"...not something that anyone outside of the facebook usergroup is going to be that much interested in."

Well, that does include just a few people :-)

"I recall previous attempts by both MetaCreations and Curious Labs to push this sort of technology. But that was before online social experiences like Second Life and World of Warcraft had caught on."

Exactly. Meta dumped Poser/Canoma etc. to go do Viewpoint online 3D – albeit more for products – but I think they were too early. SL, WoW, Facebook etc. now have millions of devoted users and everyone save me and two other people have broadband. I’ll bet a lot of them would pay for walking, talking characters that really look like them. What player wouldn’t jump at the chance to put themselves into Madden NFL or HALO? There are probably tons of people who look at Hollywood’s raft of 3D animation and would love to make their own but the technology is too challenging. I can forsee people hawking Brangelina 3D actors, despite lawsuits, and ahem, erotic stars will be selling their 3D selves.

It all depends on Daz/Giz making it easy enough for the average person to use. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just considerably better than the current SL level of reality. Some people will twiddle their nodes and sniff at the lack of refinement, but we’re talking mass market here, folks who don’t know IDL from IDF (there’s a pun there) and couldn’t care less. I still think that the technology is maybe 5 years away and the ISPs are complaining about bandwidth as it is, but the venture capitalists are betting a few million that it will fly or at least to establish a beachead so it will be fun to watch. The more advanced Poser becomes, the more it locks itself into the niche market pro to semi-pro 3D. Nothing wrong with that, but there’s really big money out there with the masses – assuming the economy ever improves. Of course, I’ve been saying this for years and it has yet to really take off. As they say, ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’ ÷)

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken