As I sometimes do, I took a look in the Marketplace to see if there was anything I might find useful, or, at the very least, interesting. The image above is what I found.

Okay, let me start by saying I have no greivances against the merchants. They put this stuff up for sale, and apparently Rosity (as well as all the other sites carrying similar items) feels it will. But look at it, guys. It's all the same: yeah, different outfits, different textures -- but different only in the slightest when it comes to ideas. And it's been all the same for too long now, as far as I'm concerned.

There's a thread here about what's ultimately going to bring Poser (and by association, Studio) down. Well, much as I hate to say it, it's this stuff: more and more reinforcement that Poser is nothing but a Barbie factory... and all the high-end uses and all the gorgeous renders just aint gonna change that. Folks outside our little universe are gonna look at this and say, "Yeah. right", because this is the overwhelming impression out there.

(Would someone please prep the "dead horse" image? You're probably gonna need it.)

And apparently it's what the user base wants, so Godspeed, guys. It's just not for me anymore. I've put several years into this program, both as a hobby and as a professional tool -- and despite all the advances I've seen over the years, ultimately, all it comes down to, time and again, is this endless parade of interchangable runway models, with the focus becoming narrower and narrower as the years have passed.

Yes, we have some stunning architecture props from folks like Stonemason -- and they get promoted with (wait for it!) a one-size-fits-all pretty girl model. Someone builds a kick-ass car model, and it gets promote with (you know it's coming!) another one-size-fits-all pretty girl model.

Sure, sex sells -- no debate on that point. What I miss is the imagination, the creativity. The user base has become so dependent on the merchants that now, even the simplest thing of making a transparency map for a body suit seems outside the base's skillset, because they need someone else to make it for them.

So I'll ask it: what happened, guys? These fora used to be rampaging with ideas thrown back and forth. Someone would pick up a texture and rework it and throw it back out there for someone else to play with. But now we all sit... and wait... for someone else to do with the work for us because, apparently, we just dont know how anymore. And in all that waiting, the folks supplying the user base with its toys have become so narrow in its focus that it's reduced everything down to... well, what I saw in the MP this morning.

And that's pretty sad. Well, to me, anyway. I guess not to most of you, and that's cool. Like I said, Godspeed, folks. But IMHO it's all gotten way too predictable.

It's been fun, and I've met some very cool people in the process, and I'm thankful for that, honest. But I look at what the program and the user base have become, and I know I just have no place here right now.

Just my 0.02 -- no doubt worth every penny of it.

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