Announcing The Platinum Club Plus [Beta] Program
This discussion has been closed.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Wish I could afford to buy Urban Sprawl 2. Maybe another time..... :)
Well, whatever happens with the PC club will happen. I'm pretty much over it at this point. I made the mistake of extending my PC membership awhile back and now I've got it until August of 2015. I am in no way saying Daz doesn't provide it's users with a great product, but I'm finding less and less that anything in the store is something I want. I'm not interested in 8 different female figures, each with their own unique UV sets. I'm not interested in the clubwear and skimpy fantasy outfits that go with them. I don't like the G2M figures, especially the wonky chest. Maybe thing will change in the future, but right now I'm just writing it off as a loss.
And this is the reason I really question whether the DAZ store can handle adding yet another level of complexity to the snarled rat's nest of discounts, coupons, flash sales and "oh-no-you-can't-do-thats". It seems like there's rarely a day that goes by when the ball hasn't been dropped on something, and rather than fixing the existing problems, DAZ instead keeps heaping even more layers on top of the whole thing. I would say that it's going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back, except for the fact that the camel was inexplicably removed from the store while the accessories are still here.
Why a $1.99 seems fair to me.
I am a Carrara user. I began shopping here in order to purchase Carrara. I spend a great deal of money on content. From the start I recognized materials would need tweaking in Carrara and have not complained about this. In the past, most PC products worked or could be made to work in Carrara.
This is no longer the case. Daz assured us the intent was to make Genesis compatible with Carrara. However, nothing has been done to make Genesis 2 compatible. Smart content is now not working in Carrara. DS shaders are now a frequent pc release: reducing the number of new products even marginally viable in Carrara, and reducing the number of products I can even consider buying in a week. I could go on but won't bother.
I know poser users will say what's new, but Carrara is Daz's own product, sold in this store. PC+ at the moment seems like an invitation to pay even more for less. Whether any form of pc is still worth it is really the question for me.
And this is the reason I really question whether the DAZ store can handle adding yet another level of complexity to the snarled rat's nest of discounts, coupons, flash sales and "oh-no-you-can't-do-thats". It seems like there's rarely a day that goes by when the ball hasn't been dropped on something, and rather than fixing the existing problems, DAZ instead keeps heaping even more layers on top of the whole thing. I would say that it's going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back, except for the fact that the camel was inexplicably removed from the store while the accessories are still here.
In brick a and mortar store, when a buyer acquires a new product part of the decision is determining the retail price tiers. For instance when a buyer for a sportswear store procures a shirt from a vendor, the retail list, sale and closeout price tiers are immediately established for the store. Any general cost of sale beyond that is factored in advance with the pricing tiers because as cost is already incurred so loss risk is limited to the inventory volume. This where an digital media store departs - acquisition license terms dictate perpetuity, exclusivity and boundaries of "inventory on hand" so the risk model is different in that the only delta is cost of sale - ie merchandising & marketing. That demand over time has a different impact in stores vs digital outlets therefore discounting is not necessary if sales profits at the minimum exceed the cost of capitol. With unlimited inventory supplies negotiated you have as low risk bp you can have in a market as this and therefore would benefit to keep the cost of sale down, value up and sit back and sip margaritas while the residuals roll in (ha ha - ok dreaming on that bit).
Now about the Platinum Club; if it was a store wouldn't they just allow premium club shoppers to get best price and not make then go through hoops to find best value? What point does price discrimination within the Platinum Club serve?
One thing DAZ does do extremely well is the forums.
If you have a question, ASK. It's usually minutes before an answer is posted. You didn't see the code, they fixed it. They are very responsive.
If people are wary of the PC+ and what deals are to be found, we can always start a thread if this goes permanent, stating the good deals/pricing that we've found. Several of us have been doing that for a couple years over on my art studio thread whenever there's a sale (Not just PC items), and it's nice for people to be looking out for each other and saying, "Hey, did you see this?..." Having a shopping thread for just the PC+ folks in the Members Only would probably be pretty popular and used. I thought it was really nice of Dream Cutter to post the links to all those items they found:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/42712/P795/#632762
To the admin- thanks for plugging away and responding to posts. We know it's not easy when there's frustration, anxiety, and change involved.
So far as stating people joined without being informed- this thread is huge. DAZ is Gerber and spoon feeding people. Points are repeated over and over. And the program is clearly stated- bullet by bullet- and to join, the information was right there. They were informed. If they didn't understand it, it was their responsibility to not join until they understood it. Being informed is not the same as understanding something. The information was there. I knew prices would go up on some things, and I'd get $18 worth of codes that I have gleefully already used, I've gotten great deals, and bypassed the stuff that would be cheaper if I sit out and wait. Give and take.
We didn't see the code because it wasn't there. Its just another mistake in a very long line of mistakes.
Although the forums belong to Daz its the people who post here that make them what they are.
Daz don't fix things quite so fast if they are still fast asleep when the mistakes happen which often means that for nearly 8 hours, those of us on the other side of the world see the problems for a whole day.
I don't want to have to sift through a thread to find out what the PC deals are I really can't be bothered, and if as we are always being told most customers don't visit the forums what use will that be anyone.
If the PC is to survive then Daz have to come up with a straightforward no nonsense plan, not one that requires a special thread to get what as a PC member you pay for.
All I can say is that in my beginning, Daz was always my go to store for items. I kept adding items to my wishlists at the other stores but never considered buying those items unless I won some type of prize for that store. The prices at the other stores were more than I would allow for my budget.
Now, at the price of sticker shock everytime I see a new item come out, I simply cringe and add the item to my daz wishlist in hopes that some day the item will appear in fast grab or a flash sale. I have just purged most of my wishlist here at daz. Daz, it seems for me, has now become just like one of the other stores.
And, as mentioned earlier, I did just make an actual purchase at another store without having prize money to justify the expense.
I'm hoping to see Daz continue to provide, at lease some of, the lower cost items under whatever type of name calling they choose, if not at least to keep a shopping base for the customers who have no budget.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/43086/
I started this thread in the Members Only section and when I shop, I'll add things to the cart and test some prices out. (I have so much stuff already, most of the great deals don't apply to me. But if I find them, I'll post them.)
Really? I really hope that code has more than a single use. >.< I already used it on the courtyard before you wrote this.
/edit
Yes, it worked a 2nd time.
You can use the coupon multiple times.
Greetings,
@Muon Quark - At around $13.99 for Urban Sprawl 2 it's about as good a price as you'll ever see. If you can swing that, I'd highly recommend it. I have both of the products, and they're wonderful.
@Dream Cutter - You, and a few others, consistently ignore the cost of acquiring digital goods from artists, or pretend that cost has gone down over time, without any actual insight into DAZ's purchasing process to inform that. If you want something more complex from an artist, you have to pay a larger price, and that price has to be recouped somehow. Clearly discounted memberships don't cover it. Armchair faux economics have zip, zilch, nada to do with actual on-the-ground businesses, and unless you get hired by DAZ you won't know the variables that go into these decisions.
For the folks who switched to PC+ without reading the FAQ, or paying any attention to what it actually MEANS and are upset at the changes...I simply don't understand. Please, please, please, as a once-upon-a-time security software developer, I'm begging you to pay more attention to everything you sign up for or click on. The PC+ FAQ is one of the best FAQs DAZ has put together, and really clear on everything, including that $1.99 items would become 70% off instead.
If the PC+ causes folks to stop buying for real, not just forum posts claiming that, they'll adjust their plans. Each person who tries it, needs to decide for themselves if it's something they can support going forward. It just doesn't help to second-guess the PC's business decisions based on zero actual knowledge of the internal situation. The variables we have control over are ourselves, and while constructive suggestions are almost certainly a good thing, the most well-reasoned argument (much less the more vitriolic, disdainful, and dismissive posts) to keep the status quo is unlikely to have the same resonance as the pattern of purchasing differences between the folks who try out the PC+ beta and the control group of PC members.
This thread has devolved into a DAZ-bashing thread, mixed with an unhealthy dose of 'I know better than they do!', and I think that's unfortunate.
-- Morgan
We didn't see the code because it wasn't there. Its just another mistake in a very long line of mistakes.
Although the forums belong to Daz its the people who post here that make them what they are.
Daz don't fix things quite so fast if they are still fast asleep when the mistakes happen which often means that for nearly 8 hours, those of us on the other side of the world see the problems for a whole day.
I don't want to have to sift through a thread to find out what the PC deals are I really can't be bothered, and if as we are always being told most customers don't visit the forums what use will that be anyone.
I didn't say that DAZ was the one that answered within minutes. I said it is usually minutes before an answer is posted. Everyone knows it's the members AND the admin / volunteers who make the forums viable.
Agreed that there are way too many problems when things are launched, and with prices being wonky. I've said that repeatedly. It's really silly to launch things in the middle of the night when/if there is no staff to make changes to errors.
So far as the thread, don't visit it if you don't want to be bothered with it- I don't have time to visit 90% of the forums and I simply don't.
Well said.. thanks :)
Agreed. Well said Morgan.
And yes, I'm going to get Urban Sprawl 2 even though it will hurt my credit card. :)
Not necessarily a Daz Bashing thread, even though that term gets thrown around here at a horribly ridiculous level.
This is what happens when customers are unhappy.
How many of you were a customer unhappy with an employee or company at one time? Did you not feel frustrated and want some sort of a resolution that seemed fair to you?
It is unbelievable how those who are unhappy (with Daz) are always turned away in these forums, it almost seems like the world comes to an end when someone voices their opposition when the company does something foolish. *shakes head*
Telling a company how they are doing things to anger you is not bashing that company, it is bringing to light something that may be wrong so that it can be fixed before you decide to do take your business elsewhere.
Many of those commenting were or are still members of the pc, if they wanted to bash Daz I highly doubt they would spend money on a membership here, nor would they care what the company does in the first place.
If money means so much, Daz needs to harden up and take this all into consideration, especially when they have a history of doing things that are bad business and want to make things work.
Me personally, I will wait to see what this comes to at the end before I decide to renew my membership or not. Too many bad experiences regarding the attitude that this company has taken on and the legion mentality that it has allowed to flourish within its forum members just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Daz needs to grow a back bone and take all of their customers seriously, not just the ones who abide by the company and load each comment they make with saccharin to sweet talk the problems away.
*takes deep breath* Inner peace *takes deep breath* :)
Not necessarily a Daz Bashing thread, even though that term gets thrown around here at a horribly ridiculous level.
This is what happens when customers are unhappy.
How many of you were a customer unhappy with an employee or company at one time? Did you not feel frustrated and want some sort of a resolution that seemed fair to you?
It is unbelievable how those who are unhappy (with Daz) are always turned away in these forums, it almost seems like the world comes to an end when someone voices their opposition when the company does something foolish. *shakes head*
Telling a company how they are doing things to anger you is not bashing that company, it is bringing to light something that may be wrong so that it can be fixed before you decide to do take your business elsewhere.
Many of those commenting were or are still members of the pc, if they wanted to bash Daz I highly doubt they would spend money on a membership here, nor would they care what the company does in the first place.
If money means so much, Daz needs to harden up and take this all into consideration, especially when they have a history of doing things that are bad business and want to make things work.
Me personally, I will wait to see what this comes to at the end before I decide to renew my membership or not. Too many bad experiences regarding the attitude that this company has taken on and the legion mentality that it has allowed to flourish within its forum members just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Daz needs to grow a back bone and take all of their customers seriously, not just the ones who abide by the company and load each comment they make with saccharin to sweet talk the problems away.
*takes deep breath* Inner peace *takes deep breath* :)
DAZ does have a back bone based on all the rude and disrespectful things they are letting people post. I've never seen a forum where the owners have let the people get away with this much mean, rude, and disrespectful posts. Perhaps some of the folks need to take a step back, take a deep breath and calm themselves before posting in anger.
Directing a comment to the subject isn't "bashing" but when you direct it at a person or company it is and subject to moderator actions.
? Of course i do not ignore that. Cost of acquisition is what the market will bear. If 3d craftsman wants to sell rights to their product, it would have to be priced competitively - to DAZ or otherwise. If DAZ is a leader in this industry, they probably buy a lot of 3d and have a big impact price. Production costs have come down, (including Autodesk s/w) and productivity and capabilities have increased while labor cost has remain roughly the same. If slack in demand pushes the retail costs down in a mature market, the it becomes a buyers market. That seems to be what we have here. Sure you could go into niche fiefdoms fighting over turf war, but that is a death spiral. This is why I am encouraging creative approach to regrow the market.
DAZ does have a back bone based on all the rude and disrespectful things they are letting people post. I've never seen a forum where the owners have let the people get away with this much mean, rude, and disrespectful posts. Perhaps some of the folks need to take a step back, take a deep breath and calm themselves before posting in anger.
A little calm does go a long way. :)
I think that the fact that this whole thing came right out of left field has shocked and frustrated a lot of customers. Everyone is acting out, which is their right as a customer. But to label their concerns like that was not right, they are angry and vocal, not trying to take the company down. They are the ones that Daz needs to figure out how to please if they want to keep their money around.
I disagree. There is absolutely no excuse for purposely being rude and disrespectful. Sorry.
After reading all 60 pages over a while I have arrived at three conclusions:
1) There's a lotta ticked-off folks
2) These people try to justify rudeness with more rudeness
3) Most don't read before they click
There is a way to express dissent, and it is not standing up, kicking the chair and throwing an hissy fit.
That is all.
~GO
I disagree. There is absolutely no excuse for purposely being rude and disrespectful. Sorry.
This is nothing compared to working actual customer service.
I saw nothing derogatory being said against Daz, just concerns and anger about the things that they are trying to implement. Anything spoken against the company was based on some truth, it may be hard for some to see that, but hey Daz is a company and they are going to make mistakes just like everyone else. But because they are a company their failures are not going to be so easily forgotten nor are slighted customers going to be silent when it is their money involved.
Maybe I am not taking the comments against Daz personally so that I am not seeing what everyone is hissing about.
I am certain that the ones involved with the creation of this thread were well aware what might come of it all, it is not like this is their; or Daz's first rodeo. ;) From what I have read the administrators are doing what they can to lessen the pain being felt, but if you have ever worked customer service in any way you would know that you can only do so much.
I disagree. There is absolutely no excuse for purposely being rude and disrespectful. Sorry.
Yes, particularly labeling respectful people as saccharin- synonymous for artificial. Everyone gave THAT comment a free pass. It's okay to insult those keeping it civil I guess.
Frankly I do not see anything in these threads as offensive. I certainly hope I have not been to anyone, including the PA's or hard working staff at DAZ.
I consider myself enthusiastic to DAZ and most things 3d. Its an obsession. I thankful for the opportunity to contribute ideas and like reading others even more. I also respect everybody's opinion, and including the right not to share and business confidentiality.
Now here is an idea...
Imagine yourself as a talking DAZ Michael. Or an animated Victoria. Or perhaps you are in the mood to reach out and chat with your friends in the guise of a 3d Universes's Toon Giraffe.
Tuesday Intel launched a new messaging app called Pocket Avatars that lets you do just that. It is the first messaging app to use standard smartphone and tablet hardware to map your facial expressions onto animated 3D characters. Would it not be cool if you could do this with your customized DAZ figures?
Apparently the app uses a mocap and rigged puppet style technology to render real time onto an phone avatar. Its like speaking the DAZ Figure with Mimic rendered in real time on your phone. I guess it can be used as video chat and message and full integration with social media API's. So that's where 3d is now, you should take a peek at tomorrow. I think that with a tweak here and there, some expansion of the licensing and the value goes through the roof.
Well this thread has turned constructively lately hasn't it? One side making snide comments against the other. One side taking offensive over percived slights in language. If you think someone is wrong on the internets, after you've told them once. Do you really need to continue to keep repeating the same thing? It's been very boring reading this thread of late, in my inbox. Think it's time to unsubscribe.
On topic. I haven't felt the urge to buy any pc items but I'm probably unusual in that. I really don't like the variable pricing. Someone mentioned tiered pricing for PC items, I could get behind that but a percentage? I don't know that I'd join a club to get a percentage off. I quite like the extra coupon. Although I'm not sure if I would manage to use the PA one each month if there wasn't some kind of sale on. I rarely if ever buy full price PA items, sorry but there are too many deeply discounted sales for me to be, frankly, stupid enough to pay full price for most vendors. Sorry.. I'm on a budget.
You new folks are so cute......
Sorry, but throwing a hissy fit is about the ONLY way to get DAZ's attention (and most of the time it doesn't work). Being polite, and making fact-based observations doesn't. That has been my experience here over the past decade.
nevermind...
If I may point out, what DAZ is doing at the moment is called a market focus group - they are trying to get feedback on our buying habits, and that feedback is not going to come from throwing hissy fits, it is going to come from joining the PC+ promotion and buying or not buying things. This is opposed to DAZ's former method of making a profound change and dealing with the... er hissy fit storm that results (i.e. the "Make the software people were paying $200+ for free to everybody and wonder why people were upset).
Frankly this is the right way to go about things. The SNAFU with the flash sale was just that - a snafu with the flash sale, and was only tangentially related to the PC+ promotion since the store happened to be one that was on sale. The PC+ part worked just fine once it was fixed.
I think though the problem with the change is that with the current number and types of promotions DAZ has going on, it is going to be really difficult from a customer standpoint to tell whether the PC club is worth $70 a year. They may be better served by putting in multiple PC item tiers since they are going down that route already - that is $1.99, $2.99, $3.99 whatever, but to make sure they have a selection at each price point every month. Just a suggestion.
From my standpoint, since I have a larger budget, the changes are working just fine. If I had a smaller one, they would not.
This was the point I was trying to make but it was never acknowledged. I did get a little frustrated about it and I'm sorry if anyone was offended during an exchange where two people were talking zoom past each other and I let my frustration show in public.
The big difference is that products are not provided via a sweatshop paying the staff pennies an hour and are not provided by a manufacturer that can lower the cost because of an order for an extra 1000 or so units. In fact in an industry where 100 sales of a product on intro continues to be the line where a product is considered a success for many categories the potential volume is just not there to support brick and mortar pricing and marketing.
What I am doing is taking advantage of the additional coupons..... and making sure I don't buy what used to be a $1.99 product until after this test...then grab all those I want when the price goes back down.