The Master Skins!
What are they and how you can get them!
Friday, January 19, 2007 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
Master Skins. What are they?
A Master Skin is a skin made by a user with Master access or higher that is premium content. On WinCustomize.com we have access levels:
- Citizen
- Apprentice
- Journeyman
- Master
Users can rise up through those access groups based on merit -- becoming part of the skinning community and contributing to it in the form of skins, themes, icons, wallpapers, helping other users, writing articles, etc.
Once they get to Master level, they can choose to submit a skin and ask for a price on it. By the time they've become a master, they've probably provided a lot to the community for a considerable amount of time. This becomes a way for users to "give back" to the skinner for all the hard work they've done as well as for the skinner to be able to help support their hobby.
It also provides an incentive for up and coming skinners to create great stuff to share freely with others. By doing so, they too move up through access and can one day become a master. Half the income generated by master skins goes to the author and the other half goes to help maintain the site. WinCustomize.com subscribers get a 20% discount on Master Skins.
Master Skin Example: Suite 18
Master skinner Adni18 has uploaded literally hundreds of skins and themes to WinCustomize.com over the past 6 years. In that time, his skins and themes have been downloaded over 11 MILLION times.
Today, Adni submitted a suite called Suite 18. It contains a WindowBlinds skin, 4 gadgets, a wallpaper. When he submitted it, he made it a Master skin for $9.99. If you're a subscriber, it is only ~$7.99 (though the price is only updated during the checkout phase).
The Inevitable Debate
Master Skins are integrated into the main gallery section. You'll see a little tag by the skin if it's a Master skin. Now some people are going to say "I shouldn't pay for skins". I'm not one to argue what people think they should pay for. One of my main "day job" activities is helping produce PC games. PC games make millions of dollars (GalCiv II certainly did). Are games worthy but skins aren't? I certainly don't make that distinction. What I do know is that if the community wants to encourage long-time skinners to keep making cool stuff, then making some income to help pay for computers and software and their time seems to be a pretty worthy thing.
I also like the idea that it provides an incentive to up and coming skinners to make stuff. Skinning is fun. It's supposed to be fun. But it can also be a lot of work too. I used to skin a lot a few years ago. But I'm not very artistic and with 3 small children, it's hard to find the time. But I applaud those who dedicate the time to share their great creations with the rest of us. And I am glad to have a way to contribute in my own way back to them. Plus, it provides another incentive to subscribe to WinCustomize.com and help keep the site growing and running.
 |
|
Page 1 of 7 | |
|
|---|
Reply #2 Friday, January 19, 2007 4:41 PM
Reply #3 Friday, January 19, 2007 4:55 PM
Reply #4 Friday, January 19, 2007 5:00 PM
Reply #5 Friday, January 19, 2007 5:00 PM
There is still PLENTY of high quality free stuff out there.
Reply #6 Friday, January 19, 2007 5:07 PM
| I think the master skin is a good idea, but i came to this site for the high quality free skins, now they cost money for the some of the good skins im a little upset. |
And 99% of skins are free. The existence of non-free skins doesn't take anything away from the free stuff.
Reply #7 Friday, January 19, 2007 5:10 PM
And most of these folks are still putting out free content. Adni has a huge library of free stuff available still. It's not like that all suddenly went away.
Reply #8 Friday, January 19, 2007 5:16 PM
If a good earning market opens up with paid skins, suites icons etc.. then the yeas will win (money is hard to beat) but as long as there are skinners out there who have the time and financal resources to make free skins, then it'll be a stand off 
Reply #9 Friday, January 19, 2007 5:19 PM
Reply #10 Friday, January 19, 2007 5:19 PM
Should I ever be deemed "worthy" of achieving Master status, I would still continue to offer free stuff too.
What I would like to see though is the ability to filter out the Master Skins when viewing the libraries.
Reply #11 Friday, January 19, 2007 5:35 PM
Reply #12 Friday, January 19, 2007 5:39 PM
Reply #13 Friday, January 19, 2007 6:22 PM
If a skinner is having fun and just wants to share his work (for free), then that's his prerogative. When producing those high-quality, professional skins becomes laborious, time consuming, and the skinner has to sacrifice other activities to finish a project, well, that's when it shifts to become work rather than play. That project gets completed at great opportunity cost. It's only logical that a person get some compensation for his work and investment.
Relax, there will be plenty of people who will continue to skin for fun... Because they want to climb through the ranks or see their ratings soar, or just because it gives them great satisfaction.
Warmest regards to Brad, all of Stardock and skinners everywhere.
~ Alessandro (New York City)
Reply #14 Friday, January 19, 2007 6:22 PM
Reply #15 Friday, January 19, 2007 6:31 PM
Reply #16 Friday, January 19, 2007 6:42 PM
I've submitted nearly 100 items,and would still produce freebies.Plus the more I learn I see that older skins are inferior and need updating.Takes a lot of time but I cant stand to have crapola in my library.I have stuff there now thats on the bubble.
So kudos to Stardock,Wincustomize and those Master Skinners who have given us so much and inspired so many.(me
) 
Reply #17 Friday, January 19, 2007 6:43 PM
I'm probably around 101% 'for' it.
I remember a time when skins and skinning was very much 'backyard' [to put it politely]...when no-one would even have imagined its current popularity/appeal.
The instant the first commercial skin was created [quite a few years ago now] there were screams that 'the sky is falling'. It didn't.
As Frogboy mentioned, 'arguing about what people think they should pay for' is pretty pointless.
People can and will choose for themselves what will get their money. Each to his own.
A Master [premium] skin is nothing more than one more example of the maturation of skinning as a pastime/vocation/industry/craft/artform, and amongst skinners themselves should be universally applauded.
The BIG 'plus' for those whose works will be posted here for purchase is Wincustomize's prominence [traffic]. That should equate to a larger customer-base than on one's own personal site somewhere, yet another example of the value of the public 'Community' site/s...
Reply #18 Friday, January 19, 2007 7:35 PM
Reply #19 Friday, January 19, 2007 7:50 PM
Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.
Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
- Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
- Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
- Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
- It's simple, and FREE!
|
|
Page 1 of 7 | |
|
|---|
Reply #1 Friday, January 19, 2007 4:06 PM
Brad, I think the Master skinning program is a great fit for a market that falls between the skins produced by the professionals (like Stardock Design) that retail for more and the free stuff made by hobbyists.
You've created a market that can transition hobbyists TO professionals and by letting them set thier own prices, they can do it at thier own speed.
Very, very cool.
ZubaZ wishes he could skin