Something to consider when comparing anything in a game to performance in regular applications: Control. Games are great in that they have a very specific polygon count, they have very specific character models, and they do what they do within very specific environments. In a nutshell, other animation packages have to deal with the unknown, with whatever the user throws at them.  Cloth simulation for film animation is actually a lot more complicated in some ways than what games have to deal with otherwise, there wouldn't be entire departements dedicated to simulation in film studios.  Not to mention the numerous plugins and addons available to simulate dynamics of all types. If it were simple, everyone would be doing it.  Just something to consider when comparing. I'm not saying the comparison is wrong or unfair, just that you need to keep in mind some benefits games have that other software doesn't.

 

With that said, Poser is in need of an update to a lot of its tools. Luckily, we're always researching what's out there and how best to integrate it into Poser's current toolset/code (usually that's the trick).