Honestly, Rich... knowing enough about the work of the people who make characters who have posted in this thread? They don't do the same style and never have, so I don't think that's at issue. Lyrra, for example, I don't think has ever made a character set. I've seen a lot of people who aren't vendors comment on the quality (or lack thereof) of work in the marketplace (this one and others). I don't see people reading into their views in the same way -- and I don't think it's any different for most vendors. I do see vendors taking an interest in the quality of work that is around them, though, and also in the ethics of fellow vendors. After all, when one of us pulls a stupid (innocently or otherwise), it's going to have some measure of impact on the rest of us. How many threads have appeared about "no properly ethnic V4 characters" or "no realistic makeups for V4" or "all V4s are nothing but slapped together resources and nothing original at all" or other similar vast, sweeping arguments that slam all character creators as a group? When this is not true of all character creators, there's definitely going to be an interest taken in the people who are doing any of the above. Sooner or later, people just stop looking around, because they see these comments so often that they'll believe them to be universally true. (And plenty of those comments have come from people who are defending Syltermermaid, it should be noted.) It's also been said in this very thread that there is such a glut of product on the market that people don't want to sort through them to look for themselves. Who is creating the glut, the people who produce a set a month, or the ones who produce a set a day? There are plenty of valid reasons for other vendors to take an interest in a thread like this, or have an opinion about the way someone does things, other than 'I want to be just like [whoever]!' or 'I wish I made that much money!' because... let's face it, even towards the top end of the scale, none of us are exactly lighting our cigarettes with $100 bills. You have a very valid point: people will buy what appeals to them and best suits their needs. Personally? I'm just fine with that. I have absolutely -no- issue that people love her stuff and buy it often; if it's what they like, it is absolutely what they should buy and no one should tell them to do any different. It's their money, right? The beginning and the end of my input on the success of any other vendor is: "Do I buy their stuff?" and the answer is a yes or no, and I vote with my dollars like everybody else. edit: drifterlee? Once I get out from the work pile I'm buried under, I'll be happy to help you put one together for yourself if you'd like. grin It's not as scary as it sounds.

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It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye texture.