"New Poser versions get more and more techy and less newbie friendly which has drawn newbies to DAZ Studio, while DAZ has gone more newbie friendly but isolationist which has screwed the 3rd party vendor market - the market that has kept this entire thing alive for all these years.

… because Poser and DAZ forgot what paid their rent all these years - not trying to emulate the top end apps, but focusing on EASE OF USE."

Amen to that. I think there are a lot of people (beyond the howling partisam mob here) who would agree. I think that both entities - for reasons that seemed perfectly rational to them - have lost the broad appeal they once enjoyed in their symbiotic relationship. I think that A few people running both enterprises became too enamored of their own vision of the future and now they're stuck leading a parade with a decreasing number of vocal followers. At this point, anyone who came out with modern, easy to use program that used existing content could wipe the floor with both of them. without Stephen Hawking field equations materials or Cirque du whatever bending etc. to boot. With apologies to Bubba, it's the point and click, make pretty pictures stupid. It may not be the 99%, but it's probably a lot closer than the holy warriors bitching up in here.

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