I admire DAZ as a company, they have a mission, they have a plan, objectives and goals. I have supported them from way back when others and I had a huge debate with them on this forum over the pricing of Victoria 1.

Ultimately that debate played a part in the reduction of V1's price to what we today consider a "normal price" and also had a strong influence - in a sense - in the development of the markets as we know them now.
See this link from 2000 for the outcome (the original debate in the forums archive has mysteriously vanished!)

http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=122288

As a sign of the times and the way things have changed since then, I read today in Poserpros from Daz that:

"A few of the DAZ employees are in Japan and they'll be meeting with Kozaburo and holding a bit of an interview with him which will later be posted online for everyone to read. They're also very interested in meeting with Quarker, who we believe is located in Japan as well. However, his currently listed email address doesn't seem to be active, and no one's had any luck contacting him.

If anyone has any idea of how to get in contact with Quarker, we'd love to hear about it. If we can reach him within the next week, then perhaps we can have a similar interview opportunity as well.

So, if anyone can help us out, we'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

Steve Kondris
DAZ Productions, Inc."

If this is not a recruitment/poaching drive aimed at particular artists (one of whom, Quarker, is an exclusive Renderosity Merchant) I will eat my proverbial hat.

So what has changed since DAZ put their toe into the water in 2000 and became a real market player?

Well for one thing they now have so much exposure and commitment to that market that they are now seeking to dominate it and eradicate the competition.

Back in 2000 DAZ listened to the voices that urged them to take a different course (to their credit and to their financial enrichment). Today those voices are again urging DAZ to re-examine their market role and attitude. Dan Farr, if you are reading, please listen up.

Poser is and has always been a collaborative market involving many players big (as in Curious Labs and Daz) and small as in individual creators brokered and unbrokered and free item providers, developers, inventors and ordinary forum participants.

The fundamental key to the success of Poser, and its survival through all the life-threatening traumas and all else that has followed, has been this anarchic, largely unregulated and open market. A market with widely differing viewpoints, ideas, business philosophies and political positions and many different forums.

This eclectic market is akin to the Wild West frontier in its heyday, BUT this has been the key to the sheer dynamism and energy that helped Poser to survive, grow and develop and as a consequence, DAZ.

The sheer energy and creativity of such a diverse and creative market has us where we are today.
NEVER, EVER forget that, it is the philosophical and material bread and butter of this whole damm experience.

I see developments that disturb me; developments that seek to centralise the market to a few power players and maybe even one, DAZ.

That is DEATH for this community, DEATH for the range and depth of creativity that has helped us to survive to 2004, DEATH for the sheer dynamism that has got us here and will carry us through the next four years and beyond.

Daz Studio is not the answer any more than Poser 5 or Shade or any other Program is. Look at what Z-Brush 2 and its 16-bit displacement maps can do when combined with Poser 5 and be content to be part of that market, to take a share of it.

Any company attempting to dominate, control and channel the market to its exclusive financial ends will result in the market rebounding on those that attempt this and ultimately destroying them.

That is not a threat but the reality of the 3D-software market today. It may even come to pass in the case of the OS market as regards Microsoft.

Learn the lessons, and survive as company that we can continue to support.

Regards
STORM