Quote - But aren't EXTRA morph packs needed for V4 as well??

Yes, extra morph packs are needed for V4 (and other Vx figures) as well.  So the question becomes one of "which figure am I going to invest in?".

For some people, they'll have enough spare cash to just buy whatever they want, for however many figures they have.  For people on a more limited budget, the quesiton gets tougher and maybe they can only really afford to invest in one new figure (if that).

Currently, Daz is the leader in producing Poser figures.  V3 was (still is, I think) given away for free, so you you can start drinking the Daz kool-aid by just buying the morph packs.  This (among other things) has given Daz and thier Victoria line of figures an overwhelming market-share for 3rd-party development and support for those figures (How much content was ever developed for Jessi?  by comparison, very little).  This leaves any other Poser figure maker/seller (including e-Frontier) at a disadvantage, from the get-go.

You can pretty much bet that market-savy 3rd-party developers will be supporting V4 with textures, character packs and all sorts of clothing and other add-ons - that's pretty much a no-brainer.    Will those same developers be making Sydney products?  Maybe.  Some will, for sure.  But let's look at some of the issues...

Pro:

• The base Sydney comes free with P7, so a large user-base will exist.
• Sydney has a 'unique/exotic/ethnic' look, that some folks will prefer.
• Sydney might pose better in some situations than V4, maybe worse in others (arguable point, probably shouldn't be included in either Pro or Con lists, unless you have your own opinion on it).
  - Sydney works in the Face Room (not a substitute for good shaping morphs, but definately adds some variety)
• Sydney comes with phoneme morphs.

Con:

• The base Sydney is not particularly versatile (without purchasing additional 3rd-party morph add-on packs).
• Sydney has a 'unique/exotic/ethnic' look, that some folks will find hard to get rid of.
• While still amazonian in proportion, V4's base body may be prefered over Sydneys (aguable - form your own opinion).
• 3rd-party developers have a known set of body morphs to target when they make clothing (the ones sold by Daz, for thier Daz character).  Which morph pack should Sydney developers shoot for?  Do you base that on who you like?  The morph pack you like? What you think will be the most popular?  How do you second-guess the market?

...maybe the answer to the last question above is: "I'll target the morph pack XXXX, because it's the first one available and I'm betting a lot of people will buy it".  As a 3rd-party developer, I personally prefer less 'fluffy' reasoning :) .

So this all boils down to a situation where figures with the most 3rd-party support will have the biggest market-share, which in turn gets them the most 3rd-party support - it's a viscous cycle :) .  Currently, (for female figures, at least), that would be Daz figures.  From a developer's perspective, I know (or at least it's a very safe bet) that V4 will sell well and so there will be a large market for add-on products.

What I don't know is how many people will actually want to use the free Sydney base figure, and then spend the cash investing in morph packs, clothing, textures and other add-on content normally needed for wide general usage of a figure.

This all leads back to the initial point/question... "But aren't EXTRA morph packs needed for V4 as well??".  So yes, extra morph packs are needed for both figures.  Sydney has an advantage in this case, because the base figure is 'free' for P7 owners (similar to V3).

The problem/difference is that V4 has the Daz legacy/track-record going for them (along with the other issues mentioned above) and so e-Frontier needs to 'sweeten the pot' to get some market-share back...

They could have done this by including some (standard) shaping morphs with the base figure.  This would have:

1. Made the P7 customers greatfull/happy.
2. Promoted wider-spread use of the figure (no immediate need to buy additional morph packs from 3rd-parties).
3. Given the 3rd-party clothing developers a defined/known set of morphs to develop for.  All of which leading to...
4. More 3rd-party support for the figure due to the confidence generated by the items above.

Personally, I'd love to see more competition and variation/options of figures to choose from, but figures will live or die based on 3rd-party content and support of those figures.  I suspect that Sydney will get more support than Jessi did, but e-F could have (and should, IMO) improved the situation by including more morphs.

Quote - Is V4 worth the money?

I've mostly been addressing issues revolving around whether or not each figure will have healthy 3rd-party content support.  My bet is that the situation will be slightly improved for Sydney vs Jessi, but still very similar to the V3 vs Jessi situation, overall.  So if support is important for you, then that's something to consider.

As far as the V4 figure goes, from my experience so far, I don't have any/many complaints - she's a nice step up from V3 in proportions, looks, joints, etc. (similarly, Sydney is a nice step up from Jessi).

I guess my advice would be that the base Sydney is free, so use her a while and determine whether she suits your needs and try to get some feel for the level of support (if that's important to you).

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