The Sigworm Idea Charity [Archive]

Paul.Power

7 Jul 2006, 19:25

Right, as many of us are aware, sigworms are becoming less and less interesting, and the only people who seem to think up good new ideas already have a well-established sig. So think of this as a bit like those Avatar Absurdity threads where people avatarise other people's sigs. We come up with ideas for sigworms, and other people use them. Anyone can feel free to make suggestions, but I'll set the ball rolling. Admittedly all the ones I list here are derivative, but even that's an improvement on what we're getting ATM.

Robots

We have a few robots already, admittedly, but far fewer than we have members of the "recoloured Fire Punch" brigade. Also, the robot category is infinitely malleable: you only have to look at sci-fi. Here are a few ideas of robots/cyborgs to base a sigworm off:

R2D2 and C3P0
Dr. Who Villains
Marvin the Paranoid Android (Andrew already did this one, but it isn't his sigworm)

Computer Game Characters

I've seen a few of them (Zero being the obvious one, but a couple of Sonics and Marios too), but there's room for mining: other characters from the big game series, like

Sonic Characters (Tails, Knuckles, etc.)
Mario Characters (Yoshi, Luigi, etc.)
Mega Man Characters (Mega Man, etc.)
Advance Wars Characters (Andy, Sami, etc.)

Film and Book Characters

As above

Indiana Jones
Dare I say it, Harry Potter
Discworld characters (A Rincewind worm, now that would be something)

... and so on.

So there is material. Feel free to experiment

BuffaloKid

7 Jul 2006, 19:26

I already did dalek. bad idea. And I'm interested in how your idea to increase originality is to make people copy things

Gardy Looo

7 Jul 2006, 19:32

*cough*my thread*cough* :p

BuffaloKid

7 Jul 2006, 19:33

*cough* not the same thing *cough*

Snoozy

7 Jul 2006, 20:32

I highly doubt that someone takes a sigworm-idea from this thread. I think, people like to come up with their sigworms themselves, and no one would admit that his own sig is so crappy, that he has to take someone elses idea.

BuffaloKid

7 Jul 2006, 20:34

Don't be so sure. Mine was almost entirely moulded by the misconceptions of Gardy Looo. Therefore he can be made to have designed my sigworm.

Gardy Looo

7 Jul 2006, 20:37

How can that be? I just mistaken about the part that Socky is ON your cape.

BuffaloKid

7 Jul 2006, 20:40

Good point. That did prompt me to redesign my appearance, though.

Akuryou13

8 Jul 2006, 03:02

interesting idea, but paul, those ideas you gave are rather uninspired.

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 07:20

interesting idea, but paul, those ideas you gave are rather uninspired.In that case, if you think you can do better then have a go yourself - that's the whole point of this thread :).

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 07:22

Paul, please get rid of Dalek. NOT GOOD. We don't want another exworminator here.I'm still recovering from the last one, and that was me.

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 07:37

Paul, please get rid of Dalek. NOT GOOD. We don't want another exworminator here.I'm still recovering from the last one, and that was me.Sounds like a perfectly serviceable pun. What went wrong with it?

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 07:41

The fact that Dalek's are pretty much soulless killing machines and therefore have no personality. The same works with cybermen.

Zero72

8 Jul 2006, 07:47

Mega Man Characters (Mega Man, etc.)
Bearing in mind that the vast majority of the major Mega Man characters have been used in Ground Zero. :p

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 08:36

The fact that Dalek's are pretty much soulless killing machines and therefore have no personality. The same works with cybermen.If you can't see how to develop the characters beyond the base templates I'm supplying, that's your problem. You don't have to stick to canon. Daleks don't have to be soulless killing machines - in many ways, that's the point of creating a Dalek character, to feed off the silly number of jokes you get when you "humanise" a Dalek.

Like having him motion for disabled ramps to be installed in the Team 17 Forums.

Or visiting a hardware shop and asking if they have any replacement plungers or egg-whisks.

Or wondering why he has randomly been put in a game about pushing crates onto little arrows (sorry, Andrew ;))

Bearing in mind that the vast majority of the major Mega Man characters have been used in Ground Zero. :pI hope you don't intend to monopolise the whole franchise ;)

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 08:37

Daleks can fly, they don't need ramps.

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 08:40

Daleks can fly, they don't need ramps.

You don't have to stick to canon.

For goodness sake, who cares whether the Daleks in canon Doctor Who can fly? You get far more jokes if they can't! If you're not prepared to bend the rules to make jokes and create amusing weaknesses, then frankly you've missed the point.

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 08:43

Many people care. I can give you a list:
BuffaloKid
etc.

See. Many people.

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 08:45

Many people care. I can give you a list:
BuffaloKid
etc.

See. Many people.Well, more fool you then is all I can say.

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 08:45

Well, more fool you then is all I can say.
Did that make sense?

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 08:47

Many people care. I can give you a list:
BuffaloKid
etc.

See. Many people.Well, more fool you then is all I can say.

I break the laws of physics (A far higher authority than Doctor Who, whatever anyone tries to tell you) every time I reference something like IJBL or the Shrink-O-Ray™. The point is, I'm doing it to get laughs.

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 08:50

But you're not basing them on anything and therefore there can have been some kind of scientific breakthrough allowing these things. In the case of Daleks, I highly doubt they would use a scientific breakthrough to disable their flight.

Snoozy

8 Jul 2006, 08:51

Actually, who cares about Daleks? If you really want to have a robot-sigworm, R2D2 and Marvin would do the job much better :p

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 08:54

Yes, I could imagine a good R2D2 worm.

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 09:10

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 09:14

Sorry. I'll shut up about Daleks.

Slick

8 Jul 2006, 12:26

I was going to make a thread simillar to this one...but i'm lazy so I didn't.
But I have IDEAS for sigworms that I can draw up so people can choose one rather than just ripping off someones elses work.
Maybe if I'm still alive after this weekend, I'll draw them up.

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 12:57

I wouldn't count on still being alive *Loads shotgun*

Gardy Looo

8 Jul 2006, 14:22

Sonic characters? Remember that incident with Smapuli's Shadow idea?

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 14:26

Look, people like to base their sigworms on their own personalities. Therefore, the best thing we can do is come up with a bunch of different personality types, then design new worms (possibly some based on things like those above) based around these.

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 15:06

Sonic characters? Remember that incident with Smapuli's Shadow idea?Yes, but that's mostly because Shadow's a crap character that the masses like because he's dark and edgy, which we had too much of on the Forums even before Smapuli's character change. Tails and Knuckles, in contrast, actually have some interesting character traits that you can get decent jokes out of. Heck, Amy Rose is a better character than Shadow.

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 15:11

I don't think knucles or tails would look good as worms. But then again, they might do. I don't know. (have you noticed we're on the second page already and the majority of it has been people (mainly me) arguing against this. Poorly)

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 15:12

I don't think knucles or tails would look good as worms.
Bwahahahaha (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/29104211/)

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 15:13

I rest my case.

Error404

8 Jul 2006, 15:17

I'll have to agree with Buffalo and Snoozy here: only desperate people would come here to gather ideas from a sigworm. Hell i know i wouldn't use a sigworm created by another person. As a matter of fact, if i had thought about a sigworm and found out that some person had posted it here before, i would immediatly lose interest. But that might be just me... i have this urge to be original... it's a disease, really... :p

Maybe some kind of "guide" would be more usefull. Something like Zero did on the very first post of that Official Character thing, but a bit better.

But anyways... deep in the bottom i actually feel like if one can't come up with an original sig, he/she/it doesn't deserve to be drawn afterall. It's not that hard to come up with something fairly original... :rolleyes:

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 15:25

I never said that. I'm merely pointing out that copying random famous characters will not improve originality. But I agree, some kind of Sigworm Guidelines thing would be better.

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 15:35

I think unoriginality is slightly underrated. What's most important is to make the character interesting. If you have to rip something off a bit to do that, then that's life.

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 15:36

Right, as many of us are aware, sigworms are becoming less and less original, and the only people who seem to think up good new ideas already have a well-established sig. So think of this as a bit like those Avatar Absurdity threads where people avatarise other people's sigs

Ha !

Gardy Looo

8 Jul 2006, 15:40

And sometimes doing a sig in your own your style might improve it. Like how I gave Psyke gloves (check unfinished group pic) for fun, the yellow glowiness in Shin's eyes and ultimately, Plasma's mech hand, which almost everyone drew differently.

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 15:46

Ha !Whoops. Fixed.

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 15:52

Changing the rules in the middle of the game, eh? You ought to be ashamed.

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 16:30

Changing the rules in the middle of the game, eh? You ought to be ashamed.I prefer "altering my opinions in the light of new, contradictory evidence", a perfectly sound strategy that more politicians should be willing to adopt.

SupSuper

8 Jul 2006, 16:35

You want guidelines? I'll give you guidelines!

NO MORE BANDANAS!

Error404

8 Jul 2006, 16:38

Well...actually i believe i have the only worm that wears a bandana... all the others wear headbands... which is not quite the same... :)

So... *NO MORE HEADBANDS!

Snoozy

8 Jul 2006, 16:39

Do you have to be THAT picky? :p

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 16:40

Calm down. Lets just say no more peices of cloth tied to your heads

Gardy Looo

8 Jul 2006, 16:46

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 17:39

Well...actually i believe i have the only worm that wears a bandana... all the others wear headbands... which is not quite the same... :)

So... *NO MORE HEADBANDS!HEADBANDS! That's the word I was looking for. I knew they weren't bandanas, but I could never remember what they actually were called.

I feel a bit foolish now, given the answer was so simple.

Error404

8 Jul 2006, 17:44

Don't be... i had to search for that word too... :rolleyes:

Gardy Looo

8 Jul 2006, 17:44

There's more than 10 people in this forum that has a HEADBAND.
But there are about just as many people who have hair and most are bald. :p (not sure about BK)

Cisken1

8 Jul 2006, 20:19

I just made mine random as hell, I don't even know how I got the idea! I just slapped some stuff togheter and got my sigworm...

Some Ideas:

OS-related: Windows worm, Tux worm, apple...oh sorry andrew :p

Proffessions: Doctor, Carpenter, Plumber (too much mario?), Lawyer, Construction worker, Trucker, Pilot... oh sorry Pilot62 :p , Any grade in the army (exept corporal, that's me!), ...

Fruit: Bananaworm, Prumeworm, Apple... sorry again andrew, Peachworm, ...

Random objects: Pencilworm, Headphonesworm, Calculatorworm, Cellphoneworm, staplerworm, Magnetworm, Treeworm, ...

that is all, for now.

SuperBlob

8 Jul 2006, 20:25

Random objects: Pencilworm, Headphonesworm, Calculatorworm, Cellphoneworm, staplerworm, Magnetworm, Treeworm, ...
Bookworm *hides from imminent assault*

Cisken1

8 Jul 2006, 20:26

Bookworm *hides from imminent assault*

*hits superblob with a bad pun* RIGHT BACK AT YA! :p

SuperBlob

8 Jul 2006, 20:43

*hits superblob with a bad pun* RIGHT BACK AT YA! :p
But I'm hidden D:

Paul.Power

8 Jul 2006, 20:54

Bookworm *hides from imminent assault*That's actually not that bad. We've had the odd scientist, inventor and so on, but no specific bibliophile.

Akuryou13

8 Jul 2006, 23:22

I think the problem everyone's having is that this thread is being assumed to be a place where we completely design the new sigworms in every aspect of the sig. to my knowledge, this is a place to post ideas for the ART of the sig, not the personality or anything else. we simply post various ideas for what a sig will look like, if someone can't come up with something themselves, they pick something from here and then turn that suggestion into something all their own.

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 23:24

Ah, now that sounds good.

Akuryou13

8 Jul 2006, 23:26

Ah, now that sounds good.lol, that's what this thread started off as :p you took it the wrong way, that's all :p

BuffaloKid

8 Jul 2006, 23:28

Are you sure you're just not misinterpreting it in a way that's better than the correct interpretation? If you're not, then you are at least about 10 times clearer than Paul Power, and I award you the magical 'Clear as Crystal' award.

The_Reapr

9 Jul 2006, 01:57

In an attempt to contribute, there's one thing that I might suggest:

On the internet there are various create-a-things - be it Splapp's (in)famous Sigworminator, I believe I created mine through a Sonic-character creator - all these work wonderfully if you can turn your idea into an actual worm.

Play around with these things, its a great creation tool.

philby4000

9 Jul 2006, 02:33

I don't think the problem is orriginality, Zero's sigworm is one of my favorites, the real problem is that they're not distinctive enough. You can give your sigworm a complicated backstory or an interesting personality but that won't change the fact that the majority of members won't look past the picture bellow your name.

You want something like Psyche or Error, rather than the (no offence) cyclaws of this world.

I've never seen the point of the character profile thread, the personality of your sigworm should be imediately aparrant from your avatar image.

Some of the most memorable sigworms are the simplest, splapp's dagger for example.

I've done a little sigworm design in my time.

well, XxSpiderxX's at least.:p

Cyclaws

9 Jul 2006, 03:24

cyclaws of this world.
What's wrong with mine? :p When I joined, a worm with a black cape and psyhic powers was unique. Aku giving it... female aspects isn't anything to do with me!

Akuryou13

9 Jul 2006, 04:00

What's wrong with mine?I think he means that your sig has little defining personality qualities....which it DOES lack in. I've always gone with random seudo-personality when I use you, as you have little to define your sig :p

Zero72

9 Jul 2006, 06:53

Error404

9 Jul 2006, 07:06

And a lot of headbands in multiple colours... i wonder if that has anything to do with the astonishing ammount of sigs with headbands... :rolleyes:

Paul.Power

9 Jul 2006, 07:46

And a lot of headbands in multiple colours... i wonder if that has anything to do with the astonishing ammount of sigs with headbands... :rolleyes:Headbands on sigworms beget lots of headbands in the Sigworminator beget headbands on sigworms? It's a thought.

I think the problem everyone's having is that this thread is being assumed to be a place where we completely design the new sigworms in every aspect of the sig. to my knowledge, this is a place to post ideas for the ART of the sig, not the personality or anything else. we simply post various ideas for what a sig will look like, if someone can't come up with something themselves, they pick something from here and then turn that suggestion into something all their own.Not quite, after all as soon as you design a sig it has a base personality (or at least should do if it's any good). But that base personality can be moulded as the person wants.

Are you sure you're just not misinterpreting it in a way that's better than the correct interpretation? If you're not, then you are at least about 10 times clearer than Paul Power, and I award you the magical 'Clear as Crystal' award.I do tend to assume that other people are smart, that's true.

Akuryou13

9 Jul 2006, 13:19

Not quite, after all as soon as you design a sig it has a base personality (or at least should do if it's any good). But that base personality can be moulded as the person wants.well, true enough, but there's no sig that you can't make with a similar personality to your own. look at slick for example. what I was saying is that after the creation of the way a sig will look, the person will add in their own personality (whether it's the exact same or just similar is up to the person) and that we aren't the ones creating the personalities, just the appearance.