Dawn is coming but you can join the countdown

Dawn might still be a few weeks away (August 9th), but you can now finally visit HiveWire3D’s store and forums. There is already a good variety of content available from some well-established content creators. The roster currently includes: Lisa’s Botanicals, Songbird ReMix (Ken Gillard), Ryverthron Creations, CWRW, and Nerd 3D – so at the moment there is a very natural environment/wildlife theme to the store. This seem very fitting, but somewhat perplexing to a dystopian urban cyberzombie – where am I meant to recharge?. Undoubtedly more vendors will appear in the lead-up to Dawn’s release and the following frenzy of activity that will undoubtedly ensue with the first waves of her associated content.

So, the first thing you’ll notice about the store is that it isn’t particularly pretty. A little bit of green, black and a lot of white, but everything seems to work very well, and super quick. There are a lot of great features that will make using the site very easy when compared to some of the other similar sites out there that have many clunky and/or …err broken elements. The search feature works wonderfully, but with just over 180 items it is too early to give it a thorough testing and a DigiSprawl stamp of approval. I look forward to a store searching experience that doesn’t involve a trip to Google’s advanced search.

Some other cool store features include:

• Customisable bundles – pick and choose which items you want)
• Multiple customisable wishlists – ever feel the need to organise that huge wishlist into themed categories?
• Never buy the same product twice – handy message on item thumbnail lets you know straight away if you have previously purchased the item from HiveWire3D
  10% rebate on purchases in the form of reward points
• Products pages come with sections for user comments and images

Reward Points

While HiveWire will be utilising coupons, gift certificates, store credit and other stock standard ecommerce currency, they also have a nifty points reward points system (similar to Content Paradise?). Every time you make a purchase in the store you receive the equivalence of 10% back in these points, which can be used in subsequent purchases. One potential bone of contention is that a maximum of 30% of the total value of a cart can be funded with reward points. Of course, 30% off is still 30% off. The points also seem to work fine in conjunction with other specials, coupons etc.

To clarify 100 points = $1

How do you earn points?

I wouldn’t suggest buying things just to accumulate points (unless you want to get rid of that disposable cash as fast as possible), but there are several ways to earn points. The first is by signing up for store membership (1000), and the second by getting on the mailing list (500). The next thing you need to do is have a birthday (preferably as soon as possible) – 1000, win a competition – varies, have an image accepted into the monthly gallery – 500, and refer a friend using your unique referral code (after their first purchase) – 500.

So, $15 bucks worth of points for signing up doesn’t sound bad does it?

HiveWire3D: software inclusive

Given that Dawn comes in both Poser (9+) and DAZ Studio (4.6+) native, and all the talk of unity and such, HiveWire are attempting to include both parties equally. Potentially this could result in cross platform cooperation, learning, and influence unmatched even at the height of the Generation 4 figures, namely the polymorphic digital goddess, Victoria 4. Given the buzz around Dawn right now it is not unforeseeable that Victoria may soon have to come to a power sharing arrangement. The forums have already come to life with a friendly buzz of activity, so why not drop in and say hi.

How the inevitable DS Vs Poser skirmishes are handled remains to be seen, but let’s hope that stays to a minimum.

For content creators

The Hive is looking very attractive for content creators. Other than being a store with a potentially massive market appeal HiveWire3D also offer a very competitive 60/40 split (you/them), with the potential to push this up to 70/30 for higher volume sales. There is no exclusivity, so CCCs can sell here there and everywhere – even the same product (thought that affects the base royalty rate). Obviously given this detail, all rights are reserved by the creators. More info can be found here.