{"id":787,"date":"2011-03-31T04:45:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T04:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/archives\/787-the-dizzying-demand-for-dungeons-dragons-dice.html"},"modified":"2014-07-03T17:09:09","modified_gmt":"2014-07-03T17:09:09","slug":"the-dizzying-demand-for-dungeons-dragons-dice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-dizzying-demand-for-dungeons-dragons-dice","title":{"rendered":"The Dizzying Demand for Dungeons & Dragons Dice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ceramic Wombat<\/a> recently generated quite a bit of traffic with his range of Thorn Dice Set with Decader<\/a> when it was featured on Boing Boing<\/a> then promptly, tweeted<\/a>, facebooked<\/a> and generally created quite a buzz<\/a> online. (UPDATE: Doctorow’s stories “Makers<\/a>” and “Printcrime<\/a>” along with Bruce Sterling’s excellent “Kiosk<\/a>” inspired Chuck to try rapid prototyping in the first place, so “I am especially happy that he likes my work”<\/i>)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So what makes this item ‘go viral’ when others may be ignored? I am not initiated in the world of Dungeons and Dragons so I may be missing some major point, and please let me know if I do, but here are a few reasons these designs are working.<\/p>\n

\n

Firstly, the designs are highly original, a cohesive aesthetic<\/b> among the entire group and really well realized, (read awesome)<\/p>\n

Secondly, The dice are for a passionate niche group<\/b> that is quite active online, and have a history of user group participation as well as physical, local networks.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, they are social items<\/b>, used in a social context of game play where people gather over a common interest that is reliant on the object.<\/p>\n

Fourth, one image tells the story<\/b>, perfect for the microsecond attention span of the online mind.<\/p>\n

Fifth, Facebook<\/b>, it is being shared via the Like Button on the Shapeways site, which shows up on everyone’s friends pages….<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/p>\n

What can you take from this for your items to help them get exposure to others who are as passionate about your hobby\/interest\/game\/sport\/gadget\/obsession as you are?<\/p>\n

Is there an existing fan base of obsessives just waiting for the next cool thing to show off to their friends online and in real\/physical life? Design it for yourself?them and let them know.<\/p>\n

Iterate your designs until they are perfect and then take good photographs<\/a> of them..<\/p>\n

Submit your items to the blogs, forums and sites where you hang out (including Shapeways It Arrived<\/a> and Feature This<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Like your items with Facebook, get your friends to, get your Mom to, get your Mom’s friends to and spread the word.  We have updated our Facebook integration<\/a> to make it easier for you to share because it has become such a major force in the internet, make it work for you.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, in the time it took me to write this post there have been over 100 more tweets<\/b> about the thorn dice,  over 1500 more hits<\/b> to the Thorn Dice<\/a> page on Shapeways bringing it up to a total of 70,467<\/b> so far and the traffic keeps rolling in with Facebook being a MAJOR factor in driving traffic….<\/p>\n

Check out the Made by Wombat<\/a> site for your D&D addiction.And Congratulations to Chuck…….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ceramic Wombat recently generated quite a bit of traffic with his range of Thorn Dice Set with Decader when it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":5125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[481,478],"tags":[480,482,479,477],"class_list":["post-787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shapeways","category-community","tag-4-art","tag-6-inspiration","tag-3-tutorials","tag-1-whats-hot"],"thumbnail":false,"yoast_head":"\nThe Dizzying Demand for Dungeons & Dragons Dice - Shapeways Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ceramic Wombat recently generated quite a bit of traffic with his range of Thorn Dice Set with Decader when it was featured on Boing Boing then promptly,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/the-dizzying-demand-for-dungeons-dragons-dice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Duann\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/the-dizzying-demand-for-dungeons-dragons-dice#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/the-dizzying-demand-for-dungeons-dragons-dice\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Duann\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#\/schema\/person\/848d6ff12be3ccf4dc1dcd672000dc28\"},\"headline\":\"The Dizzying Demand for Dungeons & Dragons Dice\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-31T04:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-03T17:09:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/the-dizzying-demand-for-dungeons-dragons-dice\"},\"wordCount\":466,\"commentCount\":13,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/the-dizzying-demand-for-dungeons-dragons-dice#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"keywords\":[\"Art\",\"Inspiration\",\"Tutorials\",\"What's Hot\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Shapeways\",\"The Community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/the-dizzying-demand-for-dungeons-dragons-dice#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/the-dizzying-demand-for-dungeons-dragons-dice\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/the-dizzying-demand-for-dungeons-dragons-dice\",\"name\":\"The Dizzying Demand for Dungeons & Dragons Dice - 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