Backwards compatibility has become an anchor in the sand for many developers. Often negatively holding back things to increase market share. But I'm sure someone who swears by Poser 7 would see things quite differently.

That's one advantage of the combined software platform and content marketplace that Daz3D has implemented. It removes the cost barrier of infinite version upgrades keeping most users on the most up to date version of the software platform. Which allows content creators the freedom to create for the newest version and latest capabilities, with confidence that the take up rate is high and rapid by the users to the latest version. Combining this with giving it's PA's immediate access to the latest development tools at zero cost is a game changer, well at least for me it was. :)

I remember with some Poser content I had created many years ago being instructed to open files in a text editor and change the 9 to a 6 quite mysteriously. Which at the time I did diligently just to keep as many users as possible happy. It seemed strange that the application itself would just refuse to open a file based on a single digit in the opening text lines even if there was no inherent compatibility issues. It did display a certain disconnect with Smith Micro and Poser content creators. Also I never really did understand why a material preset belonged in the Pose folder though at a guess I would say it stems from Mat Pose terminology. A straightforward content/runtime library structure is something that still seems to challenge both sides to this day.

Unfortunately the backwards compatibility concept seems to have fractured the Poser market even further forcing content creators to either create for the newest and latest or dumb down products for larger market appeal. It's is quite a hard one to solve for the Poser community, especially as the rate of dramatic change seems to becoming quicker and quicker.

I was speaking with Stonemason recently and he mentioned that something he often purchases is pose sets as he finds it's much easier to buy a pack of poses then to spend time trying to create them himself. Just goes to show that demand is quite varied for different types of product depending on the skill set of the end user.