I just find it amazingly funny that a community such as the 3D community would really need to segregate itself but what program you can afford or have the time to learn. Sure if I had all day to sit around and about $3000 I would love to have a high end program, but I don't so well...I don't. I think programs such as Bryce and Poser are excellent tools that are totally unappreciated by the "more serious modellers". You can spend a lot of time in Poser and make unique looking characters, and I have seen some very beautiful pieces come out of Bryce. Just the two cents of a newbie