Penguinisto posted at 11:01PM Fri, 26 July 2019 - #4357873 Me, I want a healthy competing marketplace. It's the best way to ensure the best stuff is available to me and my little hobby. Choice is a beautiful thing... especially to those of us who remember the days when choice was either nonexistent or hella expensive.

(Apologies if my formatting poofs up... )

The key is "competing."

The products aren't always similar in this market, but many of the functions of competing products that we're concerned about are similar. Most consumer buy them to fulfill the same need/want. If one is examining differences or seeking to maximize strengths for this particular product, at least in terms of "figure" then we have a way to go based on what choices normal consumers of such a thing value. For myself, there''s no other variable than "Poser" for this particular product. That's my determiner. But, we've seen others who are not so loyal to a particular platform. And, more importantly, in order to expand and survive, the platform has to have active marketing and appeal as well as full-on and rabid support (internal) for the mainline crack it wants to sell - An uber awesome super-duper visually appealing and technically excellent figure with a darn good looking render potential straight out of the box with one-click "Do Art" capability. :) (I think PE had such a possibility and still might. But, everyone wants to get their team together to make their own brand-new-next-thing Vicky-Killer...)

Dude, it had no such support since Curious Labs cratered. And yeah, it's hella important that this time things go right (I know, I know...)

DAZ was pretty strong support. It was high profile and professionally run with a very clear emphasis on stewarding its product lines and their presentation to the consumer. DAZ ran it like they wanted to be "professionals." They rolled out figures properly with big blockbuster teams from a steady stable of recognized performers. Nothing passed through those doors that didn't get someone's eyeball plastered all over it before it hit the shelf. And, it showed. Personally, I feel their diligence and restrictions placed some limitations on variety and artistic style. Plus, there wasn't a single DAZ product with geometry in it that I couldn't identify as uniquely DAZ just from looking at the topo and UV. DAZ loved them some "thick" geometry and if you an replace a detail with a texture instead of real verts, then you're a thumbz-up DAZ piece of clothing...

Editorial note: This is for example. Can't very well talk about the sorts of things that make good figures and good figure markets without... talking about them.

Good news is, Rendo has 1) a separate and fairly healthy income stream outside of Poser, but 2) that income stream is actually related to Poser and DS, so Rendo (unlike SM, EGISys, etc) is fully incentivized to give Poser the needed care. This means figures, natch. It also means Marketplace standards that will help the figure(s) actually sell (so yes, it's related.)

It is good news in some respects. The most prominent of all of them is that Renderosity is a "High Profile" distributor for Poser products. Of course, the stable of those is kind of limited. RIP RNDA et al. But, there have really only been two footprints in distributors for Poser and one of them is Renderosity. The others were always a tier down, not in quality, just in overall presence. (Loved RDNA, Content Paradise never really counted because it was continually focused on Poser 4..., PW had a license that was too eclectic and Hivewire suffers from a lack of inventory.)

But, we gots a problem... Renderosity isn't a developer. Bondware specializes in front-ends/infrastructure apps for websites, AFAIK. (To be fair, Smith Micro was always primarily a networking IT company.) And, in my opinion, while Renderosity has survived, it's only done it because it's adopted a sort of Wallmart approach, but with the lack of professionalism that Wallmart has. It's not a slight, it's just a sort of sad fact that Renderosity has to correct if they want to truly leverage their one big asset that they bring to the table - Their footprint.

See this? -> https://www.renderosity.com/assets/images/homepage/1x2.png

That's an Unreal Engine promotional image from Hellblade: Sunua's Sacrifice. https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/developer-interviews/exploring-the-mindset-behind-hellblade-senuas-sacrifice

Wow, I didn't know Renderosity was associated with Unreal development and Senua's sacrifice! Lemme click! ...

See this? https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/delorean-dmc-12/136576/

Sweet! A "Delorean" automobile! It looks very nicely done, too, and there are also a couple of companion products for it. Hey, there's a "Game Development License" so I can license a real Delorean car for my game! I am sure that the original IP owners who actually own the Delorean Trademark that is so prominently presented on the front grill of that product would be thrilled that someone else is selling their Trademarked IP for them... Searching to see where the seller obtained legal license to sell a third-party wholly owned Trademarked and probably conditionally copyrighted name did not bear any fruit. IF legal license has been obtained, then I apologize for the mistaken assumption. If not.. then Renderosity has invited a lawsuit into their office to sit down and talk about "punative damages" in front of a judge...

(Hint: https://www.delorean.com <--- These guys actually own "Delorean" and the DMC ™ Trademarked logo, which is a thing that true "artists" like to protect.)

But, considering the admittedly talented artist's portfolio includes a number of third-party IPs that do not appear to have the legal license to sell such products without very practically threatening a criminal injunction charge and the shut-down of the entire Renderosity website while its inventory of items are searched by prosecutors. This would be far from the first time that licensing for the sale of third-party protected IPs was not in evidence on Renderosity.

Just not professional-grade administration in evidence, despite my own measly efforts in the past reporting similar Intellectual Property violations several times. They did act on my reports, but do not apparently suffer from the work of doing Due Diligence to protect the integrity of the marketplace nor the very real survival of their business against what could eventually amount to criminal prosecution for Conspiracy to Defraud, depending upon how many infractions a prosecutor's computer forensics team could dredge up. Someone at Renderosity got paid for the work it took to put such products up in the marketplace and to receive and deposit the commission payments they got. They were paid. To list products like that, someone wrote a paycheck.

It's things like that which worry me. Everyone loves to say "shut up Mork blah blah" and just goes on and discounts what I say. But... The above sort of thing is no better than one of those "gfx" sites that rips off hard-working 3D artists every single hour. We all want to do something about those, right? And, if our new Captain of the Poser Industry doesn't want to clean up its own image? If these sorts of things continue, then what chance does a legitimate successor figure to usher in the "new age" of Poser actually have?

Speaking of "figures," who now owns the rights to the Terai Yuki? (E-Frontier, still?) It'd be a good idea for Renderosity to seek out that license-holder and secure distribution rights, possibly some form of Terai Yuki Lite for an inclusion in Poser. Why? Japan, that's why. There's no reason to leave out the Japanese market, especially since it appears to have a decent showing for Poser. IIRC, Renderosity has sold similarly focused products for that market. (Several figures focused towards and popular in that market. "Near Me" or something like that, maybe? Can't remember.)

I'll restate something - I like Renderosity. I really do. I like the sort of "free spirit" in the community. What I don't like is what I have stated many times over the years - A lack of focus on professionalism and inventory stewardship. That's it. For a new figure, the Poser community who pays for products here deserves a heightened sense of professional development and attention to professional practices.