Shido Strife

Since it’s becoming a hot topic (again), this was Muncha’s response in the official VGen discord regarding the requests to implement a price filter and I think everyone interested in the topic should give it a read! I think she put it really well in that VGen being one of the few (if not only) sites that truly cares about empowering artists, would want to avoid a “race-to-the-bottom” model like other sites with price filters. The moment a price filter is implemented, there would also surely be an influx of listings with misleading pricing just to make sure their services still show up when filtered for low prices. There has already been so many cases of clicking into services with misleading base prices that surprises you later with unexpected hidden costs EVEN without price filtering, so you can only imagine how much worse it would be if price filtering is implemented. This then defeats the whole purpose of having a price filter, and creates another tedious issue to regulate. And it’s really not as easy as saying VGen just needs to make sure the artists with misleading services would be penalised accordingly when the sheer amount of reports would be way too overwhelming alongside the other reports they already handle everyday. Other than this, there’s also the fact that the filter ends up creating a competitive environment where artists feel pressured to price low to stay relevant/seen. If small artists are already struggling to get their work seen right now, then what would happen if a price filter is introduced and they now also feel pressured to further lower their prices as much as possible just in hopes of being seen? I understand that it would be convenient for clients on a budget but I hope clients also understand that there’s really a lot to be considered, not just from the clients’ perspective, but from the artists’ standpoint too. I love VGen and I’m here today because their current system helped me reach potential clients even when I was a nobody 🥹 I don’t have a solution to this but I just hope that VGen will always encourage and support a sustainable system for value-based pricing because then, artists can feel confident to price their work fairly as they grow without being pressured to price for visibility.💚