Re: A first!!!
 

Atro is right on the money.

These programs are deliberately made counter-intuitive, specifically so that it will be all-but-impossible to learn them on your own. Yes, precisely to create a secondary market in instruction.

Re: A first!!!
 

Maybe some are, but not every modeling app is specifically designed to be obtuse... What about the freeware ones that are not made to make any money?

Re: A first!!!
 

Most are very good programs but are still rather complex to learn. However they are learnable if any one wants to invest the time. The important thing to remember is that before you begin to learn the program make damn sure that it will meet your needs and can do the things you need it to do such as export to a working X format that SE V can read, and texturing tools that work. Otherwise you'll just end up spinning your wheels. (Like I have done.)

Re: A first!!!
 

If you're looking for a combination of intuitiveness and power, I'd recommend Art of Illusion - save for the fact that the UV texturing support in that app is just horrible (you have to manually drag the vertices around and half the time you can't even get them to appear on the uvmap http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif)! Fortunately someone by the name of Francois is working on a mesh-auto-unwrapper plugin-gizmo-thingy for AoI, and in the meantime Wings 3D, while it has a bit of a learning curve (you have to do everything via right-click menus ala SE3 - no click and drag) can be used to create a nifty looking model in no time flat. (Just watch out for intersecting or nonplanar faces - those things are a PAIN!)