I get insulted because I buy my music...wait, what?

[Fumbles]

How do artist even make money anymore? That music you're stealing is somebody else's intellectual property.

Wow sorry, what a really dumb thing to say.(No Offense)

Let us face facts boys and girls, every time you buy a CD, iTunes,etc that money goes straight to the recording label, where the artist gets maybe 2-5% royalties (this number can change based on how "big" the artist is, meaning Metallica,and other bigger names get more for royalties). Artists really make money from touring,shows,etc. So if you really want to support a band attend a concert, buy merchandise from the concert, because honestly that cd purchase is almost meaningless.

Oh no, money going to record companies! Good, I hate those record companies for promoting and financing bands I like to make music and go on tour. I hate them so, so much.

Oh No record companies pulling funds from "less" popular bands and giving that money to "more" popular bands...Those sneaky bastards...

Hey I wonder why Tool(Maynard) doesn't want to be signed with a Record Label?

 

[Fumbles]

Tell 'em to fuck off. Them insulting you for not stealing pretty much just shows how much they're pompous asses.

I've always liked how people justify stealing music because of the way CD sales work. "The musicians barely make any money off their CDs. They get most of their money from concerts!" Are you forgetting that the record company gets money from these CDs? Are you aware that without the record companies, these musicians would be out of jobs? Are you aware that even though you said they get most of their money from concerts, you never went to that one concert a few months ago when they were in town? Well, do you? PUNK!?

I do go to every concert of my favorite bands when they are close enough meaning up to 3 and a half hours away. If I even suspect Coheed and Cambria are in Austin or Dallas, I'm there. To be honest if I like a band enough I will buy physical media (CDs), at the concert, I still like that disc.

 

[Vash108]

I buy all mine, so you are not alone.

 

[Squarez]

How do artist even make money anymore? That music you're stealing is somebody else's intellectual property.

Wow sorry, what a really dumb thing to say.(No Offense)

Let us face facts boys and girls, every time you buy a CD, iTunes,etc that money goes straight to the recording label, where the artist gets maybe 2-5% royalties (this number can change based on how "big" the artist is, meaning Metallica,and other bigger names get more for royalties). Artists really make money from touring,shows,etc. So if you really want to support a band attend a concert, buy merchandise from the concert, because honestly that cd purchase is almost meaningless.

Oh no, money going to record companies! Good, I hate those record companies for promoting and financing bands I like to make music and go on tour. I hate them so, so much.

Oh No record companies pulling funds from "less" popular bands and giving that money to "more" popular bands...Those sneaky bastards...

Hey I wonder why Tool(Maynard) doesn't want to be signed with a Record Label?

Regardless of who Tool wants to be signed with or not. It's just a simple fact of good business. More money = more money making opportunities. Which in laymen's terms means more bands get signed and get exposure.

 

[Fumbles]

How do artist even make money anymore? That music you're stealing is somebody else's intellectual property.

Wow sorry, what a really dumb thing to say.(No Offense)

Let us face facts boys and girls, every time you buy a CD, iTunes,etc that money goes straight to the recording label, where the artist gets maybe 2-5% royalties (this number can change based on how "big" the artist is, meaning Metallica,and other bigger names get more for royalties). Artists really make money from touring,shows,etc. So if you really want to support a band attend a concert, buy merchandise from the concert, because honestly that cd purchase is almost meaningless.

Oh no, money going to record companies! Good, I hate those record companies for promoting and financing bands I like to make music and go on tour. I hate them so, so much.

Oh No record companies pulling funds from "less" popular bands and giving that money to "more" popular bands...Those sneaky bastards...

Hey I wonder why Tool(Maynard) doesn't want to be signed with a Record Label?

Regardless of who Tool wants to be signed with or not. It's just a simple fact of good business. More money = more money making opportunities. Which in laymen's terms means more bands get signed and get exposure.

In theory you are correct, and I can see where you are coming from, but the artist has already received an advance for their Cd, they need to make up that advance to make more profit. Say you receive a $10,000 advance for the cd, the sales must be more then that to make additional profit. This falls in line with your argument. The more we buy, the more the artist "makes" and since they are profitable they get more cds.
However, this system "hurts" the middle range artists like Remy Zero, After Midnight Project, Coheed and Cambria (when they first started) basically the artists who are somewhat heard of, but not receiving adequate radio play. These bands have to garner fans through extensive touring, in order to make more cds. Granted Co & Ca are pretty big now, but it took them 8 or more years,several pretty much world tours (Germany,Japan,U.K,and America)to even be considered "big".

 

[Dorkamongus]

Recently, the weirdest thing i can think of was being criticized by a customer at the store where i work because i don't pluck my eyebrows...


I'm a guy by the way...

 

[Geekosaurus]

I've gotten insulted by a number of people for the past few days because I told someone I buy all my music...does that make any sense at all? Sorry that I support those that work their asses of to make it so you have the music you like to listen to.

For discussion value, have you ever been insulted for something utterly retarded?

It's uncool to pay for stuff nowadays that you can get off the internet for free. Damn pirates. I blame Jonny Depp.

 

[Squarez]

How do artist even make money anymore? That music you're stealing is somebody else's intellectual property.

Wow sorry, what a really dumb thing to say.(No Offense)

Let us face facts boys and girls, every time you buy a CD, iTunes,etc that money goes straight to the recording label, where the artist gets maybe 2-5% royalties (this number can change based on how "big" the artist is, meaning Metallica,and other bigger names get more for royalties). Artists really make money from touring,shows,etc. So if you really want to support a band attend a concert, buy merchandise from the concert, because honestly that cd purchase is almost meaningless.

Oh no, money going to record companies! Good, I hate those record companies for promoting and financing bands I like to make music and go on tour. I hate them so, so much.

Oh No record companies pulling funds from "less" popular bands and giving that money to "more" popular bands...Those sneaky bastards...

Hey I wonder why Tool(Maynard) doesn't want to be signed with a Record Label?

Regardless of who Tool wants to be signed with or not. It's just a simple fact of good business. More money = more money making opportunities. Which in laymen's terms means more bands get signed and get exposure.

In theory you are correct, and I can see where you are coming from, but the artist has already received an advance for their Cd, they need to make up that advance to make more profit. Say you receive a $10,000 advance for the cd, the sales must be more then that to make additional profit. This falls in line with your argument. The more we buy, the more the artist "makes" and since they are profitable they get more cds.
However, this system "hurts" the middle range artists like Remy Zero, After Midnight Project, Coheed and Cambria (when they first started) basically the artists who are somewhat heard of, but not receiving adequate radio play. These bands have to garner fans through extensive touring, in order to make more cds. Granted Co & Ca are pretty big now, but it took them 8 or more years,several pretty much world tours (Germany,Japan,U.K,and America)to even be considered "big".

That a true and unfortunate fact of the music industry but I think we can both agree that pirating their music and not buying the CD isn't going to help anyone in that situation. Especially the band who need to make back their advance to the company.

 

[binvjoh]

Not that I can remember, no. I guess I'm surrounded by very acceptive people.

 

[blarghblarghhhhh]

Ok I have to word this carefully to avoid moderator wrath....

With movies and videogames the only experience is the product so piracy is technically removing the chance of income and therefor it can be argued that piracy is a moral wrong.
However where music differs is in the distribution and consumption. When purchasing an album the money goes to the record company who then keeps between 88 and 95 percent of the money, the remainder is used toward paying for the advance, recording, promotion, manufacturing, distribution etc, which means that the artist/band only start receiving royalties once they have sold quite a high volume usually in the Millions.

It then becomes arguable that if you were to download the bands entire back catalogue instead of purchasing and subsequently attend one concert, even if the ticket price is the same as one album, you would be contributing more to the artist than someone who had purchased every album as the artist receives 100 percent of the ticket (minus venue hire etc)

It is a very tricky subject to discuss on the escapist as they are quite keen to suspend for even mentioning piracy in a positive light, but let me leave you with this, if (and granted it is a large if) all artists started releasing their recorded works for free, would the artists be making the same amount of money they do now and would they still feel the need to make music for a specific demographic or would it liberate the artists from chasing sales to sustain their fan base?

getting insulted for buying music is fair enough. why do musicians need money? they clearly already have instruments or you wouldnt be able to hear anything. I think free music is a good thing., people should make music for the fact they like making music not for fame and fortune. if they want money they should go and tour.

you are wrong. bands do not keep much money from ticket prices at all. think about it you pay 20 dollars for a concert ticket. that has to pay for a bus a bus driver, somewhere for the driver to sleep, food for yourself, your own merch cds exc, guitar strings drum heads excc that need to be replaced and half a billion other things.

also this: http://www.altpress.com/features/entry/no_money_mo_problems/

What you are forgetting is that those are all reasonable expenses and the money left IS ALL THEIRS whereas the list of deductions for record sales is much worse and they have to pay for that out of their 10% of sales BEFORE they see a cent, trust me, from a musician who has gigged, you won't be rich but you will be richer if you sell gig tickets instead of albums

Im guessing you didnt read the article linked and missed the point of my post. Obviously tickets bring in more cash than selling records im not trying to argue that. Im just saying that making a living as a musiian is a pipe dream nowadays. If the lead singer of thursday (a pretty popular band) cant break 10 grand a year how are the thousands of bands which are alot smaller than his suppose to get by. its not possible without being constantly broke.

 

[Tipsy Giant]

Ok I have to word this carefully to avoid moderator wrath....

With movies and videogames the only experience is the product so piracy is technically removing the chance of income and therefor it can be argued that piracy is a moral wrong.
However where music differs is in the distribution and consumption. When purchasing an album the money goes to the record company who then keeps between 88 and 95 percent of the money, the remainder is used toward paying for the advance, recording, promotion, manufacturing, distribution etc, which means that the artist/band only start receiving royalties once they have sold quite a high volume usually in the Millions.

It then becomes arguable that if you were to download the bands entire back catalogue instead of purchasing and subsequently attend one concert, even if the ticket price is the same as one album, you would be contributing more to the artist than someone who had purchased every album as the artist receives 100 percent of the ticket (minus venue hire etc)

It is a very tricky subject to discuss on the escapist as they are quite keen to suspend for even mentioning piracy in a positive light, but let me leave you with this, if (and granted it is a large if) all artists started releasing their recorded works for free, would the artists be making the same amount of money they do now and would they still feel the need to make music for a specific demographic or would it liberate the artists from chasing sales to sustain their fan base?

getting insulted for buying music is fair enough. why do musicians need money? they clearly already have instruments or you wouldnt be able to hear anything. I think free music is a good thing., people should make music for the fact they like making music not for fame and fortune. if they want money they should go and tour.

you are wrong. bands do not keep much money from ticket prices at all. think about it you pay 20 dollars for a concert ticket. that has to pay for a bus a bus driver, somewhere for the driver to sleep, food for yourself, your own merch cds exc, guitar strings drum heads excc that need to be replaced and half a billion other things.

also this: http://www.altpress.com/features/entry/no_money_mo_problems/

What you are forgetting is that those are all reasonable expenses and the money left IS ALL THEIRS whereas the list of deductions for record sales is much worse and they have to pay for that out of their 10% of sales BEFORE they see a cent, trust me, from a musician who has gigged, you won't be rich but you will be richer if you sell gig tickets instead of albums

Im guessing you didnt read the article linked and missed the point of my post. Obviously tickets bring in more cash than selling records im not trying to argue that. Im just saying that making a living as a musiian is a pipe dream nowadays. If the lead singer of thursday (a pretty popular band) cant break 10 grand a year how are the thousands of bands which are alot smaller than his suppose to get by. its not possible without being constantly broke.

I read the article, it seems like the real blame goes to the fans who didn't go see them live, see if they kept selling out venues they could book a bigger venue next time and make more dough, but they couldn't sell out venues because people would rather buy and album and act holier than thou than get informed and buy a gig ticket, all it did was prove my point that if you wanna help artists, pirate their tracks and go see them live

 

[blarghblarghhhhh]

Ok I have to word this carefully to avoid moderator wrath....

With movies and videogames the only experience is the product so piracy is technically removing the chance of income and therefor it can be argued that piracy is a moral wrong.
However where music differs is in the distribution and consumption. When purchasing an album the money goes to the record company who then keeps between 88 and 95 percent of the money, the remainder is used toward paying for the advance, recording, promotion, manufacturing, distribution etc, which means that the artist/band only start receiving royalties once they have sold quite a high volume usually in the Millions.

It then becomes arguable that if you were to download the bands entire back catalogue instead of purchasing and subsequently attend one concert, even if the ticket price is the same as one album, you would be contributing more to the artist than someone who had purchased every album as the artist receives 100 percent of the ticket (minus venue hire etc)

It is a very tricky subject to discuss on the escapist as they are quite keen to suspend for even mentioning piracy in a positive light, but let me leave you with this, if (and granted it is a large if) all artists started releasing their recorded works for free, would the artists be making the same amount of money they do now and would they still feel the need to make music for a specific demographic or would it liberate the artists from chasing sales to sustain their fan base?

getting insulted for buying music is fair enough. why do musicians need money? they clearly already have instruments or you wouldnt be able to hear anything. I think free music is a good thing., people should make music for the fact they like making music not for fame and fortune. if they want money they should go and tour.

you are wrong. bands do not keep much money from ticket prices at all. think about it you pay 20 dollars for a concert ticket. that has to pay for a bus a bus driver, somewhere for the driver to sleep, food for yourself, your own merch cds exc, guitar strings drum heads excc that need to be replaced and half a billion other things.

also this: http://www.altpress.com/features/entry/no_money_mo_problems/

What you are forgetting is that those are all reasonable expenses and the money left IS ALL THEIRS whereas the list of deductions for record sales is much worse and they have to pay for that out of their 10% of sales BEFORE they see a cent, trust me, from a musician who has gigged, you won't be rich but you will be richer if you sell gig tickets instead of albums

Im guessing you didnt read the article linked and missed the point of my post. Obviously tickets bring in more cash than selling records im not trying to argue that. Im just saying that making a living as a musiian is a pipe dream nowadays. If the lead singer of thursday (a pretty popular band) cant break 10 grand a year how are the thousands of bands which are alot smaller than his suppose to get by. its not possible without being constantly broke.

I read the article, it seems like the real blame goes to the fans who didn't go see them live, see if they kept selling out venues they could book a bigger venue next time and make more dough, but they couldn't sell out venues because people would rather buy and album and act holier than thou than get informed and buy a gig ticket, all it did was prove my point that if you wanna help artists, pirate their tracks and go see them live

your impossible. im done trying to reason with you. keep telling yourself that stealing is the answer if thats what you honestly believe.

 

[LorChan]

I'm a guy and I love knitting! you should totally knit him a noose for a gift >

OT: he physical version is always better I find

I can't figure out how the hell one would knit a noose. How about a nice 'I hope you die' scarf?

 

[Tipsy Giant]

Ok I have to word this carefully to avoid moderator wrath....

With movies and videogames the only experience is the product so piracy is technically removing the chance of income and therefor it can be argued that piracy is a moral wrong.
However where music differs is in the distribution and consumption. When purchasing an album the money goes to the record company who then keeps between 88 and 95 percent of the money, the remainder is used toward paying for the advance, recording, promotion, manufacturing, distribution etc, which means that the artist/band only start receiving royalties once they have sold quite a high volume usually in the Millions.

It then becomes arguable that if you were to download the bands entire back catalogue instead of purchasing and subsequently attend one concert, even if the ticket price is the same as one album, you would be contributing more to the artist than someone who had purchased every album as the artist receives 100 percent of the ticket (minus venue hire etc)

It is a very tricky subject to discuss on the escapist as they are quite keen to suspend for even mentioning piracy in a positive light, but let me leave you with this, if (and granted it is a large if) all artists started releasing their recorded works for free, would the artists be making the same amount of money they do now and would they still feel the need to make music for a specific demographic or would it liberate the artists from chasing sales to sustain their fan base?

getting insulted for buying music is fair enough. why do musicians need money? they clearly already have instruments or you wouldnt be able to hear anything. I think free music is a good thing., people should make music for the fact they like making music not for fame and fortune. if they want money they should go and tour.

you are wrong. bands do not keep much money from ticket prices at all. think about it you pay 20 dollars for a concert ticket. that has to pay for a bus a bus driver, somewhere for the driver to sleep, food for yourself, your own merch cds exc, guitar strings drum heads excc that need to be replaced and half a billion other things.

also this: http://www.altpress.com/features/entry/no_money_mo_problems/

What you are forgetting is that those are all reasonable expenses and the money left IS ALL THEIRS whereas the list of deductions for record sales is much worse and they have to pay for that out of their 10% of sales BEFORE they see a cent, trust me, from a musician who has gigged, you won't be rich but you will be richer if you sell gig tickets instead of albums

Im guessing you didnt read the article linked and missed the point of my post. Obviously tickets bring in more cash than selling records im not trying to argue that. Im just saying that making a living as a musiian is a pipe dream nowadays. If the lead singer of thursday (a pretty popular band) cant break 10 grand a year how are the thousands of bands which are alot smaller than his suppose to get by. its not possible without being constantly broke.

I read the article, it seems like the real blame goes to the fans who didn't go see them live, see if they kept selling out venues they could book a bigger venue next time and make more dough, but they couldn't sell out venues because people would rather buy and album and act holier than thou than get informed and buy a gig ticket, all it did was prove my point that if you wanna help artists, pirate their tracks and go see them live

your impossible. im done trying to reason with you. keep telling yourself that stealing is the answer if thats what you honestly believe.

I believe sharing is the answer, I believe that there are better solutions to distribution and they don't all have to be based on financial gain and I believe that everyone should get to experience music regardless of social standing or wealth

thanks for the discourse

 

[r0binh00d]

Spoiler

I'm using spoiler tags and Youtube links instead of embedding because this thread isn' about listening to music, but buying it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFVqjftfvO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9wNua8KqM8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHUAxPuhSzY

There you go; buy these albums, don't steal 'em!

I never steal, and just got that onward to olympus album from amazon - again thanks

 

[Semudara]

I was pretty popular in high school. The only people I didn't get along with were the extremely antisocial (sadly) and the elitist (essentially just self-righteous nerds). Even the super rich kids were more open minded than the XKCD comic lovers.

What sort of strange mirror-world did you go to high school in? o_0

 

[BlackWidower]

I was once mocked because when I requested wine at Christmas dinner (it wasn't with family by the way) I told the host she overfilled the glass because it's impossible to swirl it when it's 3mm from the brim.

They mocked me because I actually give a shit about the taste of the wine, rather than just down it to get shit faced. Swirling the glass adds oxygen, with enhances the flavour. It's called decanting, and they mocked me because I care about that. It makes no sense.

 

[BlackWidower]

Ok I have to word this carefully to avoid moderator wrath....

With movies and videogames the only experience is the product so piracy is technically removing the chance of income and therefor it can be argued that piracy is a moral wrong.
However where music differs is in the distribution and consumption. When purchasing an album the money goes to the record company who then keeps between 88 and 95 percent of the money, the remainder is used toward paying for the advance, recording, promotion, manufacturing, distribution etc, which means that the artist/band only start receiving royalties once they have sold quite a high volume usually in the Millions.

It then becomes arguable that if you were to download the bands entire back catalogue instead of purchasing and subsequently attend one concert, even if the ticket price is the same as one album, you would be contributing more to the artist than someone who had purchased every album as the artist receives 100 percent of the ticket (minus venue hire etc)

It is a very tricky subject to discuss on the escapist as they are quite keen to suspend for even mentioning piracy in a positive light, but let me leave you with this, if (and granted it is a large if) all artists started releasing their recorded works for free, would the artists be making the same amount of money they do now and would they still feel the need to make music for a specific demographic or would it liberate the artists from chasing sales to sustain their fan base?

getting insulted for buying music is fair enough. why do musicians need money? they clearly already have instruments or you wouldnt be able to hear anything. I think free music is a good thing., people should make music for the fact they like making music not for fame and fortune. if they want money they should go and tour.

you are wrong. bands do not keep much money from ticket prices at all. think about it you pay 20 dollars for a concert ticket. that has to pay for a bus a bus driver, somewhere for the driver to sleep, food for yourself, your own merch cds exc, guitar strings drum heads excc that need to be replaced and half a billion other things.

also this: http://www.altpress.com/features/entry/no_money_mo_problems/

What you are forgetting is that those are all reasonable expenses and the money left IS ALL THEIRS whereas the list of deductions for record sales is much worse and they have to pay for that out of their 10% of sales BEFORE they see a cent, trust me, from a musician who has gigged, you won't be rich but you will be richer if you sell gig tickets instead of albums

Im guessing you didnt read the article linked and missed the point of my post. Obviously tickets bring in more cash than selling records im not trying to argue that. Im just saying that making a living as a musiian is a pipe dream nowadays. If the lead singer of thursday (a pretty popular band) cant break 10 grand a year how are the thousands of bands which are alot smaller than his suppose to get by. its not possible without being constantly broke.

I read the article, it seems like the real blame goes to the fans who didn't go see them live, see if they kept selling out venues they could book a bigger venue next time and make more dough, but they couldn't sell out venues because people would rather buy and album and act holier than thou than get informed and buy a gig ticket, all it did was prove my point that if you wanna help artists, pirate their tracks and go see them live

your impossible. im done trying to reason with you. keep telling yourself that stealing is the answer if thats what you honestly believe.

I believe sharing is the answer, I believe that there are better solutions to distribution and they don't all have to be based on financial gain and I believe that everyone should get to experience music regardless of social standing or wealth

thanks for the discourse

Here's a better idea, maybe the fans should buy the albums AND go see them live. Radical idea, I know.

 

[Tipsy Giant]

Ok I have to word this carefully to avoid moderator wrath....

With movies and videogames the only experience is the product so piracy is technically removing the chance of income and therefor it can be argued that piracy is a moral wrong.
However where music differs is in the distribution and consumption. When purchasing an album the money goes to the record company who then keeps between 88 and 95 percent of the money, the remainder is used toward paying for the advance, recording, promotion, manufacturing, distribution etc, which means that the artist/band only start receiving royalties once they have sold quite a high volume usually in the Millions.

It then becomes arguable that if you were to download the bands entire back catalogue instead of purchasing and subsequently attend one concert, even if the ticket price is the same as one album, you would be contributing more to the artist than someone who had purchased every album as the artist receives 100 percent of the ticket (minus venue hire etc)

It is a very tricky subject to discuss on the escapist as they are quite keen to suspend for even mentioning piracy in a positive light, but let me leave you with this, if (and granted it is a large if) all artists started releasing their recorded works for free, would the artists be making the same amount of money they do now and would they still feel the need to make music for a specific demographic or would it liberate the artists from chasing sales to sustain their fan base?

getting insulted for buying music is fair enough. why do musicians need money? they clearly already have instruments or you wouldnt be able to hear anything. I think free music is a good thing., people should make music for the fact they like making music not for fame and fortune. if they want money they should go and tour.

you are wrong. bands do not keep much money from ticket prices at all. think about it you pay 20 dollars for a concert ticket. that has to pay for a bus a bus driver, somewhere for the driver to sleep, food for yourself, your own merch cds exc, guitar strings drum heads excc that need to be replaced and half a billion other things.

also this: http://www.altpress.com/features/entry/no_money_mo_problems/

What you are forgetting is that those are all reasonable expenses and the money left IS ALL THEIRS whereas the list of deductions for record sales is much worse and they have to pay for that out of their 10% of sales BEFORE they see a cent, trust me, from a musician who has gigged, you won't be rich but you will be richer if you sell gig tickets instead of albums

Im guessing you didnt read the article linked and missed the point of my post. Obviously tickets bring in more cash than selling records im not trying to argue that. Im just saying that making a living as a musiian is a pipe dream nowadays. If the lead singer of thursday (a pretty popular band) cant break 10 grand a year how are the thousands of bands which are alot smaller than his suppose to get by. its not possible without being constantly broke.

I read the article, it seems like the real blame goes to the fans who didn't go see them live, see if they kept selling out venues they could book a bigger venue next time and make more dough, but they couldn't sell out venues because people would rather buy and album and act holier than thou than get informed and buy a gig ticket, all it did was prove my point that if you wanna help artists, pirate their tracks and go see them live

your impossible. im done trying to reason with you. keep telling yourself that stealing is the answer if thats what you honestly believe.

I believe sharing is the answer, I believe that there are better solutions to distribution and they don't all have to be based on financial gain and I believe that everyone should get to experience music regardless of social standing or wealth

thanks for the discourse

Here's a better idea, maybe the fans should buy the albums AND go see them live. Radical idea, I know.

and maybe we should all buy ferraris and race them around on the moon, not everyone is wealthy, radical concept I know

 

[F-I-D-O]

For reading comics
For playing Magic: The Gathering (one person making fun, and we had two two-headed giant matches going. The guy fled)
For enjoying pokemon
For playing video games (Really)
For playing battletech (The person didn't realize my teammate had a nerf gun (for fun, he had a artillery strike beacon). There's a reason the warning says not to aim at the eyes.)
For not having an xbox (hate fanboys)

Good lord, it is impossible to find anyone to play battletech these days. *thumbs up*

Anyways, I've been made fun of for playing Trombone.
"Gay," they claimed.
How much more heterosexual of an instrument can you get? It's a 4 foot-long instrument with an extending slide!

With Battletech, I've had to slowly morph into the Robotech RPG. Same feel, but more accessible to my friends. They (and now me) can't afford (as many) miniatures, and since we've all seen the occasional Robotech, still get our giant fighting mech fix.
And I play tuba. I have had to be subjected to soooo many polka music jokes/fat jokes, and the occasional gay joke (herp derr derp, you blow...into an instrument). However, I've never heard trombone be called gay (I play it as well), usually because being hit by a trombone slide hurts. And I can move faster than most people can.