Growing concerns globally about 3D printing laws have sparked a range of feelings from concern to outrage over new and proposed laws that effectively turn 3D printers into data collection endpoints for governments.

The laws in question would force 3D printer manufacturers to shut down, until/unless it becomes practical (and profitable) for them to convert printers to be able to scan gcode for firearms components.

Of course the hype, confusion and concern around this making these laws even viable now is attacks like the one in Halle, that literally no one talks about or references. Everyone references the handful of handguns found in some guy's apartment that were super scary. Or the ones some guy made while dwelling in his doomsday bunker in an abandoned storm drainage system.

Homemade Firearms Used In Halle Attack

Several improvised / homemade weapons were employed in an attempted attack on a synagogue in Halle, Germany on Wednesday during Yom Kippur.

FirearmblogImproGuns

The problem, in a nutshell is that even if this law or some version of it were passed, state by state, or nationwide, there is no known technology, even AI-assisted, that could make this possible. If these laws pass, it will deadline all manufacturing with additive and subtractive methods, globally. There are no known technologies that can determine a functional firearm lower and upper from a replica or simulated/prop device, which are perfectly legal to make practically everywhere. It would cause pretty much every company except for the monolithic ones, to go out of business or to shift production to something that isn't hamstrung by these laws.

Slicers and basically any gcode sending software would have to be updated, considering you can mill, 3D print, and even machine-by-hand, many versions of firearms.

Remember zip guns? Actual machine guns and a broad range of firearms made from traditional machining methods, dating back to WW2 (and before).

That is, before computerized milling / 3D printing of any kind were even invented yet.
If these bills actually pass, your band saw and drill press may be on track to become permit-only devices.

Bear in mind the stats for shootings related to "ghost guns" is still at the bottom of the ocean on the graph.

But of-course, this is part of a greater concern, as Loyal Moses as well as a host of other 3DP enthusiasts and content creators have stated, this is part of a massive data-collection effort, to turn your 3D printers into sensor platforms to spy on you in your own homes and businesses.

Even if works with offline-only printers, it is entirely possible for slicers on networked computers to communicate "home" and upload data from the host machine, effectively turning your PC / mobile devices into sensor platforms as well, at the behest of your government.

And again, this will only stop law-abiding citizens buy and large.... and the occasional knob who thinks it's a good idea to test fate.

It will do nothing to stop people on non-networked computers with printers that have custom firmware (something 3DP enthusiasts do every day) from 3D Printing whatever they want whenever they want on filament they made from trash bottles on machines they made from discarded hardware and a computer board they cobbled together and programmed themselves. (remember, this is where we started not so long ago)

This is a MASSIVE overreach and sets a dangerous precedent. Anyone who values their privacy and individual freedoms should be concerned.

The economy and global markets are a bit chaotic. Financial uncertainty impacts everything, especially our hobbies and businesses.

Some competitively priced filaments can help ease pressure on the wallet.

Here are some options:

Some of these are limited time offers or have a MoQ.
None of these are referrals/affiliate links, or endorsements.

Success or fail, please let us know these print in the comments.

I've uploaded a few items I've been working on for a while now. A friend asked me to work on these, because of the prohibitive cost of getting similar parts from a company who provides systems for powder coating.

These designs have undergone about 55 iterations with Fusion360, and several iterations in Blender. They've been tested and seem to offer better performance and durability compared to the original items sold at Columbia Coatings based third-party reports.

If you need a set or batch printed, please let me know.
I refer to these as the V4 Vortex system and the Omega series powdercoat system upgrades.

The question many ponder while scrolling Amazon. Simply having the discussion near your phone with certain Meta products will put ads in your face enticing you with various machines.

3D printers, like friends, come in all shapes, sizes, and varying degrees of quality and cost. More than that, maybe a 3D printer is unnecessary, if you simply need a few items.

So let's dive into some of the nuances of 3D Printer ownership, and outline some aspects of the decision making process.

When making any purchase, even small ones, a brief subroutine runs through our minds, do I really need this? Can I wait a little longer? Which one do I want? How long until the next one? Is that a reasonable price for it? The apocalypse of thought can be so loud that many will avoid making the choice entirely.

If you're one the many who can't decided whether or not 3D printing is something they should invest their time, money, and energy in, then there are some options to help you, depending on your locale.

Very often colleges, community centers, and even businesses will open a small space with several 3D printers, filament, with reasonable prices, so those who do not have the space or meet the power requirements, etc, can still print what they need. "Maker spaces".

Alternatively, there are dozens of companies that offer tailored 3D prints, with various materials, including metal, for a small markup. If you aren't trying to sell the parts you need printed, and need them for a project, repairs, etc, then this may suit you nicely.

And finally, there are 3D Printer rentals, but they are costly. If you do not already have a market for the parts you'll be printing, you may find yourself in the red. Printer rentals come with strings attached. IP related strings. If you wish to keep your designs proprietary, and don't want just anyone copying your work, then renting a printer may be a bad idea. Especially the more advanced printers, such as Bambu Lab printers, which, allegedly, seem to cache a copy of your gcode and maybe even the STL. (I'm not insinuating nefariousness, but some IP is under strict rules, and even allowing the data to be cached would violate certain agreements, maybe even laws).

If you have the regular need for 3D printed parts, whether to sell them, or use them as components of a product, or just need one for things around the house, there are still things to consider.

For starters, the size of the printed parts. If you are printing large parts, your printer will have scaled power requirements accordingly. Larger printers (starting with the Magneto X and moving upward) tend to require most of what a standard outlet can offer. Modix printers (prints a whole bumper) may require more than the standard wall plug can offer. 32 amps, and/or a 240v plug.

But even with smaller printers, you will still need some considerations. Such as power supply. Stabilizing your printer with an UPS (APC/Cyberpower etc) can make a marked difference in the quality and reliability of your print jobs. Especially if you live in an area where power outages/brownouts are fairly common.

And then you also have the power usage itself to measure. Your power usage will exponentially increase with the number of printers you have running concurrently. It's not so bad, if you only have one or two. If they are running all the time, you will very likely notice when the bill comes due. So the initial cost of the printer, filament, accessories, AND power, should be considered. You'll also run into structural limitations. GFI outlets will trip with 3-4 printers on them (15 amps) and a 20 amp breaker can support up to 5 Prusa i3 MK3s+ if you stagger their starts. (initial heating). Or a single Magneto X.

There will also be an impact on your air conditioning. Heating and cooling will play a part in the quality of your prints, the moisture of your filament, which takes time and energy to dehydrate, and the cost of your AC constantly countering your 3D printer(s) thermal bloom will be reflected on your energy bill. Although, the impact is usually very small and manageable.

The "sunk cost fallacy" comes into play when you have discussions with 3DP enthusiasts, who have ran out of ways to make their printers useful, and instead of getting out while they could, doubled down. Instead of trying to sell you 3D printed items, they would rather convince you to buy your own printer(s).

Then you run into the same problems they did. You'll burn time, energy, money calibrating and tuning your printers, finally print what you need, then a few things you want, then a few things just for fun....then your printer(s) will sit idle for months, years even. Collecting dust. You may have spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on those printers, but you can't find a reason to keep using them.

With some of us, it turns into filament addiction. We collect dozens or hundreds of spools of filament, of all colors and kinds, knowing full well we will never be able to use it all, and by the time we've used any significant amount, we've already ordered more.

You're in it now. You're hooked. There's no light at the end of the tunnel. There's just a tunnel, and you're 3D printing your way out of it.

And most of us wouldn't want it to. 3D printers are immensely useful, and not even just for 3D printing. There are a lot of useful projects that convert an old, dated, but still somewhat functional 3D printer into a filament-making machine. Pulltrusion, chopped filament extrusion, EDM machines, the list goes on. 3D printers were originally engineered from common hardware, so it makes sense that hardware can be repurposed for a host of applications.

But if we just stick to 3D Printing, how do we keep it relevant?

When you own your own home, you realize how much good land lords do for you. Your maintenance guy / leasing office is responsible for basic repairs, painting, etc. If you have ever had a cleaning service, general contractor, any of the 100 or so people that have odd jobs to maintain your residence, you know there are a lot of little plastic parts, and some parts that could be made out of plastic, that go into it all.

A 3D printer might make a real difference in how you approach home repair, appliance repair, computer repair, etc. Even watchmakers have started using 3D printers to create small devices to assist in repairs.

Winding jigs, cutting jigs, painting stencils and brush cleaners, there are literally millions of downloadable files across dozens of websites like Printables, Thangs, Cults, etc.

Even if you never learn CAD, never spend time with gcode, never do anything beyond download, slice, and print files from the internet, you can get years of use out of any 3D printer.

But if you learn CAD (or at least, Blender) then anything you can't find, you can make yourself. Then, the world is your oyster.

There might be a period, albeit typically brief, where you run down a rabbithole of printing upgrades for your printer. Many makers do this, it's perfectly normal.

But if you manage to climb out of that hole quickly, get your hands on Fusion360, Plasticity, Blender, etc... learn the ropes, you can quickly open up a lot of doors for yourself. Everything from chocolate molding to jewelry making, screen printing to resin art, home repairs, appliance repairs, gaming, and storage. There are so many applications to 3D printing, it's near endless.

So, should you own a 3D printer?

Yes.

Without a doubt, the benefits outweigh the costs, and risks (what few there are).
Remember, a printer is a tool, and very often, they are the right tool for the job. But sometimes, they aren't.

Please look up information on food safety. Buy and large, FDM 3D printers can't produce a food-safe print. Even if you print from -generally- food-safe plastics, the print will have very small areas just big enough for bacteria and mold to fester. And it is nearly impossible to clean. Most printable items can't be run through a dish washer, and even if you could, even if you hit them with UV, you still can't get them clean enough to be considered food-safe.

It's best to avoid it entirely, and go a different route.

Caveat, there are food-safe resins. If you apply a resin to the outer surface of a print, you can seal it making it food-safe and viable to at least hand-wash. But if you're going to go the resin route, just take your printed part and make a mold out of it.

Apply wax to the outside of the print, turning all of the layer lines smooth. You could even do a bit of sanding and paint/priming. Then create a silicone mold with your printed part. remove the print, pour your resin in, and make proper food-safe items you can hand-wash. If you get the right resin they might even be dishwasher safe, but that falls outside of the scope of this article.

The long and short of it is, there is almost no end to the things 3D printing can help you tackle, but as part of the workflow, not the entire workflow.

How do you tackle life with 3D printing? I would love to know what wonderful things you've cooked up.

GIMP posted a release candidate, and it works better than I expected. I've tried GIMP time and again over the years, and it has transitioned quite a lot. It was a buggy mess and was very unstable, and nigh unusable.

Now, things have changed. On Windows 11, Ubuntu, and PopOS Cosmic / Gnome (Wayland) it performs nicely. It's stable, fast, and I was quickly able to get a handle on the software and make the image featured for this post in about an hour of tinkering.

While I love Affinity Designer, after coming from Photoshop, and before that Fireworks or even MS Paint, I can say that GIMP has come a long way and seems geared toward offering the exact tools we as artists and designers need.

You get a lot, for 0 dollars. Try it out for yourself.

You've probably heard about some of the controversy surrounding Adobe's ToS. Unfortunately, I've been seeking alternatives to Adobe's Creative Cloud suite for a long time, for a myriad of issues.

Many other people have had performance-related issues for decades. This Reddit thread highlights a few.

Images, like the one above, only took a few minutes to figure out in Affinity Designer 2. The whole interface is designed to be as no-nonsense as possible. I wish I could say the same about Adobe products. Photoshop, After Effects, seem deliberately designed, in many cases, to be more complicated than necessary. Performance concerns aside, these products seem daunting to most people.

The more capable a thing is, the more complex it is... but does it need to be? Affinity's suite of apps challenge this.

But many other apps like Blender bring into question the necessity for After Effects and Premier Pro at all. Blender has a fully-featured video editor, built in. Say nothing of the fact that it's completely free, and capable of effects which come with a hefty pricetag if you want to achieve them in After Effects.

Made in Blender

For Free!

After Effects Plugin ($180+)

Many plugins like Plexus have been on AE-users' wishlists for a long time. Some AE and Premier Pro plugins are very expensive, and AE, is already, quite expensive.

Unless you use multiple Creative Cloud apps on a regular basis, the expense really can't be justified. The same effects and results can be achieved for free, and often with less performance issues, and more versatility.

I'll spare you my experiences with Adobe's plugin marketplace. Photoshop plugins are a nightmare unto themselves.

Substance Painter, Designer and now Modeler are great software, but they are shipped under a $50/mo plan that, if I'm completely honest, I never really took advantage of. I paid the monthlies, then barely used the software, because let's face it, who needs to constantly create procedural textures and paint models? This product is not niche, but it's also not necessary for the vast majority of work asset artists do.

Free alternatives to Substance exist with Material Maker (Itch), ArmorTools. ArmorLab is a feature-rich node-based procedural texture suite, similar to Substance Designer. ArmorPaint is a material painting suite similar to Substance Painter. Both are free, available on Github. Compile them for your system yourself, instructions are in the github pages.

The Practicality

While it may take a bit more for a designer to produce their vfx, graphics, etc... The absolute deluge of bad plugins, lack of support, and advertisements for paid addons can be skipped.

The high road here is, of course, not pirating. My stance for anti-piracy is well known among my friends and family, but when a company makes you wholly dependent on their technology, jacks up the price, then leaves its userbase to suffer and languish... cards on the table.

In my case, I showed my cards, found myself with a winning hand, and left the table with my chips. My livelihood wasn't on the table. I can walk away from Adobe and never miss them, even though I've mastered nearly all of their products.

If you find yourself in similar territory, I urge you to explore Material Maker, Affinity and Armor products, and venture onward.

And that's just the beginning.

Here's a list of some of my favorite tools, free and paid.

Material Maker by RodZilla

Procedural textures authoring tool

itch.ioHexadotz

GitHub - armory3d/armortools: 3D Content Creation Tools

3D Content Creation Tools. Contribute to armory3d/armortools development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHubarmory3d

Creative Software For Professionals | We Are Affinity

Subscription-free photo editing, page layout, graphic design and illustration apps for professionals. Try for free or buy for one low payment.

Affinity

blender.org - Home of the Blender project - Free and Open 3D Creation Software

The Freedom to Create

blender.orgBlender Foundation

Womp: Free 3D design software

Womp is the best free and beginner-friendly 3D modeling software to design easy 3D art in real time. Create 3D printing ready models and explore 3D typography, materials and assets on your browser.

Womp

Plasticity - CAD for artists.

Plasticity is a 3d modeling and CAD program that is easy to use and has a focus on artistic workflows.

CAD for artists.

Cascadeur - the easiest way to animate AI-assisted keyframe animation software

Cascadeur is a standalone software for 3D keyframe animation of humanoids or other characters. Never before making animation from scratch or editing one has been so easy and fun. Thanks to its AI-assisted tools, you can make key poses really fast, instantly see the physical results and adjust secondary motion. All while retaining full control at any point.

the easiest way to animate AI-assisted keyframe animation softwareMichel Losch, MLMEDIACreator of Rooftops & Alleys

Godot is notorious for ignoring PRs, and has a, not-insignificant volume of devs frustrated with the speed, and, what seems like bias, for merging PRs.

What's a PR?

PRs or "Pull Request", in this context, would be features and fixes contributed by developers who might not be part of the core developer team of a given project.

It looks like Godot has a PR for this viewport texture bug they've been ignoring for nearly 2 years. It's a bug that goes back as far as 6 years (probably more).
Redot on the other hand, found the PR and has the fix implemented and working in their Beta.

If you want to stick to stable versions/ LTS, or you simply don't want to wait till Godot implements it, keep reading.

This workaround solved the issue at runtime, although you may still get the error in the editor. Place this in your _Ready() function

Save your SubViewport texture as a .tscn and then reference it as vpTex (or whatever you prefer) Then use the SetTexture() method on the sprite3D as seen above.

This method works in the latest stable versions of Godot and Redot.

Even after you launch your project with the Redot Beta (v 4.3 Beta 3 mono) you'll need to go into the prefab (subscene) with the Sprite3D and update the path. You'll probably want to enable "local to scene" as well.

That should be it! Make sure you save your "Texture" to your FileSystem and reference it in the script "vpTex".

Other than that, you should be good to go.
If you have any questions, feel free to jump into the comments or hit me up on X/Discord.

1 of 1, there are no duplicates and no surviving drafts or prototypes.

These vases symbolize my thirst for creativity, and my passionate support for my warrior family. Preview them, learn about their meaning, and gaze through a window into my soul.

Sestina

Meaning Sestina, meaning “six stanza” or “six sided”, for the hexagons. Simultaneously representing the efficiency and strength of its form, while also being delicate and beautiful. It is impossible to replicate nature’s beauty, but this is the nearest I’ve ever come to it. Thoughts This vase was particularly hard to

Everlasting.MediaDavid Bixler

Lustrum

Meaning Synonymous with “sacrifice” and a “period of five years” combined with the deep red, symbolizes the sacrifice many of my warrior family have given, in order to secure our freedoms and the freedoms of individuals around the world. A period of five years, is approximately how long it has

Everlasting.MediaDavid Bixler

Formosa

Meaning When holding this vase in my hands for the first time, my first thought was “Beautiful”. In Portuguese, “formosa” means “beautiful”. Thoughts It took some willpower not to keep this for myself. While modeling this, I wanted to offer a sleek design, complimenting any space with its curvy and

Everlasting.MediaDavid Bixler

This is the third year I've submitted vases for the silent auction for Salute To America's Heroes, organized by Adopt A Soldier Platoon.

The event serves as a way for benefactors, and contributors to meet some of those who they have helped, and whose lives they've touched.

Get a glimpse of what AASP is all about. https://aasp.vet

Sestina, meaning "six stanza" or "six sided", for the hexagons. Simultaneously representing the efficiency and strength of its form, while also being delicate and beautiful.

It is impossible to replicate nature's beauty, but this is the nearest I've ever come to it.

Thoughts

This vase was particularly hard to design, and print. Pigmented in vibrant colors, among them my favorite, purple. This color represents the bridging of red, and blue. Of left, and right, in common form.

Warranty

Contact me if you need a replacement, via X or Facebook within that year.

I will need the original vase and metal card to verify authenticity.

Additional Info

Designed and printed at home, this vase was printed out of PLA. Easy on the eyes, it can decorate any hall, shelf, or countertop, and compliment anything near it.

Hand-clean only, warm water, Dawn dish soap. This item is UV resistant. Clean by hand, dry and sanitize by sunlight. 70% or greater alcohol with atomizer is also effective.

Thank you for supporting veterans like me, and our warrior family. <3

Your Support Is Priceless

Synonymous with "sacrifice" and a "period of five years" combined with the deep red, symbolizes the sacrifice many of my warrior family have given, in order to secure our freedoms and the freedoms of individuals around the world.

A period of five years, is approximately how long it has been, since I started my journey to learn 3D modeling and printing.

The work to protect the innocent never ends.

Thoughts

The shape and style were meant to draw from early roman architecture. Large and bright, vivid and bold, symbolizing bravery on the battlefield.

This is 1 of 1. There are no existing drafts or duplicates. I will retain the model file(s) for 1 year from the Gala.

Warranty

Contact me if you need a replacement, via X or Facebook within that year.

I will need the original vase and metal card to verify authenticity.

Additional Info

Designed and printed at home, this vase was printed out of PETG. Easy on the eyes, it can decorate any hall, shelf, or countertop, and compliment anything near it.

Hand-clean only, warm water, Dawn dish soap. This item is UV resistant. Clean by hand, dry and sanitize by sunlight. 70% or greater alcohol with atomizer is also effective.

Thank you for supporting veterans like me, and our warrior family. <3

Your Support Is Priceless

When holding this vase in my hands for the first time, my first thought was "Beautiful". In Portuguese, "formosa" means "beautiful".

Thoughts

It took some willpower not to keep this for myself.

While modeling this, I wanted to offer a sleek design, complimenting any space with its curvy and reflective surfaces.

Disclaimer

This is 1 of 1. There are no existing drafts or duplicates. I will retain the model file(s) for 1 year from the Gala.

Warranty

Contact me if you need a replacement, via X or Facebook within that year.

I will need the original vase and metal card to verify authenticity.

Additional Info

Designed and printed at home, this vase was printed out of American-Made PETG. Easy on the eyes, it can decorate any hall, shelf, or countertop, and compliment anything near it.

Hand-clean only, warm water, Dawn dish soap. This item is UV resistant. Clean by hand, dry and sanitize by sunlight. 70% or greater alcohol with atomizer is also effective.

Thank you for supporting veterans like me, and our warrior family. <3

Your Support Is Priceless

Join the Redot Game Dev Academy Discord Server!

Check out the Redot Game Dev Academy community on Discord - hang out with 25 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

Discord

We'll be going over basic 3D modeling, intermediate concepts, optimization, texture painting, texture baking, and then we'll focus on bringing your models into Godot.

Let's learn about the power of Extrusions in Blender!

Before you pay anything, this video is available freely on YouTube July 16, 2024 (3:30PM EST) (re-uploaded 7/12/2024 with corrected audio)

That being said:
Becoming a member will give you access to the .blend file, and help support me while I create more content.

Let's be clear, Guilded was always a zero-growth platform for us. If you didn't already have a massive following elsewhere, recruiting on Guilded was abysmal.

The issues with Guilded span wide. They were a bridge too far for many who were looking for alternatives to the Nitro nag hell of Discord. Many chat clients went the way of the dodo, ceased their offerings, stripped their services, or leaned toward capitalizing on their product. Some for greed, some for survival.

via GIPHY

But Guilded Was Supposed To Be Different

I've been supporting Guilded since Enjin was a popular guild-site option. Think MySpace for gamers. I actually paid into Guilded's membership plan for years. At some point, I stopped using the platform, stopped gaming so much, and so it didn't make sense to keep supporting a product I simply wasn't using.

Then Guilded rebranded. They rebuilt their client, seemingly from the ground up. Offered unique channel types with a Slack/Discord-esque UI and seemed to be about the user experience. Unfortunately, that dream fell flat on its face in short order.

Guilded Sold Its Soul, and Yours

Guilded became a feature factory, churning out new channel types and features in sporadic bursts, and put a great deal of effort into producing skits / ads they displayed on Twitter/X and other socials. Then the marketing content started flooding their Twitter feed, seeming to target younger and younger audiences. Then the virtue signaling began, and it was downhill from there.

To be clear, virtue signaling, in my terms, is any time a company changes their logo or content to reflect support for an entity, when very little or no actual support contribution occurs.

Then the 3D skits, the animations, the goofy gamer-targeted ads, and so forth.

Then they sold out to Roblox. At first, it seemed like Roblox were angel investors, supporting Guilded in name, without putting their hands in Guilded's circuits, so to speak. Guilded reaped a ton of benefits from their new owners buyout/support, for quite a time. And through proxy, the users (like me) did as well. We got larger uploads, a seemingly more stable client, etc.

The Betrayal

Guilded actively recruits new partners, and Gil Gang members. Gil Gang is supposedly an intersection of highly supportive Guilded users, and Guilded's inner circle, which may include devs, but at least one or two members of Guilded's top brass.

Guilded actively partnered with at least 3 people who openly declared mental illness, and/or the intent to harm themselves or others, in the general chat, of the official server. The closer I looked at the activities of people who were announced partners, the worse it got.

Other partners seemed to have smaller audiences than I, on Twitter (now X) YouTube, and Twitch. One major driving factor for partner recruiting my associates and I could deduce, was the number of "stonks" those users had. Partners seemed to be selected based on how many recruited referrals (members who sign up with the invite link / server link). Upon investigating, we determined the servers for those users often did not have as many people as their profile seemed to indicate they had recruited, so where did those stonks (5x referral-based signups) come from? Simple answer, they were fake signups. We investigated multiple partners and gil gang members and determined at least half a dozen "partners" and Gil Gang members that were announced had more stonks than members in their server, subscribers to their channels, etc. We couldn't find a source for their recruitment traffic.

Upon testing we determined it was fairly easy to cheat the system to generate stonks. This was all being discovered in my last few weeks on the platform.

So to be clear, we only managed to identify 2 qualities Guilded wanted in partners.
1. Mental instability/illness, on public display.
(I'm not making fun of it, I'm just being honest).
2. Tons of recruits, regardless of real social media presence/following.

At some point, other than a few merch items, I couldn't find a single reason why partner would be desirable. There were no perceivable benefits to striving for partnership, and no road to achieve it in the first place. When denied partner, we were given no options, no pointers, no information. Simply denied, and then ignored.

We Saw The Signs

And then they announce Roblox login integration. Something every member in my server over 16 (and at least one under) complained about. Imagine the youngest member in your server complaining because they're concerned about a deluge of squeaky voices (Roblox users) flooding their servers. Guilded has a minimum age of 13 platform-wide. But Roblox can have kids of any age, with their parents permission. A massive chunk of Roblox users are pre-teen. Guilded effectively signed its death warrant at this point.

We had suffered a lot of other problems, platform-wide, that made us consider alternatives, and even reconsider returning to Discord. Voice and video comms instability, causing total dropouts of users, desktop sharing glitches that forced us to stop whatever we're doing, sometimes in the middle of a fight in whatever game we were playing, just so we could restore comms. We tried using Guilded during game jams, dev meetups, etc. 19/20 calls had some form of visual or audible glitching, if not total loss of comms, that drove us to look for other options.

It Gets Worse

While encountering numerous issues, being wary of the Roblox merge, and trying to patiently wait for updates/fixes, still in our optimistic phase, Guilded brought me into Gil Gang. Gil Gang, primarily run by Fi really only had 2 nodes to it.

Game Nights were, kindof fun. It's sometimes a challenge to find multiplayer games that can support a lot of people at once. And when you do, comms can become an issue in-game.

Bear in mind, in Guilded, we're still struggling to have voice comms or desktop sharing with 2 people. Now try 5, 12, or 20. At first it seemed kind of fun....but we actually started running into issues with comms. People dropping off, voice quality dying, staticky disconnected voices, all manner of issues. It was so bad people were jokingly suggesting we use TeamSpeak on at least two game nights.

Then, you begin to understand the bane of Gil Gang, and why, it sucks.

In order to remain a member of Gil Gang, you have to slave your social media accounts to it. You have to frequently blast Guilded on your own socials so you can keep up with a mandatory "to do list". (posting various personal details like favorite foods etc, posting Guilded referral URLs on your own socials and/or sharing posts from the Guilded Twitter feed etc)

Supposedly, after you rank up from doing this for....quite some time, they send you a beanie, and some other merch. But to be honest, I don't think anyone I spoke to about it, thought it was worth the time and effort.

The problem with that system boils down to 1 thing.... socials die when they appear to be extensions of another brand. We all had fledgeling socials and were trying to make cool stuff and share it with the world.

If you actually managed to make partner, supposedly there was a bit of reciprocation for the whole cross-promotion thing... but the handful of people that made it, didn't seem particularly interested in helping anyone else figure out what the hell Guilded was looking for in partners. The criteria Guilded posted online was abysmal and vague, and partners tended to stay tight-lipped about it.

The Path Forward

So where do I stand now? Well, I'm growing my Discord server again. I'm also paying for Nitro. While I wish I didn't have to, and I wish there was a better alternative out there, I also can't deny, some of the extra features are decently implemented. Even some of the micro-transaction items appealed to me.

Discord isn't out of the woods yet. There are other products that may rear their ugly heads and challenge the throne. It may be some time before we see them in the spotlight. Who knows, maybe an open-source alternative like Matrix will make it big. I think we have yet to see the full fallout from Guilded's.... betrayal. Multiple businesses/companies were reliant on Guilded's offerings and promises. I expect an article on Kotaku or LifeHacker any day covering stories from insiders about all of this, and I doubt it'll be pretty.

If you know of alternatives, we would be happy to check them out.
I know of Matrix, Rocket Chat, Revolt, etc. Most of these lack stable VoIP, video, desktop sharing, among a plethora of other features.

Did you have issues with Guilded? We would love to know about them in the comments (or on our server).

In the mean time:

If you're looking to join a Discord server full of creative and talented people, come check out our server. We've got game devs, 3D artists, programmers, musicians, all kinds of people from all walks of life. You're more than welcome to join us.