Warning: this might end up being REALLY long.

I agree with what some of the others here are saying about advertising, and I will demonstrate why I say that.

About 15 or 20 years ago, CGI started to become very prevalent in movies. I've been a computer geek for over 35 years, so I already knew what 3D graphics and CGI were. But suddeny they were "buzz" words, and friends started showing me galleries full of amateur renders and animations. A lot of very high quality animated renders of star trek ships and what not.

I had always considered 3D CG to be something that I would likely not be able to do, as I do not consider myself a talented person when it comes to art. I can barely draw a stick person. Seeing the work of these amateurs though fueled my interest and I did some reading on what it would take to start learning more about this field.

Most of what I read made it painfully obvious that getting myself set up to perform renders of the quality I was seeing in these galleries was way outside of my budget, and would take a serious investment of time. This would have been roughly 15 years ago.

I would occasionally still look around at options though, which eventually (not surprisingly) led me to Poser. Poser was something I could maybe afford, and that I could use as an entry level 3D product that would allow me to explore my creative vision without being a super talented artist or spending $40k and four years getting a degree.

At the time (maybe 10 years ago?), I did not know who made Poser. Poser, the software, is what caught my attention - not the company behind it. More impotantly, it was Vicky that caught my attention. I could not tell where Poser started and Vicky ended. Everything I searched for on Poser had information on Vicky and vice versa. For the longest time I didn't even know they were separate products from separate companies. It appeared to me that Daz, Poser, and  Vicky were all one in the same.

I do not believe that I am alone in this, and it was a bit of marketing genius on the part of Daz to make it seem like Vicky and Poser go hand-in-hand. It is part of the reason why Vicky 4 has been so successful when compared to other, newer figures.

It wasn't until about two years ago that I did finally purchase Poser. I also purchased a crap ton of Vicky 4 stuff to go with it, because even up until two years ago I still wasn't really clear on the distinction between Vicky 4, Daz, and Poser/Smith Micro. Worse yet, until I started reading this thread, I did not really understand that Poser came with its own figures. There's a Roxie? There's a Rex? They were made by Smith Micro? They aren't from Daz? Wow! That's all news to me!!

It seems clear to me now that Daz has broken away from Poser. They are producing their own software and their own content for their own business model. Poser and Smith Micro should be doing somewhat the same. They don't have to make Daz an enemy, but they need to focus on their software, content for their software, and advertising that content.

It is very sad that I've been using Poser for two years and didn't even know about Roxie.

Some of you will read this and think, "Well you must be an idiot if you didn't know that Poser came with its own library of stuff". Maybe I am, but I really don't think so. I think I am in the same position that a lot of people coming into the 3D CG hobby are in: they do not know alot and want a fairly cheap, easy to understand introduction to making their own rendered scenes.

They do not spend hours and hours reading through forums on multiple different sites. They do not understand the sheer amount of information that is out there to read on image maps, bump maps, normal maps, displacement maps, and all the multitude of other topics there are to learn about. Chances are that they will never do any of that research. They want a cost effective tool that enables them to load some people, load some clothes and props, build their scene, and render it to a reasonable level.

That vast majority of the art out there that showcases Poser is built using Vicky 4, and I believe that a good number of people are still operating under the false assumption that Vicky 4 is the only (or main) model for Poser. That will never change unless Smith Micro makes a concerted effort to educate people, through marketing, about the content that comes with Poser.

If Roxie and Rex are the poster children of Poser, then their faces need to be plastered all over everything Poser related and clearly labeled. Poser, Rex, and Roxie need to be synonymous.

That is, if you want the marriage to Vicky 4 to end. I am making no statement or suggestion as to whether it should or not. I'm just telling you as one amateur hobbyist that recently entered into the market, that I had NO clue that I didn't need Vicky 4 in order to make renders in Poser.

Reallly think about that...

P.s. Yep! That got really long. Sorry. :P