Well ive gone through some MAX, lightwave for a bit... didnt like that one at all, Bryce i stuck with for a while, but too limited. And Poser(too limited aswell), Some really crappy 3rd party ones like 3drenderstudio(had some surprisingly good pros about it... but way way way too many cons.

Ide have to say from what ive tried maya is the easiest to jump into and do something decent for a firsty try, but also has the capibility to do amaxing things.

Good learning curve, nice people and good community all help make this app great.