3D Printed Avatars? Yes thank you please.

[DPZ2]

The questions you have to ask yourself is "How popular are 3D printers in Japan?" and "Can I connect one to my Playstation console?"

It'd be easier to license 3D printer templates to some group such as Hero Forge, who already has the technologies to craft color printed figures (albeit in miniature).

I cannot see SE giving out templates for free to anyone. Would folks be willing to pay $50 to $150 for such a template, or $250 to print out a figure?

It'd be neat if SE did that. I'd purchase one, or two, or ... But I can get the same kind of 'neat' feeling by hiring an artist to make a 2D drawing of my Warrior of Light.

[Raoabolic]

I cannot see SE giving out templates for free to anyone. Would folks be willing to pay $50 to $150 for such a template, or $250 to print out a figure?

It'd be neat if SE did that. I'd purchase one, or two, or ... But I can get the same kind of 'neat' feeling by hiring an artist to make a 2D drawing of my Warrior of Light.

Didn't SE already say they were going all in with NFTs? Might as well make NFT templates of the characters SE loans out to you!

[DPZ2]

Didn't SE already say they were going all in with NFTs? Might as well make NFT templates of the characters SE loans out to you!

No, SE didn't say that, although you may have read as much into the letter from the CEO at the beginning of the year, even though it wasn't meant to be read that way.

Hint: The games they were testing NFTs on are from their Smart Devices/Browser group in Digital Sales, where blockchain makes much more sense than in an MMO. Those tests completed back in October 2021.

The Producer indicated they didn't see NFTs fitting within the business model of an MMO, and they had no current plans for them in this game.

(How anyone can leap from 3D printer templates to NFTs is beyond me.)

[Illmaeran]

The questions you have to ask yourself is "How popular are 3D printers in Japan?" and "Can I connect one to my Playstation console?"

It'd be easier to license 3D printer templates to some group such as Hero Forge, who already has the technologies to craft color printed figures (albeit in miniature).

I cannot see SE giving out templates for free to anyone. Would folks be willing to pay $50 to $150 for such a template, or $250 to print out a figure?

Given how popular collectible figures are over there, I could see there being a decent market for this if SE partnered with a company that does custom resin printing. I wouldn't doubt that some people would pay $100+ US for a high quality print and paint of their WoL.

The bigger question is which poses would be available? They'd probably have to limit it to a few standard ones as making files based on screenshots would be prohibitively complicated. There are already people in the XIV hobby who've converted their WoL into an STL and printed them, so the technology's available. Would the market be big enough?

I'd happily pay $25 for high-resolution STLs of my characters.

I remember around Burning Crusade WoW did a custom statue of your character and it basically flopped. (granted the options/quality also sucked) Now I think wouldn't be a bad time to sell a print/STL now that figure collecting is much more popular than it was 10-ish years ago in the west.

I thought it was a great idea at the time, until I checked out how horrendous the color was and walked away. 3D printing is becoming an increasingly significant segment of the miniature wargaming hobby, with a commensurate increase in file quality. We're also seeing an increase in the number of print-on-demand businesses on places like Etsy that can do high quality resin prints for a reasonable price. Even if SE charged $15-20 per file, someone with the skills and a decent printer can make a scaled-up or scaled-down non-colored print for a fair price.

If you're interested in painting it yourself, then you're done. If not, there are plenty of commission painting studios who'd be happy to do it for you. A 100% commission print and paint, plus the file, would probably set you back $100 for a high quality paint job.