so amazing with myself, and so eager to make something, that I would be on it all day. Then I would submit it to Newgrounds and be crushed, I would get some really harsh reviews. But it motivated me, because I realized that I was just a kid and it was only a matter time before I would be able to get submissions to pass judgement.

ObliviousEmi: Art has always been a part of me. I have been drawing since I can remember. I used to get in trouble at school for doodling and drawing too much instead of paying attention, which was a repeating issue all the way up until I finished school. My biggest inspiration however was Sailor Moon, hahaha. That show is what really got me drawing 24/7.

Now as far as animation goes, when I was younger I'd see some animation around and it made me want to try, but it'd always come out terrible and I'd be discouraged. I was the kind of person that really disliked failure and I ended up telling myself I didn't like to animate because of this. It wasn't until Dalton that I really started to try it out, and he REALLY had to push me. He had wanted to start collaborating a long time ago before we started living together but I was just too stubborn, which I do regret. I'm still learning and Dalton is still teaching me quite a lot.

Q: When and how did you become interested in video games?

A:

Jaltoid: I can't remember a time that I wasn't. Games have been a huge part of my life. I remember going to Blockbuster and renting NES and Genesis games as a kid. Most of my friendships were established by playing games. Me and emi bonded over games. I love games. I'll try any genre and any style. I was born a gamer, and I'll die a gamer.

ObliviousEmi: Ooooh gosh. I was definitely very very little when I first tried video games. My first handheld was a Game Boy Color and my first game I played was Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. My sister had one as well and we'd always fight over whose was whose since she always got farther than me. I really didn't get too interested in games until I started playing the PlayStation and Nintendo64. Those were my first consoles. Though I must say I played a lot more on the 64 as the only game I really played on the PS was Spyro. I played Mario 64, Kirby 64, Pokemon Stadium, Zelda (that was a big one) and I'd often beg to be renting more games to try out. Now I'd say I'm more of a PC gamer (at least until Animal Crossing New Leaf comes out...).

Q: Your works have originally been posted on your YouTube Account. Why YouTube? Also what made you decide to come to Newgrounds?

A:

Jaltoid: I'm actually native to Newgrounds. There were some issues with users that I had gotten myself into back in 2011, and it had discouraged us to post on Newgrounds at first. We had a ton of viewers that wanted us there, so we decided to take a chance.

ObliviousEmi: The whole YouTube thing was really Dalton's idea. We originally started doing liveaction skits and slowly started moving over to animation, as it was the thing that really stuck with our viewers. I was very unsure of it at first but the way we've been growing has really surprised both of us, it happened so quickly. It was then Dalton thought since we're doing animations, we should come back to Newgrounds and see how we do there, what people think of us.

Q: A lot of your earlier works have been rather short, some just shy of 30 seconds. These include works such as The Fish, The Best, and Brown Cow. Why at the beginning did you do these shorts?

A:

Jaltoid: We had planned to rapid fire animations for practice. They were so short because if they were a total disaster, it wouldn't matter because they were so short. But we realized we wouldn't have to practice if we just take our 2 strengths and put them together. I'm the stronger animator, and she's the stronger artist. It just seemed to fit.

ObliviousEmi: That was back when we were doing separate videos and really just experimenting for the most part. Regardless if they're not that good, the ones I worked on by myself I'm really proud of. (The Best is my favorite out of the ones I did)

Q: Minecraft Problems is a movie showing the problems that persist players when playing Minecraft online. When did you two learn about Minecraft and have you encountered these problems? What inspired you to bring them to light in animation?

A:

Jaltoid: I was introduced to Minecraft by some of my old friends from Newgrounds. They had a private server and we would play for hours. There was a time when we all just ate slept, played Minecraft. I had also done the same with my current pals.

Our frustration with the game was inspired after getting our own server. We had just launched the channel, and we would be animating, and the server had to be babysat constantly. There was always someone cheating, or complaining. It was directly effecting productivity with the channel. It was so frustrating that we shut the server down without notice, blew up the map, and told the service provider to close out account immediately.

We then took out our frustration by making the video.

ObliviousEmi: Haha, again it was Dalton that had me start playing minecraft. It was again, something I kept saying I wouldn't like but once he let me use his other account, I really fell in love with the game. Gosh Dalton's really opened me up to everything, huh? We definitely have encountered people just like that, as well as being the actual griefers. (Though I would never wear that terrible, terrible, generic girl skin that ever girl wears) We've completely destroyed houses and replaced all the grass to look like it was never there, which inspired that part of the flash. We've also heard that "MY DAD OWNS _____ AND I CAN GET YOU BANNED" line all the time, no matter the game, so we thought we'd throw it in there.

Q: Your first movie that you would bring to Newgrounds is also a favorite of mine and that is PewDiePie Commenters. What are your thoughts on PewDiePie and his fanbase? What made you want to make a movie about it?

A:

Jaltoid: When making PewDiePie Commenters we wanted to make something that wasn't too offensives, but it properly portrayed the violence of members in his fanbase. We wanted actual "bros" to come to the video and like it. Our target was to make a place where both sides can agree on something. supercodplayer1995 was intended to make fun of the overly aggressive PewDiePie haters that felt more deserving if the attention PewDiePie was getting.

I don't know about him personally, but how he portrays himself online is honestly undesirable. He has inspired the most violent fanbase I have ever seen. Emi had introduced me to him, and she liked him at first. It would actually spawn arguments between us, because all I would hear over skype was "AHHHHHHHH" "AAAAAAHHHHHHH" it was like nails on a chalkboard. One day she watched "Adults react to PewDiePie" and she finally understood how it annoys people. Because by the end of the video she was sick of his screaming.

I disliked his content, but his fanbase was what we really had a problem with. We'd watch videos not even remotely related to him, and people were attacking users because of PewDiePie. One time there was a chair in a video and people kept calling it "Mr Chair" in dozens of comments. One person asked "Why so many bros -_-" They flagged it as spam, and they were just beating on this user for asking that that.

Thing that really set me to dislike him as a person was his "I'm Sorry" video. He was apologizing for being offensive, and claimed to not care about money. But he had ads rolling on that video. He makes enough money playing slender and happy wheels. I can't imagine that he NEEDED to profit off an apology video. Especially if it was intended to be taken seriously.

ObliviousEmi: Oooooh man don't get me started. Well I myself used to be a fan of Pewdiepie (I cringe). It took me to watch montage of his videos to realize all it was was just screaming. Sooo much screaming. After realizing that all the videos were pretty much the same, I stopped liking him.

Now with his fanbase... They are literally the worst. (And I'm not saying all of them either, just the crazy ones) I would constantly see fanart of him on deviantart looking "sexy" and fanart of girls clinging onto him. I got irritated at this because really, he has a girlfriend, and if I were in her shoes I would HATE seeing all these girls obsessing over him. Then we have the people who think he owns all the games he plays. So many times have I gone to let's plays of Slender or Amnesia to find some kids screaming at them because "Pewdiepie did it first you're just copying" and it makes me feel ill. The people who shout "YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS" can be clumped together with them as well. Finally we have the people who run around holding Pewdiepie's memes near. I was watching one of my favorite vocaloid videos, and in the beginning they show a chair in the center of the screen. I scroll down to the comments all of the sudden to see some kids yelling "IT'S MR. CHAIR PEWDIEPIE NEEDS TO WATCH THIS!" (which is where that line came from). Then someone who had visited the video, ya know, FOR the video and asked "why so many bros? ._." and it had been flagged as spam, on a video that literally had nothing to do with pewdiepie. (That was the video I took the screenshot of that comment from too).

Q: Hardcore Brony I like due to the throwbacks of other cartoons in it, such as Dexter's Laboratory. Are you a brony? If so how did you become one? What was it about the bronies that made you want to make this movie?

A:

Jaltoid: Actually I am a brony. I do not watch the show anymore though. But I sill enjoy the art. Me and emi were introduced to the show by one of our friends. We decided to try out the first episode. Next thing we knew, we had watched an entire season.

What inspired this video was a lot of people I knew (who were not bronies) thought bronies were these creepy, outcast, obsessive, neckbeards, ect. We thought, ok lets make a video where we can make fun of a brony stereotype. We wanted the video to appeal to those that hated bronies, but also appeal to bronies. We made the character look like a regular brony, but gave him the personality of the stereotype.

ObliviousEmi: Me and Dalton actually used to watch it since the animation and style really lured us in. It was just a happy show that really just, well, made you happy. It became pretty hard to watch the show when the fanbase started to crumble. People demanding things from a little kids show (yes it was intended for little kids I don't care what anyone says) just started to actually make them cater to the fans, such as giving that "Derpy" pony a voice and actually calling her DerpyHooves. That's when the show started to go down hill. I won't get too into that though. Basically we were parodying the "hardcore" fans of the show. People have actually gotten into arguements with me over my opinion on why I dislike "hardcore" fans.

Q: Girl Gamer bring up an issue in the video game community that is still being talked about today. Girls playing video games. What would be your stance on girls playing video games? Is it something to address or is it just silly to bring it up in the first place? What does this movie entail for girl gamers?

A:

Jaltoid: I think girls playing video games is awesome. Me and emi bonded over games. But what we don't like is girls that are "girl gamers." Its like calling yourself "Girl artist" or "Girl programer." No, your an artist, or a programer. I knew a few girls in high school that would brag about playing halo or call of duty. The typical games that are more popular with guys. There are people out there that are passionate about games, and it a bit of an insult that they use it to seem appealing to guys.

ObliviousEmi: I'll give it to you straight. If you are a girl and like video games for the actual games, then don't slap "girl" in front of gamer. Your gender SHOULD NOT matter, you are literally begging for attention if you call yourself a girl gamer, and what's the point of that? Just play the game. If someone asks if you're a girl, sure you can answer them, but if not, keep your mouth shut. Once I was in minecraft and someone asked if I was a girl, before I could answer about 5 other girls shouted "I'M A GIRL". It made my skin crawl. We were really just trying to show in our flash that if you're a girl that plays games, don't put a label on yourself like "girl gamer". You are just a gamer. You don't see boys saying "Boy Gamer" so why should we be any different? Girls are always upset about equality between guys and girls. Well if that's true, stop trying to set yourself apart, just be a regular gamer.

Q: Seeing as you are part of the YouTube community you are most likely going to have more trolls on that side of the pond than here on Newgrounds. Responding To Trolls however you state...

"This does not represent specific individual. But some people pretend to not care about trolls. Yet they cant resist making a video about how they apparently do not care. Do they not realize its still a response even if they claim they aren't bothered?"

Do you still agree with this comment and movie? How do you respond to trolls? What advice would you have to give to others? What do you believe are the pros and cons between YouTube comments and Newgrounds reviews?

A:

Jaltoid: I do still agree. I can say, that trolls can get to me sometimes. Trolling is an art form, and if your good enough, you can effect even the best of us. If I told you that trolls do not bother me, that would be a lie. However the average troll that just recycles jokes or uses cheap insults like "fat" or "ugly" doesn't work on me. Usually if a troll bothers me enough, I get off the computer. Sometimes I even go off and troll myself, I personally love to mess with people on occasion. But Its usually not worth giving a response to someone that wants to see you lash back at them.

Its natural if a troll bothers you here and there. But pretending like you don't care, but constantly fighting the problem.

Our inspiration for this video was actually a YouTube user by the name of shoenice22. I was subbed to him for about a year, and liked seeing him eat crazy stuff. But after a while he got obsessed with telling trolls off, and always say "I don't care what you think." Its hard to convince people that you're not bothered when its all you talk about anymore.

I think YouTube comments Vs Newgrounds reviews is a tough subject. I had a discussion with Tom a few months ago on this very subject. YouTube comments being easy and short to read, gives users and content creators a great way of communication. However a lot of times it turns into just general discussions, and arguing between users. Newgrounds reviews is a great way to critique content creators, and give genuinely honest feedback. But a lot of times it turns into just comments with a score.

ObliviousEmi: So many times have we seen videos where they say themselves, "I will not respond to you trolls, I will not give you a reaction" where as by making that video, they ARE giving a reaction. I'm not sure how people don't understand that. The biggest reason we put in that we weren't representing a specific individual was because people were telling us that the character was supposed to be Pewdiepiew, which was completely incorrect. I actually modeled him after Link just for the funsies, which was why you can find triforces, hyrule in the background outside, and rupees. At 0:31 on youtube I actually drew the real Link behind the rainbow which I'm surprised no one had caught yet.

I had a bad tendency to reply to comments I find on the unintelligent side, and I'd end up making a nice clean argument. However I realized it really wasn't worth and and I just flat out stopped responding to comments like that.

As far as pros and cons between youtube and newgrounds, I say with youtube you don't really get many comments about the video itself and more so the subject. On newgrounds people will critique it can give actual reviews, which I like. (Doesn't happen all the time but far more often than youtube).

Q: Opinion is FACT as you put it, makes fun of the way people think. Where did you get the inspiration for this?

A:

Jaltoid: The typical online arguments. You say state you love or hate for someone, next thing you know your in a heated debate over why your opinion is the better one. We would see this everywhere we would go.

ObliviousEmi: It actually came from the people who wouldn't read the descriptions of our videos and assume something was hate or something of that sort.

Q: Most Beautiful Teen talks about two girls arguing over who is better looking on Facebook. Perhaps I don't spend as much time on Facebook as others, but is this something that actually happened on Facebook and you brought it to life or is it a culmination of other events?

A:

Jaltoid: Actually yes. There are contests on Facebook where there is no actual winner. But teenagers are competitively competing for complements, and attention from members of the opposite sex. We had been invited to a contest and were in disbelief that it was real.

ObliviousEmi: Yes this actually happens a lot for some reason. People start these "Most Beautiful Teens" contests on facebook and tons of people "enter" and post creepy pictures of themselves. Some trying to be cute some trying to be sexual. Those events end up being trolled as it's quite silly to take those kind of things serioues. You don't need facebook to evaluate your self worth.

Q: You two would bring us the sequel to Girl Gamer entitled Girl Gamers. Why the urge for a sequel?

A:

Jaltoid: We didn't think that Girl Gamer was as good as views say it was. Its honestly the only video out of our popular ones that I don't care for. But however it was the most successful video on both YouTube and Newgrounds. We decided to make a sequel to do it it better.

ObliviousEmi: It's actually something we had thought about for a while and thought it'd make a boom, as it was really anticipated by our viewers and requested. When I look back on the original Girl Gamer I kind of cringe at how different the art is. I wasn't really focusing on fixing up lines or anything, and for some reason I decided not to draw any fingers. With this one we really wanted to show the difference between a real gamer and a "girl gamer" as people who "didn't read the description" of the last one and assumed we thought all girls were like that.

Q: Your latest work is another Facebook issue, opposite that of Most Beautiful Teen, but in the same area and that is with I'm Ugly. I'll be honest, I have dealt with a friend who has done the same thing, so I can understand the idea of it. Have you two dealt with a friend who has done the same or come across others who have?

A:

Jaltoid: Yes, and I've been rather rude to people on purpose to test them. If I tell someone that I'm an Idiot. Should I expect them to treat me like a genius? You can't possibly be upset with people agreeing with your negativity unless you're using reverse psychology on people. If you genuinely have a problem with yourself, fix it.

ObliviousEmi: I actually know someone who does that sort of thing all the time, and I won't say any names. She constantly posts pictures titled something like "DON'T LOOK!" and putting something in the description like "this picture is gross" or something like that. I just think to myself, "if you REALLY thought it was gross, why did you post it?" She actually does this in real life too. If someone calls her pretty or cute she just rejects it with "No way I'm not, nooo I'm ugly!" It drove me nuts.

Q: When it comes to your writing, you two enjoy picking at things in the Internet and video games. Have you two thought about branching out beyond this?

A:

Jaltoid: Yes, Most of our videos were us kinda venting to the internet about what really bothers us. We are very sheltered people. I get more of a tan from my computer monitor than the sun. So we relate to online situations more than anything.

We plan on moving away from internet conflicts. "I'm Ugly" was a but redundant to our previous video "Most Beautiful Teen." No set direction just yet. But we have delayed all our online oriented videos for now.

ObliviousEmi: Haha this is actually something we've recently been talking about. While we love picking at the "dumbness" of the internet we realize we're getting a little bit repetitive. We have worried that with this "I'm Ugly" one we submitted we'd be pushing it a little. With this one we're working on now we hope people will enjoy because we're trying to be more creative. Of course it's still the sort of pointing out the silly things sort of thing, but it will not be the same formula as the others where they're all in separate rooms typing or something. We really need to reach out of the box a little.

Q: What can we expect from Jaltoid and ObliviousEmi in the future?

A:

Jaltoid: A newer direction, we have an old project that we started a few months back. We never finished it because it was so different. "Ded Oreo" is actually the same concept we'd be working with. But we may take some time to finish it and see how our viewers react. It was a comedy video feature us as characters. More settle humor, not the wacky humor people are used to seeing from us. Depending on how people react it could pave a whole new platform for us.

ObliviousEmi: New ideas and being more creative with our writing! I myself am trying hard to make the art look very nice and appealing, and Dalton will be working on more frame by frame and more movement. We realize it appears as if we've gotten a little lazy so we're trying to fix that! Please look forward to it~

This duo caught me off guard. Seeing their multiple works on the front page and loving every single one of them. To know that they these two met by chance on deviantArt is truly amazing. It shows that if you're willing to lend your hand, you may find a collaborative partner that you can make gems with.