Quote - > Quote - - A more general question for DAZ: A a broker, technology provider, and content maker, what is DAZ doing to reduce the risks for brokered artists who may be venturing into Genesis technology?   [That's a softball, Rand.   Hit it out of the park!  ;)  ] 

---I dont know about it being a softball per se. I dont know that we can reduce the risk for anyone. Free markets are risky, you pick your lane, come up with something you think people will like and roll the dice. We do feel like we have made it easier than ever before to create quality content... no more rigging clothes, for example.... so hopefully there is less time investment to have risked in the first place.  beyond that... As you well know, Kerwin, my friend, We do our best to help our PAs succeed. We offer suggestions on how to make products more successful based on our experience. We provide some guidance an instruction on everything from texturing techniques to Promo imagery, shader support to Naming.  We feature products in the newsletter and on our front page. Of course none of this is a promise of success.

We cannot guarantee a broker will make any money, let alone a profit. there is hearty competition on our store and some creators just arent going to be able to quit their day jobs. I know its the same thing here at Rendo.

But here ive gone and let you pull me into a topic Ive promised to steer clear of out of respect for the venue. Ill leave it at what Ive said. 

I can name a couple more for you (it was really intended as softball since is pretty open question which I was fairly certain you had good answers to.)

• Excellent QA (IMHO):  Your QA people are very helpful at catching things my own testers missed.
• Significant effort promotiong Genesis and accessories for Genesis which creates market demand.
• Ongoing efforts with the CR2 Exporter; you could say more about where this going from a content creator's perspective if you wanted to assure the community how easily their new creaqtions will transport to your the poser market (which is part of who you're addressing.)
• And, of course, a host of internal things for brokered artists, which you have decided to censor yourself on.

DAZ has multiple business functions.  Primarily they appear to be:

  1) A content provider

  2) A software maker

  3) A content broker

These are intimately related, as all three are wrapped up in the offer of Genesis.

You could have saved the response part about the common risk to the business model (phrased in the negative, starting with statements, "We cannont guarentee . . .") The question did not ask DAZ about gurarentee, it asked about reduction of risk.

You also countered your own reply.  :)  You started out with "I don't know we can reduce the risk for anyone."   Of course you can!  And you cited a couple, such as counceling and promotion (newsletter.)

A lot of the discussion about Genesis/DS4 I've observed for the past few months revolves around risks (which are a continuum) not guarentees (which are typically binary in nature.)  DAZ through it's three functions above can modify how much risk is involved.

From the users, a few of the risks raised included:

• Will it run well (or at all) on my current equipment?
• Will it support advanced functions like inter-object dependency (like DP's in poser or network rendering or realistic light fall off?
• Will my existing content (which may be a large investment in the case of some users) work well with Genesis?
• Will more (and the kind of content desired) be available for Genesis at a price I can afford?

From brokers, the risks raised include:

• This compliated new stuff, can I afford the invest the time needed, especially with many functions in beta or in flux?
• How will I price and justify delivering content when the market right now is poitentially small copmpared to the more general, more broadly supported market.
• Will my content need more support or maintence due fluxuations in the platform?
• When will this technology that my content is built for be available on other platforms, thus give me ongoing opportunity to make more money with my creative effort?
• And may others we won't discuss here.

So, the opening statement in your reply, "I dont know that we can reduce the risk for anyone" appears to significantly underestimate DAZ's role here.   (It's not uncommon--small creative companies have the "build a better moustrap syndrome" where they focus on the moustrap assume the world will beat a path to their door, and miss the bigger picture.)  DAZ needs to feel its own power.  Awakern the giant within!  Stop the insanity! :D  (No prizes for guessing which 80's motivational speakers I'm referencing.  ;)  )

Not phrasing as a question, I will summarize my own POV: DAZ can and does reduce the risk for users and brokers around Genesis/DS4 tech by the examples above and even more than what we discussed is this thread.  There are other risks that DAZ could (and in my own opinion, should) address.  You know, because I told you personally back in the beta days, that I believe that Genesis can be a game changer in this market segment.   DAZ perhaps needs to focus more (now that Genesis and DS4 technology is reasonably feature complete) on these concerns and perhaps be slightly less dimissive of the risks (expressed as concerns) by a portion of your user base.

I want to believe in DAZ (referencing your earlier post addressing me by proper name), but it's hard when I feel that my concerns (and concerns you're hearing voiced by others) are dismissed.  The means that some DAZ personnel have used to cope with those raised concerns leaves a bad taste.   (I could reiterate a number of observations about those means, but I think you get the point.)

-K