On the Invention of the Boltgun

Those who are new to warhammer 40k may not recognize the significance of the iconic design of the now ubiquitous bolter.  The icon of space marine supremacy it is a standing testament to imperial weapon design.  Though the Ork Shoota and the Eldar Shuriken Catapult have been with us almost as long none has captured the futuristic essence of Warhammer 40k as well as the Boltgun. 

Within the 40k mythos Bolters are said to be relatively rare.  The fact that the entirety of the Adeptus Astartes and Adeptus Sororitas are equipped with these weapons is meant to imply the eliteness of their individual combat prowess over the more common Imperal Lasgun.   The boltgun’s Strength 4 power is often used as the “average” for Warhammer 40k in the same manner in which a 44 Magnum is the “average” weapon for action movies. Though its background is intended to be incredibly rare its implementation is comically saturated in game.

The term “Bolt Gun” first appeared in Laserburn by Bryan Ansell.  Games workshop began using the term boltgun before the rogue trader days as part of their promotion of the “dark future” line of products. The term has stuck since then with the addition of expanded terminology such as its colloquial name “Bolter” and its pistol and heavy variants.  The exact source of the boltgun as developed by the design team is unknown.  Indeed, I personally experienced some confusion among gamers as to whether the Boltgun was indeed a cased rocket ammunition weapon or a pneumatic metal slug projector.  This confusion from my days gaming in the 80s rested largely with my exposure to metal workers who referred to their pneumatic drivers as boltguns on occasion.  Games Workshop has since defined the Boltgun in a much clearer sense making its intended lineage much clearer. 

Early models which could be considered “space marines” often wielded boltguns with a squared off body made of a single print plate (like below).   This highbred somewhere between a Mac10 and AK47 was a significant aspect of the culture at the time.  Both weapons were key playing pieces in 1980s warfare from escalating gang violence to constant warmongering in Africa they were icons in the news regularly. 

Later designs would evolve further along the path towards modern boltgun we recognize today.  They kept their blocky shape but added technical details which we see in modern weapons such as multipart construction.  The intent of the design is clearly meant to convey both durability and power by making the weapon design bulky and oversized.  Like a head and a half bastard sword in the hands of a barbarian the weapon is intended to be intimidating on sight and add extra gravitas to the wielders awe inspiring presence.

Perhaps more intriguing is the source of the actual weapon idea.  Bob Naismith sculpted the original weapons but the idea for a “boltgun” pre-existed games workshop for 20 plus years.  The essence of the boltgun is a weapon that fires rockets instead of traditional bullets.  This is an idea that began to be envisaged following WW2.  Scientists experimenting with jet proportion following the war theorized the idea of miniaturized missile weapons.  The race to develop rockets that could deliver payloads overseas grew at pace with the tensions of the cold war.  As jet engines began transition to commercial activities in the late 50s the military began experimenting with micro missile design that could take advantage of smaller and smaller jet propulsion systems.  The result was the Gyrojet family of weapons patented and perfected in the early 60s and produced commercially throughout the following decade.

Gyrojet weapons used a 50 caliber caseless rocket round that was stabilized by an internal gyro system.  These dumb rounds had greater range than conventional bullets of similar caliber with considerably less recoil. Early hopes for the weapons included delivering specialized payloads such as explosive rounds.  As well as extra atmospheric operation in the event of conflict in space.  They proved unreliable for military use due to the precise nature of rocket fuel mixtures under various conditions.  However their space age design became quite popular with the public keeping them in production long after military funding had been withdrawn.

Gyrojet rifles were particularly popularized in science fiction.  Many TV shows depicted weaponry with elements of gyrojets.  Weapons from 60s and 70s tv shows often have conspicuous thermal vents and seem to fire caseless rounds propelled by gouts of smoke.  Many popular movies including those in the James Bond series used gyrojet weapons as set props.  Unfortunately the real world intervened with technology.

Running tests on gyrojet weapons proved they reacted poorly to changes of climate and altitude.  The burn potential of rocket fuel varies based on a variety of factors, including temperature and air pressure.  Weapons tested in humid climates proved to be the nail in the coffin however.   Extreme humidity can dampen the firing capabilities of the weapons making it impossible or at least impractical to deploy to the Vietnam conflict.  The result meant that any hope of future military funding was over.  Weapon manufactures scaled back production and the gyrojet faded from lethal weapon to a collectors item.

Of course modern technology could revive the design.  At the time of their development rocket and missile technology was in its relative infancy.  Modern missiles and bombs are much more sophisticated and the science of rocket fuel has come a long way in 30 years.  The military has already developed impressive smart bullets and fire control systems capable of deploying explosive rounds that explode after penetrating walls.  Weapons such as the OICW could greatly benefit from gyrojet’s low recoil and lighter weight construction.

Where is this going? Well I’d like to introduce my new gyrojet series. Astute individuals will recognize the design as an expansion on a one off design I had made some months ago.  The original model was lost but I’ve spent the last three weeks working on reconstructing and modularizing the design. Developing a selection of variants including rifles, pistols, and heavy weapons. 

More than a simple redesign of basic weaponry the chassis of these weapons will become the basis for my future weapons.  I’ve begun ideation of weapon variants to include plasma weapons, lasers, meson particle beams, flame throwers, grenade launchers, linear accelerator rifles, and machine cannons.  I’ll be creating hand held weapons first followed by turret, sponson, and pintle mounted variants.

I’d like to say this is a fast process but it is not.  I’m carefully selecting what design elements I choose to develop and utilize from existing sources such as modern and historical weapon designs.  The first sets will appear shortly with subsequent designs appearing as I have time.

As I have time? Yeah well, I’m making this too…

I’m not done yet, but I’m not down and out either.

Daleks and Disappointment

I live with so much disappointment in life.  It’s so tragic.  I was inspired last week and revived my long abandoned Dalek designs.  This was mostly out of apprehension over my other designs removal but also in anticipation.

The new season of Doctor Who started this weekend and I was very excited that I’d see “the most Dalek’s ever seen on screen at once”.  It’s not by the way. They lied about that.  Advertisers do that I suppose.  There are more daleks on screen in "the parting of ways" (I counted by the way) than in this episode but I suppose there is less variety of Daleks in that episode so whatever...

"Asylum of the Daleks".  I had hoped the return of this iconic villain would herald some deep change in the show.  Something to pull it out of its spiral of boring poorly paced writing and move it back towards the epicness that it once had. 

Don’t get me wrong I’m not a hater, I like the 2005 revival and the original run equally.  I’ve watched Doctor Who since I was a kid.  It is a cherished memory.  The 2005 doctor who breathed life into that memory.  Looking back at the original the subtext and nuance I remember from my childhood don’t exist.  It was campy, badly funded, and generally made little sense even within a single episode.  But I loved it.  The new series took everything that was horrible about the old doctor who and proved it was amazing.  It rewrote the whoniverse so that it was epic and massive and both new and old at the same time.

Then Davies left and Moffat took over.  Some people like Moffat I hear.  Understand, I have zero problem with the Matt Smith as the doctor.  I don’t get a boner over Karen Gillian but I think she makes a splendid companion.  And even what’s his name I always forget is much more tolerable than most male sidekicks that the doctor has had.  But Moffat… Moffat.. Moffat… Moffat!

There is a reason his name is used as a title for evil Imperial commanders in the Star Wars movies.  Some people sing his praises.  I think he is a little kid that’s been given his say and should be slapped upside the head.

See Moffat knows how to do seriously big scenes… sort of…  He also knows how to make characters act… kind of well…  Moffat also knows how to manage a big overarching plot… kinda in the last 5 minutes…

See Moffat is sort of like George Lucas but more tolerable of a human being.  He’s got this addiction to flash in the pan scenes.  For instance! Asylum of the Daleks opens with the Doctor meeting someone on the surface of Scaro.  Scaro… The Dalek homeworld which was destroyed in like episode 3 of the original series.  The red irradiated planet shown which should have been white and petrified according to its original incarnation, if not just totally blown up.  Less aggravating than a planet that was blown up not having blown up, but just as stupid, is how this episode pans across a burnt city scape and up the decaying form of a giant fucking Dalek.  So Daleks built giant Dalek shaped skyscrapers on their desolate not blown up Dalek home world. What's the point of an eye stalk on a skyscraper? Was it pretty pictures, sure.  But was it fucking necessary??? I argue not.  part of the excitement of Doctor Who is you don't know what they hell is happening till it happens.  In the episode "Dalek" you get that a dalek will be in the show but it doesn't start out that way.  And even for 5 minutes you wonder how the beaten half dead dalek is gonna factor in and then bam dalek murder fest happens.  That's how the Daleks should be handled.  From scene one of "Asylum of the Daleks" it seemed pretty obvious the goal was to make my eyes bleed daleks. Its a slap in the face saying, "Oh hey did you know daleks were gonna be in this episode" it insults the viewers in my opinion. Epic scenes are great but come the fuck on they should be epic for the sake of the plot not epic cause you want to blow your CG budget for the year.

And then there is of course the whole, lets make daleks out of people.  And they say it, you make Daleks by subtracting love.... Let me say that again in case your mind is boggled. "By subtracting love".  Subtracting love… Love… FUCKING LOVE!!! How about subtract love and then add 3 million years of radiation and genetic mutation, cloning, geneingeering, eugenics, galactic and inter-temporal war, and of course add a fucking hover tank.  FUCKING LOVE MY ASS!  Why do daleks have to… sigh.  And that is the thing, he knows how to make a pretty picture but misses all the subtext and emotion of pretty much everything.  Saying something like "that how you become like a dalek they remove your emotions, make you cold, make you alone, make you hate everything that isn't you.  So hold on to what matters because love beats hate any day, Amy."  See what I did there.  Its punchy, it builds on itself a bit.  It makes you feel the punch line. And it implies the exact same concept.  Its like moffat thinks we are all 2 year olds when it comes to dialog.

I'd like to say I gave the episode a fair shake.  Maybe I didn't.  Maybe I'm glorifying Davies run on the show but so much more could be done with the concepts at play.  For instance when I read the title of the episode… “Asylum of the Daleks”… I thought, "Well the Dalek race has been through the wringer lately maybe they gave up".  I figured, maybe the new paradigm Daleks, you know the smarty Daleks people hate that Moffat introduced earlier, are magically smarter than the old Daleks.  Maybe they finally realize they lost the timewar and maybe even the general war on everything, if so just maybe they would ask the Doctor to stop the time war.  Imagine that.  A group of Daleks actually asking the doctor to change the course of history so their race doesn’t get wiped out over and over again.  And the doctor would have a chance to save his people before they resurrect Rassilon and go all apeshit nuts on the universe.  How would that be for an opening episode? The entire season could be the doctor trying to rewrite the history of the Daleks to save them from the time war and vicariously insure the timelords never get involved and thus both races are saved.  But he could be thwarted at every turn by the psylence (or however you spell that) or whatever the fuck they were called.  Only in the end to find out that the psylense are agents of the timelords or something awesome where Rassilon is trying to stop the Doctor from Timelocking the Time War.  That would be wicked cool.  Talk about an epic over arching plot... and the puzzle... "Silence will fall when the question is answered."  We all know the question is "Doctor Who?" its retardedly obvious, or maybe i'm just gullible.  It could be as simple as a password to control the Moment and unlock the Time War.   

But of course that’s not what happens.

And I knew that going in.  I went online and looked up some reviews based on the previews.  And I learned the Asylum of the Daleks was really about an Asylum of the classical sense.  The Dalek’s version of Arkam. (yes I say that picturing a Dalek Joker). And from that I though, "ok that would be cool too".  Dalek Sek went insane and had prophetic visions.  They implied the Psyche Daleks in the old series were insane or would go it eventually due to their emotions.  I could see the Daleks making an Asylum to send their crazies too.  Like Sek the crazy daleks would be of use to the "normal" Daleks at some point so they might not kill them just imprison them.  And if the crazies got loose what would they do to the norms that imprisoned them?  I mean that was a cool idea too.   The Doctor kidnapped by the Daleks to go kill a Psychic Kaled mutant that has taken over the asylum and is systematically destroying the Dalek empire.  SO the doctor gets sent to the Asylum and has to fight his way through insane kaled mutants, weird brain-squid tentacle monsters attacking them. That's what the daleks are really, the travel machines are just mechanical tanks they live in. The inmate daleks could have cobbled together  travel machines built from spare parts with strange weapons improvised from whatever they could find.  And at the end a show down with a colossal mutant kaled that would demand to know whether the Doctor really believed saving the normal Daleks was "Right".  But again that’s not what we get. Oh no.  We get dusty time war era daleks in a sewer system.  Why the fuck would you send someone to a mental hospital in a hover tank??? At least take the fucking gun away.  So many missed opportunism.

And lets talk about zombies.  Specifically dalek nanite controlled zombie humans.  WHAT THE FUCK!.  Really? We can’t get away from zombies in popular culture did we really need Doctor Who and the Zombies?  Shit really? I hate the idea of reanimated corpses in general, its physically impossible. Its a trope for the week minded to frighten people. "Oh how do you kill them they're already dead???" If they can't fucking die what's the fucking point of trying to kill them build a fucking wall.  But in doctor who did we really need zombies? A show were no one caries guns and they run around scared a gratuitously large amount already, are zombies really needed? I say not.  Not to mention that’s not Dalek MO.  They make mutant slaves or stick mind control chips in your brain.  They don’t turn you into zombies. That’s more a cyberman thing and even then it would be kinda stupid.  Just fucking stupid.  Not to mention if Daleks had that kind of technology why not just shoot every fucking planet with a nanobomb to zombify everyone. Either the Daleks are fucking idiots or Moffat is and I choose Moffat.

I'm digressing way off my chosen rant but I can't stop now.  So lets touch base on one of my real pet peeves.  The Parliament of the Daleks.  Apparently Daleks now follow a republic system of government.  See and I thought they were a military dictatorship and that’s why they had ranks like Supreme and Emperor but apparently they get to elect pretty much every bronze suited dude into their representative government. So what they are a constitutional monarchy now? Projecting much Britannia?  But wait there's more apparently the Daleks have a psychic network of sorts!  I don’t remember this, they've mentioned Dalek psychic abilities in past episodes so it could be in the old series but I don’t recall it. What this means is that apparently you can delete memories from the Daleks if you can “hack” their psychic network.  They aren't individuals they are worker fucking bees now.  Each Kaled mutant in his personal hover tank is nothing more than a data processor for a dumb terminal hooked to the emperor server. Fuck...  You know, when you think about it, a psychic network makes a parliament useless right? I mean if everyone can share thoughts instantly full on democracy can be done at the speed of thought.  And if the Dalek's had a psychic network why are they always surprised when the Doctor shows up after one of their guards has gone missing?  

The point is they are a military dictator ship!  They live to kill everything but themselves where’s the debate?  They would have built the bridge to nowhere in record fucking time and then exterminated everything at the other end of the god damned bridge.  They are fucking daleks!.

And now to the heart of Moffat’s failure.  See the girl behind the curtain of crazy dalek number one is the future doctors companion.  You know once they dump the dead weight of Amy and Rory’s failing attempts to have a life.  So Amy and Rory just want a regular old life in no where’s vile England.  Amy and Rory's personal life has been a great selling point of the new series. It feels real... sometimes... you know when Amy isn't randomly trying to rape the Doctor or when they aren't magically divorcing in the first five minutes of an episode with NO exposition.  I get it, time travel show.  What's been 6 months off air for us is like 5 years for the girl who waited and the nurse who waited longer.  Fucking understand that, but maybe something should be hinted at, like a fight scene every so often.  Maybe some bickering about shit in the christmas episode something.    Karen and Arthur are good actors and their stage direction when acting has been good but the gaps between their moments and sometimes lack of a consistent connectedness to each other has been problematic. To the point that when Rory says "The unspoken fact of our relationship is that I love you more than you love me!" is obvious blatant fact not just an insulting attack he made on Amy's character in the heat of passion.  Perhaps it's intended to feel that way and Amy would be better described as "the girl who settled" rather than the "girl who waited." Speaking as a man who had crushes on female friends in college I recognize this type of relationship can be very real, the problem is that the jarring manner in which their relationship is treated on screen feels like their lack of a proper loving relationship is more the product of the writers ignoring them for portions of the show than the intended friction of always question if you're good enough.  this is bad character writing and generally poor pacing not bad acting as such.

Ultimately we need something more exciting in a companion going forward than Amy's desire to be a normal house wife, or maybe Rory's desire to be a normal house wife.  Karen Gillian’s attractive and all but she doesn’t really add awesome sauce to the show.  Her character has become a long string of wishy washy good by and hot and horny hello scenes directed between the two men in her life.  Ultimately entertaining but slowing to the show's pace.  After the first 10 minutes when I figured out the chick they need to rescue was a Dalek I thought awesome! Dalek Companion!.  That’s right! I said it.  Moffat’s greatest mistake was turning his back on this idea.  DALEK FUCKING COMPANION… not a Dalek doing that to a companion… err sorry bad images. No a Dalek as a companion.  Better even, a deranged Dalek that thinks she’s human, as a companion.  How awesome would that be.  Super genius to keep up with the doctor. Teeth to frighten enemies.  Deranged paranoia to keep the doctor on edge.  And of course a tragic back story with lots of plot hooks to draw out over the course of a season.  Of course that would be possible only if Moffat was a good producer.  And if you aren’t sold on the idea, picture this… Dalek painted Hello Kitty pink wearing the 4^th doctor’s scarf!  BAM perfect.  Keep the chick who is gonna play the dalek as she is.  Keep her trapped in a little apartment inside her crazy little Dalek brain just have her sassy attitude follow the doctor around in a fragging tank!  Moffat I hate you…  I hate you because you don't think like this.

I love Daleks though.  I love how repeatedly people make fun of them as wheelie bins but they still manage to terrify and surprise us. They are fantastic and typify the amazing ideas that Doctor Who brings to life. I guess the stupid weeping angels are the new thing now.  Supposedly they’ll be in this new series someplace. Deranged statue aliens, great.  They are just a different type of villains I guess. They are villains like hungry wolves are villains to those who are slow and made of meat.  Daleks are villains to everything that doesn't want to be shot which is pretty much everyone. I hope the Weeping Angels eat Moffat.  Their temporal digestion dissolving his past present and future until he never existed would be justice.  Then maybe Davies would have had another season before he moved on and Who could have found a real successor after that.

Any Who… I’ve uploaded Steven’s relatives.  In my Shapeways gallery you’ll find a variety of new Dalek models.  The formidable Special Weapons Dalek.  The commanding Dalek Supreme.  The agile Spider Dalek.  The colossal Dalek Strider.  And of course the imposing Dalek Emperor.  Note standard, special, supreme and spider daleks should stand approximately 33 mm tall when assembled.  Strider and Emperor dalek should stand approximately 80mm tall.  Each sprue builds one wargame scale Dalek with a group of weapon options.  Due to changes in scaling and design elements new Dalek model parts are not compatible with old Dalek models.  Arms and parts are generally interchangeable between models of same size.  Special Weapon options can be exchanged with neck weapons on the strider or emperor’s arms.  Strider’s heavy weapon is unique in size. Models have been shelled for printing in Frosted Detail.

Update... 9-6-12

Ok, so as I said yesterday I've been given more infringement notice from Games Workshop. The good news is that Shapeways was able to alter my shop title without trouble. I won't have to delete the shop and reupload everything. I will still be removing the female marine parts tomorrow night. I don't think they infringe GW's property rights but have no resources to fight a legal battle here.

What will this mean? Well my shop's url is identical since it was just "www.shapeways.com/shops/dynath" anyway. I think the search function might hiccup a bit but mostly it will work the same. The shop name is not an issue as long as I don't have to delete everything. Removing the female marines is mostly a non-issue as well. While it will mean my melee weapons and a couple of vehicles are all that will be in my gallery i'll be able to recover.
Games Workshop's issue is the use of design elements that corispond to the 40k armor mark details which I can't deny. While I thought believe the design details were covered under patent law which would make their use public domain I don't have the money for a lawyer to back me up on that. At the same time, I built one set of female marines. I can build another. And this time I'll do it better. Don't get me wrong. I love the designs I made but I wasn't satisfied. And this gives me encouragement to try again and make something more unique.

Warhammer 40k has a certain aesthetic and I think I captured that quite well with my female designs. However, was it really a good design? I’d argue no. the 40k design heavily adopts the art style of early 80s rock culture and though it has been polished and revised repeatedly it is still the rough equivalent of an early 80s iron man armor. Though superficial detail has been added to their designs in order to give sculpted joints the appearance of some flexibility the reality is that the armor is as impractical in appearance as it is dated in design. The 90s update to space marines did a lot to standardize the details but it didn’t really change anything on a fundamental level. They are still clunky and backwards designs that are laughable to imagine on the battle field.

I like the 40k armor designs but I must say it doesn’t look good on girls. The legs and arms are generic enough to be fine but the torsos are potatoes and impossible to really feminize without major aesthetic issues. You either end up with bullet trap cleavage or the appearance of an asexual life form. There is a fine line you can dance like I did but I don’t believe it’s worth it now. At least not in this medium.
All those who sculpt miniatures in green stuff with the skill to make a mold in your basement I envy you. Because Games Workshop can’t come into your home and stop you and it’s easy enough to share with your friends without having the motives in your heart questioned. For me, without green stuff or molding skills, Shapeways was a god send. But now I understand something about the creative process that I didn’t before.

You see I have the right and the ability to be creative. I can make something, poor my heart and soul into an art or craft and produce something fabulous. As a painter I can paint a canvas and no one will accuse me of violating IP (for the most part). I can hang it and sell it at auction without an issue and for the most part so long as I don’t claim it’s a Van Gogh no one will sue me. In drawing, in painting, in sculpture, in all art the act of loving something so much that you dedicate your life to creating something is invaluable and I thought protected. However intellectual property law isn’t about protecting that. IP law is about protecting the profits of someone else’s creation. No corporation creates anything. Not Games Workshop, not Microsoft, not Lockheed Martin, none of them. The don’t create they make. The people that work for them create. There ideas are then “protected” by IP laws and the company MAKES and SELLS them. I won’t say I created shoulder pads. But I did put enough love and care into shoulder pads to build something of value. Something more than just a thing that was made to be sold.

Every commission I receive asks me how much and I tell them the same thing, nothing. I build what you wanted because I love the hobby and I love designing something someone will use. So I add a dollar or two onto the cost of printing something to cover the actual money I spend testing products. I don’t even break even really, but I don’t care because I want to create something for others. I never felt I could sell the things I was making for a profit. I always thought micro transactions, selling thousands of shoulder pads and breaking even, was enough. And for me it is. For the corporation that is Games Workshop? I’ve railed before about their pricing scheme. I’ve told friends how horrible I feel their business practices are. I even said I hate their legal team threatening people. And with all that, is it enough? Is the money you make only to spend on protecting the money you make enough? I know a lot of people who would say no. However I’d venture none of the people who say that have the type of money Games Workshop’s CEO does, or the money Games Workshop’s investors do.

Games Workshop isn’t human. It’s not a person. It’s made up of people. It’s a transformers gestalt, made of mashing a thousand noddinghamtrons into a single savage beast. Moral arguments, social and ethical examinations don’t work on it. Like a hand gun shooting Devastator it has no effect. My artistic endeavors are like ants to Games Workshop. The security program that operates its minimal point defense system notice me but that’s all. And part of me is fine with that. I’d rather not have to join with a bunch of people to become Superion in order to keep making models.

The point is I don’t have any traction in this fight. I can argue till I’m blue in the face that I actually made something unique and different but no one will hear me. Instead I’ll get stepped on and that’s not right. But it’s how it is. IP laws are out of control and don’t do what they are meant to do. Tomorrow if I uploaded a totally unique model of a space warrior in mechanical armor and Games Workshop saw it and said I like that do a model like that. The truth is since Games Workshop can actually afford a bunch of lawyers and an epic design team they would win. Even if they produced a blog that explicitly stated they designed their products off mine they would still win in court. Entirely because I can’t afford to go to court and am generally honest enough to admit my faults.

So what does this mean? Well unlike Games Workshop I am not a corporation. I can’t fulfill myself with money. So I instead have to fulfill myself with those things I can. And for me that is my art, my 3d design amongst that. If I make a female marine model that doesn’t look like Games Workshop’s models it won’t sell terribly well. But I won’t be making it for that. I’ll be doing it in the hopes that someone will find it and like it and that will be enough. I hope…

Anyway if you have a request please email me and I'll try to respond. I ask you to be cautious about suggesting Intellectual Property of others. But i'm still willing to listen to your ideas. I'll probably be updating more than usual to day so bare with me. I have some blog posts i'd written that I want to actually put out there.

Further Games Workshop infringement claims.

My laptop crashed when I was writing this. My poor laptop has an issue where it just shuts down randomly, it needs a new motherboard and is out of warranty. So if this post seems a bit disjointed that’s why.

This afternoon I received a new infringement notice from Games Workshop. This time there infringement claim has specifically addressed specific items in my inventory. I'm thankful that they are actually addressing the reality of what I've uploaded for printing as opposed to the vague notion that they own everything under the sun.

Unfortunately they have specifically pointed out the "design" of armor marks again. Initially I had believed their previous statements in this regard covered the issue of the shoulder pad elements and Aquila trade mark. Sadly this time they specifically point to the female star marine parts in arms, legs, torsos, helms, and backpacks. I disagree on this. My understanding is that the models are covered under patent law and thus design elements aren't an issue but I can't afford to argue this point. If there was any question of whether I would have to redesign the female marines this answers it. It frustrates me because I'm reasonably sure that legally the female variants are different enough that even when sharing design elements they fall into fair use. However I can't deny that my intent with the models was to make them LOOK like their male counter parts that inspired them. As such denying they should be removed feels unethical to me.

No matter what I want that clear. I knew games workshop owns the rights to warhammer. However my intent was never to undermine them to the extent that they clearly believe I have. I was of the mind that Games Workshop was not producing certain products that I and others wanted. Either those products were not being produced at all or they had been produced and games workshop decided not to support them any longer and as a result abandoned them. Likewise I feel that Games Workshop's control over the likenesses, icons, and color schemes of space marine chapters is both legally and ethically dubious as many if not all of these designs should belong to their original creators not Games Workshop. I'm not sure why but these factors more than anything else have left my conscience clean on the matter. I didn't set out to deprive Games Workshop of funds. I set out to provide the gaming public with products games workshop doesn't. I don't want to get rich stealing sales from Games Workshop. I want to give back to the hobby I love in a way that Games Workshop just isn't doing. Ethically I don't see a problem with producing shoulder pads for customers who want them. Nor female marines. Nor out of print models. Nor guns. etc. Basically it encourages people to buy more actual products from Games Workshop. If I was out to steal sales I’d design a nearly identical product like Anvil Industry's steam knights designs. But of course I wanted to fill a hole in GW's product line that Games Workshop doesn't appreciate me filling. Sigh.  That’s all I can really say, just … SIGH…

Games Workshop has also made a claim regarding my “Space Undead Insects” while this design is intended to be a replacement for their scarab models it does not look like their scarab models.  It was intended to not look like their scarab models because their scarab designs are stupid.  I chose to instead make the insect like robot be insect like not… stupid.  Official scarabs are flat with no legs, no mandibles, not real bug like qualities.  My scarabs are more bug like with proper legs and mandibles.  The only thing remotely like an official scarab is the spinal column and single eye, and if they own that then robot skeletons the world over are infringing and I don’t believe that. I’m not going to push it until they take me to court though. I’ll simply listen to their feedback and change the fucking model.  If they think they own a cyclopean insect I’ll give it two eyes. If they think they own skeletal spinal columns on robots, I’ll make it fucking tubing.  They can’t own everything. Robot insects are real things that people at MIT are making right now. IP ends somewhere and if GW won’t define it for me I’ll test the waters until I find the edge myself.

Lastly and most troublingly is their statement of trademark on the term 40k.  Now, in fairness they can’t claim a registered trademark unless they’ve actually registered a trademark.  Copyrights are pretty much open ended but trademarks are documented.  While I would think I could argue the trademark based on the capitalization of the letter “K” denoting the difference between the proper trademark and the numeric abbreviation I don’t have the money or legal counsel to deal with this.  It’s easier to remove the “40k” moniker. Or it would be if I could change my shop name myself.  I’ve contacted Shapeways but I’m not sure I can adjust my shop name at all without deleting it and restarting a new one.  A process that deletes everything in my shop some of which I don’t have backups of yet.  Even this blog has GW’s “trademarked” “40k” moniker as part of its URL.  I’m sure I’ll get a notice about that too.  But I can change that.  Blogspot can let me change the URL with a single click.  Not a problem.  Shapeways could be an issue.  Hopefully I hear back quickly so I can fix this.

I seriously hate Games Workshop at the moment.  I feel simultaneously like I’m being threatened and patronized.  Like a puppy that has yipped to loudly I’m not sure if GW has come over to pet me soothingly or beat me with a stick.  I can’t see the harm my site name would have on the 40k brand but at the same time I know I could theoretically do some kind of damage to it vaguely somehow that I don't understand. I could make products they don’t want me to make and end up hurting their reputation if people think they made them. I can't see how anyone would mistake my products for theirs but whatever.  At the same time even knowing that Games Workshop could be harmed I feel that chance is minimal and can’t help but imagine that they know I may have to delete me shop in order to change its name and are just being obtuse as a result.

It’s easy to imagine the CEO of GW sitting in a Nottingham tower laughing like king john.  I doubt my particular situation has even been brought before him.  But the image is still there.  Perhaps I demonize Games Workshop because I’m not skilled enough or creative enough to create an equally powerful empire of miniatures.  But it saddens me none-the-less to be attacked for trying to support a hobby I love.  I’d not be surprised if this is all in my imagination.  That the GW corporation is just an emotionless machine, it responds to my particular issues as nothing more than a bump a car runs over in the road.  No malice, no particular disgruntlement, simply the bored curiosity of an office worker tired of his job.  Perhaps the thin veneer of politeness is simply my in ability to comprehend the depth of their sincerity.  Or perhaps it is the last vestiges of imperial condescension directed at an individual that is perceived as inferior. 

I don’t know.  But I wonder if deleting my shop would not be the best for all parties. I noticed a lot of shops I once visited are not updated anymore. A large group of people who design miniatures on Shapeways don’t sell them to the public.  Perhaps I was to brazen to actually SELL something I designed.  Obviously Games Workshop would argue that they designed these things and I stole them by copying them.  I suppose the question is then what’s the point in trying to support the hobby when the creator of the hobby claims ownership over everything within it including that which it doesn't actively create? 

EDIT: I added the footer from the Games Workshop legal teams emails. The statement of “confidential” is bullshit. Intellectual Property is a matter of PUBLIC record. If it wasn’t there would be no ability to enforce it. I have not signed a confidentiality agreement nor a nondisclosure agreement.  As such you can’t stop my legal right to talk about the claims placed before me.  I will say that the claims of Games Workshop as they apply to me can’t be construed as legal advice for the legal affairs of any individuals as the Claims are the views of Games Workshop and don’t constitute the actual law as interpreted by a Judge.  I will continue to post the emails I recieve from Games Workshop on this issue as a matter of public record and free speech.

 

 

My response to Games Workshop (8 - 20 -12)

Dear Mr, Nanson

Like yourself I appreciate diligence regarding this matter. I am a simple hobbiest and take the interests of Games Workshop in this matter with great seriousness.

I want to assure you I am already complying with the requests of Games Workshop. I have already removed a number of products and will continue to remove additional products going forward. Unfortunately there is no automated or batch removal function in Shapeways which means I have to manually edit each item to delete it from my account. This process takes time and I appriciate your patience.

I’m sorry that my request for clarification was interpreted as a request for legal advice. I honestly assumed that when Games Workshop was deciding I was infringing they would have made a list of specific infringements for me to correct. As I understand the legal process the individual with a claim of infringement is responsible for defining that claim. My only intention was to insure I addressed all of Games Workshop’s claims of infringement. I didn’t mean to be requesting your legal expertise, only the specifics of the infringement. Regardless I’m working to comply with your requests so I see no need to consult legal counsel at this time. And besides I have no doubt that Games Workshop’s claims have merit or its legal councils wouldn’t pursue them.

That having been said, I will endeavor to remove items based on the “shoulder pad”, “logos” (I assume this is directed at Chapter logos) and “Aquila” design that Games Workshop claims as their intellectual property. I’m saddened by the loss of these designs particularly because Games Workshop has not made comparable products based on the Intellectual Property they claim. I do however understand the need for licensing and intellectual property as a whole and will comply.

I agree it is my responsibility to ensure my items don’t infringe intellectual property laws and I will do better to comply in the future. Up to and including seeking legal advice regarding my hobby if needs be. However, in spite of not having legal counsel I am aware of the current litigation between Games Workshop and Chapter House Studios. While I will comply with your wishes now I feel that I need to inform you that if the court decides you are not the Intellectual Property holder of any or all of these designs I will continue with my distribution of any public domain items at that time, which would be my right if that is found to be the case.

I will do my best to have the offending items offline within the time allotted. I will also attempt better judgment regarding what items and requests to fulfill in the course of my hobby so that I don’t violate games workshops Intellectual Property again.

Sincerely
Dynath Kajira

Games Workshop Legal Notice (9-5-12)

Hi Dynath

Thank you for your continued cooperation in this matter and for removing several designs from your store. I appreciate you making the changes.

There are some remaining infringements in the store which I must ask you to remove as soon as possible.

There are some models which bear the Aquila registered trademark e.g. http://www.shapeways.com/model/325301/m7b1-star-marine-armor-torso-x5.htmlamong others.

There are a number of helmets, legs, arms, backpacks etc which combine to create your ‘Star Marines’. These parts, and their combined complete models, copy a significant part of Games Workshop’s Space Marine design. This includes various ‘marks’ of Space Marine armour and variants such as the ‘Techmarine’ and ‘Apothecary’.

There is also a set of Necron scarabs available.

Finally, I must inform you that ‘40K’ is a registered trademark belonging to Games Workshop Limited. Please remove it from your store name ‘Dynath40k’.

Please remove any remaining infringing auctions in the next 14 days and drop me an email when you have completed the removals.

I look forward to your notice.

We reserve all rights.

Kind regards

Tom

Tom Nanson
IP Assistant
Group Legal Department
Games Workshop Group PLC
tom.nanson@gwplc.com


My response to Games Workshop (9-5-12)

Dear Mr. Nanson,

Thank you for again taking the time to address this issue Mr. Nanson. Firstly let me say I am grateful that this time specific infringements have been identified so that they may be addressed, as opposed to broad statements of infringement.

Thank you for calling the Aquilla to mind, I had uploaded the models over a year ago and as a result it had slipped my mind they had an Aquilla on the chest of several models. I would ask if it was viable to remove the Aquilla and list the revised torsos but your next infringement claim lists quite literally all parts of a figure so there is no point. My understanding is that the design of your parts falls under patent law which dictates that the individual expression of a specific item is protected not its design elements. As such using elements of a similar nature such as cabling or plating of a similar design on a different expression, IE the difference between male and female designs, would be publicly viable. The printing of backpacks, shoulder pads, and armor designs by other companies such as Scibor, MaxMini, etc. I thought bore this out. Regardless as I have neither the legal resources to argue my point nor the inclination to challenge the makers of 40k regarding their patents of their miniatures I’m forced to comply.

The robotic insects on my list are significantly different from the legless, mandibleless scarab design produced by games workshop. While I don’t desire to fight I’m not convinced you own the trademark on“insects”. I would be happy to discuss the specifics of this “infringement”but as a whole the design is significantly different than your established designs to the point that if the name wasn’t “space undead insects” most viewers would not consider them analogous to the GW Scarab product.

Lastly the trademark “40k” I was actually unaware of this trademark. I had avoided the full “40,000” and “Warhammer” but didn’t realize the abbreviation was trademarked. I’m at a loss as to how to edit my store name however. I will have to contact customer support at Shapeways to adjust this. If they can’t do that I suppose the only thing I can do is delete my store entirely and start a new one.

I thank you for calling these infringement claims to my attention. I’ll work on removing the “star marine” product line and altering my shop name, however would like specific clarification regarding what aspect of a robotic insect you have copyrighten, trademarked, etc.

Sincerely

Dynath Kajira

Footer for Games Workshops Email Included for completeness (9-5-12)

Information in this email and any attachments is confidential, subject to copyright and must not be

used or disclosed except for the purpose it has been sent, unless required by law.

Games Workshop Limited, registered in England and Wales, under company number 1467092, and

registered at Games Workshop, Willow Road, Lenton, Nottingham NG7 2WS.

Unless stated otherwise by an authorised individual, nothing contained in this email is intended to create binding legal rights or obligations between you and Games Workshop in anyway, including but not limited to, in relation to settlement of any claims made by Games Workshop. This email is in no way meant to be taken as legal advice. If you are unsure of your rights or the implications of this email, you should obtain independent legal advice.

 

Games Workshops Digital Codex Review

Alright since no one else seems really able to write a review I decided to jump in here.  Now I’m not doing this to be vindictive or flame anyone I really want people to make up their minds regarding these products.

Firstly about me, I’m an avid 40k player and have been for over 2 decades. I started playing under Rogue Trader and own and have played every edition published by GW.  I’m not a fantasy player, or a tournament player so even though I’ll try I can’t totally speak to the needs of players in those fields.  Professionally I’m an academic librarian and work with reference resources on a daily basis.

What will I be looking at? As I discuss this product I’ll be evaluating it based on its Quality, Experience, and Value.  As I look at these things I’ll endeavor to point out high points and low points of the product as well as places I see GW could go forward with the product to be of the best benefit.

Quality:

Let’s all admit that Games Workshop has an attention to visual detail that is rarely matched in any industry.  When you download the Digital Codex: Space Marines or the Codex: Necrons you’re confronted with the traditional stunning artwork of Games Workshop’s print codes.  Continuing inside the interior of the book is laid out with the same graphic style as the print codex only a landscape layout.  Alongside the traditional black and white boarders of 5^th and earlier edition codices you’ll find a variety of full color imagery.  Most of the art is recycled, the same artwork found in the print edition.  The artwork is however repurposed, often with higher detail than the print codex and some pieces are in full color this time which adds to the ambiance of the Digital Codex.

What many people are excited about is the integration of an expanded gallery into the books.  The gallery is very well done with fantastic images of miniatures.  Again we see recycled images but by and large they are still of fantastic quality in a good layout.  Here the features of a Digital Codex really shine.  For images with a zoom it’s easy to double tap gallery images and see them larger.  And the 360 degree view of many models adds a great deal to some of the best models in the GW line up.  Even many of the pieces of art interspersed throughout the book can be viewed in zoom.  At the same time though not everything can be zoomed which means some great miniatures can’t be studied in detail.  The modeler in me would like to see more zooms and 360s but this is a double edged sword.  Most of the size of the codices is in the gallery, more of these images would mean a higher file size.  It’s a balancing act that Games Workshop has struck that I’ll discuss more when I get to value.

The layout of the design and artwork are done quite well from a reading standpoint.  We may have seen the artwork before but the landscape layout means that the artwork and text work together better than many of the printed codices.  When text and graphics share a page they each live in separate sections of that page, generally right side text and left side images or vice versa. This insures that the actual text is easier to read for the most part.  Only rarely do you have text flowing around images and this tends to be limited to the gallery pages.  This makes the text more readable when it comes to studying the rules.

The text of the book isn’t hugely different than the printed edition.  I did find a spelling error corrected in Codex: Necrons.  Over all the verbiage is essentially identical to the 5^th or 6^th edition codex.  Codex: Space Marines has some additional background fluff in it which some will find entertaining.  It’s not ground breaking or game changing but its added content.  People keep comparing the digital codex size to the print codex size.  Flat out the digital codex is bigger.  It has more images, and a tad more text. I feel however this is mostly a wash because the added images are mostly promotional gallery photos you can find on the Games Workshop website. 

Quality wise I’d say it maintains the high standards Games Workshop has with all their print products.   I feel it’s unfair for people to compare it to the digital editions provided by other gaming publishers.  Many digital products tend to be static PDFs. Games Workshop’s digital codices is more than that, even if most people would be satisfied with a PDF.  However, it’s important to note it doesn’t take full advantage of what iBooks can actually do as I’ll explain next under experience. 

Experience

Games Workshop’s primary goal with making a game always seems to be emersion.  The emphasis is always on the rich settings and detailed products they produce every time.  This is a huge strong point of their miniatures but a detriment to their rules creation.  In this case they have made a rich immersive product that is filled with images and text that draws the reader in.

The trouble is that like many digital products it doesn’t keep its eye on how the product is really used.  While the Digital Codices are easy to read they are hard to reference.  While black library novels would be fantastic in this format a rule book is different.  Ultimately a gaming rule book is first and foremost a reference book.  It’s like a dictionary or encyclopedia.  Rules need to be easy to reach, easy to read, and quick to reference.

The swipe interface Games Workshop has built is quite good but it doesn’t really encourage referencing the rules.  It jumps between chapters easy enough but finding rules is more time consuming than using a physical codex.  Most gamers will actually live in the glossary of the book which lists most of the rules in detail.  But glossaries are only of value if you already know the proper name or term you’re looking for.  And the glossary doesn’t include unit profiles which can be problematic for those unfamiliar with unit specifics. For that you need to jump to the Army List chapter and page through just like you would the physical book but slower since you have to do it page by page and it takes time for them to load.  A newer iPad would shine here since my first gen device has half the processing power of the new model.

At least on the unit entries page you tap key words and get their glossary entry.  However this proved to be problematic for me.  It seemed that some keywords took forever to load and sometimes you’d have weird errors.  Someone in another discussion pointed out they occasionally got the wrong entries for a unit. This happened to me, but more baffling was on two occasions in Codex: Necrons where tapping a keyword (armorbane) caused the book to load the 360 view of the Doom Scythe.  Oddities like this will put some people off but seemed to iron themselves out over time.  As far as I could tell these errors occur mostly when I hadn’t loaded the glossary before loading the army list.

Of course as with all iBook products you can do full text searching through the library bar.  This is fairly handy but again takes longer than using the glossary.  If only the glossary included everything you wanted, not just keywords and special rules but unit names as well.  Of course the glossary also requires you to know what you’re looking for which is a common problem with reference materials not just these products.  If you’re new to Warhammer 40k you’ll find a lot of problems navigating the book via full text searching and the glossary since you won’t know all the proper terms to search for.  However, again like all iBook products, you can bookmark important information.  This will let you make your own quick references to jump between unit profiles, special rules, keywords, and anything else you need.

Unfortunately navigating uses the iBooks menu at the top to enter the Index and the Glossary, do searching, or book marking.  This detracts from the interface Games Workshop has built making it far less immersive than they intended.  This is exacerbated by the fact that the iBooks interface is clunky.  While it works as intended, it tends to be slow and often unresponsive when you are in a hurry.  What’s more it functions much differently than the digital Codex’ normal interface.  It takes time to get used to and the sudden jump will put some people off.  Heavy iPad users will likely be indifferent to the change but someone who isn’t used to it will not find it pleasant.  And more importantly it will slow you down.

And then of course there is all the functionality Games Workshop didn’t implement.  In theory every inch of every page should be zoom able.  The PDFs I have on my iPad can do it, zoom in anywhere on a page to make text bigger or see the detail in images, but that’s disabled by GW in their products.  If you try to zoom in it snaps back to full screen when you let up. I find this particularly ironic because they let you zoom certain images but not the text itself.  There of course is another problem; you don’t have the option to zoom every image.  Some images are locked at their given size with no option to zoom them.  This will make it hard to study the detail on many of those pretty gallery images.  Since the main advantage of having the gallery is to help teach and inspire mini painters this might be particularly annoying to them.  I suspect this is why they released separate painting products.  The lack of zooming over all will be a problem for those that don’t particularly like reading on an LCD screen and some will be greatly annoyed with this since they’ll experience more eye strain.  Personally I have an iPad 1 so I can’t comment on the crispness or clarity of a retina display.  I understand those displays cause less eye strain regardless of what you’re viewing.  Perhaps the detail level on a retina display is good enough that zooming is not necessary but I doubt it.

Then of course there is the locked landscape view.  My PDF biology textbook reflows text when I rotate the screen.  But the Digital Codices don’t reflow text, they are instead stuck perpetually in landscape mode. This forces a certain perspective on the reader.  I’m not sure why Games Workshop locked the view except to control how you experience the book.  For many this won’t seem like a big deal but it bothers me.  Books have been designed in portrait view for several thousand years.  It’s easier to hold and work with one handed which is something that gamers will likely be doing a lot.  Instead you have to hold it awkwardly with one hand on the short edge which makes me feel I’m risking my device. Still they’ve chosen to make it as legible and developed as possible for landscape which means my desire for a portrait version more of a pet peeve than a real fault.

There is also no internal linking or pre-built bookmarks.  Truthfully the Glossary provides the equivalent to a set of PDF bookmarks.  However in text linking is limited.  It mostly centers around linking the unit description to the unit entries and back again.  The beautiful galleries don’t link to the appropriate units pictured for instance. .  It would be great if the wargear list linked to lists of units that can equip certain options.  Likewise it would be nice to cross reference keywords in text rather than in the glossary.  Again this is technology PDFs do quite well which Games Workshop didn’t implement in the more interactive iBooks system. 

Personally I’d also like to have seen actual interactive options in the codex.  360 degree views are great but what about rules quizzes, training videos, external links to newsletter content, historical model references, and so on.  The iBooks platform can do impressive things integrating not just text and images with the occasional video but strait up social networking.  What about linking online unit ratings on there site. Or how about tournament advice?  Games Workshop could have integrated simple in iBooks apps to do points calculations or build custom unit load outs for quick reference.  Instead I suspect they are moving these types of features to some kind of army builder app that will use the full text glossary form these codices.  So basically another product for us to buy.  But what about cross referencing codices?  The glossary text references the big rule book but it would be so much better to cross reference between products.  Imagine if tapping the “eternal warrior” USR in your glossary listed every model that had that rule and then you could just tap the name to see open its profile in that codex (Assuming you’ve purchased it). Imagine what that would do for game preparations.

All in all the experience is fine if a bit disjointed.  There are a lot of options Games Workshop actively chose to not use and some which I think they are saving for later.  At present it’s a new product and I expect they will improve the experience down the road.  I particularly believe when they release either the big rule book or an army builder app we’ll see a lot of new features appear in the codices.  Until then it’s not the type of experience tournament players would really like but will have to do.  It’s far more suitable for casual players who have all the time in the world to reference rules and those who want to take the time to study the rules in detail.

Value

Value is one of those hard to pin down topics that are a hot button for hobbyists.  Everyone wants to know they are getting their money’s worth.  No one wants to be over charged or discover they could have gotten something better in the long run.  Personally I am not a fan of Games Workshop’s prices but I’ll do my best to keep my personal bias out of this area.

The Codex: Space Marines digital book and the Codex: Necrons digital book have different prices.  This is odd because all of the print Codex have a single unified price. I’m guessing this price difference is due to the amount of content that had to be updated in the Space Marines codex.  It could also be that they felt the demand for the product was lower than expected and so reduced the cost of the Necrons Codex in response.  I’m not sure, time will tell regarding the effectiveness of their pricing scheme.

The market for electronic products has historically been different than that of physical ones.  Apple and other online venders have endorsed the idea that electronic products tend to cost less than physical products.  This is mostly an illusion.  Add up the cost of a group of song in iTunes and it will be about the same as buying a CD.  Those who have bought an ebook will point out that an electronic book is often bundled with a physical book or priced much lower.  Often these ebooks are nothing more than a scan of the physical book or the typeset document output as PDF, in both cases not exactly the same as GW’s product here. 

What Games Workshop has produced is a completely different layout with some new content added in so it’s not fair to compare them.  They probably had to put as much work into Codex: Space Marines as they did typesetting the new rule book. Unfortunately due to the limitations they’ve placed on it the digital codices also have the hefty price tag of an iPad stacked onto the book as well.  So really it’s less of an issue of “if I should buy” than an issue of “if I’ve bought an iPad, should I spend my money to buy digital codices?”  The fact that they are locked only to the iPad format makes them useless to the majority of gamers.  Couple that with the fact that even the people with other apple devices can’t use them and they have severely limited their market.

I believe this is reflected in their price.  They have to charge 30 dollars for the digital codex because they won’t make their investment back if they don’t.  Down the road Games Workshop will most likely release them for other devices either by rescaling the pages for iPhones/touches or by stripping out graphics.  I also foresee them integrating all the glossary entries into an army builder app which will most likely be available to other Apple products.  Sadly with Games Workshop’s history I very much doubt an Android or Windows Mobile version will appear during 6^th edition.  And more importantly I severely doubt a Mac or PC version will ever appear due to the fear of piracy.

Unfortunately I don’t feel the Digital Codices products will have any effect on piracy of GW’s products.  If anything I suspect their digital products are going to be seen as a challenge by pirates who up until now have just been scanning their books into PDF.  Unfortunately this may mean that the price of digital products might rise faster than metal miniatures as a result.  Maybe I’m just being fearful but the internet has a way of backlashing against companies that try to produce digital content without being in touch with the consumers of that content.

Of course even as they are now, digital codices offer the same advantages as any ebook.  You can store them in one device in order to carry the equivalent of a mountain of books in your carryon luggage.  You have full text searching and digital book marking to help you along finding rules.  And they really make you feel like you’re on the cutting edge of technology.   They are better than a scanned eBook and way better than not having a codex at all.

There is a lot of potential for growth in this product.  Far more than in the print product it is derived from.  We can already guess the 6^th edition books will be full color hard cover books.  After that there is no improvements they can stick in the books to justify the value of the printed work.  The Digital editions have far more potential to integrate added items. As I said earlier they could integrate rules reviews, training videos, social networking, ratings, and newsletters. The sky is the limit with the digital product.  The question really becomes if I adopt now will I get those things later. With Games Workshop’s past track record I have to guess the answer is no but I can hope.

Presently the value of individual digital products is limited. Their real value won’t become apparent until we know how Games Workshop supports them.  One of the things that peaks my curiosity is what Games Workshops means by “updates will be free.” I’m wondering if that will mean edition changes will be free. If their release schedule continues it’s very likely we’ll see all the 5^th edition codices digital by the end of the year.  Will that mean when an already digital codex is updated later in 6^th edition will the buyers automatically get the 6^th edition codex at that point? Again the answer is probably no, or more accurately nothing that will be updated in 6^th edition will get a digital edition until it is updated.

Ultimately if you don’t own an iPad the digital codices aren’t the killer app you are looking for to justify buying one.  The cost itself, before the codices, is as much as a new 40k army and you’ll be more fulfilled buying and painting that.  After that you still have to purchase the book and most likely the 30 to 40 dollar price tag won’t feel good on the wallet when you could buy a new unit for one of your armies.

The value of the Digital Codices really boils down to the convergence of several factors. If you have an iPad and don’t have the codex I can guarantee you’ll find it as useful as buying the print book.  If you own the codex already chances are the digital edition is not going to give you that “money well spent” feeling you want.  And if you don’t have an iPad, skip this generation of digital codices and pick up down the road when support for a cheaper device is implemented. Honestly if you have an iPad and you need a codex the digital versions are reasonably priced.  They are priced close enough to the print books and have all the same materials to make them a good buy.  Unfortunately I don’t think many people will replace their print books with digital codices until they have more value added to them.  Especially individuals like me that buy every codex and let’s be honest many of us do.

Conclusion

The Codices have a slick iPad user friendly interface with lots of pictures and some videos that will look great on an iPad.  But it doesn’t use the full potential of the technology and that interface doesn’t do what a lot of consumers will expect it to do.  It does however offer a fairly immersive experience that will be appealing to some even though the few clunky and limiting options you find will turn off others.  Expect 6^th edition to be the teething period for digital codices but with positive feedback Games Workshop will keep them around.  This really feels like the first stepping stone not the destination gamers are expecting which means the value of the product will fall short for individuals who have invested in the print books already.  In the end the product is as valuable as the print books but tends to trade some of the familiar ease of use of books for the sparkly cutting edge of shiny technology.

Personal Aside

I bought the digital books specifically to review them.  As such I blew my miniatures budget doing so.  Afterwards I won’t say I felt disappointed but I didn’t feel happy.  I honestly feel this is because I already own the physical books more than any fault with the codices.  I’m holding off on buying the 6^th edition big rule book for the next month to see if they will release a digital version of it.  Till then my wargaming group is practicing 6^th and learning the rules by sharing a copy of the book and playing step by step as one.  The release of 6^th edition has so much potential just like the addition of digital products.  It’s an interesting time we live in and I only hope that Games Workshop continues experimenting with their products to the benefit of the hobby.

New-ish project update 8-23-2012

Well my posts have been pretty depressing lately.  With Games Workshop's legal division bringing the iphammer down I haven't really had a lot of good things to talk about.  Beyond that i've got a lot of stuff going on at work and a brief personal trip I'm making this weekend.  All that means I haven't had a lot of time to digest the situation. I have no doubt that that's the reason behind the GW Legal team's methods with charging individauls with IP infringment.

I took some time this afternoon to remove some of the models they claim are infringing from my shapeways store.  These included some of the gyrojets, thermal lasers, laser cannons, etc.  It totaled something like 15 to 20 models.  I only had about an hour with internet so I didn't end up getting much accomplished in the way of removing items.

I had much more time without internet to work on personal projects.  With the issues with GW's legal team I didn't want to work on my usual stuff.  Its all pretty heavily tied to 40k even the extremely unique designs are really ment to work with the 40k game.  So I didn't want to work on them.  I needed something... different to clear my emotial pipes as it were.

So I dusted off Steven.  You probably don't know steven.  I give all my models names, if you are the observent type you might have noticed the name in the file title.  Not the item title but at the bottom where it lists the file name and version. 

Anyway, Steven is the first model I uploaded to shapeways. Back in 2010 I built steven, registered for shapeways, and uploaded him with a foolish dream in my heart about how awesome he would be.  Of course he wouldn't print.  I rebuilt him a dozen times and Steven still failed over and over.
I tossed Steven to the wind and instead worked on my technofists. Technofists being giant gloves which look significantely different than power fists in 40k.  (note that just in case I'll still be revising them). Yay Paranoia... Anyway. I left Steven alone for a while and came back after my Techno-fists properly printed.

The theory of my design skills sufficiently proven with a tiny 3d printed glove I returned to my first love Steven... Wow that did not sound hetero... Anyway. I revised Steven.  And it failed.

At this point I was quite pissed.  So I stubbornly took most of june and revised Steven a dozen more times.  Specifically, exactly, 15 times.  And it finally printed properly.

I ordered it in WSF and painted it when it arrived.

So thats the story of how I got a little Steven to sit on my desk at work.

Oh wait did I forget to mention Steven is a Dalek? That totally makes the anecdote better. Steven's totally a Dalek.

So yeah, this is Steven.  He's a 2 year old Kaled mutant in a mark 16 travel machine from the time war era.  He stands a strapping 34mm tall and has been thinned to a 1mm thickness making him viable in WD, WSF, and FD/FUD.  In spite of his horrible drivers liscence photo I asure you he has arms.  He recently had his travel machine retrofitted.  Its a totally pimped ride now, note the greater detailing on the dome and the extensive mesh ribbing along the neck.  Not shown is its boss under cariage with a full on Elevation system for long flights in the moonlight.  Steven's favorite colors are black and a nice metalic bronze that brings out the blue in his eye.  He's been known to spout witty catch phrases when startled so be gentle with his heart ladies.  I know he's just your type right?  Well taking Steven home isn't going to be easy!.  While Steven's more than happy with the idea I have to talk to his parents at the British Broadcasting Service and Character Options before I can let him sell his body to you. But don't worry I already sent a request. Till then for more inquires into Steven or his big brother Ted, his cousin Uennis, and his bitchy parents Valarie and Wilfred shoot me an email at dynath@gmail.com.

GW Legal's responses and plan of action

Alright so I have received my response from Games Workshop’s legal counsel regarding their "infringement claim”.  I’ve posted the contents of our correspondence below.   Basically the gist of the discussion is that games workshop claims all chapter icons (as expected), all weapons? (I think they mean the bolter design mostly), vehicles (this specifically applies to the ground taker/ land raider I made but it was never for sale), Characters (like the stealth suit again I’ve already complied with).  The last correspondence manages to clarify that they also claim the shape of the space marine shoulder pad as their property as well, though the physical shape can’t be copyrighted it can only be patented so the legitimacy of the claim is questionable.  They also conspiquously list “the design of certain marks of armour” which clearly implies they believe my female marines are also infringing.  I don’t think they technically are but can’t really argue the point without getting sued.  They also specifically point out the trademark on the Aquila, this is the main reason the female marines are problematic as they have an Aquila on their chest.

He gave me 14 days to comply with the infringement take down notice. Which means they must be removed by September 3^rd 2012.  Following this course I will begin removing shoulder pads from the gallery on Saturday September 1^st.  Legally I can’t encourage anyone to purchase anything within the allotted time remaining before products are removed.  The time frame of item removal has nothing to do with item sales.  It has to do with the fact that I work every day of the week and will be out of town on the weekend of the 25^th so the 1^st is the first opportunity I will have to remove the items.  Removing the items does not mean I agree I am infringing on any of the products, only that I cannot afford a legal battle.

You will note towards the end of my latest response I mention the Chapter House Studio lawsuit.  The same things I’m cited for infringing are the same things Chapter House is being sued for.  Games Workshop’s legal department is no doubt aware of this fact.  They can’t rest on their laurels and just hold their breath till the lawsuit is done.  They will continue to assume they are in the right until proven wrong.  I however, unlike Chapter House don't have the legal counsel to fight Games Workshop so I will comply like a lot of websites have done.  However it’s important to note I am NOT destroying any of my works.  The 3d models will be removed from my Shapeways gallery but I will archive them.  In the event that Chapter House wins their lawsuit with Games Workshop the shoulder pads and weapon models may (I stress may) become viable again.  If a legal battle goes Chapterhouse's way I will likely seek legal advise regarding these items at that time.

If you haven’t followed the Chapter House lawsuit I encourage you to do so.  I know some people have talked about it as comical or like the sky is falling.  However I distantly hope Chapter House wins.  Not because I want to sell shoulder pads, but because Games Workshop is a legal monopoly.  They own the game rules, the game pieces, and the social events you use them at, I understand they created 40k but they are strangling the industry with their pricing scheme and poor rules writing.  Yes I know 6^th edition is the best written 40k ever, it’s still a polished turd not worthy of the background the fan base has supported for so many years.  Anyway, a win for Chapter House would limit Games Workshop’s litigations, foster competing products in the form of both additional game companies and added model companies, and possibly drive Games Workshop to limit unwarranted price increases.  I’m a huge fan of miniature gaming and good things can happen if Games Workshop loses their lawsuit.  If you’re one of those people that says Chapter House is getting what they deserve I argue that the Intellectual Property laws weren’t meant to limit industry growth and that’s exactly what Games Workshop’s monopoly does.  For every Chinese recasting company there are a thousand people like me who just want to make something for the hobby and can’t because Games Workshop claims are so broad they encompass aspects of the game beyond the identity of their products and company. By their argument the shape of their dice could be their patent which is wholly absurd.

Anyway, if anyone wants to request anything please email me and we can discuss its viability in the light of these limitations.  I will continue to make designs and produce products on Shapeways to the best of my abilities.  Regardless of the outcome of the Chapter House lawsuit I will strive to make products that support the hobby even if they don’t support games workshop.

In the interest of public disclosure here is the discussions between myself and Games Workshop's legal team.  I'd like to point out that inspite of the underlying threat of legal action the representative has been quite curteous and respectful and I personally want to say thank you to him for being civil in executing a matter that could be executed in a very uncivil manner. 

Enitial Contact on Shapeways Aug 15th 2012

Our Ref: Legal/TN/GLS/11843

Dear Sir

Your Shapeways products have been brought to my attention for infringing copyright and trademarks belonging to Games Workshop Limited.

The 'Warhammer 40,000' universe was created by Games Workshop in the 1980s. The universe and its many characters, organisations, vehicles etc. form the basis for the tabletop wargame 'Warhammer 40,000'. Games Workshop has produced and licensed a huge number of products based in the Warhammer 40,000 universe including miniatures, novels, video games, art books and sourcebooks, art prints, merchandise, digital products and more.

Having designed and developed the Warhammer 40,000 universe and the races, characters, icons, units, vehicles, weapons etc. therein, Games Workshop owns the copyright in them. It is therefore an infringement of that copyright for a third party to offer for sale, possess in the course of business, manufacture or import any product based on the Warhammer 40,000 intellectual property without Games Workshop's permission.

You have copied a significant part of the unique expression of a number of Games Workshop's products. Copying of these icons, characters, weapons, vehicles and accessories is an infringement of Games Workshop's rights as copyright holder.

Games Workshop also owns a number of registered and unregistered trademarks. One such trademark is the 'aquila' double headed eagle design. You have featured this registered trademark on several of your products without permission. This is an additional infringement of Games Workshop's rights.

Please immediately remove the infringing items from sale and contact us at tom.nanson@gwplc.com to confirm you have removed the items and that you will not infringe Games Workshop's rights in future. Please read and comply with Games Workshop's Intellectual Property Policy found at http://legal.games-workshop.com.

We reserve all rights in this matter. If you have any doubts as to the contents of this message we recommend you seek legal advice.

Yours faithfully,
Group Legal Department - Games Workshop Group PLC
For and on behalf of Games Workshop Limited
tom.nanson@gwplc.com

My responce Contact on Shapeways and email Aug 15th 2012

Dear Sir,
I thank you for your notice. I deeply apologize for any affront. While I don't always agree with GW's business practices it was not my intent to undermine your intellectual property nor "steal" anything from you. My intent was to provide products which assist your customers in realizing their army vision. And as I've spent a great deal of time painstakingly creating each piece from scratch in my 3d software I didn't see this as "Copying" anything. I'm very sorry you feel that I've infringed your intellectual properties and will be happy to remove content you feel is inappropriate. However I must ask which files you specifically feel are too closely identified with your intellectual property. I will readily admit that all of my products are made in 28mm scale to be compatible with your products. While I can identify specific icons that and items that I've been asked to make that are patterned after your designs (generally older or limited availability designs), I would like clarification of where that line ends for my own edification. For example I'd like you to clarify if it is the icon on a shoulder pad or if it is the shape of the shoulder pad itself that you feel infringes. Likewise I've made a variety of weapons, arms, legs, female equipment etc, that are significantly different than your official designs but still use similar motifs to your traditional products. As example I of this I point to my pole arms and swords lines. I'd greatly appreciate clarification on these issues.
I will begin by taking the items which I recognize as falling into your IP down, this will include the shoulder pads with specific chapter icons, the individual units I recognize from 40k including my stealth suit and drone models, as well as weaponry directly patterned after 40k items such as the heavy weapons etc. Unless I hear otherwise I will assume this does not include shoulder pads that do not bare GW iconography, weapons that are uniquely designed, and custom units.
Please understand I do greatly enjoy your game and my goal was to grow and serve the fan base in a manner which was never intended to undermine any aspect of the GW business. The 3d modeling of my products and their subsequent offering on Shapeways is a hobby to me that doesn't even reimburse me for the cost of ordering test prints of the products. Perhaps the 3d printing process is an idea that should be presented to the executives to fill market niches for underserved armies in a manner similar to the "bits" service discontinued in the 90s.
I sincerely want to find a middle ground where I can comply with your wishes and continue to develop wargaming products to support my hobby and the hobbies of others. If we can please clarify the detail of what items infringe I'd greatly appreciate this.
Sincerely,
Dynath Kajira.
PS. This message sent via shapeways private messaging will also be sent to the email address listed above.

GWlegal response by email Aug 20th 2012 

Hi Dynath

Thank you for your swift response and for agreeing to remove the infringing products.

I appreciate your enthusiasm for the hobby and Games Workshop encourages hobbyists to convert and customise their forces to increase enjoyment. Games Workshop does, however, object to commercial use of its intellectual property and/or distribution of its copyrighted material.

I’m afraid that I am not permitted to offer you any legal advice and therefore cannot give detailed guidance on your models. You would have to seek your own legal advice in relation to intellectual property for your product line.

I can inform you that Games Workshop considers any significant copying of its creations to be an infringement of its copyright. This includes, but is not limited to, the unique design of its vehicles, weapons, logos and the several marks of Space Marine armour, which includes the iconic shoulder pad design. Having created and developed the unique expression of the Warhammer 40,000 universe in its text, artwork and sculptures, Games Workshop claims the exclusive rights to produce or license products based on this intellectual property.

I can also inform you that the ‘Aquila’ double headed eagle design is a registered trademark and therefore any product that bears this symbol is an infringement. Games Workshop considers any significantly similar logo to be an infringement of its registered trademark.

I am sorry I cannot offer further assistance. As the seller, it is your responsibility to ensure your products do not infringe other parties’ intellectual property.

I look forward to your confirmation that you have removed any infringing items from your store within the next 14 days. Please also confirm that you will not infringe Games Workshop’s intellectual property in future.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. We reserve all rights.

Best regards

Tom

Tom Nanson

IP Assistant

Group Legal Department

Games Workshop Group PLC

tom.nanson@gwplc.com

My Response by email Aug 20th 2012

Dear Mr, Nanson

Like yourself I appreciate diligence regarding this matter.  I am a simple hobbiest and take the interests of Games Workshop in this matter with great seriousness.

I want to assure you I am already complying with the requests of Games Workshop.  I have already removed a number of products and will continue to remove additional products going forward.  Unfortunately there is no automated or batch removal function in Shapeways which means I have to manually edit each item to delete it from my account.  This process takes time and I appriciate your patience.

I’m sorry that my request for clarification was interpreted as a request for legal advice. I honestly assumed that when Games Workshop was deciding I was infringing they would have made a list of specific infringements for me to correct.  As I understand the legal process the individual with a claim of infringement is responsible for defining that claim.  My only intention was to insure I addressed all of Games Workshop’s claims of infringement. I didn’t mean to be requesting your legal expertise, only the specifics of the infringement.  Regardless I’m working to comply with your requests so I see no need to consult legal counsel at this time.  And besides I have no doubt that Games Workshop’s claims have merit or its legal councils wouldn’t pursue them.

That having been said, I will endeavor to remove items based on the “shoulder pad”, “logos” (I assume this is directed at Chapter logos) and “Aquila” design that Games Workshop claims as their intellectual property.  I’m saddened by the loss of these designs particularly because Games Workshop has not made comparable products based on the Intellectual Property they claim.  I do however understand the need for licensing and intellectual property as a whole and will comply.

I agree it is my responsibility to ensure my items don’t infringe intellectual property laws and I will do better to comply in the future. Up to and including seeking legal advice regarding my hobby if needs be. However, in spite of not having legal counsel I am aware of the current litigation between Games Workshop and Chapter House Studios.  While I will comply with your wishes now I feel that I need to inform you that if the court decides you are not the Intellectual Property holder of any or all of these designs I will continue with my distribution of any public domain items at that time, which would be my right if that is found to be the case.

I will do my best to have the offending items offline within the time allotted.  I will also attempt better judgment regarding what items and requests to fulfill in the course of my hobby so that I don’t violate games workshops Intellectual Property again.

Sincerely

Dynath Kajira