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)
> 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)