Thanks FirstBastion! I appreciate your candor.

DarkElegance posted at 1:55 AM Mon, 26 August 2024 - #4488784

As for the artists, that is pretty sad to hear. As it cant be much they are making.
Ill say it again, I rather give 100% of my purchasing power to the artist directly.

It doesn't seem to matter what the medium or market. For many who try to earn a living making art or being artistically creative, the artist's life is hard. Some find a place and make a go of it. Only an anointed few win big. They're the lottery winners. Many more try and fail.

Sounds like a plan, Doc Photon.

Cybertenko has this Captain;s Uniform for M4: https://www.renderosity.com/marketplace/products/127416/universal-sailor-the-captain

Along the same line, https://www.renderosity.com/marketplace/products/72794/dress-uniform-m4 may be useful for making said uniform by tweaking textures.

And there is an actual, quite old flight attendant uniform: https://www.renderosity.com/marketplace/products/65250/flight-attendant-uniform-for-v4a4

Predatron & Diane's General Uniform and add-on for M4 on Daz store. It's a lot more military than airline, though. I guess no one has thought about airline uniforms as most of the pilot suits are still futuristic sci-fi military affairs.

Clearance items I had in WL are now normal price. I can't complain - I had long enough to buy them and didn't. So, I guess I didn't need them. If they show up on sale and I want them, I'll buy them.

The old Rendo is gone - The old Rendo staff is mostly gone, too. The new staff is doing what they think is right. I hope what they're doing is good for the vendors. My contact with vendors here reveals they are good, generous people. I may grouse about things, but I don't begrudge folks trying to make a living. If the new policies help them do that, then it's for the best.

Still not paying $7 or more for a decade-old V4 outfit - Just sayin'. >_>

Rendo's vendor arrangement doesn't say that. It says, least percentage is 50/50 split: https://www.renderosity.com/media_upload/17581

Daz says

- Earn 50% net revenue of sales

- Bonuses for top Artists

- Free product marketing to active buyers

- Royalty payouts monthly or bi-monthly

- Opportunities to partner with Daz to create commissioned assets

https://www.daz3d.com/pa/landing

Daz PA details are not publicly articulated, that I could find. My observation is, some PAs hail Daz as their ticket to life as a 3D artist, and some lament the way PAs are treated. Some vendors here feel the same ways about Rendo. Some PAs and Vendors sell from both sites, and others as well. No one solution works for everyone.

Nothing I've seen suggests the arrangement anywhere is comparable to movie studios. I could still be wrong, but I can't imagine anyone signing up for a 90-company/10-vendor split. Re: Daz: As I understand it, Daz completely handles the marketing, promotion, and consumer complaints. The company also does some of the work to prep items for sale. I don't know the details first-hand. I don't know how all that works here.

There is some grey area here and there as relates to reward points and GCs. I suppose that's where the idea of Net Revenue comes into play. Every company handles things a little differently.

Except... Except... New releases over there often have some sort of discount. I suppose, if one really wants to support the vendor, one buys early. That idea fights with my inner nature as I am a brutal bargain hunter at heart. Maybe splurging for something one really wants is not necessarily a sucker play. 

Very clever DocPhoton!

Yes, caveat emptor! :D

P.T. Barnum  said "There's a sucker born every minute."

gohanf22 posted at 2:36 PM Wed, 21 August 2024 - #4488617

What is really irritating me is that they are pushing for people to buy these new Models that come out for gen 9 that are for certain IPs, like how is DAZ getting away with selling those?

Some vendors sell products that look infringing to me and it's under commercial license. And the store selling the products often doesn't seem to care. It's up to the copyright holder to say "Stop that!" Perhaps the copyright holder is busy? No idea. In any case, all that becomes Buyer Beware! 

It is what it is. It's a tough economy. There's no easy solution that would make everyone happy. So I waved the white flag and just make stuff for myself. 

Not all the time. I have the nasty habit of creating large sets (5 or more pieces). And I've invested in most of the G9 DAZ Original figures so that I can make sure that the clothing works well on every DO figure for G9. So there is a significant investment in time and money.  The first week of sales is usually the best week, and there were very deep discounts applied to a product I had in my own store (not a DO product) that sold multiple copies for under 2 dollars.  When 2-4 weeks of work results in under 200 dollars in sales, it really puts a damper on the passion of it all. I've cut back substantially on purchases and content creation since then. 

It's another form of "as if being an artist is already hard enough." That's what I meant by "biting the hand that feeds you."  I've been so discouraged by it all that the passion is just gone. It done flew the coop. And I'm probably not alone in feeling that way. 8-)

Here, the discounts used to be a lot better, and rPub, the company store, is actually one of the stingiest vendors in the marketplace. That's my opinion. Other vendors can do what they like, but it is unlikely anyone will pay $7 for a decade-old V4 outfit. It's crazy talk when compared to pricing at Daz store. Here, I only buy the items that I want most. THere is no impulse buying. And prices at any store are not comparable to pricing at 'Rotica, because the merch there is specialized - You want it or you don't. I've found RHub has some serious quality control problems and often surprisingly high prices - Buying anything there is a crap shoot. Thus, I buy very little there. So, that's how all that goes. And that does not say anything for the glob of people who won;t shop anywhere except the Daz site.

As far as pricing goes, we as customers have been conditioned by the sales run on the content sites to expect certain discounts - We know those are possible and the companies must be okay doing that or the discounts would not exist. I will observe, at Daz site, the best discounts are on DO items - Daz paid the artists for their work and can resell the work in perpetuity at whatever price Daz likes.

DAZ is desperate at this point to try to make ANY MONEY they can from this DEBACLE of a Genesis model that pushed more "the message" than actually having both meshes stay separate as they should've stayed.  Like you can't even use geografts well at all on gen 9. It is the most SCREWED UP model to date, and not only that, they are selling stuff from IPs in hoping they can get gullible people to buy them to make any sort of revenue.

I'm just waiting for the announcement at this point of Gen 10 and the Female and Male meshes going back to being separate and this gen being forgotten like the Dodo...