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Okay, look. What if that ship didn't even exist, huh? Did you ever think about that? He didn't know! So now, if Burke went in and made a major security issue out of it, everybody steps in. Administration steps in, and there are no exclusive rights for anybody; nobody wins. So Burke made a decision and it was... wrong. It was a bad call, Ripley. It was a bad call.
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Apr 5, 2024 22:57
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One thing that I found with the game for running an ongoing campaign : (1) have a "backup PC" for everyone that gets played troupe style. (2) not everything has to be alien monsters and life-ending threats. Have some "bottle episode" sessions. I was able to make a pretty cool session out of the corporate machinations on gateway after they encountered a Predator with WY loving around on a Predator planet strong-arming the PCs into making a false statement everything was UPP soldiers.
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Apr 6, 2024 01:06
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I have run a few short campaigns of the RPG (yet only played in one) and `one of the earliest 'tips' I picked up is to have some kind of backup for PCs as mentioned because the system as a whole is pretty lethal. Not necessarily having backup PCs, but having interesting NPCs that a dead PC can run 2-3 of as long as they aren't working too much at cross-purposes. Though there have been a couple times the group has found an A2 model powered down in a previously locked storage. It is Aliens, after all. I know the films are known for having huge groups of survivors and all the colonists they rescued going home at the end, but sometimes you just have to manage expectations. /<predatorcredits.gif>
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Apr 6, 2024 03:08
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I saw Aliens in 1986. I will never forget how loving loud the dropship sequence was. It was awesome.
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Apr 6, 2024 05:12
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tango alpha delta posted:I will never forget how loving loud the dropship sequence was. This is one thing I always remember when rewatching the movies. They're some of the first big Hollywood films I can remember that really played with dynamic range to emotional effect. The noise when the Nostromo is landing on LV426 is positively deafening and it contrasted with waaay quieter scenes is perfectly unsettling.
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Apr 6, 2024 05:37
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My local theatre is showing ‘Alien’ for Alien Day for the 45th anniversary and you’d better believe I’ll be there for it.
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Apr 6, 2024 05:51
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tango alpha delta posted:I saw Aliens in 1986. I will never forget how loving loud the dropship sequence was. That pipe bouncing off the atmosphere processor after the drop ship crash gets me. Every. Time. It always sounds like it’s behind me IRL.
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Apr 6, 2024 08:40
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tango alpha delta posted:I saw Aliens in 1986. I will never forget how loving loud the dropship sequence was. WE'RE ON AN EXPRESS ELEVATOR TO HELL!!!!
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Apr 6, 2024 12:43
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Apr 8, 2024 01:13
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Cessna posted:The rpg is flat-out excellent, maybe my favorite ttrpg. The rules really fit the setting and the background info is well presented. I hear a lot of good things but I can't help but wonder how many different scenarios and campaigns one could really come up with. Just speaking as a bystander, seems to me that every session would just be "when do the aliens show up?" and there wouldn't be a lot of ways to build tension because...well...everyone is waiting for the Alien. No?
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Apr 8, 2024 02:03
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BiggerBoat posted:I hear a lot of good things but I can't help but wonder how many different scenarios and campaigns one could really come up with. Just speaking as a bystander, seems to me that every session would just be "when do the aliens show up?" and there wouldn't be a lot of ways to build tension because...well...everyone is waiting for the Alien. There’s a lot more spooky things that can kill you (or worse) than the Alien, that’s the thing.
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Apr 8, 2024 02:09
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The recent (re)discourse of Ralph's Viking dream in the Simpsons thread is closely parallel to r/simpsonsshitposting, which gave us this gem:
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Apr 8, 2024 02:23
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The dog scene is absolutely one of the most upsetting things I've seen in one of my favourite films. I remember my ex watching the movie for the first time with me, and as soon as it started and we saw the dog running, I paused it and went "Oh yeah, there's like one scene of horrific violence to animals in this, if you want I'll let you know when it's coming so you can cover your eyes." 
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Apr 8, 2024 03:29
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Mister Speaker posted:The dog scene is absolutely one of the most upsetting things I've seen in one of my favourite films. I remember my ex watching the movie for the first time with me, and as soon as it started and we saw the dog running, I paused it and went "Oh yeah, there's like one scene of horrific violence to animals in this, if you want I'll let you know when it's coming so you can cover your eyes." My daughter, my ex, and I watched it while sitting on the toolbox of my truck at a drive-in showing at the local artist's collective two Halloweens ago. They'd never seen it, and judging by the crowd's reaction to the dog scene, a whole bunch of folks got their first taste then, too. The dogs present didn't seem very happy. A touch of body horror for our best friends.
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Apr 8, 2024 03:37
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BiggerBoat posted:I hear a lot of good things but I can't help but wonder how many different scenarios and campaigns one could really come up with. Just speaking as a bystander, seems to me that every session would just be "when do the aliens show up?" and there wouldn't be a lot of ways to build tension because...well...everyone is waiting for the Alien. No, there is soooooo much more out there. Where the game really excels is in how it fosters inter player conflicts. Not to the point of shooting each other, but in the sense of giving PCs conflicting motives and agendas. Think of how, for example, in Aliens Ripley, Burke, Gorman, and Hicks each have very different motivations for everything they do, from "get an Alien back to the Company" to "just survive" and more. The game pushes that, and it makes a GMs job easy - just give players conflicts and watch them bounce off each other. When they start to get comfortable, throw a threat at them. It might be an Alien, it might not. Repeat this a time or two and you get a great, memorable game. And, as said, there is a LOT more out there than just the xenomorph monster. There are plenty of competing human threats out there, from other nations and companies out to wreck the PCs plans to internal threats. And, of course, other xenomorph variants that draw from later media to keep the players guessing. Seriously, it is a great game. The xenomorph is just a tiny piece of it. Give it a shot. Cessna fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Apr 8, 2024 |
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Apr 8, 2024 03:44
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The android plot in the Alien: Black, White & Blood was pretty drat grim this issue. Just cold number logic.
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Apr 8, 2024 18:38
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Way back before the Aliens TTRPG was a thing, Winson Paine ran some Colonial Marines forums games with a different system (GURPS??). I was in 2 out of 3 of them, and none of them had actual Xenomorph aliens in them, yet he did a great job of making things super hosed up and deadly. I've been trying to find the threads in archives, but I'm not sure they survived. :-( Basically there are no shortage of hosed up Earth companies or factions willing to bio-engineer native fauna or even Earth fauna and have things get way out of control. Doctor Zero fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Apr 8, 2024 |
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Apr 8, 2024 19:05
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Doctor Zero posted:Basically there are no shortage of hosed up Earth companies or factions willing to bio-engineer native fauna or even Earth fauna and have things get way out of control. I think it is also worth remembering that the Xenomorphs are a relatively limited threat. They don't have spaceships or the ability to travel, they don't have technology, they don't even have ranged weapons. Pretty much the only time you're going to have a problem with them is if you're trapped with one in a confined space with no firepower. Beyond that it's "nuke the site from orbit." The REAL enemy is, as is shown over and over in the movies, human greed and stupidity. (We can't nuke them from orbit, that atmospheric processor is a multi-million dollar installation. Or maybe we should try to get an Alien back to earth, it could be valuable, etc.)
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Apr 8, 2024 20:03
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Cessna posted:I think it is also worth remembering that the Xenomorphs are a relatively limited threat. They don't have spaceships or the ability to travel, they don't have technology, they don't even have ranged weapons. Pretty much the only time you're going to have a problem with them is if you're trapped with one in a confined space with no firepower. Beyond that it's "nuke the site from orbit." See, that's where R&D comes in. We could isolate certain genes from the Xenomorph to upgrade all sorts of biological systems!
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Apr 9, 2024 01:49
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Cessna posted:I think it is also worth remembering that the Xenomorphs are a relatively limited threat. This line of thinking never seems to work out well. Edit: like the catalyst for xenonorphs doing things most of the time is someone saying they can't Jimbone Tallshanks fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Apr 9, 2024 |
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Apr 9, 2024 02:00
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Jimbone Tallshanks posted:This line of thinking never seems to work out well. In movies, books, and comics, because writers want exciting things to happen. But an rpg is not a movie, and players have a tendency to do smart things that movie characters do not do. Imagine Aliens as an rpg. "Let's take off and nuke the site from orbit." "Okay." "So what are we playing next?"
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Apr 9, 2024 14:52
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Cessna posted:In movies, books, and comics, because writers want exciting things to happen. There actually is an Aliens RPG, and part of its deal is making sure there are players in the group with significantly conflicting goals. So sure, maybe a lot of the group want to nuke the site from orbit. But the dude playing Burke knows that's a lose condition for him. And the dude playing Gorman knows that you just waxing Burke is a lose condition for him, and he has the codes that unlock the dropship.
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Apr 9, 2024 15:44
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Cessna posted:In movies, books, and comics, because writers want exciting things to happen. Player 1: "No?" Player 2: "Me neither." Player 3: "Oh, wait, the NPC with the funny name? Jerkmayo or something?" GM: "Spunkmeyer. Yeah, him. Anyway, he left the dropship's ramp down while he was helping bring in Bishop's equipment, and, let's see..." [rolls die; smirk widens] "The approaching dropship suddenly veers out of control - towards you. What do you do?"
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Apr 9, 2024 15:51
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Whybird posted:There actually is an Aliens RPG, and part of its deal is making sure there are players in the group with significantly conflicting goals. So sure, maybe a lot of the group want to nuke the site from orbit. But the dude playing Burke knows that's a lose condition for him. And the dude playing Gorman knows that you just waxing Burke is a lose condition for him, and he has the codes that unlock the dropship. Yes, I run a game of it. I think I mentioned this up-thread; I know about how PCs are supposed to have differing agendas. Even if my example wasn't exact and yes, you can "actually" it, the point is that players often come up with ways of avoiding the artificial conditions that are required in order for Xenomorphs to be a threat. This is the case even if they are invested in playing a horror game where they're okay with going into danger. Sometimes they just do weird poo poo you didn't expect.
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Apr 9, 2024 15:54
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Small Strange Bird posted:The GM tries to hide a smirk. "Remember the dropship's co-pilot?" "We're hosed. We're screwed man. Game OVER!!!"
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Apr 9, 2024 15:59
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A good GM knows that players will take unexpected actions that could shorten the game. The trick is to throw in homebrew curveballs to keep things interesting.Small Strange Bird posted:The GM tries to hide a smirk. "Remember the dropship's co-pilot?"
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Apr 9, 2024 16:02
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Android Apocalypse posted:A good GM knows that players will take unexpected actions that could shorten the game. The trick is to throw in homebrew curveballs to keep things interesting. Oh, absolutely, agreed. My point here is that there are a lot of situations in which Xenomorphs (or other aliens) aren't a threat, and it's up to the GM to put the PCs into situations where they are. This is pretty much never the result of anything the Xenomorphs do, rather, it's human greed and stupidity that puts the PCs in danger.
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Apr 9, 2024 16:06
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How come every character in every Alien movie investigates things by sticking their face directly over it? Reminds me of a D&D game I played: DM: There's a pool of clear, cool water. Me: Hmmm. Okay, I'll go ahead and try out a sip. DM: DO YOU DRINK WITH YOUR FACE? Me: .... uhhhh no. And on the note of movie people doing dumb poo poo, I watched Prometheus again, and overall by opinion of it hasn't changed. Keeping in mind what was said in the thread, I can see that I indeed did assume a lot of what was going on was unambiguous, although that also implies that Lindeloff was intentionally misleading viewers with an ulterior motive to be found out later, but yeah, he's not that good of a writer. The acting was actually better than I remembered, but it suffers from some weak character motivations. Good actors like Idris Alba can get away with it. Charlize Theron was better than I remembered but unfortunately most of her character's motivations disappeared in the deleted scenes. The effects hold up phenomenally, although I was surprised by a lack of haze/dust/fog that Scott loves so much. I used to think David was well acted but inconsistent, but I realized that David had an ulterior motivation all long because of Weyland and was a manipulative son-of-a-bitch from the get go. I don't know why I never caught that before. The survey team being complete morons really can't be hand handwaved away completely. It was just really lovely writing. Characters do things because Plot and not because it makes sense. The geologist with the super advanced mapping drones gets lost trying to leave??? Really? The biologist trying to tame alien life with his hands is still especially egregious. The entire survey team is loving blind as well as stupid. The only people that have hint of knowing what they are doing is the ship crew. Although kudos for there actually being a ship crew and a separate survey team. That was refreshing. That's something that always bothered me about Aliens. Who runs the ship? The computer? And there's absolutely no one left behind incase the platoon gets in trouble? Really???? It'd be like the Marines taking their own Cruiser with nobody else onboard and deploying into combat with nobody to come get them if poo poo goes wrong. I don't think that happens, but I could be wrong I suppose. It wasn't a special forces thing like Predator. Anyway... The Autodoc was clearly a WE HAVE TO HAVE SOMETHING SHOCKING LIKE THE CHESTBURSTER SCENE and watching it again it was laughable. I CAN'T DO THAT BECAUSE I AM CALIBRATED FOR MALE ANATOMY. Okay, fine just remove this object. OKAY I WILL DO A LITERAL CESARIAN NOW.  And the thing doesn't administer anesthesia? Really?Shaw is supposedly some super field surveyor yet she just runs around like she's in Disneyworld and her "boyfriend" basically does nothing but serve as a literal vehicle for bad poo poo to happen to her. Her character is written maudlin and almost panto. The whole infertility thing comes out of nowhere and lasts just long enough for Plot. She also suffered from "she's a scientist and also the protagonist so she knows everything about every science." What was her field?? Genetics? Biology? Medicine? Anthropology? Archeology?  The severed head still made no sense. MAYBE WE CAN TRICK IT INTO THINKING IT'S STILL ALIVE.  a 2000 year old severed head? Really? Okay, so let's say you really do suddenly know everything there is to know about the neurology of an alien you discovered 45 minutes ago .... WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THAT? Did she think they'd get it to talk? Did she just want it to make strange faces? It's senseless HEY LET'S TORTURE THIS CORPSE BECAUSE IT'S Shaw and That Guy were also strangely hostile toward David. Okay, sure some people won't like androids, but they had no pre-established cause for it like Ripley did. They are also arguably the protagonists and it just made them seem like huge dicks for no reason. Halloway was just completely unlikable. Not to mention that their reaction to not finding living Engineers is sort of understandable, but they took it WAY too far. Like if someone figured out that Atlantis was real and went there would they REALLY consider the whole thing a failure if the Atlantians weren't alive? I doubt it. I still think the implication that the Engineers created humans is loving stupid. The concept in itself is fine, but it really doesn't fit with the rest of canon IMO, so I'm sticking with my head canon that the Space Jockey was actually an older race that the Engineers imitated. Not only that but DNA AND GENES DON'T loving WORK LIKE THAT. I think Lindeloff saw a headline that said chimps and humans share 99% DNA and stopped there. So, I'm back to mostly liking it but still having huge problems with the writing, just for different reasons. Next up is Covenant. Doctor Zero fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Apr 9, 2024 |
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Apr 9, 2024 16:33
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Can't trust anyone.
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Apr 9, 2024 17:42
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Cessna posted:In movies, books, and comics, because writers want exciting things to happen. It's not so much smart vs dumb, it's the hubris you mentioned. It's the guaranteed killer in the franchise to assume the solution works. If you assume nuking a xenonorph colony is gonna wipe them out, then it'll turn out they have defenses against that and they'll turn up again in no time. "The alien exploded with the Nostromo, I'm safe now." "This time we're going in with Marines, we'll be safe now" "We checked the bodies and there's no sign of implantation. We should be safe." "We've captured the xenonorphs and they're contained in cells. Surely we're safe now."
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Apr 9, 2024 20:11
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Yeah that always seemed to be a running theme in these movies. You cannot contain or control the xeno. All of the movies are quite clear about it. I mean, that's pretty much what the movies are about. Hubris... death.
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Apr 9, 2024 23:36
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Pennywise the Frown posted:Yeah that always seemed to be a running theme in these movies. Don't poke the bear... in spaaaaaace!!!
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Apr 9, 2024 23:57
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Apr 9, 2024 23:59
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I've always dreamt of being a space trucker
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Apr 10, 2024 00:03
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redshirt posted:I've always dreamt of being a space trucker Well now you can! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2078410/Space_Trucker/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2380050/Star_Trucker/
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Apr 10, 2024 00:10
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Got in an argument with the CreatorVC CEO on their discord about the novelty (or lack thereof) of making the minimum price for the Blu-ray release of their “Aliens: Expanded” documentary be $100 and justifying it by throwing in a bunch of extra bullshit like posters and patches to jack up the price. I argued for a less expensive version that didn’t come with a bunch of extra nonsense. Here’s some choice quotes I got as a reply: quote:Then your going to miss out unfortunately. Our work is for superfans who recognise the value of what we’re creating with them and for them. Our physical media is personalised, highly collectable and a limited run. Backers get to have their names in the credits alongside the cast of Aliens and James Cameron. The value is immeasurable quote:They way I look at it, is you either see the value in what we’re offering or you don't. Our target audience shows up because they understand and appreciate what we deliver. quote:For you, I'd recommend thinking of the posters etc as extras. The price we put on our limited edition, personalised Blu-Rays won't change. It'll be a timeless connection to the Aliens universe that you can always point to and know you will have been part of. The way I look at it is that it's a manifestation of your fandom - and a little bit special because of it 💫 Worth pointing out that a “connection to the Alien universe” might have more weight if the project wasn’t a fan project. Like, my name is in the Alien RPG. That’s a connection to the Alien universe. redshirt posted:I've always dreamt of being a space trucker I have good news, the next sourcebook for the Alien RPG is apparently going to be about space truckers.
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Apr 10, 2024 00:10
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redshirt posted:I've always dreamt of being a space trucker Zero-G Piss Jugs
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Apr 10, 2024 00:13
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Xenomrph posted:Got in an argument with the CreatorVC CEO on their discord about the novelty (or lack thereof) of making the minimum price for the Blu-ray release of their “Aliens: Expanded” documentary be $100 and justifying it by throwing in a bunch of extra bullshit like posters and patches to jack up the price. oh for gently caress's sake lmao you want to nurse your fandom for money. that is it e. I mean what they're really doing with the credits thing is selling ad space for peoples' usernames right, like if I backed a thing I think it'd be enough to know this myself but I'm old and dumb
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Apr 10, 2024 00:13
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Mister Speaker posted:Zero-G Piss Jugs Nah dog, if you're space truckin you got a whole big giant ship and you can walk away from the wheel easy enough quite often. I've got space truckin zoomba class at 10
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Apr 10, 2024 00:17
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Apr 10, 2024 01:11
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