This is an interview with the one and only Tom Fulp and I chose a different approach with this one but I hope a few floating questions have been ansered. Not to mention who doesn't want to hear from Tom?

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First I'd like to ask what NG means to you and what you would for NG's future.

 

NG is several things to me but they all tie together. As a creator, NG gives me a place to share my work with a cool community that creates lots of opportunities. As a passive viewer, NG gives me something exciting and unpredictable to check up on every day. I compare it a lot to going to the arcade when I was a kid; you always had that excitement of wondering what new amazing game would be there.

For NG's future, I just want to see it thrive and want to continue seeing it inspire people. I want movies, games, music and art to exist because people wanted to participate in the party happening on NG.

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When the NG store was announced to be closed on Feb. 27th, users bought their NG gear like crazy. My question to you is how NG has changed for you and your staff without the NGstore and what sort of NG (swag) we can expect to buy in the future if any.

 

The closing of the store is a bummer in terms of people not having cool NG gear, but it's a huge relief in terms of our current staff size and the amount of distraction it caused. The store was never a very profitable aspect of NG and required daily packaging, customer service and trips to the post office. We kept profit margins low and frequently lost money when international packages were lost and needed to be re-shipped (postage alone could be well over $20, not to mention sending out a second set of all the goods purchased). Other times people would buy stuff with stolen / parents' credit cards and the payment was cancelled after we had shipped the items. Keeping it US only probably would have made a big difference.

In the future I plan to work with a third party to offer NG shirts. Haven't been rushing to do it but will eventually.

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There are a few changes around NG lately could you tell NG what you're most excited about?

 

I'm anxious and excited to get our layout adapted to mobile. There are lots of cool features on the way but mobile is definitely the wall we need to break down once and for all, it was a 2014 goal that became a 2015 goal.

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Looking toward the future when you are an (old man and no longer hip with the kids) who will run NG?

 

That's completely up in the air at the moment. My kids are always a possibility but it could also be some rising stars from the community when the time comes.

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You once had an idea for a Wii game called Monster Jerk could you tell us how that's going?

It's not going at all! It was a joke concept although I would love to revisit it with Occulus and Leap Motion tech some day.

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A personal question, are you and April planning on any more children?

 

We always intended to stop at two and I got surgery this year so it's pretty final.

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What would be your ideal set up for a writing portal?

 

I actually had full mockups for the 2007 site design but all that has been tossed out the window. The writing Portal would need to be more on the level of Medium in terms of how people can present their stories. I'm still excited to have it but NG got spread really thin in recent years and it continues to wait on the backburner.

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Are there users that you enjoy or that inspire you?

 

Deathink always puts me in a better move, his work feels like a celebration of NG. In recent years people have become obsessed with their Youtube, Facebook and Twitter presence. People who are excited about their NG presence are the ones that make me get out of bed in the morning and I want to pay it back to them with results.

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The voice acting forum was a big hit with the NG community does this give promise to lure new artists?

 

I hope so! I like following voice actors because they introduce me to a variety of different projects and I know the quality will be there because they work with good people. Having a strong VA community on NG means better movies and games as well.

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Was there ever a time when you thought NG might no longer be?

 

Things have gotten dark at times but I know NG can never actually shut down. NG is the most permanent thing on the Internet.

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Apart from the jogging what does Tom Fulp do in his free time?

 

I finally started getting to the gym for the first time since having kids so I'm trying to look like my profile picture. If I'm not exercising, I'm spending time with family, playing video games with the kids.

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You've been on TV a few times was there ever anything you wanted to say but could not?

 

Nothing comes to mind. I was always nervous about not knowning what to say, vs having too much to say.

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A lot of users want to know about the NG chat so could you tell them if and when it will return and what sort of features it will have?

 

NG chat will return and it will be awesome. It will be mobile friendly, there will be individual rooms and you'll be able to see when people on your friends list are actively in chat. Ultimately we want you to be able to listen to music and watch content together, too.

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What can we expect from you in the future?

 

I've been working on a console game with JohnnyUtah and Spazkid, so get ready for that!

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This has been an interview with Tom Fulp I hope I asked all the right questions if there is something I missed then feel free to PM Tom yourself. (: