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Posts with tag figureprints

Wrath will bring new forum icons

Tactial mentions on the forums that all of the Rogues (in fact, this is true about almost everyone) are still in Tier 4. When Burning Crusade first came out and we all reached 70, Tier 4 was where it was at -- some people were excited about being in Tier 4, even if they hadn't earned it yet. But nowadays, Tier 4 ain't that great, and yet all of our forum icons shows us in the (now old) armor.

Drysc does say that the Armory is a click away from the forum icons, but surely Blizzard could take an afternoon and code a little customization into the icons. It seems like everyone else can render icons out of game -- why can't they? There is some good news for those looking for a forum icon update, though: Drysc says that when we're all level 80, we'll probably have new icons yet again, with shiny T7 on our characters.

Which will be great -- until a few big content patches after Wrath, when T9 will be out and we'll all be whining that we're still dressed in T7. Thus goes the circle, the circle of life.

Breakfast Topic: Figureprints

When we first heard about Figureprints, everybody seemed fairly keen to get one -- there were thousands of people trying to get in on the drawing, and lots of folks were more than willing to put down their $100 for a custom, real-life figure of their characters created directly from the in-game models.

But as the Dude (if censored) might say, new stuff has come to light. We've seen the first Figureprints off the press, and the quality, so far, hasn't been impressive, to say the least. We should note that Figureprints is replacing that figure in the gallery, but we'd like to know: has all of this new information changed your mind about Figureprints?

Are you still excited to get one, or have you changed your mind from originally liking the idea to not so thrilled about the actual product? Or, like Matthew Rossi, have you said "This aggression will not stand, man," from the beginning? OK, that's not really what he said (I just wanted to quote the Dude agaIn), but where are you at on Figureprints lately? Yea or nay?

Figureprints figure underwhelms, will be replaced


As I mentioned on the WoW Insider Show the other day, reader Chad G. sent us a tip about the Figureprints character he received (probably one of the first shipped figures that we've heard about so far), and as you can see from the pictures, he was a little underwhelmed by the quality, While the actual process went OK, the figure itself just seems kind of dusty, which hardly counts as the "vibrant" colors we were promised back when these things were first announced. From across the room, he says, it's hard to make out any colors at all -- the whole thing looks "dusty black."

Chad says he doesn't know if he would buy this thing again, although since he posted the pictures, he says that Figureprints is sending him another figurine, so maybe this was a mistake (there was also apparently a spot of paint missing on the figure's arm, and that seems more like a flaw in the specific figure than the process). Either way, while it's cool to have your character in actual, real 3D form, maybe the Figureprints folks don't quite have all the kinks worked out yet.

Gallery: First look at Figureprints

Figureprints: What's the point?


I know I'm a curmudgeon and a grinch. Many times I just have to step back and say okay, I just don't get it.

But seriously, why exactly does everyone seem to want a Figureprint? I just don't understand the appeal. I mean, at this point I have fairly decent gear, but I just don't understand why I would want a little model of my character. For one thing, it's not like the gear I'd end up immortalized in would stay good very long (there' s an expansion on the way and all) and furthermore, it's not like you can get the Figureprint updated, you'd basically have to buy another.

That of course assumes you'd get to buy one at all. The way it works, you don't get to order a Figureprint, you sign up for a drawing and if you get lucky, then you can buy one. Are these things really that awesome that it's worth waiting months for a chance to get one? There's some back and forth on the construction process and the finished product in this forum thread but that didn't really help me any. Reading the interview Mike did with the founder of the company made it sound pretty cool, actually. But thinking printing stuff on plastic in the manner described sounds cool doesn't really help me figure out why folks are so astonishingly into these things.

Is it to motivate you to get better gear? Honestly, help me out here. Has anyone reading this actually bought one yet? How does it look? Did you think it was worth it, and why'd you decide to get one in the first place?

Blizzard and dealing with the expanded WoW universe

Zv of Destromath has an interesting argument on the forums -- he says that Blizzard has overextended themselves, and that by producing everything from trading cards to credit cards to WoW minis, the board game, and the upcoming movie (and he even forgot the FigurePrints and Dell deals), they've lost sight of what they should be working on: the game itself. While Zv does admit on the second page what Bornakk points out on the first (that it's not the same people or even the same company working on all of this stuff, and that the devs are still working on designing the game, not writing a script for the movie), there is still the same old argument here when anything goes mainstream and starts selling a brand: has the original material been neglected?

It's up to you, of course, whether you think that's the case or not, but there's no question at all that Blizzard is a completely different company because of World of Warcraft. Before this game, they were a popular-but-still-boutique games studio famous for just a few quality titles in even fewer franchises. But now, they're part of not one but two multinational corporations (one of which shares their name), and they oversee a global empire not just of rights and license releases, but of millions of players and financial interests all over the place. As Zv says, why are they making more deals for expensive swords when they still claim they don't have the manpower to let us use flying mounts in Azeroth?

The problem here is that you can't really second guess Blizzard -- despite the fact that you may agree or disagree with the decisions they've made, there's no question that they've got a successful game on their hands and that they've done nothing but make money with it. But though the Warcraft licensing universe seems to be growing at an exponential rate, we hope (and we'll find out, we guess, with the release of patch 2.4 and the expansion), that the core game is still as strong as ever.

Figureprints make great gifts... or do they?

You are no doubt aware of the new, if somewhat costly, service provided by Figureprints in cooperation with Blizzard, which allows you to receive a real-life statuette of your character from the game. This likely appeals most to players whose characters have progressed far enough in either raiding or PvP to acquire some of the really impressive looking gear for their characters.

Yet, as these two comics from Penny Arcade point out (part one and part two), they don't exactly make for good gifts, unless the giver is very keen on the wishes of the recipient. For players who haven't acquired high-end class armor, the appearance of our characters may inspire more shame than pride. Certainly a lot of the armor we might happen to possess isn't the kind of stuff you'd want to place on the mantle above your fireplace.

Nonetheless, if you were to receive such a gift, you wouldn't necessarily have to quit one's job to grind honor and raid for a few months. There are some relatively attractive sets of armor available for purchase on the auction house, and, though they won't impress those friends who really know their WoW gear, they might just look good enough to impress everyone else.

Child's Play raffle donations soar to over $12,600

If you haven't heard of the fabulous raffle being hosted by the folks at the Bronze Kettle, then you must have been living in a box. A box where you hadn't heard that the donations count has reached $12,654.00! That is definitely cause for celebration; and celebrate we shall!

To be fair, one person donated $10,000, but as Shelbi points out, even if this hurts your chances to win one of their many prizes, the tickets are still for charity. In fact, 100% of the money raised will be heading straight to Child's Play.

If you haven't purchased your tickets yet, or you have a few extra bucks lying around, head over before it's too late! Currently, the raffle is scheduled to take place at 11:00pm CST today, Friday the 14th of December, at Booty Bay on the US server Dark Iron. Not only will you get the chance to participate in the server event, possibly hosted on vent, but the entire shebang will be liveblogged over at the Kettle. Although you don't need to attend the event to win, it's looking like it's going to be a blast. Just look for Shelbi and Jon on Aereyan and Kaelwryn.

Raffle entries will be closing as of 8:00pm CST, and although you can still donate after that point, you will not earn a ticket toward a prize. Make the jump for a complete listing of prizes, and remember; each $1 donated earns you one ticket, and one chance at one of twenty fabulous prizes.

Continue reading Child's Play raffle donations soar to over $12,600

FigurePrints donates custom figure to The Bronze Kettles' Child's Play charity raffle

Yesterday, Jon and Shelbi at The Bronze Kettle announced that they had added several more prizes to the list for the charity raffle they are sponsoring for Child's Play.

In addition to the already mentioned list of prizes, The Bronze Kettle revealed that Blizzard and FigurePrints have donated a custom FigurePrints action figure of your in-game World of Warcraft character to add to the raffle as the Grand Prize.

These figures have, to date, only been available either with the purchase of a Dell XPS M1730 laptop valued at around $4500, or by winning a place in the random drawing that FigurePrints will be holding on December 21st. This could be your chance to win one of these extremely exclusive figures, a full week before they go on sale to those lucky enough to win a place in the first official drawing.

You can read more about FigurePrints and their custom World of Warcraft action figures of your in-game character in this WoW Insider interview with Ed Fries, the founder of FigurePrints.

WoW Insider interviews Ed Fries, founder of FigurePrints


After a quick announcement last week, the FigurePrints site opened yesterday, offering Warcraft players an easy (if not necessarily cheap-- each figure runs about $115) way to recreate their ingame characters in real-life figurine form.

But we still had lots of questions. How did these figures get made? What kind of material were they made of, and where did FigurePrints get the models and information to turn ingame characters into real sculptures? For the answers, we went straight to the source. Ed Fries has been in and around gaming for a long time, and after playing WoW for years (and creating games for years before that), he had the idea to create a way to bring Warcraft characters to life with a 3D printer. WoW Insider got a chance to talk to Ed on the day that his company's site went live, and all the answers to your questions about FigurePrints are right after the jump.

Continue reading WoW Insider interviews Ed Fries, founder of FigurePrints


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