Is 3d printing going to upset the miniature economy? Is GW worried?
I know that official 40k tourneys require "official" minis but as the tech gets better it will be impossible to distinguish official minis from printed minis without requiring everyone to show their purchase receipts.
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Did home inkjet and laser printers upset the game book market?
Yes?
No but pdfs did
Game books are trivial in costs compared to minis. Many people don't want to spend $100 on a few plastic toys.
>Is 3d printing going to upset the miniature economy?
Unless some kind of breakthrough in material and tech cost happens, no.
Industrial quality printers that many game companies have access to for rapid-prototyping aren't something the average person has the money to operate, or the time to use to make an entire army. It's quicker, easier, and most importantly drastically less expensive to just make some molds and cast shit.
GW make a decent enough profit via their license.
Video games and books come to mind at the moment, however these could easily expande into other avenues, if and when profits dwindle.
It's a similar situation other media faced with the dawn of illegal downloads and torrents, however there are also further areas that can bring profit.
3d printing is no bigger a threat than domestic mold casting is.
For really fucking expensive resin kits, possibly. In a way, it already has because it allows small studios to make a master to cast from more easily.
However, it isn't going to replace plastic kits in the foreseeable future and GW has very little to worry about.
Plastic kits are usually pretty good value compared to 3D printed stuff, especially when taking into account the fact 3D printed materials suck compared to HIPS.
>But 3D printers will get better, like all technology!
Not at anything like the rate things which are actually useful do. 3D printing is a very niche market and many of the most viable applications for it don't translate into getting better at printing miniatures. 3D printing is not going to improve at anything like the rate computers do because there is massively less investment in researching the technology.
3d printing is a meme and is useless for the home hobbiest. The vast majority of its applications are useful for the large scale producer, so no. 3d printing may lower manufacturing costs, which will never get passed on to you
"Computer, replicate me 10 entire sets of every miniature from the 20th century game Warhammer 40,000, then send me back in time to the 2017 DragonCon using a reverse tachyon field so that I can sell them and put the money in a bank account and earn 300 years worth of interest. Disengage safety protocols."
>Many people don't want to spend $100 on a few plastic toys.
You'd be surprised, just recently I've been visiting a friend that happens to keep a dildo collection clocking well into 1 grand. Apparently even raging lesbo needs some good stuffing every once in a while.
>Did home inkjet and laser printers upset the game book market?
No, but I stopped buying RPG books as soon as pirating PDFs was a viable alternative.
I work at a 3D print company and while our current printers can't match the fidelity of injection molding, they easily, easily blow traditional minis out of the water on cost and customization. It will come down to which the market decides is more important. I could print an entire box of space marines for a few bucks at most, and even if you don't own your own printer we sell to a lot of schools, libraries or even private individuals who offer print services. When it is that insanely cheap, I don't think GW can possibly compete; our fidelity is only getting better while their prices go up every year.
We have some printed minis in the office, if this thread is still up tomorrow I'll post a picture.
Short answer: no
Long answer: noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
3d printing isn't near the resolution of detail that traditional mold casting gets.
Anything reasonably priced doesn't even have the resolution to make decent terrain (you can sand terrain though, so that's a plus)
Also the price of resin for 3d printing is really high currently
>We have some printed minis in the office, if this thread is still up tomorrow I'll post a picture.
Have a bump I want to see pics desu
a printer that would even approach the fidelity of a gw resin mini cost as much as a decent house.
>many people don't want to spend $100 on a few plastic toys
many people don't want to spend $300 on a video game console and then $80 for a plastic disc
Now. in 10 years?
Pdfs did
Are you telling me you'd download a car?
Is there much demand from print shops and the like?
It seems to me that would be an interesting way of expanding their market, as long as costs didn't run while.
Also, >3D Printers in Libraries
I hate this so much. It's such a waste of resources, unless the library is at a technical school or college, and then whatever department wants it can pay for it.
I want to 3d print a gun and kill myself
Wrong. It's $399 one time for a full package with the controller plus like $40 per game.
We've been hearing that "right around the corner" schtick for quite a few years now. How about you go fuck a live lamp socket to pass the time until it actually happens instead of making threads like this one all the fucking time?
I just bought an xbox one S with BF1 for $259 brand new on amazon. They're really lowering prices since they're coming out with scorpio shortly.
where are you getting new game releases at $40?
New games typically drop to sub $40 a few months after launch
That's doable.
I work at a library - the 3D printers are in the separate teen tech lab and paid for separately. They're fairly slow but I've already used them to construct (historical) gaming pieces. The one Space Marine someone tried came out pretty poorly.
not fast enough though
>The one Space Marine someone tried came out pretty poorly.
Good enough for a basement game with friends though.
If you change your mind before the printing is done you didn't really want to kill yourself in the first place.
oh good, after everyone stopped playing them
>for quite a few years now
probably about four or five, at this point
The funny thing is the technology's been a part of what people consider main stream "traditional" model making for more than a decade. It's just not viable for mass production when compared with the alternatives.
you could just mass buy starter kit marines off ebay though
Not even. At a lot of stores a newly released game has a few uses copies in the following weeks due to people just not liking the game. They're easily $40 or less.
>No but pdfs did
This
Virtual reality and Tabletop Simulator will bankrupt the miniatures economy
If you're referring to paper printing businesses buying our 3D printers, we get a few but by far they aren't our biggest customers. Some do but most don't see much overlap, which is fair.
As for libraries, we sell to a lot of rural municipal libraries too. For most people it could be the only printer in a large radius. Universities are another big buyer, but we also sell to high schools and grade schools for the same reasons. For many communities these are the only printers for miles and kids are really fascinated by them in a Minecraft sort of way.
As for them being useless, it's one of those things where you don't realize how useful they are until you start using regularly. For example, all our trash cans, office supplies holders, camera covers, etc are all printed at the fraction of the cost it takes to buy them. We even print little spheres to cover sharp corners people bump into, tool racks on the manufacturing floor, etc.
I know your average 3D printer isn't good enough for models, but what about terrain? Could I whip myself up a bunch of modular gothic buildings and other scenery so I can finally play cities of death without remortgaging my house?
just like video games killed board games and sports
>scratch building buildings and ruins out of foam board/cardboard is too hard
???
>Can't find and decent suits of pic related armor for my OC Inquisitor to stride around in.
>Despite Inquisitors being pretty customizable, the models are very static.
>God dammit, I don't want my Malleus Inquisitor to have some gay ass fur coat on his shoulders
>Also, PA acolytes are now reasonable. Where's all the non-Astartes/Sororitas Power Armor GW!?
Let 3-D printing prosper. Non of my locals give a shit about customization as long as we can agree on the targetable center of mass.
Oh no poor Games Workshop )):
is there a PO Box that I can send them money??
Any recommendations on printers for high quality minis? Preferably something that doesn't cost as much as buying several full armies.
My sculpting skill is at a fifth grade level.
it'd be cheaper to buy gw terrain given the cost of 3d printing resin
also you have to sand the 3d printed terrain to remove the bumpy layer effect
youtube.com
>lets make easy wargames scenery
>back 2 bascics for wargames terrain and scenery builders
it's not hard
Are you the guy who told the story about the shadowrun game that was nearly ended by a few hundred bad dragon dildoes?
They're just boxes, man. If seven year old me can do it, you can too.
...
Or you could buy it new for $30 on Steam if you're not a console peasant.
>textured exterior
>floor and corner reinforcement to breakup flat shape of cardboard box
2002 and yet it's better than 90% of the shit people use on youtube batreps
>just like video games killed board games and sports
Yes, actually.
Sports continue to lose viewership as older generations die off, without equal replacements among younger generations, who are watching more and more esports. Pic related.
Just LOL tourneys alone beats out the NBA
ftw.usatoday.com
I know, right? People got really fucking lazy with terrain over the past decade.
show me where for honor is $30 on steam
meant for
>2016: >The global eSports economy continues to surge forward .... a 43% jump from 2015.
Serious fucking market growth.
...
Nope, my chummer is ghoul doctor and he's not really getting any because it would kind of go against Hippocrates oath and that one session with vampire loli businesswoman is non-canon.
Here it is for free:
store.steampowered.com
oh cool, now with this I can play with all my friends :)
The time it took this guy to build and paint this table would probably be less than the time it would take you to print out all those buildings with a printer.
And the material cost would likely be under ten bucks, depending on the price of hardboard in your area.
Friends, hehehe.
No. While SLA machines can make nice stuff, 3D printers are more expensive than miniatures and designs are infrequent.
Nobody forced you to make friends with console-loving normies.
Why hasn't a miniature company started to sell files that you can print? The profit margin will be through the roof.
I will use them on BB3D anyway.
I wish more people jumped to play wargames online.
It's nowhere near as fun online as in person.
>it's not even the right game
>you didn't get the joke
>go back to /a/
>tabletop online
why not just play video games?
Imagine, if you will, further advancement in technology that will allow for mixed game where one player plays with his own physical miniatures and the other with virtual ones 3d projected on gaming board of the first player.
Its no comparable.
So is Lego
For way more than the cost of printing out a Squad, yes.
I personally enjoy assembling and painting, so why would I use a simulator, unless I had no-one local to game with.
It's not rocket surgery. And you can download templates, mate, fuck.
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>unless I had no-one local to game with.
Because that's the reason most of people drop/stay away from the hobby. They have nobody to play with.
Nigga, we live in a world where Apple can keep selling a phone they developed in '98 as "bran new" every year.
Technology isn't advancing more than the bare minimum necessary to cut costs nowadays.
not really, I got 40 deathwing terminators for $40 back when dark vengeance first came out
...
And people are already buying pirated miniatures. Resin cast copies made in china are going to be cheaper & better than 3D printing for a considerable time to come.
well, you still need to buy the bullet
>Is 3d printing going to upset the miniature economy? Is GW worried?
No for a few reasons:
1. When it becomes viable GW will switch to it and people will still buy their stuff because it's GW.
2. They will just start shitting out new designs over and over because it's easy to do and people will still buy their stuff.
3. Convenience. GW will always hold a high-street presence and even though they'll eventually be like a photobooth next to a Greggs they'll still get sales from people.
If anything 3D printing will
>If anything 3D printing will....
Open the market up for newer more interesting games.
>Apple
>technological innovation
Exactly
>trash cans
wait, seriously? they're like 10$ in bulk from uline. 3d printing them is retarded
>The Anarchist Cookbook.pdf
Large parts of the book are obsolete now but the recipe for homemade gunpowder is still legit.
>Is 3d printing going to upset the miniature economy?
Right now, no, since the price is prohibitive and the quality of the kind of printers you can get at home isn't great. But both the price and the quality have improved a lot in the short time that the technology has been commercially available. I don't think it'll take very long for buying a 3D printer to become more viable than to keep buying overpriced miniatures.
Apple assembles existing hardware and sells it to end users. They don't innovate because that's not their concern. Pointing to Apple to try and demonstrate technological stagnation is like pointing to a pop-music radio station to try and demonstrate creative sterility. You're looking in the wrong places.
>learning to handload just to kill yourself
seems counterproductive desu, guns are too fun to want to kill yourself after getting into the hobby
Easier to recycle and to fit very exact needs.
use some cheap key site, like g2a or kinguin.
47 EUROS
But aren't people paying more and more for stadiums and such?
Bump for that guy's pics
Can't say that the players make a comparable amount nor is there as much money in esports as a whole either.
Bumping for pics
Which is why Steam is so successful.
bumping with a butt gif
Do you ever worry that Steam is ruining people's sense of how much games are worth?
>60 dollars? No way, I'm going to wait until that's on sale.
>30 dollars? Not going to pay that - maybe once it's on sale.
>10 bucks? What does it look like, I'm made of money? Maybe come winter sale.
Then everyone and their mother makes do with DLCs and micro-transactions.