The first time I used Poser was around the same time as the OP, 98'-99'... a client gave us Bryce, Poser and either Ray Dream or Infini-D... they cancelled the project after less than a month (they had NO idea what they wanted or what the software was for)... I was very interested in the software because I envisioned using it for storytelling or illustrating graphic novels...  I toyed with it in my spare time but never really picked any of them up... mainly because of a lack of available information... back then the internet was dial up for us and if you didn't find a book or someone who you could ask for help, forget it. Bryce was probably the only one I got any real results from because it was just easier to play with.

Poser... I'm still getting the hang of. I don't think I could ever really "learn it" because by the time I learn enough that I'm comfortable with, it has either added/changed features, or I've not used cetain feature long enough to become unfamiliar with them... that and I use a bunch of other software too, so I get confused easy...

Also, for me it seems that what I want to do with Poser seems to be less covered by tutorials and books (like 80% of users appear to only use it for portraits, or so it would seem).