Official Announcement: HiveWire 3D to publish Animals through DAZ 3D

[Sparky]

I have to say, I was rather hurt when I opened my email this afternoon and saw the newsletter for the "HW3D Special Announcement."

I'll admit that the products I have released here have historically had rather lower sales performance than I would like, but I was still planning to support HiveWire's animals with addon products in the confidence that a customer base interested in such products would grow as the catalogue of animal figures grew.

I was about to finish work on several of my WIPs (hippogriff, griffon, manticore, horse skeleton) and get them ready for release. Now, I'm not so sure it makes sense, as the very customers mentioned at the beginning of this thread, who wondered where those great animal figures came from, will now have to look no further than DAZ.

The animals might fetch higher royalties from the DAZ market, but I don't see how that will advantage the HiveWire store. Other than increasing visibility of the animal figures themselves, how will moving one of this site's biggest draws offsite increase traffic here? Especially as part of the partnership agreement was to obfuscate the origin of the figures, as well as DAZ's tendency to delete posts in their forums that discuss this site in particular.

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see how this pans out. In the mean time, I'll just focus on my own store.

 

[Rae134]

I gotta say tho, now that the first animals are in the Daz shop, I'm rather disappointed with their promotion. Other than being mentioned in the newsletter (which frankly made it look like the cats were daz originals), there is nothing that I can see. The banners on the main site is filled with unrelated flash sales, not a single ad about the cats. I dunno, I guess I just expected something more? At least from the company that supposedly is the best in the market for advertising

They are part of a "witness the power of nature sale" but they chose to go with a sharknado image

 

[Zaarin]

I gotta say tho, now that the first animals are in the Daz shop, I'm rather disappointed with their promotion. Other than being mentioned in the newsletter (which frankly made it look like the cats were daz originals), there is nothing that I can see. The banners on the main site is filled with unrelated flash sales, not a single ad about the cats. I dunno, I guess I just expected something more? At least from the company that supposedly is the best in the market for advertising

They did the same thing with the RDNA stuff that moved into their store. It took me months to find where they hid it all--even from high-profile vendors like Syyd Raven or those who already had DAZ stores like Esha. DAZ is really good at promoting...their own things. Or I should say, their own things plus Stonemason, who DAZ seems to treat as a god. (No disrespect intended, as he's an enormously talented artist--just saying, he seems to be the one PA who DAZ sort of gives something like the same treatment they give Genesis 823382 or whatever the latest triannual version is. )

 

[Willowisp]

They are part of a "witness the power of nature sale" but they chose to go with a sharknado image

Exactly.. that ad speaks of Daz Original animals.. nothing whatsoever of the cats..

 

[Alisa]

Hey, Sparky!

It's certainly our hope that there will be new people who will find/learn about HiveWire as a result of the animals being at DAZ, and we always look forward to your products coming to the Hive! Hope to still see them here

With the animals going to DAZ, will we have to jump through their convoluted downloading system..( eg file encryption) or can we simply download and install manually into Poser as we can here ?

Our files are NOT encrypted. You can (if you buy there) either download through their DIM (Download Install Manager) or manually download from your DAZ Product Library.

Manually installing is EASY. In their zips, the FIRST folder is called "CONTENT", and there's a small "Manifest.dsx file at the same level (which you don't need if you manually install, so ignore it.

Simply go below the "Content" folder and the Runtime folder is right there. Drag it to your desired location and you're there!

 

[daywalker03]

With the animals going to DAZ, will we have to jump through their convoluted downloading system..( eg file encryption) or can we simply download and install manually into Poser as we can here ?
I realise that as a business, in order to prosper and grow, one has to reach out to the largest market. But I must admit I prefer the store here at Hivewire over that of DAZ's. I was a regular purchaser of Poser stuff from them for years, once I started playing with Poser 4 all those year's ago. But since they decided to favour DAZ's products and drop compatability with Poser formats I've not purchased anything from DAZ for a few years. I just hope everything runs smoothly for you.

Poser files would not be affected as they do not work with DAZ Connect.

 

[Rae134]

I was about to finish work on several of my WIPs (hippogriff, griffon, manticore, horse skeleton) and get them ready for release. Now, I'm not so sure it makes sense, as the very customers mentioned at the beginning of this thread, who wondered where those great animal figures came from, will now have to look no further than DAZ.

Please, Please, PLEASE continue with your Hippogriff and Griffon (and the rest) because even if you sell them as add-ons here I know people will come for them as people have been waiting a long time for decent ones (I'm hoping Chris will still do the sphinx as that is much needed as well).

 

[Dreamer]

Please, Please, PLEASE continue with your Hippogriff and Griffon (and the rest) because even if you sell them as add-ons here I know people will come for them as people have been waiting a long time for decent ones (I'm hoping Chris will still do the sphinx as that is much needed as well).

@Sparky I'll second this! I had such fun working on your cat skeleton and I have plans for both the zombie cat and horse too and I would love to extent those ideas to what ever else you come up with

 

[CWRW]

I'm still going to be making and selling add-ons here for our HW animals whether those animals are sold here or at Daz.

 

[Hornet3d]

I hate to use the word boycott to describe my stance on purchasing products at DAZ. That implies one is trying to organize a resistance toward a company and hope for others to follow suit. I honestly don't care if other people think the sun rises and sets on DAZ. Or if they feel the DAZ forum is filled with like minded people that make them feel at home. Or if they believe there are no differences between DAZ, HiveWire, Renderosity, or any other brokerage of 3D content. If shopping at DAZ works for them ... fantastic. If they won't be impacted by the HiveWire 3D animals and addons ... especially Laurie's products ... being sold exclusively at DAZ rather than HiveWire ... even better.

Just when I think I can deal with the deal between DAZ and HiveWire ... I start panicking this is just the beginning of changes I won't be able to live with. More than any other site online, HiveWire has made me feel part of something ... bigger. Something that encourages and values its members rather than seeing them just as an open wallet that should be stripped of all content. Something that kinda ... resembles ... family. Even if I might not agree with everything that everyone here posts. Even if I get as frustrated with some people and their opinions as they probably get with me and mine.

I can see where some people don't think this is a big deal. Especially, if they have no issues with DAZ or with their business practices or past and present decisions. I can even understand why some people can't understand it really and truly is rather difficult to find current quality Poser content at DAZ. After all, if you use DS, virtually everything in the DAZ store is content you can use.

But ... this is a big deal to some of us. And while many of you may not be impacted by this, some people will no longer be able to purchase HiveWire animals and any other products that are moved to DAZ.

And ... it's very, very hard to believe DAZ has any intentions to actually play fair with HiveWire.

But, Chris has had first hand experience with DAZ ... given he kinda like ... was a co founder of DAZ and worked under the new (now oldish) management. And he's experienced how ... unhelpful they have been toward HiveWire since the launch of Dawn. He's been the recipient of some rather twisted posts from DAZ PAs. So, I know he's not going into this blind. Neither is Lisa, Alisa, Paul, Laurie. They've all had plenty of experiences with DAZ and know far more about DAZ's business practices than we do.

But ... they are also really, really nice people who might kinda ... a wee bit ... expect others to be ... nice? fair? open minded? open hearted? Well, perhaps what I'm looking for is that they are willing to give people a second, third, multiple chances to be decent. But ... yeah. I do trust them. And I want this to work out for HiveWire. And certainly, I hope it will bring people to HiveWire who never knew about HiveWire or who have believed all the negative BS that has been spread about HiveWire and HiveWire products by people who don't like HiveWire or Chris.

This is just not something I ever would have imagined happening, and I'm (as must be rather obvious by now) totally not comfortable with it.

Granted ... it's a fairly small thing in comparison to so many other things that are changing in the world. But like ... no one who makes decisions about ACA, the Environment/Global Warming, the Economy, the "Wall" cares about my opinions or concerns.

While, Chris, Lisa, Alisa, et. al., do.

Being part of the Hivewire family I find myself agreeing with a lot of posts but every so often I see a post that I not only agree with but explains the way I feel in a way that I could could never match. It is almost as though someone has read my mind and then found the words to describe how I feel, when I could not.

 

[Deleted member 325]

I have to say, I was rather hurt when I opened my email this afternoon and saw the newsletter for the "HW3D Special Announcement."

I'll admit that the products I have released here have historically had rather lower sales performance than I would like, but I was still planning to support HiveWire's animals with addon products in the confidence that a customer base interested in such products would grow as the catalogue of animal figures grew.

I was about to finish work on several of my WIPs (hippogriff, griffon, manticore, horse skeleton) and get them ready for release. Now, I'm not so sure it makes sense, as the very customers mentioned at the beginning of this thread, who wondered where those great animal figures came from, will now have to look no further than DAZ.

The animals might fetch higher royalties from the DAZ market, but I don't see how that will advantage the HiveWire store. Other than increasing visibility of the animal figures themselves, how will moving one of this site's biggest draws offsite increase traffic here? Especially as part of the partnership agreement was to obfuscate the origin of the figures, as well as DAZ's tendency to delete posts in their forums that discuss this site in particular.

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see how this pans out. In the mean time, I'll just focus on my own store.

I would still buy the add-ons for the Hippogriff, Manticore, and Griffon. I would also love to see more Morphs for Dusk/Dawn in the anthropomorphic genre.

 

[RAMWolff]

There will be a way to push traffic here. If DAZ has exclusivity rights to the base figures, that's fine but folks will ask about pose packs, other skins and creatures made from these critters, what are they going to do, keep saying that Hivewire can't be linked in the forum threads or what? That would be counterproductive to the agreement since folks WILL want more for these figures and not just the few products under their umbrella. So I'd say to Sparky and other folks making stuff for these figures, keep going. Release them here and we will work on making sure to drive traffic to the Hive, might work out OK.

 

[Hornet3d]

Hey, Sparky!

It's certainly our hope that there will be new people who will find/learn about HiveWire as a result of the animals being at DAZ, and we always look forward to your products coming to the Hive! Hope to still see them here



Our files are NOT encrypted. You can (if you buy there) either download through their DIM (Download Install Manager) or manually download from your DAZ Product Library.

Manually installing is EASY. In their zips, the FIRST folder is called "CONTENT", and there's a small "Manifest.dsx file at the same level (which you don't need if you manually install, so ignore it.

Simply go below the "Content" folder and the Runtime folder is right there. Drag it to your desired location and you're there!

I have used this process for quite a while with all my Daz purchases. I have never yet used the Download Manager (not just Daz, I don't like programs that do things to my computer automatically) and manually download the Poser file and use the procedure Alisa has described.....really is that easy. I don't download the Daz files, I know storage prices are cheap but I have so much content it doesn't make sense to store stuff I cannot see me using.

 

[Zaarin]

There will be a way to push traffic here. If DAZ has exclusivity rights to the base figures, that's fine but folks will ask about pose packs, other skins and creatures made from these critters, what are they going to do, keep saying that Hivewire can't be linked in the forum threads or what?

If the DAZ forums are still moderated the way they were a few years ago, that's exactly what they'll do. I had a post deleted and a moderator warning for "being off topic" for asking a vendor if they might make a Poser version of a product that had absolutely nothing to do with Genesis or anything DS-specific.

 

[Hornet3d]

@Sparky I'll second this! I had such fun working on your cat skeleton and I have plans for both the zombie cat and horse too and I would love to extent those ideas to what ever else you come up with

I'll third that, I understand the concern but if the addons do not keep coming it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. We all know this may not work, we all know there will be some problems but throwing in the towel so early could be tragic. I respect the views that you have but I really hope you find the resolve to continue.

 

[sapat]

Dog is in the works:
HiveWire Dog Is Underway

Right, but now he'll be released at Daz won't he. So I'd think just like all their 'proprietary' content, we won't see any more WIP or be able to follow along in the dog thread like we do here, or for that matter see WIP from any other up and coming animals that have been talked about here for down the line. They have such strict NDA's that it seems unlikely Chris will be able to share his progress in an open forum thread anymore.

***********************
And as for downloading files at Daz that someone asked about, I've never used their DIM in my life. I download files manually to my computer and then install them anywhere I please whether it's a Poser file or a DS file just like you do here. All you have to look for on the product page under 'Install Types' is to make sure your purchase says it includes 'Manual Install' as one of the options. If it does, then after your purchase you can just download it from your product library to wherever you want.

 

[Rae134]

I think I read somewhere that Chris will still have WIP threads?

 

[CWRW]

I think I read somewhere that Chris will still have WIP threads?

Yes I am 99% positive that will be the case. I will of course continue to show WIPs here as well. Again remember we are vendors there/we didn't and won't be selling the products to Daz and what we are making legally belongs to HW3D not Daz.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

HiveWire animals still belong to HiveWire. Just because the HiveWire Dog will ultimately be exclusively released at DAZ doesn't mean Chris isn't in control of it before he submits it to DAZ. It's not a case where DAZ purchased the rights to the HiveWire Dog before it was completed. The HiveWire Dog will be submitted to DAZ just like any other PA submits their products to DAZ. DAZ will then decide whether to accept the HiveWire dog or decline.

Don't DAZ PAs still post WIPs in the DAZ forums?

 

[Satira Capriccio]

What Laurie said!