Look, 3d printing is almost a psychological thing. You almost nailed it but skipped right past it.
The term proxy used to delineate between wysiwyg and non-wysiwyg. "I am using this chess piece as a marine" The Deoderant Bottle Gravtank from White Dwarf - Not a proxy. They made it custom rules. It was a miniature, and it was furnished with love and care. This culture is now only found in like, airfix or custom scifi modelling.
Modern GW has waged a psychological war on these things, encouraging game stores to do the same.
Proxy is now used, as you have demonstrated, to cover anything not GW. Even if its wysiwyg, its looked down upon, otherised. GW stores have even gone as far as preventing people from playing official GW minis that are end of life in their stores. Soon these will be referred to as like "official proxies" or something.
I have 2 local non GW stores.
Store 1: Owner does not permit unofficial minis in the store at all. Will rant about this policy to anyone who listens. He says there's no way he makes money on printed minis so screw them (I was in the store to purchase paints and brushes and so on for my printed minis when I caught this rant)
Store 2: Has 3 3d printers, sells printing services, sells resin. Doesnt give a crap.
But it doesn't matter in either case, because 40k players are policing each other. GW has shifted the language to otherise armies that even have converted 3d printed bits, let alone full prints.
Not to mention: 3d print resin isnt that bad. The 3d printer business makes a lot of money selling filters and tents and housings and gloves and what not at inflated prices. Some of these things are worthy, others are not. But I was using UV resins for SFX before printers caught on, and guess what, resin fx are smellier and less able to be hidden in a dark corner of your house. Not really a huge impediment. The terror about UV resin seems to be coming both from the people slinging the extra gear, and the people concerned largely with these evil "proxies".
Also, not to put too fine a point on it, but GW mostly makes money from new players. Old grizzled angry veterans arent their bread and butter anyway.
Give it 10 years, let more stores embrace 3d printing, let some more permissive games take hold, and then you might have a chance at killing gee dubs. But they will still be selling huge expensive kits to 12 year olds using mums credit card.
I think his main point, and what can’t be overcome without a cultural shift is on these paragraphs:
> For those in the 3D printing crowd who weren't big into playing, just painting, part of the point is showing off your incredible work to everyone else. Except nobody wants to see a 3D-printed forgery of an official model. It's like showing up to a car show with a kit car that looks like a Ferrari. Sure, it's impressive in its own way, but it's not really a Ferrari, and everyone knows it, and now we're all standing around pretending we don't know it, and it's uncomfortable for everyone.
> Once someone figured out one of your minis was 3D printed, shops generally wouldn't feature it in their display cases. So there was no reason for people who were going to put in 10+ hours per model to skip paying for the official real models. If you're going to invest that much time, you want the real thing. You want the little Games Workshop logo on the base. You want to be able to say "yes, I paid $60 for this single figure" with the quiet dignity of someone who has made peace with their choices
They want the “real thing”. I.e. the overpriced chunk of plastic a company managed to inflate the price of.
It is about the ritual. They want all the love, skill and time they put into this craft to be poured on this talisman. They don’t want it to be wasted on the cheap unofficial knockoffs.
It’s interesting how companies in consumerist societies manage to create artificial value by engaging communities in these type of branded religions (the article used that word, and I think is apt)
>I think his main point, and what can’t be overcome without a cultural shift is on these paragraphs:
GW isnt a ferrari in this scenario. They have come a long way, but third party providers like Scibor, who preexist 3d printing, are still leagues better. Not to mention all of the third party support for their less supported lines, like Warhammer Fantasy. You would 100% put a scibor mini in your display case.
Its not that the 3d print isnt a ferrari, its that it specifically does everything GW's minis do, often better. So the culture has been designed to hate on it.
>If you're going to invest that much time, you want the real thing.
I mean this would tend to exclude even conversions. And people put 100s of hours into those.
>You want to be able to say "yes, I paid $60 for this single figure" with the quiet dignity of someone who has made peace with their choices
This seems like he is trying to enforce the culture, not defend it. I dont care what I paid as long as the result is good.
>It is about the ritual. They want all the love, skill and time they put into this craft to be poured on this talisman. They don’t want it to be wasted on the cheap unofficial knockoffs.
Thats the thing, lots of these miniatures arent knockoffs. Many are. But many exceed, or provide alternatives to GW. This is mostly just a confession note about being addicted to a single company rather than participating in a hobby. GW loves and cultivates this mindset.
I dont play GW games anymore aside from Mordheim (discontinued), because frankly GW is a shitty company that I dont want to support.
Their entire business model is predatory, they nerf armies and then release new models all the time, the rules are monetized and outrageously expensive, and they are litigious to the point of taking down youtube channels in order to prop up their shitty streaming service.
There are so many better games that have embraced 3D printing and are actually fun to play.
Yeah I have shifted entirely to OPR and other games.
OPR seems like the only real potential competitor to GW. Trying to beat GW on cost, or by copying their games, hasnt produced any results. You need a smoother pathway to the hobby and the game, and thats what OPR represents.
They have:
1. Near 100% rules compatibility for GW miniatures.
2. Support 3d printing out of the box.
3. Will never care where your minis came from.
4. Rules have a lot in common with older edition 40k
Being able to go online, buy a starter army and just start printing it asap is amazing.
Look, 3d printing is almost a psychological thing. You almost nailed it but skipped right past it.
The term proxy used to delineate between wysiwyg and non-wysiwyg. "I am using this chess piece as a marine" The Deoderant Bottle Gravtank from White Dwarf - Not a proxy. They made it custom rules. It was a miniature, and it was furnished with love and care. This culture is now only found in like, airfix or custom scifi modelling.
Modern GW has waged a psychological war on these things, encouraging game stores to do the same.
Proxy is now used, as you have demonstrated, to cover anything not GW. Even if its wysiwyg, its looked down upon, otherised. GW stores have even gone as far as preventing people from playing official GW minis that are end of life in their stores. Soon these will be referred to as like "official proxies" or something.
I have 2 local non GW stores.
Store 1: Owner does not permit unofficial minis in the store at all. Will rant about this policy to anyone who listens. He says there's no way he makes money on printed minis so screw them (I was in the store to purchase paints and brushes and so on for my printed minis when I caught this rant)
Store 2: Has 3 3d printers, sells printing services, sells resin. Doesnt give a crap.
But it doesn't matter in either case, because 40k players are policing each other. GW has shifted the language to otherise armies that even have converted 3d printed bits, let alone full prints.
Not to mention: 3d print resin isnt that bad. The 3d printer business makes a lot of money selling filters and tents and housings and gloves and what not at inflated prices. Some of these things are worthy, others are not. But I was using UV resins for SFX before printers caught on, and guess what, resin fx are smellier and less able to be hidden in a dark corner of your house. Not really a huge impediment. The terror about UV resin seems to be coming both from the people slinging the extra gear, and the people concerned largely with these evil "proxies".
Also, not to put too fine a point on it, but GW mostly makes money from new players. Old grizzled angry veterans arent their bread and butter anyway.
Give it 10 years, let more stores embrace 3d printing, let some more permissive games take hold, and then you might have a chance at killing gee dubs. But they will still be selling huge expensive kits to 12 year olds using mums credit card.