Reply To: Open gaming mini license

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 0]

home 3D printing technology is still very much in the “enthusiast” category that @ced1106 quoted, and it will remain there until there is a significant improvement in the technology itself (I listed earlier the criteria it has to meet in order for it to become the defacto way of purchasing plastic items like miniatures). That improvement only happens when there is a significant commercial demand for the technology because whoever funds the R&D to make the improvements will need to get their money back and at the moment, there simply isn’t enough real uses for them to drive sales. I didn’t say that there was commercial demand, I said it would need commercial demand before we would see any real improvements. Until then we’re stuck at in the enthusiast category – the technology is available but a little unaccessible, only really used by people prepared to spend the time tinkering and learning how it works

But as with all disruptive technologies you can’t fully predict the level of disruption. Look at music and film – people tend not to buy CDs and DVDs anymore.  However right now it all potential – it is potentially disruptive but the extent of that disruption will depend entirely on serious improvements being made to the technology