I had to stop the video to post this!

I agree totally with Lloyd about the impact cheap 3D printing could have on the gaming industry, and I have to say Warren that you are looking at things through rose tinted spectacles. DRM will always be circumvented, and as soon as that is done once for an item that file will spread like wildfire. The other problem is people buying the file (or getting a cracked version), and then selling loads of physically printed copies to mates and on Ebay dirt cheap. The only way DRM would be able to work (ignoring it getting cracked) would be for people to need to own specific software that supported DRM, and for there to be a count on the number of models you could produce off those plans: eg, a plan where you could print off a single model would be cheaper than a plan where you could print off multiple models. All fine, until your printer jams (etc) and the print is messed up. Down the drain your money goes, and then you pop on the internet to get the cracked file.

The analogy with Linux/Windows and GIMP/Photoshop is also totally wrong. Windows is installed on more machines, because it is easier to work for novices and industry standard software originated on it. It is only relatively recently, in “computer years”, that a Linux install has been user friendly out of the box, and has user friendly applications, and every flavour of Linux is still different enough that a complete novice would struggle moving between machines. Plus, as PC’s only tend to come with Windows installed, it’s a captive market unless someone later branches out into Linux. Photoshop and GIMP have the same argument: GIMP originated on Linux and was not very user friendly, because it was written by and for hobbiests, while Photoshop was on a widespread OS and was written to be saleable. Photoshop is still preferable for companies, because it is an industry standard piece of software that people work on (so no additional training costs to learn), with a work-flow evolution that is professionally supported. Hobbiest owners of Photoshop generally have cracked copies, because the legitimate software is so expensive. So, yes, Photoshop and Windows are used more than GIMP and Linux, but primarily due them being “industry standard” software and ease of use (and a captive market, in the case of Windows). A DRM 3D file is going to be exactly the same as a cracked 3D file, except that it is free. A professionally created 3D object is *potentially* going to be more aesthetically pleasing than something an amateur produces, but the ability of a company to survive on the sale of the 3D plans will still come down to how many plans it can sell before a cracked file becomes available.

3D printers have a few decades to go before they are a household item, such as a toaster, where the “general public” do not need to know anything about it’s operation. But it is only that that stage, where more owners *don’t* know how it works compared to the number of owners who *do* know how it works, that DRM would be a realistic expectation to be able to protect enough of the market for 3D models to be profitable.

I think the future IS bright for hobby games players, but I think the future is uncertain for the evolution of companies trying survive in a 3D printer world. However, saying that, 4Ground still has the advantage that its product is pre-coloured.

Two things struck me as I watched this week’s XLBS:
1) If you don’t look directly at Lloyd, it looks as though he’s wearing a huge flowery tie.
2) Lloyd and Warren are two sides of a coin: Warren is a Google designer (“blue-sky” thinking), and Lloyd is a Google engineer (seeing how that translates into reality). 😀

One concern I had reading some of the WHFB rumours was that GW were going down the route of limited edition models, because that also held the danger of rules-creep to sell those models. While watching the XLBX it occurred to me that they could still run limited editions without rules-creep, by having limited editions of the same characters: no rules-creep, and people wanting their cookie-cut heroes to look different to their mate’s version. Probably something more in line with Forgeworld though, than standard GW product.

I say “concern”, although I haven’t played WHFB in many editions. Since they started introducing cookie-cutter character units to be precise. I like the freedom of “gaming in the gaps”, rather than having to rely on expensive models that come with specific desirable rules. I suppose that I could have used rules from one character unit with a proxy model, and renamed the unit, but there are always asshats out there that insist on you having to have spent the money on a specific model to use its rules.