Hi all,

Firstly I want to say thank you to all of your for using the TGC Store, many of you are also artists, having had a part in producing some great media.

As of the 1st Oct 2016 the ownership of the TGC Store will be changing. I have purchased the store from TGC and will be operating it as my own business without the involvement of TGC. The store will remain the official store for GameGuru and very little will change for anyone on the forums, you can continue to download and buy items for GameGuru as you have been doing, the catalog of items will also continue to grow.

I have listed a few questions and answers I think you may have below, however if you have any more questions feel free to ask.

What does this mean for TGC?
The sale of the store in no way changes the status of any other TGC products, this sale has been under consideration for quite a while now and TGC is still committed to all other products and services. I did most of the work on the store anyway, but only when TGC wanted me to, it just made sense for it to become my business, so I can continue to grow the store.

What does this change of ownership mean for the future of the store?
In the past the store has been a lower priority product at TGC, meaning it received limited updates. Now ownership has changed I will be investing a lot of my personal time into making the store a success and expanding it to bigger markets. I am interested to listen to your ideas and to build a platform buyers and sellers want to use.

What payment methods will the store be accepting?
The store will be accepting PayPal and Credit/Debit Card only. No longer will we be accepting Steam Wallet as a payment method as I have no relationship with Steam or requirement to use their gateway. Also TGC Points/Credit will be expiring at the end of the month so all future payments will be made by card or PayPal.

What about the current forum boards for the store?
As the store will no longer be owned by TGC, we will be moving the community side to a new forum on the main website, this will launch on the 1st Oct and will be geared towards store discussions and also anything to do with the wider world of design.

I have more questions?
Great, post them in this thread and I will happily answer.

Thanks to everyone for your continued involvement in the store, the future is looking exciting and I hope you all come along for the ride.

Hi,

I do have one concern about the change.
In the last years i had the feeling, that there was some sort of support from GG.
i mean by that, if there where some problems with he model in GG, You could send the model to Lee, and if it was a problem with GG it would get fix for the customers. TGC had also benefits to adress the problems. the 30 percent they get!
there where problems like characters sinking into the ground. height problems with occlusion etc etc...
How is the change going to effect that support now.
if you make something and it does not work correcly, are we going to be left alone in the dark?
I hope you know what i mean

Harry

This is a great move. Best wishes.

@HarryWever

As part of the sale agreement TGC are committed to offering support for store media, the store remains the official GameGuru store and will get support from store and TGC staff.

Oke thank you
Harry

I see change more as a strategic move.
Therefore, I do not think it changes almost nothing; on the other hand, I am sure that The Next will incorporate a new approach, which will involve changes, but this will take time. Just my though

3com

This will make the store better in my honest opinion....
The Next had many great ideas and plans he often discussed he would like to incorporate on the store but of course was limited by being authorised and paid of course to implement them by TGC ( Which was fair enough ... That's just the way Business works )

Now being his own business and with no authorisation required he can implement all his improvements to benefit everyone and take on board any good ideas from the community... Also TGC get the benefits of an improved store without cost to them ....

Everyone wins

Hi


Why can't we creep the credit we have on our accounts.

Dave

Because that money is stored in TGC's bank accounts, when The Next takes over the store he will have to set up his own bank accounts etc. so TGC need to pay us what they owe us before that happens.

I think your right,I had a email saying use it or loose it.I don't think that should be the case,However large or small the amount .
(A lot going on behind closed doors at the moment I think,all for the good of GG I hope).

Dave
Small

@granada

As Belidos has suggested the reason behind this is I made no revenue from the sale of those points/credit. So after the 1st Oct I would make a loss if any was used as I still have to pay artists, even though I have made nothing from the points in the first place. It would not have been practical for me to request the funds from TGC every time someone used points so it is just easier to give warning and then expire all points/credit.

Hi Next, you have to remember that you should always try and keep your customers happy with some sort of compensation. A point system is a good way to keep them happy and your way of giving back and freebie. The only reason I'm saying this is with a little work you can get everything on other sites free or for a little cost. This is due to 3D printing and other game editors out there. Now days there are loads of these site popping up all the time. You may even find that they may move their models to these 3rd party sites which will be some lost to the community and the dev of GG.

I am getting a bad vibe all around at the moment (hope ime wrong)

Dave

The Next,
you handled that very well, and your reasoning is sound. I was even contacted and informed for literally 70 cents worth of credit. Thanks for that and good luck with your shop. Looking forward to it.

Regards
y.

@gd
I am aware the community needs to be kept happy, as a result the points system will remain so I can issue free credit to users if I wish. However it will be reset as discussed before, so I am not losing revenue as a result of TGCs operational decisions in the past.

I hope by providing a good store platform that is great for sellers and easy for buyers people won't be drawn to other services.

@granada
I'm sorry to hear that, don't get worried about the store it now has more funding and interest behind it than ever before. I also get an inside look into TGC operations and I know that they are working hard as well. Although the things they are working on are not very easy to show off quite yet.

@yrkoon
Thanks very much, lots of things to work out so I am doing my best to cover all the bases. If anyone thinks I miss anything or they have something that needs explaining I am always happy to answer questions.

Not pointing the finger at you here,I wish you well with the store .I hope to have items in the store myselfe in the future.

Dave

I am very surprised by this, though I can see it will probably be for the best.

I have questions though. How exactly will artists be paid now? Will you be keeping the same percentage royalties? Paid via paypal each month? Will we have to request payment from you directly?

Thanks

@teamhalo

Check the sellers private board stickies, an email was sent out to artists with answers to a lot of that but you can find in the thread as well.

That will probably be an issue for many people who do not have PayPal or a creditcard like me.
For me, the Steam Wallet was a great option to buy some nice packs from the store.

@Earthling45

How did you top up Steam Wallet? I am accepting nearly all the same payment options they do.

Steam cards from stores probably

What will happen with the reward points, I have 1863 points, but as yet I cant use them.

Yes synchromesh this will make things easier to get things done, as there will be less happening so that TheNext can just get on with things. TGC have done a great job so far and I love the shop up to now, but it will be nice to have a single body in charge of it from now. Good Luck TheNext on your endeavor.

Steam cards

I'm very old fashioned maybe, one bank account for all my payments and salary and that's it.
I haven't watched at all the possibilities for payments, but i do not have online banking, so i think it will be difficult for me to buy items after Oct 1.
Guess i'm gonna have to upgrade my bank account with online banking.

These will not go anywhere and will be redeemable in the next few months once I get everything settled on my new servers.

@ Earthling45

In that case yeh you may find it hard, however you don't necessarily need online banking (going on how bank work in the UK), as long as you have a card with the VISA or Mastercard logo on the front you can use that to buy online using the system I use.

thanks the next

My thoughts as well. It's fair enough to say use them or lose them, but in this case we can't. Nothing is implemented as far as I can see. Seems a bit unfair to people who have been collecting them to essentially be told they are worthless. I think TGC should consider something to reward anyone who has points built up, as after all they are obviously regular customers.

As The Next said a couple of posts up, they're not going anywhere, we'll be keeping them.

The plan from what i understand for points originally was to use as unlocks for the free item caps and so on, i don't see why this would be changed, and hopefully will be finished, and even improved upon now.

Ah yes I see the post above now, no idea how I missed it the first time! That's good then. I also heard it was for free unlocks, but obviously couldn't see how to use them.

The points are going to be for more free downloads and the functionality to use them will be available soon.

Hi. Good luck with the asset store.

Was wondering if you will be able to guarantee the GG client download mechanism? I imagine you have a good working relationship with TGC but do you also envisage a log in web page for downloads of purchased assets or something similar?

Cheers.

@cybernescence

The GG download system is supported by TGC for a min of 12 months so they will support it with me. I do have plans to offer downloads of items in the web page as well.

Glad I caught this! I have 5 dollars+ in my TGC account. I'd better do some shopping right here and now! (Van Halen song playing right now on the radio, very appropriate! )

EDIT: LOL, I had $5.96 in my account, and Gtox was brilliant enough to price a pack at $5.90. I guess I'll have to surrender the 6 cents to TGC. I wonder what they'll do with the unexpected cash windfall? Maybe add VR support? Can I get a receipt for that? (Tax purposes, you know)

EDIT # 2: Odd, GG says I have nothing to download.

EDIT # 3: Now it says 10 items, I think I was just trigger happy with the download attempt.