Intentionally provocative subject line. I know, I'm exaggerating. Or am I? I've been waiting for months for more Michael 2 items to appear in Platinum Club, but every week, it's this or that for Victoria 3. I was very happy with the P.Club at first, but lately it's become (mostly) a nonstop enticement to buy more and more stuff for Victoria 3. I'm not knocking Vic 3. She's tops. But for crying out loud! Please stop ignoring Mike 2! Yes, we're all looking forward to the upgrade, but in the meantime, to paraphrase Doctor Evil, "throw us a frickin' bone, here." My guess is that they're intentionally starving us of Michael products so that when they release Michael 3, they can use P.Club the same way they're using it now for Vic3. That's their perogative, but I'm really, really disappointed in the lack of support for Mike 2. I have three non-Renderosity friends who are P.Club members and feel the same way. Yes, I've seen the very few new items for Mike in the main marketplace, but I'm on a budget, and joined the Club with the expectation that there would be a better balance of items for the two virtual genders. For many weeks now, there's been an extreme imbalance. Don't get me wrong, I love DAZ, but I love Michael 2, too. Does anyone else here feel this way?

DAZ is going downhill since their "upgrade". I can't get their site to accept ANY credit cards, OR send me PayPal instructions -- I was all set to play with mimic 2 Pro tonight -- but no dice...

I think if you give their customer service people a phone call during Mountain Time business hours, they will help you. The site upgrade still has problems, I agree, but the staff is reeeeaaaal cool.

I still have problems with the idea of spending $100 and getting nothing but the opportunity to spend more money. It's hard enough for me to come up with $100. But it would be even worse to wait weeks before I could buy something for $1.99 later.

PC Club from my understanding was not established to promote existing characters but rather to highlight and promote new items from DAZ. In regards to the upgrade, any problems that seemed to have existed for most others have been rectified by a simple phone call, or an email to sales@daz3d.com. If you do not already have a PayPal account, then you can go to the PayPal website and set up an account there, once that is established (and it takes about a week to ten days for the procedure to complete), then PayPal is a good alternative to a purchase when a credit card doesn't work.

I have a PayPal account -- the DAZ site isn't emailing the PayPal info so I CAN pay. So -- credit cards don't work, and PayPal doesn't work, so I can't buy anything until tomorrow (maybe). I didn't mean to go off-topic, sorry.

I think maybe the wait on Mike items is for the debut of Mike 3.

I'm very glad I got the Platinum Club at $50, it would have been a tough call for me at $100. I do think it is the gentlest and easiest way to introduce new models that require a great deal of new clothing. Can you imagine the screaming if everything for Vicki3 was around $20?? I think Daz could imagine it and thought this was an excellent alternative. Some of us are still waiting for some Daz pants for the male V3 too, but thankfully others have taken up the slack. Or slacks, so to speak. There seem to have been almost as few Michael 2 offerings in the Premiere side. I'm betting, Michael clothing and accessories alone-- as compared to something like the space marines offered to everybody including Stephanie-- would have just about the same balance in both Premiere and PC. And, I'm sure there are sound economical reasons for that. My main concern with PC are the large number of high quality items not available to Premiere members at any price. I suppose I should sit back and feel elite at having the only cracks at the cape and Morphing dress or Gargoyles-- I just kinda feel greedy. Im not complaining, I just wonder there haven't been some complaints. As for the complaints that it costs too much and you dont like the stuff there anyway-- that's on a par with the coffee's bad and there's not enough of it. Count yourself lucky, you don't have to spend the $100. [the latter not directed at you, NVITWS, like you, I'm always looking for Michael stuff, thank god for Lourdes and Jon Malis] Emily

PeterWahoo, huh? You spend $100 and you SAVE hundreds that you'd spend if you didn't have the PC Club membership. I got into the club during their introductory special and have probably saved several hundred dollars (at least) for a measely $80. How is that a bad idea? Not only do you get the PC $1.99 items, but you get a 30% discount on ALL DAZ ORIGINAL PRODUCTS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unless you don't want any of the DAZ models, textures, poses, etc, you can't lose. If you spend a minimum of $20-$50/month at DAZ then you'd have to be daft not to get a PC membership. BYS

It's like in the real world. Men's clothes cabinets are a lot smaller then women's. And about the shoes... ;) I'm searching for stuff for Mike all the time. Mostly I'm looking for "normal" clothes. The all-day sort. There are some here at MP or at DAZ sure. But it is very little compared to the female stuff, that is around. If there is a Mike 3 in work, I think too they're sparing the male clothes up for him.

Don't expect anything new for Mike 2 from Daz unless its from a broker... just like with Vicky 2 they'll have stopped supporting it once they made the decision to go with Mike 3 and will have started devoting their energies to creating the same clothes for Mike 3 that they already sold you for Mike 2

at lest they could come up with some textures for the existing mike 2 clothes. maybe i should send them an international male or a&f catalog for ideas. i would (and i bet others) would still buy them too. i mean not everyone is going to run out and get mike 3 right away. as for renewing the daz club will depend a lot on the status of mike at time of renewal. i dont just buy mike stuff or daz club stuff but i also look at scenes, poses, backgrounds, hair but it has pretty lax lately.

I would be perfectly happy with brokered Mike 2 items, as opposed to DAZ originals. To be fair they did come out with that "Michael Forever" texture in the ex-Loft recently, and it's a very good one. I've been happy with many things about Platinum Club. I just needed to vent my frustration about the total lack of support for Mike 2 at that part of the store. A little something now and then couldn't hurt. On an almost related topic, is it my imagination, or did some of the items in the former Loft which had been "permanantly" reduced to low prices go back up again when they changed Loft to "Special Interest," unannounced? The items I'm thinking of are still lower than their original full prices, but higher than what they were when it was still The Loft.

I know someone else who can't use her credit card on the DAZ site, and they haven't bothered to reply to either of her two emails. For her to call them would be an international phone call, so that's not too likely. I realize they're having some ruffles and bumps with the site upgrade and probably other things behind the scenes, but a simple "We're looking into it," would go a long way, IMHO. I wouldn't say I'm unhappy with DAZ, but I'm hearing a lot of rumbling and I'm hoping it's only temporary. I've always had excellent customer service from them. I'd hate to see that become a thing of the past. bonni

you can't win with daz, unless you are obsessed with vicky, I stopped going there

Even when we do get something for Mike it doesn't fit right...people here and at DAZ make sure Vicky cloths fit right with her morphs but they can't seen to make Mike's fit with his body morphs...Oh, wait a min..that's right..all they have worry about with Vicky are those tit morphs where Mike has those body morphs to worry about. When Mike 3 comes out, things aren't going to be any different and one thing comes to mind. They got morphs for V3 to make her male..are they going to have morphs for M3 to make him female...I sure hope not.

i think the morphs for m3 will make him into a tree or a corvette. :)

Make a run thru the Galleries, What do you see? Daz is going to support what they think is popular... which is Vic2 or Vic3 in sexy outfits or fantasy outfits. People that want items like every day clothes for Mike, the MM kids and even Vic have to get them form other sources. And to add to that, Thank you Steve Shanks for Poserworld. Maybe you should change the name "Real" Poserworld. In the past month I purchased over $200.00 of models for Poser, and Daz got zero... not that Daz products are not good, they are very good... just not what I'm looking for.

Yeah, I'll go along with you on that, Niles. Now, Daz does have some nice products - the wide variety of animals (both extinct and living) ready-made for Poser is great! Because of the "magic faery wings" and "RPG cloak" for V3, in which I have no interest, this is the area around which I've been focusing my Daz purchases. Personally - IMHO, rumor-mill, no evidence ;), I think not only are they concentrating on V3 because, let's face it, it sells, but also, they are probably devoting many resources to DAZ Studio (oh, when, oh, when) and M3. I predicted in December/January that DAZ Studio would probably be initially released (as beta or first version) right around NOW. Boy, was I off! So much for my career as psychic, huh? There hasn't been an update concerning it in over five months. Not a good sign of imminent release. Back on topic, overall - not just DAZ - it seems that the market is getting, well, thin. Koshini this, Koshini that. Now we have what's his name based on Koshini. Sci-Fi, RPG, fantasy, movie-based stuff. There are wide arrays of markets that haven't even been tapped or just barely scratched. How many "Pinup poses" or "Futuristic armor Ninja suits with death-ray blaster" do we need anyway? ;) BYS

Mike is the "Ken" of the virtual Barbie world :-)

-J.

On Credit Card issue - I enter mine with no dashes or spaces and unfortunately [according to hubby] they continually accept and go through. have done visa and mc with new interface. Hope that the entry info helps y'awl.

When you see 90 percent of the pictures with a scantily clad female it kinda slants what you want to sell. That being said, I am sure they are doing things as fast as they can. People keep saying there is not enough V3 things and they are doing them. I personally like Michael because he does the heroic adventure thing that I mostly do. There is also less in the way of clothes that you have to do for a male figure, excluding International Male stuff (which is pretty out there).

LOL ... JeffH, so true! Too bad he's not treated as the GI Joe, instead.

If Mike 3 morphs into a female, will that be Stephanie 3?

FYI, my Michael2XprssnMagic is at DAZ - but it's hidden in the Software section - Elisa/gryffnn