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Avatars are hot. I’ve got ‘em in SecondLife, Yahoo Chat, not to mention a few for bulletin board posting. Yahoo chat avatars are the easiest to create but you can’t do much with them, they just stand there. However, I love the audibles. Flirting, taunting and soundbites from bands add a lot of laughs to the conversation.
IMVU is similar to Yahoo Chat avatars, taking it to the next level with a window for interacting with other avatars, and general movements. Kind of like SecondLife Lite. Here’s a review of IMVU. I tried IMVU last year and was not impressed. PC only, clunky and it crashed a lot. Today it looks a lot more polished, enough that Allegis Capital and Menlo Ventures pumped $9 million dollars into the company. PaidContent describes IMVU as a cross between avatar-based services, IM and social networking.
That is a heck of a lot of cash for a 3D chat company, especially after you see CrazyTalk. As one of the founders of the Boston Computer Society Virtual Reality Group in 1993, I’m more excited by CrazyTalk, which is almost movie-quality CGI. Reallision, the makers of CrazyTalk, offer a studio for creating avatars, a messenger product and virtual hosts like Oddcast. They have a deal with Skype, and it’s very cool to use while chatting.
Everyone is in a rush to offer add-in avatars and video and photo-sharing services to Myspace. The problem with the Myspace add-ins is that only a small percentage of users will pay for them, you have to either license your product or stuff it with ads or try to lure people back to your website. I can’t imagine VC thinking they are investing in a free MySpace add-in, they’re probably betting they can find find someone to buy the company.
Enticing people to download yet another instant messaging client is going to be very difficult. IMVU is a kludgy PC-only application with windows 3.1 interface populated mostly by teenagers. Competition is fierce and offers far more mature products and services. Yahoo chat is free, works great and the Mac version is coming out shortly.
IMVU is not a clear winner by any means and they have their work cut out for them.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
However, my girlfriend and I are in a long distance relationship, and with IMVU, we can go on little “virtual dates,” it adds a new level of depth to our relationship when we’re apart.
Anyway, you have to keep in mind that IMVU is still in the Beta stages. Of course it’s got a lot of work to do. It’s not done, yet.
its weird…but i still like it…
the only problems i’e noticed is..its tricky deciding what to buy sometimes, because the previews arn’t always true….sometimes the picture might have other articles of clothing in it that might -seem- to be a part of the clothing you wanna buy but arnt…for example i bought a mini skirt that i thought came with fishnets…turns out the fishnets were indipendant of the skirt and i ended up wasting my credits(the skirt was cute and all, but..without the fishnets i didn’t really need it lol) another terrible thing about imvu is the glitchyness, and the all to often ‘failed to connect’ error…
its happened twice sense i signed up, i get the error and it blocks me out for upwards of 45 minuets…and sometimes the webpage just goes down without warning…clearly the program is still beta and the servers are growing faster than their cases can shed so they can grow new ones….but i delt with this with wow(world of warcraft) for long enough so i’m used to it
As for it being for teenagers…i dont know…i’ve only met one person over the age of 30, the rest were 16 to 24…so i’m not sure…most of the time thought hey are 18 to 22….
hope this review helps out….and if you decide to join imvu…email me first so i can send you an invite and get free credits *snicker*
Dave, I do agree that there are many teenagers in IMVU but to say that it is populated “mostly” by those teenagers is more an opinion than a fact. It is also rather bias, that you compare IMVU to the likes of Yahoo which by no means – offers the interactive functions that IMVU does.
However, since you like to compare the two – I will reiterate on what Barbara has already stated. Yahoo might be free and include other capabilities and versions that IMVU does not but at the end of the day – only one of them allows you to be a fully functional avatar who can move around, perform gestures, situate yourself in a real-type scene and most importantly avoid all the foul and disgusting language that is often seen in Yahoo Chat.
As Scarlet so wonderfully stated “quit being so negative”. It has been a full year since you wrote this article. Perhaps it is about time you brought it up to date.
IMVU is like SecondLife in a chat window. For some this is exactly what they need. For the rest of us, the next year or so is going to show which 3D chat clients stand out as new entrants try to gain market share via social networking sites.
How does IMVU avoid “fould and disgusting” chat?
IMVU does have numerous ways to avoid foul disgusting language and also has ways to protect its community members against other abuses as well. If a chat becomes abusive in nature there is an option called “REPORT ABUSE” in the chat window. By clicking on this button it logs and notifies IMVU staff of the situation. Also, you can block certain members from accessing your avatar homepage, by simply clicking block user in your messages panel.
IMVU also has added a new mode feature called “ADULTS ONLY”, which enables only adult members to speak with one another. I think the reason they did this was because of all the ADULT users who had wanted this feature. I am 30 years old and I find plenty of other adults to chat with.
IMVU is a good program for matchmaking and socializing. A wonderful tool which IMVU has is called “search for users”. You can search by age sex location etc or combine different search options to narrow a certain type of user down. Another cool feature IMVU has is called “SHOUT CASTâ€�. When You click on this feature insert a topic or theme for chat, and it sends the message out to the IMVU main page, where other users can see your profile picture and theme and join if they so desire. In addition, located on your avatar homepage is INTEREST PANELSâ€�. You simply write a list of the things which interest you, and if you want to find other users by interests which match yours just click on a particular interest in your own panel and magically every user who has that same interest will be listed with their profile picture and interest. How nifty is that eh?
I could go on and on about the new wonderful features that IMVU has inserted into this program since I first started back in January 2006, but I think you can clearly tell by now that I do enjoy and support IMVU.
IMVU is not a perfect community, but IMVU is definitely a community which an avatar can evolve and grow with! Don’t take my word for it though, sign up is free go and check it out for yourself ;)
Love the clothes! totally adorable, perhaps someone should offer real versions for sale, could become a fashion statement!
hope it continues to grow and allows more real time 3d action. Thanks for trying IMVU! I’ll keep my account open and watch you grow
IMVU is definitely made up mostly of teenagers, just go to the forums if you don’t believe that. Mostly means the majority of, it doesn’t mean there aren’t people 20+ hanging around, the better half of the leading developers are at least close to that. And I think that BECAUSE the majority are teenagers is the only reason IMVU is staying afloat, let alone making 9 million, which I’m sure we’ll never see put to good use. Mommys and Daddys spend crazy amounts of money on their kid’s account. IMVU is very addicting when it comes to keeping your avatar in style, and no one wants just one measely outfit for long with all the new products coming out every single day. Not to mention the fact that young, role play loving teenagers won’t complain about the overall unreliability of IMVU in the numbers that adults would.
I like IMVU for the most part, or obviously I wouldn’t put as much time into it as I do. Nonetheless, everyday I see more and more of the makeshift reliability and bad choices that the ones in charge of the system tend to make. But who knows, if IMVU doesn’t get out of the 3 year reign of the BETA version, Yahoo might catch up and surpass it. At this point I don’t doubt it.
as for the foul language i have only met 3 people on there who tried to talk dirty and i blocked them. other than that most people are very polite and appropriate in their conversations. i guess its all who you decide to talk to and how you promote yourself to other people.
i am fairly new and have only been a member since december 2007, i saw a few glitches w/ the snapshot function when i first joined but it was quickly fixed. my chat client has never crashed or failed to connect but i have a very good internet connection and a brand new laptop so maybe that helps. i think imvu is much better than any of the other options named and i would choose it over aim or yahoo any day.