“… new potential users may just go strait to DS …”

And facing being cut off from their huge investment in content, existing users might just as well decide to go to DS – especially if that existing content works in DS 5 but not in Poser 10. If you force people to make a break, there’s no predicting which direction they may break in. If none of my existing software was going to work in the next version of Windows, I might as well consider moving to a new platform. Now some folks have knocked Microsoft over the years for providing so much legacy support but I think that despite any drawbacks, it has served their customers well. They probably would have lost many of their business customers who often won’t upgrade if it breaks their existing applications. Think of the average Poser user’s content as being akin to those legacy applications.

Now ideally, you want to enable people to breathe some new life into their old content using the new features, but at the very least, you don’t want to kill them. I think you have to lead people, not push them. Give them new features that are not so complex that the majority never adopt them – and thus have little incentive to upgrade – and allow them to upgrade without invalidating their existing investment. Whoever enables people to use the most content with the least hassle is going to have a big advantage. Didn’t we just see this movie, with DAZ catching holy hell because one new figure wouldn’t work in Poser? And now we want to have everything going back to Posette not work in Poser – on the assumption that people will just roll over and start anew? I’m not sure how well that would fly, even among the congregation here, much less the unwashed out in the world. It’s not going to do Poser any good to be the latest greatest thing since the zipper if a substantial number of Poser users don’t upgrade or defect to DS. If you want to see the pace of innovation slow to a crawl, cut the revenue stream.

I think that people pretty much do expect things to just keep working. As I said before, if the new technology is compelling enough (and simple enough), people will migrate to it fast enough. If you want to speed up the process then make an easy and affordable conversion solution available. Want dynamic cloth to explode – make a quick, easy, non geek way to convert at least 90 percent of conforming clothing to dynamic – in addition to making dynamic radically simpler to use.

“Well, I think maybe the need to hold on to old content may be holding back progress on Poser.”

That’s been said often. There may be some truth in it but I think it is more likely the opposite. I don’t think for instance, that SM hasn’t improved dynamic cloth because too many people are clinging to conforming clothing. I think that more people are sticking with conforming because they find dynamic intimidating and slow. Just the notion that they’re going to have to tackle animation in some form (probably the first time for many) may be a deal breaker. Obviously, dynamic in most situations is superior. It’s not the old content. People would buy new content – they always have. It’s the technology that needs to improve on its own. Implement some of the ideas outlined in this thread, make dynamic close to conforming in terms of ease of use and make them play well together and then you’ll have more people using it – and not coincidentally, pressing SM to improve it even more. 

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