I have been with HW since before they opened the store, supporting Dawn when she was their only figure back in 2013. If you know DAZ, then you probably know who Chris Creek is. Along with Dan Farr, Chris has founded the original "Digital Art Zone" (DAZ), which later got incorporated and became DAZ3D. If you really want to know why the HW store is closing now, we have to look back to see the context. Chris has left DAZ3D by claiming "it no longer does what it was created for". Once DAZ got incorporated, it was then ran by a board of directors - businessmen. Only later Chris understood this was a mistake, because he wanted a company that was ran by artists to serve artists.

That's how HW was born, which explains the friendly atmosphere everybody enjoy there. However, the whole company is made of only 4 people: Alisa, Chris, Lisa and Paul. They have accumulated a huge backlog of products that take time to complete because... there are only 4 people in the whole company. On top of that, they are also running a store, with banking systems for handling payments, a legal department to handle disputes, a web master to handle the store and forums site, and a marketing department to manage store advertisement and QAV. But, there are only 4 people there, usually wearing many hats during the day, and with a HUGE backlog of products in development that need to be finished. All this while standing tall against DAZ3D, who never took this lightly.

Needless to say, there are pros and cons for artists running a company. The pros is a friendly environment and productive interactions to create new products. HW has allowed me to actively participate on the design and specs for the upcoming Dawn 2.0 in their open forums - something we don't often see nowadays. However, the accumulated fatigue for wearing so many hats can take its toll over time. That's how RuntimeDNA was closed - they grew tired of wearing too many hats over time. Defending themselves against the DAZ3D corporation with such a tiny company was also a factor that took its toll.

To be fair, Renderosity had kept a friendly relationship with HW throughout they years, where HW figures (human and animals) were sold here, too. Even now that Rosity has acquired Poser, they still bundle HW figures with it - even more of them than SMS did in Poser 11. Assumptions that Rendo would have something to do with the HW store demise are unfounded. Conversely, DAZ3D has forbidden any HW contents to be sold at their store from the very beginning, also forbidding vendors from supporting HW in any shape or form. They have been openly hostile against HW from the very beginning, and that is more likely to have contributed for the HW store closing over time.

Therefore the end of RDNA and HW stores are somewhat similar - the owners got tired of wearing all the hats. That can wear you off over time. But perhaps it was a bit more severe with HW because of their large product creation backlog. Without the store, they will have more time to dedicate themselves to working on new contents. And believe me, if you saw the new Dawn 2.0, you will want that figure, so maybe this a change for the better. Consider I am a guy who will be loosing the store I had with HW for the last 7 years, so I am not saying this lightly. If they have to close the store to better serve the community with quality products, so be it.

Remember only the store is closing. HW will keep producing more contents under their brand here at Rosity, and the HW forums will keep running as usual. This is NOT the end of HW, like it was with CP and RDNA. It's just the store.

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My Store at PoserSoftware

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