ProTeam renewals 2003-12-17 - By Roman Ormandy
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John,
As I answered to Dave, proTeam was created primarily to provide training and
content for a professional who is maybe less technical and more pressed for
time than say a hobbyist who in fact may not need the extra training. For
example jewelers, but also designer and illustrators fit in this category
and they place a premium on high quality training. As I also said to Dave we
have big plans for proTeam and online training for 2004.
The idea of maintenance subscription is interesting and we will consider it
if more people request it but it was not important at the time proTeam was
created. proTeam value is in fact quite unrelated to the cost of TS upgrades
which in the past were quite reasonable. We plan to continue that, it would
be foolish from us to upset the oldest and most loyal customers (like Dave
Angelini) who made in fact development of TS7 possible.
Frankly, what I care most about at the moment is to make TS7 a great
product, that is what you guys are telling us you need and that is what we
plan to deliver.
Roman Ormandy
Caligari
-- --Original Message-- --
From: John Gaubatz [mailto:jgaubatz@(protected)]
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2003 9:20 PM
To: truespace@(protected)
Subject: Re: [TSML] ProTeam renewals
I have to say I am in the same boat with Dave on this one. While I believe
the content of Proteam is very valuable, I think the structure of proteam
leaves something to be desired. I have a desire to keep my software up to
date. Whether it is Caligari or some other software package. If belonging to
a subscription program saves me money in the long run, then I am all for it.
But there is no subscription program for software only with Caligari. It's
all or none, then a huge price just to join proteam. Yes the number of
courses and library content included in proteam is increasing, but when
tutorial videos are repeated, does that decrease the value of the previous
tutorial videos? If this system is to be fair to both the professional and
the amateur, then proteam should be structured as a software maintenance
subscription and an optional extras package. The maintenance subscription
would include support and the latest upgrades. For an extra fee, the
tutorials and model libraries would be available. By doing it this way,
Caligari would probably enjoy continued revenue for development, more so
than expecting amateurs to fork over 900 some dollars for content they may
already have. Me personally, I would readily support maintenance
subscriptions, since I like and believe in truespace. But extortion leads me
to think other things. The price of proteam is only 200 dollars less that a
maintenance subscription from AutoDESK for Inventor, Autocad and Mechanical
Desktop combined. I have to use that to create products that will eventually
be sold to the market place. It is hard to justify 900 dollars for my
personal amusement.
While I am on it (rampage), what are the possibilities of a new book? The
last truespace book I can remember is Inside Truespace 4 by Frank Rivera. It
seems like more attention is paid to creating video tutorials than
generating a new book. At 79 dollars a tutorial, who wouldn't want to create
them? Let me ask anyone here, can you read a video tutorial on the couch?
Yes if you have a laptop computer. Can you take the video tutorial with you
where ever you go? Yes if you have a laptop. Videos haven't much use for
learning on the side unless you have a computer handy. All of the other 3D
software companies have new books created for the latest release of their
software package. I know the software company is not directly responsible,
but someone generates the books. If truespace is determined to be the
leading selling 3D software package in a recent poll, shouldn't there be an
emphasis on a new book. And if it is true that truespace is the leading
selling 3D software package, then Caligari really ought to rethink its
Proteam pricing. I understand with a lot of new buyers using truespace, the
proteam package looks like a great deal at 495 dollars, but restructuring
the Proteam will not alienate long time users who want to simply maintain
their software.
Regards,
John Gaubatz (Amateur 3D Artist, and a poor one ($) at that) ;>(
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