17,000

You're kidding, right? :) Or, is that meant to be combined in DS/Poser with sub-d or something? 17k seems a bit light for a high-resolution still/animation character. Is it game-content focused?

the polycount for world of warcraft characters are around 300 sony 4 call of duty characters polycount are around 3000

 

Those are game asset resolutions and they have to be much smaller meshes. That's a different animal than high-resolution 3D still or animation production. Even so, some games are using assets that are even denser than 17,000 polys for characters! Anytime you reduce the density of a 3D mesh, you reduce the artist's capabilities when creating something that uses that same mesh. Poser's current content market relies, almost completely, on a base mesh's ability to be morphed. Reduce the polycount and you reduce that capability - You can't move verts that aren't there. (Though, you can still use materials and such to produce certain sorts of deformations, but that's nothing near as powerful as being able to move just one vert where it's needed.)