unregulated market place pricing bad for Epic/UE4

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@;229188

I think what everyone is missing in regards to whether an hourly rate is whether we are making enough to sustain a reasonable standard of living from the work that we do. If we are aren’t then no one will make any assets for the marketplace and any debate as to what is fair or unfair will go out the window. If the work we are putting in pays less than going out and just getting a job at a fast food place it hardly makes sense to invest the time and money to do work here for the community when we can make more flipping burgers.

I think the major point of thread is to devalue the work of artists, coders, sound designers, and everyone else to the point that we are working under unsustainable conditions so that someone can buy high quality work for bargin bin prices in order to avoid paying fair market prices. That won’t happen and as such makes the entire thread moot.

Almost no artist or coder is going to create work for your project below the minimum wage unless they are just starting out and beginning to make a new for themselves. If that is the case though you are going to find yourselves hiring someone who can only create amateur or beginner level 3D work or code for your project and whatever you save on the costs of developing your project, you will lose out on due to competition in the marketplace between your own projects and those that are getting free lit on Steam. That is what everyone is suddenly finding out about the marketplace when they finding the quality of the assets they’ve purchased are far below what they had expected or that the collision is all wonky and needs to be redone. Quality and craftsmanship costs money.

The truth is that it doesn’t matter whether most people on the forums can afford our work or not. There is a basic standard of living we as workers intend to achieve that is defined by those countries in which we live. If we have to decide whether to create art for your project and going without food or getting a job at a supermarket to make ends meet, we will always choose to put food in our mouth first. Devaluing the work of artists and coders because you happen to be unable to afford their work is taking those people for granted and vilifying those same content creators for asking for a fair wage. That is unscrupulous.

I contend that comparing our work for an hourly wage to the work we do for the marketplace here in community is the most evenhanded and fair thing that we can do just as it’s whats been decided in most developed countries around the world as being just. Just because is the internet doesn’t mean we should be paid like we’re in Somalia. No one’s project is that important that we should go hungry because of it.

I am going to be plain honest here. Sorry for the honest opinion that’s about to come.

If you have to rely on the UE4 market place to pay your bills, then you did something wrong so far. I understand that a VFX career is tough to establish and to get a permanent and well paid position. People who make it have typically masters in computer science or in more direct VFX courses, but typically computer science. If you are one of the million and million of guys who used Blender for years and other cheap software, without experience in the heavy weights like Maya, Nuke, Renderman etc. and without the ability to code in C++ and so on, and now think you can make a living from it, think again. The reason is because anyone can buy a $100 world machine license and subscribe to UE4 for $19.95 a month and can start making the terrain. Every half-neerdy kid can do it. If was in any way possible, to make money that pays bills from something like the UE4 market square, then do not you think there would be thousands and thousands of submissions daily, especially when the base investment is one world machine license and one UE4 subscription?
If you seriously think about UE4 market place as a replacement for a carrer and to generate income from it, that can replace a regular 9-5 income, then you severely misunderstood the concept.
I am not in for people putting stuff on a hobbyiest engine’s market place with price tags that are supposed to pay their bills that would have otherwise been paid by a regular job in the VFX industry.

Tagging prices on market place items with the intention of replacing a regular income can not be good for the market place.
Maybe it is better to get into Maya, NukeFX and so on and apply for industry jobs instead of buying a $100 world machine license and subscribe to an indie game engine and hope to make a living from it. is just delusional. If worked, there would be countless people doing it. And there would be countless people not going to work for the VFX companies everyday 9-5.

Take the Free Foliage Starter Kit from the forum as an example. The user gives it away for free. By your logic, he would have put it on the market place and, in my opinion, could have at least asked for $50.
You just have to realize that UE4 is a hobbyist engine.