Absolutely. But. It would require ignoring the D.A.Z. word completely. Remember that a great deal of the 'cool tech' that the D word used to build that 'empire' was not theirs to begin with. It was, in fact, either created by Poser users (INJ, ERC, as just a couple of of them), or it was exploits of Poser bugs the community took and ran with (conforming figure). It would take someone embracing what Poser can do now, with a willingness to embrace whatever new concepts and cool kludges that the community cooks up. It would also require the patience of the gods to deal with the nay sayers, the 'But its not Viiiicky!" whiners, and the no doubt well meaning ambassadors from previous empire(s) who would no doubt delight in chucking whatever hand grenades they could find into things just to increase the chaos. The biggest obstacle would be the 'I want it NOW!' mindset of the underclassmen. The Poser cottage industry -grew- over years; it didn't just magically appear one day (although I daresay you could find those willing to claim they pulled it from their ass fully formed). People would find things others had made for personal pleasure or edification, and beg and plead for it to be made available. -Thats- where that industry actually came from. The first D figure to replace Posette was....shall we say crude to the max? It was the -community- that made the original V thing into a viable figure to use. Not its creator. I still have all the morphs from Morphworld that Traveler made in Blacksmith to -make- it usable. That is the thing that's really changed; that 'Look at this cool trick I just figured out!' "Wow man, that is cool! How'd you do that?' 'Well, (technobabble), like that!' 'Neat! But.... Bla Bla's trick. -That- does this other thing. And if you can do these two things, can't you combine them and make this other effect kinda work?" 'Sonofabitch, you can! And if you throw in Goofus's texture trick thingy...!' mindset.

Sound familiar, forum fossils? That was the spirit that built not only the program but the cottage industry. That spirit hasn't died by any means; we have the likes of Bagginsbill sharing the results of his shader magic. Why is he doing it? As per his words: Fun. Not '$10.99 and the first 100 get a free Squoogie!'. Fun. He's just one example. Look at Nerd3D's contributions...most starting out as 'I'm gonna beat that little bugger!' Diogenes rigging in V4WM is a thing of beauty, particularly since he was banging away on a decade old mesh topology set up for almost 20 year old rigging technology. Personally, I'd love to see Shvrdavid's facial rigging setups and play with one. Bone driven faces? Stop and think about that one. No facial morphs for expressions. That is the kind of thing you do in Maya, and we can do it now in Poser. The tricks that permit such things could be used for other things, as well (one example: no one has used the dependent parameter dial to animate a large series of simple motions, but you could. You could make say, a steampunk contraption or an old fashioned computer wall, have simple axial animation on parts, and link them all together so that one dial brings the whole thing to life. That dependent parameter capability is what -allows- Shvrdavid to link multiple bones in a face to create facial motion. It could be used to link multiple movement morphs in a piece of conforming clothing, as well). Weight maps can be used on -anything- that moves or has motion. So can bulge maps (example: a soda can. Set a single or double joint rig in the can to allow it to be 'crushed'. A weight map can be painted that allows -different- crushes, depending on the behavior of the rig. Bulge maps can be added around the joints of the rig so the 'can' deforms as a real can does. Now. Stop and think what else that kind of deformation technology can be used for).

Poser would need to make certain features a little more user friendly (this is where having a nerd like Nerd in their house is going to be handy), and field a new figure that has appeal visually. And the *Poser* community needs to really stop worrying what other communities do. I don't know if anyone has really noticed it yet, but we've got most of the goodies under the hood to support an actual muscle armature. Not there yet, but close. Maybe if some nerds and geeks sat down and poked at that bear, they might find that the redheaded stepchild of CG -can- do it now... Certainly wouldn't be the first time. Or if not, find that the program needs just -one- feature to make it so. Gives everyone something to focus on then, doesn't it?

The one thing people will have to get through their heads is that it will take time. Time, and being willing to learn again and stretch the mental muscles.