Although I personally don't feel the need to upgrade from 5, I find that the upgrade price, taking into account what you get for it, is very low. I do not agree with several things, like the prices being higher for non-American customers (yes, even without VAT it's more expensive), and I have the impression (but I can be wrong) that CL's administration is about as good as ...mine? (a complete chaos), but Poser is, like Geep wrote, much fun for little money. People who complain should know that a few years ago, I was interested in Poser4, but it costed here in the shop 600Euro. Which I was not willing to invest. Another point is that some Poser users are on the far side, and use it with all bells and whistles. They see the big 3D apps, and want Poser to be like that. But most Poser users buy Poser...to pose. To create their images and have fun. These are not interested in soft or hard IK, Claude Bonet maps or not...They even don't care about V3's horrendous shoulders etc. CL is literally stuck between those two groups. They cannot move to a Poser Pro version without excluding the use of all characters etc that now exist. And who is going to invest in that app when you cannot use that big, fat runtime with perhaps thousands of dollars of merchandise? They need to stay in close contact with the mass of buyers, and that means that (sorry) high-end users will always feel frustrated. No way around that. Perhaps there is one: try creating your own character, and rig it in Poser. 4, 5 or 6. Or even better: in a 3D package that does allow soft ik etc. You'll quickly learn that this is quite a task. And that Poser is a very handy app. Perhaps not a big truck or a Ferrari, but a handy van that takes you easily through rushing hour.

I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now I'll be mad. (Rumi)