Why don't you just try Blender,
www.blender3d.org, since any work you do in that can be sold and it also has a game engine built in. You can also try the XSI Mod tools 4.2 found at
www.softimage.com. GMax seems very limited compared to Max and so does Maya PLE. I fyou decide to use gmax do a search for scripts for gmax since there are sites out there that let you import and export more files.
As for your question, it would all depend on how you model your joints, and rigged the character. If done correctly it looks great. You may want to check out
www.poopinmymouth.com since Poop has written some nice tutorials about everything you need to learn to get you started quickly. Later.
Alex