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Lt. Marmalade posted:BAHAHAHAHA I love picturing him totally spaz and make wild gestures with no one else around.
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Mar 28, 2012 17:15
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Lt. Marmalade posted:Don't worry about it. I don't mind There were a few my first time around, but seeing as they were certifiably mentally challenged there aren't exactly many stories that would be amusing without also being really mean. Well, maybe aside from Phoenix Wright. We called him as such due to his unfortunate habit of running through the halls of the school, late for class, only to burst through the door with an "Objection!" or "Hold it!", much like the GBA ace defence attorney.
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Mar 28, 2012 17:31
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And nope, I had to check online to make sure and my cegep was pretty darn rectangular. I think I know which one you're talking about and I can assure you, you're safe from at least my acquainted crazies. Are there crazies at your school too? Do tell.
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Nine of Eight posted:There were a few my first time around, but seeing as they were certifiably mentally challenged there aren't exactly many stories that would be amusing without also being really mean. Did he do the pointing thing? Its no good if he doesn't bust out the finger.
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Mar 28, 2012 19:08
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P.S. STILL COMPLETELY DEVOID OF MERIT
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the kawaiiest posted:1 million Gaia gold = $10, roughly. Go to the marketplace on Gaia, search for your items and see how much they are worth. How exactly would one go about unloading something then? Looks like I've got an item worth around fifty bucks to me if I can be assed to get rid of it.
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Mar 28, 2012 23:06
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Tell me about the seedy underworld of trading GA items. I'm fairly certain that would get some interesting stories. BTW, I'm less familiar with GA than I am with Anime. So . . . what the hell is it beyond a paper-doll site where you dress up your avatar (for way too much money, evidently). And can you trade GA gold for bitcoins?
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Mar 28, 2012 23:07
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Shbobdb posted:bitcoins  This should be good.
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Mar 28, 2012 23:22
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Guesticles posted:Did he do the pointing thing? Its no good if he doesn't bust out the finger. Well of course. It was funny the first week, but apparently he did this on a regular basis for at least two years.
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Mar 28, 2012 23:43
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neongrey posted:How exactly would one go about unloading something then? Looks like I've got an item worth around fifty bucks to me if I can be assed to get rid of it. Shbobdb posted:Tell me about the seedy underworld of trading GA items. Gaia is pretty much nothing but a dress up site with forums and games. It's successful because their items are really well made and pretty, and because their userbase is very loyal. Though that is changing now, thanks to the backwings drama that has been going on. Which brings us to a nice little story! People have been begging Gaia for angelic and demonic wings for their avatars since 2003. They call them "backwings" and they are the most coveted items on the site, since people have been waiting 9 years for them. Back in 2004, Lanzer (the founder of Gaia), promised everyone that the wings would be part of a quest system an that everyone would be able to get them. So everyone waited patiently for them. In mid 2011, Gaia introduced alchemy. It's just one of those game things where you get components and put them together to make new items. Except Gaia released a number of recipes which required components that are not available. Not rare components, but components that don't even exist yet. There were also a number of recipes which required components that were so rare, the odds of getting one were extremely low. And the recipes required not one such component, but a dozen, sometimes even a hundred. Alchemy was not affordable and completely useless to most users, because you'd need several million gold to craft an item that was worth 100k or so in the market. You couldn't start crafting alchemy exclusive items until you were of a much higher level, meaning you'd be crafting common items which were worth 1/10th of what you spent on them. Some people spent several hundred dollars to try and level up and failed. One girl was trying to get this one item (a kitten) and she spent $700 to try and get it, tried eleven times and still failed. Because just having the components isn't enough -- the crafting itself is about luck too. When questioned about this, one of the Gaia developers admitted that Alchemy was never intended to be used by most users. He said it was for the "hardcore Gaians", except by "hardcore" he meant "rich". So. Guess where they put the wings. I cannot even accurately describe how angry people are, and the drama that has developed since. Multiple developers have tried to do damage control and made the situation a great deal worse, and the more people learn about the wing formulas, the angrier they get -- even the richest users have had to team up to craft a single pair, and they are pissed off too. To make matters even worse, it's not just expensive -- a lot of components are random drops from chance items, meaning people are opening hundreds of boxes and getting one of the components they need 80 of. Here's the official alchemy feedback thread. It's interesting to skip a few pages and watch it deteriorate. This post was made by one of the richest people on Gaia. More drama: http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/site-feedback/i-knew-you-us-on-the-wings-updated/t.77047337/ And http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/site-feedback/gaia-stop-ignoring-alchemy-admin-response-p-6/t.78731175/
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Mar 29, 2012 06:15
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the kawaiiest posted:Alchemy was not affordable and completely useless to most users, because you'd need several million gold to craft an item that was worth 100k or so in the market. So, basically, it's like real alchemy. That said, I have a Gaia account (multiple ones, even, because I didn't want to reactivate the old email I used for the first late-2003 one before I got curious and did), and I've paid for cash items (on Gaia) before. There are now so many items that can be used as wings - on my account I've got 5 items that can be used as wings on the avatar, one literally called "Elemental Wings," and three of them end up looking like angelic or demonic wings in one fashion or another. Sure, they're cash items, but the entitlement in that thread is alternatively understandable (broken system deserves to be called out) and hilarious (why the gently caress aren't the richest users just going on Marketplace and buying their wings there?).
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Mar 29, 2012 08:07
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Kimitsu posted:That said, I have a Gaia account (multiple ones, even, because I didn't want to reactivate the old email I used for the first late-2003 one before I got curious and did), and I've paid for cash items (on Gaia) before. There are now so many items that can be used as wings - on my account I've got 5 items that can be used as wings on the avatar, one literally called "Elemental Wings," and three of them end up looking like angelic or demonic wings in one fashion or another. Sure, they're cash items, but the entitlement in that thread is alternatively understandable (broken system deserves to be called out) and hilarious (why the gently caress aren't the richest users just going on Marketplace and buying their wings there?). Anyway, the richest users aren't buying their wings in the marketplace because these wings are not available there. You can only obtain them through alchemy. Only one pair has been crafted so far (well, sort of -- AFAIK the person hasn't crafted the final form due to lack of components and funds so she has the medium wings) and her wings have already cost her well over 1 billion gold to craft. We should probably stop the gaiatalk though since we're derailing the thread... sorry, OP 
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Mar 29, 2012 09:11
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Antivehicular posted:Not to derail too hard, but yeah, cwDeici was definitely TVTropes material. Even before his Pardon my ignorance, but human sexual dimorphism is a real thing. While I do find the offending post creepy (and the difference isn't large enough to warrant any discrimination in real world or games), wouldn't deriding someone for pointing out such differences be just as unhealthy as exaggerating them? Sorry for the derail - I am just puzzled about the reaction. I would like to contribute to this thread, but unfortunately the people I met online are nowhere nearly as crazy as those featured in this glorious thread. The worst offender merely wrote a decently-written Magic: the Gathering novella with furry porn in it. I can write the affair down but it seems  .
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Mar 29, 2012 10:44
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-out about Strike Witches in the Dangan Ronpa LP, he posted
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Jeek posted:Pardon my ignorance, but human sexual dimorphism is a real thing. While I do find the offending post creepy (and the difference isn't large enough to warrant any discrimination in real world or games), wouldn't deriding someone for pointing out such differences be just as unhealthy as exaggerating them? Sorry, but this is gonna be  :The issue is that, while sexual dimorphism exists, sexual dimorphism in humans is not nearly as dramatic as the biotruthers would have you believe. The male and female body and brain are not identical, but in practice, the difference between male and female capabilities isn't large enough to be meaningfully quantifiable -- the average man has more upper-body strength than the average woman, but not by that much, and the difference between the genders (average man vs. average woman) is far less distinct than the differences within them (average people vs. bodybuilders of their own gender). Humans are a much less sexually dimorphic species than most, and the empirical data really isn't there to back up that one gender is really dominant over another in any capacity. Any individual human being is going to have a wide array of personal strengths and weaknesses, and saying "you're X gender so you can't be good at Y" doesn't reflect reality. The really bad part, though, is the social use of biotruths, which basically comes down to using vague biological ideas to justify and encourage prejudice against women. Society is still structured around men, and many fields of endeavor are still strongly exclusionary against women for no reason but culture, but the biotruthers will always argue that these are innate traits -- despite a long history of educational and professional discrimination, if women aren't represented 50/50 in a given field, it's because women just innately aren't good at that, duh! Furthermore, the things biotruthers claim women are good at are ruthlessly devalued (the helping professions) or male-dominated anyway. (If women are supposed to be so innately good at communication and mediation the same way men are at spatial stuff and math, why isn't politics as female-dominated as science is male-dominated, instead of their both being old boys' clubs?) This thread has already discussed the "nice guy" set of biotruther arguments, so I won't get into those; suffice to say that, professionally and personally, biotruths are used as cudgels to make sure women know their place and don't strive towards real equality with men. The post I cited was especially frustrating to me because this poo poo even gets into games. Sexual dimorphism in games basically always means that female game characters are more restricted or weaker than their male counterparts; not only does it perpetuate stereotypes, but it punishes female gamers who just want to play characters of their own gender for a change. It sucks to even have fantasy play reinforce that women are different and lesser -- I get enough of that in real life, why the gently caress would I want it in my games? And why the gently caress would I want to see a guy lecture me in a game thread about how it's okay because women really are lesser in real life, you guys, and  are more important than making a game that women can relax and enjoy without having to once again yield their innate inferiority for being born with ovaries?gently caress. After that, I feel like I should get things back on-topic. Anyone got Piccolo's number on the Astral Plane? I should call him and see if he's still astrally impregnating excitable high-schoolers.
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Mar 29, 2012 11:39
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the kawaiiest posted:alchemy stuff Ok, before we are entirely done with the Gaiachat, and in order to put this into perspective, how are the developers making profit on this? Are they charging users for special items? For the ingredients? When you say that a girl spent 700$, did that money go directly to the company that manages Gaia, or to other users who were selling the ingredients? Why does all this sound like one big scam that I am angry I didn't think of first?
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Mar 29, 2012 11:49
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Rexides posted:Ok, before we are entirely done with the Gaiachat, and in order to put this into perspective, how are the developers making profit on this? Are they charging users for special items? For the ingredients? When you say that a girl spent 700$, did that money go directly to the company that manages Gaia, or to other users who were selling the ingredients? Why does all this sound like one big scam that I am angry I didn't think of first?
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Mar 29, 2012 12:10
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Jesus why do people do this. I'm a pretty dreadful games nerd with a tendency to get crazy obsessive about my favourite of the month (see: my ten billion posts in the Thief threads in Games), but I've never paid money for an MMO that wasn't either the server cost or the actual game itself. Seven hundred loving dollars for the chance to get some pixelated wings. Seven. Hundred. Dollars. In real money.
Corridor fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Mar 29, 2012 |
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Mar 29, 2012 13:10
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Wow, and I feel like a sucker when I spend 99 cents for something in a game. Where do people get the money to blow on this kind of thing? I make a pretty good wage, and $700 would be painful to spend on necessities (like if my car broke down or something), let alone on something frivolous.
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Mar 29, 2012 13:22
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Corridor posted:I've never paid money for an MMO that wasn't either the server cost or the actual game itself. There are some with the mentality of OMG MUST HAVE IT!! And then there's a time invested vs reward factor. In my case with EVE Online, I bought ingame items from 'a guy', probably a botter, and then sold them ingame for currency. The way I rationalise it is that I can either grind for a week (or two depending on luck) to make the same amount, enough to pvp for the month OR buy the same amount of currency with the equivalent of what I make in an hour at work. Seems a fair trade and I get to use my spare time for doing what I want to do.
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Mar 29, 2012 14:04
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Is anybody still paying real-life money for Neopets gold? Because I'm pretty sure I was a multimillionaire, since I never spent any in-game cash.
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Mar 29, 2012 15:45
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Corridor posted:Jesus why do people do this. I'm a pretty dreadful games nerd with a tendency to get crazy obsessive about my favourite of the month (see: my ten billion posts in the Thief threads in Games), but I've never paid money for an MMO that wasn't either the server cost or the actual game itself. Seven hundred loving dollars for the chance to get some pixelated wings. Seven. Hundred. Dollars. In real money. Here's a screenshot of her original post. For the record, she filed a complaint and was granted the item, but not her money back. Anyway, $700 converts to about 70 million Gaia gold. The wings are worth at least 1.5 billion, so if someone was going to buy Gaia Cash to get the components, they'd be spending a hell of a lot more than $700.
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Mar 29, 2012 16:50
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Assuming equivalent exchange rates, that's $15,000. That's new car/down payment on a house/huge step toward debt freedom money for angel wings.
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Mar 29, 2012 16:57
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What do these Gaia items even do other than being avatar accessories?
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Mar 29, 2012 17:03
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The Saddest Rhino posted:What do these Gaia items even do other than being avatar accessories?
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Mar 29, 2012 17:11
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the kawaiiest posted:Nothing. The rare ones are status symbols for very sad people, but that's about it really. OK, who wants to join me in rustling up some pixel artists, a couple of webdev guys, and making bank? First person to get me a sprite of an angel rainbow ice kitten gets an extra 5% share of the loot.
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Mar 29, 2012 17:47
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Ouch, I'm glad the Tinier Me alchemy isn't that bad. it's just "throw two items together and get something completely random of similar value", though it does cost about 50 cents to perform. All the good stuff costs real money now, but there are enough bonuses for it that I'll throw in $10 from my paypal account every now and then and then make trades to get some items I want. You get super special non-tradable animated items if you spend $5 a month for several months. I can't imagine someone spending that much real money on a pixeled rainbow kitten or wings. That's just insane.
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Mar 29, 2012 18:23
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We officially need a Gaia thread. The stories I could tell about the Chatterbox and Barton Town. 
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Mar 29, 2012 19:49
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There's a TVTropes thread, Gaia can be just as much of a cesspool. I don't see why not.Nessa posted:I can't imagine someone spending that much real money on a pixeled rainbow kitten or wings. That's just insane. Which is what makes Gaiachat sort of fitting (but only sort of) for this thread. I feel like these obsessives are just one ladder rung down from Denise and company. If they can't get wings in real life, they're drat well getting wings on a site so they can still feel special.
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Mar 29, 2012 20:08
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Holy crap I've finally reached the end of this thread.  Been reading off and on since January or something. It's been an amazing ride, and the stories about these people are endlessly fascinating, hilarious, and horrifying.I'd like to share with you a song that, after this thread, I cannot divorce from visions of Denise, animes, and astral loving: Astral Body by Alphaville. It's uncanny. So is the image on the video. I've encountered plenty of weirdos, but nothing even approaching the people in these stories. Like, the only otaku I know is one of my housemates and his worst offense is regular attendance of the undergrad anime club at 27. I was head admin on a fantasy forum years back, and met some interesting characters, but the worst it got was an especially nerdy dude who'd RP incessantly, posted his bullshit physics theories everywhere, and wrote a self-insert Harry Potter fanfic in which Ron was secretly gay and then they had gay sex. Also there was a kid who was sexually attracted to Saphira (dragon from Eragon) and told me all about it on AIM. I removed my screen name from my profile after that. I kinda wish now I had better records/recollection of those days, because the shenanigans and the people were hilarious. For example, getting forum members to fall over themselves to trade us their rare/shiny Pokemon was priceless. I think the thing that I found most disconcerting about the stories was that I was high risk for falling off the edge and into the crazy, like several people here. The preventative factors were not having cable TV until middle school, not getting my own computer with internet until departing to college, and my parents viewing raising a whackjob kid allowed to indulge in fantasies as a failure in parenting. I think I was in danger of becoming a furry - I loved Redwall and disliked many aspects of humanity, so I made up animal characters and wrote them into fantasy stories. I drew these characters a lot and got pretty good at it. A high quality portrait of one of these wolf characters got into my college design/art portfolio because I thought it was just fantasy art and was clueless about the furry connotations. Still got in, though. I first learned about furries while talking to some college TV crew friends and they were going on about taking some TV cameras to Anthrocon to gawk (went to college in Pittsburgh). I asked what Anthrocon was about, and yeah. Knocked off my animal character stuff pretty fast after that. The characters themselves are still around (I'm one of those living character folks) just now in their proper human forms.
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Mar 29, 2012 21:53
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Colon V posted:We officially need a Gaia thread. The stories I could tell about the Chatterbox and Barton Town.
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Mar 29, 2012 21:54
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Kimitsu posted:There's a TVTropes thread, Gaia can be just as much of a cesspool. I don't see why not. It is pretty straightforward. Having super special and rare items will make you one of the "elite" and if you don't have real friends or activities to spend money on, then it's easier to just do it on the internet. You can be whoever you want to be on the internet. People will consider you rich and beautiful if you have rare and beautiful items on your avatar.
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Mar 29, 2012 21:56
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Reading all of this Gaia talk made me go check my account, and good gracious I have so many of the monthly reward things from years and years ago. Unfortunately, most of them aren't listed on that site so I have no clue what any of them are worth. So much stuff plastered everywhere....  Authentic You posted:Stuff Your art is really awesome, and that picture is super cool. What you posted there really calls to mind the kind of characters Jacques wrote about in his Redwall books, not voluptuous gently caress-me-furlord shewolfs, so I think you're probably pretty safe, either way! =)
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Mar 29, 2012 22:32
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That drat Satyr posted:Reading all of this Gaia talk made me go check my account, and good gracious I have so many of the monthly reward things from years and years ago. Unfortunately, most of them aren't listed on that site so I have no clue what any of them are worth.
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Mar 29, 2012 22:38
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 My avatar is just kinda... boring. Doesn't look terrible, at least. You know, in retrospect, it does not surprise me in the least how much crossover there is between Gaia and the sparkledog fandom.
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Mar 29, 2012 23:38
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Hey, would you folks mind coming over here and educating me about Gaia Online?
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Mar 30, 2012 00:00
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edit: moving this to the Gaia thread, so this awesome thread isn't derailed any further!
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Mar 30, 2012 00:04
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A Gaia thread before a Neopets thread? That's sort of surprising. In other news, my sister's new goal in life? To open up a furry strip club. I wish I knew where I went wrong.
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Mar 30, 2012 04:16
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Starter Wiggin posted:A Gaia thread before a Neopets thread? That's sort of surprising. I'm surprised you of all people are against this.  Seriously though, this could be an incredibly profitable business. If there's anything the internet has taught me, its that furries love to spend money. (But it sounds like your sister might be a furry, and would probably end up running it into the ground)
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Mar 30, 2012 04:59
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Guesticles posted:I'm surprised you of all people are against this. A friend of a friend does, ahem, "paid companionship" at furry cons. Apparently, the niche of that market makes her amazing bank. vvvv I'd like to know too. I mean, if it's a body paint/makeup thing, then you might have issues with the stripper poles, and where would you put the tails without resorting to straps or spirit gum? I know I'm overthinking this, but now I'm kinda curious about how you would actually make something like that work. And that way lies madness. teh winnar! fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Mar 30, 2012 |
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Mar 30, 2012 06:35
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Starter Wiggin posted:In other news, my sister's new goal in life? To open up a furry strip club. I wish I knew where I went wrong. Wait, how does a furry strip club work? Is it just a normal strip club aside from masks/tails/body paint, or are the strippers stripping down to "naked" fursuits, or what?
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Mar 30, 2012 06:49
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 No yiffing outside the VIP lounge!
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Mar 30, 2012 08:16
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I asked. Oh god, why did I ask. I guess only the bouncers are in full costume, the strippers are in ears and tails. I could have gone my whole life not giving this concept more thought.
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Mar 30, 2012 09:14
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